Year in review: 2022

Disneyland, California

2022 has been and gone so it's time for another round up of the last year's ride and coaster antics. There were numerous memorable moments such as finally getting to California (after a cancelled trip in 2020 and wanting to go for forever), having an amazing backstage tour at Liseberg, attending Carters Steam Fair's final tour and many other great and interesting moments but, in keeping with the style of last year's post (and to keep it relatively short), I'm going to focus on my favourite new-to-me rides and parks in this blog post. We'll start off with the yearly update to the cred chart!

Started the year with 653. 

Ended the year with 764.

Total new coaster credits: 112

For me it's not always about the credits but I do like the way it quantifies how much you've travelled to new places and tried new things. 2022 was a satisfying return to pre-covid form for me with my total new credit count back over the 100 mark. This was mostly from my trips to California, Vienna and Sweden.

For anyone wondering, my 700th coaster was Monster at Walygator Grand Est, which was surprisingly good. Not a bad milestone coaster I think. Certainly an upgrade from my 600th coaster which was a frozen-themed mini wacky worm!

Coasters:

Best new coaster: Jetline

Jetline, Gröna Lund

Runners up: Monster, Space Mountain (Disneyland California)

Although my new coaster count was decent for 2022 there weren't that many new contenders for the top ranked spots. The two contenders for best new coaster ended up being both at Gröna Lund. Jetline and Monster. I've found it nearly impossible to choose a favourite but I've gone with Jetline for the nostalgic value and was a ride that had been on my bucket list for years. It's a beautiful Schwarzkopf design that has a cool theme, stunning views and sparkly trains. What more could you want!?

Monster is really great though and it was great to get onto a new "classic" B&M invert. The engineering behind this ride is quite frankly insane and it looks fabulous in the park. Even without the rest of Gröna Lund these two rides alone really make the park worth visiting.

An honourable shout out goes to the Californian Space Mountain. How is this ride so good!? I don't know, but it just is! I always just accepted the roughness of the Florida version was just part of the ride experience and had heard that the cali version was better but my goodness, people really weren't joking! This version is lightyears ahead! I love retro indoor space coasters and this is a great ride of that type! It's got that snappy fun factor to it that just leaves you smiling.

Flat rides:

Best new flat ride: Black Mamba

Black Mamba, Wiener Prater

Runners up: Ghost Rider (fair circuit), Ikaros at Gröna Lund, The Corsair (fair circuit) and many others.

Unlike with my top coasters of 2022, there were a lot of contenders for my best new flat ride. I did a lot of new and quirky flat rides in 2022 as I went to a lot of fairs as well as places like Wiener Prater and Gröna Lund. After considerable thought I think I'll have to go with the Funtime Chaos Pendle at Wiener Prater, Black Mamba. I actually rode all three Chaos Pendles in operation in 2022. My ranking would probably go: Black Mamba at Prater, Chaos Pendle on the fair circuit and then Snake at Skara Sommerland, but all were great fun! These rides are mesmerising to watch offride as well. A real eye-catching flat. I'm so glad I finally got to try them out! I much prefer them to the standard boosters as the second rotating arm gives a more varied experience.

Other notable new flat rides include Ghost Rider, an insane Huss machine on the fair circuit, Ikaros, the vertical-facing drop tower at Gröna Lund (I had an amusing collectively scared shared experience with friends on this) and The Corsair, the ridiculous standing pirate ship, also on the fair circuit. Never have I felt more like I was being launched into space. I don't think I'll ever top that air time! There are undoubtedly countless other notable flat rides as I did a LOT of new flats in 2022. Some hilarious cakewalk and funhouse experiences with friends also come to mind! 2022 was also the year I came across many crazy travelling Break Dances for the first time, although those technically weren't a new ride type for me because I had done at least one slower park model before. I remember doing my first one early in the year at Hamburg Frühlingsdom and instantly being hooked. I then rode another 8 or so throughout the year!

Parks

Best new park: Wiener Prater

Wiener Prater

Runner up: Gröna Lund

Surprise! Yep, you've guessed it, Wiener Prater and Gröna Lund were my two favourite new parks of the year. Even above everything in California! They're quite similar in that they have that "loads of random things crammed in together in a city" vibe and I love it. Both of these parks were really high on my bucket list for many years so I was very happy to finally get to both of them. I particularly liked the historic rides and setting of Prater along with it's particularly unusual collection of flat rides. The vibe at night was also really cool and was great for photography. I visited whilst Olympia Looping was there so that helped complete the line up. I haven't seen Gröna Lund at night but Gröna Lund by day is also quirky and has a great atmosphere too. It has that Scandinavian charm in it's design and has stunning views out over the water. It was a hard decision to make between the two but Prater just came out on top. In a nutshell, both of these parks are now two of my favourite parks in the world and I'd highly recommend a visit to either!

So, that's my relatively short general round up of some of my favourite rides I rode and places I visited in 2022! 

Thanks for reading!