Coaster Redux

EPCOT was the final stop on my four-day trip to the Walt Disney World Resort.  The Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow was originally intended to be a master-planned home for park employees but morphed into a massive theme park after Disney's death.  It currently stands as a sort of permanent Worlds Fair with multiple pavilions showcasing 11 different countries, and highlighting huma...

It’s day three at Walt Disney World.  Time for the main event!  A place where wishes filled with wonder lead to fantasy and adventure, and if you believe in magic, dreams become destiny, the frontier meets tomorrow, and today, I’ll take the liberty to explore it all!  It’s the world’s most visited theme park, a veritable icon, and it’s home to many of the most memorable and beloved attractions any...

I’m interrupting the Disney series to make a special announcement about my major trip for this year because one…..It’s coming up ridiculously quickly, and two, I booked it back in November and it’s taken every fiber of my being to keep it under wraps until now.  It’s gonna be thirteen days in late May, and I’ll visit eight parks with 64 possible credits, and you better believe there are some bange...

When it comes to thrills at Walt Disney World, there are more to be found at Hollywood Studios than any other park in the resort, and while I loved Animal Kingdom yesterday, I was ready for some adrenaline!  I loved the immersive themed Toy Story and Star Wars lands, was charmed by Slinky Dog Dash and Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway, and had my mind blown on wild thrill rides like Rock...

Have you ever heard that saying, “There’s an elephant in the room?”  It’s kind of a weird expression, but it means that there’s something so big and so obvious standing right there, yet it’s not being talked about.  Well, my elephant is the Walt Disney World Resort, and while I've lived in Florida for the better part of 15 years, I haven't been here since I was ten years old.  Cost, comp...

It’s time to get those typing thumbs warmed up because right now, I’m putting a bullseye squarely on my chest. Today, I’m gonna count down my top 25 roller coasters as of the end of 2025.  I haven’t done one of these since the 2023 season finale, and with two years’ worth of new experiences, I think it’s time.  This has been my most requested topic as of late, and with a monster season planned for...

On my way home from visiting family and friends in my hometown south of Boston, I stopped in Allentown, PA to complete the eastern Pennsylvania trifecta.  I did Knoebels and Hersheypark in 2023, and this time I stopped at Dorney Park.  Neglected for years by Cedar Fair, they finally added a new roller coaster in 2024, the Iron Menace B&M dive machine.  From the second I walked through the gate...

Back in October, I made a road trip back to my hometown in Massachusetts to visit my parents and friends.  Six Flags New England was the typical choice for a theme park visit in the area, but come to find out, my friend Eric's daughter was going to Canobie Lake Park with her Girl Scout troop.  I hadn't been there since my eighth grade class trip, so I loved the idea of going back as an a...

I visited Cedar Point last June, hoping to ride Top Thrill 2, the re-imagined version of the world's first continuous circuit 400-foot tall roller coaster.  It closed a few weeks before due to technical issues with the prototype trains, and unfortunately never re-opened for the remainder of the 2024 season.   Then out of nowhere, Cedar Point announced Siren's Curse, North America's...

Kennywood, located just outside Pittsburgh, PA is one of America's finest traditional amusement parks.  I last visited in 1998 as a budding coaster enthusiast when Steel Phantom had loops.  That ride has since been reimagined into Phantom's Revenge, and the park's added the Sky Rocket launched coaster, and Steel Curtain, an innovative multi-looping monster to stand alongside their h...

My brother Karl returns to the podcast bringing us the story of his latest international layover!  He's an airline pilot who regularly flies overseas and he recently found himself with a weekend off in Osaka, home to Universal Studios Japan.  He gives us an in-depth look at the Japanese Super Nintendo World, the Hollywood Dream B&M mini-hyper, the awesome park food, and of course the lege...

After a long first day battling nasty weather and heavy crowds at the brand new Universal Epic Universe, I finally got my first rides on their marquee roller coaster, Stardust Racers.  Repeated announcements led me to believe that somehow, keeping one's shoes on was counter-intuitive on this ride, yet somehow, I successfully enjoyed this stellar attraction with my shoes on. Day two at Epic be...

It's not every day a brand-new theme park opens, especially on this level.  Known for immersive theming, cutting-edge attractions, and world-class roller coasters, Universal Orlando Resort debuted Epic Universe in May, and I visited shortly after opening.  The park is home to five themed worlds: Celestial Park, Super Nintendo World, Dark Universe, The Wizarding World of Harry Potter: Ministry...

Sometimes theme park road trips don't go perfectly to plan, but a good trip is what you make it.  It's all about being flexible, and above all, don't forget to enjoy the ride.  My first expedition of 2025 brought me to Kings Dominion looking forward to riding their brand-new B&M launched wing coaster Rapterra.  While in the neighborhood, I planned visits to Busch Gardens William...

Welcome to the first episode of Redux Rundown!  Coaster Redux is all about in-depth storytelling from my visits to new theme parks, and I'm going to continue bringing you that type of content.  Redux Rundown episodes will now join full Coaster Redux episodes on this same feed, giving me the ability to step outside the story timeline and talk about the news, what's going on with the podca...

Between my two big trips last year, I had a last-minute long weekend pop up, so I headed north Busch Gardens Tampa Bay and SeaWorld Orlando to check out their new B&M family coasters, Phoenix Rising and Penguin Trek, respectively.  This Sunday would also be the final day of operation for Scorpion, a classic Schwarzkopf looping coaster at Busch Gardens.  While I've talked about Busch Garde...

My third and final stop on my northwestern trip was Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in Vallejo, CA.  With the future of California's Great America very much in doubt, this just may be the only major theme park in NorCal within the next five years.  The park experienced staggering growth during the Coaster Wars with a whopping seven roller coasters installed between 1998 and 2001.  The headlining...

Stop number two on my northwestern trip was California's Great America in Santa Clara, CA.  This park has an interesting history of ownership changes, and despite its sister park, Six Flags Great America being one of the darlings of the legacy Six Flags chain, this park's future is uncertain.  Cedar Fair sold the land beneath the park to a development company post-pandemic with a lease s...

A few months after my summer road trip, I continued my quest to ride new roller coasters by flying northwest to visit three parks for the first time.  Stop number one was Lagoon in Farmington, UT.  It's a family-owned amusement park known for doing things differently.  They've built their last three roller coasters completely in-house, and they're unlike anything else out there.  Jo...

The final stop on my summer road trip was Holiday World in Santa Claus, IN.  This family-owned park is home to quite possibly the greatest collection of wooden roller coasters on the planet, the Raven, the Legend, and the Voyage.  They're also home to Thunderbird, the world's first B&M launched wing coaster, and the new for 2024 Good Gravy! Vekoma Family Boomerang.  Join me for my ra...

The seventh stop on my summer road trip was Kentucky Kingdom.  Located in Louisville, this park's had a roller coaster of a history, being operated by local businessman Ed Hart, Six Flags, then Ed Hart again, and now Herschend Family Entertainment.  Rides have come and gone from this state-owned property, but it's now home to a triple-threat of small roller coasters that deliver big on t...

Kings Island was a perfect stopping point on my drive from Cedar Point to Kentucky Kingdom and I spent an afternoon enjoying one of my all-time favorite amusement parks.  I got my first ride on the Bat Arrow suspended coaster, the refurbished Adventure Express, and the new-for-2024 Snoopy's Soapbox Racers Vekoma Family Boomerang.  And of course, I got back on old favorites like Mystic Timbers...

The southbound run on my summer road trip began with two full days at Cedar Point, home to many of the greatest thrill rides ever, and that's even with their new for 2024 Top Thrill 2 being closed!  I was joined by my dad, an Ohio native, who hadn't been to America's Rockin' Roller Coast since 1999 when he brought my family and I for the first time.  Join me for two full days a...

The halfway point on my two-week summer road trip was Six Flags Great America.  One of the biggest legacy parks in the Six Flags chain, Great America boasts 15 total roller coasters.  Top on my hype list were Maxx Force, an S&S compressed air launch coaster with America's fastest acceleration, Raging Bull, B&M's only hyper with a twister layout, and Goliath, a punchy yet short RM...

My third stop on my 2024 road trip brought me to Kansas City, MO for my first ever visit to Worlds of Fun.  They opened Zambezi Zinger last year, their first new roller coaster since 2009.  It's a GCI family thrill coaster that sits right next door to Prowler, a highly praised out and back terrain coaster also from GCI.  The Mamba hyper coaster from Morgan also got reprogrammed a short time a...