Sunday, August 3, 2014

NPN July 2014 Poll Results


July's NewsPlusNotes Poll was a throwback to 15 years ago, asking you guys what your favorite new for 1999 custom design, North American roller coaster was.  I had to add in the custom design part because that was the era of many Boomerangs and SLCs (and the like) going up.  Had to thin the herd a bit.

© Busch Gardens Williamsburg
Turns out your favorite 1999 ride was Apollo's Chariot at Busch Gardens Williamsburg, with 23% of the total vote.  The coaster was technically the first B&M Hyper Coaster to open, beating out Raging Bull at Six Flags Great America by a couple months.  Apollo's Chariot stands 170 feet tall but drops 210 feet into a ravine, then features air-time hill after air-time hill with a huge helix as the turnaround.

Second place (15%) went to Afterburn at Carowinds, one of the most highly regarded B&M Inverted rides ever built.  Just a few votes behind that was the Incredible Hulk at Islands of Adventure (14%) in 3rd, and the aforementioned Raging Bull at Six Flags Great America in 4th with 10%.  The 5th place finisher was Medusa at Six Flags Great Adventure, B&M's first ever Floorless coaster.

So yeah - the top five were all B&M's!

Here are the full results for you to peruse.  Also of note is how much higher Dueling Dragons Fire ranks than the Ice version (but both were very low overall), featuring a Harry Potter theme these days.  I'm also surprised that Powder Keg didn't finish higher - the air-time on that ride is crazy!

This month's poll is now live, and it's one of our favorite each year.  Time to vote for the best new U.S. coaster for 2014!  Think it over and then make your choice on the left.


1 comments:

Unknown said...

I hope no one would have voted for a Boomerang of SLC, even if they had been included!