Best time to do crazy USA Trip?

[Dirk_Ermen]

Hey Guys,

Me and my mom have a rough schedule for another crazy trip through the states. This time with tons of parks and coasters on the planning. But now my question is, what would be the best time to visit these parks?

Here's the list of parks that we'll probably all going to hit:
- Six Flags Great America
- Cedar Point
- Kennywood
- Hershey Park
- Knoebels Amusement Park
- Dorney Park
- Lake Compounce
- Six Flags Great Adventure
- Six Flags America
- Kings Dominion
- Busch Gardens Williamsburg

We'll, what's the best time to go to these parks and make the trip? I've heard from cedar point that it's always crowded. So i'll be hitting that park at least 2 or maybe even 3 days. But what about the rest?

why do i don't have such a mother [:(]
And why am i only 14 (school).

Oh and if you go: have fun [:p]

I don't know about most of them: only CP to be perfectly honest, and you're right on the money there (weekdays are slightly less busy, but you'll still need multiple days to fully experience it). But I did go to Great Adventure last August on a Friday. The weather was absolutely beautiful, and the park was busy, but nothing outrageous. I got on everything I wanted to and more, even after getting there after 1:00p and not purchasing the Flash Pass.
I'm actually planning a trip to a lot of the same parks this summer as you are, so that ought to be fun.

[Oscar]

I think 1 day at CP is enough. Was enough for me when I was there few years ago (thanks bockzilla for the trip )

No SFNE? It's like 30-45 minutes from Compounce if you drive fast.

I hit CP in the middle of August and two days was plenty. I got around all but 6 coasters on the first day, and the first day had some heavy rain so stuff was down for quite a while. I waited around an hour for MF/TTD, Maverick being a little quicker cause they keep the trains dispatching fast. The rest of the rides should be more in the 30 minute and under category.

Great America was packed on a Wednesday, so take whatever you want from that.

Kennywood wasn't bad on a Saturday in August as well, lines were around 30 min. The only thing that's really low capacity there is the mouse, which is cool but skippable. The theming is neat but I've been on other ones that spin better. You should be able to manage a few Phantom and Thunderbolt rides though, which have decent capacity and are the two best things there.

I went to Kings Dominion in September, they were kinda busy but not too bad. I waited like 1.5-2 hours for Volcano and XLC but everything else was reasonable, including walk-ons on Grizzly at night which was the best ride there I think. The park is laid out kind of oddly, so one side might be packed while the other side is completely dead.

BGE was done at the same time, in Sept, and I did like 3 days there, but you totally don't need it if you only care about riding the coasters and leaving. On my first day me and my mom stopped by just to check it out for a few hours and I ended up getting all the coasters in like 3-4 hours. BGE is more about long walks and hills than it is waiting in line, so expect a workout more than bad wait times. I would recommend you not rush though, because BGE is a beautiful park and is worth some extra time to really appreciate it instead of just rushing around to ride all the coasters.

SFNE, if you decide to do that is odd. Sometimes the waits will be ridiculous, and they only use one train on everything, and others the park will be dead and they use both trains. I went in June last year on a beautiful day for a few hours before closing and the park was basically abandoned, yet they had two trains on everything but the woodies (which can't run two anyway). Superzarro was basically a one train wait for front/back, walkon in the middle. But the park can get bad, so judge based on how full the parking lot is and maybe get a Qbot based on that.

And finally Compounce....Skip the water park. That gets ridiculous and they don't have much to do really. They have been trying to expand it for years because it gets so full but are having issues with the town. The dry park doesn't get bad at all however, and they're very efficient when it is. Boulder Dash with a full line out to the midway, as long as it's running both trains, is like a 15 minute wait for the front seat. Wildcat can be a little longer because they double check the bars, but not too bad. Zoomerang doesn't have gates so loading is fast here too. Make sure to stay til close if you go here, especially if you can get one of the dates where they're open til 10-11pm. Usually everyone will start to leave around 9, so you basically get ERT on Dash when it's running it's best anyway.

Maybe you should check out Dollywood.

Excuse me, he's hitting the Northern-ish areas of the US. Tennessee is down south. Also don't go hitting Clementon Lake Park on your trip as it sucks[:(].

Clementon does suck, but J2 used to be awesome before they raped it with brakes and smoothed the second hill out. Haven't ridden it since then but I've been told it's not nearly as aggressive as it used to be. Oh well, still a top 5 woodie for me, based on my rides from 2006.

Oh I just noticed Dorney was on your list - I went there, too. That was absolutely DEAD the day I went (Saturday in June). I got to the park about noon, and walked on to Talon twice (that is an AMAZING ride), then waited like a half hour for the mouse (only because of its low capacity), and then trekked to the back of the park for Steel Force and whatever else was back there (everything was less than a 5 minute wait back there). Hydra was down til mid-afternoon, but when I finally started operating, that was a very short wait, too. But my day was a lot of fun, and the lack of busy-ness really helped.

Pfff, you should just go on a midwest trip. [:P]

Dorney is dead until about late June. I would say by mid-June Demon Drop would be open so youll get to do that if you want.

PS: If you go to Dorney, look for me at the "Meteor" which is right next to Hydra and WWL. (Blue tag.)

After working at a park (Valleyfair) all of last summer, I would say June is the way to go. Even weekends in June are not as bad as some weekdays in July and August at most parks.

I would say by mid-June Demon Drop would be open

f**k! I'm going on June 6th with my school band! Ugh! I wanted to ride that again.

You can go to great adv. on starting tomorrow. It will open for NJ's spring break. I hope to go there in early April. It will be open until April 11th.

[Dirk_Ermen]

Thanks Guys so far, mom is curious. What about the crowds around end august/mid september? I think most of the parks will be limited open than again. Am I right?

Originally posted by Tetsu

Dorney is dead until about late June. I would say by mid-June Demon Drop would be open so youll get to do that if you want.

PS: If you go to Dorney, look for me at the "Meteor" which is right next to Hydra and WWL. (Blue tag.)

Cool, We'll definitely say hi when we'll visit the park. [:)]

Originally posted by Live on earths ass

Maybe you should check out Dollywood.

Maybe you should learn your topography better on themepark locations. Dollywood would be way off direction...

Maybe some other trip again where we'll going to hit mid(west)-usa [:)]

[Oscar]

You can come to USA after you translate the doc I sent you! [:D]

By September everyone is back in school so parks go down to shorter hours/weekends only. Around here late August is good, but it might not be for some of the midwestern parks. July/early August might be a better idea.

Looking forward to it. Dorney is lighter in September but the first week or so we will be open everyday. You might also see a little HAUNT prep during September. I would avoid Dorney in August as we are packing people in like those little fish most people dont seem to like.

Originally posted by Tetsu

I would avoid Dorney in August as we are packing people in like those little fish most people dont seem to like.

What is a sardine.

[slosprint]

You should definitely do them early summer, like in June sometime. Te parks don't really get swamped until July.

Six Flags Great America: Go anytime before august. Teachers give their students free tickets for reading six hours. Fright Fest is extremely crowded. September is good, but make sure they're open the day you go.

Get some rides in at night. If you get in line before the park closes, you can ride. I recommend doing this with Raging Bull. American Eagle's line usually disappears close to closing.

Oh, and GO TO HOLIDAY WORLD!!! The Voyage is better than anything at Cedar Point.

And maybe Indiana Beach and Wisconsin Dells while you're at it

Dirk, if you're going to SFGAm, you should definitely hit us SFSL while you're at it. The woodies are definitely worth it.

[slosprint]

Originally posted by Jonny Richey


Oh, and GO TO HOLIDAY WORLD!!! The Voyage is better than anything at Cedar Point.

The front left seat of Maverick comes pretty damn close. I'd definately be interested in this trip, though.

Holiday world and SFSTL are so out of the way lol. I'm thinking he's planning on starting at SFGAM (Chicago is easy to fly into internationally) and working his way east, at least it seems that way from his list of parks.

[slosprint]

Hmmm... Lake Compounce is near me. If you start on the east coast and make your way west I'd be more likely to be able to come.

[hyyyper]

Try to figure out when the schools start again in the US, and go then.