Our 2015 Coaster Resolutions

In our recent two part series we shared with you all our top theme park related moments from 2014. Today, we’re going to share our goals for 2015, our “coaster resolutions.”

John

2014 was an exciting year full of many wooden coasters. In 2015, I will (hopefully) earn my 100th roller coaster credit. I’m currently sitting at 98, so I have a little flexibility in what I choose to reach the coveted 100-mark. Below are a few of the coasters that might take that spot.

Rampage at Alabama Splash Adventure will reopen in 2015, and as the park is only a few hours away from me, there’s no excuse for me to not ride this reawakened wooden coaster.

Photo © Martin Lewison

North of me, there are two parks I’d like to visit for the first time: Holiday World and Kentucky Kingdom. Both are home to unexplored coaster territory, and the Thunderbird wing coaster looks amazing. And Kentucky Kingdom will follow up on its first year open with a slew of enhancements, including a reopened T2 (named T3) coaster.

Photo © Alexander Dickey

Other possible parks to visit in 2015 include Six Flags over Texas, Six Flags Fiesta Texas, Dollywood, Silver Dollar City and SeaWorld San Antonio. Only time will tell if those visits become a reality.

I’ll of course hope to visit my regular parks as I do each year: Six Flags Great America and Six Flags St. Louis. And perhaps I’ll make the short drive west to the often-forgotten Magic Springs to see how the place is doing (it’s been a few years since I’ve visited).

And with every year, I resolve to visit Cedar Point (yep, I’ve never been — how sad is that?). Maybe 2015 will be the magic year.

Andrew

I’m pumped for 2015. I’ve already got my first two theme park trips planned for the end of January. I’ll be visiting SeaWorld Orlando for the first time in over 15 years, where I’m looking forward to rides on Kraken and Manta for the first time. The next day, I’ll be visiting the Magic Kingdom at the Walt Disney World Resort and taking the “Keys to the Kingdom” tour. I’m a big Disney fan, and I’m looking forward to learning even more about the Magic Kingdom. Hopefully there will be a chance for another trip to Orlando later in the year as well, to visit Universal Orlando and Disney again.

Sometime in early 2015, the world’s tallest, fastest, and longest Giga Coaster, Fury 325 ,will open in my backyard at Carowinds. It’s been great being able to cover the progress of Fury 325 for Coaster101, and I look forward to providing our readers even more coverage from this record breaking roller coaster  in 2015. For the first time in several years, and only the second time since living in North Carolina (15 years), I’m happy to say that I’m a Carowinds Season Pass holder for 2015, and will be making the 2+ hour trek to the park plenty of times in the upcoming year.

I’m also overdue for a trip to Busch Gardens Williamsburg, where I haven’t been since Halloween 2012. Though their new coaster (Tempesto?) has not been formally announced yet, I look forward to potentially getting back to the park and riding it (as well as 3 of my personal top 10 coasters in Apollo’s Chariot, Griffon and Alpengeist) in 2015.

2014 was a year of theme park firsts for me and,  I’m looking forward to even more “theme park firsts” in 2015. Last year, I was able to visit Dollywood and Six Flags over Texas and experience those parks for the first time.  My main “new park” goal for 2015 is to visit Holiday World and take a spin on each of their legendary wooden coasters. (Thunderbird wouldn’t be bad, either.) I’ve got several other new parks across the country on my “shortlist,” but we’ll see where 2015 takes me.

Kyle

Like mentioned above, one of my main goals for 2015 is to make my first trip over to Holiday World. All I have heard is good things from that park and with the new addition coming next year, it is going to be even a more attractive park. While in the vicinity of Holiday World, I would love to visit Kentucky Kingdom and Indiana Beach too.

I am also really hoping to make it to Carowinds this year, either for Media Day or just a trip later in the season. I recently drove by the park and Fury 325 looks like it is going to be amazing!

My last goal for 2015 is to get back to Hershey Park for a couple of days. I have not been there since my 10th birthday, so there are a lot of new coasters there I want to check out. I visited Chocolate World last summer, but I only got a glimpse of the park as we drove by.

Nick

2015 is going to be a great year for new roller coasters in the United States. Unfortunately, it seems most of the rides are at the far ends of the country on the East or West coasts, meaning it’s unlikely I will get to ride them next year.

Park Most Likely to Visit: The park I’m most likely to visit in 2015 has got to be Holiday World and Splashin’ Safari in Santa Claus, Indiana.

The next likely park may be to visit the least talked about new coaster of 2015, the still announced Premier launched coaster be installed at Busch Gardens Williamsburg.

My son is in the phase where he is still too small to go on rides but he also still gets into the parks for free. I think a trip to Florida is in the cards so a visit to Legoland, SeaWorld, or Disney may be in order.

My other goal for 2015 is to meet more Coaster101 team members in person! I was able to meet Kyle at Banshee media day last year but other plans to meetup at Six Flags Great America didn’t work out.

Larry

For the first time in a few years, I don’t really have any ideas where I want to go. Most of the new coasters that are opening are several hours away so it’s hard to say where I could be heading in 2015.

One park that I know I did miss out last year was Six Flags Great America and riding Goliath. I was suppose to make it down for Media Day, but with the constant delays and the uncertainty of when it’ll open, my schedule never worked out so I missed that opportunity. I’m hoping though that I’ll be able to take a trip over there this year and finally ride Goliath.

The parks that I would really would like to go to in 2015 would be to head out west and hit a couple parks over there, mainly Six Flags Magic Mountain and Knott’s Berry Farm. I’ve always wanted to head over there and visit those two parks, but never had the time or money to do so. I had a small chance to go in 2014, but the timing didn’t end up working out.

There are also a couple other Cedar Fair parks that I would like to visit in 2015, like Kings Dominion and Canada’s Wonderland. Both parks have solid coaster lineups and if an opportunity popped up where I could head over to those parks, I would gladly take it.

I’m holding out on visiting Kentucky Kingdom, even though Lightning Run is drawing me to the park, but I can’t justify the trip down there until all of their major coasters are back in operation. I’ll have to see what the transformation of Twisted Twins will entail as that could be the big draw to get me down there for 2016. You could say with a few rumors flying around about future coasters being added in 2016, I might hold of on doing any major trips until then.

Eric

2015 is going to be an exciting year here on the West Coast.  I’m incredibly excited by both Twisted Colossus coming to Six Flags Magic Mountain and Voyage to the Iron Reef coming to Knott’s Berry Farm later this Spring.  Thanks to them I’m expecting to get a ride on my first Rocky Mountain Construction conversion and my first interactive coaster, both of which look like they’re at the forefront of coaster development and technology.  Along with those, Matterhorn at Disneyland is expected to get a big refurbishment this year, and they’re going to be updating at least one more dark ride.  Even more, Universal Studios Hollywood will be opening the new Fast & The Furious Supercharged, the new Springfield area, and is well under way building their Wizarding World of Harry Potter (for 2016).  So yeah, it’s going to be a big year out here.  It’s been a couple years since I’ve made it to Knott’s, so I’m looking forward to return there for Voyage to the Iron Reef along with getting to all the big Southern California parks again this year.

I’m also hoping to get around to taking a coaster riding trip to some other part of the country.  In 2013 I was able to go to Six Flags Great Adventure for the first time, in 2014 I got a revisit in at Cedar Point, so in 2015 I’m hoping to add a new major park or two.  I’m leaning towards Orlando and all of the parks around there or Virginia with Busch Gardens and King’s Dominion, but I’m open to any suggestions!

What are your theme park related goals for 2015? What new rides are you most looking forward to? What content are you most looking forward to from Coaster101 in 2015?

Tags: 2015new yearsresolutionsthunderbird