Your 2024 in Review

[Matt N]

Hi guys. I know it may be hard to believe, but we’re now getting towards the point in the season where parks are starting to wind down again ahead of the closed season; the end of the season is nearly upon us once again! With this in mind, I thought it might be nice to look back on 2024 and see what our highlights from the year have been. So, how has 2024 been for you in theme park terms?

I’ll get the ball rolling with a few stats and personal highlights from my season…

Let’s kick things off with the numbers…

• Coaster count at start of 2024: 111
• Coaster count at end of 2024: 134
• Coaster count increase: 23 (+6 on 2023) - New personal best!
• Park count at start of 2024: 24
• Park count at end of 2024: 29
• Park count increase: 5 (+3 on 2023) - Joint personal best!
• Number of coaster rides: 101 (+24 on 2023) - New personal best!
• Number of park visits: 14 (-2 on 2023)
• Unique coasters ridden: 40 (-1 on 2023)
• Unique parks visited: 9 (Same as 2023)

In terms of stats, I’d say it’s been a resoundingly successful year for me, on the whole! Even though a couple of key stats fell compared to 2023, I still attained a new personal best in terms of both new coasters ridden and number of coaster rides, with 2024 being my first year ever exceeding 20 new coasters and 100 coaster rides, respectively! I also matched my personal best in terms of new parks visited; this has been quite a weak metric for me for a number of years, so I was pleased by this!

Now if I were to reel off a few highlights and lowlights of the year from a more personal standpoint, I would say something like the following:

• Favourite new-to-me coaster of 2024: Shambhala at PortAventura Park (#1/134) - I’ve long wanted to ride Shambhala, and my goodness, it did not disappoint! The sustained airtime, the speed, the first drop, the smoothness, the rerideability, the forces… not one aspect of it disappointed, and all the above aspects and more meshed together to make it a simply wonderful coaster for me!
• Favourite new-to-me non-coaster of 2024: Sesame Street: Street Mission at PortAventura Park - It’s easy to overlook a dark ride themed to Sesame Street, but I thought Street Mission was wonderful, and a definite hidden gem of PortAventura for me! The blend of screens and physical set pieces was brilliant, the animatronics were excellent, the interactivity and 3D were great, and overall, I just thought the ride was really, really good fun, and definitely my favourite interactive dark ride I’ve ridden!
• Favourite new-to-me park of 2024: PortAventura Park - I’d heard wildly mixed reviews of PortAventura, but I found the park absolutely wonderful, with some great rides, gorgeous theming, and operations that were nowhere near as bad as I was expecting!
• Biggest positive surprise of 2024: Gold Rush at Drayton Manor - After hearing some slightly muted initial reviews of Gold Rush, I went in with lowered expectations, but I have to say that I was very pleasantly surprised! I found the ride to be a brilliantly fun family coaster, with some fun twists and turns, fun tricks and backwards sections, and an overall very fun ride experience!
• Biggest disappointment of 2024: It’s tough to say; I haven’t really had any significant disappointments in terms of new things this year. I found Pleasurewood Hills a bit disappointing, but I went in there with quite lowered expectations to begin with, so I’d struggle to really call it a major disappointment as such.
• Favourite coaster ride of 2024: Any ride on Shambhala would probably be a strong candidate here, as would the final two back row rides on Hyperia, but those are two examples of where I had multiple similarly phenomenal rides on a coaster in succession. In terms of an example where an individual ride really sticks out, I’m actually going to raise my night ride on Wicker Man at Alton After Dark. The day had been, to put it politely, less than successful up to that point, and we’d waited 2.5 hours for the ride on Wicker Man. We weren’t originally expecting a night ride, but by the time we got on, we’d actually waited so long that we got an unexpected night ride! When we got on, the combination of the awesome speed and airtime of the coaster with the rain that was lashing down and the added thrill of the darkness and the area lighting made the experience truly unforgettable and left us all in complete stitches!
• Favourite park trip of 2024: PortAventura in September was a definite highlight of the year, as I loved experiencing a new foreign park for the first time and getting a new #1 coaster, but I’d also raise my solo trip to Thorpe Park and Legoland Windsor in June, as I was so pleased to finally do a solo overnight trip and both park days were great fun!
• Biggest enthusiast achievement of 2024: As mentioned above, I was really proud to finally do my first ever solo overnight trip in June. It was a great trip, and I was also very proud of myself for how everything logistically went to plan without any major hitches (well, aside from being spited by Hyperia…)!

In conclusion, then, I think 2024 was a pretty great year for me! I’m not sensing 2025 will be as fruitful for a litany of reasons, but we shall see!

So, how was your 2024 in theme parks? I’d absolutely love to know!

 

[LiveForTheLaunch]

La Ronde x 3
Six Flags Great escape x 3
Cedar Point x 1

New creds: TT2, Bobcat, Marche du Mille Pattes, Super Manege, Ednor

Yep that's it this year it was kind of garbage but my kid needs like, a 3 inch growth spurt for me to have incentive to go anywhere else right now! I'm hoping for a better 2025.

Coaster highlight was probably Bobcat. We love the **** out of that coaster!

 

[FistedColossus]

Park visits:
Parc Asterix
Alton Towers
Europa Park x 3
Thorpe x 16

New parks:
Walibi Belgium

Best new creds:
1. Toutatis
2. Voltron
3. Hyperia
4. Kondaa

Never thought I'd ever purchase a Thorpe Gold Pass, but I've definitely got my money's worth with it. I work nearby pretty regularly and 99% of my visits have been from 4pm until park close, mostly spent in the Hyperia SRQ. Whilst Hyperia isn't a top 10er for me, I do rate it very highly and it's wonderful to have a coaster that actually has good airtime so close to home. 45 rides on it (so far).

Toutatis is comfortably my favourite new to me coaster. Visited on the parks opening weekend after being spited last year and was blown away. There's something special about those Intamin LSM coasters.

Voltron is fantastic too, obviously.

So a quieter year than usual travel wise but it's been great.

Got my eye on the ECC trip to Parque Warner in late November to round it off. ERT on Gotham City Escape

 

[Howie]

A pretty quiet year for me in some ways, but in other ways... omg, best season ever!
Didn't go on that many theme park trips, instead focused my efforts on one big one and got myself a bumper haul of choice US creds.
Highest ever annual cred haul of 81, beating out 2018 by one credit, so boom to that.
3 new additions to the Top 10, several more worthy of Top 25 status.
3 bucket list parks ticked off.
Several bucket list coasters ticked off.
Got my 500th cred on an absolute beauty - Fury 325.
Rerides on some of my all time faves.
Yep, happy with 2024 overall.

February - Plopsaland. Third visit since Ride To Happiness opened. Love that coaster. I fully intend to come here at least once a year for the rest of my life.

April - Swung in to Land of Legends for a few hours while on holiday in Turkey. Hyper Coaster is very good.

June - 'Murica 2024. Cheeky lil +77.

August - Drayton Manor for Gold Rush. S'alright.

October - Thorpe for Hyperia. S'good.

That is all.

New coasters ridden: 81
New total: 531
New parks visited. 10 (Land of Legends, Dorney Park, Knoebels, Hersheypark, Six Flags America, Carowinds, Six Flags Over Georgia, Fun Spot Atlanta, Dollywood, Coney Island).
Best new creds of 2024:
1. Wildcat's Revenge
2. Fury 325
3. Arieforce One.
4. Twisted Timbers.
5. Phoenix
6. Hypercoaster
7. Hyperia
8. Wild Eagle
9. Candymonium
10. Pantheon.

Best rerides:
Ride to Happiness
Kingda Ka
El Toro
I305
Griffon/Alpengeist.

Best new park visited.
Tie - Hersheypark and Dollywood. Shout out to Knoebels.

Best dark ride: Monster Mansion at SFOG.

Biggest disappointments of the year: I have two - Skyrush and Lightning Rod. Both are decidedly 'Meh'.

Worst new park. Six Flags America.

Worst new cred: either Hurller at Carowinds or Hurricane at Fun Spot Atlanta.

 

[ScottLann]

• Coaster count at start of 2024: 126
• Coaster count at end of 2024: 150
• Park count at start of 2024: 19
• Park count at end of 2024: 21
• Number of park trips: 12

• Favourite new-to-me coaster of 2024: Zadra
• Favourite new-to-me non-coaster of 2024: Ko'okiri Body Plunge - No ride has made me feel more nervous than this one. Absolutely loved it
• Favourite new-to-me park of 2024: Energylandia
• Biggest positive surprise of 2024: Volcano Bay - Have been to Florida many times over the past few years and for some reason, never paid a visit to Volcano Bay. Managed to finally get there this year and I can't believe how beautiful that park is. Can't wait to visit it again at some point.
• Biggest disappointment of 2024: There hasn't really been any major disappointments this year. The only one that comes to mind is Hyperia valleying on the day I was driving up to Thorpe. Thankfully, however, it was made up by getting several rides on it the night it re-opened (Fright Nights Press Event).
• Favourite coaster ride of 2024: There's two contenders for this! First one would be getting my first rides on Zadra with my best mate and it ending up as both of our #1 coasters. The second contender would be seeing my partners first ever reaction on Taron...there's something really special about seeing your partners first ever ride on your favourite coasters.
• Favourite park trip of 2024: Phantasialand - Again, this was my partners first ever visit to this park and seeing her reaction to everything for the first time was something else! It's also satisfying knowing that it's her favourite park too . Another contender for this would also be the opening day of Nemesis Reborn. Waking up at 6am and getting on the 2nd public train on the front row with everyone chanting "Nemesis!" was such a buzz and the atmosphere that whole day was absolutely incredible.
• Biggest enthusiast achievement of 2024: I've done a few solo trips abroad this year again but the big one for 2024 was definitely flying out to Florida on my own. It was quite a surreal experience doing the whole travelling bit by myself, but it was totally worth it for surprising my family over there...and of course getting back on some of my favourite coasters! My main goal for next year is to finally drive in a foreign country

Best New Creds:
1. Zadra
2. Hyperion
3. Balder
4. Hyperia
5. Helix

 

[Hudson_Woodlief]

This is sad, but here we go.

Park Visits: Busch Gardens Williamsburg x1
CC Before: 33
CC After: 33

Favorite Ride of the Year: Griffon
Least Favorite Ride of the Year: InvadR

Favorite Experience: Getting to record and be myself at BGW, and marathoning both Apollo's Chariot & Griffon multiple times thanks to the single rider line! And after this trip, I think I enjoyed Griffon more than Pantheon, but Pantheon is the better ride.

 

[Hixee]

So 2024 was a bit atypical for me. I finished work at the end of January with a 9 month sabbatical (I restart again next Monday). It was a sort of 'honeymoon' year for us - as we got married in March - and we split the year into three parts:

• Trip 1 - Asia & South Pacific (countries in order: Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Australia (Sydney only), Vanuatu, Fiji, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand (Bangkok only)).
• Trip 2 - European Road Trip (countries in order: France, Italy, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary, Slovakia, Poland, Czechia, Germany, Luxembourg, Belgium).
• Trip 3 - North America (countries/states in order: USA - Alaska, Canada - British Columbia, Canada - Ontario).

As you can probably gather - I wasn't really doing a tour of the world's best theme parks. I rode some coasters along the way (more on that shortly), but overall it was a pretty hefty year of epic sightseeing, food, people, culture and fun. I couldn't possibly sum it up in a post, I don't think, but I have been posting a "favourite five" photos from each country over in the photography thread (link to the first post in the set here) which might give some impression of the adventures.

Some random stats I compiled for the travelling:
Number of countries: 24 (15 new to me)
Number of flights: 28 (13 airlines, 23 airports)
Distance flown: 69,800km (43,400mi)
Distance driven: over* 16,000km (10,000mi) {*not exact, but have pretty decent idea of the totals}
Total number of hikes: 75 (534km with 26,300m elevation gain in total)
Photos taken: 14,703 (167GB)

It has been spectacular, and a once in a lifetime (though we hope not!) type year. Very happy with ourselves, if I'm being honest. Here's a series of maps showing roughly how our travelling path played out:

Trip 1

Trip 2

Trip 3

-----

Now for the stuff that really matters... creds.

Coaster count at start of 2024: 841
Coaster count at end of 2024: 886
Coaster count increase: 45
Park count at start of 2024: 185
Park count at end of 2024: 205
Park count increase: 20
Milestones: 850th coaster (Hair Raiser, Ocean Park), 200th park (Visegrádi Bobpálya), most southerly coaster (Battlestar Galactica, Universal Studios Singapore)

Favourite new-to-me coaster of 2024: Probably Hyperia, though notable mentions to Roaring Timbers (minus the **** operations) and Wrath of Zeus.
Favourite new-to-me park of 2024: Wasn't anything hugely spectacular, if I'm being honest, but would probably give it to Sun World Phu Quoc/Hon Thom for the mental cable car, decent waterpark and great overall 'day out'.
Biggest disappointment: Having our flights rescheduled from SYD>VLI, meaning I missed out on Luna Park.

I don't think the answers to the other questions would prove to be very interesting, so I'll leave it there.

 

[Dan Nguyen]

Started 2024 at 328 coasters
Added 34 coasters across 3 countries on 2 continents. Finished with 362 coasters
Favorite new coaster: Ride to Happiness
Least favorite new coaster: Woodstock Express - Dorney Park
Favorite new park: Alton Towers

New parks visited: Holiday World, Beech Bend, Alton Towers, Chessington World of Adventures, Dutch Wonderland, Canobie Lake Park
New ride highlights: Voyage, Hyperia, Legend, Rita, Galactica, Wicker Man, Nemesis, Vampire, Mandrill Mayhem

 

[Sticky_T_Wicky]

Numbers:

• Coaster count at start of 2024: 158
• Coaster count at end of 2024: 270
• Coaster count increase: +112 - Highest ever as 2023 was +107. 2024 is almost certainly the last year it is over 100.

Trips:

• New Parks:
  • January Florida Trip - Islands of Adventure (+3), SeaWorld Orlando (+5), Fun Spot Orlando (+1), Fun Spot Kissimmee (+1) and Busch Gardens Tampa (+6)
  • April SoCal Trip - Knott's Berry Farm (+6), SeaWorld San Diego (+5), Belmont Park (+1), Pacific Park (+0) and Six Flags Magic Mountain (+14)
  • June East Coast Trip - Six Flags America (+6), Kings Dominion (+11), Busch Gardens Williamsburg (+9), HersheyPark (+13), Dorney Park (+7), Knoebels (+4), Six Flags Great Adventure (+11), Six Flags New England (+8)
• Existing:
  • March - Silver Dollar City (+1)
  • July - Worlds of Fun
  • August - Silver Dollar City
  • November (probably) - Silver Dollar City

Favorites:

• Favorite new-to-me coaster of 2024: Iron Gwazi - I've mentioned it in other threads but this is my number 1. Its elite first drop, relentless pacing, airtime and snap/whip are perfect.
• Favorite new-to-me park of 2024: HersheyPark - This is based primarily on the parks coaster collection which contains arguably the best coaster lineup in the country/world.

Biggest Favorable Surprise:

• Coasters: Twisted Colossus at Six Flags Magic Mountain - I had muted expectations for this by RMC standards but was surprised by the caliber of its first drop and the power in its airtime. The other option would have been Pantheon at BGW. I thought it look pretty meh until the backwards launch of the swing launch but I was pleasantly surprised by the elements preceding the swing launch.
• Parks: Busch Gardens Williamsburg - This is pretty heavily focused on its coaster quality as most of its coasters exceeded expectations. Then of course, the park is beautiful with some great theming.

Biggest Unfavorable Surprise:

• Parks: The first is that I had initially planned two days for Six Flags Magic Mountain for April 14 & 15. The park did not open due to weather on the 14th. The weather wasn't that bad with temps in the upper 50's and intermittent rain but it almost would have certainly been a loss to the bottom-line for the park that day. That was pretty disappointing. That said, I am beyond happy that I booked for two days at the park and was able to get its 14 open thrill credits (missed Wonder Woman and Superman).
• Coasters: Superman - Ride of Steel at Six Flags America, Twisted Cyclone at Six Flags New England and Superman The Ride at Six Flags New England. None of these were bad but they all left me wanting more. Superman RoS kind of disappointed me on its first drop where its air just stops, rattle, the drawn out helixes and of course the infamous straight track. Some folks had Twisted Cyclone rated towards the top of their RMC list and to me, it's in my bottom quartile of RMC's. Lacked the power in the airtime of other RMC's and that was in the first half too. Superman the Ride was ruined by the restraints. Some of the parts of the ride feel awkward too which took away.

 

[Graeme]

I only did Paultons and Pleasurewood Hills this year, but I'm just getting back into it really. I saw the Great Yarmouth Roller Coaster and Hyperia, if that counts.

Favourite new-to-me coaster: Flight of the Pterosaur. Just a great ride that is as good as it looks, and then a bit more.

Favourite new-to-me non-coaster: The Queen's Flying Coach Ride. This was quite a brilliant transport ride. There's just something about being up in the air on a not-quite monorail, and the way it shares a structure and (short) tunnels with Grampy Rabbit's Sailing Club (also a contender).

Favourite non-coaster: Safari at Pleasurewood Hills. It's not just a ride, it's ride-through art!

Biggest positive surprise: Peppa Pig World. As well as the two rides I've mentioned above, I really enjoyed George's Dinosaur Adventure and Daddy Pig's Car Ride. All good stuff.

Biggest disappointment: I was really surprised that I didn't like Storm Chaser at all.

Favourite coaster: Surprisingly, Cannonball Express. It was just cathartic to get back on a coaster after so long. I also appreciated the wildness and old-fashioned feel a lot more this time.

Favourite park trip: Again, surprisingly, Pleasurewood Hills. I'd never claim it was a better park than Paultons, but it is my favourite.

Personal achievement: Well, not a big deal really, but if you told me last year I'd have ridden Cyclonator by the end of this year, I'd have been surprised.

 

[Disco Lumberjack]

Coaster Count 2023: 79
Coaster Count 2024: 124*
Increase: +45*

I started the year with a trip to Florida booked for September and a strong desire to make Hyperia my 100th cred on opening day which turned out pretty well!



I visited Paultons, Plopsaland, Walibi Belgium and then a final mad dash to Legoland Windsor to get to 99 in time. I think Hyperia opening day was the highlight of my year, even if I did have to wait 6 hours for that first ride.

Then my big Florida trip happened and it was epic, humid, so much fun and a little bit exhausting! If there's one lesson I've taken from this year, it's that it's ok (and maybe even more enjoyable) to slow down.

Best New Coaster: Iron Gwazi, the thing tried to murder me in the best way, amazing ride.

Best New Park: Islands of Adventure, fantastic ride line-up, great theming, wish I was going back soon!

Biggest Surprise (Coaster): Mako, it was my first B&M Hyper and looking at the POVs I thought it looked kind of boring, well it turns out to be great fun.

Biggest Surprise (Park): Paultons Park, this shouldn't have been that much of a surprise because the thing I've read most about this park is that it's actually a really great family park. Nevertheless, I went there to pump up my numbers and ended up having a lovely time. I could see them becoming a real contender in the UK in a few years, Merlin take note.

Biggest Disappointment (Coaster): Pipeline, I was looking forward to experiencing this, but it just wasn't that forceful in the ways that I wanted. Also coming in to land on that saddle with bits that live on the outside... not super fun.

Biggest Disappointment (Park): Busch Gardens Tampa, my trip report goes into the reasons I didn't like this park as much as I was hoping, which is a shame because it has a great line-up.

Most Painful Ride: Cheetah Hunt, those old Intamin OTSRs can go to hell, especially on a ride that long!

* I am planning on attending the ECC's Parque Warner/Parque de Atracciones trip in a few weeks, so I'm expecting to end the year on 136 with a +57.

 

[owenstreet7]

For me, I started my coaster count at 54 at the beginning of 2024. Now, my coaster count is 79 with an increase of 25 coasters.

Park visits this year:

Thorpe Park x 23 (1 more visit planned)
Chessington x 3 (1 more visit planned)
Europa Park x 4 (1 trip)
Phantasialand x 2 (1 trip)
Blackpool Pleasure Beach x 2 (1 trip)
Drayton Manor x 1

35 in total, this makes me wonder how much I visit theme parks

Best New Coaster: Taron - whilst there was a lot of competition, Taron has the complete package, airtime, pacing and immersive theming. With Voltron and Hyperia, you can get rough rides whilst Taron, you don't.

Best New Park: Whilst it is very hard to choose, I will go with Phantasialand as the park is incredibly immersive and you feel like you're in a different world. Europa also has fantastic presentation and had that similar feeling too.

Best Surprise: I would have to go for Hyperia on this one. I wasn't expecting too much with the short layout however it packs a punch and you don't feel you're short changed. The airtime rivals that of Voltron and Taron.

Best Non Coaster Ride: Chiapas - this ride has been on the top of my bucket list for water rides and this ride didn't disappoint. The layout is incredibly fun and the length is right. The theming is incredible. To be honest, it actually makes me think what Alton Towers and to an extent, Thorpe Park is missing.

Biggest Disappointment: That is hard but I would say Gold Rush at Drayton Manor. I expected there to be more to it as it was described as a "Family Thrill" coaster and the best in Europe. Whilst it is really good especially for a family coaster, I was hoping it was slightly more thrilling and closer to Storm Chaser, Vampire, Dragon's Fury etc.

Worst Coaster/Ride: Infusion and Grand National - enough said!

Underrated Gems: I would say that the dark rides at both Phantasialand and Europa Park are hidden gems at the park. I would say Feng Ju Palace, The Cute and Charming Granny and her Dinosaurs ride by Eurosat, Pirates of Batavia and Snorri Touren were incredible rides.

There were some disappointing dark rides at Europa Park such as the one in Russia and near Geisterschloss in Italy however they seem to be dated and designed more for younger families. The animatronics remind me of Camberwick Green and stop motion shows of the 70s and 80s

Revisited Favourites: Both Icon and Valhalla were two favourites of mine when I first visited BPB. Having revisited the park, I appreciated both rides more now I've been on both rides multiple times.

The effects on Valhalla are spectacular and whilst some didn't work (the hammers), it is absolutely fantastic.

Icon has incredible airtime for a coaster and having been on this before Taron, Voltron and Hyperia - this was a fantastic warm up for similar coasters. It isn't the most spectacular or intense coaster but is an underrated gem.

In summary, 2024 has been a very successful year for me in terms of theme parks and has built upon 2023 and previous years very well. The trips to Phantasialand and Europa were my first ones overseas and solo so am very proud of this.

I'm intending for 2025 to be an even bigger year with plans to hit 100 on my coaster credit count and to visit even more new UK and European parks.

 

[Flash Shift]

Been a pretty successful year for me:

• Coaster count at start of 2024: 59
• Coaster count at end of 2024: 81
• Coaster count increase: 22
• Favourite new to me coaster: Taiga, Linnanmaki - absolutely nuts
• Biggest surprise: Gold Rush, Drayton Manor - this is really fun and whippy for a family coaster!
• Biggest disappointment: Apart from Flamingoland as a whole, I'd honestly say The Wave. It's an existing cred, but I kind of preferred it before the conversion
• Worst coaster: Hero, Flamingoland - just awful.
• Biggest achievement: Second solo trip abroad, first time to a country I hadn't visited before, all while powering through a chest infection that nearly ruined the whole thing in order to get some amazing rides on Taiga. Also just overall making more park trips in a year than I normally do and getting a decent amount of new creds, hoping to keep this up and get to 100 next year.

 

[James F]

A fairly quiet year, but 2025 will be a big one so I've been slightly more frugal on travel costs this year.

• Coaster count at start of 2024: 225
• Coaster count at end of 2024: 250
• Coaster count increase: +25 (-18 on 2023)
• Park count increase: +3 (-3 on 2023)
• Number of park visits: 7

Favourite new-to-me coaster of 2024: Taiga - ^see above

Favourite new-to-me non-coaster of 2024: I didn't get the chance to ride many new non-coasters this year, but Swingi at Linnanmaki was fab, love these modern Intamin gyros.

Favourite new-to-me park of 2024: Linnanmaki

Biggest positive surprise of 2024: Na Fianna Force - Surprisingly forceful and I wasn't expecting that much airtime out of a suspended coaster.

Biggest disappointment of 2024: Emerald Park - My day here was a bit crap to be honest. School trips, long slow-moving queues, one train ops, Cú Chulainn breaking down every 10 minutes ...

Favourite coaster ride of 2024: Taiga rides at night.

Favourite park trip of 2024: Either Linnanmaki or CF-Live at Thorpe.

Biggest enthusiast achievement of 2024: Maybe doing Ireland in a day? it's not an impossible task, but I remember waking up that morning at 4am thinking that going to the airport was the last thing I wanted to do.

 

[Tonkso]

Coaster count at start of 2024: 207
Coaster count at end of 2024: 234
Coaster count increase: 27, slightly more than last year, more than I had realised.
New Parks visited in 2024: Liseberg and the Madrid Duo. For water, Rulantica.

Favourite new-to-me coaster of 2024: Voltron, followed very closely by Batman: Gotham City Escape.
Favourite new-to-me dark ride of 2024: Batavia.
Favourite new-to-me flat ride of 2024: Liseberg's screaming swing. That hillside setting dials it up to 11.
Favourite new-to-me water ride of 2024: Can we count Rulantica? Because if so, their racing slides.
Favourite new-to-me park of 2024: Parque Warner Madrid.
Biggest positive surprise of 2024: Just how good Rulantica really is. It exceeded our expectations, and then some.
Biggest disappointment of 2024: Like last year, missing out on Parc Asterix.
Favourite park trip of 2024: Europa, because whilst we worked during the Thursday and Friday (and Monday), we did Rulantica and Truamatica in the evenings, making it a much longer trip. We did go the the Palace in Madrid whilst working there too (bosses knew, made up the hours).
Biggest enthusiast achievement of 2024: FINALLY getting to Madrid. We'd tried last year but it just wasn't cost effective.
Parks Visited: 5 in the UK, 2 in Spain, 1 in Germany (+1 Water), 1 in Sweden. So 9. Additionally, two Waterparks in the Bahamas alongside Rulantica. Like last year, I did some great non-park trips (Kenya, Svalbard, Bahamas) so it isn't always about the parks.
Honourabe Mentions: Hyperia, I've only managed to get on it once!!! I hope I'll be rating it higher when I get to ride it more. Helix for being the best Mack built of that model, our first ride was spoiled by torrential rain, but we loved it by the end of the day. Abyssus for scaring the absolute **** out of us. Also, why not Gold Rush for signalling a change in that park's fortunes.

 

[Mark9]

It's probably been the busiest year for me in terms of new rollercoasters, distance travelled and parks visited.

Coaster count at the start of 2024 - 459
Coaster count at the end of 2024 - 551

Favourite new to me coaster - Voltron. A masterpiece of an attraction. It will be very hard to beat this in terms of sheer enjoyment.
Favourite new to me non-coaster - Monster Mansion at Six Flags over Georgia. This was amazing.
Favourite new to me park - Dollywood. A true bucket list park and it delivered in every single way. Shout out to Carowinds and Kennywood though
Biggest positive surprise of 2024 - Thunderhead at Dollywood. My favourite wooden rollercoaster, it is just so good and never spoken about.
Biggest disappointment of 2024 - The whole of Kings Island. Really lacked that something that the very best parks do. Its reliability sucks as well. Banshee could get a tick all of its own.
Favourite Coaster of 2024 - Steel Vengeance. I first rode it back in 2018 and 6 years later, it's essentially in a class of its own.
Favourite park trip of 2024 - Tricky because I've had some sublime days at parks this year. Possiblty Linanmaki because it was beautifully sunny, park was quiet and we found a lovely bar to just chat at.
Biggest Enthusiast achievement - I guess hitting 500 creds (Big Bear Mountain) and 550 creds (Fianna Force) was an achievement of sorts. I suppose being there at Nemesis Reborn and Hyperias open days was great because the energy of a new rollercoaster opening just gives the park that special feeling. It can never be matched on a normal park day.

 

[TilenB]

There's still a couple of months left to the year, but I don't really have any more trips planned, so here's the sum-up of what we've done here.

• Coaster count at start of 2024: 374
• Coaster count at end of 2024: 411
• Coaster count increase: 37 (one of the better ones, this)
• Park count at start of 2024: 80
• Park count at end of 2024: 87
• Park count increase: 7
• Number of coaster rides: 116
• Number of park visits: 16
• Unique coasters ridden: 65 (I think)
• Unique parks visited: 14
• Favourite new-to-me coaster of 2024: Technically Batman Gotham City Escape (#6), though Shambhala (#4) felt as good as new too, as I didn't remember much of it from my first visit.
• Favourite new-to-me non-coaster of 2024: Kitt Superjet and Hollywood Action Tower in Movieland both tie for the top spot. Both brilliantly wack and unique rides.
• Favourite new-to-me park of 2024: Parque Warner Madrid probably the only properly decent new park that I've done this year. Though, as with coasters, Movieland felt as good as now, having visited for the first time in 18 years and not remembering much from my childhood visits.
• Biggest positive surprise of 2024: Wild Train at Fantasiana. I kind of expected good, but nothing quite this good. I also didn't expect to love Shambhala as much as I did.
• Biggest disappointment of 2024: Voltron. Expected a challenger for my #1 spot, got an excellent, but extremely rattly coaster that just about managed to get into my top 20.
• Favourite coaster ride of 2024: Shambhala back row at night. As I've said elsewhere, I don't think B&M Hypers can get any better than that.
• Favourite park trip of 2024: Purely a park trip? Honestly, I really enjoyed the CF trip to Italy that we joined with my dad. It was fun meeting a bunch of you for the first time and having an absolute blast everywhere we went. And the day at Mirabilandia was probably my favorite park visit overall in 2024. There's just something in that park that pushes all of the right buttons for me. Our trips to Spain and Germany/Austria were good too, but I don't think the highlights of either were at parks.
• Biggest enthusiast achievement of 2024: Yeah, reaching #400 on Batman Gotham City Escape has to be it. It's been 5 years since my previous milestone (helped with the 2 years covid break from coaster riding), so I hope the next one comes a bit sooner than that.

 

[DelPiero]

• Coaster count at start of 2024: 656
• Coaster count at end of 2024: 768
• Coaster count increase: 112 - Highest cred year so far, by 15
• Park count at start of 2024: 149
• Park count at end of 2024: 163
• Park count increase: 14
• Number of park visits: 34

Favourite new-to-me coaster of 2024: ArieForce One - New number 1
Favourite new-to-me dark ride of 2024: Haunted Mansion - One of the best dark rides in the world
Favourite new-to-me flat ride of 2024: HollyWood Tower @ Movieland Park
Favourite new-to-me water ride of 2024: Escape from Pompeii @ BGW
Favourite new-to-me park of 2024: Busch Gardens Williamsburg
Biggest positive surprise of 2024: Haunted Mansion
Biggest disappointment of 2024: Skyrush with new trains
Favourite park trip of 2024: Murica 24
Biggest enthusiast achievement of 2024: Standard 700th milestone aside, I have all the Vekoma dutchman creds now.

Honourable Mentions: Riding the iconic Cyclone @ Luna Park. Shambhala finally living up to the hype. Voltron's entire package. The gay dragon, the most ridiculous spinning kiddy coaster and Magic Mountain @ New Jesolandia. Ai Pioppi The Submarine ride @ Movieland Park and both El Toro and Phoenix still running as good as I remember.

Most importantly, my group of goony friends, @Bentleya @chainedbanana and Emma for the many trips together this year, and the Murica 24 trip squad of @Mysterious Sue @ATTACKHAMMER @misstech @jayjay and @Howie + all the other goons I travelled with on random trips this year.

 

[ATTACKHAMMER]

What a year it’s been!

• Coaster count at start of 2024: 548
• Coaster count at end of 2024: 756
• Coaster count increase: 208
• Park count at start of 2024: 133
• Park count at end of 2024: 163
• Park count increase: 30
• Number of park visits: 38

Favourite new-to-me coaster of 2024: Banhsee at KI!
Favourite new-to-me dark ride of 2024: Monster Mansion at SFOG
Favourite new-to-me flat ride of 2024: A Break Dance somewhere
Favourite new-to-me water ride of 2024: Dollywood Rapids, maybe it’s something else I don’t know
Favourite new-to-me park of 2024: Busch Gardens Williamsburg
Biggest positive surprise of 2024: I305 being amazing
Biggest disappointment of 2024: Spited by Flying Turns
Favourite park trip of 2024: Murica 24
Biggest enthusiast achievement of 2024: Getting my 600th and 700th creds.

Other good stuff: Cyclone at Coney Island, ArieForce One, The coasters at Holiday World, staying in The Smokey Mountains, Dollywood, Knoebels, Kingda Ka, Ride To Happiness, visiting Ai Pioppi. Having beers with top people!

Not so good stuff: Being in the Funspot rest room with @DelPiero and @Howie, riding more Volares….

Thanks to everyone I’ve been on a trip with this year!

 

[Will]

I teared up a little at the end of fireworks the other week, simply because I didn’t want this season to end. But let’s go back to the start…

2024 began with a renewed enthusiasm. My much missed 'joi de vivre' and wanderlust were well and truly back- the pre-season coverage of Nemesis looked jaw dropping and Hyperia didn't look half bad either - this was to be the biggest year for UK theme parks since I was six years old and I had no intention of missing out. To cap it all, I forget the ins and outs, I came into some unexpected money, leading me to make a THIRD attempt at booking flights to Cincinatti. No viruses or associated political ineptitude were going to interferewith my cred count this time around.

This is about coasters primarily, but I will stick in a mention of the fact that I went to a gig shortly after my birthday with my best friend from my Smiler days - she'd seen my darkest side as I went into total self destruct in the weeks and months surrounding my unceremonious departure from Merlin employment and I’d suspected that would be the end of our friendship. I was relieved to find this was not the case; life don't seem so dark when I sing with her…

I’d meant to kick off the season with Blackpool on my birthday – but the weather forecast and reviews of the Pleasure Beach in early season were both so dire that I instead went walking in Bolton Abbey with Neal and we had a much nicer day.

Anyway - come March 16, I was actually in a ludicrous place called Cockayne, doing a riverside walk with the family for mother's day. I hit the road immediately after lunch and hot-footed it down to a VERY busy Alton Towers. With one thing and another, I didn't actually get on Nemesis that day; but I was there for the atmosphere and to see a few long lost friends and I was successful on both counts. That also meant my first ride on Nemesis Reborn was three days later - the 30th anniversary of the ride's opening.

The next few weeks passed with little event. I had an afternoon at Legoland and opened my cred account for the year - at last, I landed on US soil late on May 27 and by thefollowing afternoon, I was at the gates of Cedar Point - I had two days here, staying in a very pleasant hotel near Marblehead lighthouse. The views did not disappoint me. Cedar Point is not without its flaws - TT2 is TT2, SteVe too violent in parts and too busy to properly enjoy and a LOT of tedious filler coasters - it also kept clouding over and shutting everything. I didn't care much - I was FAR too happy and excited to finally be at the park I've been dreaming of for as long as I've been posting on this forum. Also,people need to talk about Rougarou more - it had no queue and I spenta lot of time riding it - the second half is disappointing, but the first half is so ****ing intense. I bought a fridge magnet.

King's Island was next up - as a B&M fanboy, I was actually more excited for this than CP and it also hadsome cool looking wood coasters, which CP... doesnt (sorry, Blue Streak). As planned, I hit 600 coasters on Banshee (roughly six years after I made Icon my 500th and eleven years on from 400) which is an insane coaster - riding it hit me like a bottle of scotch and I always needed a sit down afterwards. The day would turn sour towards the end as I got over-tired, realised the atmosphere at this park wasn't quite as friendly as its northern cousin... and then rode Flight of Fear,which broke me (I hadn't seen the layout and wasn't expecting anything more than Walking Dead!!)

The next day was the best of the trip -Diamondback and Orion may have been a little underwhelming, but therewere a few surprises here and there (Adventure Express) - I'd organised this vist to ensure I got a few night rides in. Beast hadhad some issues in the preceding days, with the park only confirming its reopening as I pulled onto the parking lot. I rode once and knew instantly that few wooden coasters were ever going to impress me again. Around 9:30, I got back in the queue, which, even with fastpass was best part of an hour long - I met an excitable young manwho'd been drinking all evening. (American style drinking – that is to say, he could still stand and speak clearly and that sort of thing) He gave me an Indy500 hat for my brother, which was nice. Anyway - this was almost certainly my single best ride on any coaster since I rode Shambhala while off my face back in 2017. I was leftre-evaluating everything I thought I knew about my coaster preferences. This would be my primary reason to return to this partof the states, much moreso than TT2 or the tilt coaster.

I had two more parks to visit: Holiday World and Kentucky Kingdom. It was PISSING it down when I arrived at the former – happily, my visit overlapped with ‘Holiwood Nights ’and thus everybody in the park was a goon. They weren’t overly impressed that I didn’t put Voyage in the same league as Beast (in my defense, my first ride was in torrential rain and rather painful )- I still don’t get the love, to be honest, but as I’ve riddenpitifully few decent wood coasters (to the extent that I still think Wickerman is pretty cool), this is one I’m glad to have ticked off.

The park was more pleasant than theother two, but there didn’t feel like there was enough to fill a day. Kentucky Kingdom was… Kentucky Kingdom. Happily, I ran into a group of goons from the previous day who gave me the tour and kept me company.

My count for the year now stood at 43. Not bad, considering it was early June. My route home involved a layover in New York – and as luck would have it, I realised that Sue, John and associated goons were at GADV that same day. In a moment of madness, I hired a car at the airport and decided to see how much of the park I could tick off in the five or so hours I’d be there. Kingda ****ing Ka was down for the majority of the time (which annoys me more now than it did then) but having accepted there was no way I had time to do a full cred run AND spend time with Sue, I decided I wanted to ride El Toro and that anything else was a bonus. So we lapped El Toro until it started to hurt, as well as finding time for another five creds – luckily, Green ‘ow, myfeet’ Lantern was one of them. I really hope that ride gets made into a floorless. I was greeted with ‘Will, how the hell are you so peppy?!’ from those who’d attempted a rather more full-onapproach to the trip.

I didn’t get any creds in June –but Nick talked me into going to my first ever music festival. Thisended up being arguably my best day of the year – seeing Creeper ,Atreyu, A7X and Machine ****ing Head all in one day.

I forget the date, but I also took thebrother to Silverstone qualifying, as I do every year. Normally, weget roasted, but this year thick raincoats were in order. The racingwas a lot more exciting than usual and he was very happy with theresult.

Meanwhile, in Rust, something VERY bigwas happening. I hadn’t been to Europa (my favourite park) since2015, as Phantasia always seemed cheaper and easier on public transport, but this was a coaster I refused to miss – at this pointin the season, Merlin’s ineptitude had allowed Hyperia to become a standing (but not operating) joke and Mack’s good name was in needof defending.

It was hot at Europa. In fact, I thinkthe temperature was higher than on any day in the States and thisrather sapped my energy. Happily, I was at my favourite theme park –I didn’t need to cred run, and I took it VERY steady. Voltron is amasterpiece in terms of appearance, but the ride is an acquired taste– a little much for me. The Euros were on as well and I got towatch the semi finals in the makeshift fanzone outside of Colosseo,which was a fantastic experience – especially when we beat the Dutch and I realised there weren’t many other England fansaround...

I picked up a stomach bug in Germany,which decided to come on rather violently during the final of theEuros. This delayed me starting my new part time job as a parcel courier.

EP took my count for the year to 52.Just three shy of my goal. While recuperating after a drinking binge the previous year, I’d rewatched the entirety of Game of Thronesand got REALLY into it, so a plan was hatched to go to the studio tour in Belfast with Neal – and tie in Emerald Park, as their new vekoma looked pretty cool. The weather in Dublin wasn’t too nice –we learned what ‘blight’ is, and I rode my 100th vekoma. There were cats in our airbnb. They were ‘great craic’. We also had a walk in Tollymore forest park, where some GoT scenes were filmed. We were impressed with Fianna Force. We were extremelyUNIMPRESSED with Dublin airport and Ryanair.

Summer came – and with it, a new joband my attendance at theme parks dropped significantly until October.I had a very mediocre day at Scarefest, as well as diving into Thorpefor a few hours the day after a gig at the O2 – I finally got onHyperia, which exceeded my expectations. It’s nuts and I don’t think I’ve ridden anything I can compare it to. Especially at thefront. It’s still severely overrated in these parts though. Aside from the huge success of Nemesis Reborn, Merlin have not had a good year.

In another moment of madness, I’d decided to round off the year with a Maiden gig on the east coast of the US (this was a month or so before they’d decide to announce aEuropean tour for 2025…) and see what Halloween was like overthere. After much deliberation, I chose Busch Gardens Williamsburg over the numerous parks a fair bit closer to Philadelphia. I also found time to go to the zoo and meet a tiger named Wizz.

BGW was hands down my favourite newpark of the year – the atmosphere and overall look of the park showed this was no Cedar Flags concrete jungle and that the place deserved its reputation. I was thoroughly impressed with Pantheon,which (I think) is my new favourite Intamin steel coaster – and onthe second night, I spent a fair chunk of time lapping Alpengeist inthe dark, making that another firm favourite and causing me torepeatedly go ‘They don’t make ‘em like this anymore…’

My 69th (nice) and final newcoaster of the year was Tempesto. You can’t win ‘em all.. This ruined the park’s chance to join Phantasialand on my very short list of parks with no bad coasters. Griffon and Apollo’s Chariot were also a little underwhelming – and the park operations were very poor. Neither of these factors ruined my mood. They also had a Halloween playlist consisting of early 2000s metal. I approved.

I felt a bit mopey on the final morning when I realised that 19 hours of travelling were all that was left of the trip – so I booked the next one. I’ll be spending my 37th birthday at either BGT or IoA.

As I say, it’s been a good year. Another five or so like that and my bucket list should be a good bit shorter.

[For some reason, when I paste from Word, it ****s the spacing up.]