Midwest Trip Planning Questions

[Coaster Palooza]

Hey everyone,

 

I am wondering how much time should we set for trips to the following parks. Last year we planned on staying over at Michigan's Adventure not realizing that the park is easily done in around 2 hours. I don't want to have that same thing happen again, but I also don't want to miss out on some things at the parks. This trip will be happening from Memorial Day weekend through the first week of June.

 

Beech Bend - I know Kentucky Rumbler is opening, we are planning on staying there for around 2 hours just to ride this. We aren't planning on staying there over night. Is there something else there or will this time be okay?

 

SFKK - We are planning around 5 hours here. It will just be a stop over on the way to PKI. Is that not enough time, or is it too much? We really want to be able to hit all the coasters and see a little bit of the park.

 

For the next park of our trip, our plan is to stay at Gurnee for Indiana Beach, Wisconsin Dells, and SFGAm. Park time questions below:

 

Indiana Beach - The drive there will be around 3 hours 30 minutes and we are turning around to go back. If we plan on around 6 hours there is that enough or too much?

 

Wisconsin Dells, specifically Mt Olympus and Timber Falls - How much time at either park? We are driving nearly 3 hours there and back on the same day.

 

SFGAm - We are flying out the night that we are going to the park. Will 5 hours be enough? We are going on a Thursday.

 

Kansas City is the next stop on the way to Branson.

 

Branson - Silver Dollar City and Celebration City. The plan is to get there late on Thursday/early Friday (possibly 12midnight!). We will go to SDC on Friday morning and then head to CC in the afternoon/early evening. Saturday we will hit SDC again before heading back to Kansas City. Is that enough time there?

 

Final park will be Worlds of (no) Fun. Is 4 hours okay for this park?

 

Thanks in advance. If I don't make sense, please ask some questions. This is my first time asking about things like this.

 

Rick "awful darn curious"

[larrygator]

Indiana Beach typically sells wristbands for 7-8 hour time period. 6 hours should be enough time if you don't have to go to the waterpark.

 

Mt Olympus you might need 5-6 hours if you want to ride all the go kart tracks (which vary greatly in quality) and power ride on Hades. Timber Falls is really just one coaster and best hit later in the day when they sell the nighttime wristband. Much cheaper than a full day wristband and you easily get 10 rides in over the course of an hour.

 

SFGam is really an all day park if you want to hit all coasters, even a day and a half if you want to take in the waterpark. Due to breakdowns and capacity Deja Vu, Whizzer, Ragin Cajun could each possibly eat up an hour.

 

SFKK - 5 hours should be enough time to hit all coasters and see the whole park

[M_Force_4_ever]

SFKK - We are planning around 5 hours here. It will just be a stop over on the way to PKI. Is that not enough time, or is it too much? We really want to be able to hit all the coasters and see a little bit of the park.

 

For the next park of our trip, our plan is to stay at Gurnee for Indiana Beach, Wisconsin Dells, and SFGAm. Park time questions below:

 

Indiana Beach - The drive there will be around 3 hours 30 minutes and we are turning around to go back. If we plan on around 6 hours there is that enough or too much?

 

Wisconsin Dells, specifically Mt Olympus and Timber Falls - How much time at either park? We are driving nearly 3 hours there and back on the same day.

 

SFGAm - We are flying out the night that we are going to the park. Will 5 hours be enough? We are going on a Thursday.

I think 5 hours is enough for SFKK, 6 might be a but much for IB because I was able to ride everything there mutiple times the day I was there (I was there for about 6 hours), Timber Falls requires about 10 minutes to ride avalanche and mt.olympus might require about 4-5 hours, SFGAm is defeintly a whole day park if you want to ride all the coasters...have fun

[Jeezus Juice]

I agree with the extra time at SFGAM. It took me about 3 trips there to finally ride all of the coasters (even WITH fastlane tickets). Not to mention the park can get super crowded, like PCW crowded. Plus isn't PGA your homepark? You'll probably want some time just to wander around and geek out at all the similarities/differences.

 

Staying in Gurnee is pretty easy as there are a lot of hotels right at the park with plenty of restauraunts there and across the freeway at the huge mall. Chicago traffic can be hell though and you'll have to go through it twice the day you go to IB. Since you're planning on going to KC afterwards, would you be able to do IB on the way down? That might save you some time.

 

Little A-Merrick-A is just a few miles off the highway on the way to the Dells, though depending on when you'll be driving by it may not be open yet or already closed.

 

Usually with the Dells we start at Mt. Olympus in the morning, stop by Timber Falls for the after 5pm wristband for about an hour, and then head back to Mt.Oly for some night rides. Riverview park (across the street from Mt.Oly) is the crappiest park in the state of Wisconsin and should generaly be avoided unless you really need the credits (even I skipped it my first time there, lol)

 

SDC is one of our favorite parks. CC is best done in the late afternoon/evening after your day at SDC. The park looks much better at night and has very little shade but is really fun at night. Good idea with the second day at SDC. Make sure to go on the cave tour!

 

Other than that the rest sounds perfect! Have fun, it looks like a great trip!

 

-Don "Don't bump the nitro!!" Garrison

[larrygator]

anyone who spends only 10 minutes at Timber Falls is foolish. Get the wristband and ride Avalanche for at least an hour. It's one those coasters that you get off just laughing and saying WOW!. Although everyone I saw getting off the log flume was drenched and many said is was fun.

 

And make sure you have some quarters in your car when driving on Chicago highways as some are toll roads. I had to get off the highway at night and the tool booths were unmanned and I had to dig through my the pocket in my backpack scrounging for change.

[Coaster Palooza]

Thanks everyone for the advice!

[coaster1]

For WOF and Branson .. WOF is a little crappy park personally .. we did it in Mid-May in about 2 hours .. but the lines started getting long (about 1 1/2hrs for Spinning Dragons).

 

Branson however is a shoot-out. It depends on the time you go. I've had completely dead days at SDC and CC and then have had PACKED days. I'm talking like Cedar Point/Disneyland packed.

 

The festivals they do draw alot of people, XMas time is big too and Celebration City is pretty dead most of the time until the fireworks show, but can pack long lines as we experienced in Apil last year and Labor Day weekend in 2004.

 

Don't forget the traffic in Branson too .. can take more than 1 hour to get from 65 to Celebration City if you hit the strip at the right time and don't know the backroads too well.