Matt N

If anyone is interested, Theme Park Worldwide have filmed a video walking around Thorpe Park with Russ, the park’s operational manager, and documenting some of the changes that have taken place as part of the Sparkle Project over the off-season: Some interesting details from the video include: The return of Tidal Wave’s fire effect is planned, but Russ could not give a concrete timeline. The return of The Swarm’s fire and water effects is also planned. At least one of those will be ready for the start of the season, but I can’t remember which, off the top of my head. Samurai will not be opening at the start of the season, as it is being refurbished and its repaint is still ongoing. The reason for Colossus not being fully repainted this off-season is that a full repaint would have resulted in the ride not opening until later in the season, which Thorpe Park did not feel would be ideal. Colossus’ entrance paint job is going to be altered further. Thorpe Park has taken on board the feedback about it being too yellow. Saw’s chainsaw blades over the drop will be spinning again for the first time in a number of years in 2024. I have to say, the park is looking brilliant! Everything looks very fresh, Big Easy Boulevard looks really nice, Hyperia is looking awesome, and overall, I am thoroughly excited for this season at Thorpe Park!

Hi guys. In recent weeks, the construction of Hyperia at Thorpe Park has been turning a fair few heads. In particular, the first drop for the ride seems to have garnered a lot of attention, with its sharp vertical profiling and twisting gaining plaudits. That drop certainly looks unique, and I've heard some say that they think it could be one of their favourite first drops in the world! This got me thinking about some of my favourite coaster drops in the UK, so today I ask; what is your current favourite coaster drop in the UK? Personally, I'd have to go for either the first drop of Oblivion at Alton Towers or the first drop of Megafobia at Oakwood. I love the drop on Oblivion because I just love the phenomenal sustained airtime it gives, as well as the sense of speed you get rushing through the tunnel! Oblivion's first drop has you flying out of your seat for what feels like ages, and I absolutely love that! And when you get to the bottom, I do love the raw sense of speed that the tunnel gives; I know that Oblivion isn't the fastest coaster I've ridden, but the sensation of speed in that tunnel would definitely have me believing that it was in contention for the title if I didn't know any better! Finally, the other thing I love about it is that it is huge. We don't have that many big coasters in this country, and we have even fewer big, straight first drops. As such, I do love that Oblivion has a properly sizeable first drop that's able to provide a real sustained sensation! As for Megafobia; that ride's first drop in the back row needs to be ridden to be believed, in my view! On the back, you get absolutely hurled out of the seat by the most ridiculous moment of ejector airtime! I've ridden over 100 coasters now, and few other coasters I've done have an ejector-filled first drop quite like Megafobia's. Certainly, no other British coaster has an ejector-filled first drop quite like Megafobia's, in my view. It isn't overly tall, though, and last time I did it, it was tarnished by quite a rough landing at the bottom (although the retrack has hopefully fixed this problem... I'll see for myself in May!). It also only properly hits in the back, from my experience, so it does lose a couple of points for consistency. Nonetheless, that back row ejector airtime is quite something! I have a tough time deciding between the two. If I had to pick, I'd probably choose Oblivion because I do love the sustained airtime, speed and raw size of it, and it is also consistent. Although as said, that back row ejector on Megafobia is quite something, in my view! But I'd be keen to know; what is your current favourite coaster drop in the UK? And as an aside; do you think that Hyperia's first drop could possibly clinch the title for you whenever that ride opens?

If anyone's interested, I decided to have a bit of fun this evening and cobble together a rough Planet Coaster recreation of Hyperia to gauge a rough idea of the sort of forces and speeds we might be hitting through some of those elements. I'm aware that the profiling and such aren't perfect, and as such, I'd take some of the exact g-forces with a pinch of salt (for instance, I don't think we'll be pulling 5.6G at the bottom of the dive loop...), but I built the large elements to roughly the same sort of height as they will be in real life (lift hill 236ft, Immelmann 157ft, large outerbank 164ft, dive loop 137ft, small outerbank 65ft, final airtime hill 48ft), so I think it should give a rough ballpark idea of speed in particular. I hope you like it! Here's a POV and some cinematic shots of my creation: And if you don't want to watch the video, here is the heatmap of vertical g-forces throughout the ride: As well as the heatmap of speed throughout the ride: And the stats of the ride: And just for fun, here are some shots of the layout in the day and at night: In terms of speed and forces; I think it paints a very promising picture! If my recreation is at all accurate, it suggests that we could be absolutely flying through the Immelmann, with the ride maintaining a speed of nearly 50mph even at the Immelmann's highest point! The other two large elements maintain speeds of 35-40mph at their highest points. In terms of trimming in the splashdown; I erred towards the more fierce end of the trimming spectrum and went for a deceleration rate of 4m/s2, which reduced the speed by 10-15mph. And even then, the outerbank and final airtime hill still appear very potent, with negative g-forces of nearly -1G still being registered in both elements! So overall, then, I reckon Hyperia could pack some brilliant g-forces throughout and hold its speed really well! I hope you like my recreation! I have to say, this has also reminded me just how much fun getting stuck into a good Planet Coaster build is... I really need to get back into Planet Coaster, as I haven't really had too much time for it as of late and it shows. I haven't updated any of my ongoing park projects for the forum in nearly 2 years! If you'd like to play with my recreation yourself, here's the Steam Workshop link where you can download it from: https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/filedetails/?id=3113374891

I know it’s a different park, but Alton Towers have always created a slightly modified version of their logo to fit whatever the new ride of the year is whenever they’ve built something major. Over the years, we’ve had the orange version of the logo for Wicker Man, the yellow and black swirly version for The Smiler, the green version for Thirteen, and the purple version for The Curse at Alton Manor, and that’s just off the top of my head… With this in mind, I wouldn’t mind betting that Thorpe might have an edited version of the logo specifically for Hyperia’s opening year.

I’m wondering whether the new logo might have some sort of coaster track or something in it. I know it’s a well-worn approach for a theme park logo, but I would argue that coasters are one of Thorpe’s biggest selling points, particularly with the logo change coinciding with the opening of Hyperia.

Sorry to double post, but I’ve managed to find video confirmation courtesy of an Instagram reel from Dominic Gardner: https://www.instagram.com/reel/CyLUqY_NUJG/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA%3D%3D Interestingly, it looks as though they’re starting with the huge outerbank into an inversion.

I have exciting news… according to John Burton’s Instagram story, Hyperia has gone vertical! This is the day we’ve all been waiting for… I, for one, frankly can’t wait to see this beast of a coaster take shape!

Hi guys. 2024 is set to be a pretty big year for UK roller coasters, with four different roller coaster-related projects happening for next year. These are: Hyperia at Thorpe Park, a Mack HyperCoaster that will be the UK’s tallest and fastest roller coaster. Nemesis 2.0 at Alton Towers, the rebirth of the much-loved B&M Inverted Coaster that is widely accepted to be the most revered UK coaster. Drayton Manor’s new coaster, an Intamin lift and launch coaster with spinning trains. Legoland Windsor’s new coaster, a duo of Zierer family shuttle coasters. It’s certainly a big year for UK roller coasters when you look at this motley crew of upcoming rides! But I’d be really interested to know; which of these 2024 coaster projects are you most excited for? Personally, I’d have to pick Hyperia at Thorpe Park. It’s so exciting that the UK height record is finally being broken after 30 long years, and even besides that, I think the layout of Hyperia looks phenomenal, with some really unique and impactful elements. I can’t wait to see how that first drop and outerbank into an inversion ride in particular, and the other elements like the Immelmann, stall/dive loop, and the outerbank should provide a real breath of fresh air to the UK coaster scene and provide sensations that have never really been felt on a UK coaster before! I have a huge amount of faith that it will be a big hit, and while it would be overly presumptuous to count your chickens before they hatch, I think that there’s a fair chance that we could be looking at the ride that will finally unseat Nemesis from the position of “most revered in the UK”! I am excited for Nemesis’ rebirth, but it is a coaster that I’ve already been riding for 10 years rather than anything new, so it does lack some of the anticipation of a new coaster project for me. I’m also excited to see what Drayton Manor’s coaster turns out like. It sounds like it could be a really intriguing ride, and I’m so glad to see them back on the coaster building map after so long! Legoland Windsor’s investment looks great for that park, and I’m sure the two coasters will ride really well and go down well with the target demographic, but I’m not as personally excited for them by virtue of them not really being aimed at my demographic. But I’d be keen to know; which of the UK’s 2024 coaster projects are you most looking forward to?

In some interesting news, Scott from Your Experience Guide was told on a lift hill climb that Colossus is getting a technical upgrade for 2024 that will result in restraints being able to be released individually. This will mean that when a rider doesn't fit or needs their restraint adjusting, their restraint can be released on its own as opposed to the current situation where every restraint on the train needs releasing and rechecking. This should really help to improve throughputs on Colossus, as by my observation, the constant need to release and recheck all restraints due to guests not fitting or restraints needing to be adjusted is one of the biggest bottlenecks that's hamstringing the ride's throughput at present. Source: (Go to 2:55 if the timestamp doesn't work)

Hi guys. We all have our favourite coasters, those rides that we rank really highly; for me, rides that come to mind in this category include phenomenal coasters like Mako, VelociCoaster, Silver Star, Hagrid's and Iron Gwazi, amongst others! Often, there will be a common thread running through our favourite coasters in terms of certain attributes they share to some degree. With this in mind, I'd be interested to know; what do you generally favour in a coaster? What makes a coaster good for you? What kind of coaster elements and attributes really tick your boxes? Personally, I'm going to answer this through both an analytical and instinctive lens. Looking at this analytically, I decided to play about with my full ranking of all 111 coasters I've ridden, plotting the correlation between Ranking and Height, Speed, Length, Inversions, Total Rides and Year Opened. Total Rides might seem like an odd metric to test, but I added it in because I wanted to figure out whether that good old chestnut nostalgia has much of an effect on how highly I rate a coaster. Will I rate something that I have an enmeshed relationship with and have ridden numerous times more highly than something I've only ridden once? When I tested this out, the ranking of how highly correlated certain attributes were with ranking were as follows (I've reversed the direction of the correlations to clear things up; the raw correlations given by Python were negative because ranking gets lower as a number as you rate something more highly): Ranking Attribute Pearson Correlation Coefficient (2dp) Spearman Correlation Coefficient (2dp) Average Correlation Coefficient (2dp) Strength of Correlation based on Average 1 Speed 0.57 0.57 0.57 Moderate Positive Correlation 2 Height 0.52 0.53 0.52 Moderate Positive Correlation 3 Length 0.47 0.48 0.47 Weak Positive Correlation 4 Total Rides 0.37 0.52 0.44 Weak Positive Correlation 5 Opening Year 0.33 0.39 0.36 Weak Positive Correlation 6 Inversions 0.18 0.21 0.20 No Significant Correlation So my rankings would suggest that the attribute I favour most strongly in a coaster is greater speed, with there being moderate evidence in favour of me generally favouring greater speed. There is similarly moderate evidence in favour of me generally favouring greater height, there is weak evidence in favour of me generally favouring greater length, a higher number of total rides and a newer opening year, and there is insufficient evidence in favour of me generally favouring inversions. To be honest, I would have instinctively said that speed was my favourite of the main 4 statistics before even doing that analysis, so that tallies up quite well, really! If you were asking me more instinctively what I enjoy in a coaster, though; I would have to say that simply put, I really enjoy coasters that are fun and thrilling, with good smoothness, comfort and rerideability. The main fundamental criteria for me to rate a coaster highly are simply that it's fun, thrilling and rerideable! There are specific elements I do enjoy, however. In terms of specific elements I enjoy; I absolutely relish the feeling of airtime on a coaster, and 9 times out of 10, a coaster in the upper echelons of my rankings needs to have at least some notable degree of airtime or negative g-forces. That's definitely something I specifically look for and rate highly in a coaster. I also really relish a coaster with a great sense of speed, and to be honest, I do often tend to gravitate towards taller coasters; for instance, a 200ft+ coaster is nearly always a winner for me, with 4 of the 6 200ft+ coasters I've ridden being in my top 10 and even the 5th being only just outside it at #12! But I'd be keen to know; what do you generally favour in a coaster? What makes a good coaster, in your opinion?

With my year now having ended, I figure that I should update my top 30 again, as I have visited Flamingo Land, Brean Theme Park, Thorpe Park and Chessington since I last posted my list. This resulted in 1 new addition to the top 30 and numerous reshuffled entries, as well as my coaster count increasing to 111. Following some consideration, my end of year top 30 is as follows (for some idea of proportional ranking, I've also put the minimum thresholds for my top 10% and top 25% next to their respective rankings): Mako - SeaWorld Orlando (10/10) Jurassic World VelociCoaster - Universal's Islands of Adventure (10/10) Silver Star - Europa Park (10/10) Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure - Universal's Islands of Adventure (10/10) Iron Gwazi - Busch Gardens Tampa (10/10) Wodan Timbur Coaster - Europa Park (10/10) SheiKra - Busch Gardens Tampa (10/10) Icon - Blackpool Pleasure Beach (10/10) Ice Breaker - SeaWorld Orlando (10/10) Wicker Man - Alton Towers (10/10) Oblivion - Alton Towers (9/10) (Minimum threshold for top 10%) Stealth - Thorpe Park (9/10) Montu - Busch Gardens Tampa (9/10) Revenge of the Mummy - Universal Studios Florida (9/10) Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts - Universal Studios Florida (9/10) Blue Fire - Europa Park (9/10) Nemesis Inferno - Thorpe Park (9/10) Nemesis - Alton Towers (9/10) Mine Blower - Fun Spot Kissimmee (9/10) Rita - Alton Towers (8/10) CanCan Coaster - Europa Park (8/10) Sik - Flamingo Land (8/10) Kumba - Busch Gardens Tampa (8/10) Kraken - SeaWorld Orlando (8/10) Megafobia - Oakwood Theme Park (8/10) Rock'n'Rollercoaster - Disney's Hollywood Studios (8/10) Cheetah Hunt - Busch Gardens Tampa (8/10) (Minimum threshold for top 25%) Thirteen - Alton Towers (8/10) The Swarm - Thorpe Park (7/10) Slinky Dog Dash - Disney's Hollywood Studios (7/10) Of the 17 new coasters I rode this year, 4 made my top 10% and 5 made my top 25%, which I wouldn't consider a bad hit rate at all, personally! If you're interested, here's how I rank the 17 new coasters I did this year (the top 5 are kind of self-explanatory, as they're in the list above, but I thought some might find the breakdown of the other 12 interesting): Jurassic World VelociCoaster - Universal's Islands of Adventure (10/10, #2/111) Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure - Universal's Islands of Adventure (10/10, #4/111) Iron Gwazi - Busch Gardens Tampa (10/10, #5/111) Ice Breaker - SeaWorld Orlando (10/10, #9/111) Sik - Flamingo Land (8/10, #22/111) Kumali - Flamingo Land (6/10, #44/111) Mumbo Jumbo - Flamingo Land (5/10, #58/111) Pipeline: The Surf Coaster - SeaWorld Orlando (5/10, #60/111) Mandrill Mayhem - Chessington (5/10, #61/111) Astro Storm - Brean Theme Park (5/10, #68/111) Velocity - Flamingo Land (4/10, #78/111) Scorpion - Busch Gardens Tampa (3/10, #91/111) Super Grover's Box Car Derby - SeaWorld Orlando (3/10, #93/111) Magic Mouse - Brean Theme Park (2/10, #100/111) Bulldog Coaster - Brean Theme Park (2/10, #106/111) Sand Serpent - Busch Gardens Tampa (2/10, #109/111) Hero - Flamingo Land (1/10, #111/111) I must say that I've found this year truly brilliant for coaster riding overall!

Based on my experience yesterday, the ride needs more staff before they should even think about bringing back the 3rd train. One operator was handling both batching of main queue guests and restraint checking for the entire right hand side of the train, and another was handling both the batching of RAP guests and restraint checking for the entire left hand side of the train. These two staff were working very hard and doing a prompt job, but the lack of additional staff definitely slowed things down on there. The whole process of the operator checking restraints, pressing the send button and then having to jump over the separating fence, batch main queue guests and then jump back over to repeat the whole process again was definitely adding inefficiency, and as a result, I timed a throughput average of 418pph, which equates to an average dispatch interval of 3.5-4 minutes. In some of the slowest cases, I timed dispatch intervals of over 4 minutes. This is on a ride that I would have said was fairly easy to attain quick dispatch intervals on on paper, so I'd wager that the staffing was at very least a significant contributing factor to the low throughput. Stacking was routine on 2 trains, and I certainly don't think a 3rd would have been of any benefit yesterday; for the time being, I feel that they'd get far more benefit out of investing into 2 additional bayloading staff than they would out of investing into reinstating the 3rd train.

I went to Chessington yesterday, and I managed to get throughput timings and insights from the 3 coasters I did. Dragon's Fury (Theoretical: 950pph on 8 cars) - 497pph (unknown number of cars, 17th September 2023, average of 10) Note: This number assumes that all 4 seats in a car were full for the sake of simplicity. Due to a rule imposed by Chessington allowing no more than 3 adults per car, seats were going out empty more often than not; some cars were going out full, but most seemed to be going out with only 2 or 3 seats filled out of 4. Therefore, the actual attained figure is most likely a fair peg lower than the one given above. For some idea, the average dispatch interval I timed was approximately 28 seconds, and in the period I wasn't timing, I'd say that the average interval looked to be somewhere around the 30 second ballpark. Mandrill Mayhem (Theoretical: 840pph on 1 train) - 575pph (1 train, 17th September 2023, average of 9) Vampire (Theoretical: 1,200pph on 3 trains) - 418pph (2 trains, 17th September 2023, average of 6) Tomb Blaster (Theoretical: Unknown on 5 trains) - I could not time Tomb Blaster exactly, as I was ushered onto the ride too quickly to gain any timings, but my very vague timing (aka checking my watch) of the dispatch I was on came to roughly a 3 minute dispatch interval, which would equate to around 600pph if all 30 seats on the train were full. (unknown number of trains, 17th September 2023) Overall, I'd say that the park was mixed to weak operationally, if I'm being honest. The staff on the ground were working very hard and trying their best, but I would say that the park had some of the lowest throughputs I've ever seen relative to the crowds it gets. The throughputs of most of the rides I did seemed to be stunted to some degree by either procedure, a lack of staff, or both; the operations were certainly no fault of the staff themselves. The strongest operations of the day were on Mandrill Mayhem, by my reckoning. Yes, the procedure that means that guests can't wait on the platform behind the airgates is a considerable stumbling block for efficient operations, and that's probably something that could have been avoided during the design phase, but there's not a lot that they can do to rectify that now. With all things considered, I thought the ride was being operated very well. With the cards that have been dealt in terms of the intrinsic throughput of the ride and the H&S-related loading procedure, I thought that an average dispatch interval of just shy of 3 minutes was very, very good, personally; I was certainly pretty pleased with this figure seeing as the ride only has 1 train and has to load in the way it does. The ride seemed relatively well staffed, and the staff were doing an excellently prompt job of checking restraints and such. Great job, Chessington! Weight limits notwithstanding, Dragon's Fury definitely wasn't operating as promptly as Spinball Whizzer at Alton Towers mostly does. On Spinball, the cars continuously motor through the station, with the continuously moving loading system being well utilised and not really having any kind of delay, and dispatch intervals as quick as 20 seconds are achieved. On Dragon's Fury, however, the continuously moving loading system was not really being used (I could have sworn it had one the same as Spinball's from previous visits, but I could be wrong there), and 2 or 3 cars or so often seemed to be stacked up in the station at once. With that being said, a good number of cars were seemingly running, and 30 seconds certainly isn't a terribly slow dispatch interval by any stretch of the imagination, although the weight limit definitely limits the throughput potential of the ride and the likes of Spinball do show that faster dispatches can be achieved with the same ride hardware. Vampire definitely had some of the most surprisingly slow operations of the day, and this was due in large part to the fact that the ride was seemingly lacking staff. One operator was running the whole show for the main queue, being left to both batch and check the restraints on the entire right hand side of the train. They had one companion, who was batching what appeared to be the RAP queue and checking the restraints on the entire left hand side of the train. These staff were working incredibly hard and certainly putting all their energy into checking the restraints and batching, but at very least, I feel that a separate bayloader for each queue would not have gone amiss and would have sped things along considerably. The whole process of the operator checking restraints, pressing the send button and then having to jump over the separating fence and batch people before jumping back over to check the restraints for the next train and repeat the whole process again definitely slowed things down, and as a result, dispatch intervals of over 4 minutes were timed in some of the slowest cases, with the overall average coming to around 3.5-4 minutes per dispatch, despite Vampire looking like a ride that could quite easily attain quick dispatch intervals on paper. It reminded me of Flamingo Land, where they run things in a similar manner, and with queues being markedly longer at Chessington than they were on my visit to Flamingo Land, I don't think this method is as proportionate to the crowds at Chessington as it is at Flamingo Land. The situation at Tomb Blaster was very similar to that on Vampire. One operator was running the entire show on their own here, being left in charge of batching, checking restraints and sending the ride. The operator was working very hard and doing a very prompt job, but the fact that they were having to do everything slowed things down, and as a result, a ride that looks like it should attain fairly quick dispatch intervals on paper was dispatching around every 3 minutes. To be fair, though, the queue was not as long for this, with me only waiting around 30-35 minutes, and the ride's fairly large train means that a throughput of roughly 600pph would still have been attained, which, if I had properly timed it, would probably have been the highest on park. Similarly to Vampire, though, 2 additional staff members (one bayloader and one operator sat in the cabin sending the ride) would not have gone amiss and would have sped things up notably, in my view.

If anyone’s interested, I rode Mandrill Mayhem and saw the World of Jumanji for the first time today. I’ll split my review into two parts; a brief review of the land as a whole and a longer review of the main point of interest, Mandrill Mayhem. Let’s start with the area as a whole… The Area Overall, I have to say that I really liked the area itself! It’s got some very nice theming; the main jaguar shrine centrepiece provides a really striking visual, and there are some other really nice sight lines and really nice bits of theming within the land. In terms of some of the subtler bits of theming, I quite liked the Bazaar section; to me, it gave off almost Animal Kingdom-esque vibes! There are also various other nice bits of theming around the land, and while the landscaping is still a little scant at the moment, I think it will look really nice and make the area look really wooded when it’s grown in! One thing I did notice is that while I like the area soundtrack and think it’s quite a cool, motivating piece, the loop is quite short. I can imagine that it might get a little grating to hear the same thing over and over if you’re in the area for any extended period of time. Short music loops do seem to be quite a Chessington-wide thing, though, so perhaps I’m just being overly pedantic… If I’m being pedantic, it is also somewhat lacking in seating. As far as I could tell, I couldn’t really see any benches or anything for people to sit down on. Overall, though, I did really like the area; from a visual standpoint, it certainly looks very nice, and overall, I think it’s quite well executed and will grow to look really nice once the landscaping is bedded in! Now let me move onto the main point of interest… Mandrill Mayhem I was interested to ride Mandrill Mayhem, as it’s certainly one of the more unique contraptions I’ve ever seen from B&M. I was very intrigued to see how a family launched wing shuttle coaster rode, as to me, that seemed like quite an eclectic combination of ride types; I, for one, was certainly very surprised when Chessington announced that Mandrill Mayhem was to fuse all four buzzwords together! But did Mandrill Mayhem live up to the hype and the fairly positive reviews for me? Well, I’m sorry to say that overall, I was definitely somewhat disappointed with Mandrill Mayhem as a coaster. I had 3 rides, and don’t get me wrong, it’s far from a terrible coaster, but I wouldn’t say that it was an especially brilliant one either, and it wasn’t one I overly rated. In the interests of fairness, I’ll start with the positives… The Positives It’s a very striking ride visually; B&M track is always very visually attractive, and Mandrill Mayhem is no exception, with the track winding around the Jaguar Shrine making for a very nice visual! I think the audio sequence in the station is quite good fun. I particularly liked the “not that way!” when the train shot backwards! The initial sequence of elements is quite good fun, particularly towards the back. The swing launch sequence has two reasonably potent launches that are fun and punchy, the little mild pop of airtime off the launch track is quite fun, and towards the back of the train, the Junior Scorpion Tail provides some very fun floater airtime! It’s an element that I felt worked really well on Ice Breaker back in June, and it’s an element that works well here too. The Junior Scorpion Tail didn’t really do anything on the front, though; that one is definitely best experienced towards the back, in my view. As inferred by my initial line, however, there are quite a few negatives I feel I need to discuss… The Negatives Once you get past the initial swing launch sequence, I honestly found the layout a little bit bland. It just lacked a certain spark, a certain… je ne sais quoi for me. I just found it a bit something of nothing, if I’m being totally frank. There were bits that I thought looked quite spicy and like they might provide some really fun moments before I rode, but they didn’t really do anything for me when I actually rode. I also don’t really think the layout plays to the strengths of the Wing Coaster as a model, and that was a concern I had from day one. In my view, it could quite easily have not been a Wing Coaster. I wasn’t a fan of the principal helix stall at all. The helix itself was perfectly OK, but I found the stall at the top very uncomfortable and awkward to experience; it’s a part of the experience that looks a lot better than it rides, in my view. While it’s absolutely not horrifically rough in the same vein as, say, an SLC, Mandrill Mayhem definitely isn’t smooth for a brand new B&M roller coaster. I found it to have a very noticeable rattle in both the inner and outer seats, and on all 3 rides, I came off with a bit of a headache. In a somewhat linked point, I’d also argue that in some aspects, the ride generally feels a little bit awkward and unrefined in its execution and the way it navigates the layout. For instance, in some of the more dynamic parts of the layout such as the dive to the left out of the station and the s-bend before the principal helix, the train almost seemed to shudder up and down quite noticeably, and the whole backwards lap felt a bit awkward, in my view. I don’t think dynamism and snappy transitions are really where the Wing Coaster shines as a model, and I think Mandrill Mayhem evidences that quite well, personally. In terms of the trains, I feel that it shares the same flaws as The Swarm in that I don’t find the vests particularly comfortable, and the restraints do seem to tighten and leave you feeling quite uncomfortably constrained during the ride. That is more of a general Wing Coaster flaw than anything specific to Mandrill Mayhem, though, so that’s by the by. Away from the ride experience itself, I do also feel that the throughput is an aspect that leaves much to be desired. The ride was being operated very well by the staff on the ground with all things considered, but I think that even for the type of ride they went for, there were some ways that throughput could easily have been increased. For instance, they could have found some way of running 2 trains and some kind of dual station mechanism on the ride, and in terms of a simpler fix, even installing full height airgates in the station would have increased the throughput by not forcing riders to wait off the station platform and only cross onto the station platform when the ride has ended. Mandrill Mayhem was the highest throughput coaster at Chessington today by my measurements, but I think the park needed a queue muncher and I don’t think Mandrill Mayhem fulfils that particular brief, personally. So overall, then, I liked the land, but was disappointed by Mandrill Mayhem itself. The land is nice and Mandrill Mayhem itself is by no means terrible or without merit, but I do personally question whether this coaster was the right fit for Chessington as a park, or the best 1.2m calibre coaster they could have built. Perhaps I’m just somewhat out of touch, though. I am not the ride’s target demographic; it’s aimed at kids riding their first big coaster, whereas I rode it as a 20 year old enthusiast who was riding his 111th coaster. It did seem to be going down quite well with the kids who were riding, from what I could tell, and that is the important thing after all! I apologise if I come across overly harsh or nitpicky, as I’m aware that some of my points are quite pedantic, but those were just some of the thoughts I had.

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 Mandrill Mayhem and the World of Jumanji! I was able to visit the park today due to my mum and nan taking a trip to the nearby Hampton Court Palace, so the three of us left Gloucestershire at about 7:30am. The journey is supposed to take around 2h 15m from where I am, but it ended up taking a touch over 3 hours, in large part due to a bad bout of traffic on the M25 where it took about 30 minutes to drive a mile up our exit. As such, I arrived in the park at around 10:40am after my mum and nan dropped me off: Now before I get into my park day, I should mention that I did use the Virtual Queue system for Mandrill Mayhem, as I would like to share my experience and offer a corresponding piece of advice. Despite there being a Single Rider Queue for Mandrill Mayhem, the consensus was very divided with regard to whether those using it still needed to book a timeslot in the Virtual Queue or not, so I booked a timeslot just in case. When the Virtual Queue opened at 9:45am, I was still in the car on the way to Chessington, so I got in early despite not being at the park and booked a slot for around 10:45am while I was still in the car. I had a 30 minute window within which to redeem the slot, so as I figured that I would probably be able to make it to the ride entrance by 11:15am unless something went drastically wrong, I booked the slot and wasn’t too worried about making it in time. However, when I got to the park at around 10:40am or so, the app informed me that my timeslot had been moved forward by around 20 minutes, so I only had 10 minutes to make it to the ride and redeem it. This certainly made the panic set in, and I had to hotfoot it over to the ride at a fair pace! So if I were to give you one piece of advice, I would say; do not do what I did unless you are pretty sure that you can make it to the park a good bit before your entry window begins, as your slot may move forward and you may get caught out if not! With that being said, I did make it in time, and I was ultimately told by the entrance host that I did not need a Virtual Queue timeslot to use the Single Rider Queue. As such, I made my way straight into the Single Rider Queue to start my day on… Mandrill Mayhem Mandrill Mayhem was the main draw I had come to Chessington to experience, so as I did not need a Virtual Queue timeslot, I hopped straight into the Single Rider Queue to give it a go. As is often the case with Single Rider Queues, this was very fruitful, as there was only one person in front of me and I was batched into the ride and ready to go within minutes! I was very interested to experience Mandrill Mayhem, as the ride seemed like easily one of the most unique B&M coasters out there, and I’d always felt that it seemed like a very eclectic combination of ride types. I think Sarah from Coaster Studios put it quite well when she described it as being “like B&M picked a load of different ride types out of a hat”! But how was the ride? Did this unique blend of coaster types work well? Well if I’m being completely honest, I’m sorry to say that I didn’t overly rate the ride. I was seated in the front row outer left seat, and I have to say that I was definitely a bit disappointed with my first go on it after hearing some fairly positive reviews. It starts off quite well, with the initial swing launch sequence being fairly fun and providing some good speed and a surprisingly potent launch in terms of punch. The initial turn to the left provided some mild airtime, which was good fun, although the Junior Scorpion Tail wasn’t really up to much in the front. After the initial moments, though, I wasn’t greatly enamoured by it. My first critique is that if I’m being honest, the layout kind of feels a bit… bland, for lack of a better term. The inversion is OK, but perhaps taken a little bit too slowly for my personal taste, as someone who doesn’t massively love slow, hangy inversions. The various turns felt less dynamic and fast-paced than they looked off-ride and didn’t provide as much fun as I’d hoped, and the execution of them with the huge winged trains felt a little bit awkward (which I’ll touch upon in my second critique). I also wasn’t a fan of the main helix at all; the sideways hang was very awkward and uncomfortable for me. My second main critique of the ride is that for a brand new coaster, it is definitely not the smoothest. My first ride packed a fair old rattle, and in some of the more “dynamic” parts of the layout, such as the backwards dive out of the station and the s-bend before the big helix, the train seemed to almost shudder up and down in a very awkward fashion. The rattle was definitely noticeable and did detract from the ride for me, and I did step off with a little bit of a headache. Overall, then, Mandrill isn’t a terrible coaster by any means, but it wasn’t one I overly rated either. Based on the first ride, I was somewhat disappointed by it, and it definitely wasn’t one of my favourites. I apologise if I come across overly harsh or nitpicky, but that’s how I genuinely felt: After my first ride on Mandrill Mayhem, I looked at the app and considered my options. Nearby Dragon’s Fury was advertising a 100 minute queue, so that was swiftly vetoed, but another major coaster was on a much shorter wait… Vampire Vampire was on an advertised 5 minute queue, so I decided to head over and have a ride on it. When I arrived in the area, the queue looked a fair bit longer than 5 minutes, but as Rattlesnake was closed, Dragon’s Fury was on 100 minutes and I’d just ridden Mandrill Mayhem, I figured that I might as well give the queue a chance anyway. The queue initially moved faster from people leaving it than from the actual ride throughput, which did not bode well, and it ultimately took 60 minutes. The queue likely wasn’t helped by what may be the slowest operations I’ve ever seen in a Merlin park. The throughput average I clocked was somewhere in the ballpark of 400pph, with dispatch intervals clocking in at over 4 minutes in some of the longest cases. When I got to the station, I figured that this was likely due to the fact that the ride was seemingly lacking staff; there was only one operator on our side of the queue, who was handling both batching and restraint checking simultaneously, with another handling the seats on the left and what appeared to be the RAP queue. The staff were checking restraints at a fairly rapid pace and trying their best, but I do feel that the ride could have done with more staff on this occasion. But enough about the operations; how was the ride? Well, I hadn’t remembered particularly liking Vampire on my last visit to Chessington in 2014, but I was seated in row 5, and I have to say that it was a fair amount better than I’d remembered; some of the twists and turns through the trees were great fun, and the ride has some really surprising moments of intensity and thrill for a family coaster! My critiques from 2014 do still stand to a degree, though; the ride does have somewhat odd pacing, with a few moments where it’s quite slow, and while it was notably less rough than I’d previously remembered, it is showing its age a tad, with a couple of moments of slight headbanging and a couple of bits where the train kind of shunts forward awkwardly. Overall, though, Vampire was definitely a more fun coaster than I’d remembered from my last visit; I certainly found my lap on there pleasurable: After my ride on Vampire, another coaster was on a shorter queue than earlier, so I headed over to… Dragon’s Fury Dragon’s Fury was on a 40 minute advertised queue time, but the queue was only stretching back to the queue line shop and looked relatively innocuous, so I decided to give it a go. The queue ultimately took around 40-45 minutes, so broadly similar to what was advertised; it’s always great when that happens! So, how was the ride? Well, I’d remembered Dragon’s Fury being my favourite coaster at Chessington on my last visit, but I hadn’t remembered an awful lot beyond that, so I was interested to get back on. It wasn’t as enjoyable as I’d remembered, though; it probably isn’t helped by spinning coasters not being my favourite ride style in general these days, but the ride also seemed to have quite a few pretty rough and uncomfortable bits where it really threw you around, similar to Spinball Whizzer at Alton Towers (albeit perhaps not quite as uncomfortable as Spinball). I do have to say that it has a strong layout, though, with some surprising intensity and even the odd surprising pop of airtime, and I definitely prefer it to Spinball. Overall, Dragon’s Fury wasn’t my favourite; even though I do concede that its layout is strong, I’m not the biggest fan of spinning coasters these days, and the ride also had a fair few uncomfortably rough moments for me: After my ride on Dragon’s Fury, I headed for another ride on Mandrill Mayhem using the Single Rider Queue. I was seated in the row 3 inner right seat this time, and while the Junior Scorpion Tail did feel a little more potent this time and was good fun, my opinion was broadly unchanged from my first ride: After my reride on Mandrill Mayhem, the heavens opened, so I quickly made a beeline for an indoor attraction to ride while the rain came down… Tomb Blaster Tomb Blaster was on an advertised 30 minute queue, so I decided to have a ride on it. I initially feared the worst, as the queue was coming down the stairs near to the entrance, but the extension queue going around the whole plaza was thankfully shut off, so the queue took about the advertised 30 minutes; when a queue is exactly as advertised, I can’t really complain! But how was the ride? Well, I’d been on Tomb Blaster before, as it was one of only a select few rides I could ride with a plastercast on my visit in 2013, but I hadn’t really remembered an awful lot about it. And to be honest, I thought it was pretty good! I liked the storyline with the ancient priest, and there were some neat animatronics and surprisingly grand-scale physical set pieces! The interactivity also worked quite well, and I overall felt that the ride was definitely superior to something like Duel in its last year. On a side note; if anyone is interested to know my score, I got 2,850! Overall, then, I rather enjoyed Tomb Blaster; it was definitely a fun way to stay dry: After my ride on Tomb Blaster, I headed to another attraction nearby… Croc Drop Croc Drop was on an advertised 15 minute queue, so I decided to take a ride on it. This queue ended up being even less than advertised for me; as a single rider, I was ushered forward by the operator when a seat was going spare, so my queue only took 5-10 minutes. It’s great when that happens; it’s one of the definite bonuses of visiting parks alone! So, how was the ride? Well, I’m a fan of a good drop tower, and I thought that Croc Drop was good fun! It’s certainly on the far gentler end of the spectrum, but that’s to be expected from a family drop tower, and similarly to Magma at Paultons Park, the ride had some surprisingly fun moments of airtime! Overall, then, I found Croc Drop an enjoyable ride; I definitely had a fun time on there: After my ride on Croc Drop, I sat down and ate my lunch for a bit before heading over to Mandrill Mayhem for a third ride using the Single Rider Queue. I was seated in the row 5 outer right seat this time, and even though the Junior Scorpion Tail was at its most potent yet and very fun in this ride, my overall thoughts remained pretty much unchanged from my first ride: After that, Vampire was showing as a 30 minute queue, so I headed over intending to reride. However, it was approaching 3pm, and my mum rang me not very long after I joined to say that she would be in the drop off zone in 15 minutes. As the advertised queue time swiftly jumped up to 60 minutes and the queue didn’t appear to be moving anywhere very quickly, I ultimately bailed and left the queue: After I bailed on Vampire due to the increasing queue length, my mum and nan were approaching, so I decided to call it a day there and exit the park: So, that just about wraps up my day at Chessington! I had a nice day; I was glad to get on Mandrill Mayhem, and I was just generally glad to get back to the park after 9 years! I do maintain that it’s not one of my favourite UK parks, though; I’d probably say it’s the weakest of the Merlin four for me, as while it’s got some fun rides and some nice theming, there aren’t any rides there that I absolutely love, even for the family demographic, and the park does also appear to suffer from some notable capacity issues that can make queues quite long. For large parts of the day, Vampire and Dragon’s Fury both had queues of comfortably over an hour even though the park did not appear to be crazily busy, and I’d probably say that it has some of the weakest operations I’ve seen relative to the crowds it gets. Nonetheless, I had a fun day, and I certainly enjoyed my time at Chessington; I’m very glad I came back! Thanks for reading; I hope you enjoyed this report! I’m not sure when my next report will be or where it will be from, as this was almost definitely my final theme park visit of 2023. I’ve had a phenomenal season, and this was a nice way to end it!

I was at Thorpe Park yesterday, and I managed to get some throughput readings on the major coasters! Overall, I’d say operations were pretty good; in some cases, there were truly excellent operations that were the best I’ve ever seen on the respective rides! Colossus (Theoretical: 1,300pph on 2 trains) - 592pph (2 trains, 15th September 2023, average of 7) Nemesis Inferno (Theoretical: 1,150pph on 2 trains) - 693pph (2 trains, 15th September 2023, average of 6) Saw: The Ride (Theoretical: 1,000pph on 8 cars) - 770pph (unknown number of cars, 15th September 2023, average of 3) Stealth (Theoretical: 1,000pph on 2 trains) - 867pph (2 trains, 15th September 2023, average of 8 ) The Swarm (Theoretical: 1,100pph on 2 trains) - 983pph (2 trains, 15th September 2023, average of 6) I should say that I was unable to get as many readings as I would normally like (I normally aim for 10), as the queues often weren’t long enough (a very good problem to have!). I should also say that on both The Swarm and Stealth, the averages I’ve listed here were skewed by an instance of “guest faff” that produced one particularly slow dispatch. Without these instances of faff, both ride teams were managing faster averages than the averages I have listed here. The Swarm was seemingly managing a consistent string of 90 second dispatch intervals with mere seconds of stacking (if any at all) all day, and Stealth was managing a pretty consistent string of 75-80 second dispatches, with the operators quite literally running down the train to get restraints checked! I was very impressed with the operations on both rides; the throughputs were the best I’ve ever seen on those rides in both cases! Saw was also operating absolutely brilliantly; the average I got for it is as good as I’ve ever seen on that ride. The average listed above was also lower than what I saw at another point in the day; I did a longer string of readings earlier in the day where it seemed to be getting somewhere in the ballpark of 800-850pph, which is the best throughput I’ve ever seen Saw get, but I accidentally messed this string of readings up by pressing the dispatch button twice, so I could not save this reading and save the final average… The picture of excellent operations was not entirely consistent, however. The throughput of Colossus was not terrible compared to what I’ve seen in the past, but it wasn’t particularly amazing either; I’ve seen it go slower, but I’ve also seen it go faster as well. Nemesis Inferno was also letting the side down a bit; when I sat down and timed it, it was getting a pretty consistent string of 2.5-3 minute dispatches, with the average above only being as high as it was due to a faster dispatch at the very end. Every time I rode, stacking for a fair period of time was routine, and in general, the operations seemed slower on Inferno than elsewhere in the park. Overall, though, the operational picture from Thorpe Park was very good yesterday, with numerous rides having some of the best operations I’ve ever seen on those rides! The operations also weren’t causing much issue, for the most part; there was always a coaster queue below 15 minutes somewhere on the park, and to my knowledge, no queue exceeded an hour all day. At one point, Inferno hit “55-60 minutes” as per the tannoy, but that was pretty isolated to that ride and didn’t last all day; nothing else got a huge amount above 30 minutes, and even Inferno dropped to more like 30-40 minutes after that brief period of 55-60. EDIT: I’m unsure why “average of 8” on Stealth turned into an emoji…

15th September 2023: Thorpe Park Hi guys. Today was an exciting day; it was the day of my dad’s trip to Wentworth, and thus my now annual solo trip to Thorpe Park! I know I’ve been to Thorpe Park many times, but I always look forward to my solo trip there, so I was excited for today! My dad and I left Gloucestershire at around 7:25am this morning, and even with a stop for petrol and a stop at Reading services, we made it to Thorpe Park by around 9:30am. After making brilliant time, I was then dropped off by my dad, so I bade him goodbye before making my way into the park ready to wait for the 10am opening time: When opening time came, I decided to deviate from my normal strategy of starting with the Stealth/Inferno end of the park and take a gamble on a different strategy. As such, I started on… Colossus Colossus was on a near walk on queue, so I decided to have a go on it before a queue built up (it’s a low capacity ride that often generates long queues later on). This queue took merely 1 or 2 trains, so I was on the ride in very little time. I was interested to see how Colossus felt having done Sik, its modernised clone at Flamingo Land, last month. But how was the ride? Well, it did feel notably inferior to Sik, but with that being said, that ride was probably the best I have ever had on Colossus by some margin! Don’t get me wrong, Colossus still isn’t a favourite of mine due to the uncomfortable restraints, a sequence of repeated heartline rolls I don’t overly like (and this sequence was definitely less enjoyable than on Sik for me), and some roughness, but the roughness was nowhere near as overbearing as it normally is; I was sat in row 13, and it was a bit rough in places, but it did not provide nearly the same degree of pounding as it normally does, and today’s ride definitely shot Colossus up a fair few spots in my rankings: After my ride on Colossus, I had a ride on its neighbour… Saw: The Ride Saw was on an advertised 10 minute queue, so I decided to give it a go. My original plan was to use my secret weapon, the Single Rider Queue, to bypass this and take a gamble at reducing my queue time, but this was closed, so I had to get into the main queue. By the time I’d gone into the SRQ (which had an open entrance and 2 other people waiting in it), been ushered out by the operator and gotten into the main queue, the advertised queue time had gone up to 20 minutes, but this was slightly overstated, as I only waited for 15 minutes or so. The queue is besides the point, though; how was the ride? Well, as with Colossus above, that was possibly the best ride I’ve ever had on Saw! I was seated in the back middle seat, and the ride was a bit rough in places, but certainly not as headache-inducing as it has been in the past. There was also some absolutely brilliant airtime, and overall, I came off Saw pretty headache-free this morning! While I would still like it if the ride were smoother, my ride this morning was certainly not nearly as rough as Saw has been in the past: After my ride on Saw, I headed east to ride my next coaster… Nemesis Inferno Nemesis Inferno was on an advertised 10 minute queue, so I decided to take a ride on it. This queue time estimate ended up being broadly accurate, with my wait being around 10-15 minutes; it’s always great when that happens! So, how was the ride? Well, I thought that it was thoroughly great; I rode in row 5, and I thought that the ride was fast and intense without being excessively intense, and it was also perfectly smooth, with not a modicum of headbanging anywhere! When a ride is fast, smooth, and just the right level of intense, what more can you ask for? Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed my ride on Nemesis Inferno; I’ve always found it a thoroughly decent coaster, and today was no exception: After my ride on Nemesis Inferno, I headed to another coaster situated nearby… Stealth Stealth was on an advertised 15 minute queue time, so I decided to take a ride on it. The queue time was accurate or possibly a little underestimated, taking only 10-15 minutes to get to the station. Operations were absolutely excellent on here, with a number of consecutive dispatch intervals as quick as 75-80 seconds being attained! As the queue was overstated and I was doing quite well on the ride count front given that I had only been riding for just over an hour, I decided to wait for a little additional time and ride in the front row of Stealth for the first time since my only prior front row experience in 2020, where I got it by chance in batching. So, how was my first front row Stealth ride in 3 years and only my second ever? Well, I have to say that the front row firmly lived up to my memories; it was absolutely fantastic, and it reinforced my prior view that front row is easily the place to be on Stealth! The sense of speed on that launch is absolutely ridiculous in the front, with the combination of the unshielded wind in your face and the view of that track being devoured at a phenomenal rate making the ride feel every single bit of its 80mph top speed, and perhaps surprisingly, I’d also argue that the airtime is stronger in the front, with the airtime being sustained for the entire way over the top hat rather than only dropping out of it like it is in the back and the braked airtime hill being notably more potent in the front. As an added bonus, it also seems slightly smoother in the front! Overall, I absolutely loved my experience of front row Stealth; it was absolutely fantastic: After Stealth, I went for a ride on the final big coaster I hadn’t yet ridden… The Swarm The Swarm was on an advertised 15 minute queue time, so I decided to have a ride on it. This queue ended up being slightly underestimated, with the queue ultimately taking around 20 minutes. I must say that operations were absolutely brilliant on here; there were numerous cycles where there was mere seconds of stacking, and dispatch intervals as quick as 90 seconds were being attained for numerous dispatches in a row! So, how was the ride? Well, I was seated in the back right inner seat, and it was a fairly decent ride; there was a very good sense of speed and some great inversions, and it was relatively smooth as well! However, it's not an absolute favourite for me anymore like it used to be. I'm generally finding myself a little less keen on some of the ride's more brain-draining moments of sustained positive g's, most notably the helicopter helix, with time, but my main bone of contention with The Swarm these days is its vest restraints. I'm not a fan of them at all; the rigid vest and the way they tighten throughout the ride do make these restraints detract noticeably from the overall experience. Nonetheless, my ride on Swarm was relatively decent, with all things considered; I'll be intrigued to see how Mandrill Mayhem compares in 2 days' time: As I had already managed to have one ride on each of Thorpe Park's big 5 thrill coasters by before 12pm, I decided to stray away from the coasters for a little bit to go and ride... Detonator Detonator was on an advertised 5 minute queue time, so I decided to take a ride on it. This queue time proved relatively accurate or slightly understated, as the queue took 5-10 minutes and a couple of cycles overall. But how was the ride? Well, I'm a big fan of a drop tower, and Detonator is a very good one, in my view; that drop is so punchy, and you get a fair degree of airtime for such a small tower! Overall, Detonator is a brilliant drop tower that I absolutely love, and today's ride was no exception; these Fabbri towers are a real guilty pleasure of mine: After my ride on Detonator, I decided to sit down for 15-20 minutes to have a drink and eat lunch, timing the throughput of Colossus as I ate. After my sit down, I headed to another flat ride in the immediate vicinity of Colossus... Rush Rush was nearby and on a 10 minute queue, so I decided to have a go on it. This queue time was pretty accurate, with the queue taking 10-15 minutes overall. So, how was the ride? Well, despite not generally being a huge fan of flat rides, I'm a big fan of an S&S Screamin' Swing, and Rush was fantastic; there was an excellent sense of speed and nice acceleration in the troughs, there was nice sustained floater at the peaks, and the ride was thrilling without being overly nauseating! I was also intrigued to see how Rush stacked up after having ridden Serengeti Flyer, the giant Screamin' Swing at Busch Gardens Tampa, earlier this year, and while Rush was not quite as impressive as its giant sibling over in Florida, it still offered a fantastically enjoyable experience in its own right, in my view. Overall, I loved Rush; I thought it was a fantastic flat ride, and I thoroughly enjoyed its airtime and speed: After my ride on Rush, I headed over to Stealth for two back-to-back rides, as the ride was on an advertised 5 minute queue time which turned out to be pretty much walk-on. When my favourite coaster at Thorpe is on a queue that short, who would I be to resist a ride or two? I took a ride in the front, as well as a ride in the back, and both were absolutely fantastic, although as I inferred earlier, the front row does usurp the back row on Stealth, in my view: After my two rides on Stealth, I headed over to The Swarm for a reride on a 10 minute queue. This time, I was seated on the row 5 outer right seat, and similarly to earlier, it was a pretty decent ride. It was perhaps a little less smooth, but in fairness, it was notably smoother than I'd previously remembered the ride's outer seats being: After my Swarm reride, I headed for a reride on Rush on a 5 minute queue. As with earlier, it was a fantastic flat ride with great airtime and speed: After my reride on Rush, I headed to do an attraction I'd never done before for the first time... Vortex Vortex was on an advertised 5 minute queue time and looked to be pretty much walk-on, so I decided to give it a whirl. Despite having visited Thorpe Park numerous times before, I had somehow never ridden Vortex before today, so I thought I'd finally give it a try. Despite controversially having not been a huge fan of the two other gyroswing-type rides I've done (Cyclonator at Paultons and Maelstrom at Drayton), I was interested to try Vortex, as I'd never ridden a KMG Afterburner before and I know these are slightly different to a regular gyroswing. So how did I find the experience? Well, I'm afraid to say that I still wasn't a massive fan. In my view, it suffers from exactly the same flaw as the other two gyroswings I've ridden in that the spinning makes it a little bit much and ruins it. There was some fair weightlessness and speed in places, but it wasn't as potent as on a ride like Rush, and when the ride properly got going, this seemed to disappear in favour of intense spinning, and as someone who has quite a weak stomach for spinning flat rides, I didn't personally find that overly enjoyable. Overall, Vortex is similar to other gyroswings in that I can see why people like it, but it's not really for me: After Vortex, I decided to head and try out another flat ride that I hadn't done in a long time... Samurai Samurai was on a 10 minute advertised queue time, so I decided to give it a go. The queue looked to be a cycle or two long, but as I was a single rider, the host ushered me onto the cycle that was about to go pretty much as soon as I joined, as there was a spare seat; it's always great when that happens! But how was the ride? Well unlike Vortex, I had done Samurai before; it was one of only two rides that I did during a school trip to Thorpe Park in July 2018, with the other being Rush. At the time, I thought it was pretty decent and not too nauseating, and when I first rode it, I even considered that I might have preferred it to Rush out of the two flats I did that day. With this in mind, I was intrigued to see how it stacked up after over 5 years. I'm very sorry to say, however, that my recollections could not have disagreed more with the experience I had today... because I'm afraid that I personally found Samurai absolutely vile. Today's experience moved it down considerably in my estimations and has it in close competition with Air Race at Drayton Manor for the title of the most sickeningly vile flat ride I've ever done. It was horribly jerky, it did that horrible slow flipping like Air Race does (where I swear I can physically feel stuff moving around inside my stomach), it had horribly long periods of inverted hangtime, and overall, I'm sorry to say that I didn't like it at all. Overall, I did not enjoy Samurai, and I'm afraid that it did not live up to my relatively positive 2018 memories of it; I'm not sure if something has changed with the ride or if I've simply grown more fragile over the last 5 years, but for whatever reason, I just didn't like it at all today, I'm afraid: After getting off Samurai, I felt a little worse for wear and needed a sit down, so I sat down in Angry Birds Land for 15-20 minutes or so to eat a snack out of my bag and have a drink, timing the throughput of Nemesis Inferno as I sat. After my sit down, I headed for a reride on Detonator with a 5 minute queue time, which was just as awesome as it had been earlier; that punchy drop never gets old!: After my ride on Detonator, I headed back over to Stealth for two more back-to-back rerides on a 10 minute queue; I had a ride in row 9 and another on the front, and both were absolutely fantastic, with a phenomenal sense of speed and great airtime: After my two rerides on Stealth, I headed for another reride on The Swarm on a 10 minute queue time. I was seated in the row 3 inner left seat this time, and as with earlier, it was a thoroughly decent ride: After my ride on The Swarm, I headed over to Nemesis Inferno for a reride on a 10 minute queue. I was seated on the back row, and as with earlier, it was a great coaster, with excellent speed and some good inversions: After my reride on Nemesis Inferno, I headed over to Saw for a reride on a 10 minute queue. I was seated in the back edge seat this time, and similarly to earlier, the ride was very much on the smoother and more enjoyable end of the spectrum as Saw goes; the ride had some excellent airtime, and I exited relatively headache-free!: After my ride on Saw, I headed back towards the rest of the coasters, but the attendant of Rush saying "there's no queue here; you can get straight onto the ride!" was too much to resist, so I had a walk-on reride on Rush. Once again, it was fantastic, with great speed and airtime: After my ride on Rush, I had a brief sit down with a bottle of water and a Magnum before heading back over to Stealth, where I had two further back-to-back rides on a 5 minute queue. I had one ride in row 9 and one ride in row 8, and both were just as fantastic as ever; Stealth is such a fantastic coaster, in my view: After my two rides on Stealth, I headed over to Detonator for another reride on a 5 minute queue. It was a fantastic drop tower once again; that punchy drop and awesome airtime just keep on giving: After my ride on Detonator, I had my three final back-to-back rides on Stealth for the day on a 5 minute queue. I had one ride in the front, one ride in row 5 and one ride in row 7, and all three were absolutely fantastic! On a side note; I clearly wasn't the only person hammering Stealth today, as the ride operator gave a shoutout to a couple who were having their 20th consecutive ride on it on one of my last rides: After my final rides on Stealth, I had three back-to-back rides on Nemesis Inferno on a 5 minute queue which turned out to be walk-on. I had a ride on the back row, a ride in row 5 and a ride in row 6, and as with the earlier two rides, all three rides were great, with great speed, intensity and inversions! It was great to be able to make the most of an inverted coaster like this, what with the current absence of Nemesis at Alton Towers: After my three rides on Nemesis Inferno, I closed out the day with a final ride on Detonator. As with the earlier 3 rides, the drop was fantastically punchy and there was great airtime to be had! I also had quite a unique experience in that I was the only member of the public on the ride, so numerous ride hosts joined me on it: After my final ride on Detonator, it was only four minutes away from the 6pm close time and my dad was waiting in the drop-off zone in the car park, so I bade Thorpe Park goodbye for the day and headed home: So, that wraps up my solo day at Thorpe Park! I had an absolutely phenomenal day; I'm going to go out on a limb and say that it's my favourite day I have ever spent at Thorpe Park and quite possibly one of my favourite theme park days ever! I managed a total of 30 rides during the 8 hours I spent on park; if you lost track, these are the rides I managed: Colossus x1 Saw: The Ride x2 Nemesis Inferno x5 Stealth x10 The Swarm x3 Detonator x4 Rush x3 Vortex x1 Samurai x1 I was chuffed to bits with having done 30 rides; that is joint with my June 2022 day at Drayton Manor for the most rides I've ever done in one theme park day, and my 10 rides on Stealth are the most I have ever ridden one attraction during a theme park day! As an added bonus, the weather was lovely, the rides themselves were absolutely great and I had some brilliant runs on them, and overall, it was one of those wonderful days where the stars aligned and everything seemed to go just right! If I'm being sentimental, it's theme park days like today that remind me why I love theme parks and roller coasters as much as I do. My day at Thorpe today has left me with some absolutely wonderful memories to cherish, and I have to say that in some of the moments lapping rides like Stealth and Nemesis Inferno, I felt truly in my element and like there was nowhere I'd rather be. In terms of Thorpe itself; I have to admit that today made me realise that as much as enthusiasts seemingly love to hate it, I personally absolutely love Thorpe Park! The coasters are great, there's some great theming and surprising greenery in places, and there's just something about the place that I really like! In terms of a specific highlight ride-wise from today; Stealth was absolutely fantastic. Today's rides definitely raised it a fair amount in my estimations, and I now view it as my comfortable favourite ride at Thorpe Park, one of my favourite coasters in the UK and in my high top 20 overall. Nemesis Inferno was also awesome, Detonator was fantastic, Rush was fantastic, Swarm was decent, Saw was OK, and even Colossus was not nearly as bad as normal! Thanks for reading; I hope you enjoyed this report! My next trip report will be coming on Sunday, when I make a solo trip to Chessington for my first visit in 9 years! I can't wait to see what Mandrill Mayhem is like, and I'm generally very interested to see what Chessington is like after nearly a decade of not visiting. Today will certainly be a tough act for it to follow, but if my day at Chessington is even half as brilliant as today was, then I'll be very happy!

It is what it is, really. If you go there expecting anything world-beating or even UK-beating, it doesn't live up to that particular billing, but when you consider that it's a small seaside amusement park in the South West, I think it fills that role perfectly adequately. Thank you; I'm looking forward to both visits! I always enjoy my annual trip to Thorpe, and I'm particularly interested to do Chessington again seeing as I haven't been in nearly 10 years!

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 local South West region, for that matter) before today. I’d walked past the outside of it during a camping trip to Brean when I was no older than about 8, but I’d never been inside and seen what delights it had to offer. With that in mind, I was excited to tick off my closest non-kiddie +3 and finally see what my closest theme park is like! I was originally planning to do this as a solo trip via train and bus, but my mum decided she didn’t like the idea of me going to Brean alone and kindly offered to drive me there, and my nan decided that she fancied joining us. The 3 of us set off from Gloucestershire at a bit before 10am, and with the drive taking just over an hour, we arrived in Brean in very good time for the 11am opening time: After parking up, we headed into the park and got Fun Cards. As I was riding the coasters, I put 14 credits on mine, and my mum and nan put credits on theirs to play a game of Congo Adventure Golf while I rode the coasters. After paying, I split off from my mum and nan and headed into the main theme park itself: Upon entering the park, I was initially unsure whether any of the coasters were even open, as they looked very empty and showed little sign of being operational. However, I did find one coaster that was open upon closer inspection, so I headed over to it… Astro Storm Astro Storm was open and had a very short-looking queue consisting of around 6 people, so I decided to take a ride on it. This queue ended up taking around 10-15 minutes all in, which I wasn’t too displeased with, in all honesty. Interestingly, though, I noticed that the operators were very casually walking across the track and between the unload and load stations in a way that you definitely wouldn’t see at a park like Alton Towers, and it’s also the first coaster where I’ve ever had the operator push me out of the station! That’s not a criticism, but just something interesting I noticed. But enough about that; how was the ride? Well, I was interested to ride it given that it was a former resident of Blackpool Pleasure Beach, and I have to say that it wasn’t too bad at all for a ride at a park of this calibre! Sure, it’s not going to blow any minds on the world stage, and I’d argue that the claim that it’s “Europe’s best indoor coaster” is a bit debatable, but the ride was quite good fun for what it is, with some fun twists and turns! I was also quite pleasantly surprised by the theming; there were some nice effects, although there were quite a few air cannons that did make me jump! Overall, Astro Storm was a perfectly fine enclosed coaster with some surprising theming: After getting off Astro Storm, I headed over to the next coaster… Bulldog Coaster Bulldog Coaster was open and on a very short queue consisting of only 2 other people, so I decided to have a go on it. The wait was very short, only taking the time that it took for the train to negotiate the remainder of the circuit and unload the riders in it; I can’t complain about that! So, how was the ride? Well, it was the second Pinfari coaster I’ve ridden, and the first looping Pinfari Zyklon I’ve ridden, and similar to the first Pinfari coaster I rode, Creepy Crawler at Oakwood, I wasn’t a huge fan. The restraint was very uncomfortable, and although the signature loop was admittedly quite forceful, the layout was pretty rough in numerous places, with a fair amount of bracing required. It’s admittedly an impressive headliner for a park like Brean, but I’m afraid to say that I wasn’t a fan: After getting off Bulldog Coaster, I made my way to the final credit I needed… Magic Mouse Magic Mouse was open and had a relatively short-looking queue consisting of around 10-15 people, so I decided to take a ride on it. This queue, similarly to that of Astro Storm, took around 10-15 minutes, which I can’t really complain about. I did notice that they were only loading one group per car regardless of the group size, though, and it was similar on Astro Storm; I rode in a car on my own on both rides, even though I could quite easily have been batched in alongside other groups that came before me in both cases. It wasn’t really a problem today, but it was just something I noticed. That’s besides the point, though; how was the ride? Well, Magic Mouse was my 7th Reverchon spinning wild mouse coaster, so I’m quite well versed in how these coasters ride by this point, and I’m not a fan of them at all, as I’m not a fan of the wild mouse ride style in general. This was one of the smoother ones I’ve done, though, and with me being in a car on my own, it span a lot; I was a little bit light-headed getting off! Overall, Magic Mouse was pretty much par-for-the-course for these Reverchon spinning coasters; I don’t really rate them at all, I’m afraid: After getting off Magic Mouse, it was around 12pm, so as my Fun Card credits had run out and I’d ridden all 3 of the coasters I wanted to ride, I met back up with my mum and nan, who’d finished their game of Congo Adventure Golf. They both tied with each other, but said that they’d very much enjoyed their game! After meeting back up, we exited the park: Before heading back home, we took a stroll along a very foggy Brean Beach. This must easily be the foggiest I’ve ever seen a beach; you couldn’t even see the sea!: After our brief beachside stroll, we headed back to the car and headed home, stopping in Sedgemoor services for a spot of lunch on the way back. So, that concludes our day (or, more accurately, morning) at Brean Theme Park in Somerset! I know this probably hasn’t been the most exciting report, and I apologise for that, but I was very glad to finally visit my closest theme park and grab the +3 that it had to offer, and if nothing else, it made for a fun morning on a hot day like today! None of the coasters are anything particularly earth-shattering in the grand scheme of things, but I didn’t go in expecting top 10/20 candidates or anything, and for a park of the calibre that it is, I think Brean is a perfectly fine place. Now I’ve been, it’s not somewhere I’d rush back to, but I’m glad that I finally went and ticked off my closest theme park, and I had a nice morning there. Thanks for reading! Despite this probably not being the most interesting report, I hope you still enjoyed it! It won’t be long at all until you next see a trip report from me, as I’m headed to two theme parks next week; I’ll be taking my annual visit to Thorpe Park on Friday 15th September, swiftly followed by my first visit to Chessington in nearly a decade on Sunday 17th September!

Interesting thoughts; I’m glad you seemingly had a nice trip, and it is interesting to read a review of the Galactic Starcruiser! I went to Florida myself in June, visiting Universal, SeaWorld and Busch Gardens. I have to say that even though I was pretty hyped for Pipeline, I was sorely disappointed by it and had very similar feelings towards it to yourself. It’s an interesting idea, it has a good layout, and it admittedly has quite a bit of fairly strong airtime, but it’s ruined by the fact that it fundamentally is not comfortable, in my view. I didn’t like the vests, the standing position was definitely a bit uncomfortable for me in various places, and it hurt me a bit when the seats slammed back down after each airtime moment. It feels like everyone else is raving about it, so I was quite disillusioned getting off and really gutted to not overly like it. It is nice to hear that I’m not insane and someone else agrees with me! Unlike you, however, I loved Ice Breaker and thought it was fantastic; while the trains are hard to get into and out of, the restraints didn’t overly bother me when I was sat down in them unlike, say, Colossus. I haven’t actually been to Disney since April 2019, so it’s interesting to hear a more recent review of the parks. It’s interesting to hear you’re not overly plussed by Epcot; for me, that one was vying with Animal Kingdom for the title of my favourite park in WDW, although I admit that that was mostly because of World Showcase rather than Future World. I’d love to go back to Hollywood Studios; it was my least favourite of the parks at the time, but when I went, half of it was a building site. I can imagine it’s a lot better now that Star Wars and Runaway Railway are open. I do personally err toward Universal over Disney overall, though; both IOA and USF rank some way above any Disney park for me.

Disclaimer: This is a very long post with a fair amount of statistical talk. I'll try my best to simplify some of it a bit and explain a few things, but if you don't like statistics, this post may not be for you! There is a TL;DR at the bottom condensing the overall findings into a more concise format. Sorry to bump this particular thread, but following a really interesting topic I read on another forum earlier about 2012 vs 2023 in terms of UK theme park attendance and what effect various factors have on attendance, I was inspired to revisit this dataset and explore the relationship between UK theme park attendance and various extrinsic factors, as these have previously raised some interesting discussion points surrounding the topic of UK theme park attendance. Before I explore various different factors and their effect upon UK theme park attendance, I should firstly set out that the attendance I use is the combined attendance of all four theme parks from 1997 (the first year where all four are listed under their current guise) through until 2021. I tried all of my tests for the dataset including both 2020 and 2021, the dataset excluding 2020 only and the dataset excluding both 2020 and 2021, as I felt that the circumstances of 2020 in particular were too anomalous not to consider and I was unsure whether to even place 2021 among "normal" years, as the parks were still restricted to some degree for part of or all of the season. As such, I tested the data both including and excluding the COVID years, so that we could see the relationships exhibited pre, during and post COVID. To test out whether a significant causal relationship exists between two variables, I used a Pearson correlation coefficient test, and the two metrics I used to determine this were the correlation coefficient itself and the p-value. To explain what each is: The correlation coefficient is a number between 1 and -1 that denotes how strong the causal relationship between two variables is. A correlation coefficient of 1 indicates a perfect positive correlation (I.e. "as x increases, y also increases"), a correlation coefficient of 0 indicates no correlation (I.e. "x has no significant effect on y"), and a correlation coefficient of -1 indicates a perfect negative correlation (I.e. "as x increases, y decreases"). As it is staggeringly rare to have a perfect correlation, I will denote the strength of the correlation by using the absolute value of the correlation coefficient as follows; an absolute coefficient of 0-0.25 indicates no significant correlation, an absolute coefficient of 0.25-0.5 indicates a weak correlation, an absolute coefficient of 0.5-0.75 indicates a moderate correlation, and an absolute coefficient of 0.75 or higher indicates a strong correlation. The p-value is the probability that a relationship does not exist, and it is a decimal falling between 0 and 1. It can be represented as a percentage; for instance, a p-value of 0.55 indicates that there is a 55% chance of a relationship not existing. In hypothesis testing, you want the p-value to be low if you are wanting to prove your hypothesis (in this case, that a causal relationship exists) and disprove the null hypothesis (in this case, that no causal relationship exists). I will denote how strong the evidence for a causal relationship is by using the p-value as follows; a p-value of 0.1 or higher indicates insufficient evidence in favour of a relationship, a p-value of 0.05-0.1 indicates marginally significant evidence in favour of a relationship, a p-value of 0.01-0.05 indicates significant evidence in favour of a relationship, and a p-value of less than 0.01 indicates extremely significant evidence in favour of a relationship. Now I've explained some of my processes, let's move onto the analysis! The first external factor I tested out is one that has been particularly relevant this summer... it's that good old chestnut known as the weather! The Weather The weather is often referenced as a factor that could potentially be affecting UK theme park attendance, so I thought; why not test that theory out? Now, I hear you asking "Matt, there are so many different metrics of weather; which one did you test out?". That would be a fair question, and in answer, I tested out three different weather metrics; average rainfall in millimetres, average maximum temperature in degrees Celsius, and average number of hours of bright sunshine. To gain the relevant weather data, I took the months between April and October (the 7 months in which the parks are operating for the full month) for each metric for every year since 1997 from the Met Office weather data archive (https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/research/climate/maps-and-data/uk-and-regional-series). I averaged out the values for the months from April-October of a given year and used that as that year's value for a given metric. I set the region as "England"; as all four Merlin parks are in England, I figured that the weather in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland was irrelevant for this particular investigation. Average Rainfall (in millimetres) So for our first metric, average rainfall in millimetres, the distribution of the data including 2020 and 2021 was as follows: And the values returned after a Pearson correlation coefficient test to test for a relationship were as follows: P-Value 0.44 (2dp) Pearson Correlation Coefficient -0.16 (2dp) Evidence In Favour of a Relationship Insufficient Correlation Strength No Significant Correlation The distribution of the data excluding 2020 only was as follows: And the values returned after a Pearson correlation coefficient test to test for a relationship were as follows: P-Value 0.26 (2dp) Pearson Correlation Coefficient -0.24 (2dp) Evidence In Favour of a Relationship Insufficient Correlation Strength No Significant Correlation The distribution of the data excluding both 2020 and 2021 was as follows: And the values returned after a Pearson correlation coefficient test to test for a relationship were as follows: P-Value 0.26 (2dp) Pearson Correlation Coefficient -0.25 (2dp) Evidence In Favour of a Relationship Insufficient Correlation Strength Weak Negative Correlation So I think we can conclude that even though some signs of a weak negative correlation between the two are shown when you remove 2020 and 2021 from the equation, the overall evidence for a significant causal relationship between UK theme park attendance and average rainfall is weak; there isn't enough evidence to firmly argue in favour of a causal relationship, even if some signs point towards a weak negative correlation. Average Maximum Temperature (in degrees Celsius) For our second metric, average maximum temperature in degrees Celsius, the distribution of the data including 2020 and 2021 was as follows: And the values returned after a Pearson correlation coefficient test to test for a relationship were as follows: P-Value 0.56 (2dp) Pearson Correlation Coefficient -0.12 (2dp) Evidence In Favour of a Relationship Insufficient Correlation Strength No Significant Correlation The distribution of the data excluding 2020 only was as follows: And the values returned after a Pearson correlation coefficient test to test for a relationship were as follows: P-Value 0.95 (2dp) Pearson Correlation Coefficient 0.01 (2dp) Evidence In Favour of a Relationship Insufficient Correlation Strength No Significant Correlation The distribution of the data excluding both 2020 and 2021 was as follows: And the values returned after a Pearson correlation coefficient test to test for a relationship were as follows: P-Value 0.96 (2dp) Pearson Correlation Coefficient 0.01 (2dp) Evidence In Favour of a Relationship Insufficient Correlation Strength No Significant Correlation So having tested the data both including and excluding the COVID data, I think it's safe to say that the chances of a significant causal relationship existing between UK theme park attendance and average maximum temperature are very, very slim. With a correlation coefficient of close to 0 once COVID data was removed, there is no compelling evidence in favour of a causal relationship existing. Average Number of Hours of Bright Sunshine For our final weather metric, average number of hours of bright sunshine, the distribution of the data including 2020 and 2021 was as follows: And the values returned after a Pearson correlation coefficient test to test for a relationship were as follows: P-Value 0.53 (2dp) Pearson Correlation Coefficient -0.13 (2dp) Evidence In Favour of a Relationship Insufficient Correlation Strength No Significant Correlation The distribution of the data excluding 2020 was as follows: And the values returned after a Pearson correlation coefficient test to test for a relationship were as follows: P-Value 0.45 (2dp) Pearson Correlation Coefficient 0.16 (2dp) Evidence In Favour of a Relationship Insufficient Correlation Strength No Significant Correlation The distribution of the data excluding both 2020 and 2021 was as follows: And the values returned after a Pearson correlation coefficient test to test for a relationship were as follows: P-Value 0.47 (2dp) Pearson Correlation Coefficient 0.16 (2dp) Evidence In Favour of a Relationship Insufficient Correlation Strength No Significant Correlation So there is limited evidence in favour of a causal relationship between UK theme park attendance and the average number of hours of bright sunshine. The evidence there is leans positive, but that evidence is too limited to conclude even a weak correlation, and there certainly isn't enough evidence in favour of a causal relationship. So in conclusion, then, the weather seemingly has less of an effect on UK theme park attendance than you might expect. The strongest evidence for a causal relationship between UK theme park attendance and any weather metric is presented by average rainfall, which shows some signs of a weak negative correlation, but even that presented insufficient evidence in favour of a significant causal relationship. Weather is not the only external factor I explored, however. With our purse strings getting tighter as a result of the cost of living crisis, I thought that the economy would also be an interesting one to explore! The Economy With disposal incomes currently being lower across the country as a result of the cost of living crisis and rampant inflation, many have figured that the cost of living crisis may be having an effect on theme park attendance, so I thought that I'd test out some macroeconomic factors too. In terms of the economic indicators, I tested; I tested three different ones. The first indicator I tested was annual GDP growth rate, with the figures being gained from this site (https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/GBR/united-kingdom/gdp-growth-rate). GDP, standing for Gross Domestic Product, is a measure of the UK's economic output, and high GDP growth is often seen as a sign of a healthy economy. Our politicians frequently talk about "growth", anyhow! The second indicator I tested was annual CPI inflation rate, with the figures being gained from this site (https://www.rateinflation.com/inflation-rate/uk-historical-inflation-rate/). CPI stands for Consumer Price Index, and the rate of CPI inflation is a measure of how much something such as a weekly shop is rising in cost by across a given time period. It's the figure used when newsreaders talk about inflation, and high CPI inflation is often seen as a bad sign for the state of the economy. The final indicator I tested was annual unemployment rate, with the figures being gained from this site (https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/GBR/united-kingdom/unemployment-rate). High unemployment rate is often seen as a sign of an unhealthy economy. Annual GDP Growth Rate (%) For our first economic metric, annual GDP growth rate, the distribution of the data including 2020 and 2021 was as follows: And the values returned after a Pearson correlation coefficient test to test for a relationship were as follows: P-Value 0.02 (2dp) Pearson Correlation Coefficient 0.47 (2dp) Evidence In Favour of a Relationship Significant Correlation Strength Weak Positive Correlation The distribution of the data excluding 2020 only was as follows: And the values returned after a Pearson correlation coefficient test to test for a relationship were as follows: P-Value 0.02 (2dp) Pearson Correlation Coefficient -0.47 (2dp) Evidence In Favour of a Relationship Significant Correlation Strength Weak Negative Correlation The distribution of the data excluding both 2020 and 2021 was as follows: And the values returned after a Pearson correlation coefficient test to test for a relationship were as follows: P-Value 0.05 (2dp) Pearson Correlation Coefficient -0.41 (2dp) Evidence In Favour of a Relationship Marginally Significant Correlation Strength Weak Negative Correlation So I think we can conclude that there is some evidence in favour of a causal relationship between UK theme park attendance and annual GDP growth. All tests yielded at least marginally significant evidence in favour of a relationship, and all tests suggest a weak-to-moderate negative correlation once 2020 is removed. Thus, we can conclude that a relationship may exist, but it might not be the strongest. Annual CPI Inflation Rate (%) For our second economic metric, annual CPI inflation rate, the distribution of the data including 2020 and 2021 was as follows: And the values returned after a Pearson correlation coefficient test to test for a relationship were as follows: P-Value 0.02 (2dp) Pearson Correlation Coefficient 0.47 (2dp) Evidence In Favour of a Relationship Significant Correlation Strength Weak Positive Correlation The distribution of the data excluding 2020 only was as follows: And the values returned after a Pearson correlation coefficient test to test for a relationship were as follows: P-Value 0.01 (2dp) Pearson Correlation Coefficient 0.50 (2dp) Evidence In Favour of a Relationship Significant Correlation Strength Moderate Positive Correlation The distribution of the data excluding both 2020 and 2021 was as follows: And the values returned after a Pearson correlation coefficient test to test for a relationship were as follows: P-Value 0.01 (2dp) Pearson Correlation Coefficient 0.55 (2dp) Evidence In Favour of a Relationship Extremely Significant Correlation Strength Moderate Positive Correlation So I think we can conclude that there is pretty significant evidence of a causal relationship between UK theme park attendance and annual CPI inflation rate. Once 2020 was removed, a moderate positive correlation between the two variables was consistently exhibited, and the evidence in favour of a relationship toed the line between significant and extremely significant, so I think it's fair to suggest that there could well be a link! Annual Unemployment Rate (%) For our final economic metric, annual unemployment rate, the distribution of the data including 2020 and 2021 was as follows: And the values returned after a Pearson correlation coefficient test to test for a relationship were as follows: P-Value 0.01 (2dp) Pearson Correlation Coefficient 0.51 (2dp) Evidence In Favour of a Relationship Extremely Significant Correlation Strength Moderate Positive Correlation The distribution of the data excluding 2020 only was as follows: And the values returned after a Pearson correlation coefficient test to test for a relationship were as follows: P-Value 0.00 (2dp) Pearson Correlation Coefficient 0.61 (2dp) Evidence In Favour of a Relationship Extremely Significant Correlation Strength Moderate Positive Correlation The distribution of the data excluding both 2020 and 2021 was as follows: And the values returned after a Pearson correlation coefficient test to test for a relationship were as follows: P-Value 0.00 (2dp) Pearson Correlation Coefficient 0.60 (2dp) Evidence In Favour of a Relationship Extremely Significant Correlation Strength Moderate Positive Correlation So I think we can conclude that the evidence for a causal relationship between UK theme park attendance and annual unemployment rate is fairly strong. All tests produced extremely significant evidence in favour of a relationship existing, and once 2020 was removed, the correlation coefficient was quite comfortably in the realms of a moderate-to-strong positive correlation. Thus, I think we can conclude that there may be a link between UK theme park attendance and annual unemployment rate! Now we've analysed the data, I think it's about time we wrapped things up and discussed our findings... Conclusion So in conclusion, this analysis yielded some very interesting, and perhaps somewhat unexpected, results, in my view. The weather is always discussed as a big factor affecting theme park attendance, but overall, the weather metrics seemingly affected attendance a lot less than you might expect within this dataset. The biggest affector of the weather metrics was average rainfall, and even that presented only very spurious evidence of a relationship with UK theme park attendance; at best, it showed minor signs of a weak negative correlation, and evidence in favour of a causal relationship was insufficient. With that being said, much of the limited evidence of relationships that was shown among the weather metrics did point in the general direction I would have expected, with rainfall pointing towards a negative relationship and sunshine erring towards a positive relationship. I was very surprised at the profound lack of trend when it came to temperature, however; the evidence of a relationship there was pretty much zero, with no real leaning in either direction. The economy is also discussed, albeit less than weather, but unlike weather, the economic metrics seemingly affected attendance to a surprising degree within this dataset. Both CPI inflation rate and unemployment rate exhibited significant to extremely significant evidence of relationships and moderate correlations, and even GDP growth exhibited significant evidence of a relationship and a weak-to-moderate correlation. Interestingly, the evidence of relationships within the economic factors also pointed in the complete opposite direction to the one you'd initially expect, with the evidence of CPI inflation rate and unemployment rate having moderate positive correlations and GDP growth having a weak-to-moderate negative correlation suggesting that UK theme park attendance is generally higher when the economy is doing worse. That's not an outcome I would initially have expected; maybe there's something in the notion that UK parks often do well out of recessions? I should note a few things here, however. For starters, correlation does not equal causation, and it should not be treated as concrete proof that x causes y. Just because my data suggests a certain correlation, that does not mean that there's necessarily a chain of causality that works that way in reality. I should also note that these parks do not operate in a vacuum, and these are far from the only factors affecting attendance; there are a wide smorgasbord of intrinsic and extrinsic factors, and it is a phenomenally multi-faceted issue. Nonetheless, I hope you've found my investigation interesting! If you'd like me to investigate anything else, or if you think I've done something wrong, don't hesitate to tell me! TL;DR: I performed an investigation into the relationship between UK theme park attendance and various extrinsic factors, with a key focus on the weather and the economy. The weather was found to not affect attendance to a statistically significant degree overall, with even the metric with the strongest-seeming relationship, rainfall, only showing spurious evidence of a causal relationship and exhibiting signs of a weak-to-insignificant correlation. The economy was found to have a far more significant effect, with CPI inflation rate and unemployment rate in particular exhibiting highly significant evidence of relationships and moderate-to-strong correlations. Interestingly, it was also found that perhaps unexpectedly, UK theme park attendance seems to be higher when economic strength is lower.

Disclaimer: This is a very long post with a fair amount of statistical talk. I'll try my best to simplify some of it a bit and explain a few things, but if you don't like statistics, this post may not be for you! Hi guys. Over the course of my many years being a Brit following the UK enthusiast scene, I've noticed that that there is a common feeling among British enthusiasts of the country being a poor relation to other countries in Europe in terms of roller coasters and theme parks. Many British enthusiasts make out that parks in Britain are being left behind by parks on the continent in the roller coaster stakes, and overall, the topic of the British coaster scene lagging behind that of other countries in Europe has been well-discussed at this point, along with many other variations on the wider point of "British parks and coasters are rubbish compared to those in mainland Europe". With this in mind, I thought that I'd put this common theory to the test and perform a statistical analysis of European countries' roller coaster selections, and attempt to answer the question of "Which European country is best for roller coasters?". I thought that it would be interesting to see which European country comes out on top in the coaster stakes when applying various statistical measures and asking various questions. As inferred above, I also thought it would be interesting to see whether that common British feeling that our coasters are lagging behind those of other mainland European countries is 100% justified, or whether it's simply a case of the grass seeming greener where we're not. I hear you asking "Hold on a second, Matt. Haven't you analysed European coaster selections before?". Well, my answer to that would be that I have indeed analysed European coaster selections before, but my previous analysis focused on parks rather than countries, so with me focusing on whole countries this time as opposed to individual parks, the analysis will be different and will produce very different results. So without further ado, let's get started on the analysis! Firstly, let me explain some of my methods... Methodology To perform this analysis, the dataset I used was Captain Coaster's World Roller Coaster Ranking for August 2023 (https://captaincoaster.com/en/ranking/?filters[continent]=&filters[country]=&filters[materialType]=&filters[seatingType]=&filters[model]=&filters[manufacturer]=&filters[openingDate]=&page=1), with the Country filter being used to discern the top-ranking coasters in each country. Captain Coaster is a site run by members of the French enthusiast group CoastersWorld.fr, but it has a very wide user base encompassing plenty of users of many different nationalities, so as far as sources on roller coaster opinions go, I figured that Captain Coaster was a pretty good, unbiased one to use with a large amount of available data. For each country, I used the top 20 extant roller coasters from the list (so the first page of the country's Captain Coaster ranking if no defunct coasters made the all-time top 20), as I figured that in most cases, 20 would be enough to get a broader understanding of a country's roller coaster selection beyond its headliners without necessarily delving deeply into the entire coaster selection to the point of reaching rides that people don't really care about. By an extant roller coaster, I'm referring to anything that has not been confirmed as permanently defunct or has some kind of potential operational future ahead of it. So for instance, I included Nemesis in the UK's top 20, as it is returning next year, but I did not include Wild Mouse, The Ultimate or Raptor Attack, as those coasters have either been demolished or left the UK permanently. There were also a few cases where travelling coasters were present, and I did not count those; for instance, Olympia Looping is listed in the lists of both Germany and Austria, but I did not include it in either country's ranking as it is a travelling ride with no permanent base. Where there were not 20 scoreable roller coasters available, but I felt that there was a sufficient amount to play with for one or both of the questions I asked, I simply included the whole selection. Two countries with scoreable roller coasters were excluded on the basis of them not even having enough to form a top 3, and those are Ireland with 1 scoreable coaster and Switzerland with 2. For each coaster, I used the score given by Captain Coaster to determine its ranking. The score is out of 100 and is given to one decimal place. While Captain Coaster has never officially revealed exactly what determines a coaster's score, I ascertain that it is determined by some combination of its ratings and rankings versus those of other rides. It should also be noted that a coaster has to have at least a certain degree of ridership to get a score in the first place, so none of the scores here are influenced by the opinions of a vast minority of riders. Coasters that the site classifies as "kiddie" are also excluded from receiving a score. For clarity, the 14 countries I investigated (and the coasters within them, along with their scores) are as follows: Austria (16) Gesengte Sau - Wiener Prater (71.3/100) Wild Train - Fantasiana (69.7/100) Rattenmuhle - Familypark (66.3/100) Megablitz - Wiener Prater (65.1/100) Fridolin's verruckter Zauberexpress - Fantasiana (59.3/100) Big Bang - Freizeitpark Familienland (55.1/100) Gotterblitz - Familypark (53.8/100) Insider - Wiener Prater (49.1/100) Boomerang - Wiener Prater (46.4/100) Hochshaubahn - Wiener Prater (40.9/100) Super 8er Bahn - Wiener Prater (36.7/100) Maskerade - Wiener Prater (29.6/100) Dizzy Mouse - Wiener Prater (18.4/100) Roller Ball - Wiener Prater (16.0/100) Wilde Maus - Wiener Prater (8.9/100) Volare - Wiener Prater (3.2/100) Belgium (20) Ride to Happiness - Plopsaland de Panne (99.4/100) Kondaa - Walibi Belgium (98.5/100) Fury - Bobbejaanland (86.6/100) Anubis The Ride - Plopsaland de Panne (80.3/100) Heidi The Ride - Plopsaland de Panne (78.6/100) Pulsar - Walibi Belgium (76.1/100) Wakala - Bellewaerde (69.7/100) Psyke Underground - Walibi Belgium (68.6/100) Tiki-Waka - Walibi Belgium (66.4/100) Vicky The Ride - Plopsa Coo (61.0/100) Huracan - Bellewaerde (61.0/100) Typhoon - Bobbejaanland (54.0/100) Revolution - Bobbejaanland (53.6/100) Calamity Mine - Bobbejaanland (51.1/100) Loup Garou - Walibi Belgium (49.8/100) Schtroumpfeur - Plopsa Coo (47.0/100) Naga Bay - Bobbejaanland (43.1/100) SuperSplash - Plopsaland de Panne (37.7/100) Bob Express - Bobbejaanland (36.8/100) Oki Doki - Bobbejaanland (33.8/100) Denmark (20) Fonix - Farup Sommerland (96.0/100) Piraten - Djurs Sommerland (94.2/100) Juvelen - Djurs Sommerland (85.7/100) Rutschebanen - Tivoli Gardens (84.3/100) Daemonen - Tivoli Gardens (78.5/100) Lynet - Farup Sommerland (78.2/100) Mine Train Ulven - Bakken (73.1/100) Orkanen - Farup Sommerland (71.2/100) DrageKongen - Djurs Sommerland (69.4/100) Polar X-plorer - Legoland Billund (66.6/100) Falken - Farup Sommerland (63.9/100) Tornado - Bakken (63.1/100) Thor's Hammer - Djurs Sommerland (54.9/100) Saven - Farup Sommerland (53.6/100) Skatteoen - Djurs Sommerland (53.5/100) Han-Katten - BonBon Land (51.6/100) Rutschebanen - Bakken (51.4/100) Vild-Svinet - BonBon Land (51.1/100) Flying Eagle - Legoland Billund (33.9/100) Maelkevejen - Tivoli Gardens (33.1/100) Finland (18) Taiga - Linnanmaki (99.5/100) Junker - PowerPark (93.4/100) Thunderbird - PowerPark (79.9/100) Tornado - Sarkanniemi (78.6/100) Vuoristorata - Linnanmaki (76.4/100) Pitts Special - PowerPark (70.0/100) Hype - Sarkanniemi (66.4/100) Salama - Linnanmaki (59.5/100) Kirnu - Linnanmaki (45.8/100) Ukko - Linnanmaki (43.3/100) MotoGee - Sarkanniemi (42.6/100) Linnunrata eXtra - Linnanmaki (35.0/100) Joyride - PowerPark (27.3/100) Cobra - PowerPark (26.0/100) Pikajuna - Linnanmaki (12.9/100) Neo's Twister - PowerPark (12.2/100) Tulireki - Linnanmaki (8.5/100) Trombi - Sarkanniemi (3.0/100) France (20) Toutatis - Parc Asterix (98.5/100) OzIris - Parc Asterix (93.2/100) Monster - Walygator Grand Est (91.3/100) Alpina Blitz - Nigloland (90.2/100) Mystic - Walibi Rhone-Alpes (88.4/100) Yukon Quad - Le Pal (85.4/100) Wood Express - Parc Saint Paul (83.7/100) Big Thunder Mountain - Disneyland Park Paris (81.4/100) Tonnerre 2 Zeus - Parc Asterix (80.2/100) Timber - Walibi Rhone-Alpes (79.8/100) Pegase Express - Parc Asterix (78.1/100) Namazu - Vulcania (75.4/100) Vertika - La Recre des 3 Cures (74.2/100) Orochi - Parc du Bocasse (74.1/100) Objectif Mars - Futuroscope (71.7/100) Twist - Le Pal (71.6/100) Crush's Coaster - Walt Disney Studios Park (69.1/100) Star Wars Hyperspace Mountain - Disneyland Park Paris (68.8/100) Timber Drop - Fraispertuis City (68.6/100) Avengers Assemble: Flight Force - Walt Disney Studios Park (67.5/100) Germany (20) Taron - Phantasialand (98.2/100) Expedition GeForce - Holiday Park (98.0/100) Schwur des Karnan - Hansa Park (96.9/100) FLY - Phantasialand (96.8/100) Black Mamba - Phantasialand (91.9/100) Wodan Timbur Coaster - Europa Park (91.6/100) Colossos - Heide Park (91.2/100) Dynamite - Freizeitpark Plohn (89.3/100) Silver Star - Europa Park (89.3/100) Karacho - Tripsdrill (88.3/100) Blue Fire - Europa Park (88.3/100) Hals-uber-Kopf - Tripsdrill (88.2/100) Flucht von Novgorod - Hansa Park (88.1/100) El Toro - Freizeitpark Plohn (87.8/100) Flug der Damonen - Heide Park (87.1/100) Star Trek Operation Enterprise - Movie Park Germany (85.4/100) Krake - Heide Park (79.1/100) Desert Race - Heide Park (78.8/100) Winjas Fear - Phantasialand (78.2/100) Sky Scream - Phantasialand (77.6/100) Italy (20) iSpeed - Mirabilandia (95.7/100) Katun - Mirabilandia (95.4/100) Oblivion The Black Hole - Gardaland (86.7/100) Storm - Etnaland (86.6/100) Raptor - Gardaland (85.4/100) Shock - MagicLand (84.6/100) Inferno - Cinecitta World (80.1/100) Freestyle - Cavallino Matto (78.5/100) Altair - Cinecitta World (75.6/100) Vertigo - Zoomarine (69.1/100) Diabolik - Movieland Park (58.1/100) Divertical - Mirabilandia (55.9/100) Eurofighter - Zoosafari Fasanolandia (54.2/100) Fuga de Atlantide - Gardaland (52.4/100) Mammut - Gardaland (51.7/100) Fun Bob - Haunold Baranci (51.5/100) Eldorado - Etnaland (50.2/100) Gioco Delle Onde - Osteria Ai Pioppi (46.9/100) Desmo Race (Right) - Mirabilandia (46.7/100) Desmo Race (Left) - Mirabilandia (46.3/100) Netherlands (20) Untamed - Walibi Holland (98.9/100) Goliath - Walibi Holland (93.3/100) Fenix - Toverland (92.0/100) Troy - Toverland (91.0/100) Lost Gravity - Walibi Holland (86.8/100) Gold Rush - Attractiepark Slagharen (86.3/100) Baron 1898 - Efteling (85.4/100) Joris en de Draak (Vuur) - Efteling (83.2/100) Joris en de Draak (Water) - Efteling (82.5/100) Dwervelwind - Toverland (74.9/100) Vliegende Hollander - Efteling (74.9/100) Formule X - Drievliet Family Park (72.0/100) Xpress Platform 13 - Walibi Holland (61.4/100) Dragon Fly - Duinrell (59.4/100) Vogel Rok - Efteling (58.9/100) Tweestryd (Duurzaam Landbouw) - Wildlands Adventure Zoo Emmen (58.7/100) Python (2018) - Efteling (57.5/100) Falcon - Duinrell (56.5/100) Tweestryd (Eerlijk Mijnbouw) - Wildlands Adventure Zoo Emmen (55.4/100) Booster Bike - Toverland (52.5/100) Norway (6) Speed Monster - TusenFryd (80.9/100) Storm The Dragon Legend - TusenFryd (79.1/100) Thundercoaster - TusenFryd (62.4/100) SuperSplash - TusenFryd (35.8/100) Western-Expressen - TusenFryd (20.1/100) Loopen - TusenFryd (12.2/100) Poland (20) Zadra - Energylandia (99.7/100) Hyperion - Energylandia (98.1/100) Lech Coaster - Legendia (96.7/100) Abyssus - Energylandia (90.4/100) Werewolf - Majaland Kownaty (84.8/100) Formula - Energylandia (82.7/100) Dragon Roller Coaster - Energylandia (70.1/100) Speed - Energylandia (61.8/100) Light Explorers - Energylandia (46.9/100) Boomerang - Energylandia (46.6/100) Roller Coaster Mayan - Energylandia (36.6/100) Frida - Energylandia (31.2/100) Rollercoaster Wikingow - Majaland Kownaty (30.8/100) Energus Roller Coaster - Energylandia (30.1/100) Devil's Loop - Legendia (29.7/100) Toboggan Run - Gorski Park Rownica (20.4/100) Dream Hunters Society - Legendia (13.7/100) Scary Toys Factory - Legendia (5.2/100) Toboggan Run - Gora Zar (3.8/100) Viking Roller Coaster - Energylandia (0.4/100) Spain (20) Batman Gotham City Escape - Parque Warner Madrid (97.7/100) Shambhala - PortAventura Park (97.2/100) Superman la Atraccion de Acero - Parque Warner Madrid (92.2/100) Red Force - Ferrari Land (91.0/100) Stunt Fall - Parque Warner Madrid (86.0/100) Shadows of Arkham - Parque Warner Madrid (84.7/100) Dragon Khan - PortAventura Park (83.8/100) Muntanya Russa - Tibidabo (75.1/100) Tarantula - Parque de Atracciones de Madrid (73.6/100) Abismo - Parque de Atracciones de Madrid (73.6/100) Furius Baco - PortAventura Park (72.8/100) TNT Tren de la Mina - Parque de Atracciones de Madrid (59.1/100) Correcaminos Bip Bip - Parque Warner Madrid (54.7/100) Tornado - Parque de Atracciones de Madrid (54.6/100) Stampida (Red) - PortAventura Park (51.1/100) Stampida (Blue) - PortAventura Park (49.8/100) Montana Suiza - Parque de Atracciones Monte Igueldo (48.1/100) Inferno - Terra Mitica (47.0/100) Tomahawk - PortAventura Park (39.9/100) Diablo Tren de la Mina - PortAventura Park (37.2/100) Sweden (18) Wildfire - Kolmarden (98.5/100) Helix - Liseberg (97.8/100) Balder - Liseberg (93.9/100) Valkyria - Liseberg (88.2/100) Monster - Grona Lund (87.6/100) Lisebergbanan - Liseberg (82.0/100) Twister - Grona Lund (79.4/100) Jetline - Grona Lund (75.7/100) Vilda Musen - Grona Lund (63.8/100) Insane - Grona Lund (50.1/100) Kvasten - Grona Lund (48.8/100) Tranan - Skara Sommarland (48.0/100) Luna - Liseberg (41.3/100) Delfinexpressen - Kolmarden (22.9/100) Gruvbanan - Skara Sommarland (22.8/100) Godistaget - Kolmarden (21.3/100) Spinner - Skara Sommarland (19.1/100) Rabalder - Liseberg (15.8/100) Turkey (7) Hyper Coaster - Land of Legends Theme Park (94.0/100) Red Fire - Korsan Adasi (93.9/100) Nefeskesen - Isfanbul (76.0/100) Typhoon Coaster - Land of Legends Theme Park (60.7/100) Family Coaster - Korsan Adasi (53.2/100) Maceraperest - Isfanbul (52.4/100) Family Coaster - Land of Legends Theme Park (46.1/100) United Kingdom (20) Nemesis - Alton Towers (95.4/100) Icon - Blackpool Pleasure Beach (91.1/100) Stealth - Thorpe Park (89.8/100) The Smiler - Alton Towers (87.7/100) The Swarm - Thorpe Park (87.2/100) Galactica - Alton Towers (83.7/100) Wicker Man - Alton Towers (82.7/100) Nemesis Inferno - Thorpe Park (80.9/100) Sik - Flamingo Land (80.0/100) Oblivion - Alton Towers (79.8/100) Megafobia - Oakwood Theme Park (79.6/100) Dragon's Fury - Chessington (74.1/100) Saw The Ride - Thorpe Park (74.0/100) Thirteen - Alton Towers (72.8/100) Rita - Alton Towers (72.2/100) Storm Chaser - Paultons Park (68.8/100) Rage - Adventure Island (65.4/100) Speed No Limits - Oakwood Theme Park (63.8/100) Mandrill Mayhem - Chessington (62.7/100) Big One - Blackpool Pleasure Beach (62.6/100) Now I've gotten that out of the way, let's head into the main analysis... Main Analysis Just as a recap, our question here is "Which European country is best for roller coasters?"! There are a number of ways in which you could answer this question, as "best" is an open-ended metric that can be assessed from many different viewpoints, but I chose two different angles to approach the question from; the overall quality of a country's top 20 (or entire scoreable selection where this was not applicable), and the quality of a country's top end (I.e. its main headlining draws). Let's start with the overall top 20 quality... Overall Top 20 Quality (Which country's coaster lineup is the most consistently strong?) My first question asks which country's lineup is the most consistently strong. To determine this, I looked at the overall top 20 (or entire selection where this is not applicable) to gauge an idea of which countries have the most consistently strong coaster selections. The first statistical measure I used to determine this is the mean coaster score per country. The mean is a calculated average where all of a country's scores are added together and divided by the number of scores; the formula is as follows: Mean Score per Country = Overall Sum of all Scores/Number of Scores When this formula was applied to all the countries used, the ranking was as follows: Ranking Country Mean Coaster Score out of 100 (to 1dp) Number of Coasters Used 1 Germany 88.5 20 2 France 79.6 20 3 United Kingdom 77.7 20 4 Netherlands 74.1 20 5 Spain 68.5 20 6 Turkey 68.0 7 7 Italy 67.6 20 8 Denmark 65.4 20 9 Belgium 62.7 20 10 Sweden 58.7 18 11 Poland 50.0 20 12 Finland 48.9 18 13 Norway 48.4 6 14 Austria 43.1 16 Using the mean, our top 3 most consistently strong countries are Germany, France and the United Kingdom. However, one key flaw of the mean is that it can be heavily influenced by extreme values on the high or low end of the spectrum, and this becomes more apparent as the dataset becomes smaller. As such, I used another statistical measure to determine the answer; the median coaster score per country. The median is the middle value within an ordered dataset, so in a dataset with 20 numbers as many countries in this dataset are, the median value will be the midpoint between the 10th and 11th values. When the median was applied to all the countries used, the ranking was as follows: Ranking Country Median Coaster Score out of 100 (to 1dp) Number of Coasters Used 1 Germany 88.3 20 2 United Kingdom 79.7 20 3 France 79.0 20 4 Netherlands 74.9 20 5 Spain 73.2 20 6 Denmark 65.3 20 7 Italy 63.6 20 8 Belgium 61.0 20 9 Turkey 60.7 7 10 Sweden 57.0 18 11 Norway 49.1 6 12 Austria 47.8 16 13 Finland 44.6 18 14 Poland 41.6 20 Using the median, our top 3 most consistently strong countries are Germany, the United Kingdom and France, with the same countries coming out on top but the UK and France having swapped places. While the median is not overly influenced by extreme values on the top and bottom ends of a dataset as the mean can sometimes be, it arguably goes too far in the opposite direction in that it doesn't consider what's happening on the top or bottom at all; it is purely the middle value, and it will stay the same whether the top or bottom value is 5 above/below it or 50 above/below it. Seeing as both the mean and the median are arguably imperfect measures in their own different ways, I used a final statistical measure that I invented myself... The Matt N Consistent Strength Coefficient. As the mean can be overly influenced by extremely high and low values and the median completely ignores what's going on outside of the midpoint of the dataset, I decided to try and create a coefficient that combined the best of the mean and median and cancelled out the flaws of both methods. The formula for this coefficient is as follows: Matt N Consistent Strength Coefficient = ((Highest Value + Upper Quartile)+(Lowest Value + Lower Quartile))/2 It considers the top and bottom values, similarly to the mean, but also considers the upper and lower quartiles (the values that are higher than 75% and 25% of the dataset, respectively), so considers the more centralised focus of the median too. When I applied the Matt N Consistent Strength Coefficient to all the countries used, the ranking was as follows: Ranking Country Matt N Consistent Strength Coefficient (to 1dp) Number of Coasters Used 1 Germany 177.1 20 2 France 161.9 20 3 United Kingdom 156.8 20 4 Netherlands 148.3 20 5 Italy 139.2 20 6 Turkey 138.9 7 7 Spain 135.4 20 8 Denmark 130.2 20 9 Belgium 129.5 20 10 Sweden 114 18 11 Poland 105.4 20 12 Finland 101.8 18 13 Norway 96.0 6 14 Austria 81.0 16 Using the Matt N Consistent Strength Coefficient, our top 3 countries were Germany, France and the United Kingdom. Finally, here is a boxplot showing the distribution of all 14 countries' top 20(ish) lists, created using Python's MatPlotLib library: That should be clear enough to see which country is which, but if you have trouble, the countries are listed in alphabetical order from A to Z. So if we're working based on consistent strength across a wider cross-section of a country's coaster selection, I think it's fair to say that Germany is our comfortable winner, with some combination of France and the United Kingdom taking 2nd and 3rd place. However, this is not the only metric by which you can assess which European country is "best" for roller coasters. And indeed, one flaw of this metric is that to some extent, it is a bit biased towards countries with more roller coasters; the top 20 of a country with over 100 scoreable coasters will likely be very different to the top 20 of a country with 25 scoreable coasters. I would personally argue that although I accept and agree with the "quantity isn't everything" point, I do think it should still be a factor when deciding which country wins out over another, so to some extent, I would argue that having a lower quantity of scoreable coasters could make the country "worse" for roller coasters overall. Nonetheless, the flaws of this metric should still be taken into account, and I will approach the question from another angle for some balance. Let's now move onto the other way in which I'm going to try and answer the question... Top 3/Top End Quality (Which country has the strongest top end/strongest headline draws?) Ultimately, I know that it's the headline draws that encourage enthusiasts to visit a country, so I feel that another important metric to assess these countries by is how strong their headline draws are. To do this, I applied various statistical measures to the countries' top 3 most highly scoring coasters, as well as the general top end of the lineup. The first statistical measure I used was the mean coaster score of the top 3. As explained above, the mean is a calculated average, and when applied to the top 3s of each country, the ranking was as follows: Ranking Country Mean Top 3 Coaster Score (to 1dp) Top 3 Coasters 1 Poland 98.2 Zadra - Energylandia (99.7/100) Hyperion - Energylandia (98.1/100) Lech Coaster - Legendia (96.7/100) 2 Germany 97.7 Taron - Phantasialand (98.2/100) Expedition GeForce - Holiday Park (98.0/100) Schwur des Karnan - Hansa Park (96.9/100) 3 Sweden 96.7 Wildfire - Kolmarden (98.5/100) Helix - Liseberg (97.8/100) Balder - Liseberg (93.9/100) 4 Spain 95.7 Batman Gotham City Escape - Parque Warner Madrid (97.7/100) Shambhala - PortAventura Park (97.2/100) Superman la Atraccion de Acero - Parque Warner Madrid (92.2/100) 5 Belgium 94.8 Ride to Happiness - Plopsaland de Panne (99.4/100) Kondaa - Walibi Belgium (98.5/100) Fury - Bobbejaanland (86.6/100) 6 Netherlands 94.7 Untamed - Walibi Holland (98.9/100) Goliath - Walibi Holland (93.3/100) Fenix - Toverland (92.0/100) 7 France 94.3 Toutatis - Parc Asterix (98.5/100) OzIris - Parc Asterix (93.2/100) Monster - Walygator Grand Est (91.3/100) 8 Italy 92.6 iSpeed - Mirabilandia (95.7/100) Katun - Mirabilandia (95.4/100) Oblivion The Black Hole - Gardaland (86.7/100) 9 United Kingdom 92.1 Nemesis - Alton Towers (95.4/100) Icon - Blackpool Pleasure Beach (91.1/100) Stealth - Thorpe Park (89.8/100) 10 Denmark 92.0 Fonix - Farup Sommerland (96.0/100) Piraten - Djurs Sommerland (94.2/100) Juvelen - Djurs Sommerland (85.7/100) 11 Finland 90.9 Taiga - Linnanmaki (99.5/100) Junker - PowerPark (93.4/100) Thunderbird - PowerPark (79.9/100) 12 Turkey 88.0 Hyper Coaster - Land of Legends Theme Park (94.0/100) Red Fire - Korsan Adasi (93.9/100) Nefeskesen - Isfanbul (76.0/100) 13 Norway 74.1 Speed Monster - TusenFryd (80.9/100) Storm The Dragon Legend - TusenFryd (79.1/100) Thundercoaster - TusenFryd (62.4/100) 14 Austria 69.1 Gesengte Sau - Wiener Prater (71.3/100) Wild Train - Fantasiana (69.7/100) Rattenmuhle - Familypark (66.3/100) Using the mean, our top countries for top 3 strength are Poland, Germany and Sweden. However, as I did above, I will also use the median top 3 score. The median value of a dataset is the middle value, so in this instance, the median value is the 2nd highest-scoring coaster in a given country. When the median was applied to the top 3s of each country, the ranking was as follows: Ranking Country Median Top 3 Coaster Score (to 1dp) Top 3 Coasters 1 Belgium 98.5 Ride to Happiness - Plopsaland de Panne (99.4/100) Kondaa - Walibi Belgium (98.5/100) Fury - Bobbejaanland (86.6/100) 2 Poland 98.1 Zadra - Energylandia (99.7/100) Hyperion - Energylandia (98.1/100) Lech Coaster - Legendia (96.7/100) 3 Germany 98.0 Taron - Phantasialand (98.2/100) Expedition GeForce - Holiday Park (98.0/100) Schwur des Karnan - Hansa Park (96.9/100) 4 Sweden 97.8 Wildfire - Kolmarden (98.5/100) Helix - Liseberg (97.8/100) Balder - Liseberg (93.9/100) 5 Spain 97.2 Batman Gotham City Escape - Parque Warner Madrid (97.7/100) Shambhala - PortAventura Park (97.2/100) Superman la Atraccion de Acero - Parque Warner Madrid (92.2/100) 6 Italy 95.4 iSpeed - Mirabilandia (95.7/100) Katun - Mirabilandia (95.4/100) Oblivion The Black Hole - Gardaland (86.7/100) 7 Denmark 94.2 Fonix - Farup Sommerland (96.0/100) Piraten - Djurs Sommerland (94.2/100) Juvelen - Djurs Sommerland (85.7/100) 8 Turkey 93.9 Hyper Coaster - Land of Legends Theme Park (94.0/100) Red Fire - Korsan Adasi (93.9/100) Nefeskesen - Isfanbul (76.0/100) 9 Finland 93.4 Taiga - Linnanmaki (99.5/100) Junker - PowerPark (93.4/100) Thunderbird - PowerPark (79.9/100) 10 Netherlands 93.3 Untamed - Walibi Holland (98.9/100) Goliath - Walibi Holland (93.3/100) Fenix - Toverland (92.0/100) 11 France 93.2 Toutatis - Parc Asterix (98.5/100) OzIris - Parc Asterix (93.2/100) Monster - Walygator Grand Est (91.3/100) 12 United Kingdom 91.1 Nemesis - Alton Towers (95.4/100) Icon - Blackpool Pleasure Beach (91.1/100) Stealth - Thorpe Park (89.8/100) 13 Norway 79.1 Speed Monster - TusenFryd (80.9/100) Storm The Dragon Legend - TusenFryd (79.1/100) Thundercoaster - TusenFryd (62.4/100) 14 Austria 69.7 Gesengte Sau - Wiener Prater (71.3/100) Wild Train - Fantasiana (69.7/100) Rattenmuhle - Familypark (66.3/100) Using the median, our top countries for top 3 strength are Belgium, Poland and Germany. I'm also going to apply the Matt N Consistent Strength Coefficient to the top 3 of each country. As said above, this is a formula I invented that tries to integrate elements of both the mean and the median and cancel out their respective flaws, and when applied to the top 3s of each country, the ranking was as follows: Ranking Country Matt N Consistent Strength Coefficient for Top 3 (to 1dp) Top 3 Coasters 1 Poland 196.4 Zadra - Energylandia (99.7/100) Hyperion - Energylandia (98.1/100) Lech Coaster - Legendia (96.7/100) 2 Germany 195.3 Taron - Phantasialand (98.2/100) Expedition GeForce - Holiday Park (98.0/100) Schwur des Karnan - Hansa Park (96.9/100) 3 Sweden 193.2 Wildfire - Kolmarden (98.5/100) Helix - Liseberg (97.8/100) Balder - Liseberg (93.9/100) 4 Spain 191.0 Batman Gotham City Escape - Parque Warner Madrid (97.7/100) Shambhala - PortAventura Park (97.2/100) Superman la Atraccion de Acero - Parque Warner Madrid (92.2/100) 5 Netherlands 189.8 Untamed - Walibi Holland (98.9/100) Goliath - Walibi Holland (93.3/100) Fenix - Toverland (92.0/100) 6 France 189.0 Toutatis - Parc Asterix (98.5/100) OzIris - Parc Asterix (93.2/100) Monster - Walygator Grand Est (91.3/100) 7 Belgium 188.8 Ride to Happiness - Plopsaland de Panne (99.4/100) Kondaa - Walibi Belgium (98.5/100) Fury - Bobbejaanland (86.6/100) 8 Italy 184.5 iSpeed - Mirabilandia (95.7/100) Katun - Mirabilandia (95.4/100) Oblivion The Black Hole - Gardaland (86.7/100) 9 United Kingdom 184.5 Nemesis - Alton Towers (95.4/100) Icon - Blackpool Pleasure Beach (91.1/100) Stealth - Thorpe Park (89.8/100) 10 Denmark 183.4 Fonix - Farup Sommerland (96.0/100) Piraten - Djurs Sommerland (94.2/100) Juvelen - Djurs Sommerland (85.7/100) 11 Finland 181.3 Taiga - Linnanmaki (99.5/100) Junker - PowerPark (93.4/100) Thunderbird - PowerPark (79.9/100) 12 Turkey 174.5 Hyper Coaster - Land of Legends Theme Park (94.0/100) Red Fire - Korsan Adasi (93.9/100) Nefeskesen - Isfanbul (76.0/100) 13 Norway 147.0 Speed Monster - TusenFryd (80.9/100) Storm The Dragon Legend - TusenFryd (79.1/100) Thundercoaster - TusenFryd (62.4/100) 14 Austria 138.1 Gesengte Sau - Wiener Prater (71.3/100) Wild Train - Fantasiana (69.7/100) Rattenmuhle - Familypark (66.3/100) Using the Matt N Consistent Strength Coefficient on the countries' top 3s, the top-ranking countries are Poland, Germany and Sweden. I tried one final statistical measure on the top ends... and I say "top ends" because I widened the scope slightly beyond simply the top 3s to invent another coefficient, the Matt N Top End Strength Coefficient! This measure is a calculated average of the highest value and the upper quartile, and I invented this to apply to this dataset because I felt that examining a country's top 3 alone was perhaps too limiting to gauge a perspective on its wider headliners, as some countries arguably have more than 3 headliners. The formula for the Matt N Top End Strength Coefficient is as follows: Matt N Top End Strength Coefficient = (Highest Score + Upper Quartile)/2 When this formula was applied to all the countries, the ranking was as follows: Ranking Country Matt N Top End Strength Coefficient (to 1dp) Number of Coasters Used 1 Germany 94.9 20 2 Netherlands 92.7 20 3 Sweden 92.4 18 4 France 92.3 20 5 Poland 91.5 20 6 Spain 91.4 20 7 Italy 90.3 20 8 United Kingdom 89.9 20 9 Turkey 89.5 7 10 Belgium 88.1 20 11 Finland 87.2 18 12 Denmark 87.1 16 13 Norway 77.9 6 14 Austria 66.0 16 So when looking at "top ends" rather than solely top 3s, the top-ranking countries are Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden. Finally, let me insert a boxplot showing the distribution of each country's top 3, which was once again created using Python's MatPlotLib library: As I said about the boxplot further up; this should be clear enough to see which country is which, but if it isn't, the countries are listed in alphabetical order from A to Z. Now we've done our analysis, I think it's about time we drew some conclusions from it... Conclusions So now we've done the analysis, we can begin to draw some conclusions to answer our original question of "Which European country is best for roller coasters?". And I actually think that there are some very interesting conclusions to be drawn from this particular analysis, personally! In terms of a country to nominate for that top spot of being the creme de la creme of European roller coaster countries; based on the data I have, it's hard to argue against Germany, in my view. In terms of consistent strength across a broad cross-section of the lineup, it consistently ranked on top across all 3 measures, and its headline draws also consistently ranked towards the very top of the continent. As far as I can see, Germany is the only country that consistently ranked in the top 3 or higher through both consistent strength across a broad cross-section and the strength of the headliners alone, and I'd say that that gives it a very robust claim to the top spot, personally. It's the only country that consistently ranks highly on both fronts. Most other countries rank highly in either one or the other, but not both. For instance, Poland has stellar headline draws, but there's not much consistent strength across a broad cross-section of the lineup once you probe beyond those few headline draws. On the opposite side of the coin, the UK stacks up very favourably in terms of consistent strength across a broad cross-section of the lineup, but its headliners are comparatively lacking compared to those of other European countries. Finally, let's go back to my original motivation for doing this analysis and ask ourselves; do the results of this analysis suggest that the UK's coaster scene is lagging behind that of mainland Europe, as is so often stated by UK enthusiasts? Well, I think it's a very mixed bag. In terms of consistent strength across a broader cross-section of the lineup, the first angle I approached this question from, the UK actually compared very, very favourably, scoring in the top 3 for all 3 measures of consistent strength. If you want a broad, plentiful selection of decent coasters, my data actually suggests that the UK is one of the strongest countries in Europe in this regard; you could certainly do a lot, lot worse than the UK in terms of consistent strength across a broad cross-section of the lineup, anyhow! On the other hand, the UK does not compare so favourably in terms of its headline draws, with the country consistently scoring in the bottom 50% of European countries on the merit of its headline coasters alone. And I think that a large part of it scoring as highly as it did in many of the metrics was Stealth being a fairly solid 3rd place coaster; only Norway and Austria had lower-scoring second place coasters than Icon, and even Nemesis, which is often revered as the crown jewel of the UK, was only the 11th highest scorer of the 14 first place coasters, with only Turkey, Norway and Austria having lower-scoring top coasters. All coasters in the top 3s of Poland and Germany scored higher than Nemesis, and a number of other countries had 2 of their top 3 coasters being more highly scoring than Nemesis. So in essence, the UK's performance against other European countries in the coaster stakes is very mixed; the country stacks up very favourably in terms of having a broad selection of consistently decent coasters, but the UK's headliners are definitely on the weaker side compared to those of other European countries. So in conclusion, my data suggests that Germany is the winning country for European coasters overall, with it being the only country to score consistently highly in terms of both its headliners and the consistent strength across a broader cross-section of its lineup. I should stress that that is not the answer to the question, though; it is simply an answer that my chosen methods drew from a certain dataset. You may hold a completely different opinion, and a different analysis with a different dataset may yield completely different results. If you're interested to read more, here are the Google Sheets for both the top 20s and the top 3s: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1s6VBT_p4nsYIIqbFMR1pqvA22Z8BarTrS98GNMt_P_Y/edit?usp=sharing https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1w2U6LkVl_nQ2WJybb3V2icnCYm4Mdw7TD2iH0_JxFus/edit?usp=sharing I hope you've enjoyed my deep statistical dive into the coaster selections of European countries; I know I certainly enjoyed carrying out the analysis! I'd be really interested to know your thoughts, good or bad! And don't hold back in that regard, either; if you think my analysis is a load of rubbish, do tell me! If you'd like me to explore this dataset more or ask any further questions about it, I'd also be very open to suggestions! TL;DR: When I analysed the coaster selections of 14 different European countries to work out which European country is the best for roller coasters, my analysis revealed that Germany came out on top, as it was the only country to score consistently highly in terms of both consistent strength across a broad cross-section of the lineup and its headline coasters alone. I was also interested to see whether the common feeling from Brits that the UK's coaster scene lags behind that of mainland Europe was justified. My analysis found that the UK's performance was a mixed bag, with the country comparing very, very favourably to other European nations in terms of consistent strength across a broad cross-section of the lineup, but not comparing so favourably in terms of the headline coasters; the country consistently scored in the bottom 50% of European nations on the merit of its headline coasters alone.

Hi guys. I'm sure that many members on here are seasoned visitors to Thorpe Park, and I wouldn't be surprised if some members have "gameplans", if you will, of how to best tackle the park. With this in mind, I'd be interested to know; in your view, which Thorpe Park coaster or group of coasters is best to start the day on? I only ask because I'm headed back to the park next month for my third solo day there, and I'm wondering whether to stick to my usual strategy or divvy it up. On my previous two visits, I've always found Stealth/Inferno to be a good duo to start on, as I've found that you can take a ride on both of those two as well as Detonator early on with a minimal or walk-on queue, which gets a fair few rides in early. However, I've wondered whether Saw/Colossus might be a better duo to start on, as both rides can sometimes amass long queues later on in the day. What do you guys think? Which Thorpe Park coaster or group of coasters do you find to be best to start the day on?

Hi guys. Over the years, I’m sure that most of us have visited quite a few different theme parks; each year, I personally visit a mixture of old favourites alongside trying to mix the odd new park or two in there as well to enhance my repertoire and increase my coaster and park counts. Trying to visit new parks can sometimes mean that there isn’t enough time to revisit some previously visited parks, however, and as the years rattle on, a park can sometimes get pushed down and down the list until you realise that you haven’t visited in a number of years. With this in mind, my question for you today is; which major theme park have you gone the longest without visiting? Which major park have you not visited in a ridiculously long time? For clarity, I say “major” because I’m aware that the hardier credit counters among us will likely have a number of “one-and-done” type parks where the main draw is the +1 from a Wacky Worm, Go-Gator or similar that they visited years ago and will probably never revisit. I’ll get the ball rolling with my answer. Personally, the major place I have gone the longest without visiting is Disneyland Paris. I have not been back to Disneyland Park or Walt Disney Studios Park since 27th March 2011. I’m not actually sure why we never went back after our first visit (although I imagine our discovery of Florida in 2012 could have something to do with it), but for whatever reason, I have not been back to DLP since 2011. Other than the two DLP parks, there is only 1 other park where my last visit was more than 5 years ago, and perhaps surprisingly given my general level of enmeshment with the UK Merlin parks, that is Chessington World of Adventures; my last visit to Chessington was on 26th July 2014. It was actually one of my first ever parks as a young child when I first visited in 2009, with Vampire and Runaway Train (as it was then known) being my 4th and 5th coasters respectively, but I’ve only ever been back twice more, in 2013 and 2014, and I have not visited for close to a decade now. My parents never had much desire to return once my sister and I passed a certain age (I was talking to my dad about parks the other day, just before our visit to Flamingo Land, and he described Chessington as one of only two UK parks he’s ever considered “a bit lame”, with the other being Drayton Manor), and to be honest, the park hasn’t tempted me as much as some others. The addition of Mandrill Mayhem did make it more tempting, however, and I’m revisiting for the first time in close to 10 years next month! After those two, the park I’ve gone the longest without visiting jumps all the way up to 2019, which I’d still consider relatively recent… But which major park have you gone the longest without visiting? Which major park have you not visited in a really long time? I’d be really interested to know!

Where could a Single Rider Queue on Stealth go, out of interest? In terms of removing Stealth; there are plenty of other development plots that the park could fill before touching Stealth, so unless the ride develops maintenance issues any time soon, I think we should be good for now!