Pennsylvania Trip Planning

[CaptainUnknown]

I'm planning on a 10 day road trip around Pennsylvania in mid-late July. I already have a basic itinerary planned out, but have a couple questions and wanted to see if anyone had any recommendations.

Friday: Fly to PHL (land about 11am), go to Dutch Wonderland. Stay near Dorney Park

Saturday: Dorney, stay in Hershey

Sunday: HersheyPark. Stay in Hershey

Monday: HP, drive to Knoebels

Tuesday: Knoebels, drive to Altoona area

Wednesday: DelGrosso’s/Lakemont, drive to Pittsburgh

Thursday: Kennywood

Friday: Idlewild, Kennywood

Saturday: Waldameer, Erie SeaWolves minor league baseball game (in lieu of Pittsburgh Pirates game)

Sunday: fly home from PIT

 

Some notes:

Time/budget doesn't allow for Sesame Place this trip.

I'm getting the Palace Platinum Pass (visiting PA parks and Adventureland, IA). Any advice for navigating this as I've heard it's an absolute shit show?

Budget doesn't allow for line skipping options

Regarding Tuesday night/Wednesday morning: is it a better idea to drive from Knoebels at night or the next morning? Lakemont doesn't open til 4:30 on Wednesday and DelGrosso's doesn't seem to warrant that much time spent at the park. Alternatively, is there any things to do recommendations in the Altoona area while I wait for Lakemont to open?

As the trip gets closer, I'll post more specific questions in the parks' respective threads.

Anything generally speaking that I should know when booking/planning?

[AmyUD06]

I had a Palace Platinum Pass this past year; I didn't think it was a shit show.  Yeah, at some parks, you need to go to Guest Relations to get a paper ticket first, but that wasn't a big deal.  Sometimes the parking clerks were confused but they all resolved it within a few minutes.

Don't forget about the Preview Night at Hershey park; you won't be spending all day at Dorney unless you're doing the water park too.

I would leave the Elysburg area Wednesday morning; as you said Lakemont doesn't open until 4:30 and you won't spend more than an hour there even if both coasters are running (which isn't a guarantee).  You probably also won't spend more than an hour or two at DelGrosso's, especially if you're not doing the water park.

[bert425]

you'll get a cheaper car rental from Pitts.   So i'd reverse your trip (that's what we did years ago. . .flew into Pitts. drove across the state hitting parks, and ended in Philly for some Culture, returned the car and flew home from there).

 

granted it was years ago. . but it saved us a TON of $$ renting that way.

[CaptainUnknown]

2 hours ago, bert425 said:

you'll get a cheaper car rental from Pitts.   So i'd reverse your trip (that's what we did years ago. . .flew into Pitts. drove across the state hitting parks, and ended in Philly for some Culture, returned the car and flew home from there).

While I appreciate the advice Bert, it's unfortunately not an option. The itinerary is based on when I could get into my timeshare in Hershey and it books up fast.

[coasterbill]

On 2/20/2023 at 12:11 AM, CaptainUnknown said:

Erie SeaWolves minor league baseball game (in lieu of Pittsburgh Pirates game)

Are the Pirates on the road? Otherwise you’ll seriously need to walk me through this one…

[Nrthwnd]

On 2/19/2023 at 9:11 PM, CaptainUnknown said:

Friday: Fly to PHL (land about 11am), go to Dutch Wonderland. Stay near Dorney Park

Great you're heading to DW. It has one of the earliest forms of MAD HOUSE attraction in the world.

Do try it out if it's operating during your visit.

Looks so cool, when you can actually see it turning!

[BRTeller]

As someone that lives in the epicenter of PA, I'll do my best to give you at least time ranges for parks to maybe adjust and/or confirm your planning:

Hershey Park is a two day park without skip the line, maybe a day in a half so take advantage of the early entry in your planning. You can enter the park the night before 2 hours before close for free if you have a ticket for the next day. Get there in the morning and start in the back and work to the front, hit Candimonium mid day and get Laugh Trak out of the way first as well as Fahrenheit as those two are the worst for capacity. You can do it in a day, but you're going to be rushing like crazy to do it.

Dorney is a half day park honestly, you can make a day out of it, but you'll be re riding a lot.

Knoebels is well worth an entire day, do everything you can here. The food, the coasters, the flat rides all of it's magical and you need to try and get night rides in on the coasters.

Idlewild is another half day park and Delgrossos/Lakemont are honestly quarter day parks each. I honestly have trouble making a day out of any of these parks, but I'd say Idlewild is the most intersting out of the bunch. 

Kennywood is another full day park, it has quite the collection of unique rides and coasters. Steel curtain is absolutely amazing but be prepared to wait! They have various options for skip the line passes but they do sell out frequently, grab one of the more affordable ones for Steel Curtain alone. The rest of the coasters lines should be manageable throughout the day, skip if you feel something is a tad bit longer than it should be and get back to it later. Steel Phantom clears up at random times, so don't get stuck waiting 45 minutes for a walk on later.

Waldameer I have the least experience with, but it's a half day park even if it's busy, it's worth the trip for their coasters but it's an average park in my opinion. Pennsylvania has some seriously cool small town parks and this is one is just average. Lakemont is the weakest overall, but I've heard since it's been cleaned up it's a bit better.

I think your plan is fairly solid, but keep these things in mind with your plan. I really REALLY think you should give Knoebels more time than just driving to Altoona, you're going to be kicking yourself for wasting time at DelGrossos/Lakemont when each are an hour or two park at most and I really mean it, that's at most, with the drive between them you can do both in 3 to 4 hours.

Either way have fun and I hope you enjoy what our state has to offer!