Put your hands in the air.

October 21, 2007 4:19 PM

56 American roller coasters from the front seat
posted by carsonb (44 comments total)

No thank you.
posted by blue_beetle at 4:23 PM on October 21, 2007

[This is very good]

But, carsonb, what's up with that mail that was in my inbox when I woke up this morning? Do not want.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 4:25 PM on October 21, 2007

flapjax: Vindication..?
posted by carsonb at 4:33 PM on October 21, 2007

hmmm... now I see, sort of. OK!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 4:43 PM on October 21, 2007

*throws up corndog, dippin' dots and potato patch fries*
posted by octothorpe at 4:46 PM on October 21, 2007

What, no Texas Cyclone?

Other than that, awesome.
posted by WolfDaddy at 5:06 PM on October 21, 2007

No thank you.

I hear ya. I have a serious aversion to actually riding roller coasters. These videos, however, I can take. WHEE!
posted by carsonb at 5:26 PM on October 21, 2007

When I was a kid I went to Cedar Point once, and that is like one of my favorite childhood memories that place. I'm sure what I have in my head and the actual place differ, especially after all these years, but back then I couldn't ride on any of the roller coasters cuz I was too young. So this is a welcome link. Thank you CarsonB! You dah bestest!

I'd like the blonde and the redhead sent up to my room thank you very much you're so kind and this time don't get the genders mixed up or I'll report you to the RPTDWCBTP.
posted by ZachsMind at 5:26 PM on October 21, 2007

These are great! Clearly I need to visit Cedar Point at some point in my life, as well as Kings Island.

Roller coasters are fun.. unless they fling you off into your untimely death, of course.
posted by drstein at 5:37 PM on October 21, 2007

EEEEYAAARRRGGGH

I hate roller coasters, to be honest, but virtual roller-coasting is fine with me.
posted by thomas j wise at 5:54 PM on October 21, 2007

Whenever I'm with a large number of people at an amusement park I start lobbying early to divide the group into "coaster people" and "spinny ride people".

We usually shun people who like both.
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 6:10 PM on October 21, 2007

I have a serious aversion to actually riding roller coasters. These videos, however, I can take. WHEE!

I agree. These videos are fun for a vicarious (and non-death-inducing) thrill. Thanks carsonb!
posted by amyms at 6:21 PM on October 21, 2007

GAAAAHHH! I haven't been on a roller coaster since 1991, and after viewing the first video, I may never get back on one again. How the fuck did they build that first rise and drop -- with a beanstalk?
posted by maudlin at 6:21 PM on October 21, 2007

This is really cool. And making me miss King's Island like whoa. It was like 20 minutes from where I grew up, and many a high school summer day was spent riding the Beast and Son of Beast. Good times.
posted by Quidam at 6:22 PM on October 21, 2007

I could spend an entire weekend at Cedar Point, just going back and forth between Millennium Force and Raptor. I would be a very, very happy man.

And the next weekend I would be down at King's Island riding the Beast over, and over, and over...
posted by Thorzdad at 6:26 PM on October 21, 2007

Several things I want to say, partially as a coaster enthusiast and former Cedar Point employee (who rode Mean Streak 20 times, Millennium Force 11 times, and Top Thrill Dragster 7 times) :

1) What part of "No photography is permitted on any ride at Cedar Point" don't they understand? Obey your ride host, people. This goes for any park, really.

2) I'm very surprised they got any video of Top Thrill Dragster. In the front seat, you're going from 0 to 120 in 4 seconds. When it goes to green, you can feel your eyes in your socket and your face being pushed back like you're a cartoon character.

3) Only "Phantom's Revenge" for Kennywood? I know rides like "Jackrabbit" and "Racer" are less glitzy but they're classics.

4) I think it's rather sad that I can still point out where the camera that takes your ride photo is on Millennium Force (it's the start of the very last tunnel).

And of course, IMHO, the back is the best.
posted by champthom at 6:29 PM on October 21, 2007

The Beast (on the page) is the best rollercoaster ever. Because- none of that lame-ass fake ooh scary noise to scare you! mess. No 90 second ride. No 400 loop-de-loops and random twists and turns that are full of sound and fury yet signify nothing except making you dizzy. Watch that ride - the first hill, which is unfortunately obscured by the title, makes you think you're getting decapitated. I've been on it at least 35 times, and I still swear it's going to happen.

It's a wooden coaster. No smooth wooshy new steel and fancy track. It's rough looking wood and what has to be rusty girders left over from when they built the first railroads across the states. Watch the first sequence. You're not going on some little dipsy doos, curly-ques and other nausea inducing nonsense packed in the space of a city block. This thing is taking you far, far out to the woods. There's one part in that first sequence where there's wooden platforms on both sides that you're flying by. It's like going across that bridge in Sleepy Hollow. If you look backwards, the headless horseman will be throwing a flaming pumpkin at you. This thing is taking you out into the woods to dispose of you. There are no people around. There are no animatronic characters. You're out in the middle of the woods, and at the top of the hill, you can see the whole unincorporated part of the county.

You keep going, towards that barn-like double helix, which looks like something out of Deliverance. And you don't do any cutesy little corner-turns into it. No bouncy upside down stuff right before it. No - you are headed straight for it, and that's it. The closer you get, the faster you go. The faster you go, the more you start to realize you're tilting to the left more and more, seemingly out of control and off the track.

Then, darkness. And screaming, lots of screaming. The g forces push your head down. Your nose touches your chest. Your ears on your shoulders. You can't see anything but white dots zipping beneath you. Then you come out of it, turn right around, and go right back in. Black. Screaming.

And that's during the day. Go on it at night and you may just remember that double helix approach as what it must be like to die and get rocketed straight down into hell. The person that took the video cut out another minute of the ride - it lasts about 3 minutes 10 seconds.
posted by cashman at 7:06 PM on October 21, 2007 [7 favorites]

cashman: that sounds amazing, I need to go there. Have you been on El Toro at Six Flags Great Adventure (NJ)? Sitting in the back makes you feel like you are going to die the entire time, the airtime is just totally intense. It's wooden too. Highly recommended.
posted by Mach5 at 8:29 PM on October 21, 2007

The Beast!
posted by birdsong at 8:32 PM on October 21, 2007

Rollercoasters! Watching those made me want to ride one right now.
The Beast sounds great.
posted by heatherbeth at 9:02 PM on October 21, 2007

Enjoyed those videos. Definitely fun vicarious kicks.

Related.
posted by nickyskye at 9:40 PM on October 21, 2007

I've always thought the back seat gives the best ride.
posted by autodidact at 9:45 PM on October 21, 2007

My last trip to Cedar Point, my then-sweetie and I were waiting in line for the Millennium Force at a point where you could view the latest "action" photo of riders in the last tunnel and some wiseguy decided to open his cell phone and appear to be having an animated conversation while all around him were screaming their heads off. It cracked me up.
posted by OneOliveShort at 9:54 PM on October 21, 2007

Cashman, sounds like a fun ride. My experience in theme parks is mostly limited to Canada's Wonderland, where I always appreciated the Great Canadian Minebuster for having the same qualities you attribute to the Beast. Rickety, wooden, loud tunnels with high Gs... used to go out into the woods, but now they've built the park up all around it.
posted by autodidact at 9:58 PM on October 21, 2007

Roller coaster chess

not new to mefi, I'm sure, but fits in the thread
posted by DreamerFi at 10:46 PM on October 21, 2007

Why are the vast majority of these rollercoasters are in the midwest/east coast? Is there a good reason the west coast gets no love?
posted by abbazabba at 11:10 PM on October 21, 2007

autodidact: I've always thought the back seat gives the best ride

i just thought that bore repeating. for i, whole-heartedly, agree -- on several different levels.
posted by CitizenD at 11:13 PM on October 21, 2007

Top Thrill Dragster: Holy Fucking Christ.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 11:17 PM on October 21, 2007

I tend to prefer wooden coasters to high-speed metal acrobatics (The Beast is, of course, a favorite).

However, it was the video for Space Mountain probably gave me the most LOLZ. 2 minutes of darkness punctuated occasionally by dippy light and sound effects! (I love that ride though.)
posted by sparkletone at 12:25 AM on October 22, 2007

Awesome link. Thanks! I used to go to Cedar Point every summer growing up, but since I live overseas now, it's been a good seven years since I've been there. I've never seen the Top Thrill Dragster or the new Maverick, so it was great getting to "ride" these. And man, how much do I love the Magnum? Best coaster ever.
posted by web-goddess at 1:11 AM on October 22, 2007

ZachsMind - no, no, Cedar Point really is as good as all that. I grew up going there every summer (sometimes multiple times in a summer!) and man, it really is the best amusement park in the nation, particularly if you love coasters. Sadly, I still haven't been on the Top Thrill Dragster: I keep managing to get there on days when there are high winds, coming off the lake. This August, I was about four people away from boarding when the wind really started kicking up... and the cars were unable to make it over the top of the hill and instead slid back down again, backwards. But the Magnum, Mean Streak, Millenium Force, and Raptor really are some truly, truly perfect roller coasters.
posted by ubersturm at 1:43 AM on October 22, 2007

I haven't been to Cedar Point since the 70's. I'm impressed with what they've done. Sadly, the videos are reporting "no longer available" on the linked site.
posted by Goofyy at 2:55 AM on October 22, 2007

champthom: "What part of 'No photography is permitted on any ride at Cedar Point' don't they understand? Obey your ride host, people. This goes for any park, really."

Hmph!

What part of "lighten up i don't care so bite me" do you not understand? This is awesome! I'm thankful to anyone who recorded these videos and bravely dared to not listen to their 'ride host' so that they can bring the parks to me. It was mighty kind of them.

Virtual isn't like being there, but it's the next best thing.

I'm not sure why people Like the Texas Giant. Last time I was on that, it literally hurt, and not in a good way. Too much jostlin around. The Titan though. VERY sweet ride.

I can remember when I went to Cedar Point there's this path you walk down and the Corkscrew literally turns directly above your head. I was like maybe six or seven? I coulda stood there all day if my parents had let me just lookin' up at that thing, waiting for the next car to scream by. That was awesome.

I hope to someday make it back to Cedar Point before I get too old to properly appreciate the coasters. Beautiful park. The Maverick looks breathtaking.

Disney Space Mountain is better with the lights on for those of us who will never be able to afford the real thing. The video of it at the FPP link was just darkness for two minutes. That sucked. I'm sure it FEELS like you're in space, but on video, 'space' is just blackness.
posted by ZachsMind at 4:01 AM on October 22, 2007

I miss the Texas Cyclone. *sniff*

The view from the stadiums across the freeway just isn't the same.
posted by Cyrano at 5:44 AM on October 22, 2007

What part of "lighten up i don't care so bite me" do you not understand? This is awesome! I'm thankful to anyone who recorded these videos and bravely dared to not listen to their 'ride host' so that they can bring the parks to me.

It's all fun and games until someone gets a video camera embedded in their skull.

Seriously, amateur-shot front seat footage is awesome but is, yes, technically forbidden by most amusement parks due to liability concerns. Should a wrist strap break or someone's grip on the camera loosen at 65 mph, you got a mighty fine projectile on your hands, or in your face, or wherever. It's not so much an attitude of "We're not gonna let you have fun, nyer" but "If we don't forbid it, someone will sue if an accident happens."

Watching footage of rides I know I'd never be able to visit is wonderful, but I know that the people taking those pictures, unless given express permission by the parks involved (which I doubt) were breaking the rules bigtime.

I also know, too, that an attitude of "Lighten up, I don't care, bite me" directed at a ride op can get you a super special one-way free pass to Parking Lot Land.
posted by Spatch at 6:50 AM on October 22, 2007

Space Mountain with the lights on looks like ass. Peoplemover is was more entertaining in that regard.
posted by WolfDaddy at 8:21 AM on October 22, 2007

I remember being very freaked out and anxious in the lineup for Space Mountain when I was around 13 -- it was one of my first coaster experiences. Then the ride was very anticlimatic.
posted by sevenyearlurk at 9:07 AM on October 22, 2007

The only problem with the Beast (which, yes, is every bit as cool as cashman describes), is that it will give you a headache/neckache like whoa if you ride it enough times, and the Son of Beast is even worse. The old school rickety wooden effect is awesome enough to make it worth it, but along with that package comes a half hour after you get off the ride of your brain rattling around in your head.

Still worth it, though.
posted by Quidam at 9:58 AM on October 22, 2007

Wheeeee! That was fun. Thanks for the post. It reminds me that it's been a long time since I've been on a good rollercoaster.
posted by bassjump at 10:37 AM on October 22, 2007

Just reminds me that I need to get back to the midwest and visit Cedar Point again. It was a summer tradition growing up in Michigan, and I can't count the number of times I've ridden the Gemini - on the right day, at the end of the night I could do it a half-dozen times in a row with almost no wait.

I never did make it on the Millennium Force - the three times I've been there since it opened, twice it was closed all day, and the third was only part of the day with insane lines the brief times it was open.

Gawd, we need a great park in the pacific Northwest...
posted by evilangela at 11:53 AM on October 22, 2007

The first rollycoasters on the page are all from Cedar Point. I worked there as a musician for one summer. I rode The Raptor 52 times. I was a multi-coaster fiend. One day, late in the season, I actually played a show, changed out of my show clothes, ran to the Mean Streak and returned in time for the next show.

And knowing that is half the battle.

I rode the Magnum many times as well. That same summer, I used my extraordinarily long legs to fool the lap-bar-checker-employee for the 200-ft.-high Magnum XL 200 into believing that I was securely fastened into the ride.

After the train left the station, I wriggled out from under the lap bar and unbuckled my seat belt. I rode that bitch in the last seat of the train, completely unrestrained.

When we went over the first hill (200 ft.), the inertial hang-time floated and rotated my lanky-ass body forward so that my head was actually between the two heads of the people in the seat in front of me.

I was floating, rotating forward, my ass drifting FAR from my seat and there was fuck-all I could do about it.

A split-second after the "oh-shit" kicked in, the train reached the bottom of the hill and the negative Gs slammed me back in my seat, where most riders prefer to stay.

I cheated death.

And was rewarded with a surge of adrenaline.

When the end-of-ride cameras took our twelve-dollar pictures, I stuck a foot out of the car to capture my accomplishment.

Hail Cedar Point.
posted by Moistener at 12:27 PM on October 22, 2007 [1 favorite]

Spatch: "I also know, too, that an attitude of 'Lighten up, I don't care, bite me' directed at a ride op can get you a super special one-way free pass to Parking Lot Land."

That's why you don't reveal it to the ride op dude. You say, "yes sir" and you pretend to turn off the camera and put it away. Then when he's looks away, you bring it back up and get the job done. Legal issues? Laws of physics? Potential danger to yourself or others? These should merely be seen as obstacles to overcome on your way to your goal. Sometimes being a jerk courageous photojournalist takes apathy, illumination, mastication, and a wee bit of passive aggression.
posted by ZachsMind at 8:00 PM on October 23, 2007

...an attitude of "Lighten up, I don't care, bite me" directed at a ride op can get you a super special one-way free pass to Parking Lot Land.

But hey, all the cool kids are hanging out in the parking lot anyway, right?
posted by flapjax at midnite at 8:03 PM on October 23, 2007

Thank you Camera In The Front Seat of a Roller Coaster Ride Dudes! You are Real American Heroes.
posted by ZachsMind at 8:04 PM on October 23, 2007