Pennsyvania Trip Questions

[LoneRider92]

Hello wise and insightful TPR members, LoneRider here. Surprisingly, my family decided to actually invest some money this year in a vacation to Pennsylvania, a place we have wanted to go for a while. Aside from visiting several historical sites and railway museums, we are planning on hitting some theme parks. One that is almost certain is Hersheypark, and while my parents were a little skeptical, I assured them that making the trek to Knoebels would be well worth it. I decided that it was in my best interests, however, to consult the knowledgeable members of this site and see what they had to say; on where to go, where not to go, or anything else important. We've never been out in this area before, so everything will be a first-time experience. (Should make a note; I am obviously the coaster nut, and while my mom and sister like them too, Dad does not, Sis has become a stick in the mud, and Mom is 14.25 in leap years and rocking two artificial knees, so it could not become just a credit hunt)

 

We'd be driving east from Bloomington, IL to as far east as Strasburg, PA going through Columbus, OH and returning from Greenbank, WV on the same path. I saw that since we're driving past Pittsburgh and plan to arrive a day before Hershey and Knoebels open for the summer season (May 22) and Mom wants to visit a cousin there, I could try to get the family to detour into Pittsburgh. That way I could try a Primanti Bros sandwich (yay? nay?) and perhaps hit Kennywood.

 

The trip is planned from about May 19th to around May 28-29th. Any feedback at all would be greatly appreciated. And there would be a trip report with culture, coasters, and cuisine, and I know you all want to see that!

 

Thanks again from the LoneRider.

 

Note - yes, I'm calling it the Pennsyvania trip. Mom wrote the name wrong under the trip planning software, so it's been adopted as the new official trip title.

[larrygator]

Pittsburgh has a lot of fat people and therefore great food. I went to Big Jim's last year for a huge Veal parm hero Here's a photo of the hero while in Pittsburgh.

 

I think Kennywood and Knoebels are good parks to visit even for non-park people. Great atmosphere at both. You mention Columbus, Ohio which has a wonderful zoo (an a wood coaster attached that you don't have to mention to you travel partners). The PTR I referenced above also mentions a few interesting places to eat in Columbus.

[firewalk13]

I'd say skip Primanti Brother's and check out somewhere else like Peppi's. Primantis is good but overrated and usually painfully busy. At least, that's been my experience when I visit Pittsburgh friends and head downtown. Fat heads is always ridiculously busy, but it is good eating.

[OISU8P]

I am originally from Pittsburgh and just got back this week for work and picked up Primanti Bros sandwich. It is pastrami (double meat), three eggs, sour slaw and fries. Yep, a heart attack on bread, but this is the first one I had in 3 years... Last night I had Quaker Steak and Lube wings.

 

Anyways, yes Peppis is also great for a steak sandwich (I always got the phantom).

 

For breakfast I would recommend Pamela's or Delucas in the strip. Avoid Jo Jo's if you can since that is so greasy that it makes Waffle House look like gourmet. Jo Jo's is only good for a late night bite after a full night of drinking to help clean out your internal system.

 

http://www.pamelasdiner.com/

 

http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/23/270477/restaurant/Strip-District/Delucas-Pittsburgh

 

 

And for the record, yes there are many fat people in Pittsburgh. I was never one of them since I am skinny even though I eat all this bad food...

[Rai Fox]

You're going to have a great time with this trip. I do a trip across PA every year myself with some friends - Dorney, Knoebels, Delgrosso's, Kennywood, and a few days in Pittsburgh - and it's so much fun every year.

 

Definitely make the trip into Pittsburgh if you can. Apart from great food (all the recommendations so far are worthwhile! My personal pick for food is Tonic - the maple apple burger *drooools* and the best drinks I've ever had), it's just a wonderful city; clean, pretty, and friendly. Kennywood is one of my favorite parks anywhere, too; it's got that irresistible small park feel but has a few really spectacular rides in with the classics.

 

Just make sure you're watching park schedules that early in the season; I don't know about the PA parks in particular, but a lot of parks are running pretty limited hours in May, and the last thing you want is to get to a park and find out it's not open that day, or closing too early to get in everything you want.

 

As far as Knoebels, if your family is up to it, try getting a campsite there instead of staying at a hotel; a cabin might be a fair compromise if your family isn't going to be willing to stay in a tent. Staying on the park grounds is amazing. There's nothing quite waking up to the sound of Twister's lift in the morning when they start testing...best alarm clock in the world. Then you get to wander into the park before it's open for breakfast at the international food court, and watch the park come to life around you for the day...

[Aceattack52]

I am actually in a similar situation. I have grandparents that live near Stroudsburg (it's actually closer to Brodheadsville) and I'm going up there for a few weeks in the summer. I would like to go to either Dorney Park, Hershey, or SFGAdv. Hershey and Six Flags are both 2 hours away, so that has to factor in and Dorney is 1 hour away. I really don't want to detract from LoneRider's thread, but is there any additional advice anyone could offer for me?

[Rai Fox]

I am actually in a similar situation. I have grandparents that live near Stroudsburg (it's actually closer to Brodheadsville) and I'm going up there for a few weeks in the summer. I would like to go to either Dorney Park, Hershey, or SFGAdv. Hershey and Six Flags are both 2 hours away, so that has to factor in and Dorney is 1 hour away. I really don't want to detract from LoneRider's thread, but is there any additional advice anyone could offer for me?

 

Well, I'm probably a bit biased; two of those parks I've had very bad experiences with in the last few years. However, personally, I'd lean pretty heavily toward Dorney. It does depend on what you're looking for though. Both SFGAdv and Hershey are better coaster parks, if that's what you're looking for. I doubt there's much point in me wasting any time going over how great the coasters are at both of those parks. Nitro is one of my favorite rides anywhere, and Hershey is just loaded with great coasters. However, operations at both of them have been miserable any time I've been to either park in the last few years, with sullen staff taking their time to load and dispatch any ride. They both lack for flat rides and run short, slow cycles on what they do have, when they're even open. Both are very, very expensive parks, and both have been badly overcrowded when I've gone, even out of peak season. Last time I was at SFGadv (for the crowded halloween season, admittedly) I was there almost open to close and only got on three coasters, waiting almost 3 hours for each one - and 45 minutes in line for french fries. No exaggeration there. Again, just my experiences, and take them with a grain of salt; they are both very popular parks, after all, so maybe I'd just had bad luck.

 

Personally, I feel like Dorney is badly underrated. Ten years ago it was a pretty mediocre park as I remember, but I visited last year with low expectations and was incredibly surprised and impressed. It was well maintained, clean, and attractive, all the paint bright and fresh, every single ride in the park running, and running well. The staff was friendly - we had ride ops chatting, joking, and just generally being friendly with the park guests all over the place. There aren't nearly as many coasters there as Hershey or GAdv, but quite a few of them are very good, and like the rest of the park, underrated in my opinion. Steel Force still holds up well, Hydra is small but has a great, unique layout, and Talon is one of my favorite inverts. The park's not perfect by any means - food is..."okay"...it's still expensive, though not Hershey expensive, and depending on when you're there, are are well known problems with guests being bused in from the city and causing trouble.

 

I have a hunch here most won't agree with me, and that I'm mostly playing devil's advocate compared to popular opinion, but I've been to GAdv twice, Hershey twice, and Dorney once in the last five years, and I've had one really great day out of the five of them, at Dorney, and it's the only one I'm planning on trying to get back to this year.

 

Just my two cents!

[YoshiFan]

With Dorney, unless you go on a summer weekend, Friday in May or Saturday during Haunt you are almost guaranteed little to no waits. I agree it's an underrated park. I'd rather go to Great Adventure for the coasters but I try to plan my trips where I expect low crowds which limits when I go. I avoid weekends starting in May, usually all of July and August and only go on Friday nights during Fright Fest. I realize for a local that is possible but not so much for someone traveling a long distance to the park. With Dorney I can basically go whenever and know I won't be waiting in line. I've had some bad trips to Hershey since 2006 with high crowds, long lines and bad operations which is a shame since they have some of my favorite coasters there.

Edited April 10, 2013 by YoshiFan

[amy_mel]

Definitely hit up Pittsburgh and all the fun (and yummy) stuff there. Primanti's is painfully busy but good. Quaker Steak and Lube is a good alternative. As far as parks, Dorney is very under rated. I have never had long lines (even on a Saturday) except the mouse. Hershey will be almost guaranteed to be insane. Even with my season passes, we always encounter long waits. You can manage the park if you have a good plan. Get there early (before the gates open) and head straight back as far as they let you. Head straight/left and pass Fahrenheit up to go straight to Lightening Racer and do the park "backward", hitting Wildcat, Wild Mouse, Sidewinder, StormRunner, Trailblazer, Great Bear, Looper, Comet, SkyRush and Fahrenheit last.

[Aceattack52]

^^/^^^ I have heard some bad things about Dorney, things like the clientele are absolutely terrible and there are poor ride operations. It is, however, a Cedar Fair property, so I didn't really believe those reviews when I first read them. I'm glad that has been cleared up, I probably will end up going to Dorney after hearing all that. In addition to that, it's only an hour away, whereas SFGAdv and Hershey are twice as far.

[YoshiFan]

Operations are usually excellent at Dorney except for the Wild Mouse (they have a rule of only 2 adults per car and added seatbelts so the line basically crawls). Talon, Hydra and Steel Force almost always run 2 trains and rarely stack. The bad clientele is basically only on summer weekends so that should be avoided if possible, I go on weekdays in the summer all the time and most people there are usually well behaved except for some camp groups that sometimes cut in line.

[Canobie Coaster]

I would recommend hitting Knoebels, Dorney, Hersheypark, and Kennywood. None of those parks have really bad waits which is good, though Fahrenheit can get a really long line due to its low capacity.

 

In Pittsburgh, I recommend hitting Quaker Steak on a Tuesday night for all-you-can-eat wing night if possible.

[A.J.]

Dorney Park is way out of your way if Strasburg is all the east you're going. It's about an hour and a half to two hours northeast from there. If you want to get there that's great, but if you had to eliminate one park out of Knoebels/Hersheypark/Dorney/Kennywood I would eliminate Dorney just because of its location relative to where you want to go.

 

My suggestion for this trip is as follows -

 

http://goo.gl/maps/XkrZ0

 

Bloomington > Pittsburgh Area > Knoebels > Hersheypark/Lancaster > Kennywood/Downtown Pittsburgh > Bloomington.

[Aceattack52]

I would recommend hitting Knoebels, Dorney, Hersheypark, and Kennywood. None of those parks have really bad waits which is good, though Fahrenheit can get a really long line due to its low capacity.

 

In Pittsburgh, I recommend hitting Quaker Steak on a Tuesday night for all-you-can-eat wing night if possible.

Where in Pittsburgh is that?

[A.J.]

Quaker Steak & Lube is a chain restaurant that started in Sharon, PA. Most of its locations are in the Mid-Atlantic.

 

Here is a sampling of locations around the Pittsburgh area - http://goo.gl/maps/8Ncm5

[Aceattack52]

^ I'm definitely going there next time I'm in PA.

[LoneRider92]

Thanks everyone for the feedback and a big shout out to AJ for even creating a makeshift travel plan. An update on the trip; since Mom went and fractured something in her foot about a month ago by slipping on a frozen snow bank (yeah, she's pretty hard on herself) and the injury not healing well, it appears the trip might be moved towards the end of summer (sometime in August). Does that change the strategy in visiting Hershey and Knoebels and possibly Kennywood at all? Anything else I should know about?

 

Thanks again.

[Rai Fox]

Ouch...well, at least you don't have to cancel completely! I don't think the timeframe will have too much of an effect, but you're really going to want to do your best to get to the parks on weekdays if at all possible, since weekends in August are the heaviest crowds at a lot of parks; Hershey can be absolutely terrible those days, in my experience - last time I was there I made the mistake of going on a Saturday in August, and got on 4 coasters and 1 flat. I've never been to Kennywood in August, so I don't know how bad it gets there...then again, I'm not sure I've ever been there when it didn't -rain- at least part of the day, so it's always been low crowds... Knoebels is efficient enough that even on busy days, I've never seen it get too bad, but a weekday is still best if you want to make the most of your time there.

[Astrojack]

Last week of August, Kennywood is closed during the week. And it can get very crowded for the Fall Fantasy Parade which is just about every day in August. They haven't released the 2013 Fall Fantasy Parade schedule yet.