Your 2023 in Review

Coaster count at start of 2023: 184
Coaster count at end of 2023: 207
Coaster count increase: 23, exactly half of last year's count, but no complaints from me.
New Parks visited in 2023: Efteling, Walibi Holland, Toverland. THE DUTCH TRIFECTA!!

Favourite new-to-me coaster of 2023: Tough one! Either Untamed or Troy.
Favourite new-to-me dark ride of 2023: How can it be anything but Symbolica?
Favourite new-to-me flat ride of 2023: This is a tough one, I don't think anything particularly stood out in the flat department. Perhaps the Sky Pagoda at Efteling?
Favourite new-to-me water ride of 2023: The Rapids (Djengu River) at Toverland, I was NOT expecting them to be so good.
Favourite new-to-me park of 2023: Probably Efteling for the atmosphere. I found Walibi Holland quite disappointing compared to the Belgian park. Toverland was awesome, but needs more to warrant a revisit.
Biggest positive surprise of 2023: Maximus Blitzbahn at Toverland, I expected it to be okay, I didn't expect it to be a serious contender for my park favourite. Honourable second to El Condor for showing what an SLC can do with some investment.
Biggest disappointment of 2023: I was going to say Lost Gravity, it wasn't a bad ride by any standard, but I expected better and had hyped it up in my head somewhat, but that's harsh, I still enjoyed it. I guess the biggest disappointment was planning an epic trip to Parc Asterix, only to discover we couldn't get tickets as it was fully booked (Halloween Event).
Favourite park trip of 2023: This one is very hard, we did 3 days of Port Aventura, but we also did Toverland, Walibi Belgium and Walibi Holland in the same trip. Also, Phantasialand this weekend but I can't count that.
Biggest enthusiast achievement of 2023: Planning the epic drive for the three park trip.
Parks Visited: Just 8, with a 9th next weekend. No complaints here, I also went to Thailand and Costa Rica this year, plus a week in Fuerteventura with family, this year wasn't so much about the parks.
Honourabe Mentions: Uncharted for making me like it more on the second ride. Goliath for being just a solid ride with proper airtime, no gimmicks. The whole Avalon land at Toverland for showing how ambitious that park really is. Also, Wintertaum at Phanta this weekend!
 
Howie said:
Just in case you hadn't noticed, I've not long gotten back from Florida so although it was a fairly quiet year for me in terms of actual number of park trips, kinda made up for it at the end with one biggie.
That's not to say there wasn't any cheeky little getaways, back at the beginning of January me and seven of my favourite goons took on Plopsaland, Phantasialand and Efteling. That was cooool, what a great trip. Got to experience Rookburgh (brilliant) and FLY (meh), got to reride the amazing Ride To Happiness again (best coaster in Europe), got a cheeky lil +3 from Efteling, even got to play 'hide the sausage' with the gang.
Incidentally, after almost 11 months, the sausage has been found, huzzah! Turns out it had been living in @Mushroom 's glovebox all this time.
Can't think who would have put it there... 🤔

Trip report here:
Thread 'FLY Into The New Year.' https://coasterforce.com/forums/threads/fly-into-the-new-year.46025/

Then in April there was that mad day trip to Walibi Belgium. That was cool too, great group of goons, really short queues across the whole park, lots of rerides on the mighty Kondaa, and all for less than a 100 quid each all in. Bargain.

Mini trip report here:
Post in thread 'Cred run mini-reports (general topic)' https://coasterforce.com/forums/threads/cred-run-mini-reports-general-topic.44979/post-1153379

There was also the CoasterForce Live at Thorpe Park, which was faaab, was great to catch up with some of the old skoolers again as well as finally being able to put faces to names like @Nitefly and @Bentleya .
Still quietly hoping that the proper CF Lives make a comeback at some point, they are super fun! 😁

And finally a quick day out at Blackpool with Dr Dave completed my annual allowance of days out, cos then it was full steam ahead with work throughout summer in order to pay for the bloody Florida trip.

It's been 16 years since me and Mrs Howie last went to Florida, at the time we thought we were kinda done with the place. We did it all, we did it well, no need to come back anytime soon, much preferring to focus on more interesting and diverse destinations, road trips etc..
However, we always knew that we'd have to come back at some point. As the Orlando parks grew and changed, there was always gonna be something that drew us back, that one killer thing that would be an absolute must-do.

That thing was Galaxy's Edge.
Forget all the new creds that have been built since 2007, forget Potter, forget Pandora and the blue dudes, as me and the missus are both old skool Star Wars fans, Galaxy's Edge and, more specifically, Rise of the Resistance was our reason to be here. This was why we came back to Florida.
And good lord, it did not disappoint. Highlight of the whole year, right there. Not even close. If we'd only stayed in Galaxy's Edge the entire holiday and done nothing else, it would still have been worth going. Our expectations weren't just exceeded, they were wiped out, all of them. They were blarsted into oblivion, shot down like a bullseyed womp rat over Beggar's Canyon back home and then slowly digested over a thousand years.
I can't sress this enough, it's more than just a themed area in an amusement park, there were times when you'd actually feel as though you were on Batuu, where no detail is left untouched, when no other areas of park are visible and you're just completely immersed in this world of Star Wars.
I just didn't want to leave. On numerous occasions, there were actual tears. Even just walking into the adjacent area, Toy Story land, felt like a massive comedown and we'd both just say 'Nope' and turn round and go back to Batuu.
And where do I even begin with Rise of the Resistance? I know not everybody loves it, I know there's a few out there (non Star Wars fans, probably) who are a bit 'meh'ed by it but, spoiler alert, I'm firmly in the 'OMG Best Thing Ever!' camp. I didn't know much about it going in, I knew that it featured a trackless dark ride and I remember watching a brief POV clip when it first opened but man, I was simply not prepared for the scale and the ambition of this thing, for the technology and effects on display. I was expecting a well themed ride, not a 15-20 min immersive adventure. Things started to sizzle early on in the 'debriefing' section with a working BB8 droid and a very convincing Rey hologram. Cooool! Then you're led outside to board your transporter. Ooh ok, wasn't expecting that. Neat! And then it 'takes off' and you're like 'Ok, simulator type ride. Nice!' And then comes the grand reveal, when they open the doors and you realise thst your transporter has actually gone somewhere and you are, as far as every single one of your senses can tell you, on board a First Order Star Destroyer! That's the moment right there, folks, that's when jaws hit the floor, man. Absolutely astounding stuff. In the interest of spoilers I won't go into any more detail here but let's just say things continue to get better and better from there. Storytelling, immersion, mind blowing technology, gigantic set after gigantic set, special effect after special effect and every moment of it perfectly scored by John Williams at his absolute finest. By the time Kylo Ren's lightsabre starting cutting through the roof of the elevator we were in I'd completely lost my sh*t. By the time the ride was over I was literally sobbing.
It's a game changer. It's next level. I think it's the best theme park experience on the planet and it's not even close. Like, you know how back in the 80's when Star Wars was the coolest thing ever? And not just the coolest thing ever, it was a million times cooler than whatever the last coolest thing ever was? When it wasn't even a debate, when it was just a known fact and nobody who grew up at the time even questioned it? It's like that all over again. For me at least, Rise of the Resistance is the new coolest thing ever.

So that's basically my year. Did Rise of the Resistance, nuff said.
We did, of course, do a whole bunch of other stuff in Florida but I won't go into detail here. Given that I can't be arsed to do a full trip report, I think I'll just spam a load of those Florida based poll threads instead.

Here are some stats, then:
Coaster count at start of 2023 - 429
Coaster count at end of 2023 - 450 (+21)
Number of park days - 14
New parks visited - Nil, zip, nada.

Best new to me creds:
1. Iron Gwazi
2. Mako
3. Hagrid's
4. Velocicoaster
5. Guardians.

Best new to me non-coasters.
1. Rise of the Resistance.


2. Forbidden Journey.
3. Flight of Passage
4. Smuggler's Run

Best themed areas:
1. Galaxy's Edge


2. Diagon Alley
3. Rookburgh
4. Pandora
5. Hogwarts

Funniest moment:
Sausage!!

Proudest moment as an enthusiast:
Riding Iron Gwazi with Joe Draves, designer of ArieForce One and Wildcat's Revenge. Oh, and three other goons called Ian, Scott and Jerry. 😉
Click to expand...
Glad for the loving Rise of the Resistance vibes - I'm right there with you @Howie, and still recall my nerdy, tears of joy rounding the corner to see a life-sized Millennium Falcon for the first time. <3

Right, my recap of a very proud year:

Coaster count at start of 2023: 281
Coaster count at end of 2023: 311
Coaster count increase: +29

Park count at start of 2023: 53
Park count at end of 2023: 56
Park count increase: +3

Favourite new-to-me coaster of 2023: El Toro - SFGAdv - finally got on it!
Favourite new-to-me park of 2023: Knoebels - you can keep the rest of the amusement park industry, give me my land of forgotten rides please
Favourite park trip of 2023: My PA and NJ trip to 300 was in entirety a blast; best park trip of the bunch would have absolutely been Knoebels (https://coasterforce.com/forums/thr...-knoebels-hershey-sfgadv-and-yeungling.46496/)
Biggest enthusiast achievement of 2023: Riding the world's tallest (Kingda Ka), fastest (Formula Rossa), and steepest (TMNT Shellraiser) roller coasters within one year, before you can just, do all of it at Six Flags Qiddiya in one-fell swoop. :p
 
My 2023 Recap:


Coaster count at the start of 2023: 63
Coaster count at the end of 2023: 106
Coaster count increase: +43

Park count at the start of 2023: 20
Park count at the end of 2023: 32
Park count increase: +12

Favorite New Coaster: ArieForce One (Fun Spot America - Atlanta)
Favorite New Park: Phantasialand (I had the best time of my life here, best park I've ever been to.)
Favorite Trip: Going to Europe for the first time!
Biggest Achievement: Riding Ride to Happiness!
 
Coaster count at start of 2023: 584
Coaster count at end of 2023: 606
Coaster count increase: 22
Park count increase: 3
Number of park visits: 10?- Nick Universe, Valleyfair, Great Escape x 2, Hollywood Studios, Magic Kingdom, Typhoon Lagoon, Animal Kingdom, Epcot, Six Flags New England

In terms of quantity, I didnt do amazing this year although it was better than last year as well as the year before that due to a certain illness that was going around. I could have easily gone to LaRonde since I live down the road, but decided I wasn't ready to give the ****hole another chance. Canobie was another one I probably could have easily done. Maybe next year. This was definitely one of my favourite seasons though, since I was able to properly enjoy a lot of th parks I went to, and I was able to bring my son along who was tall enough to get a decent number of coasters in. He already can't wait for Bobcat next year.

Best New Coaster- Didn't ride anything new that was mindblowing this year, but I did love Slinky Dog. Also really enjoyed Comet at Great Escape
Most Disappointing Coaster- Maybe the Guardians thing at Epcot, or Renegade
Best New Flat- Adirondack Outlaw
Best New Dark Ride- Flight of Passage
Biggest Surprise- How much I loved Wicked Cyclone, after having not been on it for many years

So yeah, nothing crazy to write home about but any year that includes Disney is a win, and Great Escape was honestly such a great surprise that I can't wait to go back with my son next season. My sister also joined me at Disney and took her first plane ride, so that was a highlight. Mall of America is definitely somewhere I'd like to spend a full day in the future, too.
 
35 new credits...
new parks-Magic Mountain, Carowinds, mountain coasters in pigeon forge

Highlights:

X2 at number 3
Twisted Colossus at 5
Finally getting on Xcelerator, now at number 7
Thunderhead jumped from 28 to 6 after its retrack
Copperhead just outside top 15 territory
Afterburn at 12
Nighthawk now being the most underrated coaster I have ridden at 13
Fury spited me...now Im sad
Knott's brought back Boysenberry meatballs
Fiesta Village re-theme
Arctic Rescue preview day
Rescue Junior preview day
Big Bear Mountain now towards the top of family coasters
I faced my fear of flying coasters with Tastu and Nighthawk
Dollywood's train with my grandparents way absolutely amazing
Finally hitting 100MPH on Superman
New tallest coaster with Goliath SFMM
New worst coaster with Kiddyhawk
100th credit:Twisted Colossus
125th credit: Xcelerator
Finally got LROTN on my most ridden coaster: Manta SWSD
Zen rides of Silver Bullet, Jaguar, Manta, and Hangtime
New favorite flat ride: Air race at carowinds
 
I've recently done my final park trip of the year, capping off a season that started on 7th January at Phantasialand and ended at Hyde Park on 9th December, easily making it the longest season of coaster riding I've ever had! :)

  • Coaster count at start of 2023: 354
  • Coaster count at end of 2023: 407
  • Coaster count increase: 53
  • Park count at start of 2023: 79
  • Park count at end of 2023: 89
  • Park count increase: 10 (not that I would call some of them actual parks!)
  • Number of park visits: 16
Personal highlights and lowlights of the year:
  • Favourite new-to-me coaster of 2023: Batman Gotham City Escape. It's close between this and Kondaa, both being excellent new Intamins, and I would have liked more rides on Batman, but I think it gets the edge due to the launches, theming and wacky layout.
  • Favourite new-to-me non-coaster of 2023: Mystery Castle.
  • Favourite new-to-me park of 2023: Farup Sommerland. Helped a lot by it being a lovely sunny day and the park being empty.
  • Biggest positive surprise of 2023: Falken at Farup Sommarland was a big surprise, being a lot less rough and more fun than I expected. Also the airtime and smoothness of Rutschebanen at Tivoli were amazing, considering its age.
  • Biggest disappointment of 2023: Parque Warner Madrid. As @DelPiero said, **** this park. Absolutely abysmal ride availability and terrible operations made for an awful day at a park that actually has some decent rides.
  • Favourite coaster ride of 2023: Night rides on Taron with a lovely bunch of goons in January. 🥰
  • Favourite park trip of 2023: Tough to pick just one, so I'll go for the Phantaling double header in January. Two great parks, great company and even great weather made for an amazing start to the year. Plus sausages.
  • Biggest enthusiast achievement of 2023: Reaching 400 creds just a year after hitting 300 was pretty good, but I think my best achievements were bringing a couple of friends into the Goon fold and the crazy day trip to Walibi Belgium that I organised in April.
  • Funniest moment of 2023 - A few spring to mind, but the best two were, again as @DelPiero mentioned, Emma's on-ride video on TNT, and also the reaction of several people on the Phantasialand trip when they had to slide down the fireman's pole on the African Adventure trail thing. 😆
All in all it was a really fantastic year that exceeded my expectations and while I do have some exciting plans for 2024, I doubt it will be quite as much fun. But you never know!
 
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witchfinder said:
I've recently done my final park trip of the year, capping off a season that started on 7th January at Phantasialand and ended at Hyde Park on 9th December, easily making it the longest season of coaster riding I've ever had! :)

  • Coaster count at start of 2023: 354
  • Coaster count at end of 2023: 407
  • Coaster count increase: 53
  • Park count at start of 2023: 79
  • Park count at end of 2023: 89
  • Park count increase: 10 (not that I would call some of them actual parks!)
  • Number of park visits: 16
Personal highlights and lowlights of the year:
  • Favourite new-to-me coaster of 2023: Batman Gotham City Escape. It's close between this and Kondaa, both being excellent new Intamins, and I would have liked more rides on Batman, but I think it gets the edge due to the launches, theming and wacky layout.
  • Favourite new-to-me non-coaster of 2023: Mystery Castle.
  • Favourite new-to-me park of 2023: Farup Sommerland. Helped a lot by it being a lovely sunny day and the park being empty.
  • Biggest positive surprise of 2023:
  • Biggest disappointment of 2023: Parque Warner Madrid. As @DelPiero said, **** this park. Absolutely abysmal ride availability and terrible operations made for an awful day at a park that actually ahs some decent rides.
  • Favourite coaster ride of 2023: Night rides on Taron with a lovely bunch of goons in January. 🥰
  • Favourite park trip of 2023: Tough to pick just one, so I'll go for the Phantaling double header in January. Two great parks, great company and even great weather made for an amazing start to the year. Plus sausages.
  • Biggest enthusiast achievement of 2023: Reaching 400 creds just a year after hitting 300 was pretty good, but I think my best achievements were bringing a couple of friends into the Goon fold and the crazy day trip to Walibi Belgium that I organised in April.
  • Funniest moment of 2023 - A few spring to mind, but the best two were, again as @DelPiero mentioned, Emma's on-ride video on TNT, and also the reaction of several people on the Phantasialand trip when they had to slide down the fireman's pole on the African Adventure trail thing. 😆
All in all it was a really fantastic year that exceeded my expectations and while I do have some exciting plans for 2024, I doubt it will be quite as much fun. But you never know!
Click to expand...
Nothing beats that first ride on Mystery Castle. Did you get an afternoon ride where it runs the longer cycle?
 
I've still got 1 more park trip to go before the year is out but that will be an ongoing thing through well into the first bit of 2024, so I'll just do this now

Coaster count at start of 2023: 253
Coaster count at end of 2023: 349
Coaster count increase: 96 (I'm hoping that I might be able to get to my first 100+ yearly cred haul before the year is out)
Park count at start of 2023: 49
Park count at end of 2023: 71
Park count increase: 22

Favourite new-to-me coaster of 2023: Formula Rossa @ Ferrari World
Favourite new-to-me non-coaster of 2023: Black Mamba @ Wiener Prater
Favourite new-to-me park of 2023: Parc Asterix
Biggest positive surprise of 2023: I had quite a few surprises this year, the main 2 that pop out to me though were:
  • Manta @ SeaWorld Abu Dhabi - I went in to this expecting something a long the lines of Cheetah Hunt but a little better, but it really ended up surprising me. It's really punchy and whippy for such a new gen Intamin.
  • Manhattan Express @ New York, New York - Given the amount of things I'd heard about this coaster, I was expecting the worst of the worst but, and I don't know how much of this is due to the new Premier trains, it's perfectly fine, to the point that it genuinely doesn't ride any worse than the Japanese TOGOs.
Biggest disappointment of 2023: Wonder Woman @ Six Flags Magic Mountain - Now I'll admit I didn't give this the best chance as I rode it early on in the day and didn't get a chance to reride it when it had a chance to warm up, but it just felt really tame compared to other RMCs I've ridden. It genuinely rides like RMC realised them F***ed up badly with the speed on the raptor prototypes and decided to play it extremely safe.
Favourite coaster ride of 2023: Formula Rossa front row - This is almost entirely the reason it ended up as my #3 overall. The sheer sense of speed from getting pelted by the wind and my shirt being pinned to my body, it was just incredible. It's become one of my core coaster memories.
Favourite park trip of 2023: Probably the now bi-annual Phantasialand group trip staying in Charles Lindbergh.
Biggest enthusiast achievement of 2023: 300 creds.
 
  • Coaster count at start of 2023: 524
  • Coaster count at end of 2023: 549
  • Coaster count increase: 25
  • Park count at start of 2023: 104
  • Park count at end of 2023: 110
  • Park count increase: 6
  • Number of park visits: 23
  • Unique parks visited: 21 (Knotts Berry Farm, Six Flags Magic Mountain, Malibu Jack's Lexington, Malibu Jack's Louisville, Kentucky Kingdom, Holiday World, Kings Island, Worlds of Fun, Lost Island, Michigan's Adventure, Craig's Cruisers, Canada's Wonderland, House of Frankenstein, Marineland, Cedar Point, Hersheypark, Seaworld Orlando, Universal Studios Orlando, Busch Gardens Tampa, The Island at Pigeon Forge, Dollywood)

  • Favourite new-to-me coaster of 2023: Iron Gwazi
  • Favourite new-to-me non-coaster of 2023: Infinity Falls
  • Favourite new-to-me park of 2023: Lost Island
  • Biggest positive surprise of 2023: The Gravity Group's work on Shivering Timbers
  • Biggest disappointment of 2023: Arie Force One and Fun Spot Atlanta being closed during an eight hour layover in Atlanta this past April
  • Favourite coaster ride of 2023: The Voyage at HWN
  • Favourite park trip of 2023: Straight Outta Stumbles - every trip I took this year was great, but heading out to California last February for the first time after having a kid to visit two awesome parks for BBCC's biggest event yet just felt so great.
  • Biggest enthusiast achievement of 2023: Took my son to his first park even though he had no idea what was going on

It was a solid year for me even though I oversubscribed myself a bit. Definitely glad I got to do as much as I did but likely going to have to temper my expectations for next year. 2023 was a good one though!
 
Coaster count at start of 2023: 92
Coaster count at end of 2023: 107
Coaster count increase: 15! Likely my largest bump since I was a kid
New Parks visited in 2023: Portaventura world, Walibi Holland

Favourite new-to-me coaster of 2023: Red Force (Shambhala and Goliath are very close runners up, but the tech behind RF wins out for me!)
Favourite new-to-me dark ride of 2023: Curse at Alton Manor
Favourite new-to-me flat ride of 2023: Hurakan Condor
Favourite new-to-me water ride of 2023: Tutuki Splash. Getting annihilated on the lift by the boat in-front's main splashdown was a magical, hilarious coincidence.
Favourite new-to-me park of 2023: Portaventura Park
Biggest positive surprise of 2023: How good the airtime on Shambhala is! The strength, duration and grace of each hill was so much better than I expected, and I still don't understand how some of those hills can look so small but last so long on ride. An honourable mention goes to the mexican restaurant in PA, getting a 3-course meal included with our hotel package and happening to get there in time for a kids stage show. We had no clue it even existed, and ended up staying to watch it because it was so entertaining!

Biggest disappointment of 2023: Flying Dreams - I had hoped for a decent experience with some decent tech. What I experienced was an hour queue into two more 15 minute queues, broken up by some of the most over-the-top, cringey, "inspirational" adverts. The flying theatre itself was catastrophically dull, but we were past caring at that point and were busy laughing at the faux-inspiration.
Favourite park trip of 2023: Walibi Holland. A storm disappearing overnight, a great bike ride to get there, and getting almost every major coaster in during fright nights despite numerous breakdowns was an amazing surprise. The atmosphere was great, the music was great, and the night rides were fantastic. I couldn't have hoped for a better way to spend an evening.
Biggest enthusiast achievement of 2023: Hitting 100 rides was nice, but it was probably fulfilling an RCT2 fantasy by riding Goliath at Walibi Holland. I'd been curious about it for over 15 years, so finally getting on it and having it soar above my expectations was wonderfully gratifying.
Parks Visited: Alton Towers, Ferrari Land, Portaventura Park, Walibi Holland
Honourable Mentions: Lost Gravity for its stellar first half, and Furious Baco for the fantastic pre-launch theming.
 
I had an idea about going to Winter Wonderland before the year ends, but I probably won't make it, so here's my 2023 recap. Hoping to do more trips next year than this one. My count is so low compared to everyone else's!

Coaster count at the start of 2023: 49
Coaster count at the end of 2023: 59
Coaster count increase: +10

Favorite New Coaster: Helix, Liseberg - dethroned Nemesis!
Favorite New Park: Liseberg - just pure class. The epitome of quality over quantity.
Favorite Trip: Both Tivoli and Liseberg were great. I went to Tivoli on my birthday, but Liseberg was more of a bucket list achievement.
Biggest Achievement: First ever solo trip, and first one abroad as well. I'd been to Gothenburg earlier this year but Liseberg wasn't yet open for the year, so I basically got a revenge trip to make it happen.
Biggest Disappointment: Valkyria didn't really impress me too much, but apparently it is better on the left. I sat on the back right.
Biggest Surprise: Balder at Liseberg had a mixed reception and an admittedly very repetitive layout, but damn it impressed me overall. Daemonen at Tivoli was also better than expected, I preferred it to Rutschebanen.

Overall, was very much not many trips, but some abroad ones which required more effort. Also I went on a lot of non theme-park trips this year and also got spited at Flamingoland, so it can't be helped I guess. As I said before, I'm hoping to do new coasters in the UK next year (and Wales, Oakwood is on the cards), and clear a few things I've missed out on, like maybe actually getting into Flamingoland this time. I don't know about abroad trips - organising them and doing them can be stressful as hell alone, and I've got other potential plans instead. I don't know,
 
Coaster count at start of 2023: 338
Coaster count at end of 2023: 393 (+55)
Park count at start of 2023: 53
Park count at end of 2023: 61 (ignoring local fairs and FECs)
Unique parks visited: 12 (I think)

I couldn't tell you how many rides I got on all the coasters, but I'm pretty sure my most ridden one was Voyage at around 10.

Favorite new-to-me coaster of 2023: Wildcat's Revenge
Favorite new-to-me non-coaster of 2023: Symbolica
Favorite new-to-me park of 2023: Efteling
Biggest positive surprise of 2023: I've got a couple: Symbolica for how much I ended up loving it. And Silver Bullet for somehow being the best invert in the US.
Biggest disappointment of 2023: Probably X2. My expectations weren't that high to begin with, but man it was rough. Gave me a headache for the rest of the weekend.
Favourite coaster ride of 2023: Got a couple of back row left wing night rides on Skyrush.
Favourite park trip of 2023: While it wasn't completely a park trip, my Netherlands trip was easily one of the best trips I've ever done, if not the best.
Biggest enthusiast achievement of 2023: First time doing solo international travel with the Netherlands trip.
 
Started writing this on a slow day at work, forgot to save it and lost it. So I'm making good use of the last slow day at work this year. :p
  • Coaster count at start of 2023: 352
  • Coaster count at end of 2023: 374
  • Coaster count increase: 22 (kind of on the low end of the average/decent coaster years)
  • Park count at start of 2023: 77
  • Park count at end of 2023: 80
  • Park count increase: 3
  • Number of coaster rides: 73
  • Number of park visits: 5
  • Unique coasters ridden: 30
  • Unique parks visited: 4 (2 days at Energylandia)
  • Favourite new-to-me coaster of 2023: Zadra (#3) - really really good, but I had to ride a bit defensively on occasion, so it didn't become my favorite RMC. RtH remains unchallenged in #1 spot
  • Favourite new-to-me non-coaster of 2023: Hm, this year has been very coaster heavy and lacking in other departments. I'll give it to Dream Flight Airlines at Legendia, for the old school cool vibe, even if the ride itself isn't anything much.
  • Favourite new-to-me park of 2023: Energylandia, easily. The other two are family parks at best and just can't stack up.
  • Biggest positive surprise of 2023: Both the crappy rapids ride and the small log flume at Energylandia being much wetter than they looked at first glance. Felt good on a hot September day and the soaking we got was positively hilarious.
  • Biggest disappointment of 2023: Hm, tough to say. I feel like going with FLY still being middling and average while some people make it out to be one of the best coasters in the world? It's a great attraction and Rookburgh looks awesome, but the ride itself feels too meandery for me to love it.
  • Favourite coaster ride of 2023: Hm, probably the last ride of the day that I had on Taron. After what I thought would be the last ride of the day, some people towards the front started chanting for one more ride, which soon turned to cheers and operators checking the restrains again, before being sent round for one last time. The coaster is easily on its best form towards the end of the day and the cheers and applause that the entire train of people gave after getting back to the station were such a vibe.
  • Favourite park trip of 2023: Poland by default. But it was an awesome trip. Finally did Energylandia, got to visit the first proper park with dad since 2017 when we went to Australia and he got to experience his first RMC (surprisingly enough he even preferred it to what is usually his traditional favorite model - hyper coaster). I got to visit two new countries, randomly drove by the Stakotra plant in Slovakia, did Lech, a small ice cream themed amusement park in Austria and two sketchy fairground creds in Poland. And...
  • Biggest enthusiast achievement of 2023: ...visiting Energylandia, I finally broke my PB of most new coasters ridden in a day, as I managed to ride all 17 of theirs on day 1. Honestly, I still have no clue how we managed to ride as much as we did that day, as we had ample time even for doing water rides and re-riding Zadra and Hyperion.
 
Coaster count at start of 2023: 51
Coaster count at end of 2023: 158
Coaster count increase: 107

Favorite new-to-me coaster of 2023: Fury 325 beating out ArieForce One by a hair. I think aside from the front row, it would be AFO but given I rank coasters based on where the best ride experience is, I must put Fury over AFO.
Favorite new-to-me non-coaster of 2023: Tidal Surge, the S&S swing and scream at SeaWorld San Antonio
Favorite new-to-me park of 2023: Dollywood but I have to give major props to Six Flags Fiesta Texas... I did not know a Six Flags park could be that nice.
Biggest positive surprise of 2023: Texas Stingray at SeaWorld San Antonio. I was expecting a decent coaster but that give incredible airtime especially in the front row and that was with half full trains at best.
Biggest disappointment of 2023: Kennywood on Monday, 10 July, in large part due to Steel Curtain being closed
Favorite coaster ride of 2023: Maverick at Cedar Point at night. That tunnel launch is sublime at night.
Favorite park trip of 2023: Definitely the July trip, it started Saturday, the 8th, in the am. It was:
- Holiday World - 8 July
- Kentucky Kingdom & Holiday World - 9 July
- Kennywood (only disappointment) and Kings Island (finally got a night ride on Beast) - 10 July
- Kings Island - 11 July
- Cedar Point - 12 July
- Michigan's Adventure and Indiana Beach - 13 July
- Six Flags Great America - 14 July
- Was going to do Mt Olympus in the Wisconsin Dells but ended up cutting the trip short due to being exhausted and wanting to get home.
Biggest enthusiast achievement of 2023: 2023 was the first time I flew for a coaster trip. Flying to Charlotte to do Carowinds, Fun Spot Atlanta, Six Flags Over Georgia and Dollywood. Also, hitting credits 100 (Goliath @ SF Great America) and 150 (Twisted Cyclone at SF Over Georgia).
 
• Coaster count at end of 2023: 764

• Parks visited in 2023:

Parc Asterix (x2), Walibi Belgium (x2), Europa Park, Toverland, Six Flags Great Adv., Hershey Park, Nickelodeon Universe, Universal Studios, IOA, Busch Gardens Tampa, SeaWorld Orlando, Parque Warner Madrid, Parque de Attracciones, Farup, Djurs, Tivoli Friheden, Bellewaerde, CWOA, PortAventura, Hansa Park, Heide Park, Plopsaland, Alton Towers, Blackpool Pleasure Beach, Grona Lund, Thorpe Park (at least 15 times)

• Favourite new-to-me coaster of 2023:

Wildcats Revenge at Hershey Park. A real beauty of an RMC, with perfect pacing, loads of airtime and wild sensations during the inversions.

• Favourite new-to-me non-coaster of 2023:

Serengeti Flyer at Busch Gardens Tampa. I have never ridden a ride that has made me involuntarily scream before, but this thing is NUTS. Best flat ride in the world in my opinion.

• Favourite new-to-me park of 2023:

The only new-to-me parks I visited this year were Bellawaerde and Nickelodeon Universe. So by winner default has to be Nickelodeon Universe as we had a pretty bad day at Bellawaerde!

• Biggest positive surprise of 2023:

I was so pleasantly surprised by Ghost Train at Thorpe Park. Love the wry humor, the spooky crypt and all the nostalgic Thorpe references they've put into the experience. It's a huge improvement on what it was before. The ride has so much more character now.

Also, Stitches (maze) at Thorpe Park Fright Nights surprised me with its stunningly detailed sets and terrifying finale. Easily one of Fright Nights best mazes ever.

I like a good S+S Swing but I wasn't expecting Serengeti Flyer to have the insane airtime that it does! Genuinely felt like I was going to soar through the sky forever. What an amazingly powerful ride. Would love to see more of these massive ones built!

I remembered loving Nitro when I rode it many years ago, so I was pleasantly surprised to find it rode even better than I remembered this year! A fantastic forceful hyper.

I wasn't expecting Ice Breaker at SeaWorld to be quite the level of fun that it is, so that was a lovely surprise. Enjoyed the snappy launches! It's a cool addition to SeaWorld.

I'm not a big fan of new-gen Vekoma, I find their transitions always make me feel queasy. However, Fønix at Farup was a nice ride and pretty re-ridable.

• Biggest disappointment of 2023:

Iron Gwazi. Can't put my finger on it, but something about this coaster just didn't really do it for me. I feel like the ride is a breakneck bombardment of elements, meaning it never enters that blissful flow state so many other RMCs achieve. (I realise I am in the minority on this haha!) Could it almost be...too fast?

For a brand new multi-launch Intamin (which are always words that excite me!), Gotham City Escape didn't do it for me either. The layout and pacing is kinda odd. The inversions aren't brilliant. Too much awkward hangtime. I didn't come off it wanting to run round for another go. I'd take Pantheon, Toutatis and VelociCoaster over GCE any day.

I wasn't expecting to love Curse at Alton Manor, as both Dual and Haunted House are very dear to me. I have so much sentiment for those old rides, nothing can replace them in my heart. So, I went in with low expectations, yet Curse still managed to disappoint me. The ride felt way too serious. I found the storyline convoluted and kinda bleak. Bring back giant animatronic ghouls drinking cups of tea, I say!

Pipeline was uncomfy. I did not appreciate the jolt up my spine everytime the seats slammed back down after the airtime.

Oh and not forgetting my first ride on an RMC Single Rail: Jersey Devil Coaster. Feeling every join in the track, awkward restraints that prevent airtime, it was certainly not up to the usual RMC standards!

Uncharted is a bit of a frustrating ride, the queue line is so well-themed but the ride itself just has screens, black walls and an inaudible soundtrack.

Also had a really disappointing day at Alton Towers, can't believe how downhill that park has gone :(

• Favourite coaster ride of 2023:

I have a few:

Mako, front row, at night during SeaWorld Howl O Scream. Seeing all the fog across the park from the top of the lift hill

Wodan, front row, at night. It was running so insanely fast!

Toutatis, back row, at night. Boy does this ride warm up, especially if you visit Asterix on one of the late night fireworks nights as we did!

Wildcats Revenge at night. We were running round getting as many rides in on it as possible that evening, because this thing is absolutely relentless at night!

Cheetah Hunt, front row. I love this coaster. It's just so much fun. Skimming across the water during the chicane in the front row is lovely.

Stealth, front row, blind launch, at night during Fright Nights. I love what they do with the Stealth plaza during Fright Nights. The 80s soundtrack, the stage, the purple lights, the awesome dance show, the ever expanding story of Amity vs. Lycanthorpe. It's all such a vibe - topped off with a shot of pure adrenaline in the form of a night ride on Stealth.

Oz'Iris, back row. This was @Slamming Coastercore 's first ride on the beast that is Oz'Iris. I was worried I had overhyped it. I needn't have worried, the ride was blisteringly fast and forceful. Proving itself to rightfully be one of the best B+M inverts ever made. The look of shock on Alex's face afterwards was priceless!


• Favourite park trip of 2023:

Again, hard to pick one. I really enjoyed visiting Heide / Hansa again, those parks are always a good time.

Farup was a lovely active day that felt more like a trip to Centre Parcs (in a good way!)

Had some fantastic times at Thorpe this year, including the 20th Anniversary CF Live (a huge thank you to everyone who came!), Fright Nights and Press Launch for Ghost Train.

Europa at Christmas is gorgeous, and the guest experience in that park is second to none. Madrid, whilst neither park was anything special, we had a lot of laughs / great company.

• Favourite park moments of 2023:

Experiencing my first Halloween Horror Nights house at Universal Studios Florida, and it being the Dueling Dragons house. The house I was most excited for! The atmosphere and sets inside Dueling Dragons were immense. I was absolutely buzzing afterwards! One of those 'theme park feelings' that'll stay with me forever.

Arriving at Ferrari Land at night, to be told by staff the winds were too strong for Red Force to open. Venturing in the park anyway to check out the F1 cars, and seeing Red Force start running immediately. All of us cheering and running to the ride entrance!

Riding a horse and playing mini golf at Farup Sommerland.

Combining metal band names with coaster names in the queue for Karnan.

Watching the wonderful fireworks display at Parc Asterix after some excellent night rides on Toutatis.

The Aladin Bachelor Party simulator ride at Parque de Attracciones being hilariously bad!

Walking through The Crows of Mawkin Meadow on Fright Nights Press Night and being completely surrounded by Crows giving me jump scares from all angles! I adore that scare zone so much.

Going into the Mad Rat scare maze at Plopsaland where they had placed secret actors in our party and the demon rat actors started attacking them. It was so convincing! Also, shout out to demonic rat shredding on a Gibson Explorer guitar. That maze was hilarious.

Walking around Toverland Halloween at night soaking up the spooky atmosphere and impressive scare zones.

• Biggest enthusiast achievement of 2023:

This year, a 6 page feature was written about me in Metal Hammer magazine all about my life as a coaster enthusiast. We did the photoshoot at Thorpe Park, lol. Got to mention CoasterForce in a national print magazine!

I didn't hit any milestones this year as I've been focusing on revisiting parks and rides I love. Hoping to hit 800 in 2024 but a rather hectic tour schedule may prevent that!

Another huge achievement was the CoasterForce 20th Anniversary Live. Shout out to @Tomatron for starting the Lives 20 years ago, and @Ian for running so many fab, unforgettable CF trips over the years. It was an honour for me to get involved with organising CF Lives back in 2017. Our day at Thorpe Park commemorating 20 years of goony shenanigans was lovely. It was great to see so many CFers all having fun together in the park where it all began.

Visiting Halloween Horror Nights (USF) has always been a huge bucket list thing for me, this year I finally went to HHN for the first time and I got to write about it for Gamesradar!

All in all, 2023 was a very fun year coaster-wise!
 
- Coaster Count at the start of 2023: 298

- Coaster Count at the end of 2023: 376

- Total New Coasters in 2023: 78

- New parks visited in 2023: 10 (Parc Asterix, Djurs Sommerland, Tivoli Frieheden, Farup Sommerland, Bellewaerde, Six Flags Great Adventure, Nickelodeon Universe, Weiner Prater, Parque Warner Madrid, Parc d'Attractions)

- Park visits (number of days) in 2023: Minimum of 54 days at parks = Legoland Windsor, Chessington World of Adventures, Plopsaland De Panne (x2), Parc Asterix (x2), Walibi Belgium (x2), Djurs Sommerland, Tivoli Frieheden, Farup Sommerland, Hansa Park, Heide Park, Alton Towers (x2), Blackpool Pleasure Beach, Bellewaerde, Hershey Park, Six Flags Great Adventure, Nickelodeon Universe, Busch Gardens Tampa (x2), Universal Islands of Adventure (x2), Universal Studios (x2), Seaworld Orlando (x2), Weiner Prater, Toverland, Disneyworld's Hollywood Studios, Parque Warner Madrid, Parque De Attractions, Portaventura/FerrariLand (x3), Europa Park (x3) and Thorpe Park (x15+)

- Best new-to-you coaster: Wildcat's Revenge

- Best new-to-you non-coaster: Serengeti Flyer (Busch Gardens Tampa) or Tigeren (Djurs Sommerland)

- Favourite new-to-you park of 2023: Farup Sommerland

- Park Highlights of 2023: Soo many highlights from 2023, but I'll try to list some key ones!

Seeing loads of friendly faces at the 20th Anniversary of CF Lives at Thorpe Park (ARSE 😂)

Watching Serena get super into mini-golf, tackle obstacle courses, canoeing and riding ponies at Farup Sommerland

Gorging on the amazing buffet at Parc Asterix

Riding Valhalla with all the effects restored

Getting super excited over Challenge of Tutankahmun (Walibi Belgium) having its fire effect working again

Riding Wildcats Revenge at night and everyone in the queue buzzing to be riding such a great coaster at night. Then the subsequent walk around the boardwalk area at Hershey Park and riding Lighting Racer with its chaser lights on

Seeing Serena's face light up when we saw the Halloween Horror Nights sign at the front of Universal Studios (special mention to the Darkest Deal house)

Experiencing Avalon at Toverland after dark and getting incredible views from Merlin's Quest (the boat ride); (special mention to Now You're Mine... the best scare maze I've ever done)

Getting stuck on Abismo's lift hill at Parque De Attractions whilst @Ian and @Serena seemed very pleased with themselves for not riding as they already had the cred

Arriving at Ferrari Land in the evening only to be told that Red Force would be down for the night due to wind (we'd booked the day off specifically to do Red Force at night!); we decided to go in anyway on the off chance it opened, and it immediately tested as soon as we got in the park. Naturally, we all broke into cheers and ran straight for the entrance!

Being in the queue for Red Force the following day and playing the categories game, the category being "parks with park in the name"

Returning to Europa's Winter Event and spending 3 days enjoying great coasters, silly dark rides and boogieing in the pools at Rulantica

Managing to get on 6 major new for 2023 coasters

- Best park visit: A seriously difficult one, but i'll go with Farup Sommerland. The park was super quiet, the weather was beautiful, and there was so much fun stuff to do there! Go for Fonix (it's great) but stay for the free mini-golf, massive assault course, pony riding and all the other amazing things they have there! I have many fond memories made with @Serena from that day 😊

Honourable mentions go to Hershey Park, Europa Park and Toverland for being phenomenal parks. There were some great visits where being with amazing friends made them special though, those being the Heide/Hansa, the Madrid parks, Port Aventura and of course the wonderful Thorpe Park Live

- Biggest disappointment(s) of 2023: Iron Gwazi and Jersey Devil. I adore RMC, but these coasters just didn't do it for me :(

- Best individual coaster lap: It's a toss-up between front row on Wodan, back row on Toutatis or back row on Wildcat's Revenge... all night rides.

- Proudest accomplishment as an enthusiast: Starting a new job selling apps to Theme Parks! Going to both IAAPA Europe in Vienna and, finally, IAAPA in Orlando!

- Best seasonal event: Halloween at Toverland or Europa Park's Winter Event

- Best non-park travel moment: There's lots to pick from, but it's either walking on some danish beaches and watching the sun setting over the baltic sea; or picking up the hire car in the USA and discovering our new favourite radio station, Liquid Metal!

- Most surprising coaster: Wildcats Revenge massively caught me off-guard. I was expecting a really good ride, but not a number 1 contender! The pacing on this coaster is sublime and every element delivers perfectly. It's absolutely world class.

- Funniest coaster/park/enthusiast moment: Riding Aladdin's Bachelor Party at Parque De Attractions; it's simultaneously the worst and best simulator I have ever experienced. It feels safe, but also simultaneously like it was made from parts they found in a skip 😂

... I also got forced to wear a pair of very ill fitting Speedos at the Bellewaerde Waterpark because I wasn't allowed my swim shorts, I didn't find it too funny but I can assure you @Serena did!

- Most exciting announcement for 2024: It's pretty basic, but being so close to Thorpe Park there can only be one answer... Big Easy Boulevard :cool:

2023 was an incredible year for riding coasters and I was super lucky to be able to experience it with so many amazing people (all who I met through CF ❤️)

I can't wait to see what 2024 has in store 😁
 
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