I didn’t realize that theme park fandom was a thing. I suppose it may be hard to articulate, but I’m curious if you can share what you find fascinating about them?
For a while my fandom was driven by roller coasters and especially the forces and feelings you get on them (the acceleration of a launched coaster and airtime in particular) but as I've matured a little, I think I find the escapism of the themed entertainment more and more appealing. The world is a complex and sometimes awful place. But in these parks I can forget all that, I can relax and watch other people's happiness or take part in epic stories on rides. It's hard to describe but they just feel like home. I was at Universal in FL a couple of weeks ago and I think I rode like 5 rides all weekend even though I had skip the line passes? I just enjoy being there and taking in the themeing and atmosphere.
https://www.google.com/search?q=valdivia+hotel+santiago&sour...
My now-wife and I stayed there almost 20 years ago, in the disco room: spa and waterfall, shower in an orange glass hexagon, a toilet room surrounded by mirrors. It was quite the experience.
On theme parks, I wonder if there's ever been research into serious fans of them, and if they have formative history in common, like first visiting one at a key age, or similar. I can appreciate the experience, but I'm personally baffled by people who just keep returning to the exclusion of other opportunities around the country or world. Each to their own though!
And I wonder the same. My family moved around a lot growing up and one of the few constants was a visit to a specific theme park every year. It seemed to be one of the few constants in my life when I was younger. I'm sure that certainly influenced the way that I feel about them. I bet a surprising amount of other enthusiasts would have similar stories.
I'm with you there. I remember skipping riding Horizons on my last day in favour of Body Wars and Spaceship Earth. Little did I know a short 6 months later it would close for good.
I absolutely love Epcot but it does make me a bit sad that I didn't get to ride what many consider to be the best ride Disney have ever built.
If I had a few days, which parks in Florida, or really anywhere, would you say are the highest priority to experience for the kind of theming you enjoy?
If you had a few more days after that, I'd probably pick out a Disney park or two. It probably depends on which IPs you're interested in. Hollywood Studios has Tower of Terror and Star Wars so that would be my choice (Rise of the Resistance is the best ride I've been on in the world) but I've heard good things about the latest Guardians of the Galaxy Ride at Epcot.
Surprisingly a lot of the fandom isn't anything to do with IP like shoehorning in Disney characters, but more about atmosphere and architecture. Myself like many others find places like Epcot a very relaxing place that does wonders for mental health. Being able to pop in and sit with a drink and chat with friends and just soaking up the atmoshere is very cathartic.
Many years later I still check in on https://screamscape.com from time to time to see what the latest coaster news is. It's always refreshing considering the daily struggle against doom scrolling and regular news one contends with.
I enjoy reading about what makers of coasters are up to, what they're engineering and how they're innovating.
Riding Wonder Woman: Flight of Courage[1](probably best/craziest coaster I've ever been on) and Twisted Colossus[2](also great) got me to discover a tiny company called Rocky Mountain Construction[3] based in Northern Idaho, who've been innovating by taking existing wooden coasters and revamping them with steel track, among other things. There's a real culture of engineering and innovation that I think many of the HN crowd would appreciate. Also discovered a company called S&S in Utah innovating with a new axial rotating design[4]. Many other companies such as B&M and Intamin are constantly building cool stuff too.
0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theme_Park_(video_game)
1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeKaiP7F48I
2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qL9L-U-AKFs
3: https://vimeo.com/259906484 https://www.rockymtnconstruction.com
Will be interesting to see if they come out with the rumored t-rex track at some point.
2. They are one-of-a-kind. It's rare to see something made that isn't mass produced, and I have a similar appreciation for other things that don't come out of a factory.
3. There is interesting engineering involved.
EPCOT for example is such a classic piece of America to me. Like most classic American ideas, it ended up way different than expected for better or worse. But tracking every bit of every ride/attractions evolution over thelast 40 years is one of my favorite hobbies. You'd never guess but there's more documented history behind the Imaginarium at Epcot than most several hundred year old buildings.