So I thought this might be a nice topic for anyone who travels to parks around the US.

What is the worst U.S. coaster you have been on? I plan on riding most coasters in the USA by the time I can't ride anymore.

 So far the worst coaster I have ever been on is The Carolina Cyclone. That coaster beat me senseless!.

I want your thoughts on coasters!!!!

For me, it was Blue Racer when I rode it for the first time in 2008. I sat in the middle (don’t remember if it was a wheel seat) and it was very rough. I didn’t ride it again until 2011, from which I have thankfully had better rides on it since then. I still prefer Red though but I will ride Blue, especially with its retracking!

Now, I don’t really have a least favorite coaster, but my first ride on the Blue Racer was definitely the worst ride I had on any coaster. Now, I look forward to having the best rides on it this season!  

lol Carolina Cyclone is my 4th favorite coaster Carowinds.

 

Worst coaster either has to be Green Lantern at Great Adventure or the Carowinds Vortex. Both bashed my head in reeaaall good and were super uncomfortable. The corkscrew on Vortex really messed me up, and Green Lantern was just overall a really bad experience all around.

Viper that used to be at Six Flags Great Adventure.  Togo's sit down restraints are awful, the support rings made it very claustrophobic, and a very rough ride.  

Looping Star at Beech Bend. That took 10 years off my life.

Diamondback at Frontier City, how a shuttle loop could be that rough astounded me.

Probably Mind Eraser at Six Flags America. The name is apt.

Honorable mentions to Son of Beast, Gwazi, and Wonderland's Flight Deck.

Mine would either have to be Vortex at Carowinds, Mind Eraser at Six Flags New England or Flight Deck at Canada's Wonderland. Honorable mention: Super Flight at Playland Park, Time Warp at Canada's Wonderland and Soarin' Eagle at Luna Park.

Mine so far that I can recall are T3 are Kentucky Kingdom and Mean Streak during it's last summer was really rough.

I'd have to agree with silver2005 on this that Viper at SFGRADV was truly rough and for me just totally uncomfortable. Also Shockwave at SFGRADV, it seemed I was always hunched over on that ride and of course Mean Streak.

Goliath at Great America. I hated it more than any other coaster.

My best of the worst include Iron Wolf (Six Flags Great America), Dorney Park's Wild Mouse and Mean Streak. Iron Wolf banged your head around with its quick transitions while Wild Mouse was really rough and tumble. Mean Streak makes the cut due to the jackhammering at the bottom of/pulling up from the first drop.

  Goliath at SF Magic Mountain.  Rough, underwhelming but it looks great, however the ride itself is not fun.

I'll remember all these for sure when I go to get credits. Viper is no longer there right?

Flight Deck at Canada's Wonderland would be my worst, followed closely by Time Warp at CW.  Vortex at Carowinds, T3, and Nighthawk round out the top (bottom) 5.

I have only been on a total of 35 coasters (by my count- racing coasters as 1, Surf Dog type rides don't count, etc.) and I can luckily say I probably have avoided the really awful stuff so far, but something has to be the worst.

Not counting kiddie coasters, I'd have to go with...Cedar Creek Mine Ride. It has a nice scenic location and some decent laterals in spots, but most of the ride is it basically going slow and doing nothing. It also has that classic Arrow jerkiness to it, it's not super rough but considering it's not incredibly thrilling either it doesn't help much. I would still ride it again, but it is pretty meh so unless there is a super short wait and I have already ridden everything else, I'm probably not riding this one a lot on future Cedar Point trips.

Corkscrew is a little better, but not by too much. Unlike CCMR, Corkscrew actually has some nice parts to it: the airtime hill gives very good air, and the inversions are fun. I even found it pretty smooth for a old Arrow looper (only the Corkscrews even felt slightly rough). However, it has very few elements in total, and is a pretty short ride. It does not help that I had already ridden Kings Island's Vortex, which is literally twice the ride Corkscrew is in almost every regard when it comes to size and number of elements. (FTR- Vortex doesn't come close to sniffing this list, I enjoy that ride a lot compared to these!)

At Kings Island, Invertigo is probably the worst of the big coasters. On a good day, when it is running smooth, it is a good ride- but when the wheels are a bit worn out, it becomes a very headbangy ride. It's the only ride to date to give me a headache. I can only say it's better than the first 2 rides because when it is smooth you can enjoy the powerful G-forces and inversions, and the face-to-face element is awesome. If only it could run that way 100% of the time...

Racer can also make this list, when certain conditions are met at least. Normally, Racer is a good ride, and usually stays far from this list. But sometimes, especially if you choose a rear wheel seat, Racer will decide not only to not give you any of its airtime, but it will be very rough and jackhammer a lot. Thus, when this happens, Racer ends up being a very bad ride. However, the opposite can also happen, where the ride gives LOTS of air and is super smooth (I got TWO of these last year). As such, I do try to ride Racer whenever I am at Kings Island, but I always hope for the great rides to happen, not the horribly bad ones. (Thus why I would love to see Racer get a full restoration by GCI or something down the line, so those bad rides would never happen again and the good ones would be much more common)

If we do allow kids coasters, though, then I have a clear least-favorite. Howler at Holiday World. Super boring, and shockingly rough for a kids coaster. I was shocked we let kids ride that! I would rather do CCMR over and over, than ever ride that again.

And yes Maverick44, Viper at SF Great Adventure is no more, it got replaced by...El Toro. From everything I have heard, that has to be one of the biggest "upgrades" ever. Going from one of the worst rides ever built, to one of the best! (Note: Based on reviews I have seen, have not been to SFGadv)

The worst wooden coaster I've been on is Son of Beast post-2007 with KD's Hurler not too far behind.

silver2005, who is excited to see how RMC Hurler fares.  

@McSalsa- having been there twice and have ridden both, I can attest to El Toro being quite a substantial upgrade. 

I do miss Great American Scream Machine though.  I know I'm in the minority on this, but I thought it was great.  It was one of the great park entry coasters out there, I loved how flashy they presented it, with the name, the all out American theme, and it was a monster in terms of size, one of the biggest looping coasters in the world.   It was quite the welcomer and I really liked it.   I really, really hope to make it to SFMM's Viper before it bites the dust. 

I did get to see Batman and Robin: The Chiller operate (both sides, which was rare considering the Batman side was down a lot) but it went down for the day right before the cycle I was about to board.

My first visit cemented me being an enthusiast with my first ride on Medusa.  Its one of the rides that really got me into the hobby and still lives up to being one of my favorite steel coasters to this day.  

To give you guys an idea of what Viper was, it was one of the only Togo sit down looping coasters built in the US.  It was a rather out of the box design as it had several elements not really well known to Togo- and inclined dive loop and a 0g roll.   The later is significant as Togo was experimenting with the 0g roll concept, both in this and their Ultra Twister models.  However, Togo isn't really well known for using high quality steel, so they were notoriously uncomfortable, though, it was lucky that it was only 88 ft tall and wasn't even 2000 ft long. The restraints raised and lowered parallel to the seat, not like most OTSR's where they pivot.  If any of you have ridden Togo stand ups, the restraints on Viper went up and down similar to how the stand up seats would raise and lower.  Viper's restraints would come down very close to your head and they were very hard.  They way they supported the 0g roll was using support rings, and they got the idea of using them for the entire coaster.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdF8v8H7V5M

Thank god for El Toro!  haha Worst KI coaster for me has to be Invertigo currently.

The Carolina Cyclone gave me whiplash for whatever reason the train jerked down the first hill and it was all over from there.  After that we went to Afterburn and that became by far my fav B&M invert.

Vortex at Carowinds.

Followed closely by Python at Coney Island.

X3 at Kentucky Kingdom. You will not catch me on that thing again.

ugh some of these credits seem like they are going to suck to get.

^ That's why they are called one and dones.

Yes!!!! Never again goes to Carolina Cyclone and Vortex. Then at Ki never again Invertigo and Vortex.

2 hours ago, JAHill said:

Followed closely by Python at Coney Island.

Python is pretty rough.

3 hours ago, IndyGuy4KI said:

X3 at Kentucky Kingdom. You will not catch me on that thing again.

Is X3 a newer coaster?

Time Warp at CW... It is absolutely as bad as people make it out to be... When it goes, I'm not thinking a lot of tears will be shed...


And speaking of when it does go, any CW fanboy who says to rip it out and give it to Michigan's Adventure should have their passes revoked for life... Yes, this is an actual common suggestion in CW circles...

Ugh SLC right?

The roller coaster at the New York, New York Hotel is the worst I’ve ever been on. 

I have never had to physically recover after a ride until I rode it. Had to sit down for a handful of minutes. Never going to ride again.

58 minutes ago, Maverick44 said:

Ugh SLC right?

No....Zamperla Flyer....Flight Deck is their SLC.

Ahhh yes now I remember! Well I will take the advil with me!