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Michigan's Adventure (MiA) Discussion Thread


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Slightly off topic, but thinking of mixing a June trip to MA with a weekend getaway to one of the beaches along Lake Michigan (never been before). Looking for somewhere within 75 min drive from the park with great beaches and a fun town for good restaurants / ice cream shops. Decent proximity to Grand Rapids airport is a plus too. Any suggestions? Was looking at Saugatuck.

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Grand haven Muskegon and Ludington have beautiful beaches. Amazing craft beer scene in west Michigan. Muskegon is about 45 minutes from GRR and about 12 minutes from MIA. It has a couple good breweries. Whitehall is where I live and that is a very nice beach town with a beautiful beach. About 10 minutes from the park and about an hour from GRR

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I like the Meinert Park beach in Montague. It's clean and there's only a few people there every time I go. Grand Haven has nice beaches, but they get pretty busy. Pentwater and Ludington have nice beaches too. I don't think it's necessary to go that much further North though. The beach by Duck Lake State Park in North Muskegon is pretty nice. I have always been told by my friends in the Whitehall area to avoid the beaches in Muskegon so I can't say how they are.

 

Whitehall/Montague has a few ice cream shops to choose from and my favorite is Pekadill's. They have good ice cream and a nice garden in the back. I reccomend a peanut butter and banana milk shake. So good. They also have a sandwich menu with some other items. Kids like Dairy Treat because they have Monster Shakes. The shakes are 30 or more ounces and come with a little monster on your straw. They're cheap, but kind of bland since they're made with soft serve ice cream. Whippi Dip in Muskegon has really good flurries.

 

Good restaurants are hard to come by, but my standards are high since I'm from Chicago. You can get good hamburgers at the Station Grill in Muskegon and Brown Bear in Shelby. I can't speak to the other items on their menus. Hobo's Tavern in Muskegon is pretty good. The few things I've had there have been good and are fairly priced. It's my go to place when I'm in the area. I hope this helps.

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But they are investing in the park, just with things like a petting zoo. They have to be smart with their investments. MiA has major staffing problems, and the last thing you want in that situation is more rides. If anything, they need to remove a few rides that require more than one person to operate. Another big coaster like the enthusiasts want, which would require 5 or so people at all times to run, is ludicrous.

 

They could just Six Flags' it and have 2 people for flat rides and coasters

 

They currently have 3 on roller coasters and 1 on flat rides. All the rides have the minimum staffing required.

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Very helpful advice grsupercity and Intaminlove. Thank you both!

 

Trying to figure a park to pair with MA and Lake Michigan. Was looking at Kings Island and SFGAm. Any other suggestions? Know Cedar Point is a great option of course but been there a couple times already

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Depends on what you're into. Kings Island is a good choice since you can get a Platinum Pass and if you get the dining plan or something, it applies to both parks.

 

The easiest to get to are Six Flags Great America and Indiana Beach. If you do go to Chicago, drive there that night and stay in Waukegan or Gurnee, don't fight Chicago traffic in the morning. It's 4 hours if you go that night, but could be 6 if you wait.

 

Kings Island, Kentucky Kingdom, Holiday World, and Six Flags St. Louis are all within 6-7 hours of Muskegon, easily done if you drive half that night and the other half the next morning.

 

What direction are you coming from? That'll determine how far west/south you want to go.

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If you're going to be in Muskegon, there is an awesome (but not cheap) ferry to take you to Milwaukee, which is about an hour from SF Great America, and you get to avoid driving in all the Chicago traffic. Yes, the boat ride and time it takes to load/unload can be upwards of 3.5 hours, but it definitely beats the monotony of the Indiana Toll Road and bullshit of Chicago traffic (6-7 hours).

 

https://www.lake-express.com/

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Cedar Point is my favorite park so I have to tell you to go there even though you've been there a few times. Kings Island is my second favorite park so if you haven't been there before then I highly suggest it. SFGAm is the closest major park, but it's nothing special. Half the coasters are clones and the others don't really stand out. Although I do like American Eagle a lot. I'm biased, but you would probably have a decent time there at best. If you're not interested in those parks then I don't know what to suggest without knowing how far you want to drive and what you're looking for in a park.

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Slightly off topic, but thinking of mixing a June trip to MA with a weekend getaway to one of the beaches along Lake Michigan (never been before). Looking for somewhere within 75 min drive from the park with great beaches and a fun town for good restaurants / ice cream shops. Decent proximity to Grand Rapids airport is a plus too. Any suggestions? Was looking at Saugatuck.

 

I strongly recommend Ludington. It's about 45 minutes north of the park. All the Lake Michigan beaches are absolutely beautiful but I think the town of Ludington is better than the rest for 2 reasons: it is actually located right on Lake Michigan. You can walk from the beach into town and vice versa, where the others are very close, but still a 10 minute or more drive from the lake. And the other towns like Grand Haven, Holland, Saugatuck, are a little more touristy, where Ludington has more of an at home kind of feel. And then Muskegon is a town who's better days are behind it IMO. Montague and Whitehall I've never visited but those towns aren't right on the lake either.

 

Ludington has a bunch of amazing restaurants. My favorites are the Old Hamlin which is a typical family restaurant, Scotty's for seafood, especially the fried perch, and they have the most amazing BBQ place outside of the south called the Q Smokehouse. For ice cream they have house of flavors. I'm not really an ice cream person, but everyone loves house of flavors. I posted a picture of their ice cream menu below...

982681690_houseofflavors.thumb.jpg.4bed5919dca45e5b80f25663d4fbed50.jpg

House of flavors ice cream

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If you're going to be in Muskegon, there is an awesome (but not cheap) ferry to take you to Milwaukee, which is about an hour from SF Great America, and you get to avoid driving in all the Chicago traffic. Yes, the boat ride and time it takes to load/unload can be upwards of 3.5 hours, but it definitely beats the monotony of the Indiana Toll Road and bullshit of Chicago traffic (6-7 hours).

 

https://www.lake-express.com/

That's cool to know about. Those drive-on ferries are a neat experience.

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Thanks for all the awesome feedback everyone! Likely would be driving from King's Island area at this point, so would prefer to be South of Michigan's Adventure if feasible, so I could make it in ~5-6 hours or less from Ohio .

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  • 1 month later...

Seems a shame to let that rockwork sign & sword go to waste...

 

I wonder how much it'd be to disassemble, ship and reassemble it next to Wolverine Wildcat, throw up a new station and open that path up between north & south.

 

Come on CF! Jeez

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The boomerang would be much more welcomed then Excalibur. Employee dorms, belts to haul the tubes up the hills for the waterslides, and a path connecting Timbers and Thunderhawk would be even more welcomed

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If you're going to be in Muskegon, there is an awesome (but not cheap) ferry to take you to Milwaukee, which is about an hour from SF Great America, and you get to avoid driving in all the Chicago traffic. Yes, the boat ride and time it takes to load/unload can be upwards of 3.5 hours, but it definitely beats the monotony of the Indiana Toll Road and bullshit of Chicago traffic (6-7 hours).

 

https://www.lake-express.com/

We met a kid at Electric Forest last summer that rode a dirt bike (somehow managed to load a sizable tent + camping gear onto it) all the way around the lake from Sheboygan (WI) to the Muskegon area. He was pretty flabbergasted/pissed at how that ride went, so he went with the ferry for the return trip.

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I think the main reason they are not adding new rides is because there is just not enough staffing to run the rides they currently have. Just think, a new boomerang would take 3 employees to run. That’s the same as shivering timbers, a much bigger ride.

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So I’m at the park today and I tried to start my annual trash can count but I stopped at 30 lol. Anyway moderately busy but tolerable and has been pretty fun. Got a early ride on Timbers and spent a while in the water park, now we’re trying to finish the dry park.

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