I was curious how many coasters you guys think a theme park should have to be able to make most ( I know you can't please everyone) thrill seekers happy? I mean you read posts where one park or another is criticized for not having enough coasters. I was curious what magic number and mix of coasters would make for a great theme park. Especially taking into consideration that some family members wouldn't step on a coaster to save their life but would watch shows and do other milder rides. I was just in a slow time at work and was thinking theme park stuff! I think seven with a mix of wood and steel should be enough for a thrill seeker to be happy. I think a hotel room would be worth it if you were going just for coasters. What's your magic number?

Well, the way I see it, I want a park to have the exact amount of coasters that I will be able to ride in one visit. However, that depends on how crowded it is when I visit. If Cedar Point was empty for a day, I'm sure I could ride 16 (17 yet?) coasters, which would be way cooler than riding 7 coasters in a day.

For me it goes for quality over quanity and variety is also a huge importance. Carowinds IMO is a pretty well rounded park it's really only missing a launch coaster and a quality wooden, though GCI is making great strides with Thunder Road. So to me a well rounded coaster collection should include...

Full Size Wooden Coaster
Sit-Down/Floorless Coaster
Inverted Coaster
Boomerang/Impulse
Launch Coaster
Mine Train
Kiddy Coaster
Hyper/Giga/MegaLite
Stand Up Coaster

Extra Points
Suspended Coaster
Water Coaster/Splash Coaster/AuquaTrax
4th Dimension
Dark Ride Coaster (all parks need a dark ride but doesn't have to be a coaster)
Any others I missed

So 9 would be my magic number, with 13 or more being heaven if the variety is there.

I have been wanting to visit Carowinds. I have some freinds that live close so I may have to go visit them!

It depends on the size of park, and the overall balance of the ride collection. You can't shove Cedar Point's collection into a park like Dorney and expect it to play out as well. It's just too small to handle it.

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The way I see it is that no park needs a set number of coasters to be a good park.
Cedar Point is fun with their 16 coasters, but Knoebels is also a lot of fun with their 2 great wooden coasters, and while I've never been there, I only hear good things about Holiday World and their 3 coasters.
As long as the rides are fun, it doesn't matter how many coasters a park has, and I don't think that it really should matter.

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ThrillNetwork Moderator
The user formerly known as WildeFyre
UOIT Mechanical Engineering Student

I'm taking it a step further: in my opinion, a complete collection should include at least seven B&M coasters (traditional, stand-up, floorless, inverted, flyer, dive, and hypercoaster). Or I'd take a Giovanola hypercoaster just as well, having built my all-time favorite coaster.

Also include a collection of launched coasters would include the classic flywheel launch as well as the more modern launch systems like LIM, hydraulic, and air compression.

Obviously no park is complete without a wood coaster....two of them: an out-&-back and a twister.

Some milder rides like a Arrow mine train and those classic suspended coasters also by Arrow to warm up and get the blood pumping at the beginning of the day.

Heck, why not even throw a Vekoma boomerang into the mix -- a giant inverted one while we're at it.

Coasters like a bobsled coaster, mouse coaster, and an enclosed/dark coaster would be completely optional for me; not necessary but also doesn't hurt to have.

And the crown jewel of the collection would be the X coaster (Arrow fourth-dimension).

So far, Six Flags Magic Mountain looks to be about the closest thing to my perfect collection as it gets, hence why it is my most desired park to visit of the ones I haven't been to yet.

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ThrillNetwork Lead Moderator (Originally known as Hurricane)

It's time to play some DEFENSE!

depends hugely on quality. CP has 17, but 2 of those I've never had any desire to ride (oh the curse of NOT being a credit whore) and two that I could happily live the rest of my life without ever riding again. throw in 3-4 more that are only so-so at best, and 17 loses a lot of the luster. In fact, I'd only say about 6 of their coasters are "must-rides" I'm a lot more concerned about quality than quantity

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ThrillNetwork Lead Moderator
My neighbor got a big new house, and all I got was his lousy payments

I say if a guest can't ride all of them in one day, it's too much.

I know for coaster enthusiasts, the more the better, but Cedar Point and Magic Mountain have so many roller coasters, it's practically mind-boggling. At one point, both parks each had/have 17 roller coasters. SEVENTEEN! (Just to play with numbers, each park was at one point just THREE coasters shy of having TWENTY roller coasters.) That's about double the average collection of every mid-sized to major amusement park in the world. Even if you took into account that each of those parks has two children coasters, that's still 14 or 15 adult-oriented coasters. That's A LOT.

There are MANY amusement parks that feature 7 or 8 roller coasters (INCLUDING children coasters)...meaning doing all the coasters still gives a guest enough time to spend time moseying around on the water rides, explore the midways, and ride some flat-rides. With parks like Cedar Point and Magic Mountain, you literally have to have an agenda and strategically planned itinerary to pack all 17 coasters under your belt on moderately busy day. And that's leaving out any time for other attractions like shows, water rides, flat-rides, etc...

The biggest benefit of having "too many roller coasters" is that guests can be picky about what they want to ride and what they can choose to skip. With a park with only 6 coasters, you can't help but to ride them all.

I agree with Chris that the number should not be more than what people can ride in one day. With that in mind I wouldn't torture or let the people down by having one of those coasters be a boomerang.

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Thrillnetwork Moderator - Sophomore Original sn: CHILLERLC1
2008 & 2009 TN Coaster Draft Champion
You knew I wanted the other repeat too

Personally, there is no maximum number for me. As long as there is a good variety in the different coasters, I don't think it's too many. Now going to huge parks like Cedar Point or Six Flags Magic Mountain can be challenging if not impossible to ride all the coasters in one day while also riding flat rides and enjoying shows. That's why I always allow for two days if not more when visiting a big park, especially if it's my first time there.

A big reason I don't have an upper limit for the amount of coasters is because the fact that some park will be your home park, the one you visit the most because it's easiest and closest. For myself, that's Six Flags Great America. Since 2000, I've probably been there 50 times. So while I don't like to use the word "bored" to describe coasters, you get the idea.

I'll never feel the need to ride Dark Knight or Ragin' Cajun as I thought both were just lame honestly. Iron Wolf is rough and isn't exciting enough to make up for it. One of my favorites there, Deja Vu was removed. Demon is classic but doesn't thrill me in any way and the same for Whizzer. Don't get me wrong, it's a fun ride and obviously unique now a days. That leaves Raging Bull and V2 as the only rides that thrill me. American Eagle, Viper, Superman and Batman are fun as well and along with the two previously mentioned, the only coasters I look forward to riding when I go there.

So you can bet I wouldn't mind seeing another 10 coasters added to fill in different varieties such as floorless, dive, rocket, 4D, etc. It's not that I'm greedy and I not delusional and I know it won't happen but surely I wouldn't mind. Of course I want quality coasters at a park but anytime I visit a new park, I sure to try to ride them all.

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YOUR HATRED AMUSES ME

To me, the answer is "it could use just one more".

Well SFOG has 10. The most at one time was 11. So SFOG could use some more. 10 is actually low compared to any other SFI or CF park.

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Sometimes parks add coasters because they have the attendance to support doing so. Look at Cedar Point in the mid 80's. They had maybe half the coasters they do now. Great attendance, so they get a new coaster, more people come in, mainly for the new coaster, a couple years later, another new coaster, and the same result more people. That's why its gotten to the point now that unless you've grown up with the park, you need to spend 2 days there to finish everything, and even that might not be enough. But they also have a healthy variety so that thrill seekers have their few, there are a few kiddie coasters, family coasters and so on.

Like Coasterlove said, if I'm going to a big park for the first time, I'll try and do a 2-day instead of cramming everything into one.

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Honestly, depending on the park would I think something is too much. There are so many parks I can name, but...lemme just throw this in.

I am all about quality and not quantity. If half of your coasters suck, then you have half of a decent park. Cedar Point really requires two full days to get everything in, plus possibly a few re-rides, shows..so on.

Holiday World, can definitely use more! Their park is amazing for what it offers, but I do think 2-3 more major coasters and they will have an overall quality good park. Not that they don't know, but sometimes, I crave a little more, in possibly the steel department to change it up a bit. Their water park is their hugest draw, which is very appropriate for that area of the country and fits very well inside the park. For those that don't really do water parks, I would like more to do then coasters.

Anyway, my rambling for the evening will stop..lol.

Just give me some quality rides and attractions over crap strewn about any day and I will be a happy momma!

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In my opinion, a park should have these:

1 Kiddy
1 Family
1 Wild Mouse
2 Classic Steel
2 Classic Wood
1 Launched
1 Invert
1 Floorless

So I guess that makes ten. A round, even number.

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10 is actually quite a lot. There are far more parks with 7 or fewer coasters than there are parks with 10 or more.