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Matt N’s Musings

A blog by Matt N in General

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Entries in this blog

Matt N’s Frolic in Florida 10th-24th June 2023

Matt N's Frolic in Florida 10th-24th June 2023 (Trip Summary)

Trip Summary All right, then! Now I’m back in the UK after a 7.5 hour flight from Orlando to London Heathrow, I think it’s about time I posted the trip summary I promised at the end of the last report!   To cut to the chase; this was an absolutely fantastic trip! I loved getting back to Universal, SeaWorld and Busch Gardens after 7 years, and I loved getting on some of the brilliant new rides that have been installed since my last trip! As well as that, Volcano Bay was also a real
Matt N’s Frolic in Florida 10th-24th June 2023

Matt N’s Frolic in Florida 10th-24th June 2023 (24th June 2023: Islands of Adventure/Universal Studios Florida)

24th June 2023 (Islands of Adventure/Universal Studios Florida) Today was the last day of our trip and the day of our flight home, so we decided to head to Universal Orlando for one last visit. If I’m being honest, today’s report will probably be short and quite dull, as we only spent around 4 hours in the parks themselves and it was one of those days where few things seemed to go right. Let me start from the very beginning.   As we didn’t have to check out of our house until 10am
Matt N’s Frolic in Florida 10th-24th June 2023

Matt N’s Frolic in Florida 10th-24th June 2023 (22nd June 2023: Busch Gardens Tampa)

22nd June 2023 (Busch Gardens Tampa) Today was a hotly anticipated day for me; today was our trip to Busch Gardens Tampa! I was really excited to get on Iron Gwazi, my first ever RMC, as well as to get on a couple of other new rides and get back on some of the other rides at the park!   Me, my mum and my dad set off for the park today (my grandparents and sister did not accompany us today, as my grandparents don’t like intense rides and my sister wasn’t fancying Busch) at just gon
Matt N’s Frolic in Florida 10th-24th June 2023

Matt N’s Frolic in Florida 10th-24th June 2023 (21st June 2023: Islands of Adventure/Universal Studios Florida)

21st June 2023 (Islands of Adventure/Universal Studios Florida) After an empty day yesterday, we headed back to Universal Orlando today! I was excited to head back to the park and hopefully try to get back on some favourite attractions I’d ridden earlier in the trip, and it was also my nan’s first time at Universal Studios Florida of the trip!   We left a little later today due to heavy rain, with us leaving at just gone 8:30am, so we did not arrive at Universal until after 10am:
Matt N’s Frolic in Florida 10th-24th June 2023

Matt N’s Frolic in Florida 10th-24th June 2023 (19th June 2023: Universal’s Volcano Bay)

19th June 2023 (Universal’s Volcano Bay) Today, we decided to break up the theme parking with another waterpark visit; we returned to Universal’s Volcano Bay! Today was an interesting one, because until very little time before our arrival, we had no idea that the Juneteenth federal holiday fell during our trip, and as that day was today, we thought that a waterpark might be a better, more relaxing place to go than any of the theme parks. Federal holidays notwithstanding, we also really enjo
Matt N’s Frolic in Florida 10th-24th June 2023

Matt N’s Frolic in Florida 10th-24th June 2023 (17th June 2023: Islands of Adventure/Universal Studios Florida)

17th June 2023 (Islands of Adventure/Universal Studios Florida) After a little detour away from Universal yesterday, my parents and I headed back to the Universal Orlando Resort today! It had been 5 days since we went to Islands of Adventure and 4 days since we went to Universal Studios Florida, so we were excited to get back to the two parks and reride some of our favourites, as well as go on a few attractions that we didn’t try the other day! Our original plan was to just visit Islands of
Matt N’s Frolic in Florida 10th-24th June 2023

Matt N’s Frolic in Florida 10th-24th June 2023 (16th June 2023: SeaWorld Orlando)

16th June 2023 (SeaWorld Orlando) We went for our first day at a non-Universal park; we went to SeaWorld Orlando! I was excited to go back to this park to ride Mako, my current number 1 coaster, as well as take a ride on new rides like Ice Breaker, Pipeline and Infinity Falls!   As per usual with our park days, we left our house at just gone 8am, and with a stop for petrol (or should I say gas seeing as we’re in America?) on the way there, we arrived at around 9:15am. When we arri
Matt N’s Frolic in Florida 10th-24th June 2023

Matt N’s Frolic in Florida 10th-24th June 2023 (14th June 2023: Universal’s Volcano Bay)

14th June 2023 (Universal’s Volcano Bay) We went for something slightly different today… unlike the last two days, we went to a waterpark! And it wasn’t just any waterpark, it was one that none of us had ever visited before… Universal’s Volcano Bay! The last time we drove down the Universal end of the I-4 in 2016, this park was under construction, so we were interested to see what the park was like now it was open.   Before I get started, I should apologise in advance for the fact
Matt N’s Frolic in Florida 10th-24th June 2023

Matt N’s Frolic in Florida 10th-24th June 2023 (13th June 2023: Universal Studios Florida)

13th June 2023 (Universal Studios Florida) Today, we did the other park at Universal Orlando that we didn’t do yesterday; Universal Studios Florida! My grandparents didn’t join us today, but those of us who did go were excited to get back into the park and ride a combination of previous classics like Revenge of the Mummy and new attractions like Fast & Furious: Supercharged!   As with yesterday, we left our villa at just gone 8am and arrived at Universal Orlando at around 9:15
Matt N’s Frolic in Florida 10th-24th June 2023

Matt N’s Frolic in Florida 10th-24th June 2023 (12th June 2023: Islands of Adventure)

12th June 2023 (Islands of Adventure) Today was a very exciting day; our first theme park day of the trip! As we had booked 14-day Universal Orlando tickets, we decided to start with one of those parks, and our choice was Islands of Adventure! We were really excited to get on both VelociCoaster and Hagrid’s, so we thought we may as well start in IOA!   We left our villa in Haines City at about 8am, and the drive took about 1h 15m, so we arrived at about 9:15am. I must say that it
Matt N’s Frolic in Florida 10th-24th June 2023

Matt N’s Frolic in Florida 10th-24th June 2023 (10th June 2023: Travel)

10th June 2023 (Travel) Hi guys. Today was a very exciting day; the start of my 2023 Florida trip! This trip is my first time heading to Florida in 4 years, and my first time heading to the parks we’re visiting this time (Universal Orlando, SeaWorld and Busch Gardens) in 7 years, as well as the first time my grandparents have joined my family and I in Florida since 2014. There are so many new rides I’m excited to get on; VelociCoaster, Iron Gwazi, Hagrid’s, Pipeline… the list goes on! We’re
Alton Towers

Alton Towers 25th/26th March 2023 (26th March 2023: Alton Towers Day 2)

26th March 2023: Alton Towers Day 2 We had our second day in the park today! And it was an interesting one, with some new stuff experienced today that we hadn’t done yesterday!   We started out somewhat earlier than we did yesterday, arriving at Alton Towers at around 9:30am for entry into the park at around 9:45am: For our first ride, we headed off down Haunted Hollow to a certain new ride that none of us had ever done before… The Curse at Alton Manor T
Alton Towers

Alton Towers 25th/26th March 2023 (25th March 2023: Alton Towers Day 1)

25th March 2023: Alton Towers Day 1 Hi guys. Today was an exciting day; it was my first visit to Alton Towers of the season! But this visit was particularly exciting for a different reason… my parents and I brought my grandad along with us for what was not just his first ever visit to Alton Towers, but his first ever visit to a theme park full stop! Yes, he’d never set foot into a theme park or ridden a roller coaster prior to this morning, but after seeing Oblivion on the TV, he expressed
Thorpe Park

Thorpe Park 10th September 2022

Hi guys. Today was, interestingly, my first visit to Thorpe Park of the season; by my usual standards, September is quite late in the season for me to be visiting Thorpe for the first time! Today was also the return of my solo theme park tripping; as with last September, my parents’ love of professional golf was greatly useful, as they were going to watch the championship at Wentworth and offered to drop me at Thorpe for the day.   We left early and made very good time; entry was very
Alton Towers

Alton Towers 7th/8th August 2022 (8th August 2022: Alton Towers Day 2)

8th August 2022: Alton Towers Day 2 We had our second day at the park today! Staying in the hotel naturally gave us an advantage, and I had a particular advantage this morning as I headed in alone at about 9:15, therefore I had plenty of time to get to my first ride of the day. That hotel entrance remained a phenomenal secret weapon as it had been the previous day: If you’ve read many of my Alton Towers trip reports before, you’ll know that a common strategy of mine when greeted
Alton Towers

Alton Towers 7th/8th August 2022 (7th August 2022: Alton Towers Day 1)

7th August 2022: Alton Towers Day 1 Hi guys. Today was the first day of my latest 2 day Alton Towers trip, which is always an exciting day, particularly when your break entails a stay in the Alton Towers Hotel! I know it’s only been two months since my last trip to Alton Towers, but I got offered a theme park trip of my choice for my birthday this year by my parents, and as I had a nice time at Alton in June, I thought “why not go back there?”!   We left home at about 7:15am this
Alton Towers

Alton Towers 19th/20th June 2022 (20th June 2022: Alton Towers Day 2)

20th June 2022 (Alton Towers Day 2) We had Day 2 in the park today! We got up fairly early and as we were staying in the Alton Towers Hotel, we had somewhat of a head-start (or I did, anyway; my mum and Nan joined me later); even though Early Ride Time is no longer offered, the park opens its gates early to allow you to get to your first ride and queue for it before opening time, and staying in the hotel will naturally allow you to get here ahead of the regular day guests, which is always a
Alton Towers

Alton Towers 19th/20th June 2022 (19th June 2022: Alton Towers Day 1)

19th June 2022 (Alton Towers Day 1) Hi guys. After having started 2022 with some slightly more unusual (compared to what I usually visit, anyway) parks, I today returned to slightly more familiar turf; Alton Towers, my most visited theme park of all time! My mum found a very good deal on an Alton Towers Hotel stay, with 1 night in a standard room with park tickets only costing £107pp, so we thought it would be an absolute no brainer to go and spend 2 days at Alton Towers! Interestingly, my
Drayton Manor

Drayton Manor 9th June 2022

Hi guys. Today was a rather exciting day; my first visit to Drayton Manor in 4 years, and my first ever solo train trip to a theme park! I was keen to do this after noticing that my university train route (Lydney-Cheltenham Spa) had trains running directly to Drayton Manor’s nearest station, and I’m so glad I did it! It was one heck of a day, so let me kick off right from the beginning!   Today started quite early, with a 7:24am train from Lydney, my local train station, to Wilnecote,
Data Analysis

A quantitative analysis of North America's major coaster selections (Part 2: Strongest top ends)

Right then; it's about time I did part 2 of my North American investigation! And in part 2, I'll be working out... what coaster selections in North America have the strongest top end?   Yes, I'll be focusing solely upon the parks' most highly rated coasters in this question! As I got a few comments about the slightly weird results in part 1, I'm thinking that this question should hopefully correct that and produce results more akin to what you might typically expect, as I'm focusing on
Data Analysis

A quantitative analysis of North America's major coaster selections (Part 1: Most consistently strong coaster selection)

Disclaimer: This post is extremely long, and if you don't like data analysis and geeky maths talk, I'd suggest you run for the hills and don't look back, because this post has quite a bit of it! Hi guys. Some of you might remember that I recently did a multi-part data analysis investigation on Europe's major coaster selections; the topic is here if you don't know what I'm on about:  In that thread, I asked numerous different questions about Europe's major coaster selections. So I thou
Europa Park

Matt N's Ode to Europa Park: A Review from my First Ever Visit

Matt N's Ode To Europa Park: A Review from my First Ever Visit For those of you that don't know, I recently returned from my first ever visit to Europa Park in Germany. I wrote a trip report series which can be viewed in earlier entries in this blog.   Now I know that I did a brief summary of my thoughts on Europa Park at the end of my recent trip report series. However... now I've been back for a couple of days, I'm finding myself wanting to say a lot more than I said in that sum
Europa Park

Matt N’s Europa Park Initiation 26th-30th April 2022 (30th April 2022: Europa Park Hotel Resort, Travel Home and Trip Summary)

30th April 2022 (Europa Park Hotel Resort, Travel Home and Trip Summary) Today was considerably less busy than the last 3 days, so as such, my report of our actual day will be far briefer. We had no 4th day on our entry tickets to Europa Park, but our flight out of Baden-Airpark was not until 7pm, so after checking out of our room at 11am, we had time to kill. And as we were on a huge resort and hadn’t explored too much of the other hotels aside from our own (Castillo Alcazar), we decided t
Europa Park

Matt N’s Europa Park Initiation 26th-30th April 2022 (29th April 2022: Europa Park Day 3)

29th April 2022: Europa Park Day 3 Today was the final day of Europa Park awesomeness! We started a bit earlier today, opting to head in for ERT, and my mum had actually looked at the map and jotted down a plan of action for today, so we certainly had no shortage of things to do!   My mum and I headed on into Europa at slightly after 8:30am this morning, with my dad joining us a touch later. As with both of the previous days, we used the hotel entrance, accessed via El Andaluz:
Europa Park

Matt N’s Europa Park Initiation 26th-30th April 2022 (28th April 2022: Europa Park Day 2)

28th April 2022 (Europa Park Day 2) Day 2 today! I know I said that we were planning to have a more relaxed day today, but we had more left to do rides-wise than we’d previously anticipated, and if I’m being honest, I am quite naturally drawn to rides compared to Europa’s other stuff, so I’ll digress that that did go out of the window somewhat as the day went on. It wasn’t quite as intense as yesterday, however; there were less coasters involved, and my parents said it felt more relaxed tha

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