Planning a trip to various Cedar Fair properties

[etr102]

Hey, everybody. This summer I'm planning an amusement park road trip. To maximize bang for buck, my plan is to get a Cedar Fair Platinum Pass so that I pay once for admission to all the parks. With that in mind, I likely won't be visiting any non-Cedar Fair owned parks on this trip. Is the Platinum Pass a good idea for such a road trip?

 

I live in Windsor, ON (right across the river from Detroit) and have been to Cedar Point many times. I love the park, but hate the long lineups. Since Cedar Point is the park I'm most used to, please use it as a point of reference when comparing the lineups of these other parks.

 

I'm most interested in high thrill roller coasters. How do each these parks compare in terms of roller coasters? How do they compare in terms of lines? Do the rest of these parks typically have longer or shorter lineups than Cedar Point? Which parks would you guys recommend the Fast Lane pass? How do these parks compare in terms of 'other' stuff to do?

 

With the purchase of a 'Platinum Pass', is there any price break on getting a Fast Lane?

 

Here's the list of potential stops:

 

Michigan's Adventure

Cedar Point

King's Island

Carowinds

Dorney Park

King's Dominion

Worlds Of Fun (unlikely to visit unless enough of you highly recommend it)

 

I won't have time to do them all, so I'm just looking for info so that I can decide which ones I should prioritize when deciding where to stop. If I've left any good ones in the area out, please let me know.

[azza29]

I used a Platinum Pass to visit Knotts, CGA, CP, DP, KI and KD this year. In addition to free parking the food/merch discount is a good benefit. Plus if you find one day isn't enough (and it isn't at CP) then coming back for another full or half-day won't cost anything extra. Some parks have an early entry perk (half and hour at CP and KI from memory, and 10 minutes at KD) but I didn't see any discounts on Fast Lane.

[djcoastermark]

A lot of it depends on when you are going to the parks. This past summer we went to Kings Dominion in late august and everything was a walk on with most trains being only half full. The exception of course was Volcano, we had a 3 train wait for the front row. However we usually only go to the parks in their individual off seasons as I hate lines. If I went during peak times , much as I would hate to spend the extra cash, a fast pass would be very worth it if you hate any sort of lines.

[etr102]

I used a Platinum Pass to visit Knotts, CGA, CP, DP, KI and KD this year. In addition to free parking the food/merch discount is a good benefit. Plus if you find one day isn't enough (and it isn't at CP) then coming back for another full or half-day won't cost anything extra. Some parks have an early entry perk (half and hour at CP and KI from memory, and 10 minutes at KD) but I didn't see any discounts on Fast Lane.

 

I appreciate the reply and info. CGA is pretty far out of my way and extremely doubtful for this trip but how were the lines at KI, KD and DP? Did you get Fast Lane for any of them? How do the (non fast lane) lines compare to CP?

[etr102]

A lot of it depends on when you are going to the parks. This past summer we went to Kings Dominion in late august and everything was a walk on with most trains being only half full. The exception of course was Volcano, we had a 3 train wait for the front row. However we usually only go to the parks in their individual off seasons as I hate lines. If I went during peak times , much as I would hate to spend the extra cash, a fast pass would be very worth it if you hate any sort of lines.

 

Very good info. Kings Dominion is one of the parks I'm most interested in. Intimidator 305 and Volcano are precisely the types of rides I'm looking for. 3 Train wait for Volcano? Thats amazing.

 

When I've visited CP in the past, I typically go on a weekday (Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday) in the month of May. My reasoning is that all the kids are still in school, the park should be less busy. My choice invariably ends up being dead wrong and there's many many bus loads of kids on hand making the average wait time 1.5-2 hours for most rides. So obviously May isn't the right choice. Is August a better month than May across the board?

[djcoastermark]

I have found that mid to late august is a great time to go to most parks up north. The kids are in school or about to be. Lines are much shorter and the crowd tends to be more adults without children. The caveat is that the parks close around 8pm usually, meaning you need to plan which coaster will be your "night" ride. But to me it's a worthwhile trade off. Multiple/marathon rides vs a few night rides. I have also had good luck at the northern Cedar Fair parks very early in the season, then again, weather can be a bit chilly.

[YoshiFan]

The only time Dorney gets lines are Friday's in May, summer weekends and Saturday's in October and sometimes later in the day after the waterpark closes. Fast Lane shouldn't be needed there. I don't think I waited in a line for a coaster for more than 5 - 10 minutes in any trip to the Dorney the past 2 seasons.

[Geauga Dog]

I usually tend to go on my big park trip of the year around Father's Day (mid-June) and have been lucky to have relatively low crowds. Went to Kings Dominion around that time in 2012 and the park was dead though the weather may have had a factor in that (cloudy, looking like it was going to rain but it didn't).

[etr102]

The only time Dorney gets lines are Friday's in May, summer weekends and Saturday's in October and sometimes later in the day after the waterpark closes. Fast Lane shouldn't be needed there. I don't think I waited in a line for a coaster for more than 5 - 10 minutes in any trip to the Dorney the past 2 seasons.

 

Sounds like my kind of place in that regard. How is the selection of roller coasters? I'm guessing it's not quite CP, but is it pretty good as far as selection goes?

[coasterbill]

I've heard people say Dorney has lines sometimes but I've also heard people say they've seen Bigfoot.

 

I've gone to Dorney in the summer on Saturday and on Saturdays in October (the 2 times when they should be busiest) a lot over the last decade or so and this park never has any lines at all. The water park does, but the park never does. The longest waits I've seen are 10 minutes for the Log Flume and Wild Mouse but the big coasters are always walk ons.

 

I've always found Dorney's coaster collection incredibly disappointing with the exception of Talon. Hydra is forceless and a bit of a headbanger and Steel Force is the world's tallest and fastest mine train. The boomerang is nothing special obviously and I'm not a big impulse coaster fan but Posessed is starting to grow on me. Thunderhawk should be ridden in the 2nd row of the first car and while it's rough, you get some great airtime in that seat.

 

One thing that's pretty cool about Dorney is they have a nice flat ride collection and a really cool terrain Log Flume. They also have Chickie and Pete's which shouldn't be missed. You have to try the Crab Fries.

 

I know you only want to hit Cedar Fair parks but I strongly suggest you spend a few hours at this place and then go to Knoebels. Splurge a little on Knoebels... you'll thank me later. They have free parking and free admission and you only pay very reasonable prices for each ride. Again... I know you're trying to save money but if you get a few night rides on Phoenix you won't regret missing out on some extra mediocre walk on rides on Hydra and Steel Force.

 

EDIT: The more I think about this the more I realize you should spend most of your Dorney Day at Knoebels. It will be SO MUCH BETTER. If you bring $30 to Knoebels you can have a great day. Just space out your rides, check out the free Carousel Museum, the free Knoebels Museum by Black Diamond and just walk around and check everything out / people watch. It's also a nice break from all of the Cedar Fair parks, because Dorney has nothing that seats it apart from any of the other parks you mentioned and it probably has worse coasters than all of them (except maybe World's of Fun and Michigans Adventure).

[Diamondbacker27]

Kings Island can get pretty bad. Even on week days. The shortest lines I've ever seen was Halloween Haunt from around -11- 4. It was still horrible.

[azza29]

I appreciate the reply and info. CGA is pretty far out of my way and extremely doubtful for this trip but how were the lines at KI, KD and DP? Did you get Fast Lane for any of them? How do the (non fast lane) lines compare to CP?

 

Yeah - I wasn't suggesting CGA, it was just one of the parks we visited with the pass. We visited KI, CP, KD and DP in the last week of May and first week of June this year, mostly on weekdays. Did not buy a Fast Lane for any, although I would have done had we not allowed two days at CP. Crowds were light to moderate at all parks but there were a lot of school groups around.

 

Most lines at CP were pretty reasonable (sub 20 minutes), but wait times for MF/Maverick got up near the 90 minute mark in the middle of the day. This was compounded by some windy weather causing TTD, Gatekeeper and Raptor to be down fairly regularly. The early entry at CP allowed us to ride Gatekeeper, MF and Maverick without much wait.

 

At KI we rode Diamondback during early entry, the rest of the park was very manageable although there was a long wait for both Flight of Fear and Firehawk. KD's early entry was used to get on the first Volcano train, nothing else took long (even i305 had a short line) but be aware that some rides don't open until 12pm (Shockwave and Avalanche, from memory). DP was very quiet, no waits longer than 10 minutes, especially once the water park opened for the day. We were done with this park in about 3 hours, including all the re-rides we wanted.