How This Site Works

We have visited theme parks across Europe and America and each time we visit, we write about our experiences here. For the parks we like best, we have made separate pages to give all of our tips in full detail. For the smaller parks or those that have fewer rides we enjoy, we have collated information under ‘other’.

We try to come to a consensus about how we will rate each park, then each ride. To help you get a sense of our overall opinion of each theme park as well as the details of each ride, we have developed a rating system which we are using on this website (see details below).

Theme Park Ratings

For each theme park we have rated it 0-10 for:

Investment – The regularity with which the park creates new rides and features.
Thrill Factor – How exhilarating the rides are; the extent to which they get your adrenalin pumping.
Theming and Immersion – Theme parks should be more than just collections of rides. They are after all, theme parks. The best parks tell a story, with different areas of the park representing different parts of that story. This is done through putting rides in the right area, having the right shops/restaurants, decorating the park in detail, and a thousand other things. This rating is how well the park manages to create its own genre and bring you into its world.
Value – The quality of the overall experience when compared to the price paid.
Fun and Laughter – Quite simply the extent to which we go around the park with a smile on our faces and laughter in our hearts.
Uniqueness – The extent to which the park provides unusual or different experiences that you don’t find elsewhere.
Staff and Facilities – The friendliness and helpfulness of the staff, the range and quality of the food, and other things like cleanliness.
Overall Rating – Our overall view of the park.

Ride Ratings

For each ride we have rated it 0-10 for:

Thrill Factor – How exhilarating the ride is; the extent to which it gets your adrenalin pumping.
Fun – How much we smile and laugh as we go around.
Theming – Just as every park has a theme, so has every ride. This is the extent to which both the ride experience itself and the queue area tells you the story.
Immersion – The extent to which the ride either completely draws you in to the story it is telling, or the experience is so intense that it subsumes your thoughts and reality is suspended for the few minutes you are on the ride.
Smoothness – How much the ride glides around the track rather than jerking you around. Note, we don’t rate water rides for smoothness. There is no way of smoothly dropping at speed into a big pool of water; you’re going to come to a pretty abrupt halt! Neither do we usually rate dark rides for smoothness as it is generally not applicable.
Overall Rating – Our overall view on how good the ride is.