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What made you become a theme park enthusiast?
- Thread starter Matt N
- Start date
djtruefitt
TS Team
I’ve always visited theme parks, there’s photos of me when I was a few years old at Alton, Chessie and Lego. Being fairly local to towers we would always go once a year, then I had relatives down south, so when we visited them we always ended up doing the southern parks.
I then probably stopped visiting theme parks completely once I got to about 14 odd, I guess once you get to that age you don’t want to go anywhere with your parents.
Then whilst at uni me and my mates went to Alton Towers for a day and I really enjoyed it and it brought back a lot of memories from visiting as a child, so when I got home I started researching rides and things that had opened it closed since I had been a child. So every now and then when I was bored I would have a quick look on a few sites, ATA and TowersTimes being good. In the end I decided to join the forum after reading it all the time, probably in about 2010.
Ended up buying an Alton Towers annual pass for the 2011 season, and here we are 10 years later, after visiting multiple parks all over the world with such a great bunch of people!
I then probably stopped visiting theme parks completely once I got to about 14 odd, I guess once you get to that age you don’t want to go anywhere with your parents.
Then whilst at uni me and my mates went to Alton Towers for a day and I really enjoyed it and it brought back a lot of memories from visiting as a child, so when I got home I started researching rides and things that had opened it closed since I had been a child. So every now and then when I was bored I would have a quick look on a few sites, ATA and TowersTimes being good. In the end I decided to join the forum after reading it all the time, probably in about 2010.
Ended up buying an Alton Towers annual pass for the 2011 season, and here we are 10 years later, after visiting multiple parks all over the world with such a great bunch of people!
Connor98
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Hyperion
Towers and Drayton manor kickstarted it for me! I was never too keen on the larger attractions but having Drayton 20 minutes away and towers 45 minutes or so... it was only a matter of time before I tried my first major coaster, which was Air! And I still have the on ride photo, from there I started getting brave, riding coasters like Shockwave, Nemesis and Rita, which all felt at the time like they were the pinnacle of coasters.
It was only when the construction of 13 began I started to realise there was other people into theme parks, however I never reached out to anyone. The the smiler came and my love for visiting parks was certain! I started to visit parks all across the UK with my family, and then drafted a friend into the community (which I’m quite proud of considering he used to hate coasters!), we would attend parks around the UK season after season. It was only when the Wickerman was constructed I decided to start getting involved in forums. Ever since then it’s been my biggest hobby in life by miles, and I have even started to spend my holiday money on visiting parks instead. Yes I’ve been hampered by Covid, so I haven’t been able to get to all the parks I’d planned to across the world, but I at least managed my solo Poland trip last year, and met some great other enthusiasts whilst out there, who I’ve kept in touch with since.
It was only when the construction of 13 began I started to realise there was other people into theme parks, however I never reached out to anyone. The the smiler came and my love for visiting parks was certain! I started to visit parks all across the UK with my family, and then drafted a friend into the community (which I’m quite proud of considering he used to hate coasters!), we would attend parks around the UK season after season. It was only when the Wickerman was constructed I decided to start getting involved in forums. Ever since then it’s been my biggest hobby in life by miles, and I have even started to spend my holiday money on visiting parks instead. Yes I’ve been hampered by Covid, so I haven’t been able to get to all the parks I’d planned to across the world, but I at least managed my solo Poland trip last year, and met some great other enthusiasts whilst out there, who I’ve kept in touch with since.
AstroDan
TS Team
- Favourite Ride
- Steel Vengeance, Cedar Point
The reason I became an enthusiast, rather than just a casual enjoyer of theme parks as I had always been (playing Theme Park as a kid, visiting Alton Towers every year) was living in Strasbourg. I spent an Erasmus year out there when I was studying French at University. What happened next, quite literally, changed my life.
It was early in the year, September 2004 to be precise, and I was on a tram to the University campus with some friends. I happened to glance at one of those ads you get on these sorts of vehicles - and there it was. "EUROPA-PARK". I hadn't heard of the place. There seemed to be some deal where the local transit authority offered return bus travel from Strasbourg to Europa-Park and back for €28 including entry. Basically, you paid the regular day ticket but got the travel. I said to my friends, hey - look - there's a theme park nearby.
Fully expecting it to be like Drayton Manor, I had had a little look on the website prior to the day but not done too much investigating. We got on the bus at 8am that Saturday morning and arrived in Rust at 9am.
At that moment, I became an enthusiast.
The next step I made was signing up to ATA and then, shortly after TTF. I then watched the live cam of Atlantica Super Splash construction all winter and rode it on opening day.
And here I am.
It was early in the year, September 2004 to be precise, and I was on a tram to the University campus with some friends. I happened to glance at one of those ads you get on these sorts of vehicles - and there it was. "EUROPA-PARK". I hadn't heard of the place. There seemed to be some deal where the local transit authority offered return bus travel from Strasbourg to Europa-Park and back for €28 including entry. Basically, you paid the regular day ticket but got the travel. I said to my friends, hey - look - there's a theme park nearby.
Fully expecting it to be like Drayton Manor, I had had a little look on the website prior to the day but not done too much investigating. We got on the bus at 8am that Saturday morning and arrived in Rust at 9am.
At that moment, I became an enthusiast.
The next step I made was signing up to ATA and then, shortly after TTF. I then watched the live cam of Atlantica Super Splash construction all winter and rode it on opening day.
And here I am.
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