I'm back from a long hiatus and would like to start posting more often again! And I have lots of interesting shots to share. My first little group of pictures is of Hakugei at Nagashima Spa Land. I went last fall and I loved this park so much. It felt so much like a mini Cedar Point. And Hakugei is the top dog at the park. The ride has the same fantastic elements you'd expect from an RMC with some extra length that is missing on the lower tier RMCs. Although it doesn't quite make it past Iron Gwazi or Steel Vengeance in my eyes, it's squarely at \#3 which is great! More to come from this park later.
Yep, it's an SLC. A little better than I expected but this was a one and done type ride. I do want to talk about how I was blown away by the rest of the park. Incredible backstory and themeing and the dark ride was one of the best non-Universal/Disney ones out there. I'm super happy to see that more and more enthusiasts are making their way out there this year.
I'm not a huge water ride person. I *hate* walking around with wet shoes all day. But when the water ride is a coaster I'll make an exception. This one was a lot of fun and surprising! I didn't see that big drop being the first thing and the elevator lift was cool. I can't say that I'll want to do this ride again but it was definitely better than expected!
The most surprising coaster for me at Alton Towers was without a doubt Rita. You hear nothing about this ride but negative, that it's shaky and rough. And I went in expecting the worst but I was pleasantly surprised to get a fairly smooth, fast and fun ride. I ended up riding the ride twice and I wish I could've gotten more rides in. There's not many better coaster elements than a hydraulic launch!
No fancy title today, I love the name of this coaster and want to showcase it. I rode this last year before the big retrack and I left impressed. It's such a fun, intense coaster that fits in perfectly with the rest of B&M's early inverts (the pinnacle of their catalog). Yeah that sounds a little pretentious but it's the truth! Can't wait to see the reviews coming out from the park for the retrack!
Get ready for a little run of Alton Towers photos! I'm just now getting to my trip from last year. I'm of the opinion that Smiler is better to look at than to ride. I took one ride on it and that was enough for me. There are so many inversions that they all kind of blend together and I think I like coasters with a little bit more defined elements and room to breath. It looks great though!
So these aren't my best shots, I got to the bottom of the barrel before I need to go into the archives and grab more shots but bear with me. I really like S&S Freespins. I think that they're tons of fun and I love the unpredictable and crazy spinning you can get. SFOT's one was fairly midrange from what I remember.
