The YMCA Post

Austin’s Top 10 Rollercoasters! Hello everyone and welcome to the first of a 2 part series where both me (Austin) and Tom will be counting down our top 10 Rollercoasters of all time! 10. The Big one Starting off at my home park of Blackpool Pleasure Beach, we have the U.K’s tallest roller coaster (for the time being anyways). The feeling that you get going down that first drop is comparable to nothing else in the U.K, the views you get of the area are spectacular and can get fairly intense at some points. Only if I had the money to buy a whole piece of its track to put in my garden. 9. Revolution  Staying at Blackpool, there’s not much to say about this Arrow Dynamics shuttle coaster. This little guy packs such a massive punch that each time I come off it I’m stunned over and over again. But please Blackpool, add a lift, my knees can’t deal with those stairs anymore, especially in the rain. 8. Wild Maus XXL Our first of two travelling coasters on my list, we have the Ma...

OK so we are fully in the miserable closed season and as I go insane trying to keep myself occupied to February, I decided to wonder what I would like the parks I've been to, to add. The ones I've been to so far are Pleasure Beach, Alton Towers, Thorpe Park, Fantasy Island, Drayton Manor and Flamingo Land. But who doesn't love a top 10? That's why I'm throwing Chessington, Paultons Park, Oakwood and Pleasurewood Hills into the mix and trying to plug gaps these parks have from what I can see. I know some of these predictions are outlandish and a couple of parks are already getting new rides but that won't stop me speculating.  Pleasure Beach- RMC Raptor These look like so much fun and a great marketing opportunity for the first single rail in Europe. I think it would add on what Icon did and give the park a big 5 coasters and really put the park on a map of essential parks across the world. It can be stylised like Icon and be put around the Hub, getting rid of so...

I make it no secret that dark rides are one of my favourite attractions out there. They are so immersive, fun and great family experiences. They have a charm and are great vessels for storytelling, they have lovely soundtracks and are perfect during the rain. I love these rides so much and want to talk about those in the UK as we have some great ones out there.  Wallace and Gromit: Thrillomatic  There seems to be a consensus that this is the best dark ride in the country and I will not be disagreeing with this sentiment. The nostalgia of the Aardman claymation classics makes this irresistible to enjoy, especially with the incredible scenes. Me and Austin may know the majority of the audio and we are definitely proud of that. It's how a tracked dark ride should be: charming, fun, immersive, engaging and memorable. One massive tick for me there. 🧀 River Caves Staying in Blackpool, you can really tell I love that place. This ride is one of the oldest at the park and with occasio...

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 fu...

While we all talk about rides and theming, colour scheme and names, one thing we do not consider often is soundtracks. While in the UK most coasters tend to have no audio outside of the Merlin parks, they are part of the immersive experience that makes rides what they are. We all have ones we prefer over others and here I am going to share my thoughts on the good, the bad and the missed opportunities (get it?).  The Good Icon Ok so an important disclaimer that I love this ride so I am 100% biased but that's opinions for you! I find this soundtrack to be my favourite so far as it makes it feel like going on the ride is an event and it just fits the ride so well. They simply build up the anticipation as you're in the queue line and I can't help but get pumped hearing it. It does also help with this that I find it great to listen to when doing essays for University too! ✍ Kumali Curveball! I bet no one would expect to go for this but it is an under appreciated soundtrack. I me...

 After a year away, Winter Wonderland is back and we took a trip down on its first day for the first time ever! While there was plenty of sight seeing involved, the main reason was the rides and perhaps some beers. As a northener in the deep south, I went in not expecting such a large scale and well put together event so lets look back at our experience.  The Roller Coasters Don't boo me, but we only did the roller coasters when at the event, primarily because riding 9 coasters there is hella expensive already! As much as other rides such as Hangover and Airborne look incredible and so much fun, they were cut to the way side for shameless cred hunting. So while we did the less intense coasters and will hopefully never do them again, there is what I would consider a main 5 coasters. Lets start at the worst: 5. Euro Coaster It just wasn't our thing I guess, it is not intense or forceful and there is nothing to it really. At least it wasn't rough I suppose! 4. Heidi Coaster We...