I don't want to sit here and admit to myself that it's been two years since our honeymoon trip where we were able to visit so many incredible parks because then it makes it real and I have to accept it. But sadly that is the reality, and like many of you I'm stuck indoors on a gorgeous sunny day when I'm suppose to be getting excited about a flight off on another trip this evening, so I though I'd distract myself with a little reminiscing. I didn't think I would enjoy the UAE theme parks half as much as I did, but truly I was blown away with not only the theme parks and what they had to offer but the countries themselves and how much I loved them. As with all visits to places you've never visited before, we all head to our destination with a preconceived idea of what we're going to encounter and the majority of time those things don't turn out to be true - and the UAE was no different. Here's five things that surprised my about theme parks in the UAE!




I'd seen the reports of what ghost towns the theme parks in the UAE were but nothing can truly prepare you for how true that is. The cred whore side of my brain was relieved - my dream come true, a whole theme park entirely to myself! But the reality is an empty theme park is a strange place to be, almost to the point of eeriness and discomfort. It's true that a theme park without a crowd lacks atmosphere and no amount of distracting myself with going on Dragon Gliders for the fifth time in a row could help that glaring factor. It's extremely hard to get a good feel of the vibe of a place when you can literally hear a pin drop between your own conversation and the echo of the parkwide sound as it echoes off of the walls with no bodies to soak up the soundwaves.


What's particularly unnerving is because many of the parks, especially those in the Dubai Parks & Resorts area, have a certain Orlando-esque quality to them the comparison is even more stark when something your brain is used to experiencing bustling full of guests wouldn't look out of place with a tumbleweed blowing through. It's...kind of depressing in a way? And awkward. There's nothing more awkward than standing and watching a show where you and five other people are the audience, or having a cast member desperately trying to stay in character and deliver their spiel to you before sending you off on your ride. It's just weird and a bit sad.

So. Many. Dark Rides. Thinking logically it makes sense that the UAE parks have so many dark rides because of the heat - given the choice you'd much rather experience a pleasant ride through an air conditioned room than find yourself nauseated on a forceful flat ride in the desert heat. But yh, it's just something I'd never considered before and when you're conditioned to view dark rides as a kind of unexpected treat in theme parks outside of Disney & Universal it's a bit overwhelming to suddenly be spoilt for choice with them! Even the likes of Ferrari World had four or five dark rides blended in amongst its world beating coaster line-up, and I laughed my head off at Motiongate when we boarded Smurfs Studio Tour - our FOURTH trackless dark ride of the day!


Not that I'm complaining, I love a good dark ride. But something I realised in the UAE about dark rides is they have to have a certain flare to be enjoyable. There has to be some element of drama or high stakes or catchy theme tune or...SOMETHING. Like don't get me wrong, Shrek's Merry Fairy Tale Journey was great but that's because the source material itself is awesome and the ride is just a retelling of it. But there's no...speed? Or anything different? Or really cool SFX? And sure it's for children of course but it feels like they're a little phoned in. Excluding Dragon Gliders (because that's half coaster/half dark-ride) I reckon my favourite UAE dark ride is Benno's Great Race - a delightful family dark ride where guests are armed with a spanner that uses a Nintendo Wii style system and challenges us to build the race car before the big race finale. So cute and innovative!

Listen, if you go to the UAE expecting a budget holiday then more fool you - it's essentially the luxury vacation capital of the world and is very glitzy and glamorous. BUT that said I wasn't quite prepared for the bog standard stuff to be as expensive as the obviously expensive stuff would be. Like for instance water - funnily enough it gets pretty hot in the desert so you'll be wanting to keep hydrated as much as possible. When in Ferrari World we purchased a bottle of water and a pretzel and it was £15 and I almost slapped the cashier. OK that was a joke but still you get what I mean.


The parks themselves are very expensive too - I'm talking Orlando park territory expensive which I'm not entirely sure is justified for the most part. When I can pay $120 for a park like Islands of Adventure it's a pretty bitter pill to swallow that a park like Ferrari World is £70 for entry. And don't even get me started on the merch! I'll talk more in detail about what merch was actually on offer in a sec but I found a magnet set I wanted at Motiongate and it was £30 for the set. Likewise things like mugs in Ferrari World retailed at roughly £22 which in my opinion is way too expensive for what should be a souvenir at the cheaper end of the spectrum. Make sure you've got plenty of spending money if you're planning on visiting!

One of the things you hear loads about the UAE theme parks and the countries in general is that they're very conservative. You're told that if you're a woman you should look to dress modestly and if you're an unmarried couple you should be careful about holding hands lest you find yourself in a UAE police station. And honestly I fell for it - I was a little nervous about what I should wear and even though we're married Conor and I have our own surnames so thought this would maybe be an issue. Turns out all of these things are hugely over-exaggerated. That's not to say you should walk around the parks naked and grind on each other in the streets, all it means is the parks are not half as strict as you might be lead to believe.


To be on the safe side I have purposely packed things like midi-skirts and t-shirts to ensure my knees and shoulders were covered when we visited the parks, but honestly I needn't have bothered giving it a second thought. You'll see people dress in all sorts at the parks from traditional kanduras, ghutra and hijabs to spaghetti strap dresses and hot pants. Contrary to popular belief the UAE is a pretty modern, multi-cultural melting pot with people from all around the world and the attractions are very accommodating towards that. And if you choose to venture anywhere a bit more concious of that kind of thing like the mosques, they will provide you the appropriate coverings to wear whilst you're inside so it's not something you ever have to worry about.

Given how the UAE theme parks have clearly taken a lot of inspiration from the Orlando parks it was pretty shocking to me how poor the park merch available is. Aside from being astronomically priced for what they are, the actual stuff available is almost on park with the crap the Chinese parks pedal out (although tbf nothing could be that bad...) I found it very hard to find anything remotely park related, which I always find strange because surely if you're buying something from a park it's as a memento, not because you really fancied a new summer dress (why do parks sell these I don't get it?) In the parks with IPs there was always a TON of IP related stuff - you couldn't move for Cartoon Network or Marvel merch at IMG Worlds or Dreamworks merch at Motiongate, but trying to find something with the theme park names on them was nigh on impossible.


And then if you DID finally find something with the park name on it was either really crap, like a really rubbish mug or magnet or something, or it was stupidly overpriced. More often than not it was both. The only park that really hammered out the park related merch was Ferrari World but I'm just not down with dropping £20 on a keyring, something about it just doesn't sit right with me!

Of course, no destination is ever going to be exactly as you pictured it in your head from what you've seen and heard about the place, and all of the surprises along the way just help to improve the sense of adventure in my opinion! Have you been to the theme parks in the UAE? Was there anything about them that surprised you? Let me know in the comments below, I'd love to hear about your experiences!

If you're anything like me the first thing you'll be doing when you get out of quarantine is devising a strategy to make up for several weeks of precious lost cred time. Forget seeing your family, they can wait and this is more important. One of the best ways to get a quick and fast injection of +1s onto your count is with a good, ol' fashioned cred run! As I write this I'm all too aware that this weekend past should've been a cred run for me, which brings a slight tear to my eye but I'm holding it together (just) and instead pouring that energy into putting together this cred run planning guide for you all.

Because, much like trip planning, planning a cred run is a fine art and there are a few specific rules one must follow in order for the cred run to be successful. For those who may be wondering, a cred run isn't like your average day out to a theme park - the sole aim of the day is to cram in as many coasters as possible and plays out more like a Top Gear challenge than a relaxing park day with mates. It's very, very different. So given our current circumstances I thought I'd let you all in on the secret ingredients and steps required to pull off the perfect cred run! For the purposes of this article I'm basing my examples in the UK but it is possible to do cred runs in other countries too, you can simply just apply the same techniques.

In order to be successful you need to set yourself realistic geographical boundaries as to where your cred run will take you, and I've found the best way to do this is head to Coast2Coaster and identify which cred clusters will prove most fruitful for you. It's very easy to pick a random starting point and dart all over the place in pursuit of Big Apple coasters but the thing about that is that when you're done you'll have a random string of places ticked off which makes future cred run planning tricky as you don't want to retread old ground. It's much easier and methodical to chunk the creds up into clusters and tick them off as you go. Off the top of my head, some clusters in the UK look like this:

Devon & Cornwall
South Coast
South West England/South Wales
Essex Coast
East Anglia
Birmingham
M1 South
Lincolnshire Coast
Liverpool & NorthWales

Obviously this does leave a few strays here and there but generally speaking those locations cover off most places. So pick which one you want to tackle and use Coast2Coaster to identify your cut off point - for example if you were to tackle East Anglia it's very easy to look at the location of Rainbow Park and think ooh, we're quite close to Fantasy Island there, but then you start infringing on the Lincolnshire coast cluster and things start to get messy, so just use your best judgement.

Ah, praise be unto the credule. The credule is a schedule of creds and will be your guiding force to ensure the cred run is going as planned as again, it is very easy to stray from the plan and get side-tracked by other amusements offered in the locations you'll be visiting, but those are for another day! I actually find cred runs are a great way of identifying places I'd like to come back to on a warm sunny day knowing there will be plenty for me to enjoy having popped in for ten minutes or so which is quite fab.

Remember, the aim of the cred run is to pick up as many +1s as humanly possible, so we need to keep our time in each location as brief as we can. It literally is a case of park, go in, pay, ride the cred, fuck off. It's ridiculous but hilarious too, especially when you're running high speed towards a Wacky Worm, much to the confusion/concern of any bystanding parents. I usually allow 15 mins per cred - obviously it usually takes a lot less time than that but it's good to be realistic and to allow extra time for faff like parking, toilet breaks, buying tokens, etc.

It's also good to keep check on the credule after every cred stop to ensure you're keeping to your timings - obviously smaller parks might not have as long operating hours as bigger theme parks will so it's good to know that you'll be arriving with time to ride and won't spite yourself out of anything - or if it is looking likely that spite might occur you can edit your credule accordingly to make sure you prioritise the 'must do' creds and leave the others for another time which can perhaps be tagged on to another cluster in the future. Again, just use common sense and plan as things pan out.

Like I mentioned, these smaller parks tend to be a bit more precarious than the bigger theme parks and can operate a little more wildly. By this I mean they may not actually operate to the schedule they advertise, the coaster that's advertised as being there might be off on a travelling fair circuit, etc etc. So once you have your credule listed I would recommend giving the parks a call just to make sure everything is in order - more than once I've turned up somewhere for a +1 only to find the place closed or the cred not actually there so best to call to confirm to save yourself the hassle, especially if it's a long journey for you!

Another benefit of calling ahead is that if you're shameless enough to explain what you're doing (eg I'm a pathetic cred whore and I'm desperately in search of +1s) some parks are kind enough to let you come in and ride for free. Believe it or not, you're probably not the first coaster enthusiast they've seen and you certainly won't be the last so it's always worth an ask- although I would suggest buying something from their gift shop and giving them lots of promotion on social media if they are kind enough to permit you free or discounted entry - what goes around comes around!

And finally in this section is something that always irks me, but double check the parks you're intending to visit don't require you to have a child with you to gain entry. There are a few chains in the UK that ask you to have a child with the group to enter the park although depending on who you get on the phone some are willing to make exceptions for coaster enthusiasts who just want to come in, ride the coasters and bugger off so again, definitely worth triple checking just to be sure. To flag, here are the parks in the UK to the best of my knowledge that require a child to enter:

Old MacDonald's Farm
Twinlakes Park
Wheelgate Park
Adventure Wonderland
Gulliver's Milton Keynes
Gulliver's Warrington
Gulliver's Matlock Bath

The reality of the cred run is that you will be spending the majority of your day in the car driving from place to place (I do NOT recommend doing a cred run using public transport as you'll be relying a lot on timekeeping and PT can't always be the most reliable!) Point number one to remember here is that you should be picking a car that is comfortable for the size of your group - eg if there are five of you it's probably best to go with the biggest car you can find as cramming you all together in the back of a three door Corsa isn't going to be the best fun.

Next is snacks - instead of wasting precious minutes stopping at a restaurant somewhere to get food for lunch it's better to just pack a picnic. The best way I find is for everybody to bring their own selection fo drinks and snacks to keep you going throughout the trip. Although again, you'll be spending most of the day in the car together so try to avoid smelly foods (looking at YOU Ryan Nixon!)

Finally - the playlist. If you have somebody in the car you trust to DJ then by all means stick to that but as with the snacks we all have our own individual preferences and tastes so I've found it's best to just start a queue in Spotify and pass it round the car to make sure everybody gets a turn. And obviously loud, cheesy songs you can all scream along to are a MUST.

Probably the most essential part of planning a cred run is choosing a team to tag along with you who can handle such a high octane, high stress environment and packed schedule. There's no point picking people who are going to get pissed off that you're literally running in and out of parks they'd rather spend more time hanging out in - if so then cred running really isn't for them and you should maybe think about visiting somewhere else with them another time. You need a team who are going to work together with you, get as much enjoyment out of the madness of bolting from one place to another desperately trying to stick to the credule and generally having a ridiculous time doing it. Get the team right and it'll be one of the most hilarious days out you'll have, I guarantee it.

The sad thing about writing this whilst in confinement is I now have as big an urge as ever to get out there and go ride some creds - I'd give anything to be hurtling down some motorway, on the way to some godforsaken park in the arse-end of nowhere to ride a kiddie cred with my pals whilst screeching along to Let It Go. *Sigh* the day will come, but until then all we can do is plan and continue to count down the days til it's safe to get back out there!

This summer I undertook what was my third theme park road trip in the US to finally mop up what I'd consider the last of the 'major' US theme parks. As you can imagine, there's been quite a lot of learnings along the way when it comes to planning and executing this kind of trip, and I often get questions from you guys asking for tips on booking something like this. So I wanted to put this little piece together to give you guys the cold hard facts about booking a US road trip, because everybody will tell you what you SHOULD do, but people don't often talk about the things you should actively avoid doing and in my experience that advice is so much more valuable and could end up saving you a world of pain. Here's what not to do on a theme park US road trip.


Planning a trip like this is super exciting, but it's also super overwhelming. When you open Coast2Coaster and take a look at the insanity that is the US coaster map, it's very easy for your imagination to run wild and start pulling together plans for a five-week, non-stop theme park trip to try and cram in as many creds as possible. And whilst I absolutely condone this kind of behaviour, take it from someone that has done this more than a handful of times now - take a step back and really think about how much you can handle. Everybody's limit is different - some people can truly take on 16 solid days of theme-parking. Others would rather take things at a much slower pace, and both are absolutely cool. Ultimately, this type of trip isn't cheap and isn't something most of us can do often, so it's really important to get some perspective on what kind of itinerary you truly (and have a brutal, honest conversation with yourself, not that fantasist in your head who wants to do everything all at once) can handle. Once you understand that you'll have a great basis from where to start constructing your itinerary.

Off the back of point one, once your cred-hungry brain has settled enough for you to clearly take in the Coast2Coaster map, it's a good idea to set some parameters. Factors to help you do this will obviously be things like time, budget, your own personal levels of endurance, common sense, etc. Maybe make a list of your 'must-do' parks and have a play around on Google Maps to see how you might be able to build an itinerary around them. When we were planning our 2014 trip, there was a section when we were looking to leave Beech Bend and make our way towards Dollywood. Some of the group at this point wanted to head to Kings Island, but we on the other hand felt that Kings Island was in the opposite direction and would be much more fitting in the itinerary we ended up doing this year. It can even be fun to print the Coast2Coaster map and draw over it, cutting the country up into sections. The way I'd divide the majority of the parks is thus:

West Coast (Disney, Universal, Knotts, SFMM, etc)
Southern Mid-West/South (Texas parks, Silver Dollar City, Holiday World, Dollywood, Carowinds, etc)
Florida (Disney World, Universal, Sea World, Busch Gardens Tampa)
East Coast (SFNE, Busch Gardens Williamsburg, Hersheypark, etc)
Northern Mid-West/Canada (SFGAm, Kings Island, Cedar Point, Canada's Wonderland, etc)

Obviously there are parks that fall outside of this and absolutely there are other ways to carve the parks up, but these are the routes I've worked to and in my opinion the most efficient way of ticking off the big boys. There's such a danger with Coast2Coaster when you see just how close the next park is to going absolutely wild and before you know if you've gone from Orlando to Carowinds to Dollywood to Holiday World to Kings Island to Cedar Point to Canada's Wonderland. Doable? Absolutely? Sensical? Not in my opinion!

As mentioned, it's very easy to get swept up in the madness of all the fabulous parks you're going to want to visit, but take it from somebody who has experienced driving past major cities when I say you really should take time to absorb some culture. As with the parks, I'd suggest taking a look at your route and making a wish-list of all the major culture points you would quite like to see. It would be madness to drive from Kennywood to Canada's Wonderland and not find time somewhere to stop and see Niagara Falls, but I've seen so many trip plans that fail to carve out the time to take stuff like this in. I promise you it's worth it, especially when you get into the trip proper and start to feel the theme park fatigue creeping in! Plus it's nice to have a bit of a change of scenery from the parks - it makes you appreciate them that much more when you go back the following day.

Building on point three, as much as I'd suggest taking half a day for some parks and not staying until the very end (if only for your personal wellbeing), you really should look to include some break days. A few hours away from the parks is nice but it doesn't give your body the time to recover like a full day does. And believe me when I say you will never appreciate a lay in as much in your life! It doesn't have to be many - on our recent trip we only had two full break days but I'm sure I'm not alone in saying that those days ended up being some of the most fun on the trip. Plus like I say, it's nice to break the monotony of park after park after park. Especially once you get into the second half of your trip - there's no point planning to visit a park you've wanted to go to your whole life if your brain is going to be too overwhelmed with theme parks to properly take it in and appreciate it!

Americans reading this are going to think I'm mad when I mention things like Wendy's in this point, but for me getting to take in the full American road trip experience is making sure we eat in places we don't have over here in the UK. We have an unwritten rule that we are not allowed to dine in any brand that operates here in the UK except in extenuating circumstances (eg getting KFC in Kentucky, duh). Alongside national brands like Wendy's and Panda Express, it's also fun to try and check out some of the more regional brands like In 'N' Out Burger if you're on the West Coast for example. It's also a ton of fun to visit some non-branded outlets - the South has some incredible BBQ places and we went to a super chill bar when we were driving to the Dells to try those infamous Wisconsin cheese curds. It all adds to the experience!

All of us know how exhausting just one day at a theme park is, let alone two weeks + of it back to back. The reality is, you are going to be tired. But also, you're on holiday and are going to want to make the most of the place you're in whilst you're there so the idea of sleeping in and hanging out doing nothing isn't really an option. The way to counteract this I've found is to be strategic with your hotel placement. Once your have your itinerary, plot everything on Google Maps and aim for a hotel half way between each park. A good rule of thumb I've used in the past is try where possible to keep the majority of the driving in the evenings and to also try to not have any drives exceed three hours (although sometimes that is inevitable). It's like I was saying a minute ago, there is no point visiting a park you've dreamed of your whole life if you're going to be too tired and crabby to enjoy it. Plus when you're tired you'll all start getting on each others' nerves so best for the sanity of the group if you all get some sleep in!

One of the downsides of Coast2Coasters is it's quite easy to brush off some hidden gems of parks because they do not have a large coaster count, therefore will not appear prominently on the map. Do your research and make sure you're making time for the smaller, non-chain parks as well as the big boys - often I've found they're a thousand times more charming than any Six Flags and often mean a much slower paced, more chilled day where you can take it easy and have a bit of a rest. Plus the smaller parks are always great for the more weird and wonderful rides of this world - you're guaranteed to stumble across a creepy, crumbly but still oh-so-awesome ghost train in a smaller family owned park, or find a coaster that randomly tries to kill you because it's so unexpectedly full of airtime but nobody talks about it because it's in this small park nobody visits.

And there you have it. Obviously all of the points in this post are my own opinion formed through my own experiences. Everybody is different and some may disagree, which is totally cool too! As always if you're looking for any trip planning advice I'm all ears and always happy to cast an eye over an itinerary and give feedback!

Trip planning guides and how-to's are by far my most requested kind of content. I guess because I often go on seemingly large theme park trips that many people wouldn't have the first clue where to start when it came to planning such a thing and it's a lot easier to get tips from someone who has done it first hand? Which I can appreciate - I'm more than comfortable with Europe and America but planning trips to Asia I always feel much more at ease speaking to friends who live over there or who are jut well travelled to give me tips straight from the horse's mouth. But trip planning doesn't have to be scary! In my experience planning the thing is half the fun - I've spoken on here before about my coveted 'Trip Plans' folder of my laptop desktop which is full of unrealised trip plans just waiting to be selected and booked. It's one of my favourite things about this hobby, if I'm having a quiet evening I'll often sit down and just plot a route and see where it takes me, which is often how some of the crazier trips come to fruition.

But I have been doing this for a fair while now do I do have a set routine when it comes to pulling one of these things together, and with that comes an arsenal of my go-to websites that I use to make sure I'm getting the best value, best locations and not missing out any hidden gems along the way. So in today's blog I wanted to take some time to talk you through my favourite websites that I use for trip planning! In my opinion they're pretty obvious and would be at the top of most people's trip planning hit list but sometimes I guess it's just good to have them all listed in one place for reference.

So usually my first port of call is Coast2Coaster. This website has handily plotted every operating coaster in the world on a nifty map to help you visualise you route by clearly labelling every last one of them, making it easier for you to identify 'clusters' of parks you'd maybe want to hit up on one trip. Usually I'll have an idea in my head of where I want to go and which parks I vaguely want to visit, but Coast2Coaster really helps connect the dots and start to formulate an idea of what the route might be. It's also a great tool for highlighting any nearby plus ones for the cred whores among you who can't resist a kiddie cred within driving distance!

Once I've identified which parks and coasters I want to take in, I plot the lot in Google Maps to get a clearer idea of drive time. Sometimes on Coast2Coaster it's hard to gauge quite what the distance is between parks and Google Maps will help clarify that what you thought looked like a couple of hours' driving is actually eight hours so might not be feasible. Essentially it helps to trim the fat - it's easy to get overly ambitious with all those nearby seeming pins popping up on the C2C map but when it turns out that plus one is actually an hour away it helps you to really shape the trip into the quality holiday you want it to be. Something I also use Google Maps for is identifying nearby cities, as often you'll find the best amenities around these locations, fleshing the trip out a little further. In between the theme park stops I try to further connect the route with bigger town or city stops as this helps with booking hotels...
Next up I'll check SkyScanner. Once I've identified a start and end point I'll check for the nearest airports and shove them into SkyScanner. If possible I'll list a selection of airports to work with and essentially sit and play around in SkyScanner for a while so I can get the best value fare. If you're not precious about when your trip takes place too you can simply select the 'Cheapest Month' option too on SkyScanner and this will churn out a bunch of even better deals on top of trying different locations. Basically with flights you have to keep checking and plugging in different times and locations before deciding on what's going to be the best option for you. Obviously it might be cheaper to fly somewhere in November for example, but if the parks aren't going to be open then really what's the point?

After the flight is booked it's time for hotels, for which I use Booking.com. Taking the route I've planned using C2C and Google Maps I'll decide on how to break up the driving. Usually we'd try and aim for any large drives to take place in the evening and never be on the road for more than three hours at a time. Any big drives I'll try and find a larger town at a half way point and book a hotel there. When it comes to booking hotels I have a few rules to follow: I always make sure the property is at least an 8 on the Booking.com scale, the place has parking, WiFi and a private bathroom. Anything on top of that is a bonus in my opinion and selecting those options is a pretty surefire way to avoid any absolute dives (and I've learned that the hard way after staying in motels with cockroaches and all kinds of nastiness). The great thing about Booking.com is that after using the website for a while you'll unlock all kinds of great loyalty discounts, meaning you get the best value again. It's also good to note that you can't book too far out. In my experience I look to book roughly 6-9 months before I plan to travel as this is when you'll find most rooms appear online, although obviously this differs from property to property.
Next up, you'll probably need a car! We tend to use Holiday Autos as our go to car comparison website. Obviously it depends entirely on what kind of trip you're doing as to what car you'll go for. For instance on our most recent trip there were four of us, all with big bags, doing some pretty hefty mileage, so we chose a pretty large car to match. Again, it's just a case of popping your dates in and doing a few different searches to make sure you get the best deal. Some things to note with hiring cars - firstly, try where you can to make your trip a loop so you can pick up and drop off your car in the same place to avoid one-way fees. These can be pretty huge if you're not careful so make sure you don't get stung!

Also, be sure to print your confirmation so you have a clear indicator of what kind of car you've booked. On the website they'll show you an image of a particular vehicle but in the small print you'll often find the phrase 'or similar', meaning you're not guaranteed to get the exact vehicle pictured. What we've had happen on a few occasions now is that when we've arrived at the car desk the staff member has tried to hard upsell us on a larger vehicle, telling us that the car we've booked isn't big enough. Just stand your ground and be clear - on this trip just gone we booked a 4x4 Jeep Patriot (or similar) and when we arrived to collect the car the staff member showed us to a little Nissan hatchback thing - clearly not what we'd ordered. Because we had our confirmation with us it made it pretty easy to argue that this wasn't what we'd purchased and we left the lot with a Toyota Rav 4, much more in line with what we'd booked with plenty of room for all passengers and our luggage. They're slippery for sure.


And finally, I think of these sites like the cherry on the cake. Once the main bulk of the trip and route is set, I head to both Atlas Obscura and RoadTrippers. These sites are both quite similar in what they do by taking a route or location and highlighting unusual, weird or obscure nearby points of interest. With Atlas Obscura it works best with cities and towns - just pop the city you're visiting into the search engine and it will come back with a list of entries. This is how we found the Eternal Flame falls near to Niagara Falls for example. RoadTrippers is kind of like a Google Maps style function but it shows you a radius of nearby attractions - you can select what you're looking for from accommodation and restaurants to points of interest and nightlife. Points of interest is my favourite, especially for American road trips as it reveals a whole bunch of weird roadside weirdness to help you break up your journey!


Those are my top six. As I said, probably nothing really groundbreaking but I do hope it's been helpful and as always if you ever need any help with trip planning my inbox is always open!

Another year, another list of coasters I'm just gagging to ride! There's something really satisfying to me about lists like these, it's like I'm watching in real time as my plans come together to tick things off of my bucket list.

Let's face it, 2018 is going to be a pretty hard year to beat. Not only because the trips I went on last year took me to some slightly more 'exotic' places than your standard coaster trip with China and the UAE, but also because here in the UK the coaster scene was the most thriving and exciting it's been in year's and there were also a bunch of fabulous European coasters to throw into the mix too.

2019...well...not so much. It feels like parks have gone a little more 'experiential' with the coasters this year and whilst there are definitely some interesting additions there's not a whole bunch of newness that's had me going OH MY GOD MUST RIDE IMMEDIATELY. It makes sense - not every year can be as fruitful as the last otherwise things just wouldn't be sustainable.

Also from a personal POV (and by that I mean my bank account) it's kind of nice to have a bit of a break. It also gives me a chance to catch up a little on places I've neglected in years previous and allows me to finally tick some big boys off of my must visit list (no idea what my park bucket list is going to look like after this year!)

So yh, the following list is a fine blend of new for 2019 bits that I am actually interested in riding (it doesn't necessarily include all of the new for 2019 coasters I'll be riding this year come to think of it) and some coasters that have been open a while that I've just not gotten round to yet. Here we go!

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This is going to sound like such a first world problem but sigh, yes, I am returning to Orlando this year. My sister is getting married in the Keys so we're heading over in July. It's going to be putridly hot and sweaty, the crowds are going to be heaving, everything is going to cost twice as much because it's peak period but to take the edge off, it should mean that I get to ride the new Potter thing!

This thing looks right up my alley. First off, it's got launches yay. Secondly, it's built by Intamin, fuck yh. Thirdly, it's more than likely going to be the best themed rollercoaster in the world when it opens and I am all about that life. I'm not a die hard Potter fan by any means, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't entirely buzzing to finally get on this thing. Universal have done an absolutely stellar job at keeping the full details of the ride under wraps, to the point where when I think about it, I really have no clue what to expect. And I LOVE that. In this day and age that never really happens anymore so I'm sooo ready to ride this thing going in completely blind. Will the queue be grotesque? Undoubtedly. Will it be worth it? Time will obviously tell but going by what Universal have created before I am 100% faithful that this thing is going to be an absolute game changer.

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Because last year was so manic I unfortunately had to sacrifice my spot on the Poland hype-train, so I'm a little behind in visit the parks over there. It's kind of bizarre when you look at the coaster line up at Energylandia that something like Hyperion even lives there. I'm very intrigued to get on this coaster - it's like Intamin looked at the magic B&M were creating with their hyper coasters and decided to relook at their design. There's clearly some inspiration from B&M when you look at the layout of Hyperion but I'm hoping it's going some of that Intamin intensity that I love in the like of SkyRush and Taron.

The one thing I am slightly concerned about with Hyperion is its potential similarity with i305. I HATE i305. I mean I loathe it, it's one of my least favourite coasters in the world. It's too intense, and takes all the height and speed and uses it to basically crush your brain into a horrible ball of blackout horrendousness. Vile coaster. From the looks of Hyperion it seems they've gone for a slightly different approach with the big swooping airtime hills and SkyRush style restraints, so here's hoping it delivers!

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It even feels weird to be writing this coaster down on my list. For years I've looked longingly at pictures of this beautiful machine on the screen of my laptop and wondered when the day would finally come for me to ride it for myself. Every single time I'd planned to go to Cedar Point things came up that meant that it didn't end up happening. But not this year. 2019 is finally the year, fifteen years after starting this stupid hobby that I finally make it to the coaster Mecca that is Cedar Point. And more importantly, I finally get to take my seat in pole position for the launched Intamin gloriousness that is Top Thrill Dragster.

The speed! The acceleration! The LAPBARS! I'm salivating just thinking about it. Y'all know how I feel about my precious Stealth, and I can only imagine that Top Thrill Dragster is like that on crack. I am so bloody ready.

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Storm Chaser always seems like the RMC that nobody really talks about, but the people I know who have ridden this coaster absolutely rave about it. I haven't ridden a ton of RMCs in the wider context of things, but I do really adore Outlaw Run so I'm hoping that the compact layout of that beauty says something about what to expect from Storm Chaser. The layout looks like it was essentially designed to deliver airtime and buttloads of it whilst simultaneously trying to fling you out of your seat. I guess it kind of looks like RMC does Phoenix - a compact layout with mad, insane airtime and not a ton more. Short, sweet, to the point but all the more awesome for it and I'm gagged to try it for myself!

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Right, disclaimer time. I am fully aware of the fact that Phantasialand run on their own damn timeline because well, fuck everyone else right? For ages it was assumed that F.L.Y. would open 2019, then it was late 2019, now as I'm writing this I've gone on the coaster's RCDB page and it's been downgraded to 2020. But I mean, nobody truly knows what the deal is and I'm planning on visiting the park a couple of times towards the end of the year so to hell with it, it's on the list.

And god, where do I even start with this. An entirely new coaster concept never before seen from my beloved Vekoma that combines slower dark-ride type section with a flying coaster position including a launch?! On paper it sounds like the stuff of dreams, which thinking about it is probably why Phantasialand are doing it in the first place because they like to keep things freaky and weird. Honestly, with F.L.Y. I'm not even that excited for the coaster portion, I'm excited for the way the theming is going to be integrated with the coaster and the whole narrative of the thing. Rookburgh itself looks like it's going to be one of the most immersive non-IP themed lands in existance and if that's not exciting then I don't know what to tell ya. It's going to be obscene, in 2019, or 2020, or whenever the park decide to open the thing.

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When Cedar Point build an RMC you know they're going to mean business and I'll be honest, I'm shitting myself about riding this coaster. It's MASSIVE and from the tales I've heard of the airtime this coaster delivers I'm full prepared to be fearing for my life the entire time I'm whipping around the track. And I know I'm going to love every minute of it - it's the reason I adore coasters like SkyRush and Taron, nothing like a little sprinkling of impending death to really spice up a ride!

But urgh, that first drop. Genuinely think I'm going to need a change of underwear, it's too much to even comprehend. From the giant swooping drops, insane RMC inversions where you're engulfed by wooden structure to the tiny little bunny hills at the end, this coaster looks like pure insanity from start to finish and I feel like I'm going to need a good hour post-ride to recover.

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Still kind of insane that Heide Park have retracked this entire Intamin wooden coaster over the past couple of seasons. Although they're slightly formulaic in the current coaster climate of mad RMC layouts and the insane intensity of the Mack multi-launchers, there really is nothing that guarantees a healthy dose of airtime like an Intamin woodie. I'm so glad this coaster is receiving the TLC it needed and is getting a new lease of life for a brand new generation. I'll never forget my first ride on this coaster - it was one of my first real experience of sustained ejector airtime and I never looked back!

Plus, from the looks of things the new theming is only going to serve to heighten the experience and make the whole coaster even more epic and badass than before. Plus it's going to serve some excellent Instagram content.

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This coaster is legendary and has been on my must-ride list for a while now. I know everyone who's ridden it reading this list probably thinks I'm mad, but hear me out. As much as I love to travel the world riding the best of the best, I also love to ride coasters that I've heard people talking about for years and years, and it feels like everybody has something to say about Beast (apparently I need to ride it at night?)

I also secretly love coasters that beat you up a little. There's nothing I love more than spending a coaster absolutely wetting myself laughing and it's often something I find myself doing when I ride the legendarily brutal The Ultimate here in the UK. That thing pretty much does its damnedest to break your kneecaps by the time you get back to the station and from the looks of things it kind of feels like Beast might be The Ultimate's Mid-Western American cousin. Prepared for a bruise or two and excited for the experience that will accompany it.

And that only scratches the surface of the awesomeness we'll be riding in 2019! The American road trip alone will be 108 new coasters including 3 RMCs and 13 B&Ms! I'm itching for the season to begin now so I can start chipping away at this list - I really hope they all live up to my expectations and I'm also praying for some hidden gems along the way too. Bring it on!