ALT2870 Posted April 13, 2017 Share Posted April 13, 2017 (edited) Hey guys, after my mostly successful trip last year due in part to you guys, just want to hear some quick thoughts, ideas, etc from you guys again. I'm doing a mini trip in early May with the schedule below. May 11th (Thursday) ~Six Flags Great Adventure ~Stay till close (6PM) then drive to hotel near Hershey, PA May 12th (Friday) ~Six Flags New England ~Stay till 6 or 7PM then drive to Allentown, PA May 13th (Saturday) ~Knoebels till noon ~Hersheypark in afternoon ~Stay till close then drive up to NYC for flight next morning. Pretty simple trip with three parks I have never been to before as well as SFGAdv which last time I was there El Toro was still testing! Any other recommendations are welcome as well. (Ex: Must Do's, resturants, etc) Thank you guys for your help. Edited April 13, 2017 by ALT2870 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YoshiFan Posted April 13, 2017 Share Posted April 13, 2017 Hershey is probably going to be extremely crowded in the afternoon and until you leave the park. I went to the park on the 2nd or 3rd Friday in May last year and there was Music In The Parks which brought a lot of school groups. Some of the major coasters were 60 to 90 minutes, even smaller coasters like Trailblazer got up to 30 minutes in the middle of the day. Great Adventure shouldn't be too crowded, I have gone on Thursdays in May 2 or 3 times in past years and it is usually walk ons to 15 minute waits for the coaster. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Canobie Coaster Posted April 13, 2017 Share Posted April 13, 2017 May 13 is a bring a friend free weekend for Six Flags New England. Typically the park isn't a madhouse before Memorial Day, but the two big coasters (Wicked Cyclone and Superman) could have hour waits. Pandemonium has a single rider line which I highly recommend. Batman usually doesn't have a bad line. Mind Eraser is a wild card now that VR has been added since the non-VR merge point is pretty far into the queue. Thunderbolt only runs one train, but the line usually dies right before closing if you haven't been on it to that point. If you like pizza, I highly recommend Nicky's Pizza down the street from the park. They have amazing pizza and their slices are huge. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coasterbill Posted April 13, 2017 Share Posted April 13, 2017 SFNE on a BAFF weekend? Sounds terrible. I can't even stress to you how much I'd go to Knoebels on Saturday instead of SFNE. Plus then you could stay at Hershey until close, hit up Chocolate World, have a much more relaxing weekend and swap out SFNE for an infinitely better park. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ALT2870 Posted April 13, 2017 Author Share Posted April 13, 2017 Well that's definitely good to know. I was thinking about Knoebels and i knew it was coming up. So I'm now thinking SFNE on Friday then drive down to Knoebels that night. Knoebels Saturday morning and then Hershey that afternoon. Possible at all? I'm really set on SFNE because I'll probably not be up that far for a while. Edited first post to new order. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SFOG1991 Posted April 13, 2017 Share Posted April 13, 2017 I feel like combining Knoebels and Hershey into one day is a bad idea. I tried doing that once and it wasn't fun. Both are great full day parks and putting them into the same day with travel between the two is stretching your time too thin. I would suggest extending the trip one day or leaving SFNE for another trip. Edit: If you are really set on going to SFNE, it is probably possible to do your schedule but lines could be worse than expected and any driving delays could really throw you off too. You will definitely find yourself wanting to go back to Hershey and Knoebels to really experience them in full without being rushed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Canobie Coaster Posted April 14, 2017 Share Posted April 14, 2017 While SFNE does have Wicked Cyclone and Superman, all 3 of those other parks are better than it and are certainly full day parks. I'd recommend getting SFNE another time. Plus when you do, you can hit the two amazing woodies in Connecticut as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SFOG1991 Posted April 14, 2017 Share Posted April 14, 2017 While SFNE does have Wicked Cyclone and Superman, all 3 of those other parks are better than it and are certainly full day parks. I'd recommend getting SFNE another time. Plus when you do, you can hit the two amazing woodies in Connecticut as well. This is a very good point! SFNE fits well in a New England area trip. I decided to do this and visited Rye Playland, Quassy, Lake Compounce, Canobie Lake, Funtown Splashtown USA, Palace Playland and Six Flags New England. Obviously not all of those are close but it really makes sense to at least combine Quassy and Lake Compounce on an SFNE trip. They are all so close together. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cparkes92 Posted April 14, 2017 Share Posted April 14, 2017 I would do SFGAdv on Thursday, Hershey on Friday, and Knoebels on Saturday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ALT2870 Posted April 15, 2017 Author Share Posted April 15, 2017 First off, thank you everybody for your comments. This keeps becoming a more and more difficult decision. I absolutely agree that Knoebel's is a great park. I appreciate everybody that is trying to push me to it. Here are my issues: 1.) I was already planning a Pennsylvania trip in the future. Obviously this one is the easiest to cast aside. 2.) The person I'm going with (my father) is starting to find it more and more difficult to ride wooden coasters. With last years trip he pretty much had to skip every wooden coaster. Probably my biggest issue, he loves roller coasters and much like me that is his preferred ride at a park. 3.) I will not be that far up into New England for some. Second biggest issue. 4.) We already have passes to Six Flags so switching to a park (all day) that we know have to pay for kind of throws the budget away. Again, I appreciate your help thus far. I'm still leaning towards SFNE and so is my dad, but still thinking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Canobie Coaster Posted April 15, 2017 Share Posted April 15, 2017 If the concern with wooden coasters is roughness, Phoenix is glass smooth despite its age. He may want to skip Twister if he doesn't like most wooden coasters. Flying Turns is smoother than steel bobsled coasters. Six Flags New England has the two amazing headliners. Not sure if it's an option, but the crowds really die out there in the evening if you can modify your plans. If you try and beat the crowds there, know that Superman and/or Wicked Cyclone probably won't open exactly with the park and they'll still be testing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coasterbill Posted April 15, 2017 Share Posted April 15, 2017 (edited) 2.) The person I'm going with (my father) is starting to find it more and more difficult to ride wooden coasters. With last years trip he pretty much had to skip every wooden coaster. Probably my biggest issue, he loves roller coasters and much like me that is his preferred ride at a park. This isn't, "most wood coasters" this is Phoenix, it's glass smooth. Knoebels may honestly have the best wood coaster maintenance department of any park in America. They re-track major sections of Phoenix and Twister every offseason. This year the ride was running so well that they re-tracked the station track because they're literally running out of things to re-track. Every other section is already perfect. As for Twister, it's very smooth and they also re-track major sections of that every offseason but it has intense laterals by design. Flying Turns might be the smoothest coaster in existsnce. Edited April 17, 2017 by coasterbill Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bill_s Posted April 15, 2017 Share Posted April 15, 2017 My sort-of rule #1 is don't go to amusement parks on Saturdays. Going to Knoebels on Saturday and doing pay per ride would be a decent compromise between nothing and more than you bargained for, I would think. Similar the guy who was asking about Great Adventure on a Friday and Sat. -- if Friday is really good, on Saturday will probably be ready to run out of the place screaming by 1 PM. First and last hour on Saturdays can still be worth it if that works out (I may go on a Saturday tonight, but late night in April's not so bad). P.S. the schedule in the first post is mixed up? Shouldn't SFNE be Thurs.? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ALT2870 Posted April 15, 2017 Author Share Posted April 15, 2017 Alright, so I think the best compromise right now is SFGAdv on Thursday, SFNE on Friday, then on Saturday this: Drive to Allentown the night before. Based on how we are feeling, decide on either Hersheypark or Knoebel's. I know we can get back to Hersheypark a lot easier then SFNE. I feel this gives us the best bang for the buck while still hitting up everything we want to and not tiring ourselves out like we did last year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aptz Posted April 17, 2017 Share Posted April 17, 2017 Think you'll really enjoy the trip. SFGAdv use the skyway if it's running and also the bridge on the left side of the park is handy to get around. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coasterbill Posted April 17, 2017 Share Posted April 17, 2017 Drive to Allentown the night before. Based on how we are feeling, decide on either Hersheypark or Knoebel's. I know we can get back to Hersheypark a lot easier then SFNE. I feel this gives us the best bang for the buck while still hitting up everything we want to and not tiring ourselves out like we did last year. Sounds good, but seriously... go to Knoebels. Screw Hershey. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anonymouscactus Posted April 17, 2017 Share Posted April 17, 2017 Knoebels has fascination... hell yeah! http://bit.ly/2pvcz8o Your dad can play that for a few hours while you ride the woodies if he is worried Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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