Matt N
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- VelociCoaster (Islands of Adventure)
A new season has recently begun, and with that, that means we can all start taking theme park trips again! So I’d love to know; what’s on your agenda in 2026 theme park-wise?
I’ll admit I haven’t had a lot of time to think about trips recently, as things have been quite busy in my professional life and I’ve been feeling a little bit low for the last couple of weeks.
However, I’m starting to get some more ideas of trips, and I already have a couple booked in for the new season! My current plans are as follows:
Confirmed
I do, though, have an aspiration to hit 150 coasters in 2026. Having hit 100 in 2023, I feel like I’ve been relatively dragging my heels in reaching 150 after a quieter 2025 than I’d have perhaps liked; I’d love to hit the hobby harder in 2026, and I feel as though getting that 150th cred under the belt would be a perfect way to do that!
Admittedly, I’m not currently certain on how I’ll do that, but I’m sensing that France alone may be insufficient. I might have to supplement France with something UK-based, I think… but my issue with Britain now is that the semi-major parks I haven’t been to are now longer distances away for diminishing returns. I mention Adventure Island as I feel it would be easily pairable with a London Merlin park like Thorpe and isn’t an obscene distance away (3.5 hours-ish from Bristol Parkway on the train). I have been on about getting to Skegness and doing Fantasy Island for a couple of years now, but as much as Odyssey and Millennium are probably the most noteworthy UK coasters I’m yet to ride, I baulk at the thought of the 5.5 hour train journey and am also slightly sceptical having heard some people’s… less than stellar reviews of FI.
And besides, I think I may have some convincing to do to get to either seeing as my mum has previously told me that I will only visit either Skegness or Southend alone “over [her] dead body”…
But I’d love to know; what theme parks are you planning to visit in 2026?
I’ll admit I haven’t had a lot of time to think about trips recently, as things have been quite busy in my professional life and I’ve been feeling a little bit low for the last couple of weeks.
However, I’m starting to get some more ideas of trips, and I already have a couple booked in for the new season! My current plans are as follows:
Confirmed
- Alton Towers (27th/28th March) - With me having purchased an Essential Merlin Pass for 2026, I intend to make good use of it during the season, and that starts with me and my mum taking an Alton Towers trip together next week! We’re going to be on park for Alton After Dark and the late night rides on 27th March, which I’m looking forward to giving another chance after a less than ideal experience in 2024; I really hope I can get another Wicker Man night ride, and if I’m lucky, maybe even one or two others! The dates we’re visiting will also put me on park for a likely shorter day on the opening day of Bluey, but with both the likely mayhem around it and my well-catalogued general aversion to riding kiddie coasters, I don’t see me riding it…
- Disneyland Paris/Parc Asterix (27th June-4th July - theme park dates TBC) - We have a holiday to France booked in late June, and DLP and Asterix are both on the menu during that week! We’re staying in rented accommodation roughly halfway between the two and will be visiting both at some point, so I’ve got lots of new things to look forward to! I haven’t been to DLP in 15 years, so it’ll be fun to get on the park’s thrill rides for the first time alongside seeing some of the new things since my last visit, and I’ve never visited Parc Asterix before, so I’m really looking forward to seeing what that park has to offer! Toutatis is particularly exciting to me; with it seemingly blending many aspects of VelociCoaster, my current #1, with the airtime-filled swing launching fun of Ice Breaker, another ride that I loved, it looks right up my street!
- Thorpe Park - I’ll almost certainly get to Thorpe at least once in 2026. With me having that Merlin pass for the season and Hyperia being easily my favourite UK coaster, alongside Thorpe packing some of my other UK favourites, I doubt I’ll be staying away for very long! Seeing as I’ve earned a lot of money contracting and am now 90% sure I’ll be unemployed for at least a large portion of April, I’m honestly thinking I might make lemonade out of lemons and do a Thorpe trip during April, maybe even in tandem with another park (maybe somewhere like Adventure Island, to get some new creds under my belt?) or for two days!
- Paultons Park - With Drakon and Valgard opening this year, there’s no way that Paultons isn’t going to be on my agenda at some point in 2026! I was initially thinking I might leave it until the autumn, but I’m increasingly tempted to go not long after Valgard opens!
- Blackpool Pleasure Beach - I wasn’t initially planning on a Blackpool revisit this year, but having really enjoyed my trip there last April and considering that they’re opening up Aviktas, a highly anticipated new flat ride, this year, I am increasingly pondering doing another trip up north in 2026! I always enjoy a Blackpool trip, and I do feel like Aviktas would be a good excuse to return… I’m wondering if this might be a nice one to do come September, after the kids have returned to school!
I do, though, have an aspiration to hit 150 coasters in 2026. Having hit 100 in 2023, I feel like I’ve been relatively dragging my heels in reaching 150 after a quieter 2025 than I’d have perhaps liked; I’d love to hit the hobby harder in 2026, and I feel as though getting that 150th cred under the belt would be a perfect way to do that!
Admittedly, I’m not currently certain on how I’ll do that, but I’m sensing that France alone may be insufficient. I might have to supplement France with something UK-based, I think… but my issue with Britain now is that the semi-major parks I haven’t been to are now longer distances away for diminishing returns. I mention Adventure Island as I feel it would be easily pairable with a London Merlin park like Thorpe and isn’t an obscene distance away (3.5 hours-ish from Bristol Parkway on the train). I have been on about getting to Skegness and doing Fantasy Island for a couple of years now, but as much as Odyssey and Millennium are probably the most noteworthy UK coasters I’m yet to ride, I baulk at the thought of the 5.5 hour train journey and am also slightly sceptical having heard some people’s… less than stellar reviews of FI.
And besides, I think I may have some convincing to do to get to either seeing as my mum has previously told me that I will only visit either Skegness or Southend alone “over [her] dead body”…
But I’d love to know; what theme parks are you planning to visit in 2026?