(Topic ID: 261885)

The Best Rollercoasters and Theme Parks

By screaminr

4 years ago


Topic Heartbeat

Topic Stats

  • 101 posts
  • 46 Pinsiders participating
  • Latest reply 3 years ago by screaminr
  • Topic is favorited by 10 Pinsiders

You

Topic Gallery

View topic image gallery

IMG_20200701_203447 (resized).jpg
ca0ff3ee1ad2332ab131ad3116380c3e (resized).jpg
IMG_20200405_205800 (resized).jpg
EA532748-3664-449E-A64B-A9A588BFE5EC-3383-0000061BD8BC7EBB.png
IMG_20200224_210205 (resized).jpg
parks (resized).png
pasted_image (resized).png

You're currently viewing posts by Pinsider wrb1977.
Click here to go back to viewing the entire thread.

#17 4 years ago

As a coaster enthusiast and having extensively travelled the US to ride coasters, here are a few MUST visit parks...

Cedar Point (Sandusky, OH) - probably the best coaster collection in the world. (2 days)

Kings Island (Mason, OH) - my favorite larger park and with the new for 2020 Orion will rival Cedar Point. Also home of The Beast...nothing like it and my favorite coaster to ride at night. (1 day)

Holiday World (Santa Claus, IN) - the first “theme” park (1946) in the US...each area of the park is themed after a major holiday...Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Fourth of July. They also have one of the top two water parks in the US. Finally, the reason you HAVE to go...the Voyage...the best wooden coaster on the planet and my favorite (204 coaster credits and counting ) coaster period. Their other coasters are excellent and very well maintained. The overall park experience is truly amazing...my wife’s favorite park. (2 days if you are doing the waterpark)

As far as the west coast (California) goes, I just spent 10 days there last summer to visit Six Flags Magic Mountain, Six Flags Discovery Kingdom, California’s Great America, and Knott’s Berry Farm. The ONLY one I would visit again is Knott’s Berry Farm. Magic Mountain was disappointing and considering it’s reputation is very overrated, doesn’t hold a candle to Cedar Point which it is often compared to. The other two were duds.

Hope this helps...good luck with your trip...you are sure to have a great time here!

#22 4 years ago
Quoted from Bull:

I am going to second or third, or whatever it is now to go to Knoebles in the middle of nowhere Pennsylvania! Been going every year for over 20 years now, and will pass Cedar Point up to go there!
While they may not have the mega coasters, the coasters they have are perfectly maintained, and run better than you could ever imagine!
Phoenix is a top 10 coaster worldwide! You would believe it until you ride it!
Twister is a loose recreation of Mr. Twister from a park in Denver that is now closed and missed. This recreation is an amazing twister.
Flying Turns, The only one of its kind, not real thrilling, but crazy ass fun! You will laugh the entire time! Longest line in the park, but worth the wait!
Impluse, Typical smaller steel coaster, with single cars, but in Knoebles style runs amazing!
Black Diamond, Indoor dark ride/coaster, short drops, quick turns, but amazingly fun!
Also don't miss the #1 Bumper Cars, Whip, Sky Ride, Train Rides (Yes there are two).
And most importantly the atmosphere of what a classic amusement park is, which there are few of.
Other Shout outs are Kennywood,
Three well maintained wood coasters, 2 still running from the 20s and two very good steel coasters.
Don't let the Jack Rabbit look like a small coaster, the double dip is nothing to miss.
Also, off the beaten path, especially if time is limited, but Conneaut Lake Park, my home park, has the Blue Streak.
Conneaut is a small park, on a beautiful lakeside setting, that has had financial troubles for the last 30 years, although things are looking better now.
The Blue Streak has been almost completely re tracked in the last 5 years, and is running well! It has 3 amazingly steep and fast drops, and a turn around that will surprise you!
Waldemeer isn't far from Conneaut, on lake Eire, and has a Jr. Coaster, the Comet, and the Ravine Flyer II, which is amazing in itself!
Time and travel will have to set your schedule!

Agreed. Knoebels, Waldameer, and Kennywood are all fantastic traditional amusement parks. In some ways I do prefer these to the giant theme parks. If the OP is looking to experience some Americana, historical rides, and classics you won’t find anywhere else, these three are great choices.

#23 4 years ago
Quoted from mainelycoasters:

Parks I would recommend visits to as someone who has been on 663 coasters and been to 124 parks.
Dollywood
Kennywood
Knoebels
Hershey
Busch Gardens (both Tampa and Williamsburg)
Six Flags over Georgia
Carowinds
Kings Dominion
kings island
Knotts berry farm
Holiday World
Cedar Point
Six Flags Magic Mountain
Six Flags Great Adventure
Six Flags over Texas
and have yet to go to but high on my list
Silver Dollar City
Lagoon
This being said I am not a massive fan of Six Flags Magic Mountain or Cedar Point.....neither have a coaster in my top ten wood or steel. They have a lot of rides but expect long lines at massively popular very hyped parks. Knoebels on the average day will get you a ton more rides. most of the parks on my list have at least one real unique signature coaster.

Congrats on the coaster count...damn!

#49 4 years ago
Quoted from EchoVictor:

While not bad suggestions, that's a big Nope on both. If your criteria is best Wood coasters in one park, Holiday World (Indiana) wins hands down;
Voyage (my personal #1)
Legend
Raven
Get yourself to HoliWood Nights (coaster enthusiast event always held 1st weekend after Memorial Day), and experience these babies during incredible nighttime ERT. Change your perspective on what wood coasters can be.
Honorable mention to the trio at Knoebel's (Phoenix, Flying Turns, and Twister).
Later,
EV

Agreed. Wood coasters...Holiday World for the win...period.

#50 4 years ago
Quoted from ReadyPO:

Here is an itinerary for you to hit four major parks in one trip:
Day 1: Melbourne to LA, LA to St. Louis
Day 2: Six Flags St. Louis
Day: 3/4 Holiday World
Day: 5/6 Kings Island
Day: 7/8 Cedar Point
Day: 9 Cleveland to LA, LA to Melbourne
Only about 3-4 hours between parks by car. Add in Days of rest as you see fit![quoted image]

I was thinking something very similar to this trip!

You're currently viewing posts by Pinsider wrb1977.
Click here to go back to viewing the entire thread.

Reply

Wanna join the discussion? Please sign in to reply to this topic.

Hey there! Welcome to Pinside!

Donate to Pinside

Great to see you're enjoying Pinside! Did you know Pinside is able to run without any 3rd-party banners or ads, thanks to the support from our visitors? Please consider a donation to Pinside and get anext to your username to show for it! Or better yet, subscribe to Pinside+!


This page was printed from https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/the-best-rollercoasters-and-theme-parks-?tu=wrb1977 and we tried optimising it for printing. Some page elements may have been deliberately hidden.

Scan the QR code on the left to jump to the URL this document was printed from.