gp1086

Jealous of you guys who are able to visit during weekdays. I'll probably wind up waiting until Fright Fest this year and hang in these crowds again.

It's official! I'll be traveling from NYC to the midwest to visit Six Flags St. Louis and Holiday World in July. Never been to this part of the country and I'm psyched. I'm most curious about food. (1) Any can't miss food items in the park? Meals and/or snack food (e.g. funnel cake). A quick glance at the website and most of the stuff looks similar to my home park SFGadv. (2) Good places to eat surrounding the park? From what I understand there's some great BBQ. Planning to visit AB brewery for a tour in between days at parks. (3) Anything worthwhile food-wise on the trip between Indiana and St. Louis? Should I just expect a lot of open land and fast food joints off the interstate?

It's official! I'll be traveling from NYC to the midwest to visit Holiday World and Six Flags St. Louis in July. Never been to this part of the country and I'm psyched. I'm most curious about food. (1) Any can't miss food items in the park? I'm intrigued by Fried Reeses Peanut Butter Cups at "Funnel Cake Factory". What about for meals though? (2) Good places to eat surrounding the park or is everything good in the park? (3) Anything worthwhile food-wise (e.g. good BBQ) on trip between Indiana and St. Louis?

I was there two Sundays ago (5/17) and crowds were pretty light especially for Cyclone and Thunderbolt, both walk-ons. Is that normal? Waited 15 minutes or so for log flume ride. Thunderbolt has terrible restraints, no? Felt like I was seriously getting jerked around. (apologies if this has been covered before)

Apologies if this has been covered already, but see the park has posted hours for Holiday in the Park and looks like Thanksgiving time is covered too! 1:00 pm. - 9:00 p.m. on most weekends (and then some around holidays). What is minimum temperature / wind chill you'd visit the park?

Sounds awesome! Will be tracking this!

Thanks. I am actually thinking about the Drury Inn & Suites Fenton. 17 min drive from park and $218 after taxes both nights with free breakfast and wifi.

Closest is Coney Island, but never been. Home park is Six Flags Great Adventure.

No, plenty of good options nearby. At 44 & 141 you can get either a Hampton or a Drury for around $100. If you're more budget-minded, Travelodge in Grey Summit is a good 2-star hotel for around $70. Those hotels are all about 10 minutes drive from the park. If you have a parking pass, you really should look further afield. I have personally stayed in all three hotels I mentioned and would recommend all of them. You're the man! Thanks.

You can stay rid of GASM and Rolling Thunder, but bring me back Chiller and Chaos! I also never got to ride Movie Town Water Effect!

Only been to three: (1) Cedar Point - visited twice, 2009 and 2010. Best theme park I've ever been too, as much as I love Great Adventure. (2) Knotts Berry Farm - visited once, 2008 for a night with work event (3) Dorney Park - visited once, 2005 with senior physics class The three I most want to visit that I haven't: King's Island, Carowinds, King's Dominion.

What hotels do you guys recommend for Six Flags St. Louis? Looking to spend $100 or under / night if feasible. Holiday Inn at the park is $135 per night after tax. Worth the extra price for convenience?

Continue to appreciate all the suggestions! The more I think about it, the more I think I'm going to do Six Flags St. Louis and Holiday World. Really haven't spent too much time in the midwest (with exception of Cleveland / Sandusky area - been to Cedar Point on two occasions), so looking to see a new part of the country too. Going to start looking for hotels soon I think. Am intrigued by Silver Dollar City, but that may need to wait for another trip perhaps with Worlds of Fun. Maybe I can also do a combined Kings Island and Kentucky Kingdom trip going forward.

Regarding Memberships, if my home park is really SFGAdv but the first park I'll be visiting this summer is Six Flags St. Louis, do they have any way of enforcing me buying it (planning Gold Membership) based on St. Louis prices but basically always going to Great Adventure?

Thanks for the feedback on hotels, all! Free parking...awesome!

Suggestions of hotels? Trying to budget $80-90 / night if feasible, but most places seem to be a decent distance away. Worth the premium to stay at Santa's Lodge? Seems to be closest and wouldn't need to pay parking at least. Does it have complimentary breakfast? Discounted Holiday World tickets for guests?

Appreciate the suggestions, all. Do agree that it's a bit of unnecessary driving, which I may try to cut down on. A couple things: - Don't really mind doing a bit of (although flying to St. Louis with King's Island on the agenda may be excessive). I live in NYC which is notoriously fast paced and work long hours, so kind of looking for some time in the more open and relaxing midwest doing things at my own pace. I may consider doing Six Flags St. Louis and Holiday World, then save King's Island for another trip. - Think Carowinds and Six Flags Over Georgia would be two great parks to visit and I haven't been to either. I have been to both Charlotte and Atlanta though multiple times, and there's an aspect of this trip to visiting somewhere new (not just theme park, which we obviously tend to value greatly here ).

Between Holiday World and Kings Island - which would you say generally has larger crowds / should I try to plan for a weekday vs. Saturday?

Do they usually have the park fully running (i.e. all food open, shows, characters, etc) on opening day?

No, that means the park is open until Midnight, then closes. And the following day reopens at 11am. 11 hour gap there. EDIT: Scratch that. I see what you're saying now. I was looking at Friday-Saturday, not Saturday-Sunday. EDIT 2: So looking at the text below the calendar, I think that's just a bug with the calendar view. The text below lists the hours as: Friday, October 23: 5:30pm to 12:00am Saturday, October 24: 11:00am to 12:00am Sunday, October 25: 11:00am to 10:00pm Thanks. Good call.

Appreciate the suggestions, all! Actually was going to fly to St. Louis (vs. Cincinnati) given the flights were significantly cheaper. Even though I could fit in 3 parks likely, probably would rather do 2 and not want to rush any. Want this to be more of a relaxing getaway.

Live in NYC and looking to escape the tri-state area for a 4 night, 2 park trip this summer. Also, would like to exclude the Orlando area since have seen a lot of that, and have also been to Cedar Point. Was thinking of: Tuesday night - fly to St. Louis Wednesday - Holiday World Thursday - drive / relax Friday - King's Island Saturday - fly home Thoughts / suggestions? Better park(s) to visit in the area? Different part of the country and better couple parks to visit? Happy to hear suggestions.

Maybe I'm not understanding it right, maybe it's an April Fool's joke, but does this mean the park will be open all-nighters from Saturday to Sunday during Fright Fest?

Thanks! Was just checking out your photo trip report thread. Great stuff and well done!

Heading to Epcot on Monday - first time since I was 3 (now 28) - so excited! Definitely planning on checking out Test Track, Soarin', and Mission Space. What else?