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Northeast Tour 2013


azza29

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Hi folks - my name is Aaron, I hail from Melbourne, Australia, long-time 'guest' on these boards.

 

My brother and I are planning to vacation in the USA next year, along with the regular touristy stuff we're going to visit some parks, including a road-trip of the northeastern states.

 

Looking at a pretty aggressive itinerary to fit everything in, the plan is to drive between parks overnight. Gaps are 'long drive' days, and we'll be taking our time to see the sights in Washington DC. Plan for each park is to cover the coasters, dark rides and any log flume/rapids rides.

 

Current plan is as follows:

Mon 27/5 - Six Flags New England (Memorial Day, should I be worried about crowds?)

Wed 29/5, Thu 30/5 - Cedar Point

Fri 31/5 - Kings Island

Sun 2/6 - Kennywood

Mon 3/6 - Hersheypark

Wed 5/6 - Six Flags America

Fri 7/6 - Kings Dominion

Sat 8/6 - Busch Gardens

Mon 10/6 - Six Flags Great Adventure

 

I'm keen to know what crowd levels will be like, and whether I'm likely to need Fastlane/Flashpass etc for any of the above. Don't want to spend too much but given that I'm unlikely to return to any of these parks for a while I'd prefer to pay extra rather than miss out on a coaster becuase we run out of time.

 

We're also spending some time in California, visiting Disneyland, Knotts, Magic Mountain, Universal and California's Great America. Planning to pick up Cedar Fair and Six Flags season passes to save some $$$ on admission.

 

I've been to Disney and Universal recently so have a good idea of those parks, but any other thoughts/advice would be much appreciated. Cheers!

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I'd do Knoebels on the Tuesday rather than SFA on the Wednesday. Knoebels is one of the best parks in the country, where as SFA is one of the worst. Obviously they have more credits, but Knoebels is far and away the better experience. As far as SFNE on Memorial day goes, get the fast pass and you'll be fine.

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SFA is more out of convenience as we will be spending some time to see the sights in Washington. I might be able to add a day to see Knoebels at the end, drive from Philadelphia and back to fit it in. Does it need a full day or would 5-7 hours be enough to see everything?

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OK so I'm looking at trying to squeeze Knoebels in. Notice that Dorney Park is only a couple of hours away, is that unique enough to make it worth checking out?

 

Question for anyone who's driven from Pittsburgh to Hershey before - Google maps tells me it'll take about 4 hours, is that accurate?

 

Also I'd like to squeeze in a TPR West Coast or East Coast bash while I'm over there, and can rearrange my dates to fit it in if necessary. When are these usually announced, and do they tend to be in late May/early June or later in the year?

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In terms of Dorney, Talon is one of the better B&M inverts I've ridden, and Hydra is a very unique floorless, but as a park, it's not really very unique. Your schedule is already very full, so I'd probably pass on it.

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I don't get your driving plan, you want to go in a big circle? I would rather choose to fly into let's say richmond and then drive my way Cedar Point and fly out of Cleveland.

 

And then hitting all the tourist stuff and parks along the route. This saves you time driving and fuel!

 

I would say get Q-bot/Fastlane when offered! As you say better to be sure, then thinking at the end of day: What if?

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I don't get your driving plan, you want to go in a big circle? I would rather choose to fly into let's say richmond and then drive my way Cedar Point and fly out of Cleveland.

 

You're right, that would work better but as we're renting a car we need to return it to the same place to avoid a big one-way fee. And we're spending a week in NY beforehand it looks like Newark is the most convenient place to start and end (will be flying back to LA afterward).

 

Have made some revisions to my trip plan, it now looks like:

Sat 25/5 - drive NY-Springfield, pit stop at Lake Compounce

Sun 26/5 - Six Flags New England

Mon 27/5 - long drive, pit stops at Niagara Falls and Waldameer

Tue 28/5, Wed 29/5 - Cedar Point

Thu 30/5 - Kings Island

Fri 31/5 - drive/rest day

Sat 1/6 - Kennywood

Sun 2/6 - Hersheypark

Mon 3/6 - Knoebels

Tue 4/6 - another long drive

Wed 5/6 - Busch Gardens

Thu 6/6 - Kings Dominion

Fri 7/6, Sat 8/6 - touristy stuff in Washington

Sun 9/6 - Six Flags America

Mon 10/6 - Six Flags Great Adventure

 

So less of a giant circle and more like an uneven figure 8.

 

Looks like I'll have time to visit one park while in San Francisco - anyone able to recommend SFDK over CGA, or vice versa? I'm leaning towards CGA at the moment.

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It looks pretty good, but I'd suggest a few modifications.

 

1. If you don't mind making a slight detour, head to Quassy for a couple hours before heading to Lake Compounce. Wooden Warrior is one of the best coasters for its size, and the detour would only add about 45 minutes of driving time. Lake Compounce will only take 1/2 to 2/3 of a day anyway.

 

2. Don't try to drive from Massachusetts to Ohio in one day. It is a very long drive. Instead, take one day to drive from Massachusetts to Niagara Falls, then stay in the Buffalo area. The next day, drive to Cedar Point with a stop at Waldameer.

 

3. Instead of going Hersheypark, Knoebels, Busch Gardens, Kings Dominion, do it in this order: Knoebels, Hersheypark, Kings Dominion, Busch Gardens. This will allow you to avoid a day for just driving.

 

As for the San Francisco parks, it really depends on what you're schedule is. They're both decent parks, but neither of them are really anything special. If you're driving from San Francisco to Los Angeles, I'd recommend California's Great America since it's on the way, but otherwise Six Flags Discovery Kingdom might be the better option (it's a little closer to San Francisco and has a slightly better coaster collection).

 

As for your bashes question, the US bashes are usually during the US trips which typically occur in July and August. Announcements usually occur two to three months ahead. I wouldn't shift your trip to make a bash, as the dates you've selected are probably better for crowds and based on the trip questionnaire it's pretty unlikely they'll be an East Coast Bash next year. I don't have much experience with the East Coast parks as I've only visited most of them once, but I'm guessing that other than Six Flags New England you probably won't need any of the skip the line passes at this time of year. Of course, it's always a good idea to be prepared to buy it in case you find large crowds.

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^Thanks for your post, much appreciated! There's only so much I can work out from Google maps and Yelp

 

I hadn't heard of Quassy park before and Wooden Warrior looks great. Can definitely fit that in. Plan for that day can be to pick up the car at Newark, a 2.5-3.5 hr drive to Quassy (depending on traffic), then hit up Lake Compounce. Once we're done there I was thinking we'd get our annual passes processed at SFNE in the evening (assuming the lines for this would be pretty light later in the day, as opposed to first thing the next morning?).

 

Not actually planning to go all the way from Springfield to Sandusky in a single day, that would definitely be quite ambitious! I'm thinking we'll leave SFNE around 7pm on the 26th (so fastpass will be a must), drive to Syracuse and stay the night there. Then it's 3 hours to Niagara Falls, another 2 hours to Waldameer and 3 hours or so to Cedar Point.

 

We're flying into San Francisco so SFDK might be the better option, however if Gold Striker is open that might tip the scales in favour of CGA.

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Looks like a decent plan right about now Not that big circle anymore but indeed more of the figure 8.

 

As posted above it's better to drive from Kennywood towards Knoebels, just because Hershey is the bigger park. And it would be a shame if you miss a credit there because of time... Non the less Knoebels is amazing! But still you can do everything there in like 1/2 a day...

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  • 2 weeks later...

Posted this in the KBF thread but probably belongs here: I'm thinking of picking up a Cedar Fair platinum pass before the Oct 31st price hike (and while the exchange rate is good) - if I buy now but don't get it processed until I visit in May next year, is that likely to cause any dramas? I e-mailed Knotts a couple of weeks ago but no response as yet...

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^ I can't imagine a problem with that. They will send you an email with all the information and you just need to bring it to the Season Pass processing center. I would make sure to buy it from the park that you will be processing the pass at. Don't buy from Kings Dominion and try to process at Cedar Point as I believe that may cause some issues.

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  • 3 months later...

Five months later, the planning continues. Following from a question I posted in the SFA thread:

 

Original plan for the second week of the road trip was as follows:

6/5: SFA, drive to Williamsburg in evening

6/6: BGW

6/7: KD, drive to Washington after park closes

6/8 & 6/9: sightseeing in Washington, drive to Trenton on evening of 6/9

6/10: SFGAdv

 

However we want to do the 'insider tour' at Busch Gardens, which only runs on Saturdays. So new plan is:

6/5 & 6/6: sightseeing in Washington

6/7: KD, drive to Williamsburg after park closes

6/8: BGW

6/9: drive Williamsburg-Washington, visit SFA, then drive to Trenton in evening

6/10: SFGAdv

 

So obviously a lot of driving on 6/9. Anyone want to comment on how realistic that plan is? We could drive halfway from Williamsburg to Washington after BGW closes at 10pm but that would mean a very late check-in and an extra hotel change.

 

A couple of other random questions:

- how busy is BGW in early June? Will a quick queue pass be useful, or are we likely to get on everything anyway? The tour will give us single-use front-of-line passes for all the coasters except Verbolten.

- not theme park related but which Smithsonian museums are the best?

- are most park lockers big enough to fit a backpack? On the days where we're in-between hotels and have to leave our gear in the car I'd prefer to store my limited number of "valuables" (passport/camera/phone etc) in a locker so they're safe. Not that I expect the car to get broken into but just in case.

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Crowds for most parks should be reasonable in early-mid June as schools haven't let out yet. Weather should be really nice as well. As for lockers, they may look small, but they can fit quite a bit of stuff. Most parks charge $1 (USD) for single use. I recall KD having storage bins on the platform to leave your stuff as well (it's been a while since I've gone so don't quote me on that). I'd personally recommend wearing cargo pants with zipper/button pockets so you don't have to lug a backpack around. I usually carry a Ziplock back to hold my electronics and everything else goes into my pockets.

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  • 1 month later...

Bump. Hoping some NY/NJ locals can give provide travel advice. On the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend we will be picking up a rental car (early, around 8am) at Newark airport, driving to Quassy to ride Wooden Warrior at opening, then continue to Lake Compounce.

 

Google maps suggests that the best route is to take the I-95 north, cross the George Washington bridge and then I-87 (goo.gl/maps/tZsBg). But I've heard traffic on that bridge and the NJ turnpike can be a nightmare, so I was thinking of taking the McCarter Highway, then Garden State Parkway, and then drive across the Tappan Zee Bridge (goo.gl/maps/Qn4g0).

 

Is anyone able to comment on which route is best, or is there a third option I should consider?

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I agree wholeheartedly about Interstate 95.

 

If you're not afraid of tolls, take the Garden State Parkway. There are two ways I would do it -

 

First - the route you suggested in your post. From Newark Airport, take NJ-21 North to US-46 East and the Garden State Parkway. Follow the Garden State Parkway North until it ends at I-87 and I-287 South, then follow the Interstate across the Tappan Zee Bridge.

 

Other option - instead of going on NJ-21, take I-78 West straight to the Garden State Parkway. You'll pay a little bit more in tolls but you'll avoid traffic signals.

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