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 human achievement, technology, and...

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 attra...

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 som...

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 'n' Roller Coaster, Rise of the Res...

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...

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 ...

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, I was charmed by th...

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 adult.

Join me for a trip down memory...

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 first Vekoma tilt coaster, would open in ...

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 historic trio of wood coasters.  Plu...

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 legendary Flying Dinosaur, which m...

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 began with my longest line ever, three...

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 of Magic, and How to Train Yo...

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 Williamsburg and Carowinds.  I had th...

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 podcast, tell a quick story that doesn't...

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 Gardens several times on this podca...

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 attractions are the massi...

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 set to expire in 2028.  Join me...

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.  Join me for my first-time reacti...