If you're a theme park enthusiast based in the UK you'll have noticed that the community is buzzing with excitement for the 2017 season officially starting today with the first opening of one of the UK's major theme parks: Blackpool Pleasure Beach. And I can hardly blame them! I'm not going myself, but it's been a long ol' off season and it's such a relief to see the light at the end of the tunnel! There's always some humour to be found in these situations, so I broke it down to a few factors that mean you KNOW the theme park season is about to begin!
Your newsfeed is full of trip announcements
It's definitely a thing in this wonderful age of social media we live in isn't it? And I'm certainly not innocent of it myself! From the big club trip announcement schedules to your average Joe barking on about how many times he's planning on hitting up Thorpe Park this season, we're all guilty of getting over-excited at the prospect of what a brand new season holds for us and just have to plaster it wherever we can and yelling it from the rooftops. Because everyone knows, once you've made the announcement then the trip is DEFINITELY happening, right?
Everyone is clinging on to the most mundane news
OMG MUD!!1! Yh, we all tend to go a little stir crazy during the closed season, to the point where as we get to the end of it you'll find yourself trawling through a 56 comment long thread about whether that mud clot was there last week or if it's actually a sign of development and wondering where your life went wrong.
Arguments in forums
And going along from the above, as cabin fever/lack-of-theme-park-itis sets in we get a little more irritable, and for our sins often take it out on some FOOL on a forum or Facebook group who has DARED to disagree with you. WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU COUNT GRAND NATIONAL AS ONE CRED YOU BARBARIAN! Yh, the keyboard warriors are out in full force during the closed season (got to vent those closed-season frustrations somehow!) Thank god the new season is just around the corner!
Everyone is asking for trip planning tips
I LOVE seeing everybody getting excited about their upcoming trips, and you definitely know the theme park season is about to begin when your feed is full of 'anybody know the best way to get to Alton Towers from Manchester by train' and 'realistically how long will the queues be on x day at x park?' Everybody is in trip planning mode and the excitement and anticipation is contagious in the best way!
RAGE over revised opening times
No doubt some park has DARED to reduce their opening times following a poor season to try and recoup some of their losses, but we just won't stand for it. That's a whole 30 minutes less I can spend moaning about how long the queues are for everything and live Tweeting my rage as some poor social media employee, it's my right! Alongside this there'll also be loads of discussions about other parks updates like the inevitable park increases and how they no longer offer some niche on park added extra that they only sold three of last year so decided to cut. But it's definitely the opening times that gets the rage flowing!
You have no money
Both the best and the worst sign that the theme park season is about to begin: your bank balance is so low that even the thought of checking it sends fear directly through your heart. But it's fine, it's only empty because you've spent it all on loads of fabulous theme park visits throughout the year! Loads to look forward to. So, totally fine. Now all you have to do is figure out how you're going to feed yourself for the rest of the month and you're sorted!
How many of these are you guilty of? Thank god the hell of the closed season is now over for most of us! Here's to an incredible 2017 season!
Talk later xoxo,
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