And just like that, the 2024 season is over! Sitting down writing this I feel like I'm having a complete blackout from what we did and where we went in 2024, probably because we squeezed just so much in. 2024 was a huge year for UK parks, so of course we spent a lot of time visiting our local favourites and making the most out of our Merlin Annual Passes enjoying all the hot new-ness on our doorstep this year alongside some epic trips abroad, relaxing at European mega Resorts, weekend jaunts and even day trips abroad sprinkled in for good measure.
It's been an absolutely mad year for theme parks this year: between the Six Flags/Cedar Fair merger and subsequent mass closures, Formula Rossa being SBNO for the entire year thus thwarting our plans for a UAE trip and other insanity like the whole TT2 fiasco, I feel like I haven't really been able to catch my breath with what's been going on but luckily we've had tons of exciting days out to carry us through regardless. Here's what 2024 looked like!
Given I added the most new creds to my count since 2019 this year, I would say I'm very much back in my cred-counting era, but alas I do think it was a one-off and I'm going to be back to scraping the barrel in 2025 so I'm going to allow myself a moment to wallow in the satisfaction of adding 44 new coasters to my count in 2024, bringing me to a grand total of 1189. I'm determined to reach the 1200 milestone in 2025, something I haven't done since 2021 so it's very much high time!
Four! Four new parks for me this year, which is absolutely wild given how long I've been doing this for. We headed down to San Diego on our visit to California so of course I ticked off another Sea World cred (I really didn't like Sea World San Diego, everything felt ugly and dated and it was a huge rip off...likely won't ever visit there again) and the gorgeous Belmont Park which was oozing with classic boardwalk vibes. Then, late in the summer I finally, FINALLY visited an absolute bucket list park in Walibi Rhône-Alpes following their opening of Mahuka and it was everything I wanted it to be and more. Just a gorgeously themed place with a great line-up of fun, rerideable coasters. We also visited Le Pal on this trip, which is like a huge safari park style place but with a substantial theme park section too. Again, so fun and gorgeously themed and landscaped - not the easiest places to get to but given the glorious location in the French Alps I would love to revisit both of these parks in the future as I fell in love with them both.
I did a lot of thinking about this this week, playing around with my list, tweaking it here and there. I've listed my favourite new for 2024 coasters on my social accounts, but my answer for this takes into account all 'new-to-me' coasters, and that makes this so much harder because I've ridden a lot of excellent things this year that didn't necessarily open this year! I finally got on the original Intamin accelerator coaster Xcelerator, which I have been obsessed with for decades and would definitely have been in my Top 10 back in the day. HangTime at Knotts was also a favourite, I kept running around for rerides and loved each ride more than the last - that first drop with lapbars is something else! I also finally rode the iconic Matterhorn Bobsleds at Disneyland this year - absolutely terrifying and stupidly fun, especially given their age.
We were spited (AGAIN) by Superman but a revisit to Six Flags Magic Mountain delivered rides on Full Throttle, West Coast Racers and Twisted Colossus - all excellent coasters in their own right. As mentioned above, I fell in love with Walibi Rhône-Alpes and especially the voodoo bayou themed Gerstlauer coaster Mystic (at night this thing looks incredible!) and Yukon Quad at Le Pal was a lot of fun too, if a little disappointing vs. what I was expecting. Voltron was absolutely gorgeous if slightly too intense for me and that seat cannot be forgiven, Uncharted was bonkers if a little lacking in on-ride theming and na Fianna Force at Emerald Park definitely wins the award for most fun and rerideable new coaster of the year for me!
But...even after all that and up against all of those incredible new coasters I got to experience this year, the best new coaster of 2024 for me was of course Hyperia at Thorpe Park. Over a decade in waiting and after years of following construction, the hype of opening day and subsequent incredible rides on it across the season including some unforgettable night rides, it's far and away the best new thing I rode this year and I am so, so lucky to have it right here in the UK at one of my most visited parks.
As is tradition, I don't tend to count silly kiddie cred type things in this category - it is reserved for grown up big boy coasters that should know better. Luckily, the majority of what I rode this year has been pretty great all nit-picking aside! Looking at the list, two coasters stand out to me as being pretty terrible, and both of them are cloned 'plug-and-play' type designs so they're not even bad in a funny way as they're both kind of notorious for being bad coaster types.
The first is Electric Eel at Sea World San Diego. This Premier Sky Rocket II coaster looks cool enough and I really love the styling of it, but at the end of the day it's still a Premier Sky Rocket II and it rides like one - it's janky, it's uncomfortable, it has those hideous comfort collars, it's the definition of a one-and-done coaster credit and I wish so much that they weren't as bad as they are because my god.
The second is Generator at my beloved Walibi Rhône-Alpes. A Wild West/steampunk themed Vekoma boomerang with lapbars you say? Sounds like it could be fun? Well...no no it was not it was hideous. Firstly the queue line and station absolutely stank of BO - it was a stiflingly hot day of over 40 degrees and Jack had his deodorant confiscated as we entered the park, so the stink was kind of inevitable but for some reason was extra unforgiving around this particular ride. Then the restraints - boomerangs are notorious for their headbanging, so theoretically lapbars should fix that discomfort. Well, yh but these particular lapbars look like some sort of gynaecological torture device from a 90s David Cronenberg movie and so the OTSR headbanging is replaced by the fresh hell of having your hips clamped with cold metal instead, and honestly I think I prefer the headbanging...
Long-time readers will know that I am incredibly anally retentive about spoilers, and have been known to mute words and phrases so as not to have things ruined for me before I get to experience them for myself, thus maintaining the element of surprise as much as I possibly can for every new thing I ride. And this year was no different - loads of surprises throughout the entire year, some stand outs being:
- The Nemesis Reborn eye theming. The park did such an incredible job keeping that detail under wraps and seeing it in person for the first time on opening day having no idea it even existed was incredible.
- Uncharted being really fun. All I'd seen online was people slating it, saying how underwhelming it was, but Sam and I absolutely loved it and if the queue hadn't been so offensive I imagine we'd have ridden it loads more than what we actually managed.
- Getting to visit Tivoli Gardens for Halloween. It's somewhere I've wanted to get back to for years so I was very lucky to have Sam treat me with a surprise visit there for my birthday this year! And it was everything I wanted and remembered it being and more.
I was once again blessed in 2024 with some incredible days at theme parks. The electric opening days for Nemesis Reborn and Hyperia, and aforementioned glorious first time visiting Walibi Rhône-Alpes, the whirlwind day trip to Emerald Park in the summer, the stunning autumnal days at Tripsdrill and Europa Park soaking in that low September sun and changing leaves - I'm so blessed thinking back at all the brilliant days we had throughout the 2024 season actually!
My number one day though was our first day at Universal Studios Hollywood - I distinctly remember being sat in Springfield with a Duff Beer having just spent an hour or so enjoying a completely empty Hogsmeade and just feeling absolutely elated. I make a conscious effort to make note of that moment and feeling, to soak it all in and relish in it, which I absolutely did and it's something I will never forget.
Shout out Nemesis buffalo chicken tenders, Europa Park garlic bread and California Adventure Baymax bread but the winner far and away for this one is the Monte Cristo sandwich from Cafe Orleans at Disneyland, which is essentially a cheese and ham toastie but deep-fried and using donut batter instead of bread. It's absolutely delicious but I'm glad we got one to share because there is no way we could have finished one each!
We had some incredible trips this year - our 'big' holiday for the year to California, Sam's birthday trip to Phantasialand staying in the Charles Lindbergh Hotel, my weekend in the French Alpes with Jack and Ben. But sometimes the best trips are the last minute ones that end up being your favourite, and for me that was our September double-Resort trip to PortAventura and Europa Park.
Originally we were planning on visiting the UAE that week, but with Formula Rossa seemingly down for an unknown amount of time we didn't want to travel all that way and risk not getting to ride the fastest coaster in the world, so we pivoted and instead treated ourselves to a double-whammy visit to two of Europe's biggest Resort theme parks. We started with a stay at PortAventura's Gold River hotel before moving on to Rust staying in the nearby Moxy hotel but with access to all the Europa Park resort hotels and Rulantica, as well as a day trip out to Tripsdrill too. It was absolutely gorgeous - we got some last minute sun and good weather whilst simultaneously seeing the start of autumn and spooky season sneaking in, relaxing by the pool, bar-hopping and riding some of Europe's best coasters. It was really excellent and not something I'd ever considered doing before but definitely something I would do again!
We've been very blessed this year given how much we've travelled this year to have had generally smooth sailing, but of course there have been a few weird/scary/annoying moments:
Getting to Six Flags Magic Mountain again after twelve years and being spited by Superman AGAIN
Being met at customs in Manchester Airport by armed border patrol and interrogated about our travel route and itinerary upon re-entry into the UK following our PortAventura and Europa Park trip. Essentially we travelled a bit of a strange way in that we flew Manchester to Reus, Barcelona to Basel then Basel to Manchester, so on the system I guess it flagged because there was no note of how we got from Spain to Germany? But yh, pretty scary five minutes but we answered all their questions and have travelled without issue since!
Wow, where to even begin picking a best moment from this incredible year. Riding Hyperia for the first time, experiencing Phantasialand in sub-zero temperatures with all the coasters operating, getting back to Disneyland and taking Sam to his first Six Flags and Cedar Fair parks - there's just been so many wonderful, amazing moments and I'm so grateful for everything we've experienced this year.
But - the one stand out moment for me happened right at the end of the season at Alton Towers. We visited the Friday and Saturday for fireworks, and instead of watching the show on Friday we opted to get some night rides in instead. We timed a ride on Wicker Man to coincide with the start of the fireworks, and experienced the first going off as we ascended the lift hill, dropped into the tunnel and emerged to the entire sky filled with fireworks. It just pure magic, followed by a night ride on Runaway Mine Train where we were the only riders before running over to Forbidden Valley as the sky continued to blaze behind us. Nothing short of spectacular, and an incredible end to a fantastic season!
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I officially 'joined' the theme park community in 2004, so to think 2024 marked twenty years of doing this with my life is absolutely crazy, but I wouldn't have it any other way!
What about you? What did you get up to in 2024? Let me know in the comments, I'd love to have a chat.
Talk later xoxo,
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