Jun. 9 – The journey continues deeper south with this three-parter update featuring Mammoth Cave National Park and Beech Bend Park in Kentucky, and Nashville, Tennessee. The first part of the tour included more days broken into smaller stops like this including cities, culture, and nature, while the big parks and coasters factor more heavily in the later half. I sort of prefer these episodic days, it’s like being the protagonist of a picaresque.
Jun. 2 – I need to set a reminder to hit publish on Mondays before I head out for the day. Just barely made it before midnight for North American time zones. Nevertheless, here is the first part (of many weekly updates) chronicling my June 2023 road trip across the American Southeast that began almost exactly two years ago in Louisville with Kentucky Kingdom.
I’m especially pleased that this report allowed me to update the category title for the severely dated “Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom” from my first entry about this park 16 years ago. I’ve been doing this for way too long. The irony is in all that time and the countless reviews published, I’ve only gotten around to writing about four of the legacy Six Flags parks, now reduced to three (fewer than the number of Happy Valley parks in China I’ve written about). That will change in a little while once I get around to Six Flags Over Georgia. For now, enjoy the start of Pride Month with some thoughts on a theme park that is perpetually in a state of transition.
May 26 – For Memorial Day, I’m writing about a theme park that does a lot to memorialize the First & Second Sino-Japanese Wars. Glorious Orient is Fantawild’s newest theme park focused on modern Chinese history, and it’s simultaneously one of the their best and most propagandistic. But what does that really mean? This is very much the kind of theme park that is of interest to Roller Coaster Philosophy, and I wrote way too much about it, especially because (unlike certain other brand new theme parks) it is almost completely unknown to western fans and as such I wanted to do my duty to document accordingly. It even gave me a new (and I promise unironic) entry on my list of Essentials!
May 19 – Good news: a new park review from 2025, exactly one month ago. Technically it’s two, for both Fantawild Dreamland and Oriental Heritage theme parks in Xiamen, China. As the review states, I went in with low expectations and had them exceeded just enough that I was inspired to write about them. Especially for the update coming next week, Glorious Orient, a theme park with some wild dark rides based on modern Chinese history. If you follow me on Bluesky you’ve already seen some posts about them.
Better news: Yes, I said coming next week. And this isn’t a one-off. After these Fantawild parks, I intend to keep a weekly schedule throughout much of the summer as I go back and review the parks and experiences from my ambitious 2023 road trip throughout the American Southeast. How can I commit to keeping this schedule when my track record with regular updates is what it is? Well, I’ve already written two months’ worth of updates as I was struggling with writer’s block for a longer piece I’m not sure when/if I’ll ever share. So making some lemonade from lemons. Check back each Monday for updates, or follow me on Bluesky.
Mar. 30 – A quick update in terms of the time it took to produce it; a relatively long one if you want to read everything contained within. Over the last several years I had written a handful professional blog posts. Some, like the theme park and video game comparative series, I still regard quite well. (Others, eh, definitely show their age.) The original blog is now offline, but I didn’t want that work to disappear completely into the void, so I tracked down the archives and am re-sharing them here as a portfolio of work.
Dec. 30 – Surprise, one more review for the holidays before this godawful year is over (and the next even more godawful year begins). This summer I got to visit Lagoon near Salt Lake City for the first time. It is a very special park, in ways both good and bad… but for me mostly good. I love a traditional amusement park, and in that regard Lagoon is quite possibly the best in the west.
Dec. 13 – While we await Universal’s next epic theme park project in 2025 that will blast them into the future of Universal Destinations & Experiences, this review takes a look at their current newest theme park from 2021, Universal Studios Beijing, which will likely serve as the capstone to the last decade or so of trends by Universal Parks & Resorts… and all the good and bad that entails.
Nov. 16 – Taron. F.L.Y. Klugheim. Rookburgh. It may have taken me three years to write, but hopefully it will be worth the wait. I’m pleased to finally publish Phantasialand (Part 2)!
While my first update of 2024 didn’t arrive until November, I’m hopeful it won’t be the last update before year’s end. I’m already 90% finished with another big review piece (from a visit this year, even!) that I noodled on the last few months while overcoming writer’s block on finishing Phantasialand. And there’s a more personal written project I’m working on that I may be able to share at some point in the near-ish future.
This has been, for better or worse (mostly worse), a major year of change and transition for me (and, now, for everyone else). Earlier this year I updated my About page for the first time in over a decade, including a new Portfolio page where you can see some of the projects I’ve worked on in that time span. There was even a time this summer I got to show the L.A. Times around Six Flags Magic Mountain to help rank all their thrill rides! In the meantime, you can keep up with my latest goings-on at Bluesky, which has become a much nicer online social experience than the website formerly known as Twitter has become. Until next time, take care.
Dec. 22 – My last update was from June 2022 of a park I visited in April 2022. I’ve finally gotten a review published just before 2023 was set to expire, from a park I visited in… November 2021. Tale as old as time. But it’s for Germany’s Phantasialand, beloved by both coaster enthusiasts and theme park aficionados in a way that few if any other parks have as successfully brought together both affinities. If any park review is worth the wait, surely it’s this one? Be warned, this is just the first of a two-parter review. Klugheim and Rookburgh will be coming in a future update, which I am sure you all will enjoy reading from the comfort of your retirement homes.
Jun. 12 – Today’s update is partially about appreciating and even loving works of art from across the political spectrum. Silver Dollar City is one of my favorite parks in the country, both in spite of and because of a lot of locally-flavored weirdness on display. Plus, Outlaw Run is still top-tier RMC, and Time Traveler figures out how to do spinning right. This update is also somewhat unique in that the photos (and reporting) are a hybrid of two separate visits, one from 2015 and the other a few months ago in 2022. (I also visited in 2006, making Silver Dollar City the most remote park from my various homeplaces that I’ve been to on three separate occasions.)
Comments