I have to agree pretty much 100% with what Furie has been saying; the perceived "fame" of a coaster is going to be almost universally decided by the demographic of the people you come into contact with.
The idea that practically everyone knows the names of the Florida coasters is, for example, absolutely ludicrous. I can appreciate that if you and your friends have grown up with holidays in Florida and weekend trips to DLP that it might be hard to fathom that - while that may be an "average" upbringing for you - there are huge swathes of the country that simply don't have those same experiences.
One or two, absolutely. All of them? Not likely. Actually I think there's very much a North/South divide with this. People in the south may have more of an awareness of Blackpool and Alton Towers, even if they've never been, since those parks have a lot of history, have had plenty of media attention over the years and are widely regarded, rightly or wrongly, as two of the best parks in the country. Go to Alton Towers and you'll hear plenty of southern accents and see coaches parked up from all over the country for example.
People up in the north, while at least being aware of Alton and Blackpool - regardless of visiting or not - will have little to no clue about Thorpe Park or Chessington, though. That might be hard to fathom if you're living anywhere south of Birmingham, but it's true.
For example, for the last 3 years I've used a Thorpe Park map to teach classes on advertising and persuasive techniques (it's not a navigational tool after all!), and in all that time only one - ONE - person has ever actually been, with only another 3 or 4 having ever heard about it.
Think about that for a second - that's a total of between 160-180 fifteen/sixteen year olds (Thorpe's target audience) and only about 5 of those people have even heard of it. Most of the kids are shocked and excited when they find out it's a real place (not just pulled from some text book) and that's it's in this country.
So yeah, just to reiterate really that personal experience and experience of those immediately around you does not necessarily equate most generally "famous".
To answer the question, in the UK the most famous, generally, has to be The Big One. Regardless of visiting Blackpool or not, there will be more general awareness of that coaster than any other in the UK. Proximity to the park will have less effect on the "fame" of the coaster than, say, something at Thorpe since Blackpool is, for better or worse, an iconic British holiday destination. The media coverage for The Big One was country-wide and was enormous. Younger people won't remember that, but their parents will. There are still people - and not just a small handful either - who think it's the tallest roller coaster in the world.
The idea that practically everyone knows the names of the Florida coasters is, for example, absolutely ludicrous. I can appreciate that if you and your friends have grown up with holidays in Florida and weekend trips to DLP that it might be hard to fathom that - while that may be an "average" upbringing for you - there are huge swathes of the country that simply don't have those same experiences.
A-Kid said:
One or two, absolutely. All of them? Not likely. Actually I think there's very much a North/South divide with this. People in the south may have more of an awareness of Blackpool and Alton Towers, even if they've never been, since those parks have a lot of history, have had plenty of media attention over the years and are widely regarded, rightly or wrongly, as two of the best parks in the country. Go to Alton Towers and you'll hear plenty of southern accents and see coaches parked up from all over the country for example.
People up in the north, while at least being aware of Alton and Blackpool - regardless of visiting or not - will have little to no clue about Thorpe Park or Chessington, though. That might be hard to fathom if you're living anywhere south of Birmingham, but it's true.
For example, for the last 3 years I've used a Thorpe Park map to teach classes on advertising and persuasive techniques (it's not a navigational tool after all!), and in all that time only one - ONE - person has ever actually been, with only another 3 or 4 having ever heard about it.
Think about that for a second - that's a total of between 160-180 fifteen/sixteen year olds (Thorpe's target audience) and only about 5 of those people have even heard of it. Most of the kids are shocked and excited when they find out it's a real place (not just pulled from some text book) and that's it's in this country.
So yeah, just to reiterate really that personal experience and experience of those immediately around you does not necessarily equate most generally "famous".
To answer the question, in the UK the most famous, generally, has to be The Big One. Regardless of visiting Blackpool or not, there will be more general awareness of that coaster than any other in the UK. Proximity to the park will have less effect on the "fame" of the coaster than, say, something at Thorpe since Blackpool is, for better or worse, an iconic British holiday destination. The media coverage for The Big One was country-wide and was enormous. Younger people won't remember that, but their parents will. There are still people - and not just a small handful either - who think it's the tallest roller coaster in the world.
