Valentine's Day Gift Ideas for Coaster Geeks!


Ah Valentine's Day. Despite knowing it's a bunch of marketing bollocks it's so hard not to feel the pressure of finding the perfect gift for your loved ones isn't it? Especially if they're a massive coaster nerd like me - when the parks are closed where do you turn for the perfect theme park related gift? Well, obviously you turn to me because I've whacked together what I think is a pretty exciting list of crap that I would be STOKED to unwrap this February 14th.

CoasterCrate Subscription
It's the gift that keeps on giving! I've had two of the boxes so far and loved everything in both (even though they were both very different content-wise!). And it's more than one present: you get the joy of unboxing together and having no idea what's inside as well as having a selection of theme park themed goodies rather than just one big thing! The best thing is you can cancel at any time so you could just make the February box a one off special occasion gift.

Coaster Climb at THORPE PARK Resort
Literally everybody I know who has done one of these has said they're really excellent. What's more romantic for a coaster-loving couple than clinking glasses at the top of THE SWARM? Great views all the way to London as well as some geeky behind the scenes facts to set the whole occasion off. Cool!

Spireside Candle
Believe it or not I actually wrote this before CoasterCrate's awesome Dark Rides box that contained scented candles themed to rides. Great minds think alike, eh? Anyway, scented candles are a bit of a clichéd Valentine's gift in my opinion, but if the candles are associated to theme park rides in any way them I'm all for them. A geeky twist on the holiday classic I suppose! I'm still holding out for one that smells of the Pirates of the Caribbean water (SO GOOD amiright?) but in the meantime I'll settle for the musty hallways of the Haunted Mansion any day.

Theme Park Art Prints
Yh, another 'snap' with the CoasterCrate Dark Rides box from last month (I honestly wrote all of this before I opened the box I swear!). I love the idea of something subtly geeky that i can hang in my home that to the untrained eye would just come across as a quirky art print, but to those in the know it's like a secret in joke. I love stuff like that, and Etsy is absolutely FULL of prints (mostly for Disney attractions, I'll admit) from talented artists that do exactly that. Perfect!

Nano Blocks
When I went to Japan I got a little bit obsessed with these tiny blocks of joy. Loads of the parks there had specially commissioned Nano Block kits themed around their attractions. Again, these are mostly Disney and Universal themed but oh my god, they're so cute and awesome! They can be a little pricey as they're only available on Amazon, presumably being sold by fans overseas, but so worth it! Super rare and the little bit of extra effort to get something truly unique will definitely be appreciated too!

Theme Park Books
In a similar vein to the art prints, I do love me a good theme park coffee table book. Again, they're along the same lines of cool yet subtly geeky and amazing! Some of my favourites are this incredible Maps of the Disney Parks and The Haunted Mansion: Imagineering a Classic. If you want something with a bit more meat to it, then try out the awesome books written by self-confessed enthusiast Nick Sims: Tales from the Towers and Universal Orlando: The Unofficial Story. They're super easy to read and incredibly relatable as they're written from an enthusiast perspective.

Ride Music
If you're REALLY romantic you could make a mix-tape of all your Valentine's favourite theme park music. But if you're feeling lazy just let the masters take care of things and grab yourself an IMA Score CD from Amazon. Sorted!

Or of course, there's always the gift of actually going away to a theme park for the weekend to celebrate (although that can get a little pricey around Valentine's Day!)

Talk later xoxo,

0 comments