Farley Flavors

Currently in the middle of a two-week USA coaster tour and I definitely chose the right day to go to Dollywood! We told the guy in charge that we were visiting from Scotland and probably wouldn't be able to return for at least a couple of years (which is true) and he very kindly allowed us into the station without tickets. The ride operator then let us queue for the front row. The ride's awesome!

According to Google maps, Thorpe Park is a 2.9 mile drive from my house.

Thanks again folks. So my revised plan is to hit Goliath, Superman, Vertical Velocity and Whizzer as early as possible then scope out the one-train ops and leave Raging Bull until after 1500 when hopefully the crowds will be lighter (and it's running better).

Okay, thanks for the info. I guess I should aim to hit Goliath, Superman and Raging Bull as early as possible. Anyone know which coasters are likely to have one-train ops?

With this in mind I figured I might have to splash out on a Flash Pass on my visit in a few weeks' time. Except...I'm going on Thursday 19th May and the online store doesn't offer Flash Pass for that date, or indeed any other date in May when the park closes at 1700. What gives? Do they really not sell Flash Passes on a day when the park is only open for 6.5 hours?

Nice! I'm planning to be there in May. I'm pretty sure the UK will count as "out-of-state". What type of proof of residency should I bring?

There's no shuttle bus to the park. It stopped running a couple of years back. As I already mentioned, if booking in advance you can get a return to Stoke for £18. This includes hourly departures from Euston from 0746. You can check the fares and timetables at http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/.

Alton Towers is a real bitch to get to on public transport. The bus services from either Stoke-on-Trent or Uttoxeter railway stations are seriously infrequent (there's only four per day from Uttoxeter) so unless you plan your journey meticulously you'd be looking at taxi journeys. The train journey needn't be as expensive as Dar suggests. By booking in advance on the right trains you can get a return from London Euston (reachable on the tube from Heathrow in an hour) to Stoke-on-Trent for as little as £18. A return journey in one day might just be possible. Have you booked your flight to Heathrow yet? If so, what time does it arrive? Are you staying in London for a while before you go to the continent or are you flying straight out after Alton Towers?

Most pleasant surprise was probably riding the Wild Mouse at Blackpool Pleasure Beach for the first time many years back. It looks so tame and innocent from the line. I was blown away by how insane it was! Of course, the same park has an unpleasant surprise too - how piss-poor The Big One is.

I thought those were from electrical work this offseason (I think either HWFan mentioned this or I must have the wrong park..) These are the tremors I'm talking about, not earthquakes. Tremors In which case you should have said "I will gladly take giant moles over freaking Graboids"

I did a field test by asking people I know, and at least in Minnesota, it's just called hockey UNLESS you are playing some other variation of it (floor, field, roller). To me, it's exactly the same. Unnecessarily adding a word. You're both wrong. "Hockey" is always played on a field. There's no such term as "field hockey"

Who the hell told you that?! For me it's the second best coaster in the park (after The Beast).

HI guys, Would you say it is doable to ride all of the above at least once in a single weekday, late May-early June? Cheers, Sam With a Flash Pass? Yes. Without one? Possibly. I went on a weekday last March, arriving before the gates opened, and the significant lines were: X2 45m Tatsu 55m Goliath (front row) 65m Full Throttle 75m (we didn't get on this until about an hour after the park closed) The lines for Viper, Green Lantern, Drop of Doom, Riddler's Revenge, Superman and Ninja were all minimal. Apocalypse and Scream were walk-ons so we rode both twice. Twisted Colossus wasn't operating. I'm assuming similar crowd levels to late March in late May/early June though, dunno if that's the case.

I'm guessing you haven't watched Blackfish then.

Sorry, but this is just nonsense. Why would someone who has a valid US ESTA/visa be detained for attempting to re-enter the US from Canada? As I've already said, I've done this several times without a problem - as recently as August 2015.

If you've decided on doing all of these parks, I'd fly from LAX to Cincinnati and do KI, CP and CW, drive to SFNE, head south for the Pennsylvania parks and SFGAdv and finally KD and BGW. Rather than pay for the one-way car rental fee, I'd then drive back to Cincinnati - assuming you're not pushed for time. Even if it takes you two days, you'll probably find that the extra cost of gas and a hotel for the night will still be cheaper than the one-way fee. I don't think this is a good idea either, mainly because your first "loop" involves driving all the way to CW and back to CLE. It makes more sense to drive across to SFNE from CW. Not sure why you'd want to go to Knoebels as the first of the East Coast parks. If you're going on to SFNE from Pennsylvania you'll be doubling back on yourself. I don't see why it should. I've driven a rental car from the US to Canada and back with a UK passport a few times without a problem, although admittedly you do tend to get a five minute quizzing on where you've been and where you're headed. Even if you can find a rental company that will offer a one-way US to Canada hire (it's quite rare), the one-way fee will be prohibitively expensive. Like $1000 expensive.

For what it's worth, I purchased a Silver Dollar City season pass online using a UK credit card a couple of months ago without any problems. (I'm only going for one day, but the offer included a bring-a-friend ticket which made it cheaper than two daily admission tickets.) Remarkably, I got the pass in the mail around five weeks later. I say "remarkably" because the dozy buggers neglected to put the country on the address label

Indeed - it'll be mobbed. At that time of year I've seen "Thorpe Park is Full" signs on the road outside to dissuade people from attempting to enter the parking area.

Their home page is quite amusing. "TODAY'S SPECIAL. THIS OFFER ENDS AT MIDNIGHT. Save Up To $120 Off Nightly." Along with a countdown to midnight timer to hammer the message home. Except TODAY'S SPECIAL has been exactly the same every day for about a month.

Okay, thanks. I'll give them a call before heading up.

Can I presume from this that the park doesn't open until Memorial weekend? Currently planning a road trip and I had a visit pencilled in for Thursday 19th. May...

Lunch 1130-1530, dinner 1630-1930, snacks 1130-1930. Details here.

Not this year apparently - the Gold Dining Pass is currently $80 plus tax and is valid at all Six Flags parks.

Sounds like a great trip; I'm currently planning a vaguely similar one for this May. One minor point you've forgotten to factor in is time zone changes. For example, on day 12 of the short trip you're travelling from Holiday World (CST) to Sharonville, OH (EST), cutting your sleep time by an hour.