I’ve thought a lot about how to do an end-of-year post. A month-by-month run-down? Best and worst? But in the end, I’ve settled on pure joy. So, without further ado, here are the absolute highlights of my 2023 season, the very best of the rides and parks I’ve experienced! And it was one heck of a year. I’ll be lucky if 2024 comes close, but with the additions the UK is getting, I think it just might!
Best New Theme Park: Tivoli GARDENS
Let’s start with the big one: best new theme park. And, well, there’s only one theme park I’ve visited this year that made me fall in love so hard that I reworked my trip to fit in a second visit, and that is Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen. I wrote a whole piece about how much I adored this place but put simply, this was one of the nicest places to be that I’ve ever been. Every attraction was presented immaculately, the gardens themselves were beautiful, and there were delightful, quirky details at every turn. Throw in a genuinely great mix of attractions for a park of its size, and you’ve got an undoubted winner. What I’d give to have a bag of Pina Colada popcorn in my hand as I get in line for Tik Tak right now…
Runner Up: Toverland
Best New Coaster: Toutatis
In 2022, I was lucky enough to get to experience Pantheon at Busch Gardens Williamsburg, and I adored it. This was a ride that delivered everything I enjoy in a roller coaster. It was smooth, fast, whippy, delivered incredible airtime, and (most importantly) hangtime. What it didn’t deliver, however, was theming. Enter Parc Astérix. The incredibly themed Paris-adjacent park had been planning to open their new themed area years prior – we all know what happened there – and finally, the time had come. Safe to say, Toutatis delivered and then some. It had all the very best parts of Pantheon but cranked up to 11. Even the most controversial part of the ride (the slow cresting of the top hat) made me laugh with delight, I genuinely really enjoyed dangling over the drop for a moment! Most importantly, at least when it comes to distinguishing this ride from its American cousin, the station and launch portion of the ride are incredibly themed. The lighting and sound accompanying the launch? Art. Do I wish there was more to see in the latter portion of the ride? Of course. But I can forgive the bare forest when I get to fly through glowing rockwork prior! I was fortunate to be able to return to the park in October for a night ride, and it’s up there with the greatest roller coaster rides I’ve ever experienced, in no small part thanks to this lighting!
Runner Up: Fēnix
Best Theme Park Day: Toutatis Opening Day
Not only was Toutatis my favourite new coaster of the year, but it also provided the single best day I experienced at a theme park this year (and it’s up there in the all-timers, to be honest!) Unless you were there, and honestly, there’s a good chance you were, I’m not sure I can explain how surreal this entire experience was. The day started by waking up in the top bunk in one of my favourite hotels in the world (Les Quais De Lutéce), crammed in with some of my favourite people (I’m going to be using the word favourite a lot here it seems), before heading in for early park access. Of course, we wouldn’t be using any of our early ride time to ride. Oh no, we’d be waiting at the rope, ready to run to Festival Toutatis and its much-anticipated headline attraction. I was ready. My bag was crammed with snacks and drinks to get us through the multi-hour wait. I frantically purchased Dogmatix ears from a stand next to the queue, ready for hours of excited selfies. Except, the park did something insane. They gave us early hotel guest access to Toutatis. On opening day. We speed-walked over, under the magnificent stone archway and… straight into the station? We barely got a chance to appreciate the theming before we were ready to ride. With such an unexpected bonus, we hopped in the front-row queue, spotting many well-known UK theme park figures in the line with us. And this was what made the day so special. Half the UK was there! On leaving the hotel in the morning, we met with more friends, and on using the bathroom after our first ride, I bumped into friends at the sink. At the quick service restaurant, we saw more friends, and so on, and so on. Nothing I’ve experienced as a theme park fan really comes close to riding one of the best coasters in the world, in France, in the glorious sunshine surrounded by the friends you know from home, having planned for none of it. It was a day that proved that there really is a theme park community and that it’s bloody marvellous.
Runner Up: Turning 30 at Efteling
Best Theme Park Hotel: Efteling Bosrijk
This one was tough, really tough! I’ve been fortunate enough to stay at some amazing theme park hotels this year! The Grand Curiosa at Liseberg was ridiculously lovely, and the grandeur of Hotel Krønasår at Europa Park made me feel like the luckiest girl in the world to be able to stay there. But, my favourite of all was Bosrijk at Efteling. This is maybe a bit of an unconventional choice, given that it’s mostly a holiday village and we had to trek through the dirt to get to our room. But, like everything at Efteling, the place just oozed magic. The thing I think most sums up our experience here was, as we walked back to the room after dinner, Yoo-hoo How-do (the resort’s owl mascot) could be seeing perching on the sandcastle in the centre of the lake. In the morning, he was gone. On arrival at breakfast, there he was instead! Bobbing around and meeting guests. This little touch blew my mind! As did the food. Dinner at the on-site Eethuys restaurant was hands down the best food I’ve eaten at any theme park hotel. We stayed here on my birthday, and I’d accepted that I wasn’t having a special birthday dinner, just grabbing whatever was convenient, but this place was a special birthday dinner! It was phenomenal, with the friendliest staff, gorgeous theming, and food that I haven’t stopped thinking about since. The room, too, was enormous and filled with magical touches, like a little wooden board game to play, sleeping caps, themed bedding on the children’s bunks and a book, all themed to the resort’s resident Sandman, and his companion, Yoo-hoo How-do! The result? I’m now desperate to stay at every Efteling resort!
Runner Up: Liseberg Grand Curiosa
Best New UK Attraction: The Curse At Alton Manor
Of all the things opening in the UK this year, The Curse at Alton Manor was by far my most anticipated, and it did not disappoint! I was gutted when the park announced the closure of Duel last year – I’d always enjoyed the kitschy fun of the ghostly shooter – but the sadness quickly turned to excitement when the park began hinting at what was in store. A classic haunted-house-style dark ride utilizing modern technology? Sign me up!
Though I didn’t make it down for opening day, I was there on day two and was delighted to see characters roaming the re-vitalized area. When they’d appeared on opening day, I’d assumed that they would be one-off. Designed to make the attraction look better in opening day vlogs and such. What I really didn’t anticipate was that they’d still be there at the end of the season, even changing up their routine for Scarefest! Combined with the themed snacks available from the previously long-closed snack stand opposite (the mint soft serve is a must!), Gloomy Wood has suddenly become my favourite area of the park this year – it just feels so alive!
The ride itself is, thankfully, also spectacular. Whilst there are some things I’d certainly tweak – it really bugs me that you can see the brush strokes on the giant clock face for instance – the overall experience is unlike anything else we have in the UK. Of course, it also continued to improve throughout the year, with Scarefest in particular bringing some glorious additions! As the industry as a whole seems to lean towards screens, it’s been such a treat to get a new dark ride packed with figures, animatronics, peppers ghost and every other trick that made me fall in love with dark rides as a kid, plus some new ones that blew my mind! Through its use of smells particularly, The Curse at Alton Manor is a little slice of Halloween all year round, and I adore it.
Runner Up: Mandrill Mayhem
Best Theme Park Event: Dinosaur Breakout (Drayton Manor)
Theme park events are becoming A Big Thing and I am here for it! There are few things I love more than a good seasonal event. In my mind, the perfect event should have:
- A seasonal show
- Themed snacks
- A special outfit for the park mascot
- Decorations
Lots of events I attended this year ticked the boxes, but my favourite of them all was Dinosaur Breakout at Drayton Manor! Drayton really went all-in with events this year, absolutely packing their calendar with the things, and boy did they start with a bang! Filling the February half-term, the concept was that dinosaurs had taken over the park. The headline attraction was the appearance of various dinosaurs throughout the park at different times throughout the day. But when you weren’t meeting a dinosaur you could catch the Raptor Training show, watch Rory’s themed show, meet the man himself in a themed outfit, and, at the end of the day, catch a dinosaur parade! There was so much to do throughout the day that I didn’t even mind that there weren’t any thrill rides open for half-term. We honestly barely had time for any attractions between all the themed entertainment! Plus, the dinosaurs themselves were insanely good! They all towered above me, moving realistically – even their eyelids! There were even baby dinosaurs roaming the park in the arms of keepers! This event was dinosaur assault, and it was amazing.
Runner Up: Springfest at Legoland Windsor
Best New Flat Ride: Polyps
I’ve talked a lot about how I’m very much not a flat ride person. But, I’m doing my best to change that. On a visit to Bakken in April, I set about to ride as many of the park’s attractions as possible, and being a mostly fun-fair style park, this included a large number of flats! The best of these by quite some margin was Polyp. I was not prepared at all for what was about to happen on this seemingly innocuous ride. As the cycle hit its full speed, I was certain I was going to die. Every spin felt like it was trying its best to eject me from the vehicle as I flew into the air, clinging on to the bar for dear life. I spent the entire cycle screaming and laughing in equal measure and couldn’t wait to go back for another round! Across the following season, I had plenty of opportunity to ride many of these glorious rides, and though I maintain that Bakken has the best, they’re all just fantastic, fantastic flats. Please bring one to the UK!
Runner Up: Tik Tak
Best New Dark Ride: Piraten in Batavia
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Piraten in Batavia was my favourite new dark ride this year! I’d heard an awful lot about this Pirates of the Carribean-inspired attraction, with many people even rating it above the Disney classic. Hearing such fantastic word-of-mouth, I kept myself spoiler-free, wanting to decide from experience alone whether this really is better than Pirates. It may not surprise you to know that no, I don’t think Piraten is better than Pirates. Whilst it certainly has elements that work in its favour (particularly the use of smells and projection mapping) I think that some of the screens, particularly one depicting soldiers firing guns, detract from the overall experience, and don’t even get me started on the appearance of Roland Mack. However, saying that I don’t think an attraction is better than my favourite ride of all time isn’t criticism at all. This ride is phenomenal. From a vast, immersive queue line so gorgeous that it made me glad when we finally had to wait through it (those queues move quick!), to a mascot so wonderful that I immediately went to the shop next door on a merchandise mission, and sets throughout filled with detail and life. Piraten really does have everything you could ever want from a dark ride. It’s my favourite ride at Europa Park, and it’s not even close.
Runner Up: Underlandet
Best Scare Attraction: Funerarium (Bellewaerde)
Again, there’s a whole post about the event and how much I adored this attraction, but it was quite simply unhinged and was enough to make me desperate to re-visit Bellewaerde next Halloween!
Runner Up: Le Tombeau des Dieux
Best Show: Disney Dreams
Ding dong the witch is dead! Disney Illuminations has been defeated!
I’ve been visiting Disneyland Paris regularly since 2017, and in all that time, I’ve never enjoyed the nighttime spectacular. I was desperate for something new, and as part of the fan community, you can bet I’d heard a thing or two about Disney Dreams! So I was delighted when the show’s return was announced, and somewhat amazingly, it lived up to the hype! Apologies for the grainy terrible photo, but it’s all I have, so swept up in the magic of the show was I on both occasions that I’ve been able to watch. It feels so good to have an end-of-day spectacular that actually makes me emotional, features fun projection mapping, and the songs that we all love! No more do I have to listen to a song no one cares about from live-action Beauty and the Beast! I’m sure other shows I saw throughout the year were technically better (see: runner-up Caro), but this one means the most to me!
Runner Up: Caro
Best Character Meet: Gromit
I’ve met a character or two in my time, but no meet has ever come close to the unhinged mania that was my meet with Gromit at Blackpool Pleasure Beach this year. As I waved him down, the dog skipped over to me, grabbed my hand, and skipped me through the park, down to his official photo spot. After the routine paid photos, I tried to be a little sneaky and get my own free versions with my phone. Having agreed to a selfie, Gromit then proceeded to try and smother me. The whole time, I could hear… Gromit’s friend… hysterically laughing. It was all a lot as the photos above show!
Runner Up: Toothless at Heide Park
So that was my 2023! After a 2022 very focussed on the USA, it was great to finally tick off some incredible European parks, and re-visit a few of my favourites! Every year I’m so grateful for the incredible people who make all these trips possible. The theme park community really is the best, and I can’t wait to see where 2024 takes us! As of right now, Disneyland Paris is all I’ve got on the calendar, so who knows what the year will hold. But, if it’s anywhere near as much fun as 2023, it’s going to be great.
Speak again soon,
Claire
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coasterclaire.co.uk 