How Has Your Enthusiasm Grown or Changed?

[Sticky_T_Wicky]

I had always enjoyed roller coasters but my enthusiasm didn't really start until ~2018/2019 and then exploded in 2021. There was a storm of about 4 factors that turned me into into an enthusiast. The first and most innocent was my first Prowler rides (and night rides) in 2018 and my first Outlaw Run rides in 2019 and realizing what a good roller coaster can actually do. Prior to that, my assumption was that coasters at other parks were not all that much better than Mamba (pre 2022), Patriot, Timber Wolf all at Worlds of Fun or Outlaw, Dragon, Tornado at Adventureland so I didn't really care to ever make bigger trips. The second was the year 2020 with factors 2 and 3... Ending a long term relationship early in the year combined with the pandemic changed a lot of things about me with most notably, going from an extremely frugal person to being more willing to spend on hobbies I liked. Finally, I also received a substantial promotion and pay raise in late 2020 which made funding trips that much easier.

Now some irony, as I've grown more into an enthusiast, my focus on coaster stats has decreased. That attention has shifted into paying more attention to the engineering side of coasters.

 

[AidanCKY]

As a child i'd care about coaster counts but as an adult I couldn't care less. Honestly makes me cringe seeing 40 year olds riding kiddie coasters purely for an arbitrary number.
I'm also not as bothered about reriding as much as possible.

 

[Nicky Borrill]

As a child i'd care about coaster counts but as an adult I couldn't care less. Honestly makes me cringe seeing 40 year olds riding kiddie coasters purely for an arbitrary number.
I'm also not as bothered about reriding as much as possible.

The first point I totally get, it's a bit weird isn't it?

Second one is beyond my scope of comprehension, I ride coasters because I enjoy them, if there's a coaster I particularly enjoy, why wouldn't I want to ride it as many times as possible? One and done on a great coaster seems like an attitude that contradicts the first point, like something somebody would do if they're only in it for the count.

Maybe there's also an element of the 80's council estate kid in my coming out with the thriftiness, if I pay £40 to get into a park, but get to ride my favourite coaster 20 times, it seems like good value.

 

[AidanCKY]

The first point I totally get, it's a bit weird isn't it?

Second one is beyond my scope of comprehension, I ride coasters because I enjoy them, if there's a coaster I particularly enjoy, why wouldn't I want to ride it as many times as possible? One and done on a great coaster seems like an attitude that contradicts the first point, like something somebody would do if they're only in it for the count.

Maybe there's also an element of the 80's council estate kid in my coming out with the thriftiness, if I pay £40 to get into a park, but get to ride my favourite coaster 20 times, it seems like good value.

Definitely not one and done, but I definitely like to soak in a parks atmosphere and look at how it all works off-ride a lot more now rather than get as many rides in as possible.

 

[Matt N]

Each to their own, of course, but I count because I simply find it interesting watching my count grow over time, and I find it really interesting to see how many coasters I’ve actually done. I don’t generally ride kiddie coasters, but I still count purely because I find it interesting. I am quite a statistically-driven person in general, though, and I really enjoy the statistical side of the hobby.

I do often feel a little bad about counting, however, as rightly or wrongly, the inference I often get is that those who don’t count sometimes look down upon those who do and view themselves as “correct” for not counting, if you like. I often feel like I shouldn’t be counting or that I’m not “appreciating the hobby properly”, if you will, as it seems like many enthusiasts look down upon those who count, and infer that those who count are “doing it wrong”, and “weird”. I could be completely wrong there and I apologise if I am, but rightly or wrongly, that’s the feeling I often get.

As for reriding; I’ll definitely try and reride something at least a few times if I really enjoy it! I’ll usually try and get as many rides in as possible during a day, personally! Each to their own, of course, but my thought is; if I enjoy something, why wouldn’t I want to do it again many times?

 

[RevolutionRuleZ]

I am a lot less enthusiastic now as I once was, mainly due to my home park killing the desire to visit.

BPB once was they place to be, it was alive and fun, these days its a shadow of its former self. I visit now with my son and feel like I'm dragging him around for the sake of it, honestly he doesn't care if we go or not but I'm so kean for him to pick up the enthusiasm I once had for the place, alas, with slow moving queues and early closings that will never happen.

We recently watched the famous series from the 90s and while I felt like it was yesterday, he said it felt like a different park, and seemed a lot better back then.

Needless to say we don't visit often anymore, despite me loving 4-5 of the rides there and putting them above most others in the country, he finds other things to do on the weekends now.

Its hard to convince a 16 year old that waiting in line for 30+ minutes while the Avalanche runs 1 train is a good use of his time particularly when he's been on it hundreds of times in the past.

 

[Nitefly]

The first point I totally get, it's a bit weird isn't it?

Second one is beyond my scope of comprehension, I ride coasters because I enjoy them, if there's a coaster I particularly enjoy, why wouldn't I want to ride it as many times as possible? One and done on a great coaster seems like an attitude that contradicts the first point, like something somebody would do if they're only in it for the count.

Maybe there's also an element of the 80's council estate kid in my coming out with the thriftiness, if I pay £40 to get into a park, but get to ride my favourite coaster 20 times, it seems like good value.

Sometimes, I find the optimum amount of times to ride a coaster is to call it a day when you're still really keen to ride it again. I've had the opportunity to ride superb rides again and again I've decided... no, those rides were so good, I'm happy to leave the park with that memory and sustain that super enthused feeling... in that strange way that less can sometimes be more, you know? But other times, if I'm really digging it, I'll re-ride as much as possible. It just depends, I guess...!

 

[Strathven]

I became a roller coaster nerd really young, like when I was a toddler. We'd go to Six Flags Astroworld (RIP) and I loved watching the roller coasters run, even though I was afraid to actually ride them. I'd check out books about them from the local library, spend hours browsing CoasterGallery, CoasterImage and TwistedRails, play Roller Coaster Tycoon 2 and 3 and Ultimate Ride and Sim Theme Park. But as a child, there was really only so far that I could go into the technical aspects of things, and I was dependent on family vacations to actually ride anything.

As an adult, my love of roller coasters has only gotten deeper and more robust. I can understand the technical stuff a lot better now, plus I now have an art education and love to view roller coasters through that lens, as works of art. And beyond just being fun, they've inspired me to lose weight (after suddenly regaining my love of theme parks, I lost over 100lbs over the spring of 2017 so I could go to Six Flags in the summer, and have managed to keep it off ever since), they give me something to bond with my nieces and nephews over, and they ignited my interest in photography!

 

[Tonkso]

And beyond just being fun, they've inspired me to lose weight (after suddenly regaining my love of theme parks, I lost over 100lbs over the spring of 2017 so I could go to Six Flags in the summer, and have managed to keep it off ever since), they give me something to bond with my nieces and nephews over, and they ignited my interest in photography!

It's interesting you say this, it was seeing someone ushered to the fat seats on Nemesis Inferno back in 2017 that triggered me to lose my weight.