Coaster Count Increase - 55
Favourites
New-to-me coaster of 2023 -
Toutatis
New-to-me non-coaster of 2023 -
L’Antica Pizzeria da Michele at 53 King Street in Manchester - well themed and excellent food
New-to-me park of 2023 - Motiongate because of the
DreamWorks section alone
Positive surprise of 2023 - It was free to ride Tonnerre 2 Zeus backwards and how good that row was
Enthusiast achievement of 2023 - Riding my
1,000 coaster before my life officially begins, just. Not entirely agreed with myself which one it was but doesn't matter as I'm going to recount in a way that makes it Nemesis next year.
Exciting announcement for 2024 -
Thorpe getting good again
Highlights
Rushing round Blackpool in the pouring rain to get my friend all remaining credits so we could relax. Then re-riding Valhalla given we were already soaked through.
Mission Ferrari - I've been waiting so long for this to open and was able to time a weeks trip with a landmark birthday. It's possibly the most complete dark ride in the area even if the coaster is janky and closed on 2 of my 3 visits to the park.
Sitting in my hotel room late at night after a long day with a good glass of wine, decent spag bol, looking at the city lights. Shattered but happy & content of the days I finally got to have.
Discovering a long distance friend is in Italy visiting family and within a week we were both heading to
Fiabilandia & Mirabilandia for the first time. A few new to us old school terrific rides had been waiting all this time. Katun is my star of Italy and the grandfather of all
Big Apple Wacky Worm coasters was wholesome and the least amount of shame possible.
Superman / la Atracción de Acero had my eyes watering in the front row.
2 major new for 2023 coasters, I should do that more often.
Let down/mistake
Booking a reasonable hotel in Abu Dhabi with balcony looking towards Flying Aces - the the slow realisation it wasn't running given its scheduled maintenance & due to reopen the day after I go back to Dubai. The costly redo on the final trip day to get my rides in and not getting on the tiny free shuttle bus as it was full. Worse of all I got grumpy when staff at the rides entrance sometimes insisted my bag went in a locker even though you can put stuff to the side in the station. So dumb of me, just be happy everyone and don't get bogged down by things that don't matter. However also
always check if parks have a maintenance schedule and avoid a school boy error.
The alcohol offerings at Dubai's high vantage points. Overpriced, small, basic and a faff. Grumpy privileged moments they were and turned out to be unnecessary. For a traditionally non drinking culture trying to appeal to polite drunks I wanted more.
iSpeed's restraints
Many Blackpool's coasters I remember being good now running appallingly and low expectations for Icon not being met.
Green Hornet: High Speed Chase & Now You See Me: High Roller
No coasters stood out to me at Parque de Atracciones de Madrid and the entrance fountains were off. Operations were so poor it was worth a fast pass just for a few hours.
I didn't get to Germany which would have completed my set of country's that skip to the finals in Eurovision.
Best non-park moment - Completing my Satisfactory Factory's to make 4 Nuclear Pasta p/min
