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How successful has your 2017 been?

Hixee

Flojector
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Double post because WTF?!
I know, right?! I'm usually pretty happy jumping on the band-wagon, but given my experiences this year I stand by it.

Silver Star was running really, really well and was an extremely enjoyable coaster. Shambhala was running really badly, and simply didn't have it.

I have little doubt that if Shambhala was running as well as Silver Star was, it would be the better of the two rides, but it simply wasn't.

Shambhala isn't actually bad, of course, but it was the most notable (and possibly biggest) let down of the year.
 

Hixee

Flojector
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I'm just having trouble imagining a world where Shambhala is running badly. Nope. I can't.
Have they trimmed it?
No, it was just very cold and only running one train with a fairly docile crew (meaning the coaster wasn't really warming up at any point).
 

Lofty

CF Legend
Ok, mine might be a bit off in terms of numbers and stuff, but here it is:

New Creds This Year
114 - Yay! This was massively boosted due to the USA trip with Ben & Taylor.

New Parks Visited
18

Total (different) Parks Visited
26

Milestones
400th cred was Wilderness Run - Cedar Point LOL.

Best New Cred
Storm Chaser at Kentucky Kingdom. What a ****ing BEAST of a ride. At one point, I was actually convinced that's where my life was going to end.

Worst New Cred
I have a few; Time Warp at Canada's Wonderland, Flight Deck at Canada's Wonderland, Wolverine Wildcat at Michigan's Adventure and Avalanche/Hellcat at Timber Falls Adventure Park. Pieces of ****, the lot of them.

Biggest Surprise Cred
Two stick out for me: Silver Star, it had LOADS of airtime, was running so well and even some ejector at some points, great ride. Storm Chaser needs mentioning because that **** is ****ing lethal.

Best New Ride (non-coaster)
Voletarium. It actually made me emotional.

Worst Spite
Didn't really have a terrible year for spites, I'm guessing the 'worst' would be Star Trek, it was just done and they couldn't be arsed opening it. Tossers.

Favourite Park of the Season
Phantasialand with an honourable mention to Europa Park. I didn't think I'd actually enjoy it whatsoever and I just loved it.

Least Favourite Park of the Season
Kings Island, Six Flags Great America & Tripsdrill are all up there.

Other
It's been great going on many trips this year and getting to know a few people a lot more. Some CFers have gone from 'coaster friends' or 'CF friends', to really close friends that mean a lot to me and I'd like to go on more trips with. Massive mention to @LiveForTheLaunch, @Ben, @nadroJ & @Hixee primarily for making this year's trips so fab.

I'm sure I'm gonna end up thinking of other **** to add here, so when I do I'll come back and add them.
 

Lofty

CF Legend
I'm just having trouble imagining a world where Shambhala is running badly. Nope. I can't.
Have they trimmed it?
Yeah, it was ****, Sue. I was really upset. It used to be so high up in my count and it's just not anywhere near now. It was so cold and hadn't run in five days. Was a shame for those just getting the cred.
 

Mysterious Sue

Strata Poster
It was so cold and hadn't run in five days
Ah ok, so that explains things I guess. Still crap for new riders but at least nothing fundamental about the ride has been changed. Hopefully it'll be back to its usual standard come summer. Come to think of it, most of my best rides on Shambhala have been at night when it's decently warmed up.
 

ThomVD

Giga Poster
Good to see some long overdue Silver Star lovin'. If it isn't overtrimmed it's such a brilliant coaster. Shame about Shambhala. My morning rides in the middle seats were very dull as well, but thankfully it warmed up and I got front/back rides which redeemed it.
 

MestnyiGeroi

Giga Poster
Creds:
This was supposed to be a quiet year saving towards a house.
I ended up with 139 new creds (my third best year in number terms) bringing me up to 850 exactly. Opps. And there’s still Winter Wonderland to go.

Parks:
Think I’ve visited 46 parks, 30 of which were new. Wow, that’s pretty good going – I blame much of it on the South Coast cred run.

Best new cred:
Schwur des Kärnan – new number one. It has the complete everything – theming, story, airtime, tricks, quality, utter fear, incredible to look at…

Worst new cred:
Loop It at Allou Funpark in Greece. New number one worst cred ever. Burn it. Burn it to the ground.

Biggest surprise:
Maverick for sure. Expected to hate it as I’m the opposite of an Intamin fangirl but bloody hell is it good.

Worst letdown:
Voyage. I thought it would be a top 5 contender but it was just a bit boring :(

Best New Ride:
Fluch Von Novgorod. As a coaster it’s good but not amazing (although the launch is fab). But as a whole – :emoji_zipper_mouth: yeah! The theming raises it into my top ten all-time favourite rides.

Worst Spite:
Xcelerator. And the afternoon ride on Karnan.

Favourite new park:
Silver Dollar City. Was so tempted to make it Hansa because it’s so friendly and gorgeous. Build a B&M Hansa – I’ve a spot just waiting for you.

Least Favourite Park of the Season:
Indiana Beach. And it wasn’t that bad, just a bit sad looking. The out of tune oompah band didn’t help.

Best individual day at a park:
Just got back from Phantasialand Wintetraum. Took my mum which was a bit of a gamble but she loved it. It was beyond Christmassy and the Chiapas projection mapping (with fire) was superb.

Best trip of the season:
Think I need to mention both US road trips here. First one in September taking in 10 new states drown from Wisconsin to Mississippi with 12 new parks (including SFGreat America, Kings Island, Holiday World Silver Dollar City and Dollywood) and visiting the Smoky Mountains, Detroit, Chicago, St Louis and about a million other places, plus getting my music geek on in Nashville, Memphis and the Mowtown Museum. Then, in November, I did a little trip between LA to San Francisco which was just really chilled. It included my first visit to Disney, Universal, Knotts and Discovery Kingdom. Also got to tick seeing Morrissey off the bucket list (as anyone in the song game thread knows, I’m a huge Smiths fan).

Best non-park experience:
Loads. I’m going to do a proper 2017 review as there was so much good stuff this year. If I have to pick one thing it was probably Rocamadour in France – a monastery carved into a cliff and you walk down through the different levels, with these astonishing views, to the medieval village below (see picture I stole off the web below). Also the St Louis museum - that was just off the scale incredible. Also, also, seeing so much live music this year – as JayJay said, Victorious festival was great – I got to finally see British Sea Power (who I’ve adored since uni), plus Maxiimo Park and Elbow again.

rocamadour-16294-52_w800.jpg


Best people you met:
Loads of fab new people have turned up on CF. Think I met Sandman and Heartline Coaster this year (or end of last). Great to meet Coaster Hipster, GuyWithAStick and Jarret at last. Also got to reunite with Jer and Kim (when Jer came over from the US) and Error (when I met up with him at Kings Island and Cedar Point). Hadn’t seen those guys since the 2012 Live!

Worst non-park experience:

Being so ill at Easter that my skin turned yellow because my kidneys stopped functioning properly.

Biggest accomplishment not theme park/travel related:
Having gone veggie a couple of years ago, I’ve decided to go proper vegan. Had a lot of slip-ups, mainly in the US where food is just eurgh, but I’m getting there.

Favourite memory:
Sitting on Karnan’s lifthill. Trying and failing not to shed a tear. And seeing all the hardcore enthusiasts have the fear too.
Reading this season report, I feel like a peasant gnawing on a crust of bread suddenly hearing about the nectar and ambrosia feasts of the gods. And here I was thinking this past summer’s crusts were pretty good. :confused:
 

Mysterious Sue

Strata Poster
My advice is to get a job with lots of travel that doesn't mind you tagging on holiday when you visit new places :)
Anyway, 15 parks is by no means a crust!
 

MestnyiGeroi

Giga Poster
My advice is to get a job with lots of travel that doesn't mind you tagging on holiday when you visit new places :)
Anyway, 15 parks is by no means a crust!
Good advice given too late. I teach, so I'm very place-bound. :( And I tend to have breaks when students have breaks, so I never really miss the crowds at parks.
 

gavin

Moderator
Staff member
Moderator
Social Media Team
Creds:
A nice, even 140 new creds apparently. I honestly didn't think it was that much, but I think that's because I haven't had a major haul since the summer really.

Milestone:
Cred 1300 - that people powered thing at Greenwood Forest Park.

Parks:
50(!) parks in total, with 41 of those being new. Obviously, that includes some crappy little +1 places which are difficult to label as parks. Two of those had no creds open, but I still went.

Best new cred:
I guess Taron? There are a few which are also way up there though: Karnan, Jungle Dragon, Flying Dinosaur, Soaring with Dragon

Worst new cred:
Ignoring crappy, kiddy +1s and the usual copy and paste s**t across various Chinese parks, it's Jupiter at Kijima Kogen. Apparently, it has new trains now, but it was the worst woodie I've ever been on. Dishonorable mentions to MP Express and Battle of Jungle King.

Biggest surprises:
Some coasters I was expecting to be either bland or awful, but I ended up quite liking: Star Trek, Milky Way, Mega Coaster, Pulsar, Krake, Flying Wing Coaster.
Parks: Liking Movie Park Germany a lot more than I was expecting to. Belantis being surprisingly lovely. Mitsui Greenland being fab when it shouldn't be.

Worst letdowns:
El Toro at Plohn being s**t. Space Fantasy having some s**ty VR on it, so I've got the cred, but not the full experience of how f**ked up it's supposed to be.

Best New Non-Coaster Ride:
Hmmmm, technically Forbidden Journey in Osaka I guess, though I'd already done it in Orlando. The same can be said for some excellent, yet cut/paste rides at Fantawild. Maybe the drop towers at Movie Park or Heide?

Worst Spite:
Nothing major this year. I guess Victory Kingdom which had all four coasters SBNO, but that was 90% expected.

Favourite new park:
Not sure on this one. Probably Happy Valley Chongqing. Some other contenders would be Oriental Heritage Xiamen even though it's all just a copy/paste job, Wanda Hefei, or Mitsui Greenland.

Least Favourite Park of the Season:
Himeji Central Park - f**king dump
Happy Valley Tianjin - falling to pieces with so much stuff closed

Best individual day at a park:
Universal Studios Osaka - I caught it at the perfect time of year (around Easter) when the weather was lovely but it wasn't busy. I never waited more than half an hour for anything, with most stuff being close to walk-on all day. Couple that with the fact that it's an amazing park anyway, and it was easily the best day. Revisits to Phantasialand and Hansa were also fab and better than I'd remembered.

Best trip of the season:
Either Japan at Easter or Germany in the summer. Both trips were a combination of revisits to parks I'd done before with new stuff thrown in as well.
Although it was just filled with +1 crap, the weekend in North Wales with Ben, Jake and Jordan was good for s**ts and giggles.

Worst trip of the season:
Tianjin. Major parks that have gone to s**t and other various SBNO +1s scattered around. The city itself was bland as well.

Best non-park experience:
Myanmar, specifically Bagan. More specifically watching the sunrise from the roof of some temple.

DSC00493_zpslynsv69o.jpg
 

mouse

Giga Poster
New creds:
A grand total of 0.

New parks:
Same as above.

Best trip:
Spain

Worst trip:
Spain. It was the only trip.

Best new cred:
Taron... wait that was last year.

Best new park:
Phantasialand... wait that was last year.

Best new flat ride:
Talocan... wait that was last year.

Best day at a park:
Phantas... ah for ****s sake

Best travel moment:
I was given a free cup of tea on a flight.

Worst travel moment:
Wasn't offered tea on the return flight.

Best non-park experience:
Well my whole year was a non-park experience, so that. I've just been busy ok?!

I ****ing hate these topics
 

Lofty

CF Legend
It may well have been the kids behind @Lofty first cred and all they saw in front of them was a sweaty British man. Look at the joy on their faces, imagine if they'd been on the front... Denied.
OMG. As if you did that hahahahahaha.

I didn't have a choice, the bitch of an operator put me there.
 
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