gp1086 Posted April 2, 2015 Share Posted April 2, 2015 Live in NYC and looking to escape the tri-state area for a 4 night, 2 park trip this summer. Also, would like to exclude the Orlando area since have seen a lot of that, and have also been to Cedar Point. Was thinking of: Tuesday night - fly to St. Louis Wednesday - Holiday World Thursday - drive / relax Friday - King's Island Saturday - fly home Thoughts / suggestions? Better park(s) to visit in the area? Different part of the country and better couple parks to visit? Happy to hear suggestions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
warrenslo Posted April 2, 2015 Share Posted April 2, 2015 as an alternate, you could also do texas (dallas, san antonio) or california (la, anaheim, san diego.) last year we did lax->new jersey (sfgadv) nyc (coney island) and --> chicago (sfgam) since airfare was cheaper stopping in chicago for 2 days on the way back from nyc... so you could look into a stopover. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rcdude Posted April 2, 2015 Share Posted April 2, 2015 I'm just curious...why fly to St. Louis if you don't plan to visit Six Flags St. Louis? You're putting yourself about three hours from Holiday World and making the trip one way, which could significantly increase car rental fees. If you want to do Holiday World and Kings Island, I'd probably fly into Cincinnati Tuesday, do Kings Island Wednesday, drive to Holiday World Thursday (with a possible half-day stop at Kentucky Kingdom on the way), do Holiday World Friday, and then drive back to Cincinnati on Saturday and fly out in the evening. You picked two good parks if you don't mind a bit of driving. If you'd rather have less driving, consider a Virginia trip, with stops at Busch Gardens Williamsburg and Kings Dominion. A Carowinds/Dollywood trip would also be worth considering (especially if Fury 325 looks appealing to you), and although I haven't visited the parks a trip to San Antonio, Texas would get you SeaWorld San Antonio and Six Flags Fiesta Texas. Any of those would probably make a pretty good two park trip. While you could also do California, I'd hold off on that if you'll only be visiting two parks as Southern California has a half-dozen parks that are worth visiting and there are better places than the Northern California parks (they're not bad, they're just not the best). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
805Andrew Posted April 2, 2015 Share Posted April 2, 2015 Virgin America just announced new direct flights to Branson, MO from JFK, SFO, and LAX. You may want to consider going to Silver Dollar City as one of your parks to visit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gp1086 Posted April 2, 2015 Author Share Posted April 2, 2015 Appreciate the suggestions, all! Actually was going to fly to St. Louis (vs. Cincinnati) given the flights were significantly cheaper. Even though I could fit in 3 parks likely, probably would rather do 2 and not want to rush any. Want this to be more of a relaxing getaway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coaster Curt Posted April 2, 2015 Share Posted April 2, 2015 I would recommend flying into Cincy, doing Kings Island one day then drive up to Cedar Point for two days. Do like a weds, Thursday, Friday thing and leve Saturday morning. Going mid week you will probably avoid huge crowds and get more rides in versus more waiting in line. Just a thought. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ImmelMatt Posted April 2, 2015 Share Posted April 2, 2015 Live in NYC and looking to escape the tri-state area for a 4 night, 2 park trip this summer. Also, would like to exclude the Orlando area since have seen a lot of that, and have also been to Cedar Point. Was thinking of: Tuesday night - fly to St. Louis Wednesday - Holiday World Thursday - drive / relax Friday - King's Island Saturday - fly home Thoughts / suggestions? Better park(s) to visit in the area? Different part of the country and better couple parks to visit? Happy to hear suggestions. I'm planning the same thing actually, Kentucky Kingdom is on the way between HW and KI, so maybe take a few hours on Thursday to visit and ride Lightning Run. It's only about four hours between the two parks so it wouldn't eat up much of your driving time Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gp1086 Posted April 4, 2015 Author Share Posted April 4, 2015 Between Holiday World and Kings Island - which would you say generally has larger crowds / should I try to plan for a weekday vs. Saturday? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
larrygator Posted April 4, 2015 Share Posted April 4, 2015 Between Holiday World and Kings Island - which would you say generally has larger crowds / should I try to plan for a weekday vs. Saturday? You should always visit on weekdays over Saturdays when possible. Applies to any major park. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DirkFunk Posted April 5, 2015 Share Posted April 5, 2015 Live in NYC and looking to escape the tri-state area for a 4 night, 2 park trip this summer. Also, would like to exclude the Orlando area since have seen a lot of that, and have also been to Cedar Point. Was thinking of: Tuesday night - fly to St. Louis Wednesday - Holiday World Thursday - drive / relax Friday - King's Island Saturday - fly home Thoughts / suggestions? Better park(s) to visit in the area? Different part of the country and better couple parks to visit? Happy to hear suggestions. You're driving a bit unnecessarily - you'd be better off flying into Evansville if you absolutely didn't want to backtrack (Louisville would be cheaper and has more flights). Cincinnati is a notoriously expensive airport to fly out of and is a bit of a captive "focus" airport (former hub) for Delta, so you would probably save money flying home from Dayton or Columbus. I wouldn't personally do a Tues PM-Saturday trip, but I don't know how your work schedule has you coming in or any of that. It is a 193 mile drive from Holiday World to Kings Island that takes about 3 hours. If you're willing to do St. Louis to Holiday World, you're already throwing another 3 hours or so into your schedule. Oh, and you lose an hour in transit going across the central/eastern time zone border. By comparison, Six Flags Over Georgia to Carowinds is a 259 mile, 3 hour 44 minute drive with no time change. Six Flags over Georgia is at least the equal of Kings Island or better in most every respect, while Carowinds, as a whole, is clearly far superior to Holiday World. No diss to Cinci, but Atlanta is much more of a cultural center, and Charlotte is an up and coming city as well. Both are airport hubs (Atlanta for Delta, Charlotte for US Airways) so there's a bajillion flights between them. I think you'd get a lot more out of that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
larrygator Posted April 5, 2015 Share Posted April 5, 2015 Carowinds, as a whole, is clearly far superior to Holiday World. A fan of wooden coasters and/or water parks would not agree. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rcdude Posted April 5, 2015 Share Posted April 5, 2015 Between Holiday World and Kings Island - which would you say generally has larger crowds / should I try to plan for a weekday vs. Saturday? If at all possible, avoid going to a park on a Saturday. However, if you must, I'd do Kings Island if you're purchasing a Fast Lane and Holiday World if you're not. Expect waits of at least an hour for major attractions at either park on a summer Saturday (more for the headliners, especially at Kings Island). In terms of general crowds, Kings Island is more crowded as Holiday World rarely gets lines above 30 minutes on weekdays (except for the biggest attractions in Splashin' Safari and possibly Thunderbird due to newness). Kings Island will likely have waits in the 45-60 minute range for headliners on summer weekdays assuming efficient operations. It is a 193 mile drive from Holiday World to Kings Island that takes about 3 hours. If you're willing to do St. Louis to Holiday World, you're already throwing another 3 hours or so into your schedule. Oh, and you lose an hour in transit going across the central/eastern time zone border. By comparison, Six Flags Over Georgia to Carowinds is a 259 mile, 3 hour 44 minute drive with no time change. Six Flags over Georgia is at least the equal of Kings Island or better in most every respect, while Carowinds, as a whole, is clearly far superior to Holiday World. No diss to Cinci, but Atlanta is much more of a cultural center, and Charlotte is an up and coming city as well. Both are airport hubs (Atlanta for Delta, Charlotte for US Airways) so there's a bajillion flights between them. I think you'd get a lot more out of that. While I haven't been to Six Flags Over Georgia, I personally found Carowinds to be the least interesting of the major Cedar Fair parks when I visited several years ago. Meanwhile, Kings Island is the best Cedar Fair park I've visited (other than Cedar Point), and Holiday World is one of the best parks of its size in the country. In addition, you're leaving out Dollywood, which isn't all that much further from Atlanta or Charlotte and is generally considered the best Deep South park. I could see a Carowinds/Dollywood trip or a Dollywood/SFOG trip, but unless I was going just for roller coasters I'd opt for Holiday World/Kings Island over Carowinds/SFOG. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
larrygator Posted April 5, 2015 Share Posted April 5, 2015 While I haven't been to Six Flags Over Georgia, I personally found Carowinds to be the least interesting of the major Cedar Fair parks when I visited several years ago. Meanwhile, Kings Island is the best Cedar Fair park I've visited (other than Cedar Point), and Holiday World is one of the best parks of its size in the country. In addition, you're leaving out Dollywood, which isn't all that much further from Atlanta or Charlotte and is generally considered the best Deep South park. I could see a Carowinds/Dollywood trip or a Dollywood/SFOG trip, but unless I was going just for roller coasters I'd opt for Holiday World/Kings Island over Carowinds/SFOG. Pretty convenient to make this argument if you ignore Fury 325 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gp1086 Posted April 5, 2015 Author Share Posted April 5, 2015 Appreciate the suggestions, all. Do agree that it's a bit of unnecessary driving, which I may try to cut down on. A couple things: - Don't really mind doing a bit of (although flying to St. Louis with King's Island on the agenda may be excessive). I live in NYC which is notoriously fast paced and work long hours, so kind of looking for some time in the more open and relaxing midwest doing things at my own pace. I may consider doing Six Flags St. Louis and Holiday World, then save King's Island for another trip. - Think Carowinds and Six Flags Over Georgia would be two great parks to visit and I haven't been to either. I have been to both Charlotte and Atlanta though multiple times, and there's an aspect of this trip to visiting somewhere new (not just theme park, which we obviously tend to value greatly here ). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DirkFunk Posted April 6, 2015 Share Posted April 6, 2015 Carowinds, as a whole, is clearly far superior to Holiday World. A fan of wooden coasters and/or water parks would not agree. That's true. But if you weren't necessarily a Gravity Group fan, the dry park has nothing exceptional. If you were that serious about wanting to go to a water park, there's also better options out there in my view. to the original poster: Six Flags St. Louis, combined w/City Museum, maybe a baseball game, perhaps a visit to the Arch or Forest Park, then the drive through no-mans-land that separates it and Holiday World, and a solid amount of time sitting in the lazy river aside from Voyage rides is a much better idea than doing all that driving. Don't expect much of anything except perhaps construction on I-64 between the St. Louis and Santa Claus and you can't be disappointed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
larrygator Posted April 6, 2015 Share Posted April 6, 2015 Carowinds, as a whole, is clearly far superior to Holiday World. A fan of wooden coasters and/or water parks would not agree. That's true. But if you weren't necessarily a Gravity Group fan, the dry park has nothing exceptional. If you were that serious about wanting to go to a water park, there's also better options out there in my view. The flat package at Carowinds is better and better run. However, Raven is still a highly rated coaster. There is this thing called Thunderbird that some people are getting excited over. Then there are the intangibles like friendly service, free parking, Pepsi and sunscreen. Personally, neither park is in my Top 10 in the US, but they each have their strengths and weaknesses. There is only a clear cut winner if you are looking at certain attributes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Koasterking48 Posted April 7, 2015 Share Posted April 7, 2015 If you are allowed to only do 2 parks, must fly out of StL, and don't mind driving, I would highly suggest Silver Dollar City instead of making a lonnnnng trek to Kings Island. It's about 3 hours away from St. Louis and it beats the 6-7 hour drive to Kings Island. I also believe Worlds of Fun is roughly 3-3 1/2 hours away from St. Louis too, but SDC > WoF. If you'd rather do Kings Island regardless of what I said, fly into Evansville if you can. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gp1086 Posted April 9, 2015 Author Share Posted April 9, 2015 Continue to appreciate all the suggestions! The more I think about it, the more I think I'm going to do Six Flags St. Louis and Holiday World. Really haven't spent too much time in the midwest (with exception of Cleveland / Sandusky area - been to Cedar Point on two occasions), so looking to see a new part of the country too. Going to start looking for hotels soon I think. Am intrigued by Silver Dollar City, but that may need to wait for another trip perhaps with Worlds of Fun. Maybe I can also do a combined Kings Island and Kentucky Kingdom trip going forward. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jacksoro2 Posted April 9, 2015 Share Posted April 9, 2015 I had to chime in because I typically visit at least 2 parks at a time and I try to visit ones that are close. I did the SFOG and Carowinds trip and it wasn't bad. Both cities had a lot to do and I was able to get in over 20 new coaster credits. I also did Kings Dominion and SFA last fall as well. I just stayed in DC and spent a day at each park. This summer I am doing the KI, KK, and HW trip and I was planning on flying to Louisville and making that my base. Then I can spend a day at KI, a few hours at KK and a few hours at HW. I would also be central to all of the parks so I would eliminate a lot of long trips. Hershey Park and Knoebels may not be a bad combo as well and this will be my last trip this summer also. It really depends what you're in the mood for but I wouldn't suggest flying to St. Louis. When you factor in the time and gas you will spend you may be better off flying to a closer airport. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now