Actually, to be fair it was still surprisingly successful in terms of theme park enthusing. I started out the new year in China, while the upcoming apocalypse was kicking off around us on a local scale, so that led to a sneaky two week headstart. Obviously it all went downhill in March, with the spring (Poland) and early summer (USA) bookings taking the hit. I experienced my biggest coaster drought since starting to take this all seriously back in 2015, at a total of 190 park free days, which was eventually broken with some shameless local credhunting. The itinerary that saved it all from total despair ended up being the fortnight driving across Europe, again with everything closing around us. The trip provided me with my 1000th coaster in spectacular fashion and, masks aside, delivered the perfect dose of escaping reality that this hobby does so wonderfully. The important question though, how does this look when presented in numbers?
Not bad at all considering. That’s 109 new rollercoasters for me, which is down by about half on the previous three years but still an increase of over 10% on the overall count, something that is inevitably going to slow down over time regardless of global pandemics. Better still, there were 42 new to me park visits, only 5 less than in 2019, though that can mainly be attributed to a significant difference in the scale of said parks – no US monsters in there sadly. Something not included in these graphs is the fact that I still spent 30 days of this year visiting theme parks. One whole month out of 2020 doing what I love – I’ll take that.
Now that quantifying everything has made me infinitely happier, let’s talk about some highlights.
No doubt about it for me, Zadra the massive RMC at Energylandia takes the top spot. It took two long, intense days to become fully acquainted with the experience on offer here but this truly is a spectacular ride with powerful pacing and a bit of every sensation thrown in for good measure. My favourite individual coaster lap of the year would also have been found on this thing, on the second day, just as the sun was setting and even with the deeply unpleasant sensation of getting swarms of tiny bugs stuck under my eyelids. Top tier coasters are able to earn their respect in the most unusual of circumstances.
I’ve had almost an entire year to sit on this one now and I think I’ve finally settled on the decision that Magic Gallery at Oriental Heritage Changsha is my new favourite dark ride, of all time. Everything about the experience, from the initial setup of not knowing what it was, throughout the spectacularly long and detailed presentation of onboard events and finishing up with the complimentary cup of tea upon exiting the car, was so well tailored to my personal tastes. I get both excited and emotional just thinking about rides like this now.
It’s not time to get off the Fantawild train just yet. My visit to Fantawild Asian Legend this year reignited my passion for the franchise in spectacular fashion by combining a multitude of their amazing dark rides, all reimagined with new themes and storylines, plus a copy of one of my favourite rollercoasters on the planet (something I’d usually despise but I’m just thankful for the opportunity to ride something that good this year). Out of all the overall days of park experiences this one was just so densely packed with joyous moments of discovery from start to finish that it simply has to take the number one position.
It’s good to remind myself the stupid lengths that we end up going to for entertainment every once in a while and that was perfectly summed up this year by riding all 5 coasters in the Karls Erlebnis-Dorf chain across 4 of their parks in a single day. Netting just shy of 1000km of driving across 15 hours on the most ridiculous route from Poland to Hamburg, you’d be forgiven for thinking we’re clinically insane. But it’s a lot of fun and that’s what really counts.
While tinkering with the format for my end of year summary I figured I’d do a bit of a catchup session on the previous 5 years, a fun look back on all the experiences that came before the inception of this site.
2019 feels big in a different way. A lot less frantic, a lot more dense. Of course having spent the new year in California, things kicked off with a strong start through more American adventures. Having acquired the ridiculously cheap season passes for both the Cedar Fair and Six Flags chains and being suitably hooked on the US coaster trip lifestyle, we decided to attack the other side of the country only a few months later.
With the usual routine broken I was back in Singapore in summer rather than winter and took the opportunity for what felt like a somewhat desperate attempt against some unfinished business and I finally bagged my most elusive coaster of all time in China before a whirlwind stint in Japan. The nature of that particular journey highlighted, scarily, that all-new trips were becoming harder to plan and this became even more evident when selecting one more big European adventure for the year. It ended up as an unusual mix of nations, Finland being driven by an exciting new opening and Italy by being the largest country as yet unexplored by us. Numbers please.
There we go. Another record breaking year with 230 new rollercoasters for me, a surprise that can definitely be attributed to the sheer quantity of coasters per park in the USA compared to the rest of the world. For similar reasons, park visits were down rather significantly at only 47 new ones, doing more than 1 a day just isn’t practical in some places and could even be an insult to certain quality coasters. Similarly, the number of days spent in parks was back down to 48, which is still a very satisfying amount and I’m just delighted that one of the records was still broken. I’ve set the bar too high for myself.
Now that quantifying everything has made me infinitely happier, let’s talk about some highlights.
Favourite Coaster in 2019
The biggest year yet (again) deserves a larger list, leaving some of these off would just be too painful.
Honourable mentions – Twisted Timbers (Kings Dominion), El Toro (Six Flags Great Adventure), Wicked Cyclone (Six Flags New England), Lightning Rod (Dollywood), Wood Coaster (Knight Valley), Hakugei (Nagashima Spa Land), Taiga (Linnanmäki) & Untamed (Walibi Holland)
Dense was the correct word to use earlier, with so much quality going into the coaster list – 10 spots in my current top 25 were rewritten over the space of 6 months. In a year dominated by RMCs, one incredible Intamin creation took the crown. Skyrush at Hersheypark wasn’t an instant hit for me, but once the sun went down we strapped ourselves in for the most intense marathon of our coasting career and the ride completely came into its own. It’s difficult to do justice to just how terrifying this attraction is even to the most seasoned of enthusiasts, but know that it had the most profound effect on me.
Disney does it again with the reimagining of a previous winner on these lists. Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: BREAKOUT! at Disney California Adventure is a fresh overlay for the well known Tower of Terror attractions and I want to say I was skeptical about this move when the news was announced but the truth is I didn’t pay any attention all. It worked better than I could have ever hoped for anyway, with the combination of a completely unforced narrative, out of this world theming and a franchise I’m massively into resulting in what I consider to be Disneyland’s finest attraction to date.
I’ve never been more at peace in a park than I was at Dollywood and my time spent here managed to completely change my perspective on theme parks. Sometimes the attractions don’t even matter (though Lightning Rod helps of course), all you need is some beautiful scenery, a relaxed atmosphere, good food, country music and (never thought I’d be saying this) a rocking chair. There’s a very unique and specific combination of factors going on here that reached me on levels I didn’t know existed and the result is first class.
Never have I needed to be more persistent in the acquisition of a ride than for Wood Coaster at Knight Valley. I’ve already covered the story several times on here but what cannot be overstated are the levels of ‘cred anxiety’ (yes, there is an accepted medical term for it) that planning for and travelling to experience this attraction created within me. That’s not something to be celebrated at all but mercifully, mercifully, new lows can lead to new highs, the drama paid off and gave me a new top ten coaster for the collection. Now that does deserve a win.
While tinkering with the format for my end of year summary I figured I’d do a bit of a catchup session on the previous 5 years, a fun look back on all the experiences that came before the inception of this site. With no sign of slowing, 2018 was another big year, with by far the biggest East-West and North-South spread across the globe (maybe I should start doing maps in these too).
It began with our first foray into the Southern Hemisphere thanks to some particularly exciting coaster news down under. A return to Spain kept the early season blues away and then I made one final use out of my Chinese visa with a reasonably successful revenge trip to certain regions. It’s actually thanks to work that this became the strongest year yet for number of new coasters – a conference in Abu Dhabi gave me a few days to sneak away and nab a chunk of the UAE’s theme park offerings.
Our France game got stronger in the summer, now that we had become fully accustomed to dealing with the usual Chunnel nightmares and then as if the year wasn’t insane enough, another dream trip to Korea and Japan? Yes please. A revisit to Liseberg and Helix? Yes please. As I approached 700 coasters I had still managed to avoid setting foot on the shores of the USA, a streak that was finally (and thankfully) broken with the New Year spent in California, a New Years eve at Magic Mountain no less. How well will that help the numbers along?
Very. There were 223 new rollercoasters for me, no way this total is ever going to do anything as significant as doubling again but it’s still being beaten year on year and that’s satisfying to watch. The rise in park visits was even more significant, with 72 new park visits in total, a clear sign that there were less coasters on average per establishment than before. I mentioned a future goal in the previous entry of this series and it came true (a foreshadowing cheat), starting and ending the year on such significant trips saw the number of days spent in parks total rise to a record 64, over two months of the year doing what I do best!
Now that quantifying everything has made me infinitely happier, let’s talk about some highlights.
Favourite Coaster in 2018
The biggest year yet deserves a larger list, leaving some of these off would just be too painful.
Sneaking in, literally on the last day of the year, is Twisted Colossus at Six Flags Magic Mountain. It may not have even settled in my mind how highly I would rate this coaster by the time I left that night but a strong session with it just one week later would strongly secure the spot at the top of this already immensely stacked group of attractions. The very first lap in the dark was unreal and exactly the type of moment that this post is all about.
It was likely inevitable that a visit to Tokyo DisneySea this year would put something at or near the top and though expectations weren’t quite met overall, Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Crystal Skull takes the crown. While nearly all the major attractions at the park had incredible visuals and an atmosphere in and around them, the only one to truly compliment that with a gamechanging onboard experience were the wildly out of control tomb raiding expedition vehicles found within this masterpiece. Vast open areas of gorgeous theming, mind blowing special effects and moments of pure hilarity put this ride straight in amongst the greatest of all time. I’m upset we didn’t get a second go – that damn typhoon.
Motiongate caught me totally unprepared. I’d never really read anything positive or negative about the park and spent so much of the trip planning either dwelling on work or quirks of a cultural nature so I was nearly knocked of my feet on several occasions at the staggering beauty of this park. It has a fun and varied coaster lineup with nothing exceedingly special, but what makes this place is the dark rides (just look at that honorable mentions list), the areas in which they are housed, the atmosphere, the friendliness of the staff, the food, the lack of queues… I could go on. It ticked all my boxes and I fell in love, hard.
Persistence in the face of adversity is becoming a running theme for this category and this time it was the weathers fault (another running theme in general). It was a low moment for the hobby to arrive in Barcelona and drive to the top of a mountain only to find the first park of the trip completely rained out and abandoned. The wounds were still sore after a second failed botched attempt at Wood Coaster in Shenzhen a couple of months prior and I remember specifically saying in despair as we headed back to the car – “we just can’t go anywhere any more…” Thankfully we proceeded to have a pleasant evening in Portaventura further down the coast and then took a significant chunk out of our following day there to drive all the way back up here and have what turned out to be an even better evening at the fabulous Tibidabo. It may not look like much by cred alone, but the desperate need to go and catch ’em all is the perfect way to stumble onto gems like this.
While tinkering with the format for my end of year summary I figured I’d do a bit of a catchup session on the previous 5 years, a fun look back on all the experiences that came before the inception of this site. The upwards trend continued in 2017 and it was the year in which Asia truly became my second home for this stuff. Closer to actual home in Europe there were a fair few weekend hops to various regions for either exciting new ride openings amongst familiar surroundings or the odd fresh getaway like Spain for the first time.
Even though it was only a 50% success rate on actually achieving major coasters during my first two days there last year, I was now hooked on the idea of exploring the depths of China for all those other masterpieces that had cropped up under most people’s radar. Acquiring my first tourist visa allowed me to go at it with full force across two separate visits (and it wouldn’t stop there). In between those was the dream trip that had been brewing in our hearts for some time, to the nations of South Korea and Japan. This was special for other reasons but of course there were plenty of amazing parks and attractions to be found along the way. How many though?
Lots. There were 205 new rollercoasters for me, breaking that two hundred barrier in a single year seems almost overwhelming in the current climate and it nearly doubled the overall count yet again. The rise in park visits was proportional, with 56 new park visits in total. Counting the number of days spent doing this has now become a staple and saw a new high of 52 days, nearly one for every park. This stirred some future goals – it would be nice to hit 2 months out of 12 having fun like this in a single year wouldn’t it.
Now that quantifying everything has made me infinitely happier, let’s talk about some highlights.
My passion for wooden coasters was surely born this year, with Python in Bamboo Forestat Wanda Nanchang leading the way. Not only that it was the perfect demonstration as to why all the trials and tribulations I was finding through exploring China were totally justified. World class coasters and having them all to yourself with an empty train don’t often come hand in hand, but when they do it’s a truly magical experience (or ten).
Looking back, there’s a slight injustice here and the beginnings of Disney being knocked off the top spot for dark rides. But I just can’t look past the negative experiences that littered the day at Oriental Heritage Ningbo and luckily I’ve been to enough other Fantawild properties in future years in order to truly appreciate their game changing dark ride/show hybrid.
This does mean however that the star of 2017 to me was Pirates of the Caribbean Battle for the Sunken Treasure at Shanghai Disneyland and there’s no shame in that at all. It feels like the park was the talk of everyone that year and in particular how they had stepped up their dark ride game for this franchise and this is no exaggeration. The upgrade in vehicle moments and special effects combined with the seamless blend of physical sets and disorientating screen sequences is mind bogglingly good and I undoubtedly became more hooked on dark rides than ever before thanks to this marvellous creation.
Days at a park don’t get much denser than at Universal Studios Japan. It felt like there was so much to do here and I just got swept up in it all, time flying from start to finish, though still having the perfect amount with which to do everything we wanted and then almost having an out of body experience in the process (mainly due to tiredness). Throughout the year Fantawild was teaching me that world class rollercoasters and dark rides don’t have to be mutually exclusive and then Universal delivered not one, but two of those coasters (both of which happened to provide the strongest experiences amongst their respective types), along with their top end staples like Jaws (last one left!) and Spiderman.
In a pastime that was becoming increasingly stressful for missing out on big named coasters, costly backtracking and occasionally what felt like general time wasting, there was one particular trip that subverted it all with the best added bonus imaginable. A last minute, on the spot decision to combine the Danish Sommerland cred runs into a single day opened up an opportunity for an insane bomb down the autobahn to revisit the gorgeous Hansa Park and see Kärnan in its already upgraded glory – something that had never even been conceived of upon planning this weekend away. Every once in a while a bit of haste in this hobby pays off.
While tinkering with the format for my end of year summary I figured I’d do a bit of a catchup session on the previous 5 years, a fun look back on all the experiences that came before the inception of this site. After 2015 lay the groundwork for going at this hobby a bit harder, 2016 was the explosive result of making that a reality with a total of 7 international trips (thanks Wildfire) evenly spread throughout the year
As well as bookending the year with 2 revisits to Universal Studios, I finally began to take advantage of the geographical positioning of visiting Singapore every winter by branching out to both Malaysia and Hong Kong, also dipping my toe into China for the first time. The original ‘pure’ rollercoaster roadtrip with Mega-Lite took us to Germany and, addicted to the fast paced nature of bombing down the Autobahn for theme parks, I would end up back there thrice more before the year was out. The other addiction manifested in the fact that I couldn’t resist taking Mega-Lite on extended versions of 2015’s Scandinavia and Netherlands trips, any excuse to return to Helix, Liseberg, Tivoli Gardens, Efteling… basically everything I loved about last year. How did this affect the numbers?
Massively. There were 157 new rollercoasters for me, over three times the amount from the previous year and more than I had ever ridden in total beforehand. This was thanks to 39 new park visits in total and let’s not forget that doesn’t even include the revisits. Something else I started keeping track of this year was the amount of days I spent inside theme parks, a sanity check in a way for how much personal time was being invested in this passion project. This year it hit 46 days – a highly satisfying month and a half of hobbying.
Now that quantifying everything has made me infinitely happier, let’s talk about some highlights.
Favourite Coaster in 2016
Honourable mentions – Bullet Coaster (Happy Valley Shenzhen), Schwur des Kärnan (Hansa Park), Piraten (Djurs Sommerland) & Wildfire (Kolmården)
The reign of multi-launch coasters continues with Taronat Phantasialand taking top spot for the season. 2016 was a big year for Europe, seeing the unveiling of several attractions that changed the scene over here and this unprecedented mess of tangled track was no exception. As part of the extended Netherlands trip of late summer, we couldn’t help but pop over the border for a day in anticipation of how good the attractions of Klugheim looked and the ride itself did not disappoint.
Favourite Dark Ride in 2016
Honourable mentions – Pirates in Batavia (Europa Park), KnightsRide Tower (Fantasiana), Maus au Chocolat (Phantasialand), & Challenge of Tutankhamon (Walibi Belgium)
On the dark ride end of the scale, the Disney streak continues this time with Mystic Manor at Hong Kong Disneyland. It’s no exaggeration to declare this is one of the finest attractions ever created. It oozes atmosphere even from the outside and the original, tailored narrative is a refreshing twist on the usual haunted house type affair. Trackless technology brings an extra sense of wonderment to the whole experience and I now miss this ride terribly. We’ve been apart for far too long.
Favourite Park in 2016
Honourable mentions – Hong Kong Disneyland, Hansa Park, Djurs Sommerland & Fantasiana
What? Better than Disney?It might be down to the weather but I feel like I got a lot more out of our visit to Europa Park. There’s so much going on here, with endless lands of interesting attractions. It felt like a really big moment in our blossoming enthusiasm to conquer the capital of European theme parks, on that inaugural coaster laden trip abroad and to have the sheer quantity of high end coasters like Silver Star, Wodan, Blue Fire and Eurosat all blow our inexperienced minds of the time, in a single day, was particularly special.
This feels like cheating a bit but to be honest in my rookie days of the slightly more obsessive cred hunting, things went wrong. So although it’s amusing to look back on and write about those moments now, the fun wasn’t always there at the time – an outlook I’m striving to improve on as the years go by. This particular day showed new levels of dedication to the cause by us making phone calls, cutting short another visit (to the best park of the year no less) and spontaneously jumping in the car to go and desperately reclaim a sorely missed opportunity from earlier in the trip. Expedition GeForce is a legend of the coaster world and we simply couldn’t let it slip through our fingers.
While tinkering with the format for my end of year summary I figured I’d do a bit of a catchup session on the previous 5 years, a fun look back on all the experiences that came before the inception of this site. I first started going out of my way for theme parks on international trips back in 2015, it was the year that made it clear to me how much more I needed to see and do and I’m fairly certain by the end of it I had cooked up my first spreadsheet and begun the devilish task of counting coasters.
It began lightly with a couple of parks in the Netherlands, in the dying embers of my travelling abroad for the sake of some nonsense sightseeing. A revengeful return trip to my first Disney resort followed, to make up for that misspent visit in my youth. We started to dust off a few more domestic parks because they were there and the year was capped with a game changing shuffle around Scandinavia. How about some stats?
The leap is evident. There were 44 new rollercoasters for me, four times the amount in the previous year and nearly double for the overall count. It may not seem like much to me these days, but there were also 9 new park visits in total and prior to this moment I had never been more adventurous than two in a year (clearly a wasted childhood), so that’s huge.
Now that quantifying everything has made me infinitely happier, let’s talk about some highlights.
Favourite Coaster in 2015
Honourable mentions – Goliath (Walibi Holland), Joris en der Draak (Efteling),Big Thunder Mountain (Disneyland Paris) & Balder (Liseberg)
It’s amazing to think that Helix at Liseberg, my favourite ride of 2015, has stuck with me all the way to the present day. I suppose it shows how monumental a shift it created in my experience of what rollercoasters could do to me. I can’t guarantee the specifics, but it’s likely the most significant contributing factor to why I started counting, documenting and then desperately searching for more and more rollercoasters, wishing for another to be this good again. And honestly there hasn’t been one. It’s been a phenomenal journey, but I’m still holding out for that Helix beater.
Favourite Dark Ride in 2015
Honourable mentions – Fata Morgana & Droomvlucht (Efteling), Phantom Manor & Pirates of the Caribbean(Disneyland Paris)
Beautiful scenery, tranquil settings and gorgeous music are all well and good for a dark ride, but The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror at Disneyland Paris Studios showed me how combining an intensely themed experience with the thrill of drop tower hardware could be simply out of this world. I’ll never forget both the personal joy I had and the shared joy of every other rider surrounding me on this attraction once it got going. The ridiculous sensations those drops create are absolutely infectious.
Lisebergstrikes again. As with Helix, I’m still more in love with this place right now than I am with anywhere else I’ve been since. No other park has quite captured the magical combination of the attractions spread across this hillside and the profound effect it has on me from simply being there. Watching this park continually improve and flourish year on year since my first visit makes me feel like a proud supporter. They just know how to delight me.
Favourite Cred Hunting in 2015
A visit to Pleasurewood Hills and Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach appears to be the first time we ever did two parks in a day but it’s not particularly applicable to the award. I even took a lap or two on a Wacky Worm here that I didn’t need for the count. The true danger of the concept of creds had not yet manifested itself in my brain, so that’s something to look forward to in future parts.
Home to the most rollercoasters in any one park across Asia, Nagashima is Japan’s answer to the classic American mega park setup, often affectionately dubbed by us as ‘concrete and rides.’ This place has caused me considerablepain over the past few years with dodgy operations, staff issues and even some unsavoury guest experiences. Overall this gives it very un-Japanese feel for me and I think it’s a shame that this one usually ends up as the poster boy while Fuji-Q gets all the stick. Team Fuji all the way (no doubt I’ll regret saying that one day).
The other issue here is that there aren’t many coasters at this park that are unique to the world, a factor I usually like to celebrate further in these lists. But creds are creds, and they have a lot more of them, so let’s see the list that makes all the suffering worthwhile. I know how to sell this hobby.
#12 Peter Rabbit Coaster
I think this one bothers me mostly because it was ridden on our fateful first visit. It’s surprisingly dull, even for a powered coaster, and never has slapping a child friendly brand on a ride been more lazy in execution.
#11 Children Coaster
And in that regard, at least this one isn’t trying to be something it’s not. A Tivoli medium is what a Tivoli medium does. Zierer has successfully churned out 86 of these (across a few differently sized layouts) following the original model installed at the park from which it takes the name. Ah, to be at Tivoli Gardens instead…
Why have one wild mouse when you can have two? So that you can always have one closed, that’s why. It’s the Mack version, which is usually slightly better, but still an unremarkable fairground attraction on a global stage.
#9 Jet Coaster
Similar to Peter Rabbit, I wasn’t left with the best of impressions with this ride due to the circumstances under which it was ridden. This has also led to never actually taking a proper picture of it even after several visits. Luckily you can spot some brown track in the trees from this vantage point on the ferris wheel. I like Jet Coasters, probably more than most, just not this one.
#8 Corkscrew
Amusement can come in strange forms. This classic Arrow corkscrew coaster was unintentionally hilarious when we rode it, wet and miserable. Other than the fact that while queueing I had just discovered my raincoat no longer functioned as a raincoat, I couldn’t tell you why.
#7 Shuttle Loop
Another classic steel coaster, though we’re still struggling to get to the actual good stuff here. Schwarzkopf rides always have a certain charm to them, except I find that a little more lacking when there’s no corners in the layout. Lap bar for an inversion though, leading the charge on that front.
#6 Looping Star
Corners yes, that’s the way. This particular Schwarzkopf model seems to be actively avoiding me. Their numbers are dwindling and it feels like I’ve been to almost every park that used to have one and only ever successfully added this one to the count (and even that wasn’t on the first try). Good solid ride, ahead of it’s time, again with the lap bars and mixture of strong forces to go with them. Now we’re cooking.
#5 Ultra Twister
It’s not just personal bias, my ride type is just infinitely more interesting and special than anything that came before it on this list. Having not grown up in America during the 20th Century, Togo have yet to let me down and now likely never will.
#4 Steel Dragon 2000
Finally we enter the realm of legends and begin with some mild disappointment. Even with some lovely B&M rolling stock, there’s not much joy to be found in the first half of this Morgan, which has a weird way of making 300ft seem uneventful (to be fair, it’s not the only giga coaster guilty of this). The ridiculous run of consecutive airtime moments in the second half make it a breath of fresh air amongst this smog of clones though. I do secretly like a bit of Steel Dragon.
#3 Acrobat
Like quickly turns to love if we’re talking about B&M flyers though. The ridiculous forces know how to get me excited in ways that few other ride types can achieve and this one has a particularly strong layout to complement that vicious pretzel loop. Shame it’s a clone.
#2 Arashi
And so is number two on our list. This example of the increasingly common S&S Freespin (good old Six Flags) has the advantage of, according to research, being the best of its kind. For reasons I am unable to confirm or deny, Arashi is far more intense than others, to the point of stupidity, and is one of the few coasters on the planet that still genuinely scares me, even after attempting to get acquainted with it multiple times.
#1 Hakugei
Finally, leaving no suspense at all, the RMC tops the list. Had the park been operating competently on our first visit I would have managed to experience this both before and after conversion. Instead I only achieved the latter through some rather extreme dedication on my third impromptu visit. And that says enough about this rollercoaster really. It’s worth flying across the world for, even with nothing else on your agenda. I adore Hakugei and it’s a real gamechanger for the park (and the continent). Weather permitting.
As the most difficult to obtain rollercoaster under my belt so far (potentially ever), the pay off for finally riding this monster from GCI was huge. Something to consider about most Chinese parks is that they’ll seemingly find any excuse not to open and run certain major attractions. The reasoning for this remains a mystery, it could be anything from financial pressure to overbearing regulations but it can be very frustrating to experience first hand, particularly when you’ve also seen elsewhere in the world how it simply doesn’t have to be this way.
I had visited the city of Shenzhen twice before with the intention of riding Wood Coaster and on both occasions it just wasn’t meant to be. On the very first, which also happened to be my inaugural visit to China, we made it all the way to the park to be told by the ticket office that their one and only rollercoaster was ‘closed for maintenance’. It was a painful experience. A couple of years later, the second time around, I had learnt a lot more about when not to waste time by happening on such disappointments in person and we phoned ahead to be told yet again their one and only rollercoaster was ‘closed for maintenance’.
A further 18 months later I was out in Asia again and increasingly desperate to finally ride this thing. Research had finally become easier and the park actually had a relatively informative website by this point. On it they actually listed these ‘maintenance’ schedules (I keep putting that word in quotation marks because it is usually just a word they use to cover any other reason for closure) and I now knew to avoid Mondays, every third Thursday of the month and April (plus unofficially January, the month of my previous two spites). None of that mattered of course if there was going to be any rain and as the trip approached the weather forecast looked bad, very bad.
Thankfully the stars aligned and it was third time lucky. After the most stressful build up to a ride ever, I was finally able to experience it for myself. So beyond all that exclusivity, what makes this coaster so special?
Location, location, location. Just look at that ridiculousness. But it comes at a price. The lift hill terrified me, as the train slowly drags you up, just above the tree line of the forest. With the subtropical climate, this particular area is home to a variety of giant, flapping creepy crawlies and they were swarming this section of the ride, landing on the cars and guests in front of me. I’m so far out of my comfort zone now and this really isn’t selling it, is it?
Mercifully as we reached the summit, the threat seemed to die down, we’re clearly too far up now. At the crest of the lift hill, the train takes a flat 270° turn, a manoeuvre that allows riders to fully appreciate the jaw-droppingly stunning and incomprehensible views this coaster has to offer. This feature endears the ride to me for a secondary reason, in some sort of hipster fashion that I simply cannot avoid. Wood Coaster did this trick before it was cool, before rides like Wildfire made it popular. I like that.
After that moment of serenity, things take a sudden turn. The momentum starts to build throughout something GCI pull off very well on their terrain coasters – a surging, multi-stage drop that just keeps on giving, more than a single straight top to bottom first drop ever could. Desperately trying to keep my mouth shut in case of stray bugs, while simultaneously squealing with excitement as the ride attempts to throw me out of my seat multiple times, we hit the unprecedented large airtime hill over the lift. Something GCI never do. I have no idea why that is, but it’s amazing.
Full momentum still hasn’t been reached by this point and we now dive into an area completely hidden from regular view, a valley with a great headchopper moment from some future track crossing over. This part of the ride is where I noticed that this thing is rough. Not a bad rough though. Highly aggressive, very impactful and all the better for it as far as my own personal tastes go. Right on the limit of making a wooden coaster that extra bit special without detracting from the experience.
That sensation is important for another reason, because it stops what could otherwise be seen as uneventful elements, such as the following extended banked curve from being uninteresting. If I’m getting my ass kicked by the ride then I’m not going to pause and have time to complain about that. Just how it works for me.
Not that I would dream of doing that anyway, because even these corners are packed with GCI’s signature weird transitions, lumps and bumps that give surprise airtime in all the wrong places. Other rides they’ve made don’t have these at all. Why? With some further diving, turning and a wicked little twisted moment, the train heads back towards the station, with far too much momentum to stop of course.
Another GCI signature in the form of a station flythrough. Sadly due to questionable Chinese operations, this one never gets appreciated by guests waiting to board, as unlike the rest of the world (and contradicting the very reason they created this element in the first place) they choose keep the station area entirely vacant while the ride is in motion. It’s fantastic on-ride though, with a wonderfully unnatural lurch upon entry and exit to this flat piece of sheltered track.
The twists and turns just keep on coming and this ride doesn’t know how to slow down at all. After another banked curve that points us back towards the station we enter my favourite part of the entire layout. There’s another legendary element out there that was popularised by RMC on Lightning Rod – the quad down. Well once again, Wood Coaster did it first. I hadn’t dreamed that it was going to be this wild and I just can’t describe how much joy I take from both innovative and out of control moments like this. The train hurtles down airtime moment after airtime moment, both straight and banked, and passes directly through the station yet again, right in between the platform and the brake run in one of the most triumphant pieces of layout design I can think of.
This weird forest tunnel is next as we finally turn towards that piece of track that created our headchopper so long ago – I was wondering when that was coming back. There’s still room for an airtime hill perpendicular to the station this time before a final dive and turn into the brakes. Wow. Head in hands, what just happened, top ten ride? Yes. Twister layouts simply don’t get better than this. I still can’t believe how much this ride throws at you, or how they managed to make it all work in such a seemingly unforgiving landscape.
And that’s the core of what makes this attraction so spectacular to me. Putting a huge wooden rollercoaster on the side of a mountain is the stuff of enthusiast dreams and just not something we would expect to actually exist in real life. The fact that GCI pulled this one off and also held absolutely nothing back in terms of layout and sheer thrill is nothing short of masterful. When it comes to pushing the limits of coaster engineering, there’s almost always something that has to work against the riders’ experience and yet the only thing holding this ride back is the way the park choose to run it, i.e. not well.
Everything about Wood Coaster exhausts me, from the journey to get to it, through being thrown around like a rag doll while on it and then even to sitting down and writing about it, and yet after all my misgivings in the introduction, I wouldn’t have it any other way. It’s a fairytale experience for a fairytale attraction.
Fantasiana? Never heard of it. Well I hadn’t until I was doing some research for a trip to Munich back in 2016. What caught my eye about this tiny Austrian park, other than their Pax rollercoaster was the bold claim on their website about having some of Europe’s best dark rides. Being a huge fan of such things, and skeptical at the same time, obviously I needed to see this for myself. And then it came true.
KnightsRide is an ABC rides drop tower that uses dark ride scenes to greatly enhance it’s experience and this is a highly sought after combination that I am particularly fond of. In terms of flat ride hardware, I find drop towers pack the most punch and are usually the non-coaster attraction you’ll most likely find me heading toward. Give one a theme, a story, an enclosure and something to look at and you’re already on another level.
The experience begins with a very short queueline around an impressive beast of an animatronic dragon, which leaves would-be riders gazing in awe, listening to the occasional narration and anxiously waiting in front of a locked door in the corner. Due to their inherently stomach churning nature I always find that drop rides are great attractions at building a bit of nervous anticipation of the unknown, no matter the size – you don’t know how good it’s going to get you.
If you’re not a fan of spiders, then looking up at the ceiling definitely won’t help matters. Without warning, the cycle ahead of us is complete, the door opens and guests are greeted with a single row of seats to clamber into. The ride slowly and suspensefully rises through several scenes, pausing within each one as it heads up towards the maximum height. Unlike other, more well known examples of this technology, each of these viewing points is perpetually opened out in front of riders’ feet and are made up of primarily physical sets, complimented by projections across the far wall. The dragon makes a welcome return, but the final greeting is from the knight himself, accompanied by a vicious bird. The evil invention of this final moment delivers on many levels – confusion, an unauthorised poke in the back from the seat itself and the surprisingly potent drop all come together to create a satisfying payoff.
Overall I was greatly impressed by how much atmosphere Fantasiana were able to create out of such a tiny attraction footprint. Amongst the narrowest walkways that make up the park layout, the tower itself manages to have great presence and as soon as you enter the queueline cave the mood shifts – I have a lot of respect for any attraction able to create that type of effect, particularly on a lower budget. They also have a great ear for ride soundtracks and this one is no exception. This dark ride may be off the beaten path for your average theme park trip in the region, which in itself is off the beaten path for your average theme park trip full stop, but it’s a real highlight that also happens to be in some very good company.
I may well be in the minority when I say that the experience of a dark ride can easily rival that of a good rollercoaster. Travelling the world to ride all the latter will inevitably lead you to finding a lot of the former, so I used to be surprised that no one (to my knowledge) really attempts to collect, count and categorise these other types of attractions in the same way that has taken off so strongly for the coaster counters out there.
Without the tools that we take for granted these days like RCDB and coast2coaster, it’s rather difficult to stay as accurate, so after joining Dark Ride Database in 2020, I’ve gone on to help maintain and keep track of the wonderful world of dark rides with the team. Make sure to check it out for detailed listings, the latest news, in-depth articles or even to use as a handy trip-planning tool.
Alongside this I put together some form of dark ride count for myself on the faithful spreadsheet. The other expected difficulty, as with coasters, is what do we classify as a dark ride? There’s a huge amount of variety out there and some obviously fit the criteria a lot more than others. With water rides, thrill rides and coasters themselves utilising what we’d call dark ride features there’s a lot of overlap into what could technically count.
Definitions are never perfect of course and open to interpretation, but neither is coaster counting. According to my own current listing, I’ve ridden 542 dark rides across the world in 223 different locations.
Of course maintaining this exercise led me to want to rank and rate these attractions for fun, just as I would with coasters. It’s difficult. Very difficult. There’s variety in rollercoasters for sure, but the hardware is always at least comparable in the loosest sense. I can sit back in my chair for a couple of hours, play the Hymn of Reflection and come out with a numbered list that I feel is reasonably solid. I’ve tried this with dark rides on a number of occasions and it just doesn’t fall into place in the same way.
So what have we got here today? Well I think I’ve scraped a top 10 together and, as with the coaster rankings, I don’t think this is enough to represent the wide range of amazing attractions out there. I then pushed on for 45 more to make it into a rough Top 10%, but I can’t yet claim that these are in any particular order. As the site develops I aim to elaborate on the reasoning behind as many as possible, so stay tuned.
