I Rode 1000 Coasters!

I don't really know what to say in this blog, I guess I just wanted to get some thoughts and feelings down? But yh, in case you didn't notice, on my most recent road trip to America I finally hit 1000 coaster credits. It's one of those weird things  - in the grand scheme of things and life and all that stuff, it literally means nothing, but for me it feels like such a personal goal that I've achieved and I secretly feel a little bit proud of myself (and a little bit ashamed too haha!).

So for those who don't know, my 1000th coaster credit was the legendary Beast at King's Island. I didn't plan it this way or choose a specific coaster to ride, that's just how the cookie crumbled. I've never really paid any mind to making sure iconic coasters end up as milestones, I just get to it when I get to it but I do have some pretty cool milestone coasters which I'll write about in the future. I...won't lie, as I pulled into the break run on Beast I was a bit disappointed that that had been my 1000th coaster. As much as everybody had gone on about what a fantastic coaster it was I was left feeling short-changed - it didn't DO anything, just meandered and rambled through the woods without much sense or purpose. I was expecting The Ultimate 2.0 and was instead served...that THING. Whatever, I know a lot of people disagree with me on that and that's fine, personally I didn't rate it.

Reaching 1000 coasters has been a ton of fun and has taken me all over the world. And yes, I'm a self-confessed cred whore and have been known in the past to leave my shame whole-heartedly at the door when it comes to pursuing kiddie coasters, but I'd like to think the majority of my count isn't total trash! I guess that's probably what I'm most grateful for with this hobby - the fact that tracking down creds has taken me to all sorts of weird and wonderful corners of the globe to places I would never ever have experienced. In particular what springs to mind is the alpine coasters, meandering through winding little Swiss/alpine towns searching for the Wiegand goodness and seeing some gorgeous countryside along the way. Or ending up in JuraPark in Poland - a secretly incredible family dinosaur dig sit/amusement park thing that we never would have visited were it not for my hunger for the next +1!

There have been some days where I've been travelling to the arse end of nowhere (usually some seaside dive in the UK) and have thought what the fuck am I doing with my life, but I was just saying in the car home from this weekend just gone that getting creds really does make me happy? Is that weird? Probably but whatever, it's who I am now and if after 28 good years on this earth I'm not comfortable with that now then I guess I'll never be. It's like a sweet little endorphin hit and to be honest with you I'll take being addicted to Wacky Worms over fags or drugs or whatever any day - there's definitely worse things I could do.

According to coaster-count I've visited 268 parks, add on EPCOT and I make that 269. Two-hundred and sixty nine parks! 21 countries! I guess a big thing that comes with hitting 1000 coasters is the big 'clusters' of must-visit parks starts to dwindle. Hand-on-heart, I reckon I could count on one hand the 'bucket-list' parks left for me to visit in the world, and I'm pretty sure all of them are in Asia now. What's great is it's almost a sense of relief - I feel like I'm starting a cycle all over again with my trip to the North-East of the States next October, but this time there won't be any cred anxiety, it'll just be about visiting the parks I loved from my trip there back in 2012 and not having to waste time riding shite. It's actually very freeing!

But with this milestone out of the way, obviously I'm not going to stop counting coasters but I don't ever see myself hitting 2000 creds. I'm not really interesting in traipsing round every country park in China for those sweet Jungle Mouse credits or driving to the middle of the desert in the UAE for a Big Apple - not that I'm judging those who do, I just don't think I could ever catch up! Instead I'm going to set myself new mini-goals - I'd love to visit every state in the US, I'd love to round that parks visited number off to an even 300, complete more coaster 'sets' (eg every B&M invert in the world). That will be enough to keep me going, and should hopefully be enough to keep my coaster-count ticking over nicely.

So it's not a retirement from cred-whoring, more a slowing down the pace and unburdening myself to allow me to go back and visit my favourite parks without the fear of missing a +1. A quality over quantity approach I guess? I'm waffling now, but yh, to sum up, I've been on 1000 different coasters now and I wanted to blab about it for a bit, so here you go.

Talk later xoxo,

6 comments

  1. I also got to 1000 this year and it was at Gillian's Wonderland Pier, New Jersey and was a 'Wacky Worm' Like you I don't mind what they are - it's the luck of the drawer.
    Just like you, the thrill of riding a kiddie coaster or an obscure coaster somewhere is quite a 'high' How sad is that? Not at all.
    Also, going back to parks where you have done most of the coasters and don't have to ride those Boomerangs and all those other awful coasters is great. You can relax in the park and enjoy time just watching others if you choose.
    I know I will never reach 2000 coasters - I never expected to reach 1000 having starting riders coasters seriously at 59 (and the first time I flew in a plane) and I'm now 68. Just a few years older than you. But this hobby helps to keep me young and to see parts of the world I would never have expected to see.
    Thanks for your blogs which are always enjoyable to read.

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    1. Thanks so much for taking the time to read and reply - what an awesome hobby to have to keep you going!

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  2. Darren Mullins06/08/2019, 01:01

    I got to 1200 last month and honestly, I do not know if I will actually make it to 1400. I can see 1300 for sure, but it does get redundant to visit all of these clones and so on. As for the Beast. It is a legendary ride, but I can understand your sense of disappointment. It is not what people have made it out to be and if I had been there that day, I would have happily recommended just about any other coaster at KI for your 1000th coaster.

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  3. I'd love to get to 500. I find it's that thing called money keeping me back and my coeliac disease (gluten free) which I don't think would be easy travelling around Asia. Got a lot of parks left on my bucket list so fingers crossed. 😊 great piece by the way

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    1. You'll get there eventually! With regards to food in Asia there are a ton of chain restaurants so if you really needed to you could stick to those, especially if you're able to find out the ingredient beforehand :)

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