Favorite Three Steelies Informal Poll Results

For starters, I would like to announce our new e-book edition of our book "Great Pennsylvania Amusement Parks Road Trip." It is available on Amazon and Lulu at the following links, in full color and only $9.99

E-Book at Amazon
E-Book at Lulu

Print editions are still available using the dropdown menu on this page, at any of our listed stores and through Amazon. Any purchase made on this page will have a portion of the proceeds go to support Conneaut Lake and Lakemont and you will get the choice to get a free ride ticket for Blue Streak or Leap the Dips. If you purchase through our page I will send it with the book. If you purchased the book anywhere else, send me a photo of the receipt and I will mail you a ticket of your choice.

On Facebook we asked an easy but hard question, what are your favorite three steel coasters? We found a wide variety of answers. The best result to take away from this poll is that far and away, the favorite steel coaster is usually a Hyper or Giga coaster. I agree with the results for they are my favorites as well. Here are some stats:
47 coasters were represented as favorites
10 manufacturers were represented, including:

• B&M with 20 of the 47 favorite coasters with the oldest of them in the poll being Raptor at 20 years old.
• Intamin with 13 of the favorites and the oldest in the poll being at tie between Millennium Force, SFA Superman and SFNE Bizarro (Superman) at 14 years old. 
• Arrow with 5 of the favorites, showing that the investment in a roller coaster is something that will last for generations. Except for X2, the other rides mentioned as favorites range in age from Magnum being 25 years old at the youngest to the Matterhorn Bobsleds being 55 years old. After many decades these coasters are still favorites, especially Magnum, the second favorite coaster of this informal poll. 
• Morgan and Premier both had 2 favorite coasters. 
• RMC, Schwarzkopf, Gerstlauer, Giovanola and Maurer Sohne each had one entry

Now onto the poll results:

With 24 favorite votes, Cedar Point's Millennium Force is far and away the most favorited coaster in this poll.

The second favorite is Cedar Point's Magnum with 14 votes

Kings Dominion's Intimidator 305 was the 3rd favorite coaster with 11 favorite votes. Photo credit to our friend Park Connoisseur. 

The cliff diving Kennywood Phantom came in fourth with ten votes. 

Six Flags Magic Mountain's X2 came in fifth with a solid nine votes. Photo from Wiki

There was a two way tie for sixth between Kings Island's Diamondback and SFNE's Bizarro with six favorite votes a piece. 

Six other coasters were tied for eighth with five votes a piece:

WDW and Disneyland's Space Mountains

SFOT New Texas Giant

Cedar Point Maverick

Canada's Wonderland Leviathan

SFMM Tatsu

Three coasters were tied for 14th with four votes a piece:

SFOG Goliath

Busch Gardens Tampa Montu

Hershey Skyrush

Six coasters were tied for 17th with three votes a piece:

Kings Dominion Dominator

Busch Gardens Williamsburg Apollo's Chariot

Cedar Point Raptor

SFOG Raging Bull

SFGADV Nitro

SWO Manta

Five coasters were tied for 23rd with two votes a piece:

SFOG Mindbender

The former Busch Gardens Williamsburg Big Bad Wolf

Kings Dominion Volcano

Busch Gardens Tampa Kumba

Cedar Point Gatekeeper

Universal Orlando Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit

The rest had a single vote a piece:

IOA Hulk

Hershey Storm Runner

Busch Gardens Williamsburg Alpengeist

Disneyland Matterhorn

Dorney Steel Force

Dollywood Mystery Mine

Busch Gardens Tampa Sheikra

Holiday Park Expedition GeForce

Gold Reef City Anaconda

Kings Island Vortex

Busch Gardens Williamsburg Griffon

PortAdventura Shambhala 

Mirabilandia Katun

SFGADV Kingdaka

SFMM Green Lantern

Canada's Wonderland Behemoth

Canada's Wonderland Italian Backlot Stunt Coaster

Cedar Point Top Thrill Dragster

SFMM Full Throttle

Parks represented:

1. Cedar Point with six favorite steel coasters
2. Six Flags Magic Mountain with four favorite steel coasters 
3. Kings Dominion, Busch Gardens in Williamsburg and Tampa, and Canada's Wonderland with three favorite steel coasters each
4. Busch Gardens Williamsburg, Hersheypark, Kings Island, Disneyland and Six Flags over Georgia with two favorite steel coasters each.
5. Dorney Park, Islands of Adventure, Universal Orlando, Sea World Orlando, Mirablandia, Kennywood, PortAdventura, Six Flags Over Texas, Six Flags Great Adventure, Six Flags Great America, Six Flags New England, Walt Disney World Magic Kingdom and Holiday Park with one favorite coaster each.

I think this list creates a nice to-do list for parks. The other thing to take away is that between this and our wood coaster poll, no matter what park you go to, you will find an excellent coaster. This was just a top three. If the list were expanded to top ten, I would imagine even more parks and even more coasters at these represented parks would be chosen. Be happy with what you have in your area parks. Each park has something special. It is great if you get the chance to travel, but no matter what park you go to, all parks have something special about them and likely a pretty decent ride.