POV video at bottom of this article!!!!!
With my El Toro ride offically in the books, I thought I would pipe in on my Voyage versus El Toro opinion. I have been lucky to be near both rides when they opened.
My Voyage experience was that it was an amazing, creative layout that packs a major punch. The ride is ferocious and un relenting all the way through. There have been a lot of reviews on the net, so I won't go into detail on the exprience other than to say it was fantastic, easily my #1 at the time. My only qualm being the ride beats the living turd out of you so rerides will cost you some serious creaking and groaning the next day.
I was at Great Adventure in early May and I remember thinking El Toro looked a bit overrated. It just didn't have the same visual impact that the Voyage does. That said, I'll try and reconstruct yesterday's ride. First off, the train is ludicrously long. It seems to go on forever in the station. The gates open and you sit down in the very comfortable seats. I tried to pull down my lap bar to give me a little air and was told that the attendant would do that for me. This seemed silly to me, but as the attendant started putting the restraints down I kept hearing rumblings. As he got to my seat he leaned in and stapled the lap bar down. Now, I'm married, so it's not like I use my balls for all that much any more, but if I did, they would have been out of commision for a while. The attendant rammed the lap bar down and made sure I didn't even have room to wiggle at all. Little did I know I would be very grateful for this.
One other point, I was sitting in the second to last car. The ride slowly rolls out of the station and approaches the lift. As the car engages on the lift I was amazed at how fast the ride went up. So much like Millie, but it seemed even faster. Towards the top the size of this ride really kicked in. This is one monsterous woodie.
The train crests the hill and a beautiful thing happened. I actually got air on the crest of the hill. Around the turn we went aproaching the first drop. The visuals were like Nitro in that the second hill seemed way to close to ever allow a drop and rise in that short of a space. Now comes my first true opinion on this ride. The train started to straighten and drop. I found my self accelerating insanely and I hadn't even started to drop yet. In short order I was hurled down the most insane drop ever on a coaster. I have been on Millie, Superman ROS's and Nitro, the big drop rides, and I must say they don't even come close. El Toro's first drop was almost orgasmic in the sheer sustained ejecter air-time.
The bottom transition was amazingly smooth and the train rose towards the crest of the second hill. Again I was thrust towards the heavens as the train roared over the second hill. Pure bliss and the best sustained air time I have ever had. Third hill was same as the second. I could not believe Six Flags would allow such an extreme ride! As we approached the diving turn, I got some serious lateral negative G's and the trains negotiated the turnaround very smoothly. Not to say it was boring as the angles and transitions were a blast.
The next three air hills were smooth and fun, but nothing like the first three hills. As the train cranked a left turn in preperation for the twister section, it rose towards another innocent little hill. Holy God in heaven!!!! This little hill was the most insane airtime I have ever had. Remember when I wrote I would later be thankful for the stapled lap bars? It was for this very hill. I can only pray Six Flags won't trim this section. It was amazingly cool to see an entire train of hair standing straight up on this drop. Pure bliss!
The twisted section, while fun, was in reality a moment to catch you breathe from the insane first section. While the first half was very quick, the ride seemed to wind down in the second half of this section into the breaks.
I have read a lot of great reviews of the Voyage, and I also loved the ride. That said, while the Voyage is longer and visually more fun to ride, El Toro is the better ride IMO in that it is every bit as extreme, while being smooth enough to be re-rideable. It is trully amazing. We are blessed as coaster geeks to have two rides as great as this in one year. The airtime on the Voyage was amazing, but El Toro's just seemed more forcefull and better sustained.
In short, sadists will prefer the Voyage, but I have to think the majority of enthusiasts will be blown away by El Toro.
One man's opinion. Let the inevitable argumentative comparisons begin.[:p]
Update:
Full POV at end of first video.
http://www.prnewswire.com/broadcast/246 ... umer.shtml