5 Theme Parks On My Bucket List

As the world very slowly finds itself in a new normal, many of us will be thinking of how we want to do things differently in future. After being pretty much housebound since March 2020 I have certainly had time to think and reflect. One of the biggest things for me is the whole notion of ‘Live for the moment’ and the plethora of uplifting quotes that spring to mind. Lockdown and its impact are so widespread that I think a lot more of us will be working even harder to live life to the fullest. It has got me thinking about all those places that I really want to visit but just hadn’t got around to yet. We all have a ‘bucket list’ like that right? Granted, I could have visited a lot of different places for holidays over the years, but we choose to return to Walt Disney World again and again. I do not think we will ever stop returning to Orlando of course, it is our happy place. Still, 17 weeks (we had 1 extra because we were already self-isolating before lockdown began) of not being able to go places has definitely given us a sense of perspective and a renewed determination to visit new places too.

With the recent resurgence of my interest in theme parks, I have been thinking specifically about the theme parks around the world that I always said I wanted to visit but still haven’t and I thought I would share that list with you. At this point, I should say that there is a whole crop of theme parks that we have visited previously that now have sparkly new attractions I want to ride. That in itself is a whole different list. Today I will just be talking about the parks that are still totally new to me that are on my bucket list.

The heritage lover in me has always wanted to visit Coney Island. Strictly speaking, Coney Island itself is not a theme park so I am kind of cheating already. It is actually a residential and commercial district in Brooklyn, New York. At Coney Island, you will find Luna Park and Deno's Wonder Wheel Amusement Park along with some other rides that don’t belong to a specific park. Luna Park is home to the ‘Coney Island Cyclone’ which is one of the oldest wooden roller coasters still in operation in the USA. The coaster is a New York City Designated Landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. I’ve ridden the oldest operating rollercoaster in the UK, the ‘Scenic Railway’ at Dreamland, Margate which opened in 1920. The ‘Coney Island Cyclone’ was built in 1927. There is a certain romanticism for those really old rollercoasters. By modern-day standards, they are very tame but that doesn’t take away from how important they are. In their opening years, they were the cutting edge of rollercoaster technology, well, to an extent, they were the birth of it. At the time they were the most thrilling thing that the general public had access to. In addition, New York City is pretty high up on my bucket list of places I’d like to visit all on its own.

To be fair, there are actually a few Japanese parks that I would love to visit and in all honesty, I just want to visit Japan. I absolutely love the idea of visiting a part of the world that is so culturally different. I picked Fuji Q because it is quite literally near the base of Mount Fuji and the location looks incredible. It also has ‘Eejanaika’, the second ‘4th Dimension Rollercoaster’ ever built. I have ridden the first, ‘X2’ at Six Flags Magic Mountain and to say that I loved it was an understatement. That coaster was unlike absolutely anything I have ever ridden in my life ever. It was a little brutal, to say the least, but in a good way. There were points around the circuit that I literally couldn’t tell which way was up. If there was any coaster-type that I would like to see more of in the world, it is these because they are just so ridiculously mental. I swear, whoever came up with the concept and designed it was on some mad trip or something. I need to try ‘Eejanaika’ just to be sure of course. In short, the combination of Japan, the culture, Mount Fuji and ‘Eejanaika’ is enough to make this list.

If you are not a theme park enthusiast, you might not know this. Not to play into a stereotype or anything but if you are a gay man, you should know this. Dolly Parton has a theme park! Well, she co-owns it, but the point is. Dolly. Parton. Has. A. Theme. Park. It’s called Dollywood for heaven’s sake! That in itself is enough to make me want to pack up the cowboy boots that I don’t yet own and get on the plane. Dolly is a legend and an icon. On top of that, she actually has some pretty cool looking coasters in her park. It is HER park, don’t argue! There is ‘Lightning Rod’ which is a Rocky Mountain Construction wood and steel hybrid. I’ve already ridden a couple of the RMC coasters and I would say that both of them were world-class. I have yet to see anything that would suggest that ‘Lightning Rod’ is anything less. ‘Wild Eagle’ the Bolliger & Mabillard ‘Wing-Coaster’ also looks pretty cool too. On top of the rides, the park looks absolutely stunning, set in the natural beauty of the Knoxville-Smoky Mountains. And in case you didn’t pick up on it, DOLLY PARTON!

Did you really think you were going to get a list of bucket list places that did not include Disney? Granted, I am cheating here a little bit because they are three very separate resorts. I have lumped them all together because my husband and I have often discussed and dreamt about a holiday where we take on all three resorts on the same trip. I don’t really need to get into the specifics of why we want to visit these resorts. They are Disney and that speaks for itself in my book. If we ever did get out there to visit all three, we would be able to say that we had visited every single Disney resort around the world. I’ll accept that this probably wouldn’t be a big deal for very many people but for me, it would be an achievement; a level-up of my Disney obsession.

With 17 rollercoasters currently operating, Cedar Point is probably the theme park capital, no, Mecca, of the world. I don’t think I know of a single theme park or rollercoaster enthusiast that doesn’t dream about visiting this park if they haven’t already. The park currently holds the record for the second-greatest number of rollercoasters in a single theme park. Six Flags Magic Mountain currently has the most at 19 operating coasters, but I have already been there twice. Adding another 17 coasters to my ride list or coaster-count is enough in itself to make me want to visit. Sure, there can be an argument made for quality over quantity. It would be a bit pants if all 17 of the coasters were the equivalent of a Wacky Worm or worse, a Vekoma SLC (sorry Vekoma :-P) but from what I can see, Cedar Point has a very eclectic bunch of rollercoasters to try, many of which are regarded as being the best of their type in the world.