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Matt N’s Musings

A blog by Matt N in General

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Entries in this blog

PortAventura

Matt N’s Excursion to España 9th-12th September 2024 (PortAventura Overall Review and Trip Summary)

PortAventura: An Overall Review and Trip Summary Right, then; I’ve now landed back in the UK, done all of my post-trip spreadsheet stuff, and just about recovered from the journey home! Spending 4 hours waiting in Barcelona Airport and arriving back in Bristol Airport at 1am to temperatures of 6 degrees when used to (and dressed for) the beautiful climate of Salou was certainly a rude awakening from that trip bubble, but the journey mostly went well, and now I’m back, I’m in the mood to wri
PortAventura

Matt N’s Excursion to España 9th-12th September 2024 (9th September 2024: Travel)

9th September 2024: Travel Hi guys. Today was an exciting day; the start of my big foreign theme park trip for the year. This year, that trip is my first ever trip to PortAventura World in Spain! This will be my first time ever experiencing the likes of Shambhala and Red Force, amongst other major rides, as well as experiencing a pretty major European theme park resort in the form of PortAventura World for the first time and seeing the delights it has to offer through a fresh set of eyes! I
PortAventura

Matt N’s Excursion to España 9th-12th September 2024 (12th September 2024: PortAventura Park Day 3)

12th September 2024: PortAventura Park Day 3 It was our final day in PortAventura Park today before heading home! We weren’t really able to have a full day today, as we had to be out of the park by 3:30pm to catch our shared transfer back to Barcelona Airport to fly home, but we nonetheless headed back into the park to mop up some more goes on some of the best attractions!   I headed into the park early on my own this morning, with my mum and dad joining me later. I headed down to
PortAventura

Matt N’s Excursion to España 9th-12th September 2024 (11th September 2024: PortAventura Park Day 2 and Ferrari Land)

11th September 2024: PortAventura Park Day 2 and Ferrari Land We had our second day today! Today, we headed back into PortAventura Park for another day of fun, and also headed into Ferrari Land to get on Red Force for the first time!   Similarly to yesterday, we entered via the Gold River hotel entrance at a bit before 10am. It looked a little busier here today, and I did have some trepidation about whether it could be busy due to it apparently being a public holiday in Catalonia
PortAventura

Matt N’s Excursion to España 9th-12th September 2024 (10th September 2024: PortAventura Park Day 1)

10th September 2024: PortAventura Park Day 1 Today was the day, folks; our first day inside PortAventura Park! I couldn’t wait to get inside, ride attractions like Shambhala for the first time, and just generally see what the park had to offer for the very first time!   Now before I start this report, I should declare that perhaps controversially, we decided not to buy any form of Express Pass for our visit to the park today. We figured that if it was terrible today, we could alwa
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
Europa Park

Matt N’s Europa Park Initiation 26th-30th April 2022 (27th April 2022: Europa Park Day 1)

27th April 2022 (Europa Park Day 1) Today, our first day in the park finally arrived! It’s a day I had dreamed about for ages, and quite literally dreamed about within the last few months… although unlike in my dreams, no vloggers stopping me from boarding rides or university staff with cricket bats were here to ruin it for me (if you don’t know what I mean, check out the theme park dreams thread)! And it was a very exciting day for sure… let me get straight to the good stuff!   W
Europa Park

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

26th April 2022 (Travel) Hi guys. Today was a very exciting day; the start of my first ever trip to Europa Park! This might possibly be my most significant theme park trip in some time, and it’s quite a significant change in tune compared to the bulk of my recent trips, with a number of new experiences in store for me; my first time travelling abroad post-COVID, my first time at Europa Park, my first time in Germany full stop… I could go on, as there are so many firsts for me this trip! So
Matt N’s Solo South East Jaunt 9th/10th June 2024

Matt N's Solo South East Jaunt 9th/10th June 2024 (10th June 2024: Thorpe Park)

10th June 2024: Thorpe Park It was the second day of the trip today, and another day can only mean another park; today, I visited Thorpe Park! Today marked my first visit of 2024 to the UK’s most thrilling theme park, so I was excited to get back on some of my favourites at the park for the first time in 2024!   After my night in the Premier Inn in Staines, my Thorpe day started at a little before 9am, when I took a short walk to Elmsleigh Bus Station in Staines to catch the Sulli
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
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
Data Analysis

How accurate are advertised ride queue times?: A statistical analysis using data from Alton Towers and the UK Merlin parks

Disclaimer: This is a long, geeky post. If you don't like statistics or maths talk, turn back now! If you'd like a more concise summary, a TL;DR can be found at the bottom. Hi guys. When you go to a park, you will often see advertised queue times all over the place to help you determine how long the ride queues are. But sometimes, you might find that these do not necessarily tell the truth. At times, you might get in a queue with a reasonable advertised time and wait far longer than expecte
Flamingo Land

Flamingo Land 7th August 2023

7th August 2023 (Flamingo Land) Hi guys. Today, I visited a new theme park that I’d never previously visited before; I visited Flamingo Land in North Yorkshire for the first time! This visit was a present from my parents for my 20th birthday last week, and I was interested to see what the park had to offer; prior to today, Flamingo Land was probably the most major UK park I was yet to visit, and Sik was probably the most revered UK coaster I was yet to ride!   We’d actually made t
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,
Drayton Manor

Drayton Manor 5th September 2024

5th September 2024: Drayton Manor Hi guys. Today was an exciting day; the day of my solo trip to Drayton Manor! With my last visit being in 2022, I was returning to the park to check out Gold Rush, the final new-for-2024 UK coaster for me to ride, as well as The Wave following the sit-down conversion, and to take in the various other delights of Drayton Manor!   Today started early, with me making the 5 minute drive to my local train station at a bit before 7am to take a 7:24am tr
Disneyland Paris

Disneyland Paris 2nd July 2026

2nd July 2026: Disneyland Paris After a successful trip to Parc Astérix on Monday and trips in between to Paris and Versailles, we headed to another theme park (well, duo of theme parks) today; we visited Disneyland Paris! Now unlike Parc Astérix on Monday, I had visited Disneyland Paris prior to today, but this was over 15 years ago, so my memories of it were quite vague. I was also under 8 years old on my first visit, so there were also numerous attractions that I was either too short to ride,
Chessington

Chessington 17th September 2023

17th September 2023: Chessington Hi guys. Today was the second of my two London theme park visits this week, and a rather interesting one for me; it was my first visit to Chessington in almost a whole decade! To put things into some perspective, I was a fresh primary school leaver last time I went to Chessington in July 2014, so an awful lot has changed since then; I couldn’t wait to get inside and see some of the new things that hadn’t been built last time I was at the park, most notably M
Brean Theme Park

Brean Theme Park 9th September 2023

9th September 2023: Brean Theme Park Hi guys. Today was an exciting day; I went for my first ever visit to Brean Theme Park, near Burnham-on-Sea in Somerset! Now I know that that might not sound too exciting to many of you, but I was glad to finally tick it off seeing as it’s actually my closest semi-major theme park! Oddly given that I’ve lived in the South West of England my whole life and amassed a coaster count of over 100, I had never been to Brean Theme Park (or any theme park in my l
Blackpool Pleasure Beach

Blackpool Pleasure Beach 3rd June 2026

3rd June 2026: Blackpool Pleasure Beach Today, I returned to a UK park I hadn’t yet visited this season; Blackpool Pleasure Beach! I was going to wait until September to visit Blackpool, but with Aviktas having just opened and gained rave reviews and me still being at a loose end, I thought I’d bump my visit forward a little to catch a midweek visit before the school trips and summer crowds start to descend! Aviktas or not, I do always like a visit to Blackpool, not least to get back on Icon, on
Blackpool Pleasure Beach

Blackpool Pleasure Beach 30th April 2025

30th April 2025: Blackpool Pleasure Beach Hi guys. I haven’t been the most active on here lately, but I’ve been back on this evening, and I realise that I forgot to upload my trip report from a park visit I did a month ago. So hello again TPM, and apologies for the inactivity!   30th April was an exciting day; my first park visit of 2025 had arrived! And the park in question that started off my year this year was Blackpool Pleasure Beach, “the world’s most ride intensive amusement
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 28th July 2024

28th July 2024: Alton Towers Hi guys. Today, I returned to Alton Towers for a revisit after receiving a free return ticket following our weak visit to Alton After Dark back in March. Another visit to Alton Towers is not exactly anything new for me (today was my 43rd day at the park in total and my 3rd day this year), but one aspect was new for me… despite having visited Alton Towers so much over the years, today was my first time ever spending a solo day alone at the park! With my dad atten

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