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What have you learned in your years as an enthusiast?

Matt N

Matt N

CF Legend
Hi guys. Some on here have been theme park enthusiasts for a very long time, and over a period of multiple years, you’re bound to learn a thing or two. Whether you’ve learned what you most enjoy or whether you’ve learned how to get the best out of a park or ride, years of visiting parks is bound to have taught you things and shaped your perspectives in some way. I know it certainly has for me! With this in mind, I’d be interested to know; what have you learned in your years as a theme park enthusiast? What have your years of park visiting experience taught you, and what new perspectives have you gained from years of coaster riding and park visiting?

I’ll get the ball rolling with some of the things I’ve learned over my years of theme park visiting…

Personally, I can currently think of two, off the top of my head:
  1. The first thing I can think of is that you can’t always judge a coaster based on only one ride. In my early years of theme park enthusiasm, I often only rode things once and didn’t get what people said about needing multiple rerides to fully appreciate something. I used to think that if I truly loved a coaster, I knew it from the very first ride. The second I first got off The Swarm in July 2014, I instantly knew I loved it and I instantly knew it was my #1. The second I first got off Mako in August 2016, I instantly knew I loved it and I instantly knew it was my #1. The second I got off Icon in August 2018, I instantly knew I loved it and I instantly knew it was right up there with Mako (despite it now only being my #11, it felt like one of the times Mako came closest to being dethroned when I first got off in 2018). But in recent years, I’ve grown increasingly sceptical of my previous theory that you can fully get the measure of a revered coaster based on only one ride. The key formative moment that taught me this was when I went to Florida last year and rode both VelociCoaster and Iron Gwazi, amongst others, for the first time. Both rides were brilliant on the first run… but I wasn’t instantly sold on them being absolutely top tier for me. In both cases, though, the second ride really was the charm; both VelociCoaster and Iron Gwazi were catapulted into that top tier after I took a reride, and it was the second ride that showed me just how great they both were. To some extent, I also experienced this with Hyperia at Thorpe Park recently; I absolutely loved it the first time, but it took the second ride to make me conclusively think that it was absolutely top tier. Now I will say that this mainly applies to hyped up, revered coasters for me; I still feel I can get the true measure of a kiddie coaster, Reverchon spinning wild mouse or Zamperla Volare from one ride without feeling the need to reride. If I actively don’t rate something, it’s unlikely that a second ride will change that. But in those cases where I love something, but I’m not sure if I think it’s truly top tier, I’ve learned that it sometimes takes a second ride to truly determine the full measure of it. Sometimes, of course, my initial opinion won’t change that much or it might possibly even decrease, but in some other glorious cases, everything falls into place with that reride, and the second ride shows me how truly top tier a coaster is when the first ride didn’t quite.
  2. The other thing I’ve learned is that intensity isn’t everything, and it’s fun and rerideability that’s truly important to me. In my very early years of riding big coasters, I used to be mildly dismissive of things that weren’t intense. In my early years of big coaster riding at Alton Towers, for example, my mentality was “1.4m height restriction or bust” once I was tall enough to ride the big 1.4m coasters. But over the years, I’ve grown to realise that there can be a point at which intensity is too much, and that the most enjoyable coaster experiences for me are the ones that are just plain fun and really rerideable. Intensity can definitely contribute to a fun and highly enjoyable ride for me, and being fun, thrilling and rerideable are definitely key components of a coaster that ranks highly for me, but I have definitely learned that the coasters that blow your head off with intensity are often not the ones I enjoy the most, and there are some coasters that aren’t particularly intense that I rate very highly. Hagrid’s at Universal is not an overly intense coaster, but it’s just such utterly joyous fun that I enjoyed it immensely and couldn’t not place it in my top 10! Wicker Man at Alton Towers is not an overly intense coaster, but the fun airtime and pacing makes me laugh so much that it can’t not be in my top 10 and 10/10 tier! Rides like these do not necessarily blow your head off with intensity, but are ridiculously good fun, and it’s rides like these that taught me that I truly care most about that combination of fun, thrills and rerideability rather than out-and-out intensity.
Those are just some of the lessons I’ve learned over my years of theme park enthusiasm; if I think of any more, I’ll post them! But I’d be interested to know; what lessons have you learned in your years of coaster riding and theme park visiting? What perspectives have your years of experience unearthed?
 
That having a low credit count is actually one of the highlights of being an enthusiast. I see people with under 100 credits thinking to themselves "I wish I had as many coasters ridden as you guys" but they always seem to miss the fact that when your credit count is "low", then that means almost everything you ride is a new experience to you, and that only ever happens once. As the credit count increases, you start to gain quite a feel for how something might ride before you board it, and finding new experiences becomes more difficult, but when you're at a level where almost everything you get on is something you've never done before, there's nearly some sort of aura of mystery going into them.

You go into rides thinking "oh, yay, a wild mouse! I really like these" but as time and years progress you start to think "oh. Another mouse ride" instead. The whimsical joy in thinking everything is a fantastic ride is something I wish I could go back to sometimes. I kind of miss those days where I loved everything I got on back when the count was lower, but unfortunately as my ride count got higher so did expectations and standards and they just don't quite hit the same anymore. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy with my increasing count, but I fondly remember the days where I actually liked janky Pinfaris.
 
Rob Coasters said:
That having a low credit count is actually one of the highlights of being an enthusiast. I see people with under 100 credits thinking to themselves "I wish I had as many coasters ridden as you guys" but they always seem to miss the fact that when your credit count is "low", then that means almost everything you ride is a new experience to you, and that only ever happens once. As the credit count increases, you start to gain quite a feel for how something might ride before you board it, and finding new experiences becomes more difficult, but when you're at a level where almost everything you get on is something you've never done before, there's nearly some sort of aura of mystery going into them.

You go into rides thinking "oh, yay, a wild mouse! I really like these" but as time and years progress you start to think "oh. Another mouse ride" instead. The whimsical joy in thinking everything is a fantastic ride is something I wish I could go back to sometimes. I kind of miss those days where I loved everything I got on back when the count was lower, but unfortunately as my ride count got higher so did expectations and standards and they just don't quite hit the same anymore. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy with my increasing count, but I fondly remember the days where I actually liked janky Pinfaris.
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This is a good one!

I do sometimes get concerned that I’ll get increasingly finicky and difficult to please as my coaster count grows, and part of me is concerned that that’s already starting to happen. Times like being underwhelmed by both of the new-for-2023 B&Ms I did last year (Pipeline and Mandrill Mayhem), as well as being underwhelmed to non-plussed by much of what I recently did in East Anglia (the only coaster on that trip that made my top 50% was Roller Coaster at GYPB, which was admittedly really good fun!), have made me somewhat concerned about this to some degree.

But then I guess you still have the moments where something does still wow you, and it’s all the better! The VelociCoasters, the Iron Gwazis, the Hagrids, the Hyperias… the moments on rides like those that really wow you are still pretty magical, and if anything, they’re possibly even more magical when they still impress within an elevated coaster count!
 
I enjoyed being an enthusiast more when I stopped judging/ranking coasters.

I still count creds and keep track of them as I find stats fun, but since I stopped setting expectations for coasters and nitpicking minor faults I found myself having a lot more fun. You look at it from a whole new perspective and suddenly those small +1s become a lot more fun and you notice the smaller details.

It's probably because I have kids now which meant my theme park trips slowed down massively over the past few years and I came back into it with fresh eyes. I find coasters that are fun/re rideable better than the big thrill machines. Call me controversial but I rate Wicker Man over Nemesis any day. 😂
 
  • You can judge a coaster by its cover. Vekoma SLC? Yeah, that'll be rubbish. Nu-Vekoma? Yeah, that'll be fun, smooth, possibly slightly over-engineered. Intamin multi-launch? That'll be good. 20+ year old B&M? Will be intense, little head-banging, showing its age, but still fab. It's not a perfect rule, but you will get a good idea of what you're getting just by looking at the coaster.

  • The less you know, the better. Let me tell you a story. Late 2008. Corkscrew at Alton Towers was about to be removed for a new coaster to open in 2010. A 14 year old JoshC was told that that coaster would have vertical drop track, but keep that secret. Tbf, many people ended up being able to piece that together long before that was revealed in March 2010, but I had known almost 18 months before that official reveal. It was almost 3 years from finding out about Thirteen's secret that I actually rode it. And don't get me wrong, I like Thirteen. But imagine how much more I'd have enjoyed it if I didn't know?

  • Never say "I won't get there". Moreso when you're younger, it's easy to think "I won't ever get the chance to get to that theme park". Again, I remember thinking that about Phantasialand when I was younger, and watching POVs of (and reading all about) Winjas. And, like Thirteen, I ended up riding it, liking it, but knowing all its secrets beforehand. It would have been so much more cool had I known nothing going in. So yeah, never think you won't go to a park, or won't ride a ride...as long as it's open, there's a chance.

  • Enthusiasts are great. There's some amazing people who are enthusiastic about coasters, who are just lovely. It's a great community to be a part of.

  • Enthusiasts suck. For balance. There some awful people who are enthusiastic about coasters, who just grate you and everyone around you. It's a minority, but it's a fact of life.

  • Roller coaster element names are stupid. I still don't know what a step-up-under-flip actually is, and frankly I don't care. Nor do I know what a dragon roll is. Is there an element called a twisted knot? Who knows. And what the bloody heck is a jo-jo roll? And why is it called a banana roll; it doesn't roll and doesn't look like a banana?!
    (In saying that, Untamed's 270° double inverting corner stall - affectionately the 270° dics - remains my favourite inversion, by on-ride experience and name)

  • Don't let anyone else tell you how to enjoy your hobby. You want to only visit Merlin parks and lap Mandrill Mayhem for the rest of time because it's your favourite coaster? Cool. You don't count creds? Fine. You only ride thrill rides, and don't bother with kiddie ones? Perfect. There will be people (in some instances, more light-heartedly) who tell you you should do this, should do that, or say "Why do you do that??". But you do you.
 
For me, it's enjoying my hobby and getting to know different people in the community (all who enjoy it in different ways - whether that is riding coasters, enjoying parks as a whole, travelling, going to Merlin parks).

I personally have expanded my horizons quite a lot by visiting some theme parks in Europe and I'd say this has really helped me grow both as a person, solo traveller and a theme park enthusiast.

As an enthusiast, I'd advise those looking to book their first overseas Theme Park trip to go for it (even if you're going solo), I'm sure you'd absolutely have the time of your life when you walk into the Berlin area of Phantasialand for the first time.
 
Own it

For some reason I got it into my head that riding roller coasters is not a "cool" hobby and would feel a bit awkward about discussing interests or weekend plans with work colleagues etc. And yeah, if you act nervous - or even ashamed - about discussing it, it will be an awkward conversation. But I eventually realised that owning and expressing passion for literally anything is infinitely more engaging than most of the "nothing much" answers people usually give to such questions. There will always be people that don't "get it", but travelling around your region/country/the world in pursuit of something you really care about is interesting and worth talking about (and anyone who makes you feel otherwise is wrong!)

Similar applies to feeling awkward on solo trips, especially in queues surrounded by groups. If you tell yourself you're out of place and weird for being there alone, you'll end up looking like it. If you own it and are confident then not only do you stop caring what people think, you'll naturally look more like you belong.
 
Sorry for the below self-important ramblings. I’ll start off with something ‘bittersweet’ and end on more of a ‘positive’.

Getting to parks post-COVID was probably ‘the best’ time for coasters (ever) and a peak for the ‘community’: Hopefully, never again will so many of us be so held back from experiencing what we love for so long… then get back to it all again. It was like when Willy Wonka finally let the kids have at his chocolate garden. We were all loving it to the max. Obviously, full sympathies to those that haven’t been able to get back to it (and similar), but you get my point. For me, getting on those much delayed US road trips and to the likes of Cedar Point was a riotous victory dance for life itself. It’s wonderful to think about how excited we all were but I get a little misty eyed to think that probably marks the ‘high tide’...

Wow. What a crazy, crazy thing we lived through. And with apologies for being solemn, it’s very sobering to think that as wonderful as that was, not everyone made it. Makes you think… and be grateful.

The ‘best bits’ are often not the ‘big rides’: It may sound absurd (especially considering Steel Vengeance is my number 1), but the best bit of Cedar Point was actually driving to and around Cedar Point to Hotel Breakers. It gives me chills just thinking about seeing all those legendary rides, one after another. If you’ve ever got excited seeing Oblivion and Nemesis poking through the trees then you can just imagine the in-car atmosphere as you eventually pass Millennium Force, Maverick and finally SteVe. For me, this was post-COVID as mentioned. I think I cried.

Other notable top moments have been on the Derby Racers at Blackpool, seeing my family get hooned on Popeye and a ‘log flume takeover’ with friends. Strolling through the Towers gardens. Or when your granddad brings a knife to Thorpe (OK, that one isn’t mine - but what a classic).

You visit for the big rides, but you get so much more with the ‘ancillary’ memories.

You ride with what you take on with you: If you’re anything like me, then your mind is like the weather: uncontrollable. And sometimes, it just rains.

Well, maybe it’s not always as dramatic as I made it sound…! But those little things on your mind or that affect your body / mood, explainable or not, can impact your perceptions and enjoyment. Maybe you had a bad night sleep… or someone in a service station was rude. Or work is on your mind.

Often, I’m far too uptight. I’ll ride a dark ride with my hand on my katana, eyes peeled and ever monitoring to swiftly decapitate whoever dares decide to purposefully ruin my experience with their phone camera. Ditto, I was so angry at a car hire issue when I went to Walibi Belgium that I literally couldn’t remember any of the Tutankhamun shooty ride. My second ride was delightful.

^^^this is not how to do it. Instead, (i) be easy, (ii) expect, allow and tolerate some nuisance from others and (iii) softly allow yourself to be susceptible to blessings from the ‘joy gods’… but also accept periods of their absence too; the gods get busy, and some times they need time out to chill too, gotta cut them some slack!

Even fairly deep into the ‘big creds’ game, there’s always room for surprises: I had a whopping three new entries into the top 10 this year, when I legit expected none. The highlight of the year was Space Mountain (Disneyland) which truly awed and delighted me. Maybe those special coaster moments will be few and far between these days… but they can still be found. If you softly encourage yourself to allow them!

I’ll echo the comments from others above: ‘surprise’ is a great way to having your ‘expectations exceeded’. In fact, it’s necessary. Hype steals!
 
Can't judge a coaster from a POV- I think this is pretty obvious, but back in the day I would go in with judgments about a ride before I'd even gone on it, only to realize the reality versus what I anticipated were two completely different things, sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse.

Cred runs are not the way- Okay, if I'm hopping into a park simply for a +1 it's fine, but in no world will I ever again cred run a major park. Not saying the 20+ park trips I've done were bad, because they were filled with lots of laughter, but they're exhausting and not the way I like to enjoy parks now. I like to take my time, have a pint, go on a ride, walk around, go on another ride, have another pint, etc. Obviously different types of parks are to be experienced in different ways, but in general I don't like rushing at all.

Forces aren't everything- I used to rank a ride based on the amount of G-forces, but in my old age these days I definitely enjoy a fun family coaster over something that just crushes you with positive G-forces the entire time. Airtime is great, but it also isn't everything.

Don't keep a top 10/20/30/50/whatever number- It's simply not possible. I secretly laugh at people who go all the way down to 50 because there's the concept of recency, primacy, night ride, day ride, quality of the entire day at the park that surrounded the ride on whatever coaster is in question, etc. I will keep a top three or maybe five, but depending on the day my answer could be different for anything beyond that.

Having a kid changes your park experience- Having my son really made me enjoy parks through a different lens. Parks I may have disliked or just cred run before I am able to fully enjoy them and appreciate them for what they are meant to be.

Get the fastpass- Time is money. If a park is super busy and there's a bit of a time crunch, I'll splurge. My day is ruined if I have to wait because I am a snob.
 
Value parks that make you feel relaxed. Sometimes we forget that parks are supposed to provide an enjoyable experience, not one spent rushing from ride to ride. I know it's gonna sound crazy, but some local parks beckon you to just exist. And it's a sensation that I've never felt before or never valued enough to notice. Slow down and smell the roses.
 
This is a fairly recent realisation for me:

Coasters in distant lands should not be seen as more desirable than the likely excellent coasters that are closer to you.

This seems obvious right? But what I mean is that I’ll often act as though American coasters are going to be better because it takes so much more effort for me to travel there. I’ll spend my time dreaming about going to Cedar Point, when it probably makes more sense to dream about going to Phantasialand. The latter is a lot easier to achieve living in the UK.
 
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I've got a potentially controversial one as I suspect people might not want to admit this - this is a very priviledged hobby.

By that I mean you need to have enough disposable income to travel a lot to go on new coasters unless you want to do the same few parks all your life. You need to have enough time to fit this in, and might be difficult for people who have more commitments. You need to be lucky enough to have friends who are insane to go with you, or you are brave enough to solo it. You probably want to be able to drive to get to airports.

I imagine my story of being carted around a bit by family in my teens, then having a massive drought in my 20s because I earnt **** all, to finally in my 30s having the time, money, and confidence to commit to trips is not one that I alone have experienced. I am blessed to have the few abroad trips I've done. I never thought a few years ago I'd ever get on Helix, a coaster I had marvelled at for the longest time. And now it's almost been a year to the day since I've been. How you guys do so many trips in a year I have no idea.
 
Flash Shift said:
I've got a potentially controversial one as I suspect people might not want to admit this - this is a very priviledged hobby.

By that I mean you need to have enough disposable income to travel a lot to go on new coasters unless you want to do the same few parks all your life. You need to have enough time to fit this in, and might be difficult for people who have more commitments. You need to be lucky enough to have friends who are insane to go with you, or you are brave enough to solo it. You probably want to be able to drive to get to airports.

I imagine my story of being carted around a bit by family in my teens, then having a massive drought in my 20s because I earnt **** all, to finally in my 30s having the time, money, and confidence to commit to trips is not one that I alone have experienced. I am blessed to have the few abroad trips I've done. I never thought a few years ago I'd ever get on Helix, a coaster I had marvelled at for the longest time. And now it's almost been a year to the day since I've been. How you guys do so many trips in a year I have no idea.
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I completely relate to this as an enthusiast. I was one of those who was brave enough to solo travel a couple of theme parks in Europe and I didn't regret this choice one bit.

The main challenge is definitely balancing time and money to be able to experience different theme parks in the UK and abroad.
 
Another one - there's almost certainly a reason as to why a certain ride or coaster model is rarely seen. I remember being so excited to getting on my first ever Maurer X Car in Formule X at Drievliet, and while it had some decent pops of air, the ride was a rattly shaky mess with horrible capacity and a pretty bad lap bar.
I was really excited to get on a Vekoma boomerang that had vests as I was confident that it would make the experience far better. It made it far worse and Speed of Sound is one of the worst coasters I've ever ridden and almost prefer the standard shoulder restraints as a result.
I was super hyped to get on a Schwarzkopf shuttle loop because its old and rare, but left very underwhelmed at how short Psyke Underground was and how unbelievably quickly it ended.

My point is this: if a ride or coaster model is rarely (if ever) seen, then there's almost certainly a reason as to why. I remember hotly anticipating all of these rides because "it's rare and different from everything else innit" only to come off underwhelmed on almost all occasions. I come off thinking "yeah I get why this wasn't more successful than it was" or "yeah I get why so many parks have gotten rid of these". Sure, it's nice to have done unique things and expanding your portfolio and all that, but nowadays I'm a little more cautious for what rides I hype myself up for, especially if it's not seen that much.

Obviously there are exceptions, but I'm learning to lower my expectations for the weirder and more out-there stuff.
 
For me, it's that crowds can really make or break a day. I used to think, "Hey, it's a popular park, there will always be lines, it's just part of the experience!"

But after a few too many hours stuck in queues, I learned to prioritize ride ops and crowd levels. Now I'll happily pay extra for Fast Passes or plan my trips during off-seasons. A walk-on to a great coaster beats a 2-hour wait any day!
 
Some thoughts/advice to my younger self:

No one has walked in your shoes. It’s good not to become too obsessive or fixated on certain ride types or manufacturers. On the other hand, there are reasons we like certain things above others. Maybe other people don’t understand the need for legroom because they don’t have long legs? Maybe you have a fear of water or the dark? It’s good to be open-minded, but we all like what we like for a reason.

What goes around comes around. An unpopular opinion in the past can become the consensus in the present day. You could really get blasted for saying the Grand National was rough in 1999… Similarly, all the best ideas tend to stick around. Sitdown loopers, Floorlesses, Dive Machines and Hypers, for example, used to be considered very distinct, different types of ride, but a lot of the modern coasters combine all those into one.

Good ideas get forgotten. Despite what I said above, some really great aspects of coaster design do go out of fashion. I would argue that the classic woodies, with their straight drops, big structures and the way they regained so much height, do have something that modern coasters don’t. Swing coasters were also amazing.

Coaster enthusiasm is more competitive than it used to be. Just an observation. Foreign travel is much more widespread now, it seems, and so people get around more. There’s more emphasis on cred counting and which ride is going to be your 1000th cred, for example. As I say, purely an observation.

Park design is important. What I’ve noticed is that the best parks tend to be big, leafy and have plenty of attractions that aren’t thrill rides. Transport rides, boat rides, car rides… they’re all important. Coasters are the main attraction, yes, but I believe the overall feel of the park counts even more.

Less is more. It can be, anyway. I always found I enjoyed parks more when they had one great coaster, supported by plenty of flats. It has to be good though - a big, smooth woodie, for instance (Megafobia springs to mind). If it’s a really big park, or course it has to have more, but don’t you think Alton Towers seemed more special when Nemesis and Oblivion had their own “domains”, with no other coasters near them?

Keep it simple. You can’t beat a good ol’ sitdown coaster. Innovations may be good for marketing, but what matters is that you have a ride people want to come back for. In terms of parks, sometimes you just want somewhere you can pay a few quid and ride a few rides. There are tiny amusement parks that have outlasted major theme parks, and have better ride hardware than some of the ones that are still here. You don’t have to beat anyone else, you just have to offer something that people want.

Enjoy things as they are. Sometimes things really are sub-par, but it doesn’t matter a great deal. There’s nothing wrong with offering a critical analysis, but the trick is to not let it affect you too much emotionally. Life can take a dark turn here and there, and when it does, coasters provide a wholesome bit of escapism. Needless to say, just being alive and healthy is worth any number of Velocicoasters or Steel Vengeances.
 
The number 1 rule to any park visit IMO

Have fun! This hobby is all about visiting places that people to to escape reality and enjoy themselves. Some people like to take this hobby way too seriously. If that's your idea of enjoyment, then go for it! I personally like taking things a bit slower (as my partner can't really ride as much as I can). That includes not trying to cram 100 coaster credits into a single trip, prioritizing sit-down breaks between rides and taking in the atmosphere the park has to offer. If I have to skip a coaster to get more rides on my favorite coaster, I'll do that. I've seen people plan 20+ park trips with 100+ new coasters and I can't really fathom how someone can do that without burning themselves out.
 
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