9. Copperhead Strike

Image: Carowinds

Location: Carowinds
Video: Copperhead Strike POV

Cedar Fair has selected Carowinds – half in North Carolina, half in South – as a new Southern flagship park for the company, and their year-after-year investment proves it. Perhaps the biggest boon to the park's lineup yet is this summer's Copperhead Strike, designed by Mack Rides. The extreme steel coaster includes five inversions (including one just a few feet out of the station) and two launches (one accelerating the ride as it crests an airtime hill). If the ride is any indication of the kind of coaster Cedar Fair is hoping to add to the rest of its thrill parks across the U.S., it's good news for everyone!

10. Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure

Image: Universal / Warner Bros.

Location: Universal's Islands of Adventure
Video: Magical Creatures POV

Going head to head with Smugglers Run is the other big debut of summer 2019, Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure. The stunning ride takes the place of the massive, bare steel Dueling Dragons (later, Dragon Challenge) that were inherited by the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, but never really belonged in the otherwise immersive land. The "story coaster" places guests in a train of magically-duplicated motorbikes (sitting on the bike or the sidecar) revving out to the edge of Hogwarts' legendary Forbidden Forest for a Care of Magical Creatures class with Hagrid. The idea is that Hagrid's flame-farting Blast-Ended Skrewts are loose, and we're set out to find them. Along the way, the coaster zips past animatronic creatures like "Fluffy," centaurs, Cornish pixies, and unicorns – a legendary quest that leaves riders cheering.

But there's a caveat. Take a world-record seven launches. Add two hidden, rare, and technically-complex coaster manuevers deep in the Forbidden Forest. Mix in precisely-timed show elements, essential on-ride audio, and animatronics. Oh, and Central Florida's daily afternoon thunderstorms that stall the outdoor coaster for hours. The end result? Perhaps the most embrassingly botched ride opening in history, with Hagrid's opening late somedays, closing early most, and sometimes not opening at all... Yikes...

Still, riders who endure the multi-hour waits have nothing but universal critical acclaim, calling the ride the best in Orlando and perhaps one of the best on Earth. Literally, we haven't seen one negative review of the ride, even from guests waiting 3 hours or more (including opening day's 13 hour wait). 

11. Reese's Cupfusion

Image: Hersheypark

Location: Hersheypark
Video: Cupfusion POV

In 2006, Hersheypark in Hershey, Pennsylvania opened Reese's Xtreme Cup Challenge, a... curious dark ride seemingly pitting Team Peanut Butter vs. Team Chocolate in a strange laser-blasting dark ride through a sort of Malibu rock-and-roll Olympics. This year's Reese's Cupfusion retheme is a total rebuild, having guests and the familiar Hershey's candy bars now take up arms against the generically evil sweets led by Mint the Merciless. As is en vogue, vehicles travel through flat scenes then suddenly come upon embedded screens awash in chaos, blasting kinetic characters before continuing along to the next screen. Is it better than the former occupant? Well, it's different. And that's a win for the park!