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Date Ridden: January of 2007 and 2008. Times Ridden: 12(including 10 this past January....8 of those consectutively at park opening). Other than Goliath at SFOG, Montu is the closest of the top 10 Golden Ticket coasters to my place of residence....only a mere 7 hours away!! When riding it twice last year, I remembered a fun ride that I thought on par with Raptor and the Batman rides Ive been on. After my 10 rides a week ago however, I think Montu beats those out as well as Alpengeist, Silver Bullet, and the like due to its variety of unique elements. The one thing I like for coasters I ride to do is to give me a unique experience. Top Thrill Dragster was one of my favorite rides for a while, then I rode Kingda Ka and Xcelerator and the "unique factor" dropped making it less fun for me. Montu offers a numer of unique experiences including the near miss with the temple ruins at the beginnning coming out of the first trench, the batwing dive below ground and the super fun zero g roll early in the ride. The problem with Montu is that it suffers from "Florida-itis" which is a disease caused by overuse of trim breaks leading to a boring 2nd half. Sometimes its not even the fact that trim breaks are applied.....its just that some of the designs are underwhelming (ie......Hulk). On Montu that is not the case however, and I can prove it. About mid-way through our 8 early rides, we jumped on somewhere around the middle of the train and the ops stopped everything to let 4 dignitaries (they were older people dressed in BG gear) on the 2nd row. They were all laughing with their guide, who looked to be a Busch executive in suit and tie, not one of those guides waving a flag for tour gropus to see them by. It was this ride that was our best of the day because as we crossed the mid-course breaks they did not kick in and the train zoomed into the 2nd half. It was at this point that I could see Montu prove its status as a Top 10 coaster. The 2nd half was much more forceful and the corkscrew out of the final trench was really intense but not the slightest bit uncomfortable. If they ran this thing all the time in that manner, it would get even better scores. That ride was a 10 for me as well as any ride on the very front. Im going with a 9 however because Montu reminds me so much of Apollos Chariot which I also put a 9 on due to its super silky smoothness. It is easily the most comfortable ivert Ive ever ridden despite 7 intense inversions. I think this is the best coaster at BG (not my favorite but the best paced) and the # 2 coaster in Florida behind only Kraken. If decimals were involved, Montu would be a 9.5. Montu has gret themeing, a super fast station crew, and a well paced layout. I loved every minute of it and look forward to subsequent rides in January each year.
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