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Guess it is time to update my top tens for 2026. Coasters: 1/ Steel Vengeance 2/ Velocicoaster 3/ Zadra 4/ Mako 5/ Eujaneika 6/ Stardust Racers 7/ Oziris 8/ Hyperion 9/ Hyperia 10/ Wildcats Revenge Dark Rides: 1/ Monsters Unchained 2/ Rise Of The Resistance 3/ Tower Of Terror 4/ Battle At The Ministry 5/ Beauty & The Beast 6/ Indiana Jones (DL) 7/ Symbolica 8/ Pirates In Batavia 9/ POTC (Cali version) 10/ Runaway Railway Parks/resorts: 1/ Universal Orlando 2/ Tokyo Disneyland 3/ Europa Park 4/ Disneyland Resort 5/ Cedar Point 6/ Efteling 7/ Universal Osaka 8/ Phantasialand 9/ Disney World 10/ Energylandia Bucketlist: 1/ Dollywood (even more so now) 2/ Silver Dollar City 3/ Shanghai Disneyland 4/ Busch Williamsburg 5/ Canadas Wonderland 6/ Carowinds 7/ Grona Lund 8/ Gardaland 9/ Carowinds 10/ Universal Singapore That’s it for now.

Whilst I’m excited for the restored/revived Space Mountain attraction, let’s just hope they watch refurbishment timings carefully, especially with both Crush and Indy being under long refurbishments soon as well. There’s been some good progress with Paris Disney, however one must wonder what will be happening sooner, a new attraction in Disneyland Park (the last being over 20 years ago) or that third gate, which apparently must happen by the end of the next decade. Crazy stuff. For now though, we have the Up ride and Lion King to look forward to I guess.

Finally visited Epic Universe last month, in what is amongst the most speculated theme parks out there currently. Avoid reader for spoilers. IMG_1564.mov The Entrance: It’s a bold striking open area, which feels like it’s taken strong inspiration from a number of European parks, such as Port Aventura, Port Laguna at Toverland and Efteling. They were definitely went for a Disney/European enthused entrance and design without a doubt. It looks beautiful. Areas/ The park currently has five areas featuring four portals and the central Celestial park, which is home to the impressive Stardust Racers. It’s a fun thrilling and impressive ride and an excellent signature coaster for the park. Less thrilling than Velocicoaster, but perfectly well paced. It’s better at the back. The carousel in the area is a unique and quirky addition. The Paris/Ministey area is striking without a doubt. They’ve definitely raised the bar from Diagon Alley, which still holds its ground with some amazing areas. Battle For The Ministry is an incredible ride and it feels like the Potter Version of Rise Of The Resistence essentially. The performance show in the area shouldn’t be missed, especially as it feels like a Westend show on a lot of places. The area just needs another ride or attraction, which they might receive in time. Dark Universe was my second area I ventured into and possibly my favourite. The Monsters Unchained Dark ride was phenomenal and is easily amongst my favourite dark rides out there. The Werewolf coaster is fun for what it is, but does feel a bit like an after thought for the area and maybe as if the budget was starting to waiver maybe. The Isle Of Baerk area feels like the underdog area in some ways, but still impresses. The hiccup glider coaster makes for a fun family coaster with a cheeky backwards bit. Hearing the flight theme made me excited for a moment. I didn’t do the other two rides in the area. The Nintendo Area is chaotic yet beautiful, much like the one in Japan, except this one requires an escalator to access which perhaps detracts a little bit, but I guess differs the area than the others. Bowser’s challenge still remains a sound interactive dark ride and Minecraft Madness is a highly enjoyable coaster despite the alarming capacity. Food/ I managed to visit two eateries on my 1.5 days in Epic. Meads Tavern in Baerk and Pizza Moon in celestial park. I had a sausage based dish in Meads which was delicious and nicely served, a bit like Rutmoores Tavern in Phantasialand perhaps. In Pizza Moon, I went for the Space Cowboy pizza, which was tasty despite the slightly strange addition of chips. Numerous pizzas there had strange and wacky toppings, one was even purple. The park looks beautiful at night, with striking lighting and a closing show, featuring music from the park. Think Aquanura meets World Of Colour. We watched the show from Bar Helios, which made an interesting view, however missing the fireworks is the only setback. Overall, it’s a stunning park with so much potential. There are still creases to iron, whether it’s operational, ride selection or anything, but it’s already made a great start so far. Until next time.

Walliams Land definitely aged like curdled milk. Was never a fan of the area, much preferred Cloud Cuckoo Land, though Gangsta Granny was a fun and competent addition. But that’s the only positive really. They could really do something with Sir Algernon and create a fun upbeat original idea. But I guess that’s beyond Merlin’s funds and creativity right now, because they could do something much with the area. Wouldn’t be surprised if the area remains shuttered next season, with the way it’s going.

Walliams World closing is no surprise. The area was utterly dead every time we popped into it this season. And if the rumoured thing for Project Horizon was a clone of DarKoaster at Busch Williamsburg then I'm glad its cancelled or on the back burner. Need something far better than that. Merlin need to pull something out of the bag with Towers, though I can't see there being much of a replacement for the area next year. Mothball it and reduce the park further is clearly the most likely decision to be made.

Apologies for double post - but following on from the optimism above, all of the Alton Towers accommodation is fully closed on weekdays over winter until March, and even some weekends in January. This is a very interesting development, and something that as far as I’m aware hasn’t happened before. Usually they have at least one accommodation available over winter. I understand that the hotels will be much quieter during the closed season, but to close down the entire operation feels like a dire situation to be in… it can not be normal for a company to have so many assets doing nothing for such a portion of the year, and to be performing so poorly that they feel it’s better to close them entirely? It seems a shame that they can’t use the off-season to capitalise on their water park breaks or make more use of the conferencing facilities for businesses etc, if they insist on not opening part of the theme park for months. Places like Silverstone make near constant use of their assets for conferencing very successfully. I wonder why Towers can’t achieve the same over winter? Especially being so central in the UK. An interesting time for Alton Towers, who seem to be basically in a never ending process of shutting down rather than expanding and growing :(

In a totally predictable turn of events, all be it a lot later than everyone thought, the world of David Walliams has now permanently closed. The enormous unused space they suddenly find themselves with at the back of the park now is staggering. This appears to be a historic opportunity for Alton Towers to do something spectacular. Right in time for Universal to open. I really hope Merlin are considering big changes over here to transform Alton Towers. I know Merlin at in financial trouble, but I can’t help but see this as a bit of a make or break moment for Towers. I really hope they can somehow find the funding to bring in a multi-year transformation project, including Horizon, and replacements for Charlie and Walliams. Despite the money troubles, I don’t see something like this being too big for Merlin. they operate in an industry that relies on continuous investment for starters, and they are pouring money in to certain areas of the business, even close by at Chessington. Even if they have to look at selling off other areas of the Merlin empire to fund it all I think it would be worth it to really cement Alton Towers as THE theme park to visit in the UK outside of universal. I really do hope they are going to make the most of all this space in the next few years. It feels like too much of an opportunity to let go.

FN was a 10pm close up until Covid. I would rather the park opened later instead, maybe 11-10.

I can't help but feel its just in the wrong location. I never bother going over there and feel its just a bit out the way, but maybe thats just cause I haven't had good enough reasons to go over there. If only they had an arena in the centre of the park... feel like that location would've worked perfectly for something like this. Also, in my opinion the food options there have been pretty dire and think theres much better options elsewhere on park. Was a big fan of Cargo at Towers but don't think anything they brought in for launchpad have been good at all unfortunately.

What a weird season, it’s been good but boring. Ride availability was good everytime I visited, events were good. Good opening hours. Launchpad wasn’t everything it could have been. We just need more rides and multiple years of it, to keep it interesting

What time is the park allowed to operate to in terms of noise? I thought it was 11pm.

Well that's the 2026 season done then. Overall I think it's been a good season. No idea on actual figures, but the park has certainly felt busier this season, which can only be a good thing. The lineup is starting to feel a little stale, and Fright Nights felt quite stale overall, but the park has continued to operate very well in my opinion. I do feel like the park is crying out for a new flat ride, but unfortunately it doesn't look like that'll be happening for next season. The only actual new ride hardware we've had since 2014 are Dodgems, Ghost Train (less said about the better) and obviously Hyperia. As we've seen this season, the flats are certainly showing their age now. There are rumours going around that Huss are coming in over closed season to work on Zodiac, so I'm hoping Zodiac and Vortex will both be back for the start of next season. But I do desperately think a new flat is needed to keep things fresh. I also think sorting out the entrance needs to be a priority. Seeing reports of people waiting 70 minutes just to enter the park is crazy. I personally can't think of another park that has a similar issue. It's a terrible first impression. A couple of other things I'd like to see: • Build on the 9pm closes over summer. They seemed well attended and a success overall, so I'm hoping the park can build on them next year. • Fright Nights 10pm closes. I know I say this every year, but Fright Nights feels busier than ever and I think the park needs to be doing what it can to help with capacity. Opening an extra hour would surely help with that, as well as enhancing the guest experience. The park looks SO good at night and deserves to be seen more in the dark. • Finish the Colossus repaint, although I can't see that happening with it being left untouched last year...

Seeing The Walking Dead hit three figure queue times on the regular this Fright Nights has been wild to me - but as stated above, with so many flats down, and now no Swarm I guess it's no surprise.

At Stealth yesterday heard a youngster (about eight years old) screaming at his Mum "but I don't want to ride on the front of everything"

Yesterday there was less smoke from the "fright night" addition, than coming from the smokers and dummy suckers in the queue line.

I visited earlier today. It feels that the park is lacking capacity. Vortex, Quantum, Zodiac and The Swarm were closed all day. Depth Charge was only open until 2pm. Hyperia hit 190 minutes. Even Tidal Wave was up to 30 mid afternoon. All the ride staff were trying their very best to keep throughputs up. Lighting has improved over the years. For me the bottom line is that the park feels stale and is crying out for some major hardware investment. Apart from GT, Hyperia and some bumper cars the park is no different to 2012.

Very unfortunate timing. I agree, would’ve thought capacity would be lower than usual with Swarm down and 3 flats closed. Apparently there are over 15k booked for today, tomorrow and Friday. Not sure what the usual capacity is.

Swarm is currently stuck on the lift, so will likely be closed for a while. I doubt they're at actual capacity, but will have stopped numbers coming in because of that capacity hit.

It seems today and tomorrow have sold out with no tickets available to purchase on the website. The Swarm has been updated this morning to show as closed all day, which if so is very unfortunate timing, being one of the highest throughputs on park.

Looks like it reopened this morning. Was quite impressed to see them hoisting it back up so quickly. Must’ve been a tough few days for them operationally but hopefully that’s the end of bad weather now!

Saw valleyed yesterday afternoon, not making the dive loop after the final MCBR. As I understand it, it had been on the MCBR for a while, empty, and they tried to get the car to complete the circuit, and it didn't succeed, likely in large part due to the weather. Engineers were hoisting the car back up to the MCBR a couple of hours later.

Saw aside, the whole park is open now. Rough day, but the weather has been forgiving for the afternoon / evening.

Apparently, because there wasn' t much of an option, the Q for the Walking Dead was over three hours.

Looks like another tough day operationally today due to the winds - the only thrill rides which have been open most of the day are Rush, Inferno and Walking dead. SAW has valleyed so is done for today at least. Quantum has been closed for a couple days and now has scaffolding so is closed for the short term at least, meaning there are now 3 flat rides closed in that corner of the park.

Woo, its nearly that time for the best part of the year, UPDATED TOP TENS. I'll start with my 'best of newly ridden in 2026' list. There was only 24 new rollercoasters added to the count this year, a lot of my visits being re-vists such as Magic Mountain and Knotts Kondaa - What an incredible ride. Absolutely loved it and an utter joy to ride. X2 - An iconic ride and I'm very thankful that I managed to get on 6 weeks before its final rides. Lasso of Courage - A surprisingly intense and good RMC. it's bare bones queue and station leave a lot to be desired but it is a really good ride. Turbine - Absolutely loved this. Very disorientating and fun. Twisted Colossus - A really good but also a frustrating ride. If they got lockers at the entrance and actually shared basic information to guests before they ride it could be really good duelling each time. But every single time you don't duel so its gimmick is wasted. Mahaledon - I'm a sucker for Gerstlauer family coasters and this one is a very long, fun ride and perfect for Walibi Belgium. I'd love to see one of these in the UK, maybe Paultons. Pulsar - I was a little surprised by this to be honest, I didn't expect the powerful launches and the fantastic air time. The turntable really helps its capacity too and it was very well operated. I like Ghost Rider - It was a really good ride but the operations are so frustrating. Where is the third train! It's a really long solid ride though and recently retracked. Journey to Atlantis (San Diego). This was a very pleasant surprise with lots of little tricks to make it more memorable then the Orlando version. Anubis - Solid little Gerstlauer. Relatively compact, forceful launches, not too rattlly. Nice. And the other 14 Electric Eel, Manta (San Diego) Arctic Rescue, Emperor, West Coast Riders, Revolution, Hang Time, Drakon, Taka Wawa, Pilot, Cobra (Walibi Belgium), Calamity Mine, Loip-Gaoru, Vampire (Walibi Belgium),