2012 Best New Ride/Attraction

[Marcus]

An early season poll to gauge what everyone is most excited about for the 2012 season. I only included attractions/renovations that I considered either major or came from a major park.

This doesn't necessarily have to be to park you can or will attend, but is just based on how much you like a park's new additions. Moderators feel free to add anything else major that I've might have missed.

*Some poll options may not be confirmed or may change
**Due to the number of options, parks in poll are restricted to North America

Past Year Winners:
2011: Cheetah Hunt @ BGT (40% of votes)
2010: Tie- Intimidator 305 @ Kings Dominion & Intimidator @ Carowinds (tie 23.68% of votes)

I have been out of the coaster news loop for a bit, so this is the first year I was really unsure of what to vote for...until I saw some rcdb photos of Wild Eagle. I had to take a break from making this thread to look at prices for hotels in Pigeon Forge.

[Leo C]

I am in a definite tug with the project most local to me: Skyrush vs. X-Flight and Wild Eagle which are significant enough I have to consider those two as well. The facebook group for the Skyrush project has kept me up to date every day with park employees and very local fans visiting the site, which is right next to a public road for optimal photo chances-really fast updates. The process has me quite involved.

Wild Eagle has me invested because it was built so early and the park fans present on this site have been very involved in following it. Six Flags Great America just has a construction camera and a minor facebook presence for their construction of X-Flight but overall I find that design is truly original. Wild Eagle's design follows that of a traditional B&M out and back sitdown or floorless coaster with the new wing coaster trains.

I admire Seaworld for bringing a launched Mack coaster. That project was the earliest to get moving. The Mack launched coaster line is promising because of what Blue Fire has brought to Germany and the displeasure I've expressed with Intamin the last 5 years for Maverick, Fahrenheit, and 305. I hope Skyrush will reveal to me a change with Intamin. I'm also opening up to Gerstlauer. There are only 4 Eurofighters in the US at the moment and I've only been on Mystery Mine. I was on it in 2007 but it wasn't strong enough to garner any of my interest in the brand until recently when Canobie added Untamed, SFDK had the portable spinning Big Spin until just a month ago, and Galveston Historical Pier announced a new portable Eurofighter. Hopefully the portable pier model can come to New Jersey for the Steel Pier. We haven't had a vertical lift coaster in NJ since Ultra Twister at SFGADV.

I'm between Skyrush and X-Flight.

Marcus this is a very thorough representation in the poll.

[slappybob]

Im all Wild Eagle cant wait to ride it even tho i am really interested in Verbolten & Skyrush

[Rick B]

I had a hard time picking just one. IMO, there are a handful of top quality attractions coming in 2012.

[Leo C]

Even what I would consider a fourth or fifth choice: Lex Luthor, that's pretty awesome the height for a new freefall tower on an existing structure.

[Thunderhawk]

I'm going with Skyrush. All I need to know is that it's an Intamin hyper coaster being built with lapbars. It wins automatically for me as my favorite two coasters are Intamin airtime monsters. I am also very interested in Leviathan, though I fear that it may end up having Millenium Forceless syndrome.

[knottsnetwork]

I gotta go with Leviathan! That think looks epic!!! I wish I could get to Canada to ride it... but it's across the country and across borders.....
Plus I'm hoping Leviathan is a huge success just in case the rumor is true that they are basing how well it does on the decision for a giga at Knott's

[Antoine]

Leviathan would be the best new attraction in my opinion. I wonder how a B&M Giga will perform. Although I am looking forward to Skyrush also, this monster in Canada peaks my interest more. With the way things are going, I should be able to ride her in late August and see what it is like.

[Leo C]

I got the crossing thing down. I went to Marineland Canada two years ago. I'm looking forward to when ever I get back to Toronto, it's just not this year. When I'll get there I'll clean it up.

[knottsnetwork]

We also can't forget the possibility of late 2012 attractions! At least for year round parks

[Antoine]

Here is something interesting: Another 4D roller coaster is premiering this year too at Dino Watertown in Changzhou, Jiangsu, China. Made by S&S Power, it resembles Eejanaika a lot. Not sure if it is a clone or not. Strange to see a brand new park build a $30 Million roller coaster. Sure hope this don't go the way of a certain park in South Carolina......
4D Roller Coaster (Dino Watertown)

[Leo C]

Hopefully the third time is the charm. The vibrations are the only problem I have with the 4d coaster. The last row face down on the first drop is amazing. I need to jump out of a plane to duplicate that and get it for a longer duration of awesomeness.

The coaster had a first run last week. It looks like it's the same revised 4D layout as Eejanaika. The worldly coaster enthusiast traveler said in his Eejanaika video it still had vibrations basically. Hopefully this one is better.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=kZinM6Fnszc
I like the honesty in this video where they say it only has 3 inversions.

[Antoine]

Yeah, I hope they have fixed the vibrations too. After riding X2 last year, the vibrations was so bad at the end, it became unbearable. I don't remember it being that bad back in 2003. It would be nice to be able to ride one of these other 4D coasters and see how they fare compared to X2, but I don't see that ever happening.

[Leo C]

Do they have to cut the seats and have just one per side? I never had a problem with X's turnaround, the moment when the train is under the track and seems like an inverted coaster. It's cool they tightened that turn to change it into a more overbanked turn section.

(Antoine if you think this is worthy to split off to a new thread? This is fine too.)

[knottsnetwork]

These coasters are awesome. Since I go on X2 about every 3 months, I know exactly how to sit on the last bad part. The only thing I hate about these being built is it makes X2 so much less unique But the others are in Asia so I'm fine!

[Rick B]

I do wish that we could have picked our top 3 in this poll. I have a few that I'm looking forward to in 2012 and not just one. I expect each of those is going to be great in its own way. Like people, each ride has its own personality and disposition, so it's really difficult, a lot of times, so say one is so much better than the other one. They are often just different.

[Antoine]

These coasters are awesome. Since I go on X2 about every 3 months, I know exactly how to sit on the last bad part. The only thing I hate about these being built is it makes X2 so much less unique But the others are in Asia so I'm fine!

Remember that X2 is a 10 year old coaster though. It is still unique in itself because it was a first of its' kind. But for each first, you need to improve upon it and make it better. Imagine if B&M never improved upon B:TR or their first generation stand ups? We would not be happy campers. I mean don't get me wrong, B:TR is still a stellar coaster, but many other inverters out there are better than it now. We all crave something new and if it means improving upon a unique ride, we will take it. If it wasn't for Air, there would be no Tatsu. If it wasn't for Oblivion, there would be no Sheikra. If it wasn't for Kumba.....well let's just say B&M wouldn't even exist. That's what a unique ride can do for an industry.

[Rick B]

^and if it wasn't for Nitro, there wouldn't be Intimidator...

[Antoine]

Only difference is B&M didn't improve on the design when they made Intimidator. Yeah, I said it! lol

[Rick B]

LOL. You know I couldn't resist...

[Wes]

Only difference is B&M didn't improve on the design when they made Intimidator. Yeah, I said it! lol

Hater

I voted Wild Eagle, I think it looks like the most exciting of the newbies.

[knottsnetwork]

Remember that X2 is a 10 year old coaster though. It is still unique in itself because it was a first of its' kind. But for each first, you need to improve upon it and make it better. Imagine if B&M never improved upon B:TR or their first generation stand ups? We would not be happy campers. I mean don't get me wrong, B:TR is still a stellar coaster, but many other inverters out there are better than it now. We all crave something new and if it means improving upon a unique ride, we will take it. If it wasn't for Air, there would be no Tatsu. If it wasn't for Oblivion, there would be no Sheikra. If it wasn't for Kumba.....well let's just say B&M wouldn't even exist. That's what a unique ride can do for an industry.

Very true
I agree with it being improved in other coasters, I just hope not to many are produced so it becomes as modern as stand ups! But I seriously don't think this kind of coaster will hit as big as inverts, stand ups, or megas!

[APE]

I cannot wait to get a crack at wild eagle.

[life on jars]

Just rode Wild Eagle a few times this weekend. Therefore...my pick goes to, well...Wild Eagle.

[Austin]

Wild Eagle for sure. Such a great ride!

[Leo C]

I'm going to check out the reviews of Wild Eagle. At the start of this new 2012 we have the bar set. X-Flight hasn't even test yet. We'll see as we go along through the season what impressions we'll get.

[PANTSFREE]

I voted for Wild Eagle. Looks awesome and I'm hoping to get on it sometime this year.

Leviathan looks like a relatively forceless ride based on the POV. Of course you never really know until you go for a ride yourself. As far international rides go, Port Aventura's new B&M hyper Shambhala looks awesome, its turnaround element looks cool.

Shambhala (PortAventura Park)

[Wes]

Wild Eagle isn't very forceful at all. But it's a whole lot of fun!

[Racer]

I voted for Wild Eagle. Looks awesome and I'm hoping to get on it sometime this year.

Leviathan looks like a relatively forceless ride based on the POV. Of course you never really know until you go for a ride yourself. As far international rides go, Port Aventura's new B&M hyper Shambhala looks awesome, its turnaround element looks cool.

Shambhala (PortAventura Park)

Did anyone else notice that the turnaround on that coaster looks like a &

[Leo C]

Wild Eagle has debuted but now the big pool of the rest of the new coasters are coming up now.

Skyrush, X-Flight, manta, Superman: Ultimate Flight. What kind of experiences will those punch in?