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Another East Coast Trip - Questions


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Planning for a 2015 East Coast Trip. (Already been to NYC, Washington, SFGAdv, Kings Island and Cedar Point before)

 

The plan is to spend 1 day (per line) at:

Flight / Boston

SFNE

Lake Compounce (and Quassy)

NYC / Cony Island

SFGAdv

Dorney and Knoebels

Herschey

WDC / SF America

Kings Dominion

Bush Gardens Europe

Carrowinds

Dollywood

SFoG

Flight Atlante -> Chicago

SF Great America

Fly back

+ 2-3 additional days for reserve and non park stuff.

 

Questions:

1. Opening Days: Is it relatively save to assume the parks will open at similar times in 2015 as in 2014 (addjusted for Holidays, etc.)?

2. When is the best time to visit the parks?

Many seem to be closed / open only on weekends until June / Memorial Day.

I plan to use Fastpass, etc. in most parks but still like to avoid the school holidays and the hot / humid summer months.

3. When can the new Rides (Fury 325 and Wicked Cyclone) be expected to open? (I know things can always happen)

4. Is SF America worth a visit? Heard not the best about this park but well it's on the way anyway.

5. Which Order woud you suggest: Boston->Atlanta or Atlanta->Boston and why?

6. Any Parks or other types of (Thrill-)Rides on the way I'm missing?

7. Is it save to buy Fastpasses in the parks at opening (planning to be at all parks at opening hour) or can they be sold out through online sales?

I'd like to stay flexible and therefore bying Fastpasses in advance online for specific days would be a problem.

8. Anything else? All suggestions welcome.

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  • 4 weeks later...
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^ Sorry for not responding right away, but this is a LOT of questions to be asking with a good amount of this information already available online. I'm going to put this in the main forum to see if someone else has the time to answer, but at the moment, we are just really too busy to respond as what you're asking is quite a large volume of work.

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Some brief suggestions for you:

 

1. Yes.

2. If you want to hit everything on your list, use Memorial Day weekend as your travel days to the States and start going to parks on that Tuesday. Crowds will be very light during the week (many parks will be completely dead), but you may have to deal with school groups. The weekends might be a little heavy (depending on the park).

3. They should be open by Memorial Day.

4. That depends. If you're only interested in riding the coasters for the credits, yes. If you're looking for an overall park experience and don't care about the coasters that much, no.

5. It shouldn't really matter based on crowds. Whichever one fits your schedule best.

6. There's a good number of small parks on your route, but most of them can be skipped if you're pressed for time. Most just have kiddie coasters and other non-memorable rides.

7. Yes. Even on the busiest days, they don't sell out online. I would judge the crowds upon arrival and see if it's needed. Parks you might need it at would be SFNE, SFGAdv, BGW, KD, SOFG, and SFGAm. If you get season passes, you might be able to get it cheaper at the park than you would online.

8. It's going to be an awesome trip and there's a lot of great stuff on your itinerary! You're also going to be in the largest Megalopolis in the world (DC to Boston), so beware of the traffic and allow yourself plenty of time for travel between destinations. Most importantly: have fun!

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Just from personal experience, I'd be hesitant about doing Dorney and Knoebels in the same day. Unless you're doing a quick "get in, get out, hurrah Fast Lane" credit run approach to Dorney, you're looking at a full day. And Knoebels is definitely a full day park. Plus, it's about a 1.5-2 hour drive between the two parks.

 

As for your questions:

1. It'd be safe to assume the parks will open roughly when they did in 2014 (give or take a few days)

2. My favourite time to travel is early June. By that time, most of the new rides are open, the kids are still in school and it's not too hot yet.

3. Memorial Day is a a good bet. But, it can definitely be hit and miss...I've been to parks in late June and their new ride still isn't open.

4. Honestly? The only reason to go to SFA is if you need the credits and happen to be in the area.

5. I usually hit parks working my way south to north, but that's for convenience purposes since I have to drive back up into Canada.

6. There's some smaller stuff, but it's not really worth making the stop. Well...maybe Lakemont between Knoebels and Hershey for Leap the Dips. If you're interested in a non theme park related excursion, you could find your way to Centralia, PA, an abandoned town not too far from Knoebels.

7. Fast Lane/Flashpass can be bought online. I always buy it ahead of time since it lets me rest a bit easier. Though, it's always a safe bet to see how busy the parking lot is when you get there before buying.

8. Buy good walking shoes. Dear god, I cannot stress that enough. Your feet will be thanking you by the time the trip is done. Also, be sure to relax and roll with the punches if anything goes a bit out of plan. Most important though...have fun!

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I'll just add some suggestions. For the Dorney, Knoebels and Hersheypark, stay in the same hotel somewhere inbetween these places as they are not that far away from each other and it's really nice to have a base for a few days. It is possible to do Dorney and Knoebels in a day but you really don't want to rush Knoebels.

 

The fastpass thing, I would also play it by ear and check on the day. If you're planning on getting to the park for opening you should have no trouble securing those anywhere. The only ones that I would say are definitely needed are SFGAdv and SFGAm. I didn't get one at SFNE this year as I was playing it by crowd and it was fine.

 

As you're going to so many Six Flags parks, I'd expect you're getting a season pass. Try and go into the park you activate at the night before (if time allows) so it doesn't eat into your time on your actual day of the theme park. This is also handy to check out the layout of the park.

 

I would choose between Atlanta-Boston and Boston-Atlanta based on flight prices. Both getting into the country and the internal flight you're taking to Chicago. More carriers fly internationally to Boston than to Atlanta, as far as I know.

 

I hope you're planning rest days inbetween, I did a similar trip this year and it was amazing, but you really need some rest days inbetween. Try and plan them on Saturdays if you can and try to drive outside of rush hour.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I don't have answers to all your questions, so I'll just give responses where applicable:

 

2. My only advice here is for your Quassy / Compounce day, and that's to try and do this on a day when Compounce is open late (probably a Saturday). Boulder Dash is a great coaster during the day, but at night becomes an absolutely world-class one, so anything you can do to maximize your dark time at LC is probably worth the effort.

 

4. I personally think so, for S:ROS, Batwing, and Wild One, and assuming you'll be buying a SF season pass. I think S:ROS and Batwing and both solid and underrated rides, but if you've already been on these types of rides it might not be worth the time. Maybe give it a day and then depending on how you feel during the trip you can go/no go it. Or depending on how/what you want to do in DC, swinging over to SFA in the evening would probably give you enough time to hit up the important things.

 

6. This is a sort of drastic change so it might not work with what you want to do, but if you're willing to add days and driving you could drive from Dollywood to Chicago and hit up Kentucky Kingdom, Holiday World, and/or Indiana Beach on the way.

 

I hope this trip works out for you, have fun!

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The fastpass thing, I would also play it by ear and check on the day. If you're planning on getting to the park for opening you should have no trouble securing those anywhere. The only ones that I would say are definitely needed are SFGAdv and SFGAm. I didn't get one at SFNE this year as I was playing it by crowd and it was fine.

 

I agree with this... especially at Dorney. Even if you're planning on rushing through it one morning and then leaving for Knoebels there's still no need for it because every ride will merge after the merge point anyway. Every ride will be a walk on (at least in the morning) except for maybe the mouse which I suggest riding first (or right after Talon since it's at the front of the park). Don't worry about the standard "go to the back and work your way forward" approach at Dorney. Everything will be a walk on anyway, though if you want to ride Stinger first so you can get the credit before it's usual catastrophic failure that sends people to the hospital / strands them for hours and causes it to be closed all day / season that might be a good idea. My only other tips for this park are to ride Thunder Creek Mountain and Demon Drop. Even if you're going to Knoebels in the same day those 2 rides are worth riding.

 

On the subject of Fastlane it might be a good idea at Kings Dominion too because of Volcano and Flight of Fear. You may not need it but it guarantees a lot more rides on those coasters that ALWAYS have a line.

 

6. There's some smaller stuff, but it's not really worth making the stop. Well...maybe Lakemont between Knoebels and Hershey for Leap the Dips. If you're interested in a non theme park related excursion, you could find your way to Centralia, PA, an abandoned town not too far from Knoebels.

 

I agree with this but Lakemont is really out of the way. Lakemont is a hilarious dump of a park but Leap the Dips is great and Skyliner is pretty good too. Del Grossos is also right off the highway just a few miles away and is worth whoring out. It's a much nicer park than Lakemont. And as for the Centralia suggestion... absolutely go there if you have time. It's awesome.

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4. I like SFA but seems unneeded in this list. Especially with going to Hershey, ROAR == Wildcat, Skyrush >> RoS except maybe if dark (fright Fest). Also FoF >> JJinx (unless a comparison interests you). Batwing is very odd and worth a ride, but I never want 2 rides. Wild One is great but again you'll have plenty comparable. And speaking of SLCs, the reference one is at Morey's Piers, which I might put above SFA just because of the locale, even with only 3 major coasters.

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Most of the new rides open memorial weekend or later. But I think you should have a full day at Lake Compounce, then combine quassy with like a travel day. Try to go on week days before camp starts to all the parks. Also if you are looking for a good water park to add to the trip I recommend Mountain Creek Action Park in Vernon New Jersey.

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