"The Voyage" Regains the Top Spot in the 2009 Wooden Roller Coaster Poll
Note: Scroll to the bottom for links to the results for nearly 200 wooden roller coasters worldwide.
The Voyage is back at #1 for the third time in its four years. That ties the record set by Tonnerre de Zeus and later
tied by Shivering Timbers for most years at #1 in the poll.
El Toro proved to be stiff competition again this year, finishing in second place. The 181 foot tall New Jersey woodie
has finished in the top three in each of its four years. The vote between the top two came down to the fact that 77 riders
who had ridden them both preferred The Voyage and 67 preferred El Toro.
After its debut #1 ranking in 2008, T Express fell to third this year while losing the mutual rider comparisons to
The Voyage and El Toro 10 to 4 and 10 to 5 respectively.
Boulder Dash was evidently running as well as ever in its 10th year as reflected by again placing in a relative best ever
#4 finish.
Ravine Flyer II followed up its 2008 debut at #9 by climbing even higher this year to #5 in the world.
Worlds of Fun's new woodie 'Prowler' debuted very strongly at #6, just edging two time #1 Balder 6 to 4 among mutual riders.
Phoenix finished eighth despite being old enough to qualify for Social Security.
Happy Valley Song's 'Fireball', the first Chinese wooden coaster to ever be included in the poll impressed the ten
well travelled voters who had ridden it enough to debut at #9 (with an asterisk due to so few riders voting).
Aska won the mutual rider vote with Thunderhead 8 to 4 and rounds out the 2009 top 10.
The other two new for 2009 rides also did well in the poll. Freizeitpark Plohn's 'El Toro' debuted at #20 and Six Flags
Magic Mountain's 'Terminator Salvation' debuted at #22.
Special thanks to the 730 people who took the time to participate in the 2009 poll (all 730 ballots)
and more than two dozen great roller coaster sites that linked to the poll.
Holiday World is again the park with the top wooden coaster duo (#1 The Voyage, #18 Raven),
and trio (including #38 The Legend).
At the other end of the poll, California's Grizzly made it 15 straight years at # 'LAST'.
The following chart shows the mutual-rider comparisons for the top 12 coasters (including
"Favorite Steel"). Preferences are listed for the people who rode each pair of coasters. The chart should
be read from left to right along the line for each of the top coasters listed at the left. For instance, it can
be seen that The Voyage was preferred over El Toro, with 77 mutual riders preferring The Voyage and
67 preferring El Toro.
Note that this ordering is not the official order of finish. See the link to the full 181x181 mutual rider comparison spreadsheet below.
The "Favorite Steel" coaster would have placed 5th if it were included in the final results,
losing mutual-rider comparisons to the top three wooden coasters and to two Mexican rides.
INACTIVE LINKS BELOW WILL BECOME ACTIVE AS THEY ARE COMPLETED IN THE COMING WEEKS: