Hi all

I have just found this place after doing some research on where to head off to next year.

I suddenly remembered how much I like theme/amusement parks after going to Disney/Universal in September '07.

Even though I went on rides like Hulk and Dueling Dragons I wanted more more more!

Now I am after some help making my decisions for me ;-)

I have the following shortlist of the nearest few parks to me but am only doing 2 weeks in May/June:
Cedar Point
Kennywood
Busch Gardens Europe
SF Great Adventure

I would love to do other parks like SFMM but getting there in my time frame is well out of the question. My plan is to either hire a car or book domestic flights in between some of the parks.

I have looked on mapquest and see that from BGE to KW is about 6 hours and KW to CP is a further 3 hours but I don't know how realistic these timescales are.

So your mission should you choose to accept it is decide which of the 'East Coast' parks you would visit for how many days and how you would travel on a 2 week vacation within that area ;-)

Or if you think my plans are way off track and have any better suggestions for a theme park type holiday.

Cheers for reading.

Welcome to ThrillNetwork! We're glad you found us.


You mentioned that you'll be travelling to the US for a couple of weeks in May/June If you're going to be here on June 8th, I might suggest that you consider Cedar Point on that day, as it is the day of the annual "Coastermania" event. Coastermania participants get into the park early for exclusive rides on 2-3 coasters, and they also keep 4-5 coasters open late (until midnight) for the Coastermania participants as well.

You can get an entire 18 hour marathon at the park that day, if you wish. It's quite an experience.

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Hi

Thanks for your kind welcome.

It's nice to know about the 8th June for 'Coastermania'. I am not sure if that would be part of my plans though as I am hoping to go to parks when they are at their emptiest. As I am coming from so far away I don't want to spend my vacation queueing rather than riding which is why I've chosen the dates I have (I am hoping it will be the right time to go!).

I maybe wrong but I assume Coastermania will be very busy??

If I did want to take part for the extra hours and 'buzz' though, how do you go about it? Do you just turn up to CP on that day or do you have to prove you are a member of some club?

Cheers

I have just been reading about Coastermania and it looks like the wrong date may have been given unless the page I am looking at is incorrect.

http://www.aceonline.org/events/

This page states:
"CoasterMania. June 6 2008. Cedar Point (Sandusky, OH)."

Just for anyone to clarify.

Out of the parks that you have listed, I would hit SF Great Adventure and Cedar Point. They are about 500 or so miles apart however.

Go by what they say over on the ACE website, Brian may have made a typo. You can probably contact them via e-mail and ask if they have any additional details although the event is a long ways away.

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Gadv you can just spend 90$ on a Q-Bot GOLD.... And cut the lines all day. It will make a 2 hour line about 15mins

Also 2 weeks its a long time for just 4 parks. I have done trips in the US where I have hit 5 and also 7 parks in the same day! (in up to 3 different states)

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From Cedar Point to Kennywood was about 3.5 to 4 hours for me.

Alas Geagua Lake is gone now or you could have hit it on the way as well.

Kennywood is a great old, traditional park. Don't miss the patch fries! They are about worth the price of admission alone!

Another thing is that you're kinda going all over the place when there are other parks near some of the ones you've mentioned.

There's a few within 3-4 hours of Kennywood in Pennsylvania. Well Idlewild is 1 hour or so from Kennywood I think. Then there's Knoebels and a few others worth hitting if you're into old parks.

There's 2 parks within an hour to 1.5 of BGE (Kings Dominion and Six Flags America).

Just thought I'd throw that out there.

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I'd suggest staying a couple days at Cedar Point and staying on property.

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Yeah, Breakers Express isn't anything fancy, but it does get you into the park an hour early.

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I would agree. SFGadv & Cedar Point are you best bets. But yes avoid CP durring Coastermania. I went in 2003 and it was crazy busy.

Wow, thanks for all your replies!!

Firslty I didn't think 2 weeks was a long time for 4 parks (thanks James). Including transportation I was planning to spend a couple of days at each one. Maybe this would be too much for the smaller ones like KW.

I also never knew there were so many others near the ones I had mentioned. I will have a look into KD, SF Am, Kno and Idlewild for there locations (thanks Wes).

So far it is looking like SFGadv and CP and maybe getting BGE and some of the other smaller ones in too. It does sound like a lot of travelling though! I would have to get back back to my originating airport for my return flight as obviously Single Flights are much much more expensive. I still need to decide which airport to goto!

Ahh well back to the drawing board, I was hoping this thread would answer more questions than it raises :-D

Cheers all

Your Welcome.

I still make about one road trip each year to a few parks. My last big road trip was 2006 where i did BGE, KD, Hersheypark, Dollywood, Dorney Park & Six Flags Great Adventure in 10 days but again thats driving not flying.

Road trips are alot of fun and in 2009 i'm planning a 2 more long road trips with 6-7 parks each trip.

EDIT: Well nevermind. I just noticed you lived outside the US. But you could still fly and rent a car.

There's really nothing like long road trips alone or with friends.

The way i look at it is if the parks are less than 12 hours away i'll drive to them then hit others along the way.

Welcome to ThrillNetwork.

Well, it is assuming this person has an drivers license in the UK and that it is legal to use that drivers license here and a rental company would rent a car to him.

Hiring a driver to take you from park to park is an expensive proposition even with the dollar weak against the pound.

Yes, I do drive and am looking at hiring a car for the trip. So far I have found a nice one with unlimited mileage for £250 (approx $500). Does anybody know cheaper for 14 days?

I don't think I will have enough time for all the smaller parks going through PA but I have a shortened list of the 'bigger' ones I will hopefully be visiting.
BGE, KD, SFA, SFGA, Dorney, CP. This way I only pay 3 companies for season passes if I am not mistaken, Cedar Fair, SF and Busch ;-)

If I have time I will stop in at some of the smaller ones in PA as I will be pretty much passing by them going to CP.

Thanks again for the help getting to know the area more.

Ah, a bit of transatlantic miscommunication. When I hear "hire a car" I am imagining you hiring someone to drive you everywhere.

Don't rule out the idea of a one way rental. I've done this on one trip and plan to do it again this year. Fly into Airport A, rent a car, drive to Airport B and fly home.

Having talked to people in the UK, they tend to have a different feeling about driving distances and times. Since the UK is relatively small, a 3 hour drive seems like a long time. On a trip like you are undertaking, 3 hours will be the norm.