2023 Season In Review

Going into 2023 was a weird one for me. Exhausted from the intense ridiculousness that was a yeqr of epic travel across the USA & Europe in 2022, I knew I was never going to top it for variety and breadth of experience. I'd usually enter each year with a stringent plan of what I'd like to do, where I'd like to visit and what new creds I'd like to get on for the year ahead, to the point of militancy and making myself ill trying to make it happen, or worse being absolutely distraught if plans fell through. I entered 2023 with an eerie calm, a blank canvas of possible trips awaited and for once I allowed myself the freedom of just going with the flow and seeing where the year took me, and subsequently it's been an absolutely blinding mixed-bag of revisiting old favourites, sharing experiences with Sam for the first time and really getting out of my comfort zone. This is what my 2023 in theme parks looked like!

Considering 2023 consisted of a lot of revisits to parks I know and love and a lot less cred-whoring in random seaside towns (you can blame the luxurious British weather for that one...) I'm pretty pleased with adding 13 new coasters to my count. I'm long over the days of obsessing about adding +1 to my count and have more recently been focussed on wanting to experience new parks and attractions on the whole, so whilst I do still count it's no longer the raison d'etre for the trip itself. I'll take it!

A grand count of ONE new park for me this year, the highly anticipated and hilariously disappointing Land of Legends. I would have loved to have squeezed in a couple more new European parks this year but at the point I genuinely have visited pretty much every 'substantial' park there is that I personally am interested in visiting on our continent so it gets harder - especially if I'm weighing up revisiting somewhere excellent and maximising my time there vs. ducking out and heading somewhere that might be a bit crap. Hoping for a bit more of a balanced approach to that in 2024.

Easy, it's Toutatis. I really didn't get around to writing half the reviews I wanted to this year - I was more focussing on giving myself a bit of a break so sadly I didn't end up getting my thoughts done in-depth about this beast but it's a stonking bit of kit. It's got the out-of-the-box new-wave Intamin madness, just the right amount of intensity that you're drawn to run straight back around for another ride and some really gorgeous theming bits. Velocicoaster only just pips it for me in terms of being better but Toutatis is a very well-deserved Number 2 for me. 

As always, statistically speaking I suppose it'll have to be a kiddie cred which would make it Ba-a-a Express at Europa Park but I don't looove the idea of it being that as realistically, it does what it says on the tin and it's cute as heck. I can't hate on it for not being thrilling or out of this world amazing because it never promised to be. It's called the Ba-a-a Express for god's sake, what more could you expect from a silly little coaster. 

The coaster this year that left me going *insert Krusty the Clown saying WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?! here* was without a doubt Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind. After avoiding all discussion of it online and having it muted for five years so I could go in with a blank slate to essentially find myself riding a slightly modernised version of Space Mountain with giant ugly screens, I was beyond disappointed. I could not believe that THIS is what people were hyping up as the best thing ever. THIS took Disney five years to create. What. The. Hell.

If there's something 2023 has been, it's full of surprises. Like I mention, I went into the year without much of a solid plan or idea of what we'd be getting up to, so there were lots of last minute trips and ending up in places I had no intention of visiting that year which certainly kept me on my toes!

- Toverland being pretty bad. We had a fun enough day, but as somebody who adores the park it was such a shame to see a whole land under scrim despite it being advertised as open at the time of booking, sound effects/on-board audio not working and Troy riding like absolute death, I was slightly distraught.

- Being proposed to at Europa Park. Famously it's not somewhere I've ever had a lot of love for but visiting with Sam was like visiting with fresh eyes for the very first time and I absolutely fell in love with the place. It's now always somewhere that will be very special. 

- Sik and Flamingoland in general being so much fun. We had a really good day and left the park wanting to come back next year, which is crazy to think given some of the experiences I've had there. Fantastic to see a park turn itself around the way they have.

- Land of Legends being so hilariously crap.

So many great park days to pick from in 2023 it's truly hard to whittle down to just one. Honorable mentions go to Mandrill Mayhem opening day at Chessington World of Adventures Resort for that absolutely electric atmosphere, our first day at Europa Park in January where we had glorious sunshine and the whole park to ourselves and an all round fantastic day at Disney's Hollywood Studios on our Orlando trip where we managed a seriously high ride count and both days visiting Heide Park on our European road trip. 

All-in-all best day of the year though was absolutely our EPCOT day - drinking and eating around the world peppered with enjoying some of the best rides on the planet? We made so many friends that day just wandering around the pavilions chatting to people and every second of it was excellent. 

Sam will heartily disagree but I tried a burger at Uhrwerk in Rookburgh at Phantasialand and oh my god it was insane - a chicken breast burger but with this delicious sun-ripened tomato relish thing. It was glorious. Also shout out to the buffalo chicken hand pie that I queued almost an hour for at Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party - so worth it. 

  

Such a hard category to answer for 2023 because there was so much we managed to squeeze in, but I think it has to be the impromptu Orlando trip. Wasn't planning on being there this year but ended up enjoying ten days including Halloween Horror Nights goodness and seeing Sam's reaction to riding Velocicoaster and Iron Gwazi for the first time. Magical trip with the best memories.

After the year I've had it's impossible to pick just one. So I won't because it's my blog and I can do what I want!

- Riding Sam's very first RMC with him
- Seeing Toutatis' station for the first time
- Losing my mind around every turn from the second we entered the queueline for CanCan Coaster

And of course, the reason I delayed writing this until now, Sam proposing to me at the Europa Park Resort. What a magical way to end an already incredible year. I cannot wait to see what 2024 holds. 

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What did 2023 hold for you? What were your favourite moments? Let me know in the comments, I'd love to have a chat!

Talk later xoxo,