Date Ridden: Summer of 2008 (Opening Season). Times Ridden: 22 including 20 in one day with 3 rides in the front seat.
One of my favorite parts of being an OCD theme park/coaster nerd is watching new rides being built. This past year was great with Behemoth going up in Canada, Farenheit at Hersheypark, and best of all, RF II in Erie, PA. With the Golden Tickets coming out in September, allow me to look into the future and forecast RFII as Best New Ride of 2008.
Lets look at the competition a little more closely.
Behemoth is out. While a great ride, it is a full step below the two major contenders. Intamin won the award last year with Maverick. Farenheit is a similar ride that will appeal to basically that same group of voters. The Gravity Group won the year before with the all-mighty Voyage and believe it or not, this ride may be just as good.
Do not miss the front seat. The view one has when topping the lift hill and staring up the coast of Lake Erie is among the most beautiful views on any ride at any location. Virtually every part of the ride is outstanding with the highlights being the dash across the highway, the extreme floater airtime on the way back through the tunnel and the 90 degree bank which is taken much slower than on the Voyage making it a better element.
The only negative that I discovered in my 22 rides was the lackluster ending. The speed had slowed considerably by the time the train reached the final bunny hills and it just crawled over them giving no air to speak of before the violent ending on the brake run. It seemed like the speed had slowed but then coming off the final small hill it sped up just enough to give a big jolt there at the end when the final brakes hit.
This finale is what keeps the ride below woodies like Boulder Dash, Phoenix, and Thunderhead. Waldameer Park, however, has a definite winner on their hands as long as they take care of their baby. As much trouble as they went through to get this thing built, I'm thinking they will.
Overall score - 10 (Rounded up from a 9.5)
Ride the Ravine Flyer II below.
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