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Your longest theme park hiatus?

spicy

Giga Poster
As the 2019 season draws to a close I was thinking, damn I am in serious need of a rollercoaster fix but with no overseas theme park trips coming up anytime soon I guess Olympia Looping will do until March and the 2020 season starts.

Then it got me thinking, I haven’t visited a theme park since June 2018, which has to be my longest theme park hiatus since I was tall enough to ride coasters.

I haven’t actively been avoiding going to theme parks, actually the opposite and been trying to find the time to visit one.

So either intentionally or unintentionally, what’s your longest theme park hiatus?
 

JoshC.

Strata Poster
I guess when I was doing my undergrad degree at uni I'd have my last visit of the season mid-October, and my first visit of the new season wouldn't be until last March / very early April. So that's probably my biggest.

In more recent years when I've been travelling more, my longest gap is usually start of January until beginning of the main season, since I rarely bother with February half term events and don't travel too exotically.
 

TilenB

Strata Poster
My longest hiatus since I've joined CoasterForce was 386 days between visiting Walibi Holland in August 2014 and a little +1 place (and Phantasialand the next day) in Germany in September 2015.

386 is also the country calling code of Slovenia, which must mean something.

My country doesn't have any theme parks...

...and that is surely the reason why the hiatus was quite that long.
 

Jamesss

Hyper Poster
2014 - 2016.

Almost three years of no parks due to health problems.

I know it's a bit clichéd to say it, but being physically unwell really does make you realise what you take for granted when you're fit and healthy.

During that period I swore to myself that as soon as I got better I would make a point of going on more park trips.

And I have stuck to that promise. As soon as I felt well enough, I booked a trip to Florida, and since then I have been to California, UAE, Sweden, Holland, as well as a number of other park and non-park-related trips.

Do things while you can.
 

cookie

Giga Poster
Starting from 2014, my longest hiatus has been 359 days (August 4th, 2014 to July 29th, 2015), with it being Hansa Park both times. I know the exact dates because I finally recorded Schlange von Midgard on my 2014 visit and my 2015 visit included of course Kärnan.

In order to achieve a hiatus longer than that, I wouldn't have to go to any park until after July 27th, 2020. I try to do at least one park in the April/May span every year so hopefully it won't take that long.
 

MestnyiGeroi

Giga Poster
In the 70s and 80s, I went to parks a lot.
Then in all of the 90s, I think I went to Great Adventure once, and Hershey once. EDIT: Oh, and Marriott’s Great America once.
In the 00s, I think I went to Magic Mountain once and Cedar Point once for a couple of days.
Then in the 10s, I kicked back into gear.
 

Nicky Borrill

Strata Poster
2004 to 2016... Had children and got too fat to ride coasters...

Up to 2004 I was at a park every week, also working Alton Towers and Fantasy Island...
Then came the kids, and I ballooned to 23.5 stone!!! Few years ago I decided enough was enough, lost 7 and a half stone and was able to rekindle my love for this hobby.
 

CanobieFan

Strata Poster
Working for a park and having AP's for the local parks and SP's for most other... I basically go to a park every single week ...although when It comes to the Orlando parks half the time I don't even ride things, I just go to walk around or get something to eat (like tonight just going to Epcot to see the new fireworks because I've only seen them once so far... but actually started at Fun Spot to see the construction of their new, used coaster) and last week I went to two separate fairs ha. Although before moving to Florida I used to go from Halloween-ish till mid-April. All the New England parks pretty much closed after Halloween and didn't reopen until the spring. Although now Six Flags does Holiday in the park...but when I was younger and they didn't even have Halloween events most Parks were Memorial Day through Labor Day (May/Sept) but outside of off-season, I never had an actual downtime.
 

Peet

Giga Poster
Accoding to my records...
Since I first started riding big coasters in 2004 my longest gap has been 214 days which was the 2004/05 closed season. My longest gap in the last 5 years was 139 days over 2015/16 closed season. That actually sounds like quite a long time!
 

Hyde

Matt SR
Staff member
Moderator
Social Media Team
I don't have an official time clock, but my time in undergraduate from 2008 to 2011 definitely had some major park visit gaps (and months on end of not being active on CF).

Rather than big gaps, there are definitely ebbs and flows of park attendance each year. This year is a pretty low water mark - had to attend many weddings and other travel that translated to not doing as many park visits. Hoping to play some catch-up next year with new coasters opening and having to travel more for work (which may create more new park opportunity).
 

Edward M

Strata Poster
My 2018 was very lowkey, especially as compared to the 10 years beforehand. I was at the oh-so-wonderful Cedar Point Live and went to Six Flags Over Georgia as well. However, after that visit in June, I didn't end up visiting another park until a year later when I visited Liseberg. I may have gone to Great Adventure in the fall of 2018, but that year-long gap would still be the winner.
 

Sandman

Giga Poster
July 2011 - April 2013 is my longest hiatus. I slowly fell out of interest for a while, a lot of friends I had in the community kinda dropped off the wagon and loads of forums started dying out. I think that those years were quite a transitional period in the community. Kind of glad I took some time away though, because it gave me time to realise how much I enjoyed this hobby!
 

Ben

CF Legend
Uhhhh I don’t have dates like apparently half of y’all but really my first year or so after I graduated - mainly 2012 and quite a bit of 2013 - was pretty slow. It wasn’t really until Sweden in 2014 that things started picking up again for me and now it’s pretty much never more then a month or so, even recent offseasons I’ve done something every December or January.
 

Howie

Donkey in a hat
No idea.
When other posts in this thread begin with the words 'according to my records...' I know I'm gonna be completely out-gooned on this one. But, to the best of my memory, I don't think I've had a totally park-less season since the mid 1980's.
Did they even have spreadsheets back then? ?
 
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