Coasters & Coffee 2024 Year End Review (Amusement Parks)
A look back on the year of 2024 for Coasters & Coffee
AMUSEMENT PARKS
Aaron
12/31/202411 min read
All set? All clear! 👌🏼 Aaron here bringing you the first annual year-end review for Coasters & Coffee with a focus on amusement parks.
In this post I want to take some time to talk about the parks I visited this year, my top five coasters as the year ends, my top five coasters I want to ride, and other musings such as announcements that surprised me this year and things I am excited about for next year.
Overall, this was a pretty exciting year for me as I finally took the leap and decided to start my blog and social media pages. While it hasn’t always been smooth and I am far from where I hoped to be, I am having a ton of fun making content and hope you all enjoy reading it. I would love for there to be more reader engagement next year and I would love more emails and messages from you all. I was not able to visit as many parks as I wanted either, but I have some hope that next year I will get to some new parks, or revisit parks that I visited prior to tracking credits.
As 2024 comes to an end and unfortunately so do my visits to amusement parks, it seems like a great time to share my current top five and a brief reason for their ranking. The way that I rank my coasters is in order I would want them in my home park, i.e. the coaster in the first spot means there are no coasters I would take over that one. So without further ado here’s my top five:
Wildcat's Revenge, my current #1 coaster
Coasters & Coffee Top 5 Coasters:
Wildcat’s Revenge has been my number 1 since May of 2023, more specifically the passholder first to ride event. It is the perfect blend of intensity, hang time, airtime, and rapid fire pacing, while being smooth and enjoyable every single ride. It may be a while before Wildcat’s Revenge is dethroned, though it did face a pretty serious challenger in my number two.
Pantheon was the first coaster to give Wildcat a scare. The floater airtime on the rollback and spike along with the pacing and layout make this a ton of fun. The experience of being launched backwards over an air time bump is one of the most unique sensations I have experienced on a coaster. The gap between Pantheon and my number three coaster is pretty substantial, and definitely not nearly as close as my number one and two rankings.
Candymonium (Hersheypark):
I am a sucker for floater airtime, and the back two rows of Candymonium give the best airtime of any coaster I have ridden. While detractors like to call Candymonium an oversized kids ride, I appreciate the smoothness of the coaster and the airtime makes up for the relative lack of intensity. It is a great compliment to Wildcat’s Revenge, Skyrush, and Storm Runner.
This is likely my most controversial coaster ranking, but I love Iron Menace. Each row of the train gives a different experience, and between the holding brake in the front, hang time on the inversions in the middle, and airtime on the back there is not a bad seat on the ride. I also prefer the variance in the layout to other dive coasters such as Griffon, which is still a great coaster in its own right.
For a while I had Skyrush ranked number ten and found it slightly overrated, but a few rides on the back row wings seats changed this for me. To get the true experience of Skyrush the back wings are a must. The combination of ejector airtime and laterals truly makes it feel like the coaster is trying to throw you into the parking lot. I do not think there will ever be another coaster like Skyrush.
Photo credit: Hersheypark
Photo credit: Busch Gardens Williamsburg
Photo credit: Hersheypark
Photo credit: The Morning Call
Photo credit: ElloCoaster
Before we move into next year, I want to touch on the new parks I visited this year and my thoughts on my home parks, Hersheypark and Dorney Park.
New Parks I Visited in 2024:
Nickelodeon Universe (Mall of America) Minneapolis, MN:
The first new park I visited this year was actually the park that kicked off my blog, Nickelodeon Universe in Mall of America (read my review here). While none of the coasters at Nickelodeon Universe ended up breaking my top 20, I thoroughly enjoyed both visits I had. They have an outstanding variety of flat rides to go with two pretty fun coasters in Rock Bottom Plunge and Avatar Airbender. The crowds during both visits were minimal and so I was able to ride every ride there multiple times in a few hours. Without a doubt my favorite ride here is Log Chute though, both trips I took to Nickelodeon Universe included 4 or 5 rides on it. The ride itself is a nice log flume, but the theming and scenery truly steal the show. As an added bonus they update the scenery on a seasonal basis.
Family Kingdom Myrtle Beach, SC:
The other new park I was able to visit was Family Kingdom in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina (read my review here). While Nickelodeon Universe has solid revisit value, Family Kingdom did not. Swamp Fox, Family Kingdom’s Philadelphia Toboggan classic wooden coaster, was the surprise of the year for me. It was well maintained and decently smooth while giving quite a bit of airtime and laterals. Unfortunately, it is not the type of marque ride that can carry a park and the supporting coasters and rides at Family Kingdom were unremarkable. Also outside of Swamp Fox, the park was not well kept and the ride operations were a bit slow. I could see myself visiting every few years, but it is hardly a must visit every year.
The view of Nickelodeon Universe from the food court
Photo credit: Myrtle Beach Villas 2
To wrap up 2024 I thought it would be good to do a brief review of the experiences at my home parks, Hersheypark and Dorney Park.
Coasters & Coffee Home Parks Summary for 2024:
2025 will be the first year in a while that I do not have a season pass to Hersheypark, and it pains me to write that. I have been attending the park since I was a child, and finally getting to ride rides with my own child this year has given me a full circle experience. While Hersheypark has a world class coaster lineup, decent flat rides, and characters that our whole family loves, we have found the experience of visiting the park to have gradually gotten worse each year. I hold out hope that the park is going through growing pains due to the relatively rapid growth it has experienced, but the park operations and guest experience is a real detriment. I am excited for their addition of Twizzlers Twisted Gravity next year, and hope to get at least one visit to ride it, but otherwise it will be a weird and sad feeling this year knowing I likely will not have multiple Hersheypark trips on the agenda.
Dorney Park, which is technically my true home park, has stepped up their game in recent years. The addition of Iron Menace and the improvements to Steel Force have helped give the park a solid 1-2 punch, with good supporting coasters in Talon, Hydra, and Possessed. Dorney Park also has a great lineup of flat rides and their shows are a lot of fun. While lacking a world class coaster lineup, Dorney Park creates a genuinely awesome family experience with a lot to offer for everyone. Additionally, their treatment of season passholders during the Iron Menace preview event (read my review of the event here) created a true VIP experience. Dorney has improved so much in the past few seasons and I hope Six Flags (wow that is weird to type) continues to reward them. Also the former Dinosaurs Alive space behind Steel Force is just begging for a Zambezi Zinger clone so please let's make that happen.
And now we say farewell to 2024 and look ahead to the future, so to keep with the formatting, let’s talk about my top 5 most desired coaster credits. This list mostly takes into account the actual chance I have of ever riding the coaster, so keep that in mind when rides like Hyperia, Zadra, and Eejanaika are not included.
Photo credit: Zachary Gleiter
Photo credit: Dorney Park
Coasters & Coffee Top 5 Most Wanted Credits:
As mentioned above, I love airtime, and I also love the comfort and experience of B&M’s coasters. Fury 325 has been my number one most wanted credit for a while and I am hoping 2025 will be the year it moves from this top five into my other.
An unsurprising inclusion in my top five I am sure, as it is considered by many to be a top 5 coaster at least in the United States. The combination of theming, layout, and my experience on Pantheon, another Intamin Blitz, makes this one of my most sought after coasters. I don’t see this happening in 2025 unfortunately, but hey, let’s hope I get a pleasant surprise.
I will preface this by saying there is literally no chance I end up in Belgium in the near future, so expect to see this on this list for years to come. However, the uniqueness of the coaster, with only two currently built, and layout make this one impossible to keep off the list. Sigh…. maybe one day.
With Wildcat’s Revenge as my current number one, it should not be a surprise to see another world class Rocky Mountain Coaster (RMC) on my list. Steel Vengeance, along with Iron Gwazi, are the two RMCs I want to ride the most. Ultimately, what puts Steel Vengeance ahead of Iron Gwazi on this list is the length of the ride and the mix of airtime, inversions, and intensity
First and foremost, I would like to say that I wish they just renamed this I305, but I understand the desire to retheme it to fit the region of the park it is in. I just don’t love the name. What I do love is unique coasters, and much like my current number five, Skyrush, I do not think there will be another Intimi Pantherian built. It also has the benefits of being a giga coaster, which I look forward to experiencing, and being repainted my favorite color. So despite disagreeing with the name, there is a lot going for Pantherian, and I have high hopes to experience it and the rest of King’s Dominion in 2025.
Coasters & Coffee Goals for 2024:
Aside from hopefully checking 2 or 3 of the above coasters off my list, I have a few parks I want to visit this year, and with the Six Flags all park passport this should be easier. First would be a revisit to Six Flags Great Adventure.
I have not been to Great Adventure since before college, and I won’t say how long ago that was because I feel old enough. The only thing I remember is riding Kingda Ka (RIP). So I hope to get back out there in 2025 and collect some credits while getting on my first raptor, Jersey Devil, El Toro, and Nitro, along with the rest of the supporting coasters.
I am hoping to also get a chance to visit King’s Dominion to get to experience their new for 2025 launched wing coaster Rapterra, while also checking off my number five most wanted coaster. The supporting cast at King’s Dominion is solid and a visit to Great Adventure and King’s Dominion would help get me closer to my goal of 75 recorded coaster credits.
I also look forward to getting back to Knobels Amusement Resort, another childhood favorite, to get to experience Phoenix as an adult along with Twister and Flying Turns. My family spent a lot of time camping there as a kid, so the mix of nostalgia and the world’s best wooden coaster have me excited for the trip.
Odds and Ends for 2024 and a Look to the Future:
2024 was a great year for Coasters & Coffee, but there were a few disappointments and surprises in the industry, most notably the unceremonious removal of the previously mentioned Kingda Ka at Great Adventure. I find it very bizarre that such an iconic coaster was closed without a formal announcement and the only fan fare being in the roller coaster community. A few other major events occured, such as the merger of Six Flags and Cedar Fair, but this was in the public long enough to not be a surprise. As coasters like Kingda Ka, Do-Dodonpa, and Scorpion give their last rides, we look to the future with anticipation of some major announcements.
Six Flags has already announced most of their new additions for 2025, such as Rapterra at King’s Dominion, Sirens Curse at Cedar Point, and the Wrath of Rakshasa at Six Flags Great America. They also announced a few less detailed additions such as the record breaking multi-launch coaster coming to Six Flags Great Adventure in 2026. So I look forward to seeing what the official announcement becomes for these parks. Unfortunately, I do fear that Kingda Ka’s replacement will be the overwhelmingly disappointing Mack tower coaster concept (concept video here) that was shared with pass holders on their survey, but let’s hold out hope that is not the case!
Aside from the madness brewing across the Six Flags chain, we all can look forward to the opening of the highly anticipated Epic Universe in May of next year, adding another incredible looking park to the Universal chain. With four coasters including the marquee attraction, Stardust Racers, Epic Universe will be packing some serious thrills. I do not intend to spend much time talking about it but the opening of Six Flags Qiddya and its ridiculous coaster lineup will be fun to see as well, including Falcon’s Fury, which will hold the record of tallest and fastest coaster.
There is far too much going on in the industry for me to detail in one post, so I will wrap this up here by saying thank you to everyone who read, shared, and/or interacted with me here at Coasters & Coffee this year. It has been a ton of fun sharing my thoughts and experiences with you and I am looking forward to the new year and bringing more fun and exciting content.
If you have not already, follow me on Instagram and Facebook to stay up to date on my latest content. I should have some new and fun stuff brewing to begin the year as well.