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Your Enthusiast Origin Stories!

Novas

TS Member
An initially self indulgent thread in which to share your enthusiast origin stories.

This afternoon I was reminiscing in general and my thoughts turned to how I first became interested in theme parks. After a couple of minutes I remembered ‘UDMPS’ (Unofficial Drayton Manor Park Site,) and flew to Google.

This fan site was the catalyst for all of my interest in theme parks. I was 13 at the time and remember that I would literally run home from school to check for Apocalypse construction updates.
The site appears to have been well and truly wiped from cyberspace but I did find a bit of the construction archive which helped to bring some more details flooding back!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mallrat37/collections/72157605106649979/

It really has been amazing how many memories I've started to recall since joining this forum. Experiences, trips and friendships that I haven't thought about in years. :*

So yea, how did you get here? :)


(Edit: Yes, I thought I'd post my first 'happy' thread since I appear to be getting an early reputation for being a miserable git!)
 
Following SW6 updates as an observer on TN then deciding to become involved but never joined until I joined TT in June '11 for about 3 days. Then joined TT properly in Nov '11 :D

There really is that many mistakes in my posts?! Damn this Tapatalk milarky! :)
 
Between the ages of 0 and 8 I was taken by my parents on innocent generic days out to places like Disneyland Paris, Drayton Manor, Paultons Park, Blackpool Pleasure Beach and some tiny Spanish park. Then we got the family pack of Annual Passes roughly around 2000/2001 in which we spent a fair bit of time at the various Tussauds attractions, wherein my inner enthusiast awoke through collecting the maps and showing them off at the kids in school (who didn't care). Then in 2004 I discovered TowersTimes, signed up in 2005 and was a fairly obnoxious little sod until 2007 where I left my account, though I recognised many key names in the community. I came back in 2008 as a newish soul with a new name, (which then changed about a season later), and since then I've been with that community!

Yep.
 
I blame my parents very strongly for my love of themeparks, at the age of 4 I was taken to Towers and even at the age of 7 I listed Towers as one of my favourite places (along with Sundown Adventureland although back then it was still called Pets Corner), then from the '95 season I have visited atleast once a season and when the hotel opened we started doing atleast one weekend away at Towers a year.

Also in 2000 I went to Disneyland Anaheim in California and this is when my passion for Disney parks started as when I got back I did a public speaking competition on it at School at the age of 9 or 10 so I did loads of research into the Disney parks mainly focusing on Disneyland. I think it was around that time our family bought our first Tussauds annual pass and my visits again to Alton Towers stepped up a gear.Then my last step up was joining TTF meets at the start of '08 and haven't looked back since!
 
I owe my enthusiasm to a little known theme park that's now only a memory - American Adventure. I lived right by it for its entire operating life, and visited VERY regularly! It crushed me when the park declined, and I felt awful when it finally closed.

My parents took me on 'theme park weeks' in the summer holidays, which consisted of Alton Towers, Drayton Manor, Pleasure Island, Fantasy Island (pushing it, I know!) and Gullivers Kingdom. I've always loved theme parks, and here's hoping I always do :)

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I went to loads of theme parks growing up, including Camelot and Gulliver's World. I always loved them, but I was terrified of the bigger rides. Even at Alton Towers I was scared of The Beastie and Te Haunted House. Eventually I started to get over my fears during a school trip to Camelot in 2000, where I rode Excalibur and Tower of Terror without beint too much of a wimp. But I didn't conquer my fear of coasters completely until I went to Southport Pleasureland in 2002 and went on the Traumatizer. My parents virtually forced me to go on it as we were heading to Florida just a few weeks afterwards. I'm glad they did, as since that moment I've been virtually addicted to coasters (though admittedly I still get scared of Oblivion from time to time!)
 
I've been visiting Theme Parks since 1996 when my family plus their friends used to take me to Legoland Windsor, and Thorpe Park. I began to take a general interest around 2005 when Stealth was being constructed (As I wanted to be up to date with the construction) and I was very curious to find out more about roller coasters (And also other types of rides). The Knowledge had eventually built up and I keeping an eye out on new investments. And I decided to join TTF in October 2011 because I wanted to share my opinions

That's basically the short story of how I became a Enthusiast =)
 
Always been into funfair's since I was a kid, then in 1993 I went to this place called Alton Towers with my then girlfriend... and from that point on I was totally hooked. Been every year since without fail and still intend to be going there when i'm in my 60's and on a zimmer!
 
i blame Blackpool pleasure beach. my parents would take me there 2-3 times a year. then i went to towers and drayton alot on the bus and with school so i liked parks then RCT came and i got deeper into the industry and got heavily involved with coastercrazy.com and theme park review eventually finding my way to TT.
 
My first theme park memory was going to Paultons Park when I was 4 and loving the Runaway Train (now the Stinger) there! Then we moved on to Legoland and Chessington when I was 6, every summer there was always a trip to a few theme parks. Then it wasn't long before we headed off to Thorpe Park where X:/ No Way Out scared me lol! :p Then my first trip to DLP in 1999 made me fall in love with Disney parks, and my dream came true when I went to Orlando in 2002! :)

I have been a long term lurker of theme park forums from when I was 12 years old until last year when I finally joined some forums including TST, CF etc. :) I have always been a theme park fan, probably the only one in my family aha - they think I'm very obsessed and get bored of me telling them all about news and updates ;)
 
MY GRAN!!

An absolute coaster nutter, dragged me on the Zipper when I was a wee lad, I hated it suffering from uber bad motion sickness lol!!

However, BPB is a special place for her, so my Grandparents took me there a lot. My memories of the place are some of the most precious that I have. Anyway, I still hated fast rides lol!!

Spin forward to dating, and my g/f's younger brother decides at a trip to DMP that he is going on Python - the old Pinfari ZL-42 (the one with the TINY loop) lol! I was not going to be outdone anyway, so manned up, put my motion sickness to one side and went for it.

That was it, I couldn't believe how much I went from hating them to being obsessed. Thankfully just in time to get on Alton Beast, Thunderlooper, Nemesis & The Big One opening years. My Gran still nags me to join the RCCGB and I can guarantee if a voucher appears, my Grandparents are first on the phone to tell me they're keeping it for me ;D
 
When I could get to AT by myself and utilized the bogof offers! Also visiting various fairs and amusement parks.

Then being on the feedback forum just sealed the deal!

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The first half-decent theme park I can recall going to was Flambards near Helston in Cornwall on a wet day in September 1999. My one memory of that particular visit was getting evac'd from the log flume when we were on the lift hill. :p I first visited Towers in May 2003, and really enjoyed it. The first time I went to a foreign theme park was October 2005 - Disneyland Paris. We didn't stay on resort - we were in a hotel in Paris and took the RER out to Disney - but I loved it. The following October, I visited PortAventura on a trip to Barcelona with school, and I think I finally started to become an enthusiast at that point. June 2007 saw another visit to Towers, and it was this that got me into rides in a big way. It took me until 2011 to properly start posting on TTF, and later that year, I finally attended a meet, although making Fireworks my first meet was probably a bit of a bad move. :p
 
Let me see... Ah yes!

I've been visiting Gulliver's World since I was around 5 but didn't really care much for the rides there. In fact, I'd say I hated them...

Then, in 2009, I had a school trip to Alton Towers were I fell in love with the place. I came home, browsed the internet for a while, and I found TT. It took me a few weeks to pluck up the courage to sign up, but when I heard about TH13TEEN, I just knew I just had to take part! (I only started going on the major rides in 2010...)

I may be new to Towers, but I'm an enthusiast just like you!
 
Hmmm, it was in fact 4 years ago when I was forcibly taken to chav island THORPE PARK and didn't ride anything apart from X:/nowayout and hated it. We went back a few months later and I was dragged on to colossus! I literally crapped myself, only being around 8/9.( I am a lanky bugger :* ) As soon as it finished I jumped with joy and loved rollercoasters ever since !
 
I have been obsessed with theme parks for as long as I can remember, but as I was living in Scotland I didn't really have any local parks, but whenever I visited my grandparents I went to Drayton Manor and Alton Towers. My earliest memory of a theme park was my first visit to Alton Towers in 1997 (when I was only five!) and since then I've been a fan of the park :) after discovering TowersTimes in 2003 I began following the developments at the park, and constantly annoyed my family and friends by talking about it non-stop :p

After lurking on the forum for years I finally decided to join up in 2010 after becoming friends with a few members whilst working in the park that season, and since then my geekiness has just got worse! :p
 
June 2011. I was going to Alton in two weeks time . I was researching, and came across TT, I went through all the pages, before looking at the forum. I realized tgat they were all a lot older, and AT experienced than me, so just read through instead of posting ignorant and nooby comments. I think I joined in December that year, and followed much of NST, and made a few posts. However when TS was created I decided to make a new start, being more confident and posting more.I generally know a bit about Alton, and other parks now :)
 
When I was little my parents held a season ticket to Pleasurewood Hills and we were up there nearly everyday, my earliest memory is being about 5 and standing in the carpark looking at cannonball express and being impressed, My first coaster was there, When I was older, we were taken to places like Gulivers World in Matlock, and We held Season Tickets for Legoland Windsor and visited Disneyland Paris, We also visited the Village, which had a little fairground, then, When I was in Middle school, I went on a trip to Bellewarde with the school, I went to Duinrell in wassenar, and went on a trip around france doing 3 theme parks, which were: Bagatelle, Futurescope and Parc Asteric, I went to high school and made some new friends, one of whom showed me Unofficial Pleasurewood Hills, and so I joined there, then, towards the end of high school, one of the members there linked to Jem's trip report on TT, and so I joined that, but never posted, then one day I saw this had happened , Joined here and haven't regretted Joining.

p.s Sorry for the long post.
 
I think that growing up with what used to be a small park called Europa Park as something to do with my enthuasiasm. I went to EP once (or twice) a year for as long as I can remember, so I even can't tell when my 1st visit was.
Also in 2002, when my class won a day at another german theme park called Holiday Park I remember Expedition Ge Force shocked me. (I did my 1st rides on Sista and EGF in something like 3 weeks). I really knew nothing about other parks, and I became more interested.
When my parents moved to another part of France in 2003, all I had as a local park was Walibi Rhone Alpes, I visited it once and I never wanted to go back there! LoL
At that time I really missed EP, but I always found time to visit it once a year with friends. I joined some french forums, used to be in the team of an EP forum where I met Astrodan. Finally joined that forum in 2007, and it is actually the only one where I'm still posting. And in the mean time I moved back to Strasbourg, so I'm now closer to my favorite park. :p
 
Started riding coasters at 4 years old, rode my first looper and drop tower at 7. The first forum I was on was Flamingoland Force in like 2006/7, eventually signed up on TTF in 2008 and now here I am.
 
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