Matt N

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!

I think Pleasurewood’s main problem versus somewhere like Drayton is location. Suffolk is pretty remote, with the nearest major population centres being some distance away, so its draw will naturally be limited. As much as the phrase “If you build it, they will come” is often a favourite, people won’t travel miles to the park, so its feasible catchment area is probably limited by that. By comparison, Drayton Manor is in Staffordshire, so has quite a considerable number of the major population centres within easy reach. It’s pretty much in Birmingham, some boroughs of North London are less than 2 hours away, and some of the big population centres in the North like Manchester, Liverpool, Sheffield and Leeds are less than 2 hours away. As such, its feasible catchment area will be much larger. I get that the East Anglia seaside is a holiday destination, but that will probably only be the case for a certain cross-section of the population that lives reasonably near to East Anglia. For much of the country, another seaside destination is closer. People living overly far west, south or north probably aren’t going to holiday in East Anglia in the same way that people who live overly far east, south or north probably aren’t going to holiday in Pembrokeshire and visit Oakwood. It’s also worth noting that Drayton was already a pretty established park with over 1 million visitors per year at the time of the buyout, whereas I’d hazard a guess that Pleasurewood Hills probably gets under 500,000 visitors per year and isn’t an established national brand in quite the same way.

As someone who's never been, Pleasurewood Hills looks broadly comparable to somewhere like Oakwood, but with weaker major coasters. Don't get me wrong, I do have a soft spot for Oakwood, but I wouldn't like the park nearly as much if it didn't have a great major coaster like Megafobia at its centre and a decent-scale unique thrill coaster like Speed. It's a little hidden gem of a park, but it is definitely made by its coasters for me. I could be being overly presumptuous, but to me, Pleasurewood Hills' coaster draws look vastly weaker than Oakwood's (the main draw I can think of is Wipeout, as I am mildly intrigued to ride a traditional Vekoma Boomerang, but I can get the same experience at numerous parks in Europe and ride numerous more compelling headliners in the same park). And when the park is a 4.5 hour drive away from me on a good run, it does make it a tough sell, unfortunately.

The park confirmed 81mph in response to someone’s tweet:

Exodus will be the UK’s tallest and fastest roller coaster, then!

On a different note, have Thorpe Park added a single rider queue to Stealth yet, as they suggested they might at the beginning of the season?

I think Inferno is a really decent coaster, personally; it’s definitely grown on me over time, and often, I think I’m one of the ones who actually prefers it to the original Nemesis these days! (Although it is admittedly pretty close, and can change if I reride either) For me, it’s intense without being excessively so, and it packs a nice sense of speed and has some good inversions. It’s also pretty smooth, too! If pushed, I’d possibly say that it was my favourite of Thorpe’s coasters, although I’d say that it vies for that position with Stealth. I can never quite decide which one I prefer; I’ll have to make a decision when I go back to the park in September! My favourite in the past was always Swarm, and indeed, it actually spent a 2-year stint as my number 1 coaster before I rode Mako, but I’m increasingly going off that one a bit; I still enjoy it, but I’m increasingly not a fan of the vest restraints, and I’ve also found it to be getting a bit bouncy on the outer seats in particular as of late. As for Inferno, though; it’s not a top 10 or 10/10 tier coaster for me, as inverted coasters aren’t necessarily a ride style I rate at that obscenely high level these days, but it’s definitely a top 20 coaster for me, and a solid 8/10 or 9/10. I really enjoy it; of the 5 B&M inverts I’ve ridden, I’d probably say it’s my 2nd favourite behind Montu.

Hi guys. In the UK theme park industry, Merlin theme parks are a very dominant force, and this is arguably most apparent in the arena of roller coaster hardware. If you were to ask an average enthusiast what their favourite UK coaster is, there’s a good chance that it would be at a Merlin theme park, and I dare say that most people’s UK top 10s would be relatively saturated with Merlin-operated coasters, with parks like Alton Towers and Thorpe Park in particular arguably having two of the UK’s most revered thrill coaster selections. With this in mind, I’d be intrigued to know; what is your favourite UK coaster not located at a theme park operated by Merlin Entertainments? Of the coasters at independent UK parks and UK parks owned by smaller chains such as Blackpool Pleasure Beach, Drayton Manor, Oakwood, Paultons Park, Flamingo Land, Fantasy Island, and numerous others, which is your favourite? As for my own answer to this thread, my recent first visit to Flamingo Land, and my first ride on Sik in particular, got me thinking about what my favourite non-Merlin UK coasters actually are. My favourite non-Merlin UK coaster is quite comfortably Icon at Blackpool Pleasure Beach, which is actually my favourite UK coaster even including Merlin parks, as well as my #8 overall out of 107 ridden coasters. I love the airtime, I love the fun twists and turns, I love the inversions, I love the smoothness and comfortable restraints… I just think it does a number of things very, very well! I know that liking Icon is a somewhat unpopular opinion, but I absolutely love it! After that, though, only two other non-Merlin coasters actually slot into my UK top 10, meaning that non-Merlin coasters make up 3 of my UK top 10. With this in mind, my top 3 non-Merlin UK coasters, and the 3 that make my overall UK top 10, are: Icon - Blackpool Pleasure Beach (10/10, UK #1, #8/107 overall) Sik - Flamingo Land (8/10, UK #8, #22/107 overall) Megafobia - Oakwood Theme Park (8/10, UK #9, #25/107 overall) If you’re interested, my overall UK top 10 (with non-Merlin rides highlighted in bold) is: Icon - Blackpool Pleasure Beach (10/10, #8/107 overall) Wicker Man - Alton Towers (10/10, #10/107 overall) Oblivion - Alton Towers (9/10, #11/107 overall) Nemesis Inferno - Thorpe Park (9/10, #17/107 overall) Rita - Alton Towers (9/10, #18/107 overall) Stealth - Thorpe Park (8/10, #19/107 overall) Nemesis - Alton Towers (8/10, #20/107 overall) Sik - Flamingo Land (8/10, #22/107 overall) Megafobia - Oakwood Theme Park (8/10, #25/107 overall) Thirteen - Alton Towers (7/10, #28/107 overall) But I’d be interested to know; what is your favourite non-Merlin UK coaster?

No problem! I certainly had a nice day, but I would be conscious of the operations and throughputs if visiting on a day busier than Monday was.

That’s a good point that I forgot to pick up on. I noticed that Pterodactyl appeared to be missing arms, and I’m guessing that’s why Flip Flop looked more like one of the KMG frisbee-style rides with gaps between seats when I thought that it was supposed to be one of the Zamperla rides with a continuous ring of seats all the way around? I was perfectly content with the queues on the day I went; 40 minutes is no worse than I’ve encountered in many other places, and most queues were no longer than 30-35 minutes or so. Had the day been busier and the queues been longer, I can see how the operations may have been more problematic, and I can also see how my day may not have been as fruitful had I not followed prior advice on which rides to do first, but if considering my own day in isolation, I was satisfied with the amount I personally got on. Breakdowns were a minor issue, as Cliff Hanger remained closed all day and Zoo Monorail and Pterodactyl both broke down as I was waiting for them. However, I’m not sure if that’s entirely the park’s fault; things break down, and that can’t really be helped.

I’m back! This time, I have readings from my first ever visit to Flamingo Land, and this is one that I was quite interested to time the throughputs of, seeing as it reputedly has throughputs and operations on the other end of the spectrum compared to somewhere like Europa Park or Universal Orlando. I was led to believe that if Europa has famous operations, Flamingo Land has infamous operations. Here are the readings I managed to gain today: Hero (Theoretical: 600pph with 6/7 cars) - 167pph (2 cars, 7th August 2023, average of 10) Kumali (Theoretical: 1,125pph with 2 trains) - 214pph (1 train, 7th August 2023, average of 2) Mumbo Jumbo (Theoretical: 480pph with 5 cars) - 171pph (3 cars, 7th August 2023, average of 6) Sik (Theoretical: 1,250pph with 2 trains) - 373pph (1 train, 7th August 2023, average of 4) Velocity (Theoretical: 518pph with 1 train) - 252pph (1 train, 7th August 2023, average of 4) These are some of the slowest operations I have ever personally witnessed, but in fairness, I managed 9 rides, and the longest queue all day was 40 minutes, so I can’t really complain too much. The operations didn’t seem overly disproportionate to the crowd levels at the park, for the most part; they could have been faster, for sure, but a park of Flamingo Land’s calibre is never going to be hammering trains out at light speed and getting 1,800pph on every ride, and I honestly don’t think they really need to be given their visitor numbers. One thing I did notice, though, is that the people batching the rides were the same ones who checked the restraints and dispatched the rides. I don’t know if this is par for the course at Flamingo Land, but the number of staff operating each ride seemed low compared to most other theme parks I’ve been to. Maybe the operations would be faster if the rides had more staff?

7th August 2023 (Flamingo Land) Hi guys. Today, I visited a new theme park that I’d never previously visited before; I visited Flamingo Land in North Yorkshire for the first time! This visit was a present from my parents for my 20th birthday last week, and I was interested to see what the park had to offer; prior to today, Flamingo Land was probably the most major UK park I was yet to visit, and Sik was probably the most revered UK coaster I was yet to ride! We’d actually made the 4.5 hour journey to North Yorkshire yesterday afternoon, so as we’d stayed in a local hotel only around 5 miles away the night before, we set off for the park at around 9:20am to get in just after the 9:30am park opening time: After getting into the park, we headed to the back of the park to ride our first coaster… Mumbo Jumbo Mumbo Jumbo was a coaster that I’d been advised to tackle first due to low capacity, so me and my mum decided to give it a go (my dad steered clear as he thought that the tight-looking turns might not do his back much good). There was pretty much no one in front of us waiting for the 10am ride opening time, which was definitely a good thing given that we saw a sign while negotiating the queue indicating that two switchbacks into the queue took an estimated 60 minutes to navigate, which definitely shocked my mum a bit… but how was the ride? Well, I’d never ridden an S&S El Loco before (or an S&S coaster, for that matter), so I was interested to try Mumbo Jumbo, but I’m afraid to say that neither of us were huge fans of it. I’ll admit that it’s a novel ride with the repeated slow hangtime, and a beyond vertical drop is always good fun, but I really wasn’t a fan of the shoulder bars on there. When the shoulder bars were combined with the repeated slow hangtime and tight wild mouse-style turns, I didn’t find it a terribly enjoyable experience, I’m afraid, and my mum seemed to echo my thoughts: After Mumbo Jumbo, we decided to try the coaster directly next to it… Kumali Kumali had a relatively short-looking queue, so we decided to give it a go while we were nearby. This queue was short, and only took about 10 minutes or so; I couldn’t complain too much about that! But how was the ride? Well, I had pretty low expectations given that my least favourite coaster was Infusion, a fellow SLC at Blackpool Pleasure Beach, but it was actually OK! I was seated in row 9, and it was a bit rough in places, which did detract to an extent, but it was not nearly as bad as Infusion, and the ride had some pretty decent inversions and was well-paced and reasonably intense without being excessively so! Overall, I still wouldn’t have said that Kumali was one of my absolute favourite coasters, but it was a perfectly all right ride that was only somewhat rough, unlike the very rough Infusion, and had some decent elements, so I couldn’t really complain too much: After Kumali, we headed towards Metropolis to ride a unique and highly notorious ride… Hero Hero didn’t look to have an overly long queue, so me and my mum decided to give it a go (this was another one my dad steered clear of). When we entered the queue, it became apparent that this not overly long queue could be longer than we’d previously thought, as I’d logged a throughput of 167pph, and it ultimately took 35 minutes. But how was the ride? Did Hero live up to its notorious reputation? Well, I have to say… yes, it did. It’s certainly a novel ride, but it wasn’t one I was keen on at all. The car and position are very weird; I’m not a huge lover of flying coasters at the best of times, and this car was extremely uncomfortable with the stepladder and how unrestrained you were, and it was very, very rough throughout for me, throwing you around a lot. I’m sorry to be negative, but I didn’t like Hero at all, and I’m very tempted to say that it’s usurped Infusion as my least favourite coaster: After getting off Hero, we got some ice cream before heading to our next coaster… Velocity Velocity was another coaster we were interested to do, so we decided to give it a go. Like numerous coasters at this park, I hadn’t really done anything quite like Velocity before; my closest comparison would have been Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure at Universal (which I loved!), and even that is a very chalk-and-cheese comparison given that Hagrid’s has a normal seat and is on a vastly grander scale. The queue here took around 30 minutes, which I didn’t think was too bad at all, personally! So, how was the ride? Well, I thought that it had a fun layout, with a few nice pops of airtime, a punchy launch and some nice fast-paced turns! However, I did find the actual motorbike position a bit odd and uncomfortable compared to a ride like Hagrid’s, what with how it has you riding so that all your weight is placed on your chest, and that was a big detractor for me. Overall, I thought that Velocity had a fun layout, but I wouldn’t have said that it was one of my favourite coasters due to the discomfort of the riding position being a fair detractor for me: After getting off Velocity, we headed around to the final big coaster that we hadn’t done yet, as well as our most anticipated… Sik Sik was on an advertised 30 minute queue time, so we decided to take a ride on it. The advertised queue time ended up being pretty accurate, so we couldn’t complain too much! But how was the ride? Was Sik… sick, as its name suggests? Well, I was personally intrigued to see how Sik rode, as I’ve never liked Colossus, but I’ve always felt that my biggest issues with that ride were the trains and the roughness, which were both issues that Sik looked to have solved. I have to say that I thought it was great; it was a thoroughly decent coaster, in my view, and the comfort of the overhead lap bars make a big difference! I also really liked the altered first drop, with the steep turn to the left being a definite enhancement compared to the original Colossus’ drop, in my view! The first half was much the same as Colossus elements-wise, and I’ve always felt that this is a pretty good first half; it works really well here. I’m still not 100% sure on the second half with the successive heartline rolls, as they are definitely a bit dizzying, but I’ll concede that the overhead lap bars do make them more comfortable than they are on Colossus. Overall, then, I thought Sik was a really decent coaster, with the lap bars and altered profiling being a definite game changer; it definitely lived up to my expectations, and I definitely enjoyed it! It’s not a top 10 coaster for me or anything, or one of my absolute favourite UK coasters, but that style of ride doesn’t tend to rank phenomenally highly for me anyway and I’ve never liked Colossus, so I wasn’t really expecting that to begin with. On its own merit, I thought Sik was a very good coaster that I definitely enjoyed overall, and my dad, who’d never ridden Colossus before due to being too tall for the restraints, thought pretty highly of the ride: After our ride on Sik, we got some lunch in the Muddy Duck Cafe before heading to look around the zoo for a bit. We initially decided to head onto… Zoo Monorail The Zoo Monorail was nearby and looked to have a short queue, so we decided to give it a go to get a panoramic view of the zoo and its animals. We hadn’t been in the queue very long, and had only narrowly missed the first and second monorail trains that went after we joined the queue, but we’d noticed that the first train had come to a stop not very far after the station, and the operator later noticed, abruptly stopped the second train, and told us that “the battery’s gone flat”. As such, we left the queue; I think we made the right choice given that everyone else left shortly afterwards, with even the operator swiftly abandoning the scene: After our ill-fated attempt at riding the Zoo Monorail, we headed around the zoo on foot for about an hour, looking at animals such as lemurs, the park’s namesake flamingos, kangaroos, wallabies, penguins, black rhinos, zebras, camels and giraffes, amongst numerous others. The animals seemed a bit inactive and not too keen to come out, likely due to the current British summer we’re having, but it was nice to walk around the zoo nonetheless. It looked like quite a nice zoo, and it was fairly big; have a few pictures I took: After leaving the zoo, we initially headed to try and do Twistosaurus, as I had thought that this and Zooom! might be two nice bonus family coaster +1s that didn’t look like embarrassing bonafide kiddie coasters (Runaway Mine Train, Dino Roller and Go Gator were all conclusively ruled out beforehand on this basis). We did get in the queue briefly, but it was quite long, the throughput didn’t look overly high, and my parents were put off after seeing a particularly spinny car containing a very perturbed-looking woman going around for a second lap… I ultimately decided that I wasn’t that bothered about doing Twistosaurus or Zooom!, so we decided to leave that queue: After we bailed on Twistosaurus, my parents decided that they didn’t fancy riding anything else, so they headed around the zoo while I headed for some rerides. I started off with a reride on Kumali. I was seated in row 9 once again (I’d initially gone to sit in row 7, but row 9 was empty, the operator later noticed this and moved me up, and the lady I had been batched next to said “let’s go to the back; it’s faster!”), and it was similar to how it had been earlier, with possibly a touch of additional speed from having warmed up: I then headed for a reride on Sik using the single rider queue, which was very useful as I pretty much walked straight on there! I was seated in row 2 this time, and as with earlier, it was a thoroughly decent coaster that I really enjoyed, although I think I preferred it towards the back of the train: After my reride on Sik, I went for a reride on Velocity. I was seated in row 2 this time, and it was similar to earlier, although I think I found it a touch more uncomfortable: After my reride on Velocity, I headed to try out a ride I hadn’t done yet… Pterodactyl Pterodactyl appeared to have a relatively short queue, so I decided to give it a go. I was interested to try Pterodactyl, as even though I’m not generally huge on flat rides, I’d never ridden a Star Flyer-style ride before. As with a number of rides at Flamingo Land, the “relatively short queue” was longer than expected, ultimately taking around 40 minutes, and I ended up not getting on Pterodactyl. I nearly did, as I was initially batched into a cycle that went as usual, but the operator realised they’d overbatched without considering exit riders and abruptly ushered me back into the queue. The cycle that I was then batched into looked promising, as I fastened my restraint and the operator went into their booth as normal to send it with no sign that anything was wrong, but they abruptly came back out and said “Ride’s broken, get off!”, so I was ultimately unable to ride Pterodactyl: After my ill-fated attempt to ride Pterodactyl, I went for one final single rider queue reride on Sik. I was seated in row 7 this time, and it was once again a very good ride: After my final Sik reride, I headed back towards the Muddy Duck Farm to meet back up with my parents. It was about 5pm by this point, so we decided to bid Flamingo Land goodbye and head back to our hotel: So, that just about covers my first ever visit to Flamingo Land in Yorkshire! I had a nice day; I was really pleased to get 9 rides in, I got on many of the things I’d hoped to get on, including all 5 big thrill coasters, and overall, I really enjoyed visiting somewhere different! There really is no feeling quite like going to a new park for the first time, and I had a really nice day discovering all that Flamingo Land has to offer! In terms of the park itself; sure, it’s not the greatest theme park I’ve ever been to, but I don’t think the park deserves some of the hate it gets, personally, and I certainly had an enjoyable day. The operations are slow (some of the slowest I’ve ever personally encountered), and the park is not the most cohesively themed in numerous areas (although I thought that some others were reasonably nicely themed), but overall, I think it’s a nice enough park that I certainly had a nice day at, and I do think that there is something to be said for the breadth of the park’s offering and the relative strength of its coaster selection for a park of its calibre. Sik is a very decent headliner, and while I wouldn’t have said that I rated any of the other coasters overly highly (I’d probably say that only Kumali makes my top 50% out of the other 4), they are certainly novel experiences that add good variety to the lineup and help to flesh it out. There are also quite a few other rides that I didn't do; for instance, Cliff Hanger was unfortunately closed today, but had I done it, I imagine that that would have been a really decent headline flat ride for me (I love a good drop tower!). The zoo was also nice and surprisingly expansive, and overall, I had a nice day at Flamingo Land! You can talk about the operations and such, but given what I got on, I don’t think I can really complain; the longest queue I waited in all day was 40 minutes, and I managed 9 rides in 7 hours, which I was pleased with! Thanks for reading; I hope you enjoyed this report! My next report will probably be from Thorpe Park at some point in early September!

Hi guys. Thorpe Park may have arguably one of the UK’s most well-known and well-liked selections of thrill coasters, but another aspect of the park that is commonly revered is its lineup of flat rides. Thorpe’s flat ride lineup is arguably one of the most expansive and varied in the UK, or dare I say the world, with quite a plethora of thrilling flat rides on offer. There have also been some intriguing past residents within Thorpe Park’s flat ride lineup. With this in mind, I’d be interested to know; which past or present Thorpe Park flat ride is your favourite? Personally, I’m not the biggest lover of flat rides overall, and I’ve only actually done 3 of Thorpe Park’s flat rides, but I am a big fan of drop towers, so of the ones I’ve done, I would personally vote for Detonator. I love a good drop tower, and Detonator is a great one; for a smaller drop tower, the drop is so punchy! I do have to say, however, that I also really enjoy Rush and would place that firmly in a close second. It’s not too nauseating, and I love the speed and sustained floater airtime it provides! The only other Thorpe flat ride I’ve ridden is Samurai. I found it OK, and surprisingly not too bad nausea-wise given the reputation of Mondial Top Scans as intense flat rides, but it’s not one of my favourites, and definitely a peg below the other two for me. But I’d be keen to know; which past or present Thorpe Park flat ride is your favourite? P.S. I included every Thorpe flat ride, past and present, listed on Wikipedia within the poll, but if I missed your favourite, there is also an “Other” option you can vote for.

But surely if this were the case, Hex wouldn’t have opened alongside The Curse at Alton Manor at the start of the season? At the start of the season, the two did operate alongside each other (albeit very briefly, as Hex was down again by April).

I realise that I haven't posted a top 30 in a while, as I only did a top 10 with descriptions when I initially got back from Florida. My current top 30 is as follows: Mako - SeaWorld Orlando (10/10) Jurassic World VelociCoaster - Islands of Adventure (10/10) Silver Star - Europa Park (10/10) Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure - Islands of Adventure (10/10) Wodan Timbur Coaster - Europa Park (10/10) Iron Gwazi - Busch Gardens Tampa (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) 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) Mine Blower - Fun Spot Kissimmee (9/10) Nemesis Inferno - Thorpe Park (9/10) Rita - Alton Towers (9/10) Stealth - Thorpe Park (8/10) Nemesis - Alton Towers (8/10) CanCan Coaster - Europa Park (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) Thirteen - Alton Towers (7/10) The Swarm - Thorpe Park (7/10) Slinky Dog Dash - Disney's Hollywood Studios (7/10) Arthur - Europa Park (7/10) I should also say that after discovering some exact dates and confirmation of early theme park visits, I decided to change my coaster counting methodology and ditch my "enthusiasm start date", increasing my coaster count to 102. I had initially hesitated to rank and rate the added +3 from Disneyland Paris in March 2011, but when I sat down today and properly gave it some thought, I realised that my vague recollections of the rides I did at DLP are better than I had previously given myself credit for, and that my vague recollections of some of the rides I already had ranked and rated weren't much better (mainly a fair amount of Chessington, which I haven't done since 2014), so I decided to have a go at ranking and rating them. I did these coasters many years ago, so my recollections are vague and I can't remember too much in the way of specifics, but thinking about it, I do remember a vague hierarchy of enjoyment, and based on my vague recollections, I have decided upon the following placements and ratings: My highest-ranked coaster from DLP is Big Thunder Mountain at Disneyland Park. This is the ride I remember most, and I remember thinking it was pretty fun at 7 years old; it was the only coaster I rerode, and from vague memory, I rode it 3 times or so. I figure that it was fairly similar to the Florida version that I did in 2019, but I do remember enjoying this version a little bit more at the time than I later enjoyed the Florida version, so I opted for #34/102, one spot higher than the Florida version, and a 7/10 rating. On a fun aside, this ride was of one of only 3 coasters I've ever been evacuated from (with the other two being Wicker Man in 2018 and Hagrid's in 2023)! My second highest-ranked coaster from DLP is Crush's Coaster at Walt Disney Studios Park. I remember it being pretty good at the time, and possibly more fun than Spinball, but it probably wasn't quite as good as Dragon's Fury, so I opted for #45/102, one spot below Dragon's Fury, and a 6/10 rating. My lowest-ranked coaster from DLP is RC Racer at Walt Disney Studios Park. I don't remember it being anything especially spectacular even at 7 years old, so I opted for #69/102, just below the similarly unremarkable Atlantica SuperSplash, and a 4/10 rating. I know it's weird that I suddenly counted these rides as part of my count and ranked them, but I finally felt able to add them to my count and visit log after finding out the exact visit dates and ride counts and such, and discovering that I hadn't ridden anything I didn't vaguely remember riding. I'd never rated and ranked them as I thought that my recollections were too vague for me to rate and rank them, but after giving it some thought, I realised that my recollections were better than I'd previously given myself credit for and that some of the rides I'd already ranked were things I had relatively vague recollections of. If you're wondering why I only have Big Thunder Mountain from Disneyland Park and Crush's Coaster and RC Racer from Walt Disney Studios Park: I wasn't tall enough to ride Space Mountain or Indiana Jones. I was tall enough to ride Rock'n'Rollercoaster, but I refused to ride it because someone from primary school told me it would give me tummyache... I have no memory of ever having ridden Casey Jr, and I found no evidence to the contrary, so it's not counted. If you'd like to view my full, exhaustive ranking, here it is: https://captaincoaster.com/en/tops/192

Each to their own, of course, but I think one thing that’s important to remember is that The Curse at Alton Manor is a very different proposition to The Haunted House or Duel, so things like a lack of unique ghouls/characters in the ride probably doesn’t matter as much, or could even be a conscious choice. Unlike its predecessors, Curse has a storyline centred around the personal narrative of one central character (Emily Alton), so there’s bound to be less distinct “characters” in it than were featured in the ride’s predecessors by virtue of that. I’d also say that in terms of how scary the ride is, I don’t necessarily think that the ride is unduly dark for a family or family thrill ride. Many family rides have rather dark themes and elements of fear; things like Tower of Terror and Revenge of the Mummy are very popular family or family thrill rides with pretty dark themes and horror elements, and even The Haunted House itself was pretty scary, from what I can ascertain from anecdotes. In terms of personal choices for improvements, the main things I would change are the Hide and Seek scene and the Screaming Heads scene. Both scenes definitely lack something for me.

Interesting question… I’d never really considered that there was much of a difference between the two! I’d probably say I’m indifferent in that case, then…

For some additional context, the ride is replacing the long-gone Antarctica dark ride, and plans discovered by ParkFans unearthed that the layout will be something along these lines: I'll admit that B&M seem like an unexpected choice, but I think that that looks like good fun, and exactly what the park needs!

Hi guys. The UK has a surprising amount of parks for a relatively small country in terms of landmass, and this naturally means that the UK has quite a number of coaster lineups. These vary in quantity and variety, but there are a surprising amount of coasters in the UK nonetheless. After a furious debate in the Blackpool Pleasure Beach topic yesterday regarding its coaster lineup vs Alton Towers' (amongst other things), it got me thinking about my favourite UK coaster lineups. As such, my question to you today is; which coaster lineup in the UK is your favourite? Personally, I would vote for the coaster lineup of Alton Towers as a gut instinct answer. Their top coaster for me (Wicker Man) is one of my favourite coasters in the UK and sits firmly in my top 10, Oblivion isn't at all far behind (it's at #11 and the very top of my 9/10 tier, in fact!), and overall, the park has a number of very solid headliners, in my view! However, I'd be interested to work out the answer to this statistically based on my coaster rankings and ratings from my spreadsheet... My UK parks ranked by measures of central tendency of all ridden coasters Mean Rating Ranking Park Mean Rating out of 10 (to 1dp) Number of Ridden Coasters 1 Alton Towers 6.5 10 2 Paultons Park 6 5 3 Thorpe Park 5.7 7 4 Oakwood Theme Park 5.3 4 5 Drayton Manor 4.8 4 6 Blackpool Pleasure Beach 4.5 10 7 Legoland Windsor 4 1 8 Chessington 4 4 9 West Midlands Safari Park 3 2 10 South Pier Blackpool 2 1 Median Rating Ranking Park Median Rating out of 10 (to 1dp) Number of Ridden Coasters 1 Alton Towers 6.5 10 2 Paultons Park 6 5 3 Thorpe Park 5 7 4 Oakwood Theme Park 5 4 5 Drayton Manor 4.5 4 6 Blackpool Pleasure Beach 4 10 7 Legoland Windsor 4 1 8 Chessington 4 4 9 West Midlands Safari Park 3 2 10 South Pier Blackpool 2 1 Mean Ranking Ranking Park Mean Ranking out of 99 Ranked/Rated Coasters (to 1dp) Number of Ridden Coasters 1 Alton Towers 39.4 10 2 Paultons Park 45.4 5 3 Thorpe Park 47.1 7 4 Oakwood Theme Park 51 4 5 Drayton Manor 60.5 4 6 Blackpool Pleasure Beach 61.8 10 7 Legoland Windsor 67 1 8 Chessington 69.3 4 9 West Midlands Safari Park 78.5 2 10 South Pier Blackpool 93 1 Median Ranking Ranking Park Median Ranking out of 99 Ranked/Rated Coasters (to 1dp) Number of Ridden Coasters 1 Alton Towers 33 10 2 Paultons Park 40 5 3 Thorpe Park 47 7 4 Oakwood Theme Park 49 4 5 Drayton Manor 61.5 4 6 Blackpool Pleasure Beach 65.5 10 7 Legoland Windsor 67 1 8 Chessington 71.5 4 9 West Midlands Safari Park 78.5 2 10 South Pier Blackpool 93 1 By the measures of central tendency for all UK parks, Alton Towers wins for me by mean and median rankings and ratings, with Paultons Park and Thorpe Park coming 2nd and 3rd in all measures respectively. However, I would say that measures of central tendency across a whole lineup are not necessarily an accurate indicator of how much I or anyone else likes a park's lineup, as for me (and I'm sure this is the case for many others), I can look past some slightly weaker links if the park's top few coasters are really good. Measures of central tendency for the whole lineup doesn't take the top-ranking coasters into account, purely considering what things look like at the centre of the park's ranking. They are quite good for determining how consistently strong a lineup is, but perhaps not for how much one personally likes a park's lineup. For instance, all of these measures have Paultons Park as my 2nd favourite coaster lineup in the UK. Would I personally say that was the case if asked? No, I wouldn't. This isn't a slight against Paultons by any means, but I'd say that its lineup lacks a few thrill headliners compared to some of my personal favourite parks in the UK. With this in mind, I'll try this out looking solely at the parks' top 3 coasters... My UK parks ranked by measures of central tendency of the top 3 ridden coasters Mean Rating of Top 3 Ranking Park Mean Rating out of 10 (to 1dp) Top 3 Coasters and their Ratings 1 Alton Towers 9.3 Wicker Man (10/10) Oblivion (9/10) Rita (9/10) 2 Thorpe Park 8 Nemesis Inferno (9/10) Stealth (8/10) The Swarm (7/10) 3 Blackpool Pleasure Beach 7.7 Icon (10/10) Avalanche (7/10) Nickelodeon Streak (6/10) 4 Paultons Park 6.7 Flight of the Pterosaur (7/10) Storm Chaser (7/10) Cobra (6/10) 5 Oakwood Theme Park 6 Megafobia (8/10) Speed (5/10) Treetops (5/10) 6 Drayton Manor 5 Accelerator (6/10) Troublesome Trucks (5/10) Shockwave (4/10) 7 Chessington 4.7 Dragon's Fury (6/10) Vampire (4/10) Scorpion Express (4/10) 8 Legoland Windsor 4 Dragon (4/10) 9 West Midlands Safari Park 3 Rhino Coaster (4/10) Monkey Mayhem (2/10) 10 South Pier Blackpool 2 Crazy Coaster (2/10) Median Rating of Top 3 Ranking Park Median Rating out of 10 (to 1dp) Top 3 Coasters and their Ratings 1 Alton Towers 9 Wicker Man (10/10) Oblivion (9/10) Rita (9/10) 2 Thorpe Park 8 Nemesis Inferno (9/10) Stealth (8/10) The Swarm (7/10) 3 Blackpool Pleasure Beach 7 Icon (10/10) Avalanche (7/10) Nickelodeon Streak (6/10) 4 Paultons Park 7 Flight of the Pterosaur (7/10) Storm Chaser (7/10) Cobra (6/10) 5 Oakwood Theme Park 5 Megafobia (8/10) Speed (5/10) Treetops (5/10) 6 Drayton Manor 5 Accelerator (6/10) Troublesome Trucks (5/10) Shockwave (4/10) 7 Chessington 4 Dragon's Fury (6/10) Vampire (4/10) Scorpion Express (4/10) 8 Legoland Windsor 4 Dragon (4/10) 9 West Midlands Safari Park 3 Rhino Coaster (4/10) Monkey Mayhem (2/10) 10 South Pier Blackpool 2 Crazy Coaster (2/10) Mean Ranking of Top 3 Ranking Park Mean Ranking out of 99 Ranked/Rated Coasters (to 1dp) Top 3 Coasters and their Rankings 1 Alton Towers 13 Wicker Man (#10) Oblivion (#11) Rita (#18) 2 Thorpe Park 21.3 Nemesis Inferno (#17) Stealth (#19) The Swarm (#28) 3 Blackpool Pleasure Beach 28.7 Icon (#8) Avalanche (#32) Nickelodeon Streak (#46) 4 Paultons Park 36.3 Flight of the Pterosaur (#34) Storm Chaser (#35) Cobra (#40) 5 Oakwood Theme Park 40.7 Megafobia (#24) Speed (#48) Treetops (#50) 6 Drayton Manor 55.7 Accelerator (#44) Troublesome Trucks (#59) Shockwave (#64) 7 Chessington 62 Dragon's Fury (#43) Vampire (#69) Scorpion Express (#74) 8 Legoland Windsor 67 Dragon (#67) 9 West Midlands Safari Park 78.5 Rhino Coaster (#61) Monkey Mayhem (#96) 10 South Pier Blackpool 93 Crazy Coaster (#93) Median Ranking Ranking Park Median Ranking out of 99 Ranked/Rated Coasters (to 1dp) Top 3 Coasters and their Rankings 1 Alton Towers 11 Wicker Man (#10) Oblivion (#11) Rita (#18) 2 Thorpe Park 19 Nemesis Inferno (#17) Stealth (#19) The Swarm (#28) 3 Blackpool Pleasure Beach 32 Icon (#8) Avalanche (#32) Nickelodeon Streak (#46) 4 Paultons Park 35 Flight of the Pterosaur (#34) Storm Chaser (#35) Cobra (#40) 5 Oakwood Theme Park 48 Megafobia (#24) Speed (#48) Treetops (#50) 6 Drayton Manor 59 Accelerator (#44) Troublesome Trucks (#59) Shockwave (#64) 7 Legoland Windsor 67 Dragon (#67) 8 Chessington 69 Dragon's Fury (#43) Vampire (#69) Scorpion Express (#74) 9 West Midlands Safari Park 78.5 Rhino Coaster (#61) Monkey Mayhem (#96) 10 South Pier Blackpool 93 Crazy Coaster (#93) So by the measures of central tendency for the top 3, Alton Towers won those too, closely followed by Thorpe Park and Blackpool Pleasure Beach in 2nd and 3rd place respectively. As I can never resist a ranking, I also thought I'd have a go at ranking the UK coaster selections I've done by gut feeling and explain my reasoning for each placement: Alton Towers - This is definitely top dog for me. Wicker Man is right up there in my top 10, Oblivion isn't far behind, Rita closes out the top 3 nicely, Nemesis is great, Thirteen is good fun... the park has a lot of excellent draws, and to be honest, there's not much that's overly low-ranking. 7 of the 10 coasters I've ridden in the park are in my top 50%, which is no mean feat! Thorpe Park - Thorpe has a really good, solid coaster selection; Stealth, Nemesis Inferno and Swarm all make my top 30, and 4 out of 7 of the coasters I've ridden at the park make my top 50%. However, there aren't quite as many coasters as at Alton, and unlike Alton, I think they lack a 10/10 tier draw for me at present, if I'm being really pedantic. I'm optimistic that Exodus could end up being that draw, and if it is, it will make Thorpe and Alton a slightly closer match for me. At present, though, the slightly lower quantity of coasters compared to Alton and the fact that the park lacks a 10/10 tier draw for me does put its coaster selection below Alton, in my opinion. Colossus in particular also ranks pretty lowly for me. Blackpool Pleasure Beach - Blackpool starts off really well, with Icon being my top coaster in the UK and firmly placed within my top 10 and 10/10 tier overall, and the breadth, variety and uniqueness of the selection is undeniable. However, if I'm talking honestly from the standpoint of my personal preferences, I'd argue that the park's coaster selection is a bit of a one-hit wonder, with Icon being the only coaster of Blackpool's that I rate overly highly. It's the only coaster at the park that makes my top 10%, my top 25% or my top 30, and only 3 of the park's 10 coasters make my top 50%. It's a somewhat weak selection overall given the size of it for me (joint with Alton for the most ridden coasters of any UK park, at 10), and there are a few coasters that rank pretty lowly in my list, but I think that is more down to my personal preferences, as the park undeniably has some impressive rides. I'm probably being overly harsh, so I'm sorry for that. Paultons Park - Paultons sits lower than the other 3 by virtue of it lacking thrilling headliners that make my top 10%, top 25% or top 30. Nonetheless, the park has a very solid, fun selection of family rides and nothing that ranks overly lowly, so I think it does a great job given the target demographic. Pterosaur and Storm Chaser are a very solid one-two punch of family thrill headliners, sitting just outside my top 30, and Cobra and Velociraptor aren't half bad, either; 4 out of the 5 coasters I've ridden at the park make my top 50%. Oakwood Theme Park - For a park of its calibre, I've always felt that Oakwood has some impressive coaster hardware. Megafobia is a great headliner, sitting solidly in my top 25% and top 30, and Speed (and possibly Treetops depending on whether I consider 49 or 50 to be the cutoff) also makes my top 50%. However, you still cannot get past the fact that the park does not have many coasters, and that Megafobia is the only coaster there that I rate particularly highly, which will inhibit it compared to the others. Drayton Manor - I'd say that there's quite a notable drop off here. If I'm being honest, I would have said that Drayton Manor's coaster selection was one of its weak links, and I think my deserted day there last June brought this to the fore for me; when I had no queues at Drayton, the lack of a great, rerideable headline coaster did stand out. The park's main thrill coaster, Shockwave, is not a ride that I personally rate, and beyond that, you have a family boomerang, a junior coaster and a relatively weak powered coaster. None of the park's 4 coasters make my top 10%, top 25% or top 30, and only 1 of the park's coasters makes my top 50%. I'm very conscious of the fact that Drayton Manor is not aimed at my age group, so I'm probably being far too harsh, but I would say that I've ridden numerous coasters for the family thrill demographic that I would rate notably higher than any of Drayton's coasters, and I've also been to parks that have what I would consider to be superior selections of family and family thrill coasters. Time will tell whether the new-for-2024 coaster improves Drayton's selection, but personally, I would have said that Drayton had a relatively weak coaster selection, if I'm being completely honest. Admittedly, the park does have a coaster in my top 50%, and there's nothing there that rates overly lowly for me, but there's also nothing there that rates especially highly for me either, and as I said, only one of the park's 4 coasters is even in the top half of my rankings. Chessington - I admittedly haven't been to Chessington for 9 years, but I remember my overriding feeling towards Chessington's coaster selection being very similar to my overriding feeling towards Drayton Manor's, except for the fact that Chessington has a very lowly ranking coaster for me in Rattlesnake. Granted, I will reserve judgement on Mandrill Mayhem until September, but I don't remember Chessington's coaster selection being one that I overly rated; none of the park's coasters are in my top 10%, top 25% or top 30, and only 1 of the 4 coasters I've ridden there is in my top 50%. I'm probably being overly harsh on Chessington given it's a family-focused park, but even for the demographic, I would say that I've been to parks with stronger coaster selections and ridden higher-rating family thrill coasters than any of Chessington's. West Midlands Safari Park - This park has a perfectly adequate junior coaster and a Reverchon spinner, a ride type that I rate very lowly. There's not much more to say than that, really. Legoland Windsor - I've only ridden Dragon of the coasters here, and I wouldn't have said it was an overly exceptional family coaster. There's not much more to say than that, really. South Pier Blackpool - Like with Legoland, I have only ridden one coaster here, and it's a Reverchon spinner that I rate very lowly. There's not much more to say than that, really. It would seem that based on gut feeling, I agree a lot more with my ranking of the parks' top 3s by measures of central tendency than I would with my ranking of their whole selections by measures of central tendency. Doing measures of central tendency for the whole selection will always negatively impact a park with one or two lowly ranked coasters even if the top few are relatively strong. It also negatively impacts parks where you've ridden all of the coasters compared to parks where you've only ridden a select few of the top draws. So overall then, I think I can conclude that Alton Towers is definitely my favourite coaster lineup in the UK! I apologise for the long and likely somewhat uninteresting statistical and ranking-based detour, but I thought that it might be interesting to delve through my rankings and see empirically how the UK's lineups stack up with each other. But I'd be keen to know; what is your favourite coaster lineup in the UK?

Hi guys. Over the years, I’m sure that most of us have done a number of coasters and a number of parks quite a few times. With this in mind, I’d be interested to know; what are your most ridden coasters and your most visited parks? For me, my answer to these questions would not have been exhaustive and exact until a couple of days ago. I always started my coaster and park counts and visit log from an arbitrary “enthusiasm start date” of 28th September 2013, the day I rode Alton Towers’ big coasters for the first time, as my recollections of exact orders and dates before that was spotty. However, my dad recently found an old hard drive with all of my parents’ pictures from when we were kids on it. This meant that I was able to ditch my “enthusiasm start date” and go right back to the very start of my life to the degree of exactness I desire. And it’s unveiled some interesting stats about my most ridden coasters and my most visited parks across the course of my entire life… not to mention that changing my coaster counting method gained me a bonus +3 from 2011 that tipped me over 100 coasters! Following the discoveries of the other day, my all-time unique coaster count is 102, and my all-time unique park count is 22. I have had 451 coaster rides in total, so I have averaged 4.4 total rides (to 1dp) on each coaster I have ever ridden. I have had 113 park visits in total, so I have averaged 5.1 total visits (to 1dp) to each park I have ever visited. My top 10 most ridden coasters of all time are as follows: Nemesis and Runaway Mine Train at Alton Towers - 29 rides (Nemesis first ridden 28th September 2013, RMT first ridden 30th May 2009) Oblivion and Thirteen at Alton Towers - 25 rides (Oblivion first ridden 28th September 2013, Thirteen first ridden 15th August 2010) Wicker Man at Alton Towers - 24 rides (first ridden 25th March 2018) The Swarm at Thorpe Park - 20 rides (first ridden 27th July 2014) Galactica at Alton Towers - 19 rides (first ridden 28th September 2013) The Smiler at Alton Towers - 18 rides (first ridden 29th September 2013) Rita at Alton Towers - 16 rides (first ridden 28th September 2013) Spinball Whizzer at Alton Towers - 15 rides (first ridden 15th August 2010) Stealth at Thorpe Park - 12 rides (first ridden 27th July 2014) Nemesis Inferno at Thorpe Park - 11 rides (first ridden 27th July 2014) My top 5 most visited parks are as follows: Alton Towers - 40 visits (first visited 30th May 2009) Universal’s Islands of Adventure - 11 visits (first visited 29th August 2012) Thorpe Park and Universal Studios Florida - 10 visits (Thorpe first visited 27th July 2014, USF first visited 31st August 2012) SeaWorld Orlando - 5 visits (first visited 28th August 2012) Legoland Windsor - 4 visits (first visited 28th July 2009) My first ever theme park visit was to Drayton Manor on 18th April 2008, and my first ever coaster was Troublesome Trucks Runaway Coaster on the same day. However, I have only visited Drayton Manor twice more since; once on 8th August 2018 and once on 9th June 2022. I have only ridden Troublesome Trucks once more since my first ever ride on it. Of the 102 coasters I have ridden, 42 of those are coasters that I have only ridden once, which equates to 41.2% of my count (to 1dp). Of the 22 parks I have visited, 3 of those are parks that I have only visited once, which equates to 13.6% of my count (to 1dp). If I extend that to encompass coasters that I have ridden 3 times or less, the number of coasters that I have ridden 3 times or less is 75, which represents 73.5% of my count (to 1dp). The number of parks that I have visited 3 times or less is 16, which represents 72.7% of my count (to 1dp). So overall, then, the bulk of my coaster rides and park visits are concentrated around a relatively small number of parks and coasters, with there being a significant outlier at the very top; Alton Towers. Of my 113 park visits since 2008, 40 of these have been Alton Towers visits, which represents 35.4% of my total visits (to 1dp). Of my 451 coaster rides since 2008, 201 of these have been at Alton Towers, which represents 44.6% of my total coaster rides (to 1dp). I have to say that I found this a very interesting insight into my coaster riding and park visiting habits… I’ll post my full visit log spreadsheet later when I’m not on the move and using 4G. But I’d be keen to know; what are your most ridden coasters and most visited parks?

Yes, Alton Towers has had YULLBE in the Hospitality Suite as an upcharge attraction since some point last year. After Merlin’s ill-fated experiments with VR in the form of Galactica and Derren Brown’s Ghost Train, I’d be incredibly surprised if they ever put VR on a major ride again. Personally, I’m still leaning towards an indoor coaster of some description. I reckon an Intamin Multi Dimensional Coaster with some sort of dark ride element, similar to Uncharted at PortAventura, would be a logical fit, but I’m open to surprises. Whatever it is, though, I’m thinking it’ll be a family thrill ride (1.2m height restriction at most) rather than an out and out thrill ride.

Trip Summary All right, then! Now I’m back in the UK after a 7.5 hour flight from Orlando to London Heathrow, I think it’s about time I posted the trip summary I promised at the end of the last report! To cut to the chase; this was an absolutely fantastic trip! I loved getting back to Universal, SeaWorld and Busch Gardens after 7 years, and I loved getting on some of the brilliant new rides that have been installed since my last trip! As well as that, Volcano Bay was also a real positive surprise (I’ll touch on that more later), and I thoroughly enjoyed myself there! I’ll start by ranking all of the parks I went to in this trip, and I’ll say a little bit about each: Islands of Adventure - This is still easily one of my favourite parks ever, and I dare say that it now has possibly the most well-rounded selection of top-class major rides I’ve ever seen. I always felt that the coaster selection at IOA was one of its relatively weaker links in the past, but the additions of Hagrid’s and VelociCoaster have strengthened its credentials as a coaster park considerably, in my view, with both of these rides providing absolutely top-class experiences. The park also has some truly top-class dark rides and water rides, with Spider-Man being my favourite dark ride and Jurassic Park River Adventure being my favourite water ride out of the non-coaster offering! The theming is also wonderful throughout the park, in my opinion, and overall, I think it’s a truly stunning theme park! I’ve always loved how Islands of Adventure is a bit of a “jack of all trades”, and masters quite a number of different areas of the theme park experience, and I feel that the additions since my last visit have only strengthened that, personally! I will say, though, that if I’m being phenomenally picky, I think it can sometimes feel like the park has quite a hectic atmosphere with not much room to relax, and that is one thing that I feel the other Universal park does better. Overall, though, I absolutely love IOA; the combination of amazing rides and amazing theming make it easily one of my favourite parks ever! Universal Studios Florida - I may prefer Islands of Adventure, but it’s a close race between the two for me, and this is still definitely one of my favourite parks! The ride selection isn’t quite as varied as Islands of Adventure’s, and I don’t think that any of the individual rides quite match the best IOA has to offer for me, but there are still some absolutely fantastic headliners, with Revenge of the Mummy, Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts and Transformers being real headline draws of the park for me! There are some other really solid rides at the park too, and I also think that the overall theming is better than I’d remembered. Diagon Alley is the big standout thematically, but the rest of the park is also wonderfully detailed and has loads to look at! As I inferred above, the park also has a somewhat more relaxed atmosphere than IOA, in my view, with it often feeling slightly less crowded and there being more areas to slow down and take a breather. My whole family apart from me actually preferred USF of the two parks due to the more relaxing atmosphere and the fact that they felt that the theming was “way better”, as well as the fact that USF’s rides were more “grandparent-friendly” on the whole than IOA’s. Overall, while I may prefer Islands of Adventure overall, Universal Studios Florida still has a lot going for it, in my view, and it’s also one of my all-time favourite parks! Busch Gardens Tampa - I had a great day here! The coaster selection is second to none, there are some decent non-coaster rides, with the flat ride department in particular really shining, and the park is nicer in terms of landscaping than I’d remembered, being very green! It’s not the most heavily themed park I’ve ever been to, but I also feel that Busch does decently in terms of theming in numerous places, with the Egyptian section containing Cobra’s Curse and Montu being a favourite of mine. If I’m being picky, however, I personally found the park to have a somewhat confusing layout. Something I noticed a fair amount during my day is that attractions would look very close as the crow flies, but you’d try to find them and struggle, with them turning out to be absolutely miles away in path terms, which would see you passing numerous other totally different attractions on the way. The park also lacks indoor attractions despite being faced with the ever unpredictable Florida climate, and while stormy weather wasn’t a problem on our visit, some indoor entertainment might have been nice as a respite from the humidity. Overall, though, I had a great day at Busch Gardens, and it’s a fair amount nicer than I’d previously remembered! SeaWorld Orlando - Despite this park being last, I actually find it to be a really nice park that I seem to like more than most, and I had a great day here! The coaster selection is getting to be really excellent, queues are often short, and the park generally has a really nice, relaxed atmosphere; what’s not to like? While not particularly heavily themed, the park also has nice theming in areas and generally looks nice. However, I think the reason it’s not as high as the other 3 for me is because the park fundamentally doesn’t have that much to do rides-wise. In particular, it has very little to do rides-wise aside from the coasters; the only major non-coaster I can think of is Infinity Falls (which I was unable to ride due to unreliability and lightning). Similarly to Busch Gardens, I do feel that an indoor attraction of some description wouldn’t go amiss here, both to provide some entertainment in the event of a thunderstorm and provide a respite from the Florida humidity. This wasn’t a massive problem for me overall, though, as I’m pretty content just riding coasters all day! Overall, SeaWorld is a great park, and I really enjoyed my visit! Let me move onto some of my personal highlights of the trip in terms of new stuff… there were so many, but I’ll try to name just a few! New Highlights VelociCoaster - My favourite new attraction of the trip was VelociCoaster, a stunning Intamin LSM Launch Coaster! This sensational ride has a stonker of a layout with some really impactful elements, including a euphoric second launch, a top hat with some sublime ejector airtime, and a final heartline roll that really whips you out of the seat and leaves you blown away upon hitting the brake run! There are also loads of other great elements including some great inversions and excellent pops of ejector airtime, the ride maintains a great sense of speed throughout, and all of this is also packaged within a wonderfully comfortable and rerideable coaster, with absolutely superb restraints! Overall, I loved VelociCoaster; I had high expectations, and it did not disappoint for me! Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure - Hagrid’s may not have many standout moments of extreme thrill, but what it does have is a truly spell-binding sense of pure fun throughout! Despite having high expectations, the whole thing was a huge amount more fun than I’d expected, with the launches being great fun and surprisingly punchy, the low-to-the-ground twists and turns being surprisingly thrilling, and the whole thing just being magically fun overall! This coaster always left me with a huge smile on my face, and overall, it was a definite highlight among the trip’s new experiences for me! Iron Gwazi - I may not have rated it quite as highly as many do, but my first RMC coaster was still a definite highlight of the trip for me! The ride had some absolutely ludicrous ejector airtime, it was absolutely relentless throughout, and the layout had some truly spectacular elements; that first drop in particular was absolutely absurd! I did find it a tad much for me in terms of violence and being thrown around towards the snappier end portions of the layout, which is why it wasn’t my favourite coaster of the trip, but it was still an absolutely phenomenal ride overall! Universal’s Volcano Bay - This isn’t a theme park, but a new attraction I did manage to experience and was absolutely floored with was Universal’s Volcano Bay! The consensus towards this waterpark is somewhat mixed, with the chief complaint being the TapuTapu system and associated problems. However, I thought it was brilliant, and it definitely exceeded my expectations! In general, TapuTapu worked really well for me, and Volcano Bay is a really great waterpark with some brilliant attractions; some particular favourites of mine include the Krakatau Aqua Coaster, Honu, Taniwha Tubes and the enormously fun TeAwa: The Fearless River! Overall, Volcano Bay was brilliant for me and my family; I’d firmly recommend a visit! Those are just some of the highlights; that isn’t necessarily an exhaustive list by any means! Now I’ll move on to my main positive surprises of the trip… Biggest Positive Surprises Universal’s Volcano Bay - I’ve already spoken at length about Volcano Bay in the above section, so I won’t dedicate too much to it here, but it was a big surprise for me and the rest of my family, so I thought I’d mention it here! Skull Island: Reign of Kong - I had never ridden this dark ride at Islands of Adventure before; it was the big new thing at IOA when we last went in 2016, but we didn’t manage to get onto it. I went into this ride with low expectations, as reviews are generally quite negative, but I have to say that this ride was a massive pleasant surprise; it’s an absolutely fantastic dark ride, in my opinion, and a real asset to Universal’s dark ride lineup! The 3D is excellent, with some awesome action sequences and a brilliant 360 degree screen, there is some excellent physical scenery (including a stunning Kong animatronic that's absolutely huge!), and overall, I just thought it was a brilliant attraction! Kong far exceeded my expectations, for sure! Ice Breaker - I had pretty low expectations for this coaster, as its reviews are generally middling to negative, but I ended up absolutely loving it! The swing launch was my first ever swing launch, and I found it brilliantly fun and punchy! The backwards spike provided some brilliantly fun floater airtime, the ejector airtime got surprisingly strong towards the end of the swing launch, the top hat provided some more brilliant (and surprisingly sustained) airtime, and the rest of the layout consisted of some more surprisingly brilliant pops of airtime and some really fun twists and turns! Overall, I thought that Ice Breaker was a phenomenal ride that was just so much fun, and it hugely exceeded my expectations for sure! Let me move onto a slightly less positive category... my biggest disappointment. Biggest Disappointment You may be wondering why I have named this category "biggest disappointment" rather than "biggest disappointments". Well, that is because I only experienced one new attraction that I would call a true disappointment for me. Yes, I was slightly less enamoured with 1 or 2 big hitters than most, but they were still excellent, and I think it would be terribly harsh of me to consider them "disappointments" because they were still incredibly, phenomenally great. For me, I'm afraid to say that the main damp squib of the trip, by a considerable distance, was the new-for-2023 Pipeline: The Surf Coaster. I had heard some very positive initial reviews, so I went in with high hopes that it could be a top 10/20 contender and a ride that I really enjoyed. However, it just didn't do it for me. In short, the ride has everything on paper (fun layout, punchy launch, surprising airtime, an interesting new idea in the form of the jumping seats... it has so much going for it!), but it's ruined for me by the fact that it just isn't very comfortable, in my view. The "jumping" airtime is an interesting idea, but it just hurts in numerous different places for me, and in general, I think standing up on a roller coaster is an inherently uncomfortable riding position that Pipeline hasn't really improved, in my view. I went into Pipeline really wanting to like it, but it just didn't do it for me, I'm sorry to say. Finally, let me display some stats: Unique coasters ridden: 18 Unique parks visited: 4 (Islands of Adventure, Universal Studios Florida, SeaWorld Orlando, Busch Gardens Tampa) New coasters ridden: 8 New parks visited: 0 Total rides: 45 Total coaster rides: 29 Total park visits: 10 (4x Islands of Adventure, 4x Universal Studios Florida, 1x SeaWorld Orlando, 1x Busch Gardens Tampa) Favourite coaster ridden: Mako (overall #1/99) Favourite new coaster ridden: VelociCoaster (overall #2/99) Favourite non-coaster ridden: The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man Favourite new non-coaster ridden: Skull Island: Reign of Kong Most surprising coaster: Ice Breaker Most surprising non-coaster: Skull Island: Reign of Kong Biggest disappointment: Pipeline: The Surf Coaster So, that summarises my June 2023 Florida trip! Thank you so much for following this series of trip reports; I really hope you've enjoyed reading them as much as I enjoyed this trip! I'm unsure when my next trip report will be, but I should be back at you with another trip report before too long (September at the latest, as I've got a locked-in park visit booked for that month...)!