Your 2024 in Review

[Justin2000]

Coaster count at start of 2024: 928
Coaster count at end of 2024: 951
Coaster count increase: 24 (-52 on 2023)
Park count at start of 2024: 226
Park count at end of 2024: 230
Park count increase: 4 (-11 on 2023)



Now if I were to reel off a few highlights and lowlights of the year from a more personal standpoint, I would say something like the following:
Favorite new-to-me coaster of 2024: Wild Stallion at Skyland Ranch
Favorite new-to-me non-coaster of 2024: Pirates of Spee Lunkers Cave? (Or one of the 2 Dark Rides at Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, but I can't remember if I've ridden them)
Favorite new-to-me park of 2024: Washington State Fair
Biggest positive surprise of 2024: Six Flags Over Texas cause Shock Wave and Runaway Mountain were open
Biggest disappointment of 2024: Six Flags Discovery Kingdom where V2, Boomerang, and Kong were all closed and almost every coaster was 1 train operation
Favorite coaster ride of 2024: Gold Striker at California's Great America
Favorite park trip of 2024: Coaster Con with California's Great America, Six Flags Discovery Kingdom, and Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk
Biggest enthusiast achievement of 2024: Riding my 950th Coaster/Experiencing my first Coaster Con

 

[Serena]

• Coaster count at end of 2024: 816

• Parks visited:

Disneyland Paris
Phantasialand
Walibi Belgium ( x 2)
Alton Towers (x 2)
Thorpe Park (x 22)
Universal Studios Japan
LaQua Tokyo
Luna Park Sydney
Grona Lund
Kolmarden
Liseberg
Emerald Park
Blackpool Pleasure Beach
King's Island
Cedar Point
Knotts Berry Farm
Disneyland (California)
Universal Studios Hollywood
Six Flags Magic Mountain
Dorney Park
Six Flags Great Adventure

• Favourite new-to-me coaster of 2024:

X2. A true masterpiece of a ride that left me breathless on the brake run.

• Favourite new-to-me non-coaster of 2024:

I'm going to pick a haunted house, sorry! The Weeknd Nightmare Trilogy at USH HHN was jawdropping. Absolutely loved it, great to see more psychological scares and a meaningful narrative in a haunted house. It was a lil work of art.

• Favourite new-to-me park of 2024:

Dorney Park, that place is full of the silly kind of janky amusement park charm I like. It just has a rather unassuming nice vibe. Plus, you know, Demon Drop.

• Biggest positive surprise of 2024:

Na Fianna Force at Emerald Park is a surprisingly punchy coaster with some dynamic forces and great pace. Airtime on an STC? Yes!

HHN Hollywood is a million times better than HHN Orlando.

The Beast at night somehow exceeds the vast amount of hype it has. I had ridden it before during the day in 2017, but it really is a different, ahem, Beast at night. One of the best singular coaster rides I've ever had.

Oh and Orion at King's Island - what a brilliant ride! Surprised more people don't rave about it tbh, it's a lot of fun.


• Biggest disappointment of 2024:

Superman Escape From Krypton being closed for both days I was at SFMM

Universal Studios Japan, where I had a very expensive and frustrating day.

• Favourite coaster ride of 2024:

X2 at night with the fire effect going off. Incredible.

Beast at night a close second. Mystic Timburs at night a close third. Orion at night a close fourth. (There's a theme here...)

• Favourite park trip of 2024: King's Island Pride Night. A wonderful event and got soooo many night rides!


• Biggest enthusiast achievement of 2024: Getting my 800th credit

 

[Howie]

Yes! Totally on board with this statement:

• Favourite new-to-me coaster of 2024:

X2. A true masterpiece of a ride that left me breathless on the brake run.

And this:

The Beast at night somehow exceeds the vast amount of hype it has. I had ridden it before during the day in 2017, but it really is a different, ahem, Beast at night. One of the best singular coaster rides I've ever had.

I hear you on this one too. Under rated park.

Dorney Park, that place is full of the silly kind of janky amusement park charm I like. It just has a rather unassuming nice vibe.

However...

Plus, you know, Demon Drop

Spited.
Well, not spited exactly, but when you're doing Knoebels later on the same day and Demon Drop doesn't open til 2pm, you're kinda stuffed.

Excellent year, Serena. Good work.
Especially...

Thorpe Park (x 22)

 

[Serena]

Yes! Totally on board with this statement:



And this:


I hear you on this one too. Under rated park.


However...

Spited.
Well, not spited exactly, but when you're doing Knoebels later on the same day and Demon Drop doesn't open til 2pm, you're kinda stuffed.

Excellent year, Serena. Good work.
Especially...

Thanks @Howie - I live within walking distance of Thorpe, so every time goons (or non goon friends) popped down for Hyperia I would go along too. Hyperia really bostered my social life this year! Also Fright Nights was stellar this year, often I would finish work and stroll down just to ride Detonator and watch the fire show after work

 

[Nick13]

After the ECC Winter Warner to Madrid last weekend and a 10-minute visit to Winter Wonderland for the new cred yesterday, I think my 2024 is complete now!

Coaster count at start of 2024: 958
Coaster count at end of 2024: 1067 (+109)

Parks visited:
Efteling
Mondo Verde
Wiener Prater
Family Park
Chessington
Thorpe Park x6
Alton Towers x3
Legoland Windsor
Emerald Park
Isla Magica
Blackpool Pleasure Beach
Gullivers World
Oakwood
Parc des Coombes
Le Pal
Walibi Rhone Alps
Conny-Land
Europa Park
Disneyland Paris
Disney Studios
Gullivers Land
Gullivers Kingdom
Fantasiana
Edelweis
Bayern Park
Parque Warner
Parque de Attracciones Madrid

• Favourite new-to-me coaster of 2024: Batman Gotham City Escape
• Favourite new-to-me non-coaster of 2024: Tower of Terror Paris
• Favourite new-to-me park of 2024: Walibi Rhone Alps
• Biggest positive surprise of 2024: Fantasiana - visited for the Wild Train cred before it closed, but had a great time in the rest of the park too, with the indoor drop tower being a particular highlight!
• Biggest disappointment of 2024: Booking a trip to Emerald Park four days before the new area opened!
• Favourite coaster ride of 2024: First ride on Hyperia, lucked out on a front row night ride on its opening day and was my 1000th cred.
• Favourite park trip of 2024: 2 days at Europa Park in August, first time back since 2016!
• Biggest enthusiast achievement of 2024: Somehow getting to 999 creds before Hyperia opening day, riding a lot of wacky worms along the way

Best New Creds:

1. Batman Gotham City Escape
2. Hyperia
3. Mahuka
4. Voltron

 

[TPoseOnTantrum]

Yeah think I’ve more or less put the hobby on hold again until April now after my biggest year yet so let’s have a look;

Coaster Count at start of 2024; 110
Coaster Count at end of 2024; 170

New Parks Visited; Lake George Expedition Park, Six Flags Great Escape, Huck Finn’s Playland, Story Book Park, Niagara Amusement Park, Sylvan Beach, La Ronde, Celebration Station, ZooTampa, Busch Gardens Tampa, SeaWorld Orlando, Islands of Adventure, both Floridian Fun Spots
Revisits during the year; Canada’s Wonderland (local), Seabreeze
Waterpark visits; Close to 50

Locations visited where I only ticked off a +1; 11
New for 2024 Coasters (includes relocations); 6
New fair coasters; 6
New drop towers; 9
New fair rides operated; 4

Favourite new coaster; Iron Gwazi (all-time now, too)
Biggest surprise; Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure

Highlights of 2024;

• Coalesced enough of a friend group in the community that I could just hang out with different people at different places or events.
• Got to experience Adirondack Outlaw at SF Great Escape, Falcon’s Fury, Kissimmee Skycoaster, and Orlando Starflyer (midnight ride)… year of the thrill ride!
• Attended IAAPA Expo for the first time as a student, the biggest opportunity I’ve ever had… was able to visit a bunch of Florida parks for the first time, attend press conferences (including reveals for an AlpenFury car at home and flying theatre for my region), and network a ton
• Weekend trip to Montreal was fun, even though our hotel burned down (cost an extra $400 to move) and La Ronde was dog****
• Worked as an attendant on our local carnival’s Remix… ride op version of clubbing!

Being Stupid

• Getting bored one day and driving close to six hours round-trip to pick up Python Pit at Story Book Park (not worth it)
• Paying $67 CAD for a Blue Mountain attractions pass and waiting an hour for a lap on the Ridge Runner Mountain Coaster
• Woke up at 2:30 am, drove across the border to Buffalo, flew to Detroit and then Tampa at 11:00… just to Uber across the bay and make the tiny local Minor Mike my first coaster in the state
• Ridiculous bouts of effort and cost across the board towards meaningless +1’s… the journey is what makes the story!

Overall it’s been a fun year, next season we have two new coasters and a flying theatre opening here in Southern Ontario and I’ve already got a construction tour booked for the latter. Looking forwards to 2025 but for now I have much life to get through.

 

[JoshC.]

After some thoughts and planning, my 2024 is now at an end for new stuff. So here goes...

Quick Stats

• Coaster count at start of 2024: 331
• Coaster count at end of 2024: 408
• Coaster count increase: 77 (New personal best)
• Park count at start of 2024: 62
• Park count at end of 2024: 78
• Park count increase: 16 (New personal best)

Favourites

• Favourite new-to-me coaster of 2024: Hyperia, Thorpe Park (Number 12)
• Favourite new-to-me dark ride of 2024: Ani-Mayhem, Warner Bros World Abu Dhabi
• Favourite new-to-me park of 2024: Warner Bros World Abu Dhabi / Ferrari World Abu Dhabi

Least Favourites

• Least favourite new-to-me coaster of 2024: Abismo, Parque de Atracciones de Madrid
• Least favourite new-to-me park of 2024: Parque de Atracciones de Madrid

Surprises

• Biggest surprise coaster of 2024: Mahuka, Walibi Rhone-Alpes
• Biggest surprise park of 2024: Walibi Rhone-Alpes
• Biggest disappointment coaster of 2024: Red Force, Ferrari Land
• Biggest disappointment park of 2024: IMG World of Adventures

Other Notable Mentions

• Manta, Sea World Abu Dhabi - Wonderful ride
• Uncharted, Port Aventura - Surprisingly decent
• Mystic, Walibi Rhone-Alpes - Lovely ride
• Euro-Mir, Europa Park - Rubbish
• Parque Warner Madrid - Not a fun park

Milestones

• 400th Coaster: Matterhorn Blitz, Europa Park
• 350th Steel Coaster: Diablo, Port Aventura
• 75th park: Port Aventura Park

General Highlights

• Going to the UAE in general
• First visits to PA and Europa - nice to tick them off
• Hitting 400 creds
• Hyperia

General Lowlights

• Storms and floods in UAE making my first day in the UAE spiteful and stressful
• Going to Ferrari World 3 weeks after Formula Rossa shut down
• My car being broken into in Madrid, with all my belongings (included passport) being stolen
• Having to cancel my trip to Gardaland / Movie Land Italy last minute

It's been a heck of a year!

 

[CedarPoint6]

This is a fun thread to read. I've enjoyed everyone's posts thus far.

2024 was a strange year for me. I left my job at SeaWorld Orlando, taking a new role with an engineering company in Saudi Arabia. A big change in my life and for my coaster riding. The year started ok, then slowed down fairly quickly, before finishing with an incredible amount of travel. And it’s not done yet! I’m finishing the year with Christmas in London with 4 more parks (noted below). I’m fairly surprised at how successful this year ended up being and I saw a lot of new parks, which has been a lot of fun.

Coaster count at start of 2024: 1223
Coaster count at end of 2024: 1302 (plus as many as 10 more depending on Christmas trip)
+ 5 powered coasters
+ 5 mountain coasters

Parks visited:

1. Florida State Fair [revisit]
2. Florida Strawberry Festival [revisit]
3.Fun Spot Atlanta [revisit]
4. Six Flags over Georgia [revisit]
5. Lost Mine Mountain Coaster and Mini Golf
6. Rowdy Bear Mountain Adventure Park [revisit]
7. Skyland Ranch
8. Dollywood [revisit]
9. Clay County Fair
10. SeaWorld Abu Dhabi
11. Sparky's Riyadh (Riyadh Gallery Mall)
12. RM Roma Land (Riyadh Marina Mall)
13. Sparky's Riyadh (Panorama Mall)
14. Magic Planet Riyadh
15. Sala City Riyadh
16. Toy Town Riyadh
17. Funtura, Khobar
18. Octo City, Dammam
19. RM Roma Land (Dammam Marina Mall)
20. Toy Town Dammam
21. Dolphin Village Dammam
22. Adventure World Dammam
23. Cobra Entertainment City
24. Toy Town Al Mubarraz
25. Tooty Town, Al Hofuf
26. Mega Land Dammam
27. Saffori Land (Al Othaim Mall Riyadh Khurais)
28. Fun Oasis (Riyadh Granada Mall)
29. RM Roma Land (Al Badeah Mall)
30. Al Watan Park
31. Sparky's (Al Nakheel Mall, Riyadh)
32. Saffori Land (Al Othaim Market Riyadh)
33. Park Zoo
34. Fanta Park
35. Sparky's (Salam Mall Riyadh)
36. RM Roma Land (City Mall)
37. Real Madrid World
38. Motiongate Dubai [revisit]
39. Ferrari World Abu Dhabi [revisit]
40. Sparky's (Khalidiyah Mall)
41. Orange Hub, Abu Dhabi
42. BLVD World
43. D'Rodelbahn St. Englmar
44. Edelwies
45. Bayern-Park
46. Freizeitpark Ruhpolding
47. Freizeitpark Familienland
48. Fantasiana
49. Familypark Austria
50. Böhmischer Prater
51. Wiener Prater
52. Durrat Al Sahel Entertainment Park
53. Sparky's (Fujairah)
54. Jais Adventure Park
55. Saqr Park
56. Island of Legends
57. Global Village
58. Hili Fun City
59. Wonder Garden Riyadh
60. SeaWorld Orlando [revisit]
61. Busch Gardens Tampa [revisit]
62. IAAPA 2024 (It’s got a coaster, so it counts!!)
Still to come:
63. Winter Wonderland Reading
64. Hyde Park Winter Wonderland
65. Babylon Park
66. Phantasialand

• Favorite new-to-me coaster of 2024: There’s a few big standouts for me. From a thrill standpoint, it’s hard to discount Arie Force One. Big Bear Mountain is certainly one of the best family coasters in the world. Wild Train at Fantasiana was delightfully weird and an amazing ride. And MegaBlitz at Wiener Prater was shockingly fun. Still to come, I’m looking forward to Olympia Looping (finally hopefully). Also it’s hard not to be happy with tracking down some good rare stuff like the Pax Cobra 2 in Saudi Arabia.
• Favorite new-to-me non-coaster of 2024: Bayern Park’s drop tower was pretty great—I do love those Funtime towers.
• Favorite new-to-me park of 2024: Wiener Prater (honorable mention to Familypark Austria)
• Biggest positive surprise of 2024: Freizeitpark Ruhpolding was a delightful little park with so much home-spun detailing, dioramas, and carnival games. Didn’t know anything about the park beforehand aside from the coasters and had a very nice time. Also, I expected to like Wiener Prater, but the vibe was just incredible. Such a cool place despite my wallet being much lighter afterwards.
• Biggest disappointment of 2024: Having to cancel my Austria trip only a week before going, which meant I missed Olympia Looping at Prater. Thankfully I was able to reschedule the trip and get Wild Train after all, but Olympia is going to have to wait until hopefully Winter Wonderland in a few weeks.
• Favorite coaster ride of 2024: A night ride on Wild Train, 2 days before it closed forever, the day before Halloween with many of the riders in costume. Just an amazing vibe on an incredible ride. Sad to see it go.
• Favorite park trip of 2024: Wiener Prater on Halloween night. Amazing atmosphere and just a lot of fun.
• Biggest enthusiast achievement of 2024: I did not expect to trip the next hundred threshold halfway through the year, but the 2nd half of the year has been kind of incredible and fairly unexpected. 1300 ended up being Penguin Trek, which was the last coaster project I worked on while at SeaWorld, so to make the milestone one of ‘my’ coasters, was a good time. I’m also really happy with all the new parks I’ve been able to visit in Saudi and the UAE—some places enthusiasts haven’t really seen. It’s been fun to discover those. Lastly, I’m happy to have gotten up to Fantasiana for Wild Train only a few days before it closed forever.

Best New Coasters:

1. Arie Force One
2. Big Bear Mountain
3. Manta (Abu Dhabi)
4. MegaBlitz (Prater)
5. Wild Train
6. Hala Madrid
7. Cobra (Saudi Pax)
8. Gesengte Sau (Prater)
9. Phoenix Rising
10. Penguin Trek

 

[witchfinder]

My season is as good as over, though I should get one more new cred at a winter funfair if the weather plays ball.

Here are my stats with a few extra ones added that I track every year.

Coaster count at start of 2024: 407
Coaster count at end of 2024: 488
Coaster count increase: 81
Number of coaster rides: 215
Number of times inverted: 325
Approx miles travelled on coaster track: 92
Number of park visits: 39
Unique coasters ridden: 120
Unique parks visited: 28
New parks visited: 15 (Holiday Park, Tripsdrill, Europa Park, Gardaland, Osteria Ai Pioppi, Luna Park Adriatico, Parco Junior, Luna Park Strabilia, New Jesolandia, Mirabilandia, Luna Park Sydney, Rainbow's End, Warner Bros. Movie World, Dreamworld, Sea World Gold Coast)
Countries visited to ride coasters: 7 (Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Australia, New Zealand, Spain)

It has been a phenomenal year for me, better that I could have possibly expected. 81 new creds is just one off my personal best for a year, while 215 coaster rides smashes my previous best of 150 in 2017.

I also managed to ride all the major “New for 2024” creds in the UK, including Hyperia on opening day. For me, this year was very much the year of the Big Mack, as along with Hyperia I also rode Ride to Happiness, Blue Fire, Voltron, Steel Taipan and DC Rivals for the first time.

I wasn’t expecting to visit as many parks or countries this year due to my big 3 week trip to Australia and NZ, but thanks to some spare annual leave, money and FOMO, I ended up adding trips to Italy and Spain to my plans, having an amazing time with a group of goons that I absolutely love spending time with.

On to the faves then…

Favourite new-to-me coaster of 2024: DC Rivals Hypercoaster. Of all the Macks I rode, this one was the standout, but it was also the source of the most cred anxiety I will probably ever have. Sadly only got 2 rides due to that, but boy was it good.

Favourite new-to-me non-coaster of 2024: Piraten in Batavia at Europa Park. An absolutely fantastic dark ride, though the bit where you go through the restaurant at the end is super awkward

Favourite new-to-me park of 2024: Having visited the likes of Europa Park and Warner Bros. Movie World this year, you’d think it was one of those, but no, it has to be Osteria Ai Pioppi just for the sheer ingenuity of all the rides and huge amount of fun our group had there.

Biggest surprise of 2024: Fianna Force at Emerald Park. It wasn’t the best new cred of the year, but it may actually be my favourite as it was just so surprisingly good. Ejector airtime on an invert? Yes, Vekoma did that! Every mid-size park should be looking at installing an SFC as both this and the one at Tripsdrill are superb.
Shout out to Desmo Race at Mirabilandia too – the first surprise being actually getting on it, and the second being that it was much more fun than anticipated.

Biggest disappointment of 2024: All the spites and the dreadful operations/policies in Australia, making what should be great parks an absolute chore on a busy day. Also my first two rides on Voltron being incredibly rough, spoiling what should have been an amazing new coaster experience.

Favourite coaster ride of 2024: Take your pick between a back row night ride on Hyperia at 10pm on opening day, and a back row night ride on Shambhala in November with some of my favourite people in the world

Favourite trip of 2024: There were plenty to choose from, but for pure fun and nonsense it had to be the Italy trip, specifically the day where we did Ai Pioppi and four Italian fairgrounds in about 12 hours. As an overall holiday, Australia and NZ was never going to be beaten though, even if the parks were generally annoying.

All in all, an incredible year that I cannot hope to top in 2025. But I’ll try!

 

[Projektion]

Coming to the end of the year now and all my trips are done, so time for the write up

Coaster count at start of 2024: 359
Coaster count at end of 2024: 423
Coaster count increase: 64
Park count at start of 2024: 75
Park count at end of 2024: 85
Park count increase: 10

Favourite new-to-me coaster of 2024: ArieForce One @ Fun Spot Atlanta
Favourite new-to-me non-coaster of 2024: I don't actually remember riding too many new non-coaster things this year. I guess just take your pick between Drop Line @ Dollywood, Acrophobia @ SFOG and Drop Tower @ Carowinds
Favourite new-to-me park of 2024: Dollywood
Biggest positive surprise of 2024: Probably either Pyrenees @ Parque España being far better than I was expecting it to be or Ultra Twister @ Nagashima Spa Land opening, giving me a chance to knock the ride model off my bucket list.
Biggest disappointment of 2024: Spited by Beauty and the Beast @ Tokyo Disney Land. The ride went down at the start of the day and didn't reopen until about 3 hours to park close. By that point, the fast pass had backed up so much that it essentially queue closed to just accomodate the people that had bought the fast pass. (Honorable mention to Venus GP @ Himeji Central Park which was really no where near as good as I was hoping it would be)
Favourite coaster ride of 2024: Voltron @ Europa park. Night Ride, Train 6, Front row, Left side.
Favourite park trip of 2024: I would say the Japan trip at the start of the year, but that feels like cheating as there was a lot more happening on that trip than just parks, so I'll probably go with the recent 3-day Europa Park Winter trip
Biggest enthusiast achievement of 2024: There's a few:
- Reaching 400 creds
- Pulling an all nighter at Universal Studios Japan for their New Years Eve event
- After years of searching, finally managing to pin down 2 elusive coaster creds that I rode when I was a kid (Figure of Eight and Sky Ways Roller Coaster @ Brean Theme Park)