Retro Rollercoasters

Enjoying theme park food has always been something I look forward to when I visit parks with good food and of course the Disney parks in Japan would not be an exception. They're known to have some exclusive culinary options and the local cuisine influence makes for some really interesting food offerings. This my my first Asian Disney resort visit so I was really excited to see what food and drink options I would find. Tokyo DisneySea When I entered the park I naturally headed straight for the legendary Mysterious Island area. You know, that steampunk area that you've seen in all the photos. Well, I can tell you it lives up to the hype in real life but that's another blog post...this one is about food! I found myself in need of some food so opted to try the area's sit-down restaurant, Vulcania because it was quiet and right infront of me. The inside is as great as the outside! As the restaurant was pretty empty so I took the opportunity to grab a load of food to fuel up ...

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 mostl...

Ah 2021, another strange year that hasn't been quite as expected but that's not to say that it didn't have some great theme park experiences in it. They were just a bit different from the original plans! Here's my 2021 in review! Credits Total new credits: 41 So this wasn't one of my best years for new credits (my record is 225 in 2018) but given the fact that international travel has arguable been even more difficult than 2020 and last year I mopped up quite a few UK credits I had left to do I am relatively pleased with this effort. I've seen a few people put together graphs for their counts (notably Cupcakes and Coasters) so here's mine! I end 2021 on 653 credits.  A visual guide to my cred hunting. Everything before 2016 is a bit of a blur year-wise so it's all lumped in together. Coasters Best new coaster: Ride to Happiness This coaster is ridiculous in the best way. Having never ridden Time Traveller I wasn't quite sure what to expect with t...

In 2020 I posted a list of 7 weird bucket list coasters that I wanted to ride. Since then I've ridden one of them (Tyrolean Tub Twist, yay!) but there are many more weird coasters that I'd like to ride out there. Let's see what else is on my "strange to-do list". Magic Mountain Travelling Source: Rowan Peeters on Youtube No, this doesn't have anything to-do with Six Flags and it probably rides horribly (I mean it looks gross!) but there's something weirdly compelling about a unique-looking, weird, travelling coaster of substantial height. I had no idea this thing existed until recently and what a layout for a travelling ride! Complete with multiple track styles, arrow-like angular turns and a lift hill with a bizarre change of angle, this coaster is quite the specimen. If I ever get to ride this ride I will likely regret it but it's made the list because I just can't not be curious about it. Tranan Skara Sommarland Source: CoasterForce on You...

We've heard the news that Gene Staples and his company have now also saved Clementon Park from closure and we know that they like to collect classic rides for Indiana Beach (e.g. Dreier Looping and the Polyp) so logic dictates that Clementon might be in for a similar future! Now that they've got more space to play with let's speculate on what classic rides might be available to pick up for Clementon Park. Enthusiasts love a bit of speculation and there are lots of classic rides potentially up for sale at the moment so let's have a bit of fun! Source: coasternation.com/Usedrides.com The elephant in the room, is the Schwarzkopf coaster Cascabel 2.0 that is rumoured to have been acquired by Indiana Beach alongside the purchase of Dreier Looping from La Feria de Chapultepec in Mexico. Whilst this coaster may have been destined for Indiana Beach, the park has limited locations for such a long and thin ride area and it seems that Clementon might have more space for it. This w...

Luckily for us coaster enthusiasts there are a lot of good rollercoasters out there for us to ride. This means that a lot of great coasters don't get talked about as much simply because there are so many other amazing coasters out there. I've put together a list of 6 North American coasters that I think are underrated and worth a reride. (Spoilers ahead) I think this is secretly my favourite ride at Busch Gardens Williamsburg. I say secretly because it's not the biggest, oldest or fastest ride at the park so perhaps isn't what you'd expect to have as your favourite. I find Busch Gardens Williamsburg's coaster selection hard to rank as there are so many fun rides but Verbolten stands out to me as something fun and unique! It packs so much in! I think it's always tough for parks to follow up much-loved classic attractions with something that will be equally adored. I never got to ride Big Bad Wolf but I know it was a fan favourite and I enjoy an Arrow suspende...