Superman: Ride of Steel - Six Flags New England (MA)

Date Ridden: June of 2007. Times Ridden: 7 with one ride in Row 2, 2 rides in the very back, and the others spaced out toward the middle and back.

Where do I start? Ok, I guess I'll start with the crazy idea Guy and myself came up with in March of this past year. We had already ridden the famous Millennium Force and was bound and determined to ride what we called "The Number 1 Ride in the World". ROS continually defeats MF not only in the Golden Tickets but also in the much more accurate Mitch's Poll (an online coaster poll highly respected among enthusiasts) each year. We had to know what all the fuss was about.

So we came up with the idea of riding both coasters within a 12 hour span.

We started off leaving GA on a Tuesday night, driving all night to a small coaster place known as 6 Flags Great Adventure (sic) with a couple of "decent" coasters. I have done my El Toro and Nitro reviews so there is no need to get into them. Kingda Ka was great but still a slight disappointment in my book. Anyway, we stayed for 4 hours and then took off up the interstate with our google directions taking us to Agawam. In between, we worked our way across the George Washington Bridge in 5 O'clock traffic in which 12 lanes on one side of the toll booth were being funnelled into 4 lanes on the other side. We think of this incident fondly as "The GW Car Orgy".

This put us seriously behind schedule but we decided to head up to Superman anyway. By the time we got there, they were not even taking up money for parking anymore so with our passes riding Superman cost us nothing but gas to get up there. We were able to get in 7 rides in 90 minutes. We rode absolutely nothing else in the park. We did not even walk around the park. We went straight to Superman, rode it until they made us leave, and then made it out to our car. We then drove another 8 hours to Sandusky (where we stayed for a couple of days in an actual hotel room with a bed to sleep in instead of a car with duffle bags as pillows in the back seat).

Ok how about the ride? It is as great as everyone says it is. It offers unbelievable airtime, particularly in the back seat. It is smooth as silk. The pacing never lets up from the first drop into the tunnel, all the way through the airtime hills going back, around the helix, into the mist-filled tunnel and over the camelback humps at the end. It is virtually a perfect ride with a wonderful view of the park (it was the only way we were able to see the entire park) and the river. We wanted to ride the front but with our limited time along with the huge line (about 20 extra minutes) we decided to get as many laps as possible. Plus on Intamin hypers, the second seat is almost as good since the seats on the back rows of each car are elevated. We were in the line for the 3rd seat but ended being offered the seats in the second row due to a group wanting to ride together.

My favorite part of the ride is probably a part however that does not even contain any airtime. The helix that takes you on a dive into a refreshing tunnel of mist was probably the part I looked forward to the most on each lap. As far as airtime, which is what the coaster is about, the hill on the way back from the overbanked turnaround which takes your picture (I dont remember if it is the 2nd or 3rd) has the sickest amount of the entire ride. You are absolutely ejected from your seat on this portion.

In conclusion, Superman ranks in my top 5 (although it is virtually tied with Millennium Force in my opinion...it may even be a little better but read my MF review and you can see why I list it as # 1) and deserves its Golden Ticket. Intamin has a winner with this one without a doubt. I look forward to getting back up to Agawam and checking it out again.

Overall Rating - 10

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