Most noteworthy park and coaster you haven’t done in your home country/state

[Matt N]

Hi guys. We all have a home country (or home state, in the context of the USA), and often, we know the parks close to our home like the back of our hand. For instance, as a UK citizen, I couldn’t count my total number of visits to Alton Towers on two hands, and it’s getting to the point where my total number of visits to Thorpe Park would also struggle to fit on two hands (I’m unsure on the exact number as I don’t have the spreadsheet to hand at present, but it’s high single digits for sure). But for most, I’m sure there’s still a park they haven’t visited at least once, and a coaster they haven’t ridden at least once, within their home country or state, so my question to you today is; what is the most noteworthy park you haven’t visited in your home region, and the most noteworthy coaster you haven’t ridden in your home region?

I’ll get the ball rolling with my answers.

Personally, I’m from the UK (the Forest of Dean/Gloucestershire in the South West of the UK, to be precise), and I have visited all 4 UK Merlin parks, as well as Blackpool Pleasure Beach, Paultons Park, Drayton Manor, Oakwood Theme Park, West Midlands Safari Park and South Pier Blackpool.

With that in mind, I’d personally say that:

• The most noteworthy UK park I’m yet to visit is probably Flamingo Land. It has the joint largest coaster selection in Britain, with 10 coasters in total and a few noteworthy thrill coasters, but I’ve never set foot in the park in my life; Yorkshire is a very long way from the South West!
• There were a few candidates I considered for most noteworthy UK coaster I’m yet to ride. If The Ultimate at Lightwater Valley were operating, that would win the title quite comfortably, and if it reopens, it will regain the title, but with Ultimate currently SBNO, that does make this harder for me to pinpoint. I’d probably go with Odyssey at Fantasy Island; it’s the country’s 3rd tallest coaster, one of the world’s tallest full-circuit inverted coasters, and a true UK coaster icon, but I’ve never set foot in Fantasy Island. Once again, Skegness is unfortunately a very long way from the South West!

But what is the most noteworthy park you haven’t visited in your home region, and what is the most noteworthy coaster you haven’t ridden in your home region?

 

[emoo]

My noteworthy Coaster is Icon. Hoping to resolve this year.

Oakwood is curating an infamous vibe so surely that makes it noteworthy.

 

[Nicky Borrill]

Mine is one of the Following

Oakwood - Megafobia - I can drive to Europe quicker

Paultons - Storm Chaser - All the junior coasters of Energylandia, none of the good stuff (Until SC)

Adventure Island - Rage - It's in Southend (OK this one doesn't really count, I visited the park a few times as a kid, but haven't got any of the creds)

 

[Sandman]

Mine is one of the Following

Oakwood - Megafobia - I can drive to Europe quicker

Paultons - Storm Chaser - All the junior coasters of Energylandia, none of the good stuff (Until SC)

Snap!

 

[Rob Coasters]

My most noteworthy missed parks in the UK are Flamingo Land and Oakwood. I agree with not calling Lightwater Valley noteworthy until Ultimate hopefully reopens. Other than that it's all cred run parks with three coasters at most - Camel Creek, Crealy, good ol' spitey Twinlakes, Fforest Coaster, all the Gulliver's parks except the one in MK that kind of stuff.

I would say the biggest coaster I'm missing has got to be Megafobia no contest. It's not the most statistically impressive one I haven't done, but I'd say it will rank the highest by far. Dare I say I think it'll crack my top five?

However if we stay in my home country of England I'd say Grand National could end up being the highest ranking coaster I haven't ridden yet. Yes, I'm in that pool where I think the coaster has potential to be a ridiculously fun package from start to finish

 

[Niles]

I live in the UK down here in Wiltshire, since 2018 I’ve been trying to do more parks here as there are so many I have not been to, Mingo and Lightwater were the last big two I did, now it’s just little ones left.

This year I hope to go to Pleasurewood Hills for the first time along with some other parks on the east coast. After that I guess it’s Botton’s pleasure beach I don’t think I even knew about this park till today.

Coaster wise it’s Millennium, I was spited by it years and years ago, long way for me to go for just one cred though. After that I really wanna go the green dragon due to how interesting it is along with Tyrolean Tubtwist, however hopefully I’ll be doing the latter this year.

 

[Nicky Borrill]

This year I hope to go to Pleasurewood Hills for the first time along with some other parks on the east coast.

Is another good shout for me to be fair. However, because it would take longer to walk from Towers Street to Nemesis. than it takes me to walk from home to where it used to stand, I already have 100s if not 1000s of rerides on the main cred, Wipeout, since the early 90s. So it's only really nostalgia calling me in.

This year maybe, say a proper goodbye, but as I said to Hixee, young naïve me used to love that thing, and I know I'll hate it now, so do I really want to spoil the memories?

 

[Hixee]

Noteworthy isn't always easy to define, but for me the stand outs would be:

Park
Adventure Island* - long way from home and completely the wrong side of London for me.
Pleasurewood Hills* - Similar reason, but a fairly notable park.

Coaster
Scenic Railway (Dreamland Margate*) - see reasons above.
Roller Coaster (Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach*) - see reasons above.
Storm Chaser (Paultons Park) - Whoops, didn't make the effort last year. Will do this year, though.

*My plan is, all being well, to do all of those parks in one trip at some point over the summer. But then I said that in 2019. And 2020. And 2021.

 

[Matt N]

Paultons - Storm Chaser - All the junior coasters of Energylandia, none of the good stuff (Until SC)

I know you are quite a hardware-orientated guy from your previous posts, and Paultons’ coasters aren’t the most noteworthy on the face of it, so I understand your hesitancy, but one piece of advice I would give you is; I wouldn’t dismiss Paultons on the basis of its hardware, personally.

I did that for years, so I totally understand why you might not be gagging to visit based on RCDB, and I was honestly unsure if I’d overly like Paultons based on its lack of thrilling hardware on the face of it, but I actually ended up having a really nice time when I went for the first time last year!

It’s a really relaxed park, with some excellent theming in spots, and the rides are far more fun than their RCDB files would have you believe; it’s more than the sum of its parts, for sure! I’d honestly say that it’s one of my favourite UK parks, sitting below only Alton, BPB and Thorpe; I had a great day!

Sorry, didn’t mean to single you out there Nicky; your post only stuck out to me in the Paultons regard! That advice goes for anyone who’s hesitant about Paultons based on its hardware.

 

[JoshC.]

Difficult to define noteworthy but I'll follow Hixee's template as there's a few out there...

Park
Oakwood - It's far away from everywhere
Lightwater Valley - Laziness
Pleasurewood Hills - One which I keep wanting to tick off

Coaster
Scenic Railway (Dreamland Margate) - Laziness.
Nick Streak (Blackpool Pleasure Beach) - Spite.

And as a result of the parks:
Roller Coaster (Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach)
T'Ultimate (Lightwater Valley)



I did a Yorkshire trip back in 2018, was about a 40min drive from Lightwater Valley, and just didn't bother for various reasons. Living to regret that choice now.
Margate is one of those ones that's never actually interested me that much, but again I might end up regretting not going sooner.

I might try and do Pleasurewood Hills this year if stuff works out.

 

[Nicky Borrill]

I know you are quite a hardware-orientated guy from your previous posts, and Paultons’ coasters aren’t the most noteworthy on the face of it, so I understand your hesitancy, but one piece of advice I would give you is; I wouldn’t dismiss Paultons on the basis of its hardware, personally.

I did that for years, so I totally understand why you might not be gagging to visit based on RCDB, and I was honestly unsure if I’d overly like Paultons based on its lack of thrilling hardware on the face of it, but I actually ended up having a really nice time when I went for the first time last year!

It’s a really relaxed park, with some excellent theming in spots, and the rides are far more fun than their RCDB files would have you believe; it’s more than the sum of its parts, for sure! I’d honestly say that it’s one of my favourite UK parks, sitting below only Alton, BPB and Thorpe; I had a great day!

Sorry, didn’t mean to single you out there Nicky; your post only stuck out to me in the Paultons regard! That advice goes for anyone who’s hesitant about Paultons based on its hardware.

Oh I'm sure it's really nice, everything they do lately impresses me theming-wise... But as you rightly noted, I am very hardware focused... Apart from the Mack, their other 2 main coasters are a vekoma boomerang and a Vekoma SFC, both of which are in plentiful supply in parks with much more noteworthy main creds (especially looking at you EL, stop building Vekomas!!!)

It's also a ball ache to get to from the North, and I would pass a load of quality hardware on the way... Whilst I've started to take more of an interest in cred counting lately, historically I would always rather reride good coasters I know I like than go out of my way for extra creds.

I don't mind you singling me out at all Matt, no need to apologise, I'd poke you if I wanted to know more without hesitation. I will get down there, I want to get down there, these are just the reasons why I haven't rushed down there in the last few years.

 

[FistedColossus]

Paultons - It's a kids park. Granted I'm partial to the odd Chessington visit but at least they've got a good zoo and it's not far from me.

Flamingo Land - Have been eyeing it up but can get to Europe quicker.

Lightwater Valley - As above but also the lack of t'Ultimate at the moment puts me off.

 

[Matt N]

Oh I'm sure it's really nice, everything they do lately impresses me theming-wise... But as you rightly noted, I am very hardware focused... Apart from the Mack, their other 2 main coasters are a vekoma boomerang and a Vekoma SFC, both of which are in plentiful supply in parks with much more noteworthy main creds (especially looking at you EL, stop building Vekomas!!!)

It's also a ball ache to get to from the North, and I would pass a load of quality hardware on the way... Whilst I've started to take more of an interest in cred counting lately, historically I would always rather reride good coasters I know I like than go out of my way for extra creds.

I don't mind you singling me out at all Matt, no need to apologise, I'd poke you if I wanted to know more without hesitation. I will get down there, I want to get down there, these are just the reasons why I haven't rushed down there in the last few years.

That’s fair; Paultons’ family cred types were far more of a novelty to me (the Mack spinner was new unless you count the slightly different Cobra’s Curse, the SFC was new, the Gerst Bob was new, and I’d only done the Family Boomerang once previously at Drayton Manor), and I guess encouraging you to visit Paultons is like encouraging me to visit Flamingo Land or Fantasy Island… easier said than done!

I also have to say that I echo others’ suggestion of Margate; most frustratingly, I was very close to being able to do Scenic Railway and visit Dreamland when holidaying in Canterbury in October 2019, but the park was closed on the day we were planning to visit… I also sighted Adventure Island from across the sea in Whitstable that day, as well, so that was quite a spiteful day all round cred-wise!

 

[HeartlineCoaster]

Hmmm...

Park
I used the filter on coast2coaster to learn that the two largest UK parks (by number of coasters) I haven't visited are West Midlands Safari Park & Twinlakes with three creds each. Obviously WMSP is the more noteworthy of the two, I do plan to give it more attention than just another cred run, one day.

Coaster
In terms of thrill, I'm guessing Southport or Clacton's Pinfaris would probably be the most significant coasters I'm missing, but they're not noteworthy, so I'd probably nominate Green Dragon for that title.

 

[Pokemaniac]

Park
Hmmm ... it's a tricky one. I think Bjørneparken is the only Norwegian park featuring a coaster that I haven't been to. I've driven past the place a few times, but it's in the middle of nowhere and doesn't seem worth a stop.

Coaster
This one is simpler. Despite its awesome train and location in a really cool park, I haven't ridden Il Tempo Extra Gigante yet. It's in a family park located on the outskirts of nowhere, and I haven't yet had a reason to visit after they built the coaster. They have a decent train connection, though, so perhaps I should meet up with a friend and get there once.

 

[DelPiero]

I've been to most large parks in the UK but West Midlands Safari Park still eludes me, driven past it enough times though.

Most noteworthy cred is probably Hornet @ Flambards, or Jellykins.

 

[Nicky Borrill]

I've been to most large parks in the UK but West Midlands Safari Park still eludes me, driven past it enough times though.

Most noteworthy cred is probably Hornet @ Flambards, or Jellykins.

Not sure most goons would fit on Jellikins… It’s one of the few kiddie creds I actually do have, and it was a squeeze to fit in to it when I was 19-20 yr old and 11 stone piss wet through, if my memory serves me correctly!!!

 

[Peet]

There's not much I haven't done in the UK, the only "Extreme" creds I haven't been on are the Pinfari Zyklon loops at Southport and Clacton (which spited me in Aberdeen). The one in Northern Ireland has gone now so I don't even have to include that. There are also only 4 "thrill" ones I haven't done, 3 of them dull clones, plus Fforest coaster, so I think the most notable one I'm missing is Fforest coaster.

As for parks, Camel Creek is the only UK park I've never visited which has 4 or more creds, so I guess that's the one!

 

[SkyrushSimp]

gotta go with (RIP) Blue Streak at Conneaut lake park.

 

[DelPiero]

Not sure most goons would fit on Jellikins… It’s one of the few kiddie creds I actually do have, and it was a squeeze to fit in to it when I was 19-20 yr old and 11 stone piss wet through, if my memory serves me correctly!!!

Most would not, agreed. I've seen goons get in it though. Admittedly not ones as large as me.