Best 1st Season?

Now that Gatekeeper is nearing the end of it's first season, what ride do you think had the best "first season"?

Gatekeeper? Maverick? Dragster? MF? etc......

Haha Maverick and Dragster? Really?

Blue Streak.

Yes, I'm serious.

Since GK has already surpassed 2 million riders, I'd give it to this ride, but I haven't been around long enough to compare it to older rides. But I think it would be hard to top how well GK has been running this season.

Mean Streak's first year was it's best year - record setting, great speed, a decent ride experience, pretty reliable from what I recall. Made lots of Top 10 lists. Yeah...it aged about as well as mayonnaise left in the sun.

No knock on GK; it opened on time, has an enjoyable ride, great throughput, and really looks nice at the park entrance.

I very much so agree, no disappointments, having being closed, except when wind speeds are high (only ran into this once). Great ride, great crew, over all best year for a new ride.
Diamondback received quite a lot of hype (pun intended) down south back in 2009 and has retained a very popular ranking in the park, as did Leviathan even further north.

(2)

I don't remember Maverick having issues once it was actually built correctly, but I didn't go much that year so maybe I'm just partial since it's my favorite coaster and I rarely see it down ;)

But I'd also have to agree with GK. I've been to CP 6 times this year, and it's never been down, even rode it in the pouring rain my first time riding in July. I'm very impressed with its first year.

This is like the movie ratings on IMDB, whatever came out latest is the only thing people remember and think are "the best."

Blue Streak, Mine Ride and Gemini were enormous deals when they debuted.

I didn't have a pass until the year after so I don't know about reliability but I would say Magnum made a pretty big splash considering people were waiting 3 hours to ride.

I waited in line for 1.5 hrs for Corkscrew and 2 hrs for Gemini when they debuted. I was very nervous about Gemini.

Corkscrew was a huge deal when it first opened. It has a great opening year with little to no downtime. Lines snaking down the midway.

Hard to believe today.

^lol, if there is a line for Corkscrew, you know the park is busy ;)

You know what else had a great first year; Demon Drop, at least from my memory. The strange aspect about it was its position. When you walked into the park you were greeted by an enormous line.

Like our memories of Corkscrew's line being 2.5 - 3 hours long, it's amazing to think back and recollect Demon Drop being an insanely intense ride experience.

To me, I don't think anything in the park equalled the excitement surrounding Magnum's first season, not even Millennium Force.

^^^I have to agree^^^

Scottyf said:
Blue Streak.

Yes, I'm serious.

I might have to agree with this one. Back in 1964, this was the first roller coaster to be at the park for a bit of time.

I have to concur with Pete.

I'm not sure that will ever be matched, in fact. And to imagine, Magnum's opening pre-dated the internet, and yet everyone everywhere knew what was happening at the Point, and the coaster landscape was never the same again.

Pete said:
To me, I don't think anything in the park equalled the excitement surrounding Magnum's first season, not even Millennium Force.

Right on. There were exciting rides built after Magnum, but it became expected and routine.

It's not quite fair to have one overall, because the park has been through such changes over the decades. I'd say Blue Streak was a game changer for the speed and height for the older days.

And yeah, I'm down with Pete and Magnum being the game-changer for the modern era. It was such a quantum leap at the time, and the excitement surrounding it was insane.

As for 1950 and beyond, I don't think anything has equaled the excitement for either of those (mayyyyybe Gemini). The newer ones are great, and broke lots of records, but were not game changers, nor quantum leaps. Hell, the first year Maverick opened I thought how lame it was that it didn't have any awesome record-breaking stats (it had a few) and was just another twisty, loopy roller coaster. Now, it's by far my favorite ride in the park. I guess it's not all about records.