2012 Best Attraction Tournament: Best Roller Coaster Final - The Voyage vs. Incredible Hulk Coaster

March 30, 2012 at 8:04 AM · You know how everyone raves about the first ten seconds of The Hulk? Well, The Voyage is like that for the entire ride.

Go Voyage!

March 30, 2012 at 8:07 AM · I've only been on the Hulk, but I've always enjoyed wooden coasters over the steel coasters. The Hulk is excellent, but probably not the best coaster I've ever been on. I respect the opinions of our coaster experts, Mike & Jim, regarding the merits of Voyage.And it's always nice to have one of the regional amusement parks vie for a champion. Therefore, my vote goes to Voyage.

March 30, 2012 at 8:14 AM · I know the Orlando bias makes it futile, but Voyage is a much better ride than Hulk, and deserves to win. It's that simple. Everyone talks about the intensity of Hulk's launch. Multiply that intensity by 5 (longer ride)and you've got Voyage. Hulk, to me, runs out of gas quickly after the launch. Voyage keeps a full tank all the way through...the last third is even better than the first! Vote for Voyage. Tell 'em Mike sent ya.

Guess what I voted for?

*EDIT* James and I are not in cahoots. I've never met the man, but I'd like to. He just got his post up before mine. I'm not a fast typer, and I'm at work. And Rob, thanks for the kind words, but I'm far from an expert. I know a lot about coasters, andI know what I like. That's about it. And I like Voyage :)

March 30, 2012 at 8:11 AM · First I never been to the vojage and second the hulk is my favorite rollercoaster ever so my vote goes to the hulk

March 30, 2012 at 8:18 AM · Right now the Hulk is winning 75% to 25%, and that is just WRONG. I've experienced both. The Hulk is pretty much like every launch looping coaster out there, while the Voyage is one the best coasters ever built. I assume it's getting all the votes because more people have been on it. This needs to change!

March 30, 2012 at 8:23 AM · The Orlando rides usually win these contest???

March 30, 2012 at 8:59 AM · Go Hulk go! I can't vote for a ride I have not ridden, nor can I vote for a ride that beat my beloved Montu, so go Hulk! It helps that I really like the ride. :D

March 30, 2012 at 9:02 AM · Voyage is the winner in the coaster bracket...period. Hulk shouldn't have even gotten this far. As far as a contest between these two...there is none. I can't think of any advantage that Hulk has over Voyage...not one.

I hope all the Holiday World people and those outside the Florida bubble find their way here today and make this right.

March 30, 2012 at 9:10 AM · I agree, no contest THe Voyage got my vote.

March 30, 2012 at 9:11 AM · I'm actually going to vote for the ride I've never been on :-) I absolutely love the Hulk, but Voyage looks amazing and, from what so many people here have said, is most likely to give the best overall experience. I hope I get a chance to ride it one day.

March 30, 2012 at 9:11 AM · The Voyage is a Gold Ticket winner and the #1 Wood coaster in the world.

March 30, 2012 at 9:17 AM · I'm voting Hulk, not because I'm a "Universal Fanboy" as I think Manta is a superior overall coaster but was vanguished by Hulk's opening 10 seconds.

But my dislike for wooden roller coasters, for any of us with motion sickness I can "suck up a trip" on the hulk but not a wooden roller coaster.

Note: Manta no issues, smoothest coaster I've every been on

March 30, 2012 at 9:36 AM · I have been on both several times and I think it comes down to a preference between steel and wooden coasters. The Hulk has a very smooth ride and as everyone says, the first 10 seconds are quite possibly the best on any coaster. The Voyage has an ok first drop but quickly turns into a machine designed to turn your vertebrae into baby powder. There are Holiday World employees whose only job is to scour underneath the ride to collect the teeth and fillings that have fallen out during the day. Occasionally they find a head that was previously attached to some unfortunate rider's body.

As far as woodies go, The Beast and The Texas Giant are both far superior to The Voyage.

As far as these two are concerned it's Hulk by a mile.

March 30, 2012 at 9:37 AM · Yay, Melanie! Way to think!

March 30, 2012 at 9:51 AM · The beast is the best wooden coaster I've been on...so i can't vote for voyage. Loved hulk...but i could list a handful of better coasters...i voted for hulk...in homage to THE BEAST!

March 30, 2012 at 9:55 AM · Hulk is a little intense for me but I hate wooden coasters. Easy choice for me.

March 30, 2012 at 9:56 AM · True, Texas Giant is better, but the Beast is the lamest wooden coaster ever. I've never been more disappointed with a ride than I have been with the Beast.

March 30, 2012 at 10:03 AM · Hulk urh

March 30, 2012 at 10:07 AM · Brandon, are you sure you're talking about Holiday World's The Voyage? It is definitely a beast when it comes to intensity, but I never felt it was rough like some woodies. Regardless, the love it is getting this off season should correct any minor issues...

As for the other coasters you mentioned, I'll take both the Beast and the NEW Texas Giant over the Hulk....and Voyage beats those two hands down (or "hands up" according to Mr. Gallagher). But don't get me wrong, the Hulk is a nice ride, just not quite in the same class as the others you mentioned.

So, if The Voyage wins, shouldn't we have a TPI meet up in Santa Claus to celebrate the occasion? Who's with me???!!!

March 30, 2012 at 10:54 AM · I can't add to what has already been said but I can second two things James Rao said: Voyage is intense from start to finish and any roughness anyone has experienced will be gone this year. You can count on the TLC Holiday World is giving it.

And WHEN (not if) the Voyage takes this again - I'm in for a TPIfest at Holiday World. (Soon to be home to the World's longest water coaster too.)

March 30, 2012 at 11:01 AM · Ok I have ridden both and the Voyage was the roughest roller coaster I have ever been on ( and I have been on a whole lot) My back hurt after riding this. I thought it was fun but so rough. My boys said that Shivering Timbers and Mean Streak were smooth compared to this one.

March 30, 2012 at 11:11 AM · I'll bet you rode the Raven train. The Raven train on the Voyage was the most extreme coaster ride I've ever had. The other trains are much smoother, IMHO.

March 30, 2012 at 11:13 AM · Ok, I've been to Six Flags Great America (Gurnee, IL), Holiday World (Santa Claus, IN), Cedar Point (Sandusky, OH) and Kings Island (Mason, OH). I love all the coasters each one have built and ran. So here's my two cents:

Voyage Statistics (wikipedia) for Wooden Coasters only
Steepest - #4 (66 degrees)
Fastest - #3 (67.4 mph)
Tallest - #5 (163 feet)
Tallest Drop - #4 (154 feet)
Longest - #2 (6,442 feet)
Golden Ticket Award - Top Wood Coaster of 2011

Son of Beast held higher spot on some of these (esp. longest and fastest), but since it has been torn down :( Voyage got bumped up one.

Incredible Hulk Statistics (wikipedia) for Steel Coasters only:
OMG, none.
Tallest #10 is Eejanaika (Japan) at 249 feet
Tallest drop #10 is Bizzaro at 221 feet
Tallest inversion #10 is a 3 way tie at 124 feet
Tallest vertical loop #10 is Katun (Italy) 108 feet
Fastest #10 is Furius Baco (Spain) 84 mph
Steepest #8 is a 3 way tie at 95 degrees
Longest #10 is Superman el Ultimo Escape (Mexico) 5,577 feet

Sounds like the Hulk isn't up to par. Before you slam me, I've been on Shockwave 6 times in a half hour before it got torn down, I've been on Iron Wolf, Mantis, Chang (though I'm not sure where this is now since Six Flags cancelled the lease at Kentucky Kingdom), Vortex (though I heard that is getting torn down - uber sad), King Cobra, Raptor, Magnum XL-200. I don't care if it's wooden, steel, sit down, stand up, inverted or whatnot. Looking at the picture, Raptor looks similar to the Hulk. Top Gun at Kings Island was a waste of a 2 hour wait for a 1 minute ride in inverted bumper cars where your feet didn't dangle when I rode it - unlike T-2 which gave me and the wife such a bad headache it ended our day at 3pm.

March 30, 2012 at 11:15 AM · I haven't been on Incredible Hulk, but I hear that it is just a standard B&M with a launch. I have been on Voyage, and it is one of my top five wood coasters. Had to go with Voyage because there are few other woodies (excluding El Toro) that can match its level of intensity, while it sounds like almost every B&M sitdown and floorless will give a similar ride to Incredible Hulk (excluding the launch).

March 30, 2012 at 12:00 PM · Kevin, FYI..Chang is now a New Jersey resident in the Witness Protection Program under the guise of a certain green-masked superhero.

And I'm not sure who above referred to the New Texas Giant as a woodie, but the general consensus seems to be that it is now considered a steel coaster. Then again, there are those who don't consider El Toro a woodie. Me, I don't get into thos debates. I just wanna ride, baby!

March 30, 2012 at 12:13 PM · @Kevin: Allow me to retort, good sir.

There is a flaw in your argument. Simply, comparing these two coasters by how they compare to others of their same type is flawed. I think it cannot be questioned that there are simply more steal coasters in the world than woodies, so just comparing statistics (and how they rank against others) is flawed.

Basically, if your point is there are bigger coasters than Hulk, you are right. But that is not the question here. If this was the 'what's the biggest coaster' tournament, neither of these two rides would be here. But it's not, this tournament is to decide the better ride. Bigger does not always equate to better. If that were true, we would be talking about Kingda Ka going against The Beast.

Hulk is a pure one of a kind ride, the only B&M coaster with a launch in existance. I always hear it getting slammed for being a bit front loaded, but I would argue that the back end of the coaster is actually a lot of fun (it is just overshadowed by the best open ever on a coaster.) Vote for the green guy, vote The Hulk!

March 30, 2012 at 2:19 PM · I've been on both rollercoasters and must say my vote goes to The Voyage, one of the most intense and thrilling coasters I've ever been on. It just doesn't let up!

March 30, 2012 at 2:42 PM · ^Exactly!

March 30, 2012 at 3:42 PM · I'm all for a TPI trip to Holiday World. I'll just wear a helmet with a HANS device when I ride The Voyage to keep my head from separating from my spine.

March 30, 2012 at 3:45 PM · Where's the fun in that? ;)

March 30, 2012 at 4:02 PM · Once again, it's status quo for me. Haven't been on either. But I've heard that Voyage has gotten quite rough over the last several years, so I voted for Hulk. I'm glad HW is giving Voyage some TLC, but that really shouldn't matter in this contest anymore than the "new" Spidey should. You can't vote on what you think the future will bring - ya gotta go with what brought ya to the dance.

March 30, 2012 at 4:46 PM · People complain about Hulk's roughness as well, and yet Universal has no plans to do anything about it! At least Holiday World is taking action. Moreover, I am not convinced The Voyage is all that rough. I still think folks are confusing pain with intensity, something that ends ten seconds into the Hulk but continues for the entire course on the Voyage!

Seriously folks, if you have not ridden the Voyage please believe me when I say it is far superior to most any other coaster you have ever ridden, steel or wood, and it leaves the Hulk so far in the dust that this contest should not even be close. No one visits IOA just to ride the Hulk, but I promise you that if you went to Holiday World and just rode The Voyage over and over (if you had the intestinal fortitude) you would leave feeling like you got your money's worth!

If you have any doubt, vote Voyage, it is the right choice.

March 30, 2012 at 5:03 PM · Each ride is tops in their respective categories of wood and steel, but the Voyage is the absolute best coaster regardless of category.

March 30, 2012 at 8:00 PM · Just say no to the big green headache machine!

March 30, 2012 at 8:31 PM · I've ridden both a Hulk is a incredible ride for the first half. Truth is, It lames out major for the last quarter of the ride.

Voyage on the other hand has three huge float filled hills to start with, THEN ITS INSANE FOR THE LAST TWO THIRDS.

Voyage by a long shot and Hulk is very good yet very different ride. I gotta say, If your not in shape or know what to expect on Voyage, You will be gasping for breath afterward, Its that intense. :)

March 30, 2012 at 9:28 PM · Holiday world is awesome!

March 30, 2012 at 11:17 PM · @Kevin - I just want to straighten out some inaccuracies in your post.

Son of Beast is still standing. I drive past KI frequently and took pictures of it last week because I saw something interesting.

Vortex isn't going anywhere. It's a reliable, popular, high--capacity ride that is not sinking any more than Magnum is.

Hulk and Raptor are no more similar than Flight Deck and T2. Also, if you waited two hours for Flight Deck (Top Gun) then I highly suggest that it's time for you to revisit Kings Island as it's obviously been awhile and that's a sad state of affairs for anyone. ;)

My finals two cents? Voyage is the obvious vote for me because it is beyond a doubt the most insane, intense, forceful, out-of-control amazing coaster ever built.

March 31, 2012 at 9:35 AM · No formal announcement, but this battle is over, and the best coaster won. Kudos to Holiday World for supporting the Voyage and its fans. And kudos to all those who passionately participated in this process. Great job everyone!

So, Mr. Niles, TPI meet at Holiday World on Father's Day to hang the championship banner on The Voyage?

Make it so!

March 31, 2012 at 8:16 PM · Brandon (and an anonymous poster), THANK YOU for expressing my feelings about The Voyage! I rode it once in its opening season and immediately got one of the worst headaches of my entire life! (And so did all three of my riding companions.)

Now I have a question for all those who love it so much: where do you sit? I'm usually a front-seat junkie, and that's where my one and only ride was. Is it any smoother in the middle or back? If I give it another chance someday, where should I try to sit?

March 31, 2012 at 9:29 PM · Front, back, middle, all are great. Again, if you did have issues, try again this season because CCI did a lot of work in the off season to make the Voyage even better.

April 1, 2012 at 7:36 PM · Rip Ride Rockit has the loop which is not an inversion and the 90 degree lift, the first of thier kind by my understanding. The conveyor loading sysytem keeps the line moving constantly.

I think it deserves some kind of recognition.