2022 Trip Plans

[Matt N]

Hi guys. The 2022 season is just beginning, with BPB starting to reopen its gates, so I thought I’d breathe some life back into TPM’s trip report section (which hasn’t been updated for over a year by the looks of things) and make a 2022 Trip Plans thread! So, what parks are we all planning to do this year, now that COVID’s effect on the theme park industry is seemingly beginning to ease?

 

Personally, I have a variety of plans for 2022. Much of this isn’t set in stone, as it’s only February, but here are my tentative 2022 trip plans, split into categories of their status:

Locked In Plans

• Europa Park (26th-30th April 2022, on park 27th-29th April 2022) - After months of planning, this is finally locked in! We’re staying in Castillo Alcazar for 4 nights and have 3 days of park tickets to Europa Park, a bucket list park I’ve wanted to visit for a good 7 or 8 years now! I’m absolutely buzzing about it; it’s slightly surreal to think that after years and years of wanting to go, I’m only a little over 10 weeks away from finally stepping into Europa Park, the Golden Ticket Award winner for world’s best theme park and a place that many hold in extremely high regard, and I’m going to be riding coasters like Wodan, Silver Star, Blue Fire, as well as seeing other esteemed rides like Voletarium and Piraten in Batavia, as well as seeing what the park in general has to offer… my, this is so exciting! I know a lot of you are probably quite blasé about a trip to Europa by now, but from my personal perspective, I can’t believe that a trip I’ve dreamed about doing since I was 11 or 12 is finally happening!

Almost Definite Plans

• Solo Train Trip to Drayton Manor (Weekday in June 2022) - After my successful pilot of solo theme park visiting at Thorpe last September, I want to take my newfound ability further in 2022 and take the train alone to a theme park in 2022. And where better to begin with that than the easiest park to reach from my location by train; Drayton Manor! I’ve mapped out the route from Wilnecote train station (reachable by direct train from my local train station), and everything looks nice and walkable the entire way, and I’d also like to get back to Drayton even excluding the stuff about my solo park visiting; I haven’t been in 4 years, there’s still some significant(ish) stuff there I haven’t ridden, and I would like to give Apocalypse a good send off before its rumoured removal at the end of 2022! In terms of when I’d like to go; I’ve decided on a weekday in June, as I’m headed to Europa in April, and this is also when I’m off uni and the kids are still in school keeping park crowd levels low, so it’s win-win! I obviously haven’t booked anything or concluded anything for this yet, but I am quite set on doing it at some point in 2022, so I’ll file it under “Almost Definite”!

Possibilities

• Brean Theme Park/possibly Weston too (Unknown) - In spite of having been a theme park enthusiast since I was 10, I still haven’t visited my nearest theme park; Brean Theme Park! My dad has said to me that me and him could remedy that at some point in 2022, though, and he also raised the possibility that we could do Funland at the Tropicana as well, so excluding the kiddie creds at either park, as I don’t generally do kiddie creds, this could be a very easy +4!
• Blackpool Pleasure Beach (Unknown) - My parents have said we might be able to get back up to Blackpool for a short break at some point this year, and I’ll admit, I am keen for a revisit, what with new Valhalla and retracked Big One, Grand National and Big Dipper all having happened since my last visit, and I’m gagging to get back on my #2 coaster Icon after 3 years away! To tell you the truth, I was originally planning to do BPB myself on the train in one day, but from the South West, the trip was quite an epic one compared to anything I’ve done before, and practically everyone around me thought it sounded like quite a poor travel-to-park-time ratio (I totted it up to be around 8-9 hours of travelling for around 4-5 hours of park time, with me needing to get up at about 5:30am), so my parents said to me “if you want to go to Blackpool, I’m sure we could go up and stay there at some point this year so you get a full day in the park!”, which sounded like a far more pleasurable, less bold idea to me…

That’s all I can think of at the moment, and as I say, much of that is not set in stone, so the year could turn out totally differently; it’s only February at the moment!

 

In terms of the Merlin parks; from having talked to my parents, I’m led to believe that after quite a Merlin-heavy 2020 and 2021, our visit frequency to those will be considerably lower in 2022 due to us no longer having MAPs (my parents aren’t buying themselves new MAPs after being angry at the way Merlin treated passholders during COVID). I could in theory buy an MAP myself (my last MAP, the Premium MAP I had during COVID, was one I bought myself), but if my parents don’t get them too, it’s probably not overly worthwhile.

 

But what 2022 trip plans do you have?

[Martin Doyle]

April - Phantasialand

May - Cedar Point/Kings Island

August - Energylandia/Legendia

October - FLORIDA!!

 

Also be having a few visits to Blackpool as I now have a pass for it and may also try to squeeze in Plopsaland for RTH and Walibi Belgium for Kondaa

[jessica2]

Nothing international planned at the moment but expecting a trip to:

• Blackpool Pleasure Beach (march)
• Alton Towers (likely October)
• Tulleys (October)
• Thorpe (at some point I'm sure)

Also going to sandcastle water park (again on this hen do) if that counts...

 

edit: adding Siam Park to this list  

[JoshC.]

So I'll be doing the UK Merlin quartet and Paultons Park again this year. I'd like to do a bit more UK stuff too (Pleasurewood Hill maybe), but we'll see.

 

As for international stuff, after a break of not going abroad (due to Covid rules and finishing a PhD), this is what I have planned concretely:

 

April

Heide Park and Hansa Park

 

June

Six Flags Great Adventure

Hersheypark

Kings Dominion

Busch Gardens Williamsburg

+a selection (or all) of Six Flags America, Knoebels and Dorney

 

Also planning to return to Phantasialand and finally ride Fly, as well as go back to Plopsaland and Walibi Belgium for their new rides. I'd also like to do the Gardaland/Movieland Italy duo and a couple of parks in Denmark, butttttt those plans are a bit more up in the air at the moment.

[Matt 236]

Hard to know right now, but Blackpool I’ve done. 
 

Merlin lot, Paultons and a return to Blackpool should be on the cards along with other uk parks maybe. 
 

Abroad wise, fingers crossed for Orlando in October and Disneyland Paris in May/June time. 
 

Would like to get to Plopsa for their new ride and maybe some other European perks. Would like to get back to Europa, Efteling and Phantasialand for sure. 

[Mark9]

I'm having a quieter theme park year with more emphasis on visiting places and finishing off things postponed from the last two years.

 

February - Florida

 

March/April - Disneyland Paris 30 year anniversary trip

 

May - Off to San Francisco and Hawaii with a small trip to Californias Great America planned in.

 

August - Tivoli Gardens followed by a cruise to Norway and Iceland

 

Definitely some Merlin parks and Blackpool thrown in as per. 

[Benin]

Mingoland whenever I can be bothered to after/if the new coaster opens.

 

That aside. It's going to be a quiet year for parks. Malta unfortunately doesn't have anything interesting. 

[Pickles]

On 2/17/2022 at 10:08 AM, Benin said:

Mingoland whenever I can be bothered to after/if the new coaster opens.

 

That aside. It's going to be a quiet year for parks. Malta unfortunately doesn't have anything interesting. 

 

I better be invited. 

 

My plans will be whatever Benin has planned as he is my wheels.