Southeast US park trip planning?

[A.J.]

Hey everyone,

 

I'm very well-versed in the mid-atlantic parks, but I'm not going to be living in the mid-atlantic for at least a few years coming soon. I'm driving to eastern Georgia to go back to school! I'm driving as opposed to flying because I have a lot of stuff to haul, and I'll need my car to commute to classes.

 

So, to keep me sane, I'm going to be splitting my drive from Pennsylvania to Georgia up into at least a few days, with park visits in between. Target timeframe is Labor Day week (NOT weekend), September 7 through 11. Target parks are Kings Dominion, Carowinds, Dollywood and Six Flags Over Georgia.

 

What I'm looking for here is to get the -best- visit, or visits. I'm willing to skip going to a park solely for their headlining coaster (Intimidator 305, Fury 325, etc) to get a better overall visit at another park. This isn't a "get all the credits" trip. I want to take it at least -somewhat- easy!

 

I'm still not sure if I want to do two parks, because I don't have a whole lot of money. If I were to do two, it would likely be Kings Dominion and either Carowinds or Dollywood. If I were to do one, I would just stay overnight somewhere either the day after doing Kings Dominion, or the day before Carowinds or Dollywood.

 

Kings Dominion is the only park that's right on the fastest route, twelve hours non-stop. Carowinds adds a negligible amount of time. Dollywood and Six Flags Over Georgia add four hours. The extra time isn't a huge deal because, again, I'd stay somewhere overnight in between.

 

I'd really love to go to Dollywood because it seems like it's my kind of theme park, but if taking the detour doesn't make sense, I'm willing to skip it for now. Kings Dominion has Intimidator 305 and a bunch of other "pretty decent" coasters. Carowinds' selection seems kind of "okay" with the exception of Fury 325 and After Burn. Six Flags over Georgia's selection looks "good".

 

What do you think? One park or two? My budget is kind of tight but this might be the only time I get to seriously visit the parks on this side of the United States for a while.

[coasterbill]

Dollywood is clearly the best part of the four. Personally I'd lean towards a Carowinds / Dollywood detour even though it's way out of the way. I know you're a huge fan of Knoebels and while Dollywood is much more corporate feeling, it does have a similar atmosphere surrounding it (or as close as a corporate park would ever be able to get to a similar atmosphere) so I think you'd like it quite a bit.