5 Rides I Love That Everybody Else Hates

I've never been one to hold back with my opinions. If I hate something I'm not afraid to say it, and it really irks me when I see people jumping on the hate bandwagon just because that's the cool thing to do. It also bothers me when I see people saying things like "oh I'm going to ride [insert universally loved coaster here] next week so that'll be going straight into my Top 10!" How could you possible know, you haven't even ridden the bloody thing? People making their minds up about rides because they've even ridden it is so frustrating to me, and I think given the hype and mob mentality of social media it makes it very hard to stand against the crowd and say, you know what, I actually like that attraction that everybody else trashes. Here's a few of mine!

I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say this is probably the most universally hated coaster for European enthusiasts? At least in my experience it is anyway. You mention the word Baco and watch enthusiasts quiver with fear, it's reputation absolutely precedes it. It's legendary how bad this coaster supposedly is, with some people visiting to ride for themselves just to see if the rumours are true. Madness.

For me, Baco is not only not a bad coaster but is actively one of my favourites in Europe. That gut-wrenching launch into the awesome airtime hill is up there as one of the best coaster element combos in the world, the speed at which you take the following layout is just so ridiculously fast that I can't help but laugh, and it ends with a graceful inversion into a wonderful swoop down over the Mediterranean harbour. It's a gorgeous coaster, thrilling and exciting and fun. Fight me.

I get it, why the heck is there an actual REVERCHON SPINNING WILD MOUSE in a Disney park. Those things are usually found in dumpy fairgrounds. Well, I guess that's the Imagineer's dedication to Chester and Hester's Dino-Rama keeping to that authentic county fair feel, complete with literal car parking spaces painted onto cracked tarmac. It's easy for that theme to slip one's mind and for us to read it as a literal dumpy fairground (I guess in some instances the Imagineers are TOO good at their job?)

But yh, I've used Primeval Whirl as my example here because it's detested by Disney fans - but in general I really do enjoy a Reverchon Spinning Wild Mouse. I think they're good fun, I always come off laughing and smiling and I think they're a good thrill for what you get. Fun coasters!

Lol, yh, I guess I'm a bit of a masochist because I'm not going to sit here and try to convince you that this coaster isn't absolutely brutal. I've come off of this one with actual bruises before and nursing a spasm in my neck. But for me, the madness and fun of the thing absolutely outweighs the price you have to pay of some mid-to-light injury.

I love how unassuming it is. Like, if you haven't ridden before you can see that it's a big ass coaster and goes on for ages into the distance, but from what you can see it's all cute bunny hills and meandering around a pretty field in the countryside. But the real brutality is shielded from view by the thicket of trees. It's all very clever. And because it's so long by the time you get back to the station the only memories you have of the abuse are shrouded by the adrenaline pumping through your veins, so you decide it's a good idea for another ride. Only to take a beating all over again. And I love it. 

Again, another ride pretty much universally loathed by Disney purists. And again, I totally get it. If this is what you got to replace the wonder and magnificence that was Journey Into Imagination, I think I'd be pretty pissed off too. But you see, despite riding the ride in its original iteration, I have extremely foggy memories of the thing, so nostalgia plays no part in my experience of this attraction.

Instead I get to enjoy a 'classic' Disney dark ride that equal parts EPCOT weirdness and equal parts dark ride insanity, which is something I absolutely adore. Sure, you don't really expect the 'so-bad-it's-good' stuff from Disney, but that doesn't make it any less enjoyable for me. Again, the sadist in me comes out here. I absolutely LOVE making people ride this with me if they haven't been on it before and watching their faces as their irritation rises until the finale where they're pretty much ready to set the building on fire. I adore a dark ride that makes me, to quote Krusty the Clown, exclaim 'WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT?!' at the end, and Journey Into Imagination With Figment is definitely in that category.

We know how I feel about Intamin hydraulic launchy things, and Rita is yet another one that I absolutely love. The speed, the transitions, the forces, the airtime. It has everything I adore in a coaster, for me it's almost like a very mini-Taron. I don't find it painful, I don't find it dull, I don't find it pointless, to quote some of the insults I've heard thrown this coaster's way in my time.

Especially during Scarefest, there's nothing better to me than hurtling towards those green uplit trees at high speeds and racing around over the treetops only to float into the final break run. It's fabulous, and I won't hear another word on the subject!

What do you think - what rides are there out there that you love that the majority of people hate on? Let me know in the comments!