As you'll have seen if you've followed me this year, or indeed read my last blog post, you'll know I didn't get to tons of new places this year, therefore as you can imagine the barrel of 'new for me' things I rode in 2021 is pretty slim pickings. But, that said, 2021 wasn't without its pleasant surprises, and actually not having much majorly 'wow!' things to compare against has meant that some other attractions have a chance to shine through where they maybe otherwise wouldn't in different years. Here's six stand-out attractions that were new for me in 2021!
As we know, I made a promise to myself to ride more drop towers in 2021, and ride more drop towers I did! I actually don't think I visited a single park with a drop tower where I didn't make an effort to ride it, so go me. And I must say, my plan is slowly working because I am finding myself increasingly less horrified at the thought of them (refer me back to this statement when I'm queueing for that hateful thing on iDrive in May...) BUT anyway, my favourite of the drop towers I forced myself on last year was none other than High Fall at Movie Park Germany.
Now I will say, this one was a little bittersweet as when we visited back in 2019 they had crazy smoke and strobe effects once the park was in Halloween mode. Looking back now I am so annoyed with myself for opting out, as I think this would've been an incredible experience. You live and learn. Regardless, this thing was awesome. Not too high that I was distracted with terror, a fab rotation as you ascend for some great views of the park, floorless seats and tilting for a little extra kick and just the right amount of force/float on the way down. Fab!
We know I love a cheesy Ghost Train and this year I added another notch to my belt with the truly vile Ghost Train found at Coney Beach Pleasure Park in Porthcawl. The facade of this is vile and reminded me of those yellow-cover horror DVDs they used to sell in HMV - the really low budget horror movies where the blood looks like orange poster paint, you know the ones. It's always a coin toss with these things - sometimes the facade looks great but nothing happens inside, something the facade has nothing going on but the inside is vile. This one was the best of both worlds.
I was vlogging our ride on it and chatting away like I usually do and something went BANG and got me GOOD. The interior is excellent - looks like a Rob Zombie music video, all garish colours and hallucinogenic nightmare-imagery accompanied with horrendous sound effects throughout. If we hadn't been on a very tight cred-ule I'd have gone around again, I absolutely adored it.
Now I wouldn't usually include a water slide as lord knows I'm not usually a fan, but I'll make an excuse for Singha because a) it's a water roller-coaster and b) look I was really scraping the barrel for this list so indulge me. Joking aside, Singha is VERY fucking good. One of my complaints about Siam Park was that there's so much lush foliage everywhere that it's basically impossible to navigate. As such, we joined the queue for Singha and didn't know what it was. Even boarding the thing and beginning our ride, I still didn't really know (I don't really pay attention to water slides, therefore can't identify them like I can with theme park hardware.) I realised on the first pop of airtime as we started to go back up a hill that this was a Master Blaster type slide.
It will just never not be a novelty to me to experience airtime on a water slide. It's such a weird, unexpected sensation and as somebody who doesn't really enjoy the sensation of constantly being sloshed with water it almost makes the discomfort worthwhile. Easily one of the best water slides I've ever ridden.
I don't really know why I wasn't expecting much from Cyclonator because I love the likes of Loke and Maelstrom, but I'll admit I joined the queue for this very unassumingly. It wasn't until I was actually swinging like mad on the thing that I was reminded how much I enjoy these type of frisbee flat rides (forgive my ignorance with the ride type name, I'm also not great with flat rides!) It's just so....massive? For Paultons Park especially, it sits firmly apart from the rest of that park's line-up as a true beast of a flat ride and something that wouldn't feel out of place at Thorpe.
I do prefer Loke and Maelstrom, if only for the fact that their swings feel slightly less controlled. But I won't ignore the fact that I had a ton of fun riding Cyclonator and if it hadn't made me feel just a fraction nauseous I would've gone around for another go, but my vom-senses were tingling so I decided to give the re-ride a miss on the day, but it's certainly a ride I'm looking forward to getting back on when I next visit the park.
Yh, obviously. This was far and away the best new-for-me coaster I rode in 2021 (not that there was much competition) and there's not really a whole lot more I can say about it aside from it was really great and I'm desperately trying to figure out when I'll be able to get back over to ride it again!
I...don't think I've actually spoken about Flight of the Sky Lion on my blog this year, which is kind of wild to me given I visited LEGOLAND Windsor something like four times across May and June this year. To put it bluntly, it's my opinion that this flying theatre style ride is one of the most impressive and immersive attractions we've seen here in the UK in a long, long time. It's the closest thing we have to something akin to a world-class modern family ride, and there was something just so exciting hearing the audiences' reactions to the whole thing as we flew on our adventure together. It's just so high octane and thrilling yet magical, so imaginative and colourful. A real joy.
I'm not sure when I'll be back at LEGOLAND just given how many times I found myself there in 2021, but I can certainly see myself being coaxed back for one or two visits just to head back to Mythica to enjoy another ride on this excellent attraction.
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And that's it for my favourite new-for-me things I rode in 2021! Like I say, not the longest or most impressive list by any means but certainly not without its highlights. Here's hoping for an improvement in 2022.
Tell me, what were your favourite new-for-you attractions in 2021? Let me know in the comments, I'd love to have a chat!
Talk later xoxo,
1 comments
In terms of what I actually intended to comment in the first place; thanks for making 2021 a great year on your platforms, Jordan! In spite of the pandemic and all it’s done, you’ve still provided tons of great content both to read and to watch; here’s hoping that 2022 has a little bit of a return to normality (of sorts)!
ReplyDeleteIn terms of the attractions you’ve listed here; I’ve only done Cyclonator and Flight of the Sky Lion.
Perhaps controversially, I didn’t especially enjoy Cyclonator. I’ll preface that by saying that I have quite a weak stomach for flat rides, but I’d heard people with even a similar tolerance to me saying that they absolutely loved it, so I was cautiously optimistic that I’d really like it. I was also optimistic because I really enjoy Rush at Thorpe Park, and Cyclonator effectively looked like a slightly gyrating equivalent of Rush, so my thought was “what’s not to like?”. However, it wasn’t for me, I’m afraid; it didn’t seem to have the fun floatiness and speed of Rush, with spinning and positives instead being the overriding forces, which wasn’t really my cup of tea. I can see why people like it, and I wanted to like it myself, but it made me feel somewhat queasy, and I wasn’t overly keen. The area’s gorgeous, however, and I really enjoyed Storm Chaser!
I have to concur with you on Sky Lion, however; I thoroughly enjoyed that, and I’d have to say that it’s up there as one of my favourite UK dark rides! To me at least, it seemed like the ride took more than a little inspiration from Flight of Passage at Animal Kingdom in terms of things like the vistas shown and the smells used, but it still feels like its own great thing, and I’d honestly say that while FoP is on an entirely different scale, I don’t think my enjoyment of Sky Lion was a whole lot less than my enjoyment of FoP. A really strong dark ride for the UK, in my opinion!
Have a great 2022, Jordan!