Season Highlights: Our Top 10

Well 2021 is finally ending, thankfully! The year we got back to parks, rode on new rides as well as favourites, big announcements, lots of new paint jobs? and us! While we had an amazing season and would not change it one bit, its been a genuine honour to be part of this. Anyway we welcome Austin to the blog today to do a little top 10 of the season where we picked 5 each and wrote about why they were such great memories. Without further ado:

10. Thorpe Park

Last but by no means least, we have our trip to Thorpe Park, my first ever visit and it is a park with such potential, I actually wish I had more than 2 days there to try a few other rides out. The first day was lots of new rides and I'll always remembering screaming on Stealth, then pausing and complimenting the view and then screaming on the descent. The second day we tried Black Mirror Labyrinth and that was great in retrospect and marathoned Swarm for the last 30 mins and that ride is incredible. A park with an exciting future too by the looks of it! -Tom

9. Opening Day

The date was April 12th 2021, all across England people were preparing to head to a beer garden for their first drink after a stressful Winter locked indoors. Meanwhile we were up at 7am preparing to go to Blackpool Pleasure Beach and what a day it was! Getting back onto some of our favourite rides in the country with Icon and Wallace and Gromit, seeing friends for the the first time in months and ending it with an ice cold, but very overpriced beer from an actual tap after drinking cans and bottles for what seemed like forever. A beautiful day all along! -Austin

8. Trafford Centre

The summer event here was so good and all the events they've put on look incredible. In the latter half of the season I pushed for more funfairs and this was one of them and it was fun as hell. I enjoyed the wave swinger, freakout and fun house in particular and hope these events keep taking place. It has such an atmosphere and keeps updating so its a yes from me. 👍 -Tom

7. Winter Wonderland

Straight from the start of the season to the very end! Winter Wonderland at Hyde Park was a truly magical experience which I won’t soon forget. A total of 9 brand new credits added to the total, an amazing Bavarian village allowing us to relive our Oktoberfest days (yes, we will find any way to talk about Oktoberfest, even at Christmas). Even we didn’t get a chance to do any flat rides, they all looked stunning and the Christmas along with the food and drink offerings really made this place something special. A wonderful (pardon the pun) and festive end of the season. -Austin

6. The Community

About to get real soppy up in here, I am very thankful that I have friends who share and support following this passion and spend time talking about and visiting parks. This has been a passion of mine for years but making this leap was such a scary thing but we've just got started really and after a year I can't wait to see what more comes. We've spoke to and interacted and met so many amazing people and every little bit of support is greatly appreciated and makes us feel part of something unique. So cheers to those who follow our socials, read this and share our content and have supported us! ❤ -Tom

5. Bottons Pleasure Beach

For our first Y.M.C.A group trip we decided to take a trip to Skegness to check out the theme park offerings there, not expecting too much but we were so very wrong. Our first stop was Botton’s Pleasure Beach, a small park with a selection of kiddy and family coasters with an extremely rare credit in the Queen Bee, one of two and only operating Pinfari AR28 in the world. Along with this there was amazing funfair rides and amazing music, making you feel like you were at some party on the beach. Couple this with cheep beer and great Piña Colada slushies, it made for a brilliant atmosphere and a great start of the trip! -Austin

4. The Pyramid

Continuing on from Botton’s the next day we ventured to Fantasy Island, Home of Millennium and the worlds tallest torture machine known as an SLC. But while the prior being big pulls to the park, they were nothing compared to the parks centrepiece: The Pyramid! Inside is a plethora of arcade machines and various rides, including some brilliant dark rides, our favourite being Toucan Tours which is reminiscent to River caves at Blackpool just without the boats, closely followed by Seaquarium, a dark water ride which takes you through several scenes littered with fish puns, accompanied with a soundtrack set to be deeply ingrained into your brain forever. I’d also like to add that I, Austin, lost to Tom at mini golf here for the first time. A proud moment for all! -Austin

3. Oktoberfest

Well, this was such an incredible day. Woke up too early and the weather was miserable and crowded trains would suggest we were not in great spirits but on contrary we were jubilant to be returning to Alton Towers. We set off on Octonauts to finally get the cred and banged out X-Sector shortly after. Eventually stumbling into Mutiny Bay for some Oktoberfest entertainment, a bratwurst and steins! We ended up having a few beers (Whoops!) and watching a load of entertainment. Ended up doing a ride on Wickerman while tipsy and after doing Forbidden Valley, Gangsta Granny and X-Sector again we called it a day for rides and drank more steins 🍺 and watched a bit more entertainment- 100% loved Robert Burton. The best day I've ever had at the park. -Tom

2. Becoming Ride Ops

The weirdest thing what has happened for us is both me and Tom have both become ride operators with the pair of us working at different attractions across the country. With me working at the I’m a celebrity jungle challenge, where I get to operate zip lines and climbing walls along side a small roller-glider known as Spyrider which goes around the roof of the building. Tom though, has worked with two different rides other the last year with the first being a Zamperla Rockin’ Tug at a local fun park in Rotherham and then operating a ferris Wheel in Leicester city centre amongst the Christmas markets. Being this close to the industry was really special for the two of us and I cannot wait to see where our place in it goes in the future. -Austin

1. Blackpool Pleasure Beach August 21

I think this is as good as a day at a UK theme park can get! 12 hours of riding and crowds weren't awful so plenty of rides were done, 4 of us having a laugh and chatting about all sorts too. Of course a beer went down the hatch and on top of that some night rides. I never realised the importance of taking a day slowly till these late night riding events as unless you are careful it will be too much and you'll not enjoy the last couple of hours fully where the park lights up and transforms into such an electric and happy atmosphere. A park I grew up with, as an adult seeing it booming was perfect. This was the highlight of my entire season and why I love the park so much, even if to will be home to Not The Biggest One soon. -Tom

For me, the season was the only I've truly experienced and I can't wait for the next. Its bittersweet in a way as I'll never have a first season again but I am certainly looking forward to plans for 2022. We started this year and have loved every moment, the parks bring us happiness and that's key. So exciting things are sure to happen in the coming years and we hope to be there discussing it all too, have a Happy New Year! 🎇-Tom

As always, thanks for reading and let me know your season highlight!

Take care and see you in the next post!

Tom and Austin✌