Best Park in Each Chain

Palace/Parques Reunidos: Kennywood

Cedar Fair: Cedar Point (But I'm partial. CW and Knott's are much nicer)

Six Flags: Six Flags New England (Great Adventure is a close second)

SeaWorld: Busch Gardens Tampa

Herschend: Silver Dollar City

Universal: Islands of Adventure (have only been to FL resort)

Disney: Magic Kingdom (have only been to FL resort)

Independent: Probably either Knoebels or Holiday World

Some small changes due to visiting new parks:

Disney: Tokyo Disneysea > Tokyo Disneyland > Disneyland > DCA

Universal: Universal Studios Japan > Universal Studios Florida > Universal Studios Islands of Adventure

^ Once you (finally) get to Japan....nothing else really matters, does it?

The 2007 TPR Japan Tour. My first taste of DisneySea.

Best ones I've been to in each chain. Haven't been to all of any chain's parks yet.

Disney: Disneyland

Universal: Universal Studios Hollywood

Six Flags: Six Flags Fiesta Texas

Cedar Fair: Knott's Berry Farm

Herschend: Dollywood

EPR: Frontier City

Independent: Knoebels

^ EPR?

Yeah, they own Frontier City, Magic Springs, Elitch Gardens, and Darien Lake, and I think maybe some others too.

Yeah, here's the list:

http://www.eprkc.com/portfolio/recreation/attractions/property-list/

^ Damn, their name appears so....clinical, scientific somethingorother.

Six Flags: In my opinion, SFGAdv and SFMM are about tied in the coaster department, but SFGAdv does everything else (flat rides, service, cleanliness) better than SFMM, so I’ll say Six Flags Great Adventure.

Cedar Fair: Obviously Cedar Point, but my second favorite is Kings Dominion.

SeaWorld: Only been to SWSD.

Disney: I’ve been to WDW, but that was 10 years ago when I was only 8 and I don’t remember a whole lot, so I’m going with DLR/DCA.

Universal: Only been to USH, and that was before Harry Potter.

Independent: Hersheypark!

Among parks I've visited:

Six Flags: Over Georgia wins on atmosphere. Magic Mountain wins on coasters. Great Adventure wins on flats and operations.

Cedar Fair: Knott's wins on atmosphere. Kings Dominion wins on coasters and operations. Valleyfair just edges out Dorney on flats.

SeaWorld: Only visited Busch Gardens Williamsburg. Can't do a comparison.

Independent: Knoebels wins hands down. Not that Hersheypark isn't close, though.

For rides?

Six Flags - Great Adventure

CF - Cedar Point

SW - Busch Tampa

Independent - Hershey

Disney - Magic Kingdom*

For the overall park?

Six Flags - Over Georgia

CF - Kings Dominion

SW - Busch Williamsburg

Independent - Hershey

Disney - EPCOT*

*Based on my recollection from 32 years ago lol.

Disney- Disneyland

For one park, I’ll take Walt’s original Disneyland. Though that may change after I visit Tokyo Disney later this year. But for now, I narrowly prefer it to Magic Kingdom. For the most part, the California versions are equal to or better (ex. Space Mountain or Pirates) than their Florida counterparts. Then Disneyland has one of my favorite rides anywhere, Indiana Jones Adventure.

Cedar Fair- Cedar Point

This one is a no brainer. Cedar Point is easily one of my favorite parks because of their operations and that coaster lineup.

Merlin- Alton Towers

I’ve visited Legoland Florida, Chessington, Thorpe, and Alton Towers. No question it’s Alton Towers. The park is beautiful and has an extremely strong steel coaster lineup, highlighted by Nemesis which is still one of the best coasters in the world.

Parque Reunidos- Kennywood

Idlewild and Story Land are both cute. And while Lake Compounce has the best ride of the chain, it’s definitely Kennywood. Phantom’s Revenge is a top 10 steel coaster for me and beyond that, they have some good, classic wooden coasters, fun dark rides (minus Garfield), and solid flat rides. Yes the operations aren’t great, but that seems to be an issue across the chain unfortunately.

SeaWorld- Busch Gardens Tampa

The three SeaWorld parks are beautiful and have some solid coasters, but this really comes down to the two Busch Gardens parks. Both have top notch landscaping, great theming, and incredible steel coaster collections. It’s splitting hairs, but I’ll give it to the Tampa park because their coaster collection narrowly edges out Williamsburg.

Six Flags- Six Flags Fiesta Texas

Magic Mountain and Great Adventure have superior coaster lineups, but my favorite one is Six Flags Fiesta Texas. The park didn’t feel like a Six Flags park, and I mean that as a compliment. The setting next to the quarry wall is gorgeous and their operations were incredible. I barely saw any stacking. Their coaster collection is also really underrated. Iron Rattler is insane and my second favorite steel coaster, but beyond that they have the best free spin, the best floorless coaster, a spaghetti bowl way wilder than Flight of Fear, and a Batman clone.

Universal- Islands of Adventure

This will probably change to Universal Japan later this year, but until then my pick is Islands of Adventure. I’m still bitter (like all enthusiasts) that they removed Dragons, but they have an incredibly well-rounded lineup. Hulk is an intense coaster from start to finish and they also have two of the best dark rides anywhere (Forbidden Journey & Spiderman) and three of my favorite water rides.

Herschend- Dollywood

Once I visit Silver Dollar City on Memorial Day weekend, this could be more interesting, but until then it’s a no brainer to pick Dollywood over Dolly’s Splash Country.

Apex- Indiana Beach

Fantasy Island is a charming, well-run park, but it simply doesn’t have the ride collection to match Indiana Beach. I was incredibly frustrated by their operations (5/6 coasters were closed by the end of the night), but Cornball Express is a top 10 wooden coaster and their other coasters are pretty good too.

Premier Parks- Darien Lake

Since Clementon is easily one of the worst parks I’ve ever visited, Darien Lake gets the nod. Darien’s operations may be abysmal (one train on everything but the Arrow looper), but at least the exit for their coaster isn’t outside park gates so you have to pass back through bag check/security to reride.

Six Flags: SFGAdv

Cedar Fair: Cedar Point

Disney: Maguc Kingdom

Universal: IOA

SeaWorld: BGT

Herschend: SDC

Apex: Indiana Beach

Premier Parks: Darien Lake

Independent: Kentucky Kingdom