AT: B. Derek Shaw

In my early visits to ride roller coasters at amusement and theme parks, I quickly established four characteristics for determining a great ride experience: smoothness, swiftness, airtime and pacing. Only more recently did I add a fifth: re-rideability.

Shaw

At Amusement Today’s 2018 Golden Ticket Awards at Silver Dollar City in Branson, Mo., last September, I was pleased to see Phoenix at Knoebels Amusement Resort in Elysburg, Pa. claim the title of Best Wooden Roller Coaster.

The Herbert Schmeck-designed ride, which originally began life as The Rocket at Playland Park in San Antonio, Texas, was relocated to and reborn at Knoebels — with work performed by Charles Dinn and Dinn Construction — in 1985. Phoenix has landed in the Golden Ticket Awards’ wooden coaster top 10 since the inception of the honors in 1998. (The only other wooden coaster that has made the list consistently is Kings Island’s The Beast.) Starting in the 10th slot, Phoenix hovered in the middle range before advancing to second in 2011 and taking that position again in 2016 and 2017. However, the coaster had never notched the top spot. Until now.

It seems that marketing departments are always looking for the sizzle to sell the steak, or the ideal “-est” to ace the advertising test. “Newest” is no longer is enough; the job calls for superlatives such as “tallest,” “steepest,” “longest,” “fastest” and “scariest.” (Recently, Hersheypark in Hershey, Pa., in describing a new steel Bolliger & Mabillard hyper or giga coaster set to arrive in 2020, even added “sweetest.”)

Which brings us back to Phoenix. With a lift hill rising 78 feet and a track length of 3,200 feet, the coaster certainly isn’t the highest or longest. It travels at 45 mph, so it’s not the fastest. And while it was originally erected by the Philadelphia Toboggan Co. in Texas in 1947 before being rebuilt at Knoebels in 1985, it’s not the oldest.

The point is, good things in the realm of amusements don’t necessarily come in the largest packages. It’s all about what makes the customer happiest.

Ultimately, adding “-est” doesn’t matter when a roller coaster incorporates all five of the aforementioned characteristics. It’s simply the best.

This editorial appears in the FEBRUARY 2019 issue of Amusement Today.

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