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Your Year in Review: 2019 edition on page 5

Matt N

Matt N

CF Legend
Hi guys. I know I'm jumping the gun a little with this topic, as there's still nearly 4 months left of 2018. But as I visited what will most likely be my last theme park of the year yesterday, I decided to make this topic to basically sum up my 2018 and to hear about how some of your 2018s have been. So, I'll get the ball rolling with my 2018 in review:
Matt N's 2018 in Review
  • Coaster count at start of 2018: 39
  • Coaster count at end of 2018: 56
  • New credits obtained in 2018: 17
  • New parks visited in 2018: 2 (Drayton Manor, Blackpool Pleasure Beach)
  • Days spent in a theme park in 2018: 8 (4x Alton Towers, 2x Thorpe Park, 1x Drayton Manor, 1x Blackpool Pleasure Beach)
  • Favourite new ride of 2018: Icon at Blackpool Pleasure Beach
  • Favourite new park of 2018: Blackpool Pleasure Beach
  • Highlight of 2018: Visiting Blackpool Pleasure Beach for the first time after years of wanting to go.
  • Biggest surprise of 2018: Would either have to be our visit to Drayton Manor, which I only knew about 8 days before we went, or my first ride on Wicker Man, which was far better than I expected!
2018 has truly been a fantastic year in theme parks for me, especially when compared to my 2017:
Matt N's 2017 in Review
  • Coaster count at start of 2017: 38
  • Coaster count at end of 2017: 39
  • New credits obtained in 2017: 1
  • New parks visited in 2017: 1 (Legoland Windsor)
  • Days spent in a theme park in 2017: 3 (2x Alton Towers, 1x Legoland Windsor)
  • Favourite new ride of 2017: Dragon at Legoland Windsor (by default)
  • Favourite new park of 2017: Legoland Windsor (by default)
  • Highlight of 2017: Spending my 14th birthday in Alton Towers.
  • Biggest surprise of 2017: Dragon at Legoland Windsor was surprisingly good!
So, how have you guys' 2018s been? As I said above, 2018 has been a fantastic year for me, and here's to a great 2019!
 
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  • Coaster count at start of 2018: 50
  • Coaster count at end of 2018: 75
  • New credits obtained in 2018: 25
  • New parks visited in 2018: 6 (Parc Saint Paul, Toverland, Efteling, Universal Studios Japan, Tokyo Dome City, Tobu Zoo Park)
  • Visits at a theme park in 2018: 9 (2×PAv, 1×St Paul, 1×Toverland, 1× Efteling, 1×USJ, 2×Tokyo Dome, 1×Tobu).
  • Favourite new ride of 2018: Fénix, Kawasemi and the flying dinosaur in a 3 way tie.
  • Favourite new park of 2018: Toverland
  • Highlight of 2018: Visiting Japan.
  • Low points of 2018: not having the time to go to Fuji-Q. Not having the time to go to Sweden.
  • Biggest surprise of 2018: Being able to find an almost 3 hours window to visit USJ, and being able to visit most of the park, including taking 3 laps of flying D and riding some Universal classics within those 3 hours. Also, Wood Express. Incredible to see that the Gravity Group can rival top notch, full size coasters with less than 500 meters of track and a 15m lift hill
Overall a fantastic year for me also, although 2017 was incredible with the discovery of Plopsaland, Port Aventura, Phantasialand, Holiday Park 1nd Europa Park. My journey as a coaster enthusiast is starting great!
 
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Coaster Count at start of year: 472
Current Count: 490
New creds so far this year: 18
New Parks so far this year: 9
Potential new creds for me to get: 22
Potential final count: 512
New parks to get: 9

Getting 40 total creds *potentially* this year is pretty good considering it is still only Europe...
 
I just realised I forgot another big highlight of 2018; hitting my first proper coaster milestone in the form of my 50th coaster! The special ride was Big One at Blackpool Pleasure Beach!
 
I like this topic Matt. You should keep it going for the next few years like we have with the Top 10 thread. :)

  • Coaster count at start of 2018: 336
  • Coaster count at end of 2018: 338 (should be 339 by EOY)
  • New credits obtained in 2018: 3
  • New parks visited in 2018: 0
  • Days spent in a theme park in 2018: 9 (4x Cedar Point, 1x Conneaut Lake Park, 1x Indiana Beach, 1x Kings Island (not yet happened), 1x Holiday World (not yet happened), 1x Dollywood (not yet happened)
  • Favourite new ride of 2018: Steel Vengeance at Cedar Point
  • Favourite new park of 2018: Nothing new :(
  • Highlight of 2018: Steel Vengeance obviously
  • Biggest surprise of 2018: Steel Vengeance. It's very tough to beat tbh.
 
Snoo said:
I like this topic Matt. You should keep it going for the next few years like we have with the Top 10 thread. :)

  • Coaster count at start of 2018: 336
  • Coaster count at end of 2018: 338 (should be 339 by EOY)
  • New credits obtained in 2018: 3
  • New parks visited in 2018: 0
  • Days spent in a theme park in 2018: 9 (4x Cedar Point, 1x Conneaut Lake Park, 1x Indiana Beach, 1x Kings Island (not yet happened), 1x Holiday World (not yet happened), 1x Dollywood (not yet happened)
  • Favourite new ride of 2018: Steel Vengeance at Cedar Point
  • Favourite new park of 2018: Nothing new :(
  • Highlight of 2018: Steel Vengeance obviously
  • Biggest surprise of 2018: Steel Vengeance. It's very tough to beat tbh.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the suggestion @Snoo! In that case, I'm going to change the topic title; does "Your Year In Review: 2018 Edition (Page 1)" sound OK to you?
 
  • Coaster count at start of 2018: 65
  • Coaster count at end of 2018: 81
  • New credits obtained in 2018: 16
  • New parks visited in 2018: 1 (Cedar Point)
  • Days spent in a theme park in 2018: 10 (6x CA's Great America, 1x SFDiscovery Kingdom, 3x Cedar Point) Going to go to CGA and SFDK a few more times this year.
  • Favourite new ride of 2018: Maverick/steel vengeance
  • Favourite new park of 2018: CP
  • Highlight of 2018: Visiting CP for 3 days after planning for 5 years or so
  • Biggest surprise of 2018: Maverick in the front. It, in my opinion, might be better then SteVe
 
I’m lucky that my 2018 hasn’t quite finished yet, so for now I’ll do one for 2017 like Matt did:

  • Coaster count at start of 2017: 633
  • Coaster count at end of 2017: 707
  • New credits obtained in 2017: 74
  • New parks visited in 2017: 20
  • Days spent in a theme park in 2017: 41
  • Favourite new ride of 2017: Hmm... Joker at SFDK was my favourite new coaster, but the new ride that year which I hold closest to my heart is the glorious Kitt Super Jet at Movieland Studios Italy
  • Favourite new park of 2017: For that reason, and amongst other quirky and awesome rides, probably Movieland
  • Highlight of 2017: Being able to do trips with my friend @ThomVD for the first time. That was the highlight itself, but these trips included: my 10th visit to Europa Park (since 2001), his first time in the UK, Winter Phantasialand/Efteling and more....
  • Biggest surprise of 2017: Well, stuff like Kitt Super Jet and Magma at Movieland... but also Katun finally living up to the hype I had for it 5 years prior.
 
I've been on Coasterforce for around 11 years, and this year was the first year I actually acted like an enthusiast.
  • Coaster count at start of 2018: 43
  • Coaster count at end of 2018: 82
  • New credits obtained in 2018: 39
  • New parks visited in 2018: 7 (Efteling, Toverland, Phantasialand, Portaventura, Ferrari Land, Grona Lund, Tivoi Gardens)
  • Favourite new ride of 2018: Taron
  • Favourite new park of 2018: Portaventura
  • Highlight of 2018: Facing my fears and riding Huracan Condor because I'm 26 and need to man up :emoji_joy:
  • Low points of 2018: Not making it to Blackpool (yet)
  • Biggest surprise of 2018: Toverland - I had low expectations but when I visited I found a park that had a genuinely magical vibe.
All in all, a pretty damn good year :emoji_school_satchel:
 
As much as it grieves me, my season is pretty much over with too. In fairness, apart from a day at the Pleasure Beach, my season was over about 3 months ago! :eek:
I'm hoping to squeeze in a cheeky, end-of-season day out somewhere, but it won't be anywhere new, probably Blackpool or Alton for the fireworks Live.
But it's all good, I kinda knew that going in to the year, what with having a major US road trip lined up n'all. It was an all-eggs-in-one-basket kinda year. Spent all my goon allowance in one go, so to speak. But yeah... what a way to spend it! :D
To put that into perspective, I got more creds in one 10-day road trip than I did in 2016 and 2017 put together, so it was well worth it!
Once again, massive thank you to @DelPiero for organising, inviting and tolerating me all the way. Top man!

• Start of year cc: 258
• End of year cc: 338
• New creds: 80
• New parks visited: 8
(Worlds of Fun, Silver Dollar City, Six Flags St Louis, Holiday World, Kentucky Kingdom, Kings Island, Six Flags Great America and Cedar Point.)
• Favourite new cred: Steel Vengeance... Duhh!
Honourable mentions to TTD, Outlaw Run, Wildfire, Voyage, Thunderbird, Storm Chaser, Lightning Run, Banshee, Valravn and Icon.
• Favourite new park: Cedar Point... Duhh!
Honourable mention to Silver Dollar City.
• Total theme park days: 12.
• Highlight of the year: 1.5 days at Cedar Point with a whole bunch of fab CFers, and just in case I haven't mentioned this enough times already, getting 8 or 9 night rides on SteVe in just over an hour at the end of the last day. Perfection!
Honourable mention here to a night ride on Beast at KI. And when I say night ride I mean night ride, pitch black it was. Quite the experience.

Good year, then.
A 'Trip Plans for 2019' topic, anyone?

*Edit: I've just noticed there already is a 'Trip Plans for 2019' topic. Way to go, @Matt N :)
 
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Yeah, my season is over, no way I'm gonna be able to visit somewhere before next year.

Coaster Count at start of 2018: 145
Coaster Count at end of 2018: 181
New Creds: 36. Best year so far for me!
New Parks: 5 (Carowinds, Dollywood, Six Flags Over Georgia, Funtown, Palace Playland)
Favorite New Cred: Lightning Rod. It came close to taking my #1 spot, it's just incredible and had me laughing at the brake run.
Honerable Mentions: Twisted Cyclone, Goliath, Fury, and Intimidator were all great.
Favorite New Park: Dollywood (although there wasn't much competition). Heard nothing but positive things about the place and it live up to everything. Great rides, lovely setting, great staff, can't complain one bit.
Highlights of 2018: Of course Dollywood and my 13 rides on Lightning Rod, including a two and a half hour whore sesh in the evening. <3 Also big shoutout to finally meeting up with a fellow CFer (Antinos) and having a chill night at Canobie.
Lowlights of 2018: Probably my cred run at Funtown and Palace Playland. Felt like more of a chore to be honest.
Biggest Surprise: Don't know if I ever mentioned this, but I got my first alpine coaster at Snowmass. Wasn't expecting much more than a +1 but it was actually a pretty sweet ride. Another surprise was Yankee Cannonball holding up pretty well after years of getting 100+ new creds.
 
Other than a day at Six Flags soon, I'm done for this year.
  • Coaster count at start of 2018: 264
  • Coaster count at end of 2018: 268
  • New credits obtained in 2018: 4
  • New parks visited in 2018: 0
  • Days spent in a theme park in 2018: 3 (2x Cedar Point, 1x Six Flags over Georgia)
  • Favorite new ride of 2018: Steel Vengeance <3
  • Favorite new park of 2018: N/A
  • Highlight of 2018: US Live. Just a fun bunch of people.
  • Biggest surprise of 2018: Steel Vengeance <3, cause I was expecting great but not that great.
 
It is a little too soon for a year review indeed, but doing it during the season is quite fun too imo!


  • Coaster count at start of 2018: 142
  • Coaster count at end of 2018: 200 (ongoing)
  • New credits obtained in 2018: 58
  • New parks visited in 2018: 8 (Le Pal, Walibi Rhône-Alpes, Cedar Point, Blackpool PB, Alton Towers, Thorpe Park, Chessington WoA, Toverland)
  • Days spent in a theme park in 2018: 15 (2x Energylandia, Le Pal, Walibi Rhône-Alpes, 2x Cedar Point, Blackpool PB, 2x Alton Towers, 2x Thorpe Park, Chessington WoA, 2x Toverland, Jardin d'Acclimatation)
  • Favourite new ride of 2018: Steel Vengeance
  • Favourite new park of 2018: Alton Towers
  • Highlight of 2018: Getting 10 consecutive rides on Nemesis in an hour! Riding Troy with my eyes shut was also very memorable.
  • Biggest surprise of 2018: Blackpool's Mack bobsleigh was surprisingly forceful! Nothing really elite or anything, just wasn't something I expected at all
 
  • Coaster count at start of 2018: 51
  • Coaster count at end of 2018: 72 (Not Final)
  • New credits obtained in 2018: 21 (not final)
  • New parks visited in 2018: 2 (Kings Dominion, Carowinds)
  • Days spent in a theme park in 2018: 12 (8x Cedar Point, 2x Kings Island, 1x Kings Dominion, 1x Carowinds) (Not Final)
  • Favourite new ride of 2018: Steel Vengeance
  • Favourite new park of 2018: Kings Dominion
  • Highlight of 2018: Getting first ride of the day on Steel Vengeance in the back car, while still riding 6 other rides, or Beast night ride!
  • Biggest surprise of 2018: How good Beast at night is! I have put it above Banshee (For KI) just because of how awesome it was!
  • Biggest surprise (Bad): I was really disappointed by Afterburn and both Intimidators. They are both overrated IMO, and all of their counterparts (Banshee/Raptor, Diamondback/Apollo's Chariot, Fury 325/Millennium Force) are better than them.
 
My season is all but over. I might (might) get to Blackpool, but to be honest chances are looking slim. Probably can do my summary, then.

  • Coaster count at start of 2018: 512
  • Coaster count at end of 2018: 611
  • New credits obtained in 2018: 99
  • New parks visited in 2018: 28
  • Days spent in a theme park in 2018: 24 (I think...)
  • Favourite new ride of 2018: Steel Vengeance, duh.
  • Favourite new park of 2018: Efteling or Disneyland Shanghai, both were lovely.
  • Highlight of 2018: Steel Vengeance, probably.
  • Biggest surprise of 2018: No clue, really.

Yay! :D
 
uh, lets see *edited/updated*
  • Coaster count at start of 2018: 901
  • Coaster count at end of 2018: 967 *972*
  • New credits obtained in 2018: 66 *71*
  • New parks visited in 2018: 16 *17* (Hong Kong Disneyland, Berjaya Times Square Theme Park, Universal Studios Singapore, Legoland Malaysia, Siam Park City, Yoyo Land, FunXcess, Galaxyland Amusement Park, Calaway Park, Playland (Canada), Cultus Lake Adventure Park, Remlinger Farms, Silverwood Theme Park, Enchanted Forest, Oaks Amusement Park, and Wild Waves Theme & Water Park (+6 new fairs I'd never visited)*OWA*)
  • Days spent in a theme park in 2018: Uh, a lot. Everything mentioned above... plus living in Orlando and working for Disney..... parks are near daily thing haha. but non-Florida I also revisited... Six Flags Over Georgia, Cedar Point, Sesame Place, Dutch Wonderland, Central Park Fun-Land, Family Kingdom, Broadway at the Beach/Pavilion Park, Kings Dominion, Canobie Lake Park, Funtown USA, and Palace Playland.
  • Favorite new ride of 2018: PNE/Playland COASTER <3 and I guess I'll give the nod to Mindbender (Galaxyland), Steel Vengeance, and Twisted Timbers.
  • Favorite new park of 2018: Silverwood. Absolutely beautiful with a great selection of rides... although with less than ideal operations.
  • Highlight of 2018: First trip to Asia, HK Disney, Getting a new country and a new coaster credit on my birthday for the first time ever (Supersonic Odyssey), Pacific Northwest
  • Biggest surprise of 2018: PNE/Playland Coaster and Timber Terror
  • Low points of 2018: Had a few missed credits along the way. This opened a few days after my visit https://rcdb.com/16365.htm , This was closed for painting https://rcdb.com/12244.htm , and one that actually mattered this... was just closed :'( https://rcdb.com/4328.htm (Human/sitdown side)
There's still a chance I hit up 1 new park for me and a revisit to another... with the potential of +5 new credits for me. (I'm just so lazy about driving to OWA)
I ended up making the trek out to do OWA over the weekend. Hit up Waterville in passing to ride Cannonabll once more before it closes forever at the end of the month. Also stopped at Sam's Fun City on the way home and got their new (used) coaster credit. Woo.
 
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At this point in the year, I've usually got something planned for parks, but at the moment I've got nothing. I still need to get my arse into gear for a Guangzhou cred mop up, which could really be done on any weekend, so that might still happen, but I just can't be bothered at the moment.
  • Coaster count at start of 2018: 1368
  • Coaster count at end of 2018: 1523
  • New credits obtained in 2018: 155
  • New parks visited in 2018: 54 (technically 56, but one was closed and one had their cred removed)
  • Days spent in a theme park in 2018: At a rough guess, 35.
  • Favorite new ride of 2018: Tough one, but probably Flying Aces. Other highlights would be Formula Rossa, Twisted Cyclone, Medusa Steel Coaster, Goliath (SFOG), Superman (SF Mexico), Iron Rattler
  • Favorite new park of 2018: Possibly Motiongate? Others would be Ferrari World, Six Flags Over Georgia, Colourful Yunnan Paradise
  • Highlight of 2018: New Zealand - absolutely loved it - followed by Mexico
  • Biggest surprise of 2018: Six Flags Over Georgia not being dreadful. Bana Hills being utterly ridiculous.
  • Low points of 2018: Doing a Griswold at Victory Kingdom, Guilin, even though there was nothing special there.
 
  • Coaster count at start of 2018: 111
  • Coaster count at end of 2018: 188
  • New credits obtained in 2018: 77
  • New parks visited in 2018: 8 (Six Flags Great Adventure, Gröna Lund, Kolmården, Six Flags Over Georgia, Dollywood, Carowinds, Adventure Island, Energylandia)
  • Days spent in a theme park in 2018: No idea at all.
  • Favourite new ride of 2018: Fury 325
  • Favourite new park of 2018: Dollywood
  • Highlight of 2018: Marathoning Fury 325
  • Biggest surprise of 2018: It’s either my first ride on Twisted Cyclone it’s small but pack a punch, Thunderhead it was surprisingly smooth and intense or my visit to Grona Lund, it is just such a nice park with a great atmosphere.
  • Low Points of 2018: Either Legendia being closed despite it being advertised as opened on the website, El Toro spite or Lightning Rod spite.
 
  • Coaster count at the end of 2018: 356 (I don't expect any new credits before the end of the year)
  • New credits obtained in 2018: 10
  • New parks visited in 2018: 1 (Walibi Holland)
  • Days spent in a theme park in 2018: Not sure.
  • Favorite new ride of 2018: Tough call. Either Twisted Timbers or Steel Vengeance.
  • Favorite new park of 2018: I've got a lot of choices, but I think I'm going with...Walibi Holland. ;)
  • Highlight of 2018: Finding out I'm going to be a father in 2019. :) Park/coaster-wise, either the hilarity of my wife's first Intimidator 305 experience, my Fury 325 rides in general, finally checking off Walibi Holland (especially Goliath) on my bucket list, trimless Magnum, or one of several other options.
  • Biggest surprise of 2018: Valravn. I don't much care for dive machines since SheiKra and Griffon do little for me, but wow, Valravn brought the goods.
  • Low points of 2018: My wife, for aforementioned reasons, not being able to ride most of the coasters with me (although the reason was beautiful, so I'm hardly mad or anything), Steel Vengeance not becoming the undisputed #1 I was led to believe it would become, haha, and probably one of the trenches on Afterburn (HAHAHAHAHA! Get it? Get it?...I'll show myself out now).
2018 really was a great year. It was nice to show my wife some of my absolute favorite parks as, before getting to know me, her non-WDW experiences were extremely limited. Even though she couldn't ride anything at most of the parks, she really enjoyed getting to see the places about which I raved so much. It was also nice to get back to parks I either hadn't been to in years (Carowinds since 2015, CP since 2013, KD since 2013 or earlier), and it was awesome getting to finally get to Walibi Holland, especially since that wasn't originally planned.
 
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