2013 Midwest Tour

[CanadaCoasterKid]

Hey guys,

 

I'm planning a Midwest trip to get to all the major parks and a couple smaller parks. Don't say anything more west then about Chicago (That means no SDC, SFSTL, WoF and Valleyfair). Here are the parks im considering...

Cedar Point

Michigan's Adventure

Mt. Olympus

SFGAm

Kings Island

Waldameer (On The Way or From Cedar Point)

 

Can I please get a proper order of parks? I live in Ottawa, Canada and have friends in Toronto if I should split up a drive a stop at Canada's Wonderland (Although nothing will be new, I go annually)

 

Thanks A Lot Guys!

CanadaCoasterKid

[mcjaco]

If you're not going much farther west than Chicago, then Mt. Olympus is probably out.

 

If you do want to go up into Wisconsin, but not as far, you can hit Little-A-Merrick-A. It's just outside of Milwaukee.

[beatle11]

If possible, I'd recommend Holiday World in your trip, rather than going up to Mt Olympus in the Dells. You could try something like this:

 

Michigan's Adventure

SFGAm

Holiday World

Kings Island

Cedar Point

Waldameer

 

Another park to consider would be Kennywood in the Pittsburgh area, although that's may be a bit out of the way for you. But if you do, you could hit that after Kings Island, and then do Waldameer before Cedar Point. You can enter all the parks into Google Maps to see where they all are and you can plan for your drive.

[rcdude]

I haven't been to all of these parks, but if I were doing the same trip I'd do the following:

 

Day One: Drive to Erie (7 hours)

Day Two: Morning and afternoon at Waldameer, then drive to Sandusky (3 hours)

Day Three: Cedar Point (get Fast Lane)

Day Four: Morning and afternoon at Cedar Point (no Fast Lane), then drive to Cincinnati Area (4 hours)

Day Five: Kings Island (get Fast Lane)

Day Six: Drive to Chicago area (5-6 hours) with a stop at Indiana Beach (3-4 hours) en route

Day Seven: Wisconsin Dells (Mt. Olympus and Timber Falls), then stay near SFGAm

Day Eight: Six Flags Great America (get Flash Pass), then drive partway to Michigan's Adventure

Day Nine: Morning and afternoon at Michigan's Adventure (no Fast Lane), then drive to Toronto (7 hours)

Day Ten: Canada's Wonderland (get Fast Lane)

Day Eleven: Drive home (5 hours)

 

Alternatively, you can drop Wisconsin Dells and/or add Holiday World. If doing Holiday World, you would drive partway to Santa Claus after Kings Island, then stay near Holiday World (or drive partway to Indiana Beach) afterward. Also, if you have a little extra time, you could add a day at the beginning by stopping in Buffalo, then doing Darien Lake the next day before driving to Erie.

[CanadaCoasterKid]

Thanks guys!

 

Holiday World seems like the place to go for wood coasters instead of Mt. Olympus...

Anyways, here's my order :

 

Day 1 : 11hrs to Michigan's Adventure

Day 2 : Michigan's Adventure the 4hrs to SFGAm

Day 3 : SFGAm then 3hrs to Indiana Beach (Not entering the park yet)

Day 4 : Indiana Beach, 3hrs to Holiday World, 3hrs to Kings Island

Day 5 : Kings Island, 4hrs to Cedar Point

Day 6 : Cedar Point (Fast Lane)

Day 7 : 10hrs with Waldameer Stop

 

Pretty tight schedule but I'm glad I can do this in a week.

If you think something's wrong, tell me! Help help's.

[beatle11]

If you made it from Indiana Beach to Holiday World in 3 hours, you'd be lucky to not get a speeding ticket. Google Maps estimates that at over 4 1/2 hours. Your schedule seems doable otherwise. I highly recommend fast lane/fast pass where ever it is available.

[rcdude]

Thanks guys!

 

Holiday World seems like the place to go for wood coasters instead of Mt. Olympus...

Anyways, here's my order :

 

Day 1 : 11hrs to Michigan's Adventure

Day 2 : Michigan's Adventure the 4hrs to SFGAm

Day 3 : SFGAm then 3hrs to Indiana Beach (Not entering the park yet)

Day 4 : Indiana Beach, 3hrs to Holiday World, 3hrs to Kings Island

Day 5 : Kings Island, 4hrs to Cedar Point

Day 6 : Cedar Point (Fast Lane)

Day 7 : 10hrs with Waldameer Stop

 

Pretty tight schedule but I'm glad I can do this in a week.

If you think something's wrong, tell me! Help help's.

 

I've got a few comments on this plan:

 

1. I don't think it's very feasible to do Indiana Beach and Holiday World in one day. Indiana Beach is one of those parks that opens late (usually 11 A.M.), and Holiday World closes early (when I visited last year, it was 8:30 P.M.). Also, you'd be lucky to make that drive in 4 hours. Best case scenario would be you get to Indiana Beach at opening and get all the credits in two hours, then hightail it to Holiday World and have maybe three hours to do stuff (fortunately, the operations are usually efficient enough that on a weekday you can get on all the coasters in an hour or slightly more). If you're fine with just doing a credit run, you could do this, but otherwise you'd need to add a day or eliminate a park (see below).

 

2. You definitely will want to get the Flash Pass at Six Flags Great America and Fast Lane at Kings Island. While it may be possible to get all the credits done in one day without one (haven't been to either park so I'm not sure), you'll have a much more enjoyable time if you don't have to wait in lines. These are parks that routinely get 2+ hour waits for their headliner coasters.

 

3. Cedar Point in one day with Fast Lane is possible, but it will be exhausting. It may be worth skipping Michigan's Adventure to have a second day at Cedar Point.

 

4. Waldameer is another park that opens late (I believe it's typically noon), so unless you only plan to get the credits and leave you'll be getting home very late. Just a heads up.

 

This plan is certainly doable, but it will be intense. Personally, I would recommend either extending the trip slightly or dropping a park just to make it a bit less strenuous. If you can add a day or two, I think your trip would be much more enjoyable. If you only have a week, I'd recommend dropping one of the below parks (pros and cons listed as well):

 

Michigan's Adventure: Dropping this would extend your day one drive to 14 hours (depending on how far you're willing to drive before SFGAm, this could be shortened by a couple hours), and you would miss Shivering Timbers. However, as far as I'm aware there is very little else at this park that is notable, and it may be preferrable to have an extra day so you can split day four or spend an extra day at Cedar Point.

 

Six Flags Great America: You would miss several highly rated and/or notable coasters by skipping this park (Raging Bull, Viper, X-Flight, the original Batman, etc.). However, it is somewhat out-of-the-way and many of the rides (especially the non-coaster rides) are not completely unique to this park. Skipping this park would give you the most benefits out of all the alternatives, as you would be able to have a second day at Cedar Point and not do Indiana Beach and Holiday World on the same day (instead, you could probably do Michigan's Adventure and Indiana Beach on the same day, as both are half-day parks and they are less than 4 hours apart). However, you also lose quite a bit by skipping SFGAm, as it is one of the three major Midwest parks.

 

Holiday World: This is a great park (in fact, it's one of my favorites) and it would be a shame to skip it, but given the other parks on your route it is a bit out of the way. You'll add at least 3 hours of driving time by going here, but then again the park does have three of the best wooden coasters in North America. It's got more than credits, however, and I'd almost want to say if you can't give the park at least 1/2 a day it might be better to save it for a future trip. If you really want to just do a credit run, that's fine, but you'd probably enjoy your whole trip more if you had a relaxing day at Indiana Beach followed by a 3.5 hour drive to Kings Island.

 

In the end, it's really your trip, and if you don't mind a shorter, more intense trip then go for it. Your plan would certainly make an excellent trip, and you'd be getting to some of the best coasters and parks in the country. It's just sometimes better to reduce the intensity and end up missing something than it is to go all out and be miserable by the end.

[CanadaCoasterKid]

So would it be worth going to Indiana Beach? It's either that or Holiday World but HW's just annoying because i could go from SFGA to Kings Island And stop at Indiana Beach for a Credit Run (Without speeding )

I've already spent 2 days at Cedar Point, I won't be "credit running" i'll just go on the best 2-3 times each.

[rcdude]

^Okay, in that case one day at Cedar Point is fine. I haven't been to Indiana Beach, but given the other parks and the time restriction on your trip I don't think Holiday World would be a good idea. From SFGAm, Holiday World is close to a 7 hour drive, and then it's another 3 hours to Kings Island. With Indiana Beach, there's only about 7 hours driving total and you've still got one really good woodie (Cornball Express) and a number of other unique attractions (Lost Coaster, Steel Hawg, Frankenstein's Castle, etc.). If you have to pick one or the other, Indiana Beach is probably the better option since it's almost directly on the way between SFGAm and Kings Island.

[Mean Streak]

by the sounds of it you should do Kennywood,Idlewile,Waldeemer,Wildwater Kingdom and Cedar Point