Which trip should I begin to seriously plan?

[Josh Linn]

I've been thinking about this for a few days, and I decided that this summer, as a graduation present to myself, I'm going to organize a trip for me and probably a friend or two. I haven't been to a park since IoA in 2006, so I figured it'd be a nice way to A: enjoy my last summer before college and B: get back into the whole roller coaster scene.

 

While all of that sounds all great, there's a problem. I currently have saved $0. Also, I have no job (trying to fix that as I type this). That limits the distance I can travel and the amount of parks I can go to. I'm trying to limit it to places that I have never been to before, or parks that have added rides that I'd like to ride for the first time. I've narrowed it down to two options, and need some help on which one I should choose. I'm looking for the more financially feasible option, but if I'm convinced that the more expensive is a much better option, I'll go with that one.

 

Here are the options:

 

Choice A - Midwest

 

 

Day 1: Cedar Point

Day 2: OFF

Day 3: Indiana Beach

Day 4: Holiday World

Day 5: Kings' Island

Day 6: Kennywood

Day 7: Hersheypark

 

 

Choice B - New England/Mid-Atlantic

 

Day 1: Knoebel's (of course)/Clementon

Day 2: Six Flags Great Adventure

Day 3: Lake Compounce

Day 4: Six Flags New England

Day 5: OFF

Day 6: Dorney Park

 

I figure both SHOULD be around the same price when you look at hotel/admission, but I think Choice A might be a little more pricier considering the miles logged. I think if I do get a job for 15-20 hours a week, plus the money I'll get for Christmas and my birthday (which is conveniently in April), I should be fine as far as money is concerned, but I'm not sure yet.

 

So...which should I look into?

[spaceace12]

I would go with A, but move Cedar Point to after Kings Island, Food and drinks is probably going to be cheaper for plan a (because HW and IB have cheap food), maybe also consider adding Six Flags St. Louis. You could possibly do HW and SF in 1 and 1/2 days, and they maybe adding a coaster next year (I say maybe because of the fact no official word is announced till tomorrow and swoosh says it is a GCI).

[307]

You shouldn't have a problem saving the money required to go on the trip... I'd probably budget around $1200 for the trip. It may not be that much, but it's always good to overestimate. I just went on a road trip to Milwaukee, Chicago, and Minneapolis/St Paul a couple weeks ago, and had a measly $600 budgeted for the entire thing. My estimates were way off, and I ended up spending around $900, which totally boggled my mind until I realized the error of my calculations [travelling with non-Nikki people, expensive parking, more unplanned activities, more meals than usual, pricier hotels, etc].

 

Working 20 hours a week should easily give you that in two or three months [assuming you spend money on other things during that time], so planning for April should leave you enough time to suitably beef up your bank account, especially with other sources of cash coming your way.

 

Anyway, I'd do option a. You may encounter some problems along the trip - driving between parks will get very annoying, especially considering the length of the drive of a few of them [KI to KW especially], and you'll have to encounter some of the parks on a weekend [iB and HW would be my recommendation, I guess].

 

There's probably more I intended to say but I got distracted by pretty flashing lights and now I've forgotten. Maybe I will addend this post later.

 

Good luck!

[Dorneypark_fan]

Choice B - New England/Mid-Atlantic

[eltorobaby]

Choice A-BEcause of the mere fact that Hershey is adding Fahrenheit next year.

 

Choice B has better quality with coasters like el toro, SROS at sfne but choice A also has good quality pending on what types of coasters you like, but i've hear voyage is very fun and maverick is my favorite steel as of now.

 

 

I don't really pay attention to budgets or spending money yet, since i'm only 14 but i'd go with choice A though.