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Highlights of your 2015 Season

Agreed, the Alton fireworks were indescribably good.

I keep going on about how good they are because I can't get over it and can't describe it!

That was definitely a highlight for me followed by Nemesis at night and the ENTHUSIIASSTS in the Alton Towers Hotel bar.

COUGHSKYRUSHCOUGH
 
It hasn't really been a huge coaster year for me in 2015, but I'll still try to make a list of memorable stuff that happened, good as bad, in chronological order:

- Construction tour at Djurs Sommerland's new family area "Bondegårdsland" with the always awesome CEO.

- Visiting Coney Island about two days before opening, I knew they weren't going to be open, but wanted to see it anyways and what a shady place. (studio trip to New York City with the school).

- Djurs Sommerland opening day, seeing the finished new area and getting stuck on Thors Hammer's MCBR (a first for me).
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- Getting interviewed by a danish magazine, giving them my favorite 10 coasters in Denmark.

- Co-Winning a marathon on Tivoli Gardens' "Rutschebanen".
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- Visiting Djurs Sommerland with my best friends.
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- Third Club-Trip with (my) CoasterClub Denmark at Hansa-Park with an awesome ERS session on the INTENSE Kärnan.
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- Riding the surprisingly good Höllenblitz at Hamburger DOM.

- A slow day at the always mediocre Legoland Billund.

- EAS 2015 in Gothenburg, complete with night rides at Liseberg, ABBA fireworks display and plenty of brochures! <3
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- Ending the season at Djurs Sommerlands halloween-event.

So thank you for the music and bring on 2016!
 
Park related:
*Best new cred: Goliath, SFGAm.
*Worst new cred: Wild Beast
*Most surprising new cred: Shivering Timbers
*Biggest spite: Lost Coaster of Superstition Mountain
*Park of the season: Canada's Wonderland
*Coolest park-related experience: FastLane Plus at a few Parks
*Best experience on a coaster: Front row first ride of the day on Fury 325
*Worst experience on a coaster: Wild Mouse in the rain, alone, at Beech Bend
*Best day at a park: Carowinds
*Worst day at a park: Wild Adventures (Spited on a couple creds)
*Best trip as a whole: Huge road trip- Beech Bend, Holiday World, Kentucky Kingdom, Indiana Beach, Six Flags Great America, Michigan's Adventure, Canada's Wonderland, Cedar Point, and Kings Island.

General:
*Scariest moment: Big storm coming on my Canada's Wonderland day
*Best people you met: No CFers
*Best moment on CF: Coaster Tournament (It keeps me active when I usually come and go)
*Coolest travel moment: I went to Thailand! (No coasters though)
*Biggest travel nightmare: Closed highway in Indiana...
*Funniest moment: Messing around at my Disney work location
*Single favorite memory: Got to love that big road trip, but also my last visit to Disney as a Cast Member.

Milestones:
*Park related
250: Swamp Thing, Wild Adventures
300: Leviathan, Canada's Wonderland
First RMCs (Goliath and New Texas Giant)
 
Following my trip to Orlando, I want to add fab White Lightning at Fun Spot and Chetah Hunt at Busch Gardens to my highlight list.

One silly highlight was after I rode Cheetah Hunt for the second time. Sitting on the brake run, I decided to adjust the seatbelt to the smallest point and then watch in laughter as the next rider looked puzzled by how short the buckle was despite seeing my fat arse get off. I think I might do this on all coasters now for the giggles.
 
Park related:
Best new cred - Fury 325
Worst new cred - Bandit at Movie Park
Most surprising new cred - The Winjas
Biggest spite - Mystery Mine
Park of the season - Phantasialand
Coolest park-related experience - Carowinds at night
Best experience on a coaster - Fury 335 at night
Worst experience on a coaster - Bandit again, so painful
Best day at a park - Busch Gardens Williamsburg all day walk on
Worst day at a park - Movie Park
Best trip as a whole - USA

General:
Scariest moment - First time on I305
Best people you met - All the friendly people in Tennessee
Best non-park experience - 3 american football games in 6 days.
Coolest travel moment - Stumbling on an alpine coaster just by chance
Biggest travel nightmare - Going from Movie Park the The Veltins Arena, then back to Movie Park.
The "Look Back on this and Laugh" award; aka a the funniest bit of bants/shade thrown. - The moron getting heckled for wearing a Cowboys Romo jersey at a Eagles Giants game. NFL fans will know how stupid this is, he got abuse from multiple angles.
Funniest moment - Tash laughing at the face I kept pulling on Alpengeist
Single favorite memory - Going to a Steelers game at Heinz Field

Milestones:
- New favorite Park - Phantasialand
200th - Wild Eagle
 
Hmm, seeing as my park visits are all done now it's probably time to write mine up.

Park related:
Best new cred - Really torn if I'm honest. Probably X2, such a fantastic experience.

Worst new cred - Hmm, either Magnus Colossus or Bandit.

Most surprising new cred - Rodelbaan in Waarbeek, such an old coaster but it provided some nice little moments of air time. For something which I thought might collapse I quite enjoyed the experience.

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Biggest spite - Roar at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom. Think that coaster looked really good, was sad that it closed less than a month before my visit.

Park of the season - Phantasialand. Never fails to amaze.

Coolest park-related experience - The backstage tour of Plopsaland de Panne

Best experience on a coaster - Riding Casey Jr at Disneyland Paris at midnight on Halloween. Everyone was singing the song and just in a joyous mood, had a smile on my face the whole time.

Worst experience on a coaster - Nothing comes to mind.

Best day at a park - Six Flags Magic Mountain. Expected the day to go so wrong and it ended up just being brilliant.

Worst day at a park - I'm not sure if I've really had a bad day as such? I've had the odd bit of weather woe (like the torrential downpour at Terra Mitica) but nothing really stands out as awful.

Best trip as a whole - Has to be California, finally getting to Disneyland and Magic Mountain. The year has been filled with some fantastic trips though.


General:
Scariest moment - Walking to hotel in Sequoia Forest and a deer in the darkness jumping and causing lots of sudden noise because we startled it. Proper jumped out of my skin moment :p

Best people you met - It was fantastic to finally meet Tomahawk and his wife, new member Thom has been awesome this year too.

Best moment on CF - On the forums? Not sure.

Best non-park experience - Doing a guided tour of the Sequoia forest in California. I loved every minute of it.

Coolest travel moment - Going over the Golden Gate Bridge after seeing it destroyed in nearly every disaster movie ever made.

Biggest travel nightmare - Driving around California (well, was the passenger but ya know what I mean)

Funniest moment - Rather torn between the moment at Efteling when the mass of water just randomly fell out of the sky and drenched everyone and messing about in the hotel in Germany where we "locked" Neal in the bedroom, we laughed and then he appeared behind us after climbing out of the hotel window. Both moments have had me in stitches for a lot of this year. Oh gawd, and there was also finding beer in Italy with Joey's face plastered on them - that caused much amusement.

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Single favourite memory - Not sure I have a stand out moment, this has generally been an excellent year.

Best food moment - The Tiramisu gelato/mousse I had in Pisa, Italy.


Milestones:
Park related - Spent 42 days of the year at theme parks, 8 of which were at Disneyland Paris.

New creds - 113 new creds. Reached 700 milestone and finished the year on 755 creds.


Some photos...

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Group photo in the Seqouia forest

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Work Summer party had a photo booth

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Venice is amazing

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Plopsa Coo has the most beautiful surroundings

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I also feel obliged to post this photo of Nic at the end of the day when birdgate happened in Belgium...

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Park related:
*Best new cred - Eejanaika, Fuji Q Highland. It's soooo bad, but so **** phenomenally good at the same time. Absolutely fantastic fun.

*Worst new cred - MPXpress, Movie Park Germany. What a pile of utter s**te.

*Most surprising new cred - Eejanaika to be honest. I didn't know anything about it other than it'd be my first 4D coaster, I didn't know if it'd be good, or bad, I'd hardly even heard of it. Amazing stuff. Shout out to Joris en de Draak Water, so much fun, loads of airtime, really speedy and pretty relentless!

*Biggest spite - Nagashima Spaland, 9 of the 12 creds were shut due to Typhoon Etau, and the only ones that were open were two kiddie creds and the corkscrew. What made it worse was that when we arrived we saw Steel Dragon 2000 operate, but when we got to it it was shut as the rain had increased. We went back later in the trip and got all of the coasters so all was well.

*Park of the season - DisneySea...duh. Words cannot describe how awesome this park is. The theming is unlike anything ever, it's just ridiculously good. Every attraction is pretty awesome too...they just need one or two more. But I adored it here. Special mention to Europa Park. In it's Halloween decor, it looked amazing <3

*Coolest park-related experience - I have two...and they both come from DisneySea, the first was this view.
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THAT IS THEMING GUYS, THEMING
The second was just casually walking into the single most amazing area of a theme park, just look! :')
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Loved it.

*Best experience on a coaster - The first drop of Steel Dragon 2000 is just phenomenal, and the launch of Dodonpa ain't half bad either ;)

*Worst experience on a coaster - During the day of the Fright Night media event, Serena dragged me on Saw with a hangover, I was in so much pain, I thought my eyeballs were gonna fall out of my head.

*Best day at a park - Not the best day at one park, but two days stick out, the first being the day I went to both the Madrid parks in one day, getting to Parque Warner on public transport for opening, and then back into central Madrid and going to Parque de Atracciones and getting all 13 creds :'). The second day was the epic trip from Osaka to Parque Espana for fabulous Pyrenees, then to Suzuka Circuit for 2 bonus creds nadroJ found, then to Nagashima Spaland to try again and got a casual +9, another 13 in a day :').

*Worst day at a park - The first day at Nagashima Spaland comes to mind obviously with the spite but I have mentioned that already, but I haven't had another 'bad' day at a park? I suppose the only other thing that comes to mind is driving with Conor and Jordan for 3 hours to Skegness for Odyssey to spite me a second time :/ was nice to celebrate Gavin's 1000 in Millennium Coaster though!

*Best trip as a whole - Japan, 16 days of great culture and credding. I loved every moment of the trip, so much fun.

General:
*Scariest moment - That bloody horror maze I was dragged around at Tokyo Dome City. I S*AT myself, not amused!

*Best people you met - Thom and Lofty, you're both fab <3 Special mention to Gavin, I had met him before but three years ago and we'd never properly spoken, it was great to chat to him properly in Ireland and the east coast trip we did.

*Best moment on CF - Well Taron in the back is obviously the highlight but everyone is mentioning that, you know what, I'm going to be dull, I just love reading the trip reports about all the far off places we all visit to ride rollercoasters, they make me laugh, think, want to be there, trip reports are fab.

*Best non-park experience - Climbing Mount Fuji, it was the hardest thing I have ever done, but it was so good and so worth it...I found myself and all that **** ;)

*Coolest travel moment - Unexpected bullet train from Osaka to Himeji for Himeji Central Park, also the several bus and train connections etc to get to the Mount Fuji base station.

*Biggest travel nightmare - Leaving my phone on a train in The Netherlands wasn't wise.

*The "Look Back on this and Laugh" award; aka a the funniest bit of bants/shade thrown - Richard's feet.

*Funniest moment - There are too many to mention so I probably just won't bother.

*Single favorite memory - Cramming Richard, Nealbie and Ploddish in the back of Sue's reasonably small car was certainly a highlight...whilst sticking the dinosaur with reflective jacket out the window.

Milestones:
*Park related - My 200th cred, de Vleermuis at Plopsaland de Panne, my 250th cred, Gadget's Go Coaster at Tokyo Disneyland, my 300th cred, Wild Mouse at Nagashima Spaland. My 50th park was Twinlakes, my 100th park was Connyland.

*General - Passed 1st year at uni and started my 2nd year, reached the highest altitude I have been, 3770m. That's it.

Also, post a photo lookback of your past season. Nothing crazy, just a stream of a few photos with minimal captioning telling the story of how your 2015 unfolded.

Nah.
 
Park related:

Best new cred: Griffon - I had no idea what to expect, but damn, I was not disappointed

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Worst new cred: Wicked Cyclone - It was a tough call, but I had a pretty awful time on this ride, I came off with one of the worst headaches of my life
Most surprising new cred: Verbolten - I had a feeling I'd love it, but I had no idea how much I would end up loving it

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Biggest spite:
Driving to Hershey only to find out I read the calendar wrong and the park was closed.
Park of the season: Busch Gardens Europe - 2015 was my first visit, and it wont be my last
Coolest park-related experience: Halloween Night at Lake Compounce - How they handled the tunnel at the entrance made that park awesome for the holiday
Best experience on a coaster: Phoenix, everytime is the best time
Worst experience on a coaster: Goliath @ SFNE - The entire thing, all of it, its scrap
Best day at a park: Busch Gardens Europe - Thanks to Hurricane Joaquin, the park was totally empty
Worst day at a park: Knoebels in october - The entire back half of the park was closed, that includes twister, flying turns, phoenix, all the flat rides. Basically everything except Impulse and the kids area.

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Best trip as a whole: The entire weekend going to BGE, the dirve down was perfect, the park was perfect, and I was there with my best friend

General:

Scariest moment: Riding Tempesto in the midst of a Hurricane knowing a strong wind could stall the train
Best people you met: Kim
Best moment on CF: Actually placing in the NL Compeition
Best non-park experience: Getting my first full time job
Coolest travel moment: Heading out to Palm Springs, CA
Biggest travel nightmare: Literally all of the traffic traveling out to Palm Springs
Funniest moment: Dad struggling with the Bluetooth system in the rental car in CA
Single favorite memory: Above & Beyond at Day 2 of Electric Zoo

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Milestones:

Park related: One new park that I drove 7hrs to reach
General: Landed my first full time job, graduated, experience my first music festival, and got to travel a lot.
 
Jer said:
Worst new cred: Wicked Cyclone - It was a tough call, but I had a pretty awful time on this ride, I came off with one of the worst headaches of my life
How did/can you get headache on Wicked Cyclone? It's by far the smoothest coaster I've ridden. :?
 
Sanchezmran said:
Jer said:
Worst new cred: Wicked Cyclone - It was a tough call, but I had a pretty awful time on this ride, I came off with one of the worst headaches of my life
How did/can you get headache on Wicked Cyclone? It's by far the smoothest coaster I've ridden. :?

I think it literally rattled my brain. I was sitting in the back on a wheel, between the off vibrations in the train, and the snappiness and "forced" feel of the airtime it gave me a really bad headache.

Oddly enough, the second ride was fine.
 
Uh... these things?

https://flic.kr/p/v2oTES by CanobieFan
The Orlando Eye opened.. after years of being off an on. Although since it took so long, it never became the tallest wheel in the US, at 400 feet its the second tallest in the states.


https://flic.kr/p/wmNMvJ by CanobieFan
Fury 325! GD this coaster is so good! I was surprised by Leviathan so when Fury was announced I was itching to try it.. And after making the 8 hour drive to Carowinds.. I wasn't disappointed <3


https://flic.kr/p/xjDDAa by CanobieFan
Thunderbolt at Luna Park / Scream Zone.. was uh, pretty ok. I was just happy to finally make it to the new Coney Island. Having grown up going to the older Coney... After moving to Florida I kept trying to return but ran into problems... Like, uh... Hurricane Irene


https://flic.kr/p/wBR7KD by James N
Maannn, after 7 years of work, Flying Turns opened in late 2013... And this summer I made my first trip back to Knoebels since 2007 and I was able to make Turns my 800th roller coaster <3


https://flic.kr/p/yVCB3x by CanobieFan
And lastly, in the fall.. I was able to visit Zero Gravity in Texas and do something I've wanted to do for more than half of my life..... (try out the SCAD tower... and in turn, do it 3 times back to back!) Even did an entire blog post of ramblings about it here
 
Park related:

Best new cred

Fluch Von Novgorod is my new number one after riding it this year, because it's as immensely themed as it is immensely forceful. But, I've been hugely impressed by several others.

Cu Chullain (especially in the back) blew me away, lovely first drop and really substantial ride time. Sure it has the dodgy over bank, but the rest is wonderful and so re-rideable.

Baron 1898 is something really special (well it was built in Efteling!) I love how Baron is different from the other Dive Machines in both how it looks and how it rides. Less build up and suspense, more dark ride and floatiness <3 and a Zero-G thrown in! Yay!

Takabisha was just perfect. If it were themed it would be my number one, but it is exceptionally drab in the imagination department.

Honorable mention to Veil Of Dark, I love a unique coaster and this one was so much fun! I also really liked the Arthur ride at Europa, it has a great mix of effects and scenes.

*Worst new cred

Hmm. It's a toss up between Blue Fire and Flug Der Daemonen. Obvs there are worse creds I've ridden this year, but these two disappointed me the most. The ONLY thing Blue Fire has going for it is the ejector-y inversion at the end. The rest is a complete non-event. So dull.

Flug looks all wonky and wonderful, has a cool theme and a brilliant soundtrack. But the ride itself...ugh!? It's jerky, sluggish and forceless. The restraints prevent any airtime on the hill, and the rest is just forgettable. I honestly enjoyed standing in the queue listening to the music more than the actual ride.


*Most surprising new cred

Krake. It doesn't get much hype but I found it breathtaking, and it looks so cool.

*Biggest spite

Karnan was testing when I went to Hansa Park and it opened the day after I flew home. :'(

*Park of the season

Tokyo DisneySea. I look back on that magical, cloudy day now and it all just seems surreal. The level of themeing in every area, on every ride; is just something else. It has to be seen to be believed! My fave area was the stunningly pretty Mermaid Lagoon <3 The ride selection is brilliant as well, lots of thrilling stuff for a Disney park!

Honorable mention to Winter Efteling, so atmospheric!

*Coolest park-related experience

Being walked onto rides at Europa and getting to try the new VR coaster there; all with plenty of goonformation thrown in! Love a good maintenance shed, me!

*Best experience on a coaster

Getting diverted into the Space Mountain maintenance shed at Tokyo Disneyland because our train of English fatties weighed too much!

*Worst experience on a coaster

Feeling like I was going to throw up on Colossus. That thing is gross.

*Best day at a park

Hmm. I really enjoyed Plospaland, it was just an all round fun day. Fuji Q Highland was great as well, doing rain dances so we could get all the creds!

*Worst day at a park

Wasn't a whole day, but getting to Sega Joypolis late and missing out on loads of strange arcade games and dark rides; I was totally gutted.

I didn't like Wiener Prater much either.

*Best trip as a whole

Japan. So many amazing memories of laughter and cuteness!

General:
*Scariest moment

I have to agree with NHS Jordan, the horror attraction at Tokyo Dome City was terrifying! Standing in the cold with my face to the wall, waiting to be dragged off into Face It Alone at Thorpe Park comes a close second though!

*Best people you met

It was nice to meet a few new CFers this year: Chris Brown is cool, and it was good to meet Thom VD and Slayed.

*Best moment on CF

The surname game at Ghosterforce! "Sue's not Shaw, but Jordan Wood!" and...

#WAYBOLD

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*Best non-park experience

Getting serenaded by a man dressed in a Shrimp costume at Bubba Gumps in Tokyo. And the fab tacky night out in Blackpool.

*Coolest travel moment

Err, dunno..I guess doing my first long haul flight on my own despite being a really nervous flyer?

*Biggest travel nightmare

Signing autographs in an airport... :oops:

*The "Look Back on this and Laugh" award; aka a the funniest bit of bants/shade thrown.

#BummingAroundEurope

*Funniest moment

Literally too many to mention <3 Probably "Mudvanney"

*Single favorite memory

Watching the Happiness Is Here parade at Disney, desperate trying to hide that I was welling up in front of Stone Cold. A lot of bugs "flew into my eyes"




Milestones:

*Park related. Got my 300th cred.

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