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Date Ridden: Summer of 2008. Times Ridden: 3 As most coaster enthusiasts are aware, Ride of Steel at Darien Lake was formally Superman- Ride of Steel until Six Flags sold the park to another developer leading to the dropping of the Superman name. The ride was also given a new logo minus the ".S". symbol. However, despite this name change the ride itself remains a wonderful ride and is consistently ranked among the top steel coasters in the world. It was also one of the coaster I was most looking forward to riding. Intamin, my favorite steel coaster designer, had already designed two virtually perfect rides (Millennium Force and Superman in Agawam) and this looked to be a very similar coaster. However, I was in for a disappointment.....and it had little to do with the coaster itself. The problem with my Ride of Steel experience (and the reason this ride did not make my top 10) was this. Why would a park run two trains to improve capacity but refuse to allow people on one train so ".it would not have to run half empty".. That is the quote that I was given by what looked to be a park manager in a shirt tie when asked why on a virtually deserted day in the park, along with two train operation, wait times were still over 15 minutes. Does running a train empty save more electricity than running one half-empty? On each ride on the empty train, the ride ops unbuckled every seat belt then buckled them right back before lowering the lap bar. It was among the most asinine things I have ever seen in my entire life. When we saw the park, I thought we would easily get 10 rides on this, their signature coaster, as well as riding everything else there. However, after 3 rides in 45 minutes with no one even waiting in line (sometimes they even held up the one train they were allowing people to board until more showed up to ride) along with out Motocoaster incident (see review) made for a poor afternoon and a virtual waste of 25 dollars. OK, after that rant, how is the ride? It is wonderful. Some enthusiasts criticize this version of the ROS for having too much straight track but I feel that these portions are excellent for giving the rider that sense of speed that I love so well. The coaster is smooth with two great downward spiraling helices (not my favorite element on a hyper coaster but these are pretty good) and a wonderful finished with three great airtime hills. It was a little shaky at the top of the lift hill (not sure where the ".shimmy". comes from but it was a little disconcerting the first time) but that did not detract from the ride. The coaster is pleasing visually with the lift hill seeming to come straight up from the ground since it is in an area of the park that is slightly lower than normal when one first walks around to where the ride is located. There are no dead spots nor rough sections to speak of. I was really disappointed when we pulled out of the Darien Lake parking lot. What I had hoped would be one of my favorite ride experiences was spoiled by poor park operations and a ".carnie-like". attitude toward one of the greatest steel coasters on the planet. I do give props to the ride operator who let us stay on and get a third ride since there was no one waiting on our seat. If not for him, it would have been 2 rides in 45 minutes with no lines. Unbelievable. To all Darien Lake management personnel: take a trip about 4 hours south to Knoebels in PA and watch the crew run Phoenix. You can definitely pick up some pointers. Overall Rating - 9 (for the ride quality).
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