#600

[Harpo]

Well, I did it... I visited Canada's Wonderland on Saturday, and added Italian Job: Stunt Track as the 600th different coaster I've experienced since I started keeping track in 2000. And believe me, keeping all that track is difficult -- I keep running out of storage space! The parks also get a bit annoyed to find that little sections of their track are missing! :D Oh, wait. Wrong kind of keeping track. Sorry about that -- must be Monday.

Anyway, the visit to Canada's Wonderland allowed me to tie a personal season high count of 189 different coasters in one year. Some of those coasters are duplicates from previous years, but each coaster was counted only once in 2005. Additionally, many of the 600 coasters since 2000 have been experienced more than once, but each one is counted only once.

I'm very pleased that I will be getting married in April, but it will have the unfortunate side-effect that my rapid growth to this coaster count is probably just about done. I certainly won't stop riding coasters (my fiancee knows that coasters come with the package!), but I won't have time to ride as many, or go tracking down coasters in far-away places. So, #700 could be a long way off. Regardless, I've found the coaster riding to be a unique and fun way to see many parts of the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. over the past 6 years. I'm just glad I could hit 600 before this year was done!

[Small Print]

Congratulations Harpo, and good luck with your marraige, All the best.

[alpengeist04]

Glad to hear you decided to go.:up: Congrats on number 600.

[Freddie1]

Congrats. Riding 600 coasters, where does Boulder Dash stand? anyways, glad to hear it. =D

[KingdaKa1]

Congrats. I just got 100 on Kingda Ka. Good luck with ur marriage. And may u be together for many miles, and many smiles. (Harry Chapin, Taxi)

[-MoNtU]

I've probably have atleast thirty under my belt, but then again I'm still young. (14)

[RTCnoob384]

hah i beat all of you, ive only ridden 1!!!! great ride though, too bad i dont have the money or id be riding them more

[Harpo]

Originally posted by SFNERules
Congrats. Riding 600 coasters, where does Boulder Dash stand? anyways, glad to hear it. =D

With the exception of my absolute favorites, I've never really sat down to rank the coasters I've ridden. However, I really liked Boulder Dash. I thought it was an excellent ride. I also really liked Lake Compounce, although it has had a recent history of some rather nasty accidents. Reading the accounts of the accidents, however, I think they were just hit by some bad luck as opposed to bad operations. Heck, some kid was killed when a tree branch fell and hit him while he was walking under the tree -- how unlucky is it for the branch to fall off at just the right time to hit and kill a kid? Anyway, on my visit, I thought the operators appeared to be attentive, friendly, and efficient, so it surprises me that the park has had so many problems.

[raptorrvnge4928]

Congratulations on your coaster riding, Harpo, and good luck with the marriage. And for the record, having kids is a perfect excuse for more coaster riding (not too mention a great way to **** off chores on your children).

[Freddie1]

Congratulations on your coaster riding, Harpo, and good luck with the marriage. And for the record, having kids is a perfect excuse for more coaster riding (not too mention a great way to **** off chores on your children).

:haha:

Good luck with the marriage.

[Harpo]

I'm actually counting on kids as a way to get on some junior coasters that don't allow adults without small children! For example, Jr. Gemini at Cedar Point is not one of my 600 coasters. I have been on it, but long before I started keeping a log -- it was way back when I was small enough to ride it!

My fiancee and I have already decided that we want to raise our version of Tiger Woods so that we can retire early to go ride roller coasters and take cruises! Hmmm, I wonder just how well that plan will work...

[jonnyrocks]

Nice one Harpo!!

I'm at a grand total of 18, having only been to 5 different parks, and many when I was too small to ride the major stuff.Have ytou been on www.coastercounter.com? It lets you make a great list of all the coasters you've been on. I guess it would take you a while to get all of yoyurs ticked off!

[Harpo]

No, haven't done CoasterCounter. I keep it all in my little log book, with a picture of Marvin The Martian on the now-torn cover, and then I write it down, by year, on my personal web site. That alone takes a huge chunk of time! (Haven't updated it yet for last weekend, but I will as soon as I get the chance.)

[BorisTheFish]

Originally posted by jonnyrocks
Nice one Harpo!!

I'm at a grand total of 18, having only been to 5 different parks, and many when I was too small to ride the major stuff.Have ytou been on www.coastercounter.com? It lets you make a great list of all the coasters you've been on. I guess it would take you a while to get all of yoyurs ticked off!
wow, thats quite cool, turns out i got more than i thought, with 35

[Your_Name_Here]

I've probably only ridden around 40-50 different roller coasters, but if you count how many times I've ridden them, it's probably somewhere in the 1,000's. :rolleyes: But, they never get old.

[leonardofury]

I keep an excel spreadsheet. I'm currently on 44 coasters.

[okinawaboy11]

LOL aw man I thaught my 332 was a lot. :(

But congrats!

[raptorrvnge4928]

Woo hoo... 78 coasters in my lifetime (so far) :D

[beck2003]

does this include clones?

[aoshi]

I've been on a good amount but I haven't started keeping track. I am planning on going on a trip to visit several parks when I graduate from high school, I believe I will start keeping track then. ;)

[WoddenWarior]

I have 17 (OMG! :p ) under my belt. If I had my way, that number would be in the hundreds, but money is money, and I don't live around that many parks.

_____________________________________________________

-Adventure Express (Paramount's Kings Island - Kings Mills, Ohio USA)

-Beast (Paramount's Kings Island - Kings Mills, Ohio USA)

-Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (Walt Disney World - Magic Kingdom -Lake Buena Vista, Florida USA)

-Blazing Fury (Dollywood - Pigeon Forge, Tennessee USA)

-Chang (Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom - Louisville, Kentucky USA)

-High Roller (Stratosphere Tower - Las Vegas, Nevada USA)

-Legend (Holiday World - Santa Claus, Indiana USA)

-Racer (Track 1) (Paramount's Kings Island - Kings Mills, Ohio USA)

-Raven (Holiday World - Santa Claus, Indiana USA)

-Road Runner Express (Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom - Louisville, Kentucky USA)

-Roller Skater (Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom - Louisville, Kentucky USA)

-Space Mountain (Track 1) (Walt Disney World - Magic Kingdom - Lake Buena Vista, Florida USA)

-Space Mountain (Track 2) (Walt Disney World - Magic Kingdom - Lake Buena Vista, Florida USA)

-Thunder Run (Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom - Louisville, Kentucky USA)

-Thunderhead (Dollywood - Pigeon Forge, Tennessee USA)

-Twisted Twins (Track 1) (Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom - Louisville, Kentucky USA)

-Twisted Twins (Track 2) (Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom - Louisville, Kentucky USA)

______________________________________________________

I've sure been on a lot of good ones, though!

[Harpo]

There are exceptions, but, for the most part, I've counted dual track coasters as just one coaster, even when riding both tracks. For the exceptions, I have to feel that the tracks are sufficiently different to justify counting them both. For example, I counted both tracks for Dueling Dragons at Islands of Adventure, but I only counted one for Cedar Point's Gemini, Hersheypark's Lighning Racer, and Kings Island's Racer. I only counted Twisted Twins (formerly Twisted Sisters) once, although I've been on both Lola and Stella. I also counted Le Monstre at La Ronde just once, as well as Disney World's Space Mountain. Certainly, it's a judgment call, and I could easily see arguments for or against counting both tracks of a dual track coaster.

(As I look through my coaster log, I'm having trouble locating ones where I've counted both tracks separately, although I know I did so for the Fire and Ice dragons of Dueling Dragons.)

Ah, found another. I counted Lion and Tiger separately for Gwazi at Busch Gardens Tampa.

Looking through the full list, Gwazi and Dueling Dragons are the only dual track coasters where I felt there was sufficient difference to count each track separately. I could probably make an easy case for rides like Kings Island's Racer, Hershey's Dueling Dragons, and others, but I chose to only count them once.

I don't think it has come up yet, but, next time I visit Busch Gardens Tampa, it think it will come up. I don't know what to do about a coaster that's been moved to a different park and renamed since I last rode it. After all, being in a different location, it will provide a bit different of an experience since the surroundings will be clearly different.

Anyway, if anyone wants to see all the coasters I've been on, broken down by year, just click on that little old "WWW" button, and it'll take you to my website. This year's list (with a need for some updates that I haven't had time to make!) is on the main page, and previous years are on linked pages. For years 2001 to present, when a coaster or park is in bold, that indicates the first time I've counted it in the total count. For 2000, bold indicates that I'd never ridden the coaster prior to 2000, but 2000 is also when I started keeping a log, so all those coasters are in the total count.

I've been on 189 different coasters this year, which ties my best year ever. I'd really like to get to 200 coasters in one year, so I'm considering taking a December trip to Florida after my classes are done, but, with a wedding coming up, and needing to get my house ready to sell, and my fiancee having surgery scheduled for November, I'm not counting on it happening, but I'll see what comes along as the time gets closer.

[leonardofury]

I tend to use RCDB, whatever they class as a coaster I class as a coaster. If duellers are mentioned once they're only counted once, possibly a cheap way out but it works for me.

[Harpo]

Hmmm, when working in the software industry, that actually confuses things more. Why does the software industry matter?

Here's why... If I were programming it in C, I'd have a class called RollerCoaster. Each coaster would be an instance of that class. However, the way RCDB shows the dual coasters, with giving track statistics for each track, I could see those being coded as child classes to the RollerCoaster class, hence they would be two subinstances of the one coaster instance. (And people wonder why I refer to myself as "The Geek of the Century???")

Ignoring the programming background, it becomes even more complex in another fashion. Magic Mountain claims to have 16 coasters, with Colossus being one of those. However, a group went about trying to set a record for riding the most unique coasters in one day. Sometimes, Magic Mountain will put on reverse-direction trains on Colossus, which they did for this group trying to set a record. The Guinness Book of World Records folks decided it was a different enough experience that they counted Colossus twice -- once forwards, once backwards. Personally, I did not agree with that decision, but, as I so often say, they didn't ask me.

Since I don't care at all about setting any world records, and it is merely for my own enjoyment, I feel comfortable sticking with my interpretations of when I think a ride should or should not be counted as a coaster (there have been cases where I rode things that RCDB counted as a coaster, and I did not), and when I think a dual coaster should be counted as one or two coasters. Naturally, if I were looking for a world record, I'd have to go by what the Guinness folks have to say, but I don't even plan on asking them.

So, the upshot of it is that some folks may look at my list and figure I've been on more than 600 coasters, while others may look at the same list and see fewer than 600, and still others will see exactly 600. I think I take a fairly conservative approach, so I think most people would see equal to or greater than 600 when looking at my list. All I really strive for is to remain consistent with myself, although even that's a bit of a struggle. Twisted Twins (a.k.a. Twisted Sisters) and Lightning Racer were very much borderline for me as to whether to count each track or not.

Fortunately, it's not a life or death issue, or we could have some interesting and serious debates!

[David Ellis]

Congratulations on the 600...and the upcoming wedding. I like your plan to get on those junior coasters!

I am up to 454 coasters at the moment. It is difficult if not impossible to be totally accurate with coaster counts as we all have our own ideas about what counts and what doesn't, e.g. when is a dual track different enough to count as two, should powered coasters be included (I don't count those but some do if they look like coasters!), etc.

It can get a bit too serious...it should be a bit of fun and no more. My details are on an Excel spreadsheet (which lists all the coasters in the world that I am aware of...again it is impossible to get a comprehensive list as they are cropping up or shutting down or moving all of the time).

Anyway, back on track (so to speak) congratulations on your good news!

David.

[Harpo]

I wonder why I never bothered putting my list in Excel? Being that I'm a software engineer, it would seem a natural. I've got my workout routine in Excel (although I've not done the routine for over a year -- dang, I've got to get back to that,, especially if I want to look fit for the wedding!), but I've not put my coasters in there. Oh well.

Being that one of my hobbies is fictional writing, maybe I can come up with a creative excuse.

Oh, I know...

To acknowledge the raw, primitive feel of the rush of gravity, the log is kept in a raw, primitive form of writing, instead of using new-fangled, modern, electronic gadgets as I track my rides on them rollie coaster thingies.

Hmmm, even I'm not buying THAT one. I'll keep working on a creative excuse! ;)