New Coaster Rankings for 2005!!

Golden Ticket has announced its new top 10 woodie and top 10 steel coasters for 2005 (all of us Cedar Point fans can breathe another sigh of relief, our precious park and its heart-stopping steel coaster are both still number one!!!)

Top 10 Woodies

1 Thunderhead Dollywood Pigeon Forge, Tenn. 2004
2 Boulder Dash Lake Compounce Bristol, Conn. 2000
3 Shivering Timbers Michigan’s Adventure Muskegon, Mich. 1998
4 Phoenix Knoebels Amusement Resort Elysburg, Pa. 1985
5 Raven Holiday World Santa Claus, Ind. 1995
6 Hades Mt. Olympus Theme Park Wisconsin Dells, Wis. 2005
7 The Legend Holiday World Santa Claus, Ind. 2000
8 Beast Paramount’s Kings Island Kings Mills, Ohio 1979
9 Lightning Racer Hersheypark Hershey, Pa. 2000
10 GhostRider Knott’s Berry Farm Buena Park, Calif. 1998

(7 of 10 I've ridden)

Top 10 Steel

1 Millennium Force Cedar Point Sandusky, Ohio 2000
2 Superman Ride of Steel Six Flags New England Agawam, Mass. 2000
3 Magnum XL-200 Cedar Point Sandusky, Ohio 1989
4 Apollo’s Chariot Busch Gardens Williamsburg Williamsburg, Va. 1999
5 Nitro Six Flags Great Adventure Jackson, N.J. 2001
6 Expedition GeForce Holiday Park Hassloch, Germany 2001
7 Top Thrill Dragster Cedar Point Sandusky, Ohio 2003
8 Phantom’s Revenge Kennywood West Mifflin, Pa. 2001/1991
9 Raging Bull Six Flags Great America Gurnee, Ill. 1999
10 Montu Busch Gardens Tampa Tampa, Fla.

(6 of 10 I've ridden)

Read the rest for yourself. http://www.amusementtoday.com

Lucky for us there is a strong Cedar Point bias to this poll (Magnum still #3, go figure that.)

Any idea how the new SheiKra at Busch Gardens Tampa ranks? I did not see it in the report. I got a chance to ride it on the press opening night - I thought it was AWESOME! They hang you straight down for 4-5 seconds! Then they drop you...

...sounds like DejaVu at Six Flags Great America

Deja used to hurt like hell being hung from the top, which is why they added the seat belts to it. I'm not a big fan of the Vakoma boomerangs, even the huge ones like Deja. They used to get stuck so much they knicknamed them DeJaValley.

Sheikra may sneak into the top 20 next year after more people have a chance to ride it. It was the first of its type in the US. England, I believe, had the first coaster of that type called Oblivion. Those coasters are cool. Just about every ride B&M builds is cool: Raptor, Nitro, Raging Bull, Talon, Apollos Chariot, etc. etc.