Your most and least pleasurable theme park days

[Matt N]

Hi guys. I don’t know about any of you, but as a theme park enthusiast, I find that every theme park day is pleasurable in its own way. However, the pleasurability of these days does vary, so with that in mind; I’d be intrigued to know; what have been some of your most and least pleasurable theme park days?

These don’t necessarily have to equate with your favourite and least favourite parks; you might have had a terrible day at a park you love, and equally, you might have had a great day at a park you don’t rate that highly!

I’ll get the ball rolling with some of mine…
Most Pleasurable

• Europa Park (29th April 2022) - I loved all 3 days at Europa, and all are easily in contention for the title of “most pleasurable theme park day” (but for the sake of not repeating Europa loads of times, I won’t mention all of them), but for some reason, the last day sticks out in my mind as being particularly pleasurable. It just felt like such a wonderful day! It could be the fact that I broke my own personal ride count record by some distance (21 rides ridden; the previous record holder was 16!) without even trying overly hard (we maintained a fairly relaxed tempo throughout the day), it could be the fact that I had an amazing 6 rides on my #2 coaster Silver Star (again, that broke the record for the most times I’ve ridden one attraction in a day, and I broke it on a coaster I absolutely loved), it could be the fact that we experienced a very varied range of attractions, with plenty of supporting attractions thrown in alongside the big hitters; I don’t know. But for whatever reason, this day left me with some phenomenally fond memories I’ll treasure forever. I was genuinely sad to be leaving the park at the end of it, which is a sure sign of a truly brilliant day, in my opinion!
• Islands of Adventure/Universal Studios Florida (28th August 2016) - Even though this day was 6 years ago now, and it was across 2 parks rather than one, my most recent day at the Universal Orlando Resort does stick out to me! We did both parks by using the Hogwarts Express, I got 2 rides in on Hulk, we did loads of dark rides, did some water rides; it just sticks out to me as a brilliant day, for some reason! A revisit to UOR is definitely needed… it’s such a cool place!
• Paultons Park (30th July 2021) - Paultons might not be as grand or as spectacular as the parks above, but my first and only day there was wonderful! We got on loads of rides (14, to be exact), and that was with an incredibly relaxed tempo; we didn’t rush around by any stretch, and we spent at least 2 hours of our 6 hour day not riding anything at all! And in general, the place was so relaxing, and so nice to be in, that I just had to mention it!
• Thorpe Park (7th September 2021) - My nomination from Thorpe Park was a toss up between 7th September 2021 and 2nd August 2019 (when we stayed at the park until 6:30pm) but I have to say, I think 7th September narrowly wins out! It was my first time visiting a theme park alone, and also a relatively quiet midweek day, and it was awesome! I got 16 rides in, the tempo wasn’t too rushed, and I got incredible personal satisfaction from having done a theme park on my own!
• Alton Towers (12th July 2020) - I could have picked quite a few days here, as I’ve had so many great days at Alton Towers over the years, but I think that this one stands out. In retrospect, it wasn’t one of my higher ride count days (although we still got 6 rides in, which I’d say is decent!), but I had some absolutely mesmerising rides on Wicker Man that well and truly blew me away, and it was just nice to be back at a theme park after the COVID lockdowns!
• Blackpool Pleasure Beach (24th August 2019) - I’ve got to say, I had a really nice time when I visited BPB for Late Night Riding. I loved getting in some of my first ever night rides, we stayed until 9pm, and on the whole, it was just a great day!

Least Pleasurable
If I’m being honest, there aren’t any theme park days that stick out in my mind as being wholly unpleasant, but there are some that fall lower on the pleasurability scale, for sure.

• Thorpe Park (16th July 2018) - This was an end of year school trip I took to Thorpe Park, and in retrospect, it wasn’t one of my more pleasurable theme park days. It was still fun to be at Thorpe Park, and I did get on Rush & Samurai for the first time, but it was very busy. We got on 2 rides during our 6 hours on park (it took close to an hour to get in, so we weren’t in until 11:30am), and no coasters were ridden; only Rush & Samurai were ridden. We also waited over 2 hours for Saw only for it to break down at the very end of the queue. That’s not to say it was a bad day by any means (2 rides is better than nothing, and I did get to experience Rush & Samurai for the first time), but it was perhaps my lowest ride count ever at a ride-focused park like Thorpe (relative to the amount of hours spent in the park, at least), and not one of my fonder theme park memories in the grand scheme of things.
• Legoland Windsor (31st August 2017) - Granted, this day may have been more due to circumstance than the park itself, but my first ever visit to Legoland was not one of my more pleasurable park experiences, I must admit. Our mum was in a wheelchair due to having fractured her ankle, which added an element of stress, and the park was extremely busy. The pathways were very crowded, and I found it hard to move about, which made me pretty anxious. I did get on Dragon, though, so at least I got the park’s singular non-kiddie credit in! And I did later get a revisit in July 2021, which was much more enjoyable and gave me the opportunity to properly take in the park!
• Alton Towers (25th March 2018) - Wicker Man’s opening weekend was exciting, don’t get me wrong, but in retrospect, the day where I first rode it was not one of my fonder experiences at Alton Towers. We started our day by attempting to ride Wicker Man during ERT, which we initially thought would be a brilliant idea… but it turned out that everyone else had the same idea, and a fair queue had already amassed by the time we reached the ride. That wasn’t the main problem, however; the main issue was that due to reliability issues, the ride didn’t open until 11:30am despite ERT starting at 9:30am, meaning that we waited outside the ride for 2 hours, and then it took us at least another hour to get on once it did open, due to a combination of a long queue and the ride’s reliability issues meaning that it went up and down like a yo-yo. We did get on, thankfully, but we broke down at the end of the ride, and were then stuck on the brake run for the best part of 30 minutes before being evacuated, which took the total length of our Wicker Man experience to around 4 hours. Even away from Wicker Man, the park was having a tough day; it was busy, and things were breaking down left, right and centre. After getting off Wicker Man, we had lunch, rode Thirteen with the priority passes we’d been given from the Wicker Man evac, and then left at 2:30pm because my family had had enough by that point. I am very thankful to have been a part of Wicker Man’s opening weekend and to have ridden it that day, and it was cool to be evacuated (the only time I’ve ever been evacuated from a coaster, from memory), but it wasn’t one of my more pleasurable days at Alton Towers, all things considered.

But what have been some of your most and least pleasurable theme park days?

 

[pluk]

Most - CWOA Oct '93. Where it really started for me, moving from 'I like rides' to 'I love themeparks'. Peak Chessington. Fifth Dimension and Circus World still with us, original Vampire, Bubbleworks, Mine train, the beginning of Halloween events in the UK with no actual mazes but lots of interactive street performers, dark riding, and fireworks.

Most - Magic Kingdom, Sept '05. Already with a honeymoon glow, a truly magical park. Hitting the dream of beautiful weather and a quiet parks, it was a beautiful place to be in a perfect moment that gives me shivers thinking back to that time.

Most - Paultons, '21-'22. By an absolute mile the best UK theme park option, seeing the joy in my daughter discovering it for herself can't be beat.


Least - Thorpe Park, c.'15. An impromptu visit on the way home from Brighton, turned out to be an inset day locally and the park were not prepared for it at all. Was an absolute misery of huge queues and shocking operations. Also got locked in a broken Inferno for about 20 minutes towards the end of the day which meant we missed out on being able to get any last ride of the day in.

Even more Least - Asterix c. '12. Even busier and even more poorly operated than Thorpe above, but with the added bonus of being a one off visit a long way from home.

 

[Rob]

I've had so many brilliant days at lots of different theme parks to be able to come up with any sort of list. Pretty much any day at Europa-Park these days counts, I don't recall ever having a bad day on park.

My second day at Cedar Point in 2018 was a really great day, got so many rides done. Two days at an empty Six Flags Magic Mountain in 2019 stick in the mind, as does Disneyland on the same trip.

As for least pleasurable days, I've had some miserable ones at Thorpe and Chessington over the years thanks to crowds and poor operations. But the one that really stands out is Mt. Olympus in 2018; such a terrible park with nothing going for it at all. The only positives were goats, and the fact that now I have been I never have to return!

 

[Jonathan]

In terms of most pleasurable days at a park, I've never had a bad day at EP. One of my favourites at Towers was the Fireworks on Sunday 10th November - my 21st birthday. It was the first time I'd stayed on resort, and the Fireworks show itself is one of the best I've seen at Towers. After the show finished, we were still on the raised mound at the bottom of Towers Street when the lovely members of this site started to sing 'Happy Birthday' to me. I have to admit I got a little emotional, as it was completely unexpected. To be honest, most Fireworks I've attended have been really pleasurable, which I guess could partly be down to the sentimentality of the 2011 Fireworks being the first time I met a lot of you wonderful people.

In terms of least pleasurable days at a park, that's quite a difficult one, though I think a vote could likely go to Feb Half Term 2015 at both BPB and Towers. BPB just wasn't as good as I thought it was, and Towers was freezing cold, to the point where we sacked it off mid-afternoon to warm up in Dragon Bar.

 

[MattyH]

Most pleasureable

First day at Europa Park and Phantasialand. Two amazing theme parks and phantasialand is EP but with better ride Hardware condensed into half the space.

Least pleasureable

Wickerman opening day meet. Spending forever in the wickerman queue to never ride it

A visit to Parc Asterix when I was younger and it was summer holidays hence a nightmare.

 

[rob666]

Me and dippy racing round the Flying Machines on our pushbikes, closely followed by a grinning security bloke, would certainly make my top ten, if I ever ranked.
Getting to the Towers at 6 am with a mate with a killer hangover..."Just take me home, I think I'm going to die", so driving the three hours home before getting into the actual park.
Not the best camping/coaster jolly ever.

 

[BigShadowtinytree]

Least pleasurable was probably my only trip to Legoland Windsor as a child. We went on a bank holiday and it was absolutely rammed. I think we got on 3 rides total all day, one was The Dragon, the other was Sky Rider and I forget what the third was. Always stuck out to me as one of my worst theme park visits and ever since I’ve been reluctant to visit parks over a bank holiday.

School trips to Drayon and Towers are up there too, it’s always rammed with other schools and you get hardly any time on park so it’s just a mad rush from one thing to another. Although I do remember getting on Nemesis, Oblivion, Corkscrew and Air on one trip so not totally terrible, but then someone took my bag (I think by accident, as they had an identical bag) from the bag area on Ripsaw which had all my cash, house keys etc in it and it never turned up at lost property, so that ruined my day a bit.

Most pleasurable was probably Paulton’s Park last year. We went during half term but queues were minimal even in Tornado Springs, we got so many rides done and multiple re-rides. Their coaster selection for shorter guests is brilliant, not all just boring kiddie coasters but actual proper creds that my thrill seeking children loved (for my younger child it meant that towers was a bit of a disappointment for them due to not being 1.2 yet and only being able to go on RMT and Octanaughts as far as coasters go). The whole park is a pleasure to be in, so clean and well looked after even the older areas. I just wish it wasn’t a 3/4 hour drive away otherwise we’d visit more often.

 

[MattyH]

I forgot about the worse trip I ever had but @BigShadowtinytree post reminded me.

A random October weekend visit to Legoland when we were younger and had season passes, the first day was fairly normal. The second day... It turned out that the beavers, scouts and brownies from seemingly the entirety of London had turned up. There were cars parked everywhere and coach loads turned up.

I remember it being horrendous, everything had massive queues and I think we gave up and went home. Which is extremely unusual as we'd travel so far and stayed in a hotel. It was so bad we decided to give Legoland a miss for a few years afterwards.

 

[Jonathan]

My last visit to Thorpe in May 2019 was just unenjoyable, and I can't quite put my finger on why. Spent most of the day in the bar (was on Coca-Cola only due to being a designated driver...though I did have a couple of pints before noon ), only really venturing out to finally get the Flying Fish cred. Legoland the following day was weirdly much better, and the icing on the cake was being introduced to Lego fries.