Apollo's Chariot at Busch Gardens Williamsburg
Apollo's Chariot represents the Mega Coaster model from Swiss coaster masters Bolliger & Mabillard. Debuting in 1999 in an infamous manner, Apollo's Chariot won praise throughout the tournament for its smooth ride, speed, visuals and airtime.
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Holiday World's The Voyage comes from The Gravity Group, a relatively new Cincinnati-based wooden coaster company that's winning praise for its innovative blending of wooden and steel coaster technology.
Please tell us in the comments why you voted the way you did.
Next up: The Best Theme Park Movie in America, Mickey's PhilharMagic vs. It's Tough to be a Bug!
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Busch Gardens and Holiday World both have very active fanbases and are heavily invested in social media like Twitter and Facebook (Busch has already tweeted and posted to their wall, Holiday World has not). I am expecting a furious battle today.
And honestly, I love both coasters, so this contest is a win-win. However, in my heart of hearts I want Holiday World's Voyage, the Best Wooden Coaster in the World, to take top honors.
When is Holiday World gonna send out the call???? I want a battle, not a slaughter!
Paula (at Holiday World)
Time for the comeback... the Voyage at least has to make this contest respectable! After all, it is the better coaster! ;)
I used to live in VA Beach and was a frequent guest at Busch Gardens to ride all the coasters.
But I grew up in Southern IN, close to Holiday World. It's home, and will always be very special to me. So by default I had to vote for the home team.
GO VOYAGE!!
The Voyage is everything a world champion coaster should be and more. Nothing beats the Voyage.
Even though I've never ridden the Voyage, I know it's a pretty intense coaster, from what people have said.
Great match-up though! They are both very deserving of the praise.
Hopefully now that Paula is out of the meeting and back to what she does best the votes will start to pour in from the Holiday World camp!
I still think The Voyage wins hands down.
And with the come from behind win....!
Thanks, Paula @ Holiday World
We still have a little way to go to ensure a victory, Paula! ;)
Now that I've said that, as far as I'm concerned, this one is a coin flip. I can't argue for or against either of these. They're pretty much the top of their respective fields for me.
Voyage is the perfection of the roller coaster, I honestly do not know how it will ever get better.
And here I am, appropriately dressed in my Holiwood Nights 09 shirt, which yielded the greatest rides on Voyage to date!
What a battle!
And Robert, gratz for all the attention your site has received today! ;)
As for the comparison of the two (AC vs Voyage) ... is there one? Voyage is absolutely out of control. There is no other coaster I've found that comes close to touching it. Whereas, in my opinion, there are at least two B&M mega coasters that are superior to Apollo's Chariot (Diamondback at Kings Island and Intimidator at Carowinds), let alone non-B&M coasters, such as Millennium Force, Superman: Ride of Steel, and more, that far surpass it. Is it a great ride? Absolutely. I thoroughly enjoyed riding it during ERT at ACE Dives! last year. However, I wouldn't put it in the same category as Voyage - the air time, speed, and out-of-control feeling are just lacking. I blame a lot of this on the fact B&M likes to over-trim their hypers. Apollo's Chariot loses a lot of it's momentum as it slides through 3 trim brakes and a mid-course brake run that steal it's speed, whereas Voyage blows right through it's one and only trim brake at the mid-course, meaning it maintains it's momentum throughout the entire course.
Kudos to both Busch and Holiday World for getting involved. It is good to see companies who care about their attractions and, more importantly, their fans.
Gratz to both coasters!
AC is a great ride, but it does not match the Voyage for sheer intensity and power.
Note: with 1900+ voters, this contest had the largest voter turnout so far this year. Nice. I'd like to think an alter ego of mine had a MAJOR impact on those numbers... ;)
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