Matt N
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Shambhala (PortAventura Park)
Let’s update this midway through the season, shall we? It’s interesting to see what my plans were in January and how they’ve actually panned out since… particularly seeing as I now have some previously unanticipated trip plans for later in the year!
In terms of what I’ve already done this year:
- Alton Towers (23rd/24th March 2024): As anticipated in January, I did get to Alton Towers and ride the retracked Nemesis not long after it opened. However, I did not necessarily anticipate the park revealing their decision to do the Alton After Dark event with night rides in March, so I knew I had to go for that!
- Matt N’s Solo South East Jaunt - Legoland Windsor/Thorpe Park (9th/10th June 2024): As anticipated in January, I did return to Thorpe Park, and my “maybe” of Legoland also came true… but it all panned out rather differently to how I’d originally expected! I eventually made the rather bold (for me, anyway) decision to go on my first ever solo overnight trip to the Staines area and do both of these parks in one trip. I had a brilliant trip; I had never planned to visit Legoland on my own, but it was far less embarrassing than I’d feared, and I was glad to get the Minifigure Speedway credits! And while I was spited by Hyperia, I also had a great day at Thorpe!
- Alton Towers (28th July 2024): Due to my dad attending the LIV Golf tournament at the nearby JCB golf course on 28th July, I’m going to have an additional opportunity to visit Alton Towers this year. There’s a good chance that it may be my first time ever visiting Alton Tiwers alone, which should be interesting!
- Matt N’s Expedition to East Anglia - Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach/Pleasurewood Hills/Joyland (11th-13th August 2024): Rather unexpectedly, I’ve been given the opportunity to visit the theme parks in East Anglia, and East Anglia in general, for the first ever time this August with my parents! It’ll be interesting to tick off two of my remaining unvisited semi-major UK parks in Pleasurewood Hills and Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach, and it’ll also be interesting to ride unique coasters such as Roller Coaster, Cannonball Express and Tyrolean Tubtwist! As well as that, I’ll also finally be riding my first ever stock model Vekoma Boomerang over 100 coasters into the hobby! It really is quite a novelty when you’ve ridden as many UK coasters as I have to go on a trip on home soil and have multiple new theme parks and coasters to visit!
- Jaunty trip report title TBC - PortAventura/Ferrari Land (9th-12th September 2024): As anticipated in January, I am now confirmed to be going for my first ever visit to PortAventura World in Spain in September with my parents, and I could not be more excited! We’ve got 3 days of tickets to PortAventura and a day at Ferrari Land, we’re staying on site at the Hotel Gold River, and I can’t wait to see what this Spanish resort has to offer! For starters, Shambhala has been an absolutely massive bucket list coaster of mine for years; as a huge fan of B&M Hypers, I’ve always wanted to get on the one that’s commonly said to be the cream of the crop! Red Force, Europe’s tallest and fastest roller coaster, is also hotly anticipated for me, the overall resort just looks so well-themed and to have so many interesting-looking attractions, and overall, I’m just so excited to be getting to another major European theme park after ticking off Europa Park in 2022!
- I’ll likely go back to Thorpe Park at least once more this year so that I can get on Hyperia. My mum and dad were on about going at some point within the next month or two once it’s settled down and settled in a bit, but even if that doesn’t materialise, I can probably find some means of getting there solo in September, either of my own accord or with my dad if he attends Wentworth again this year. Whatever happens, though, I’m probably not firming up any plans for a Thorpe return until Hyperia has settled down and some of its growing pains have been resolved.
- I’ll likely go to Drayton Manor at some point later in the year, but that is entirely contingent on their new Intamin being open, and I’m not firming up any plans until we at least get a better idea of when this might be open.
- I went to Pembrokeshire in May and Oakwood was unfortunately closed when I was there. I think it’s unlikely that I’ll be going here this year, to be honest.
- I think it’s unlikely that I’ll be returning to Blackpool Pleasure Beach this year, as there are things higher up my priority list, but I wouldn’t rule it out.
But went to Plopsa instead 
Would likely tie Drayton & BPB into an AT trip too as it's about 5hrs to get there so may as well visit them all. It'd be nice to spend a bit more time at Thorpe if possible but I don't have any theme park friends & my long-suffering family have a limit on the amount of moral support/time/patience they are able to invest in my interest per year (definitely exceeding that with the bigger trips already!) so we will see as I'm too anxious to go alone 
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