Our Favorite Moments from 2014, Part 2

The 2014 coaster season was a stellar one for the Coaster101 team, and we’re highlighting a few of our favorite moments from the year in this two-part series.

Read “Part 1” of our Favorite Moments from 2014 feature here.

favorites-2014-2

Kyle

Coming into 2014, I did not have high hopes of making it to too many parks, but I actually got to visit five, including two I had not been to before. This year was probably one of my best years of roller coaster riding; I added 14 coasters to my count and achieved #100 on The Phoenix at Knoebels. As for my favorite moments, here are a few:

  • Banshee Media Day & Scream For A Kid Again
    • This was my first media day experience, so I was not sure what to expect. I thought I would get maybe 2-3 rides in and get a lot of photographs. It ended up being a lot less crowded than expected and I got 5 rides in. Getting to meet up and ride with fellow Coaster101 writer, Nick, was also a great part of the day.
    • Scream For A Kid Again was a charity event put on by Kings Island to raise money for A Kid Again, a foundation that provides children with life-threatening diseases feel like a kid again. This event took place the night of media day and riders were the first night riders on Banshee. It was a huge success, over $100,000 was raised and I got to ride Banshee 19 times in two hours!

banshee nick kyle

  • CoasterMania!
    • I was unable to go to CoasterMania 2013, so I tried really hard to make the trip this year. Cedar Point pulled off a wonderful event for all of the coaster enthusiasts. My favorite part of the day was getting to take a boat tour around the peninsula. The picture opportunities were incredible and it was a view you wouldn’t otherwise get to see.
  • Visiting Dollywood
    • I had not been to Dollywood for nearly 10 years, so getting a chance to go back and see how the park has changed was a neat experience. I got very lucky during my visit and had virtually had walk-ons for every ride. I think I ended up riding over 40 coasters in my day and a half at the park.

Thunderhead

  • Visiting New Parks
    • I love when I get a chance to visit a new park. This year I got to visit two new-to-me parks: Knoebels and Silver Dollar City. Knoebels easily was one of the most fun parks I have been to. The small park atmosphere was awesome and the coasters were very well maintained. I only wish I could have spent more time there. Silver Dollar City was, as expected, a very high quality park. Not one of their roller coasters were rough, they all provided a superb ride experience and the staff was very friendly.

Andrew

Before writing about my highlights of 2014, I went back and read my highlights for 2013, and wanted to see if there was anything theme park related I said that I hoped to accomplish this year. I found 5 goals for 2014.

  • Visit Busch Gardens Tampa

  • Visit Carowinds

    • Another Checkmark. Carowinds is my home park, but I hadn’t been in several years. I took a trip early in April, and was thoroughly impressed with the progress that the park had made in recent years. I went with a friend who had never been to Carowinds before, and experiencing the park through his perspective gave me a new-found appreciation of my home park. In August, Carowinds announced Fury325, the tallest, fastest, and longest roller coaster of it’s kind would be coming to the park in 2015, and I had the opportunity to cover the media announcement for the site. It’s fun to be able to beat your chest with pride when your local park does something amazing like that. I visited again on the last day of operation for the 2014 season, and was able to get coaster credit #88 on Carolina Cobra. Recently, I had another opportunity to cover the “topping” of Fury325’s record breaking lift hill. Be sure to check out our photo report if you haven’t! I am proud to say that I am a Carowinds Season pass holder for the first time in a long time for the 2015 season.

Fury28

I had three misses on my 2013 goals for 2014.

  • Visit SeaWorld
    • I still have the ticket. I’m going to be in the area in January, and  I think I’m going to make time this year for SeaWorld.
  • Visit Busch Gardens Williamsburg
    • Another park that I just didn’t have time to visit in 2014. Hopefully, I can get up to Williamsburg in 2015 to ride Tempesto.
  • Visit Wet N’ Wild Emerald Pointe
    • Technically my closest local amusement attraction, I haven’t been to this Water Park in several years. Screamscape reports that they will be adding a new racing slide in 2015. I’ll have to check it out!

Even though I “missed” these goals, I was still able to visit several new parks that weren’t even on my radar in 2013. I visited my first seaside park this summer at Family Kingdom in Myrtle Beach, SC. I had friends who were Internining at Dollywood, and was able to pay them a visit (and interview them!) in July. The same friend that I visited Carowinds with in April moved to Dallas, TX, and we both had our first visits to Six Flags Over Texas last month.

Overall, I added 22 new coasters to my personal count in 2014, which currently stands at 96. Hopefully I can get 97, 98, 99 at SeaWorld in January, even if it means a ride on Shamu Express, and I want the big #100 to be a ride on Fury 325 next spring.

From an amusement observer’s standpoint, there were some great new attractions at parks in 2014. Obviously, many people were focused on the long-awaited Seven Dwarfs Mine Train at Walt Disney World, and Harry Potter and the Escape From Gringotts and the rest of the Diagon Alley Expansion at Universal Studios Florida, but Falcon’s Fury at Busch Gardens Tampa, Banshee at Kings Island, and Goliath at Six Flags Great America all were great new additions as well. I’m already looking forward to what 2015 has in store!

Eric

I think the biggest personal coaster highlight for me this year was a return to Cedar Point.  I went for the first time a few years ago (2009 I think), and happened to be in the area again this year.  I spent a long, overcast day at the park.  It reminded me how amazing some of their coasters are, and I think reaffirmed that Millennium Force is my favorite coaster.  It also reaffirmed my jealousy of the Midwest, where coasters seem to all be bigger and longer than ones out here (I assume because land is cheaper or something).  Raptor isn’t necessarily better than Flight Deck/Top Gun at my local park, but it is about twice as long!  It also made me dream of a Maverick-like launch coaster someday showing up somewhere in Northern California (really, it doesn’t take up that much space, right?).

My recent trip to Disneyland for the holiday season was pretty fantastic.  Aside from re-igniting my love of Disneyland and having a bunch of updated rides, I’d never been during the holiday season and it was fantastic.  I might only go in December from now on.

The last thing I think that stands out was the first time I rode Gold Striker this year.  There’s always a chance with a new coasters that as it ages it loses some of the excitement it had it’s first year.  There was also the slight worry that it wouldn’t be as fast and smooth as the wood settled and went through a winter.  Neither of those things happened, it was as awesome as it was when brand new and was ranked the #7 best wooden coaster in this years Golden Ticket awards.  It’s pretty exciting for me to have a coaster that good just a short drive down the highway.

Oh, there is one more, the biggest highlight of all, joining Coaster101!  I will now have an excuse to go to even more parks, and take advantage of all the exciting new rides opening in California in 2015!

In another post we’ll be discussing our goals for next year and what we’re looking forward to.

Share