If I have been there, I can give advice on what is good and what hurts my head and I will never ride again. I do not do water parks, but me and friends have been to every Six Flags in the USA except the 2 recently opened, one in OK and the other near Buffalo NY. We are doing Buffalo this year, along with Cedar Point again. Hands down Cedar Point is the best park period in the USA. As far as Six Flags parks, NJ used to be my favorite, until recently more rides there have been hurting my head. Now my favorite Six Flags is the one near LA, CA.

We have been to most major parks, except the Disneys and Universals. We like really good rollercoasters, and drop towers, and not so much the smaller rides. And those parks are expensive, and we like fun and value.

If you buy the passes to Six Flags when they are on sale, you can save a ton if you live near one. Six Flags dining passes are the greatest. I live 5 miles from SFOG, and I am there almost daily for dinner. Saves me a ton of money on food every year. And they do have some healthy choices also, sometimes I do that.

If you do it right, you can really enjoy a lot of parks on a small budget. For example, if I go to the beach, I have to have a room right on the beach, and those are pricey. Amusement parks....I may stay 20 miles away for a awesome room at a awesome price.

This year not doing much, Panama City Beach then Cedar Point and Darien Lake. The hotel on the beach for a few days costs more than last years trip which consisted of SF near Chicago, SF near St. Louis, Silver Dollar City, Busch in VA, SF near Baltimore, and SF Jackson, NJ.

Every park I go to I look for game rooms, not many these days, and the only one I have found pinballs in is Cedar Point.

My favorite rollercoaster is Millennium Force at Cedar Point, followed by Cheetah Hunt at Bucsh Tampa. My favorite drop tower is the one at SF Arlington, and then the Falcons Fury at Bucsh Tampa.

And the first ride that ever hurt my head is the Kinda Ka at SF NJ, and last summer it still did. Top Thrill Dragster at Cedar Point is almost the same thing, and it does not bother me, I love that one.

Also, Dollywood and some other Cedar Fair parks like Carowinds are pretty good also. I do not have kids but do notice sometimes which parks are good for youngsters.

If I have been there I may can give some good advice. For fun I am going to try to do a poll also. Man I wanted more choices for the poll to also have Busch/SeaWorld, and the one I forget the name that owns Dollywood and Silver Dollar City. But I think I got the main 3.

Six Flags is the best value I have found hands down. I love Magic Mountain, I rode the Twisted Colossus so much I could barely walk for a week, it is rough on my knees but totally worth it.

That is on the radar, 6 hour drive from here, I just do not see any real tall rides or fast coasters there on their list. And very pricey not knowing for sure.

We used to stop by there on the way back from Cedar Point, they do have some great rides like Banshee and The Beast, but it has been a lot more crowded there than Cedar Point every time we stopped in.

I have never had that, but when I was young one of my uncles had that problem, not sure if he ever got better.
The problem I do have is if the ride is very rough I can feel my brain hit my skull. This started with Kinda Ka years ago. Last year every ride at SF St. Louis hurt, it was the roughest park I have ever been to.

I liked Kennywood, we did it one time after leaving Hershey Park while on the way to Cedar Point. Oddest thing is most rides at Kennywood did not have the extra seat belt or even a safety bar between the line and track.

We always go on a weekday and have never seen it that bad. Maverick is usually a 45 minute wait anytime, but Millennium Force is mostly 15 minutes. I love Max Air also, on the worst days I have never seen it over 40 minutes and most of the time 15 or less. SFOG is 5 miles from me and we now have a Max Air type ride, it is no where near as good as the one at Cedar Point tough. Also I have never seen but one person get sick on Max Air, at our park every other cycle just about they have to close it for clean up.

If you went right at Halloween I 100% believe you. Always go the first 2 weekends they have it, not packed at all. SFOG is the same way, no lines for anything at first, then the weekend closest to Halloween you can not move.

I wanted to do more, but I could not figure out how. I seen one for best TV shows that had tons of choices so somehow it can be done.

Anyway we have had passes for SeaWorld and Busch, and maybe this winter will get another for Busch in Tampa. Those places are awesome in the Winter while kids are away at school.

I hate to hear that ride closed, it was awesome. The Dominator looks awesome like the one at Carowinds but it hurts my head while the Carowinds one never has bothered me. The stand up coaster at KD is also rough IMO. KD does have a great drop tower though and yeah the Backlot is good.

Your source is right, IMO rides at KD are a lot rougher than other parks.

But if your home park is KD, you are not far from the Busch in VA, and their rides do not hurt a bit, and a fun pass does not cost too much.

I got the names and stuff confused. Intimidator 305 and Dominator both kill my head. I never tried any wood coasters there after riding those 2. Volcano was the best and smoothest there.

I have heard a lot about that place and watched a lot of youtube videos of the rides. I really hate to fly or it would be in future plans.

While in the USA you should check out Cedar Point, Magic Mountain, and the Busch and SeaWorld parks.

I have not been to Universal yet, but that is in future plans.

I 100% agree with all that. Although Six Flags is not bad during the week crowd wise. SFOG is the worst of them all though, more line jumpers, more trash on the ground, and rude kids in general.

Cedar Point and the 2 Six Flags parks in CA are also clean and the people are nice, at least when I was there.

That ride and park looks awesome. Someday we have to get some passports.

Stay away from Kong, it will beat you to death. The Chop Six beef and broccoli was excellent at that park, best park food I have ever had.

We have a dining pass that covers all Six Flags parks, but anywhere else we go we get our hand stamped about 2pm and drive to Golden Corral. Luckily most parks have a Golden Corral within 5 miles. Cedar Point had one of the last Ryan's nearby, I recently looked at google and it looks like a Golden Corral went into that same location.

I can always go for a free turkey leg(free after the one time fee). A lot of Six Flags also has a Chop Six, which is their version on Panda Express. The one near me has bone in wings and veggie rice that is good. I am very tight on money when it comes to food. Golden Corral is a treat, but mostly I just grill burgers at home. In a few weeks going to the beach, a place at Panama City Beach called Montego Bay I like and will pay decent for.

I just stay tight on food costs and other things to have more money for trips and pins, and also because I am semi-retired and do not want to go back full time.

If I had of known how I would have included more. And honestly I was not thinking about Universal, because I have not been there yet.

I also want to thank everyone that has been giving advice on Universal. I do plan to go there Jan 2020, or Jan 2021, depends what other trips I may decide first.

My parents took me to Disney when I was a kid and I did not care for it back then. I have no interest personally in Disney, I hear and read about the prices and crowds. One friend said he spent 8k there for a week for a family of four and that was 10 years ago.

I was taking a girlfriend to Halloween at Cedar Point once, and she kept looking on Google for real haunted places and I did not care to do that anyway, but it was so funny, at Cedar Point she wet herself about 8 times that night, she was terrified. When we left I said I am not taking you to any real haunted places, you can not even handle the fake ones.

I would love to do some Halloween trips, but my current gf is not into that at all. I finally have a keeper though.

Last year we had passes for Dollywood. We would get there on a late Sunday afternoon and stay all day Monday and it was never bad, but this was while school was in.
I have never been to Kings Island when it was not crowded. As all parks, you will do better when school is in and it is raining a little on and off.
Cedar Point is awesome and we have been a lot more lucky with lines there, than at Kings Island.

I have never purchased one, but they do have some kind of fast pass. I think they are priced based on demand. That is Kings Island.
As far as Dollywood I have never noticed any kind of fast pass, they could have them though.

I just looked it up, Dollywood has a TimeSaver pass.

Kings Island has Fast Lane.

If it is going to be sunny, buy the pass. If it rains it normally thins the herd.

I love The Beast. It does feel rougher and I am getting older for sure. When it makes that hard turn at the bottom of one hill it just seems so fast there is no way it will stay on the track....I am always hanging on there for a potential ride through the woods. Other than that I have hands up.

I wish you the best of luck with crowds and temps. Let me know if The Beast seems rough to you now. I am wanting to ride again, but not if it has got a lot rougher.

I have been at parks a lot when kids are supposed to be in school, and while no wait there will be a few kids still. I played dumb and said what kind of school holiday is it? Turns out they were home schooled. Like maybe 200 kids at Busch Tampa that time. Impossible to get away from all the kids, but they were very well behaved.

Another awesome thing when kids go back to school the hotels at the beach are half price from what they were July 4th. 8/12 me and my gf will be hitting Panama City Beach for a few days, then going up to Cedar Point for a day, then over to Buffalo, NY to hang with a friend and see the falls and hit the Six Flags there for a couple of days.

When I was a kid I hated school. I still have nightmares that I am in school. I did well in school, I just hated it, bored the hell out of me. NOW that I am older, I love school. Shorter lines at the parks and lower hotel costs.

And this year just doing one day at the best park for coasters.....Cedar Point. Eventually we will get passes there again and do Kings Island and Carowinds again. I like to give parks a few years to do a few new rides and then get a pass again.

I have kept Six Flags passes for years though, one 5 miles away and the dining pass is a awesome value living this close. I do not ride there much, just boring as many times as I have been. I just go for a hour to eat.

I only seen a few places with not many machines near where I plan to stay, so I was not planning on any pinball. Thank You very much for the heads up, I will look into making that part of the trip.

Also, if a pinsider is doing SFOG, not much pinball near there, but if I am available, you can shoot me a message about playing some here while in town.

Hopefully mid week lines will be short for you.

Do you ever go to Silver Dollar City? They have some cool coasters, just not many.

I enjoyed reading your entire post. If my trip in 2 weeks to Cedar Point and Six Flags Darien Lake the coasters are hurting my head still and I feel my brain hitting my skull then I am done, and next season pass will be Universal.

I am not sold on Disney, a lot of people on here say wonderful things, but price is always a negative.

What I have learned here, and with what my head is doing when I ride stuff I like...I think I need to settle down soon and make Universal my go to place

That is a understatement. I could not believe how that park while themed looking like the old west had something so new and totally cutting edge. And it did not hurt my head! If Dollywood(same company) gets one I would have to do another pass there....only a 4 hour drive.

I would think it would be a wheel thing making the back smoother. Usually the back feels faster and rougher like a sling shot effect or something.

I just did Six Flags Darien Lake along with some other things on vacation and I have a lot of opinions about Six Flags parks. To me Six Flags is the best deal money wise, buy on sale and get a pass and dining pass good at all their parks for under $150.00 for a year roughly. (my last one was 144.13 total for pass with parking and dining).

In my opinion, this is my list of Six Flags parks I have been to from best to worst.

1. Magic Mountain - best rides, unique rides, good dining pass value.
2. Jackson NJ - very large park, even has safari included. dining pass was good, even had fried shrimp.
3. Arlington TX - Has my favorite drop tower and some other rides I like. decent dining pass options.
4. San Francisco - different rides that were fun, best dining pass options of all the parks.
5. SFOG - 5 miles from me, rode everything way too much in the past, but I can say only 3 rides hurt, and has decent dining pass options. However this is the worst park for line jumpers and young people not behaving. You will also see lots of real police here and that is a good thing.
6. New England - seems small but has some very fun rides. dining pass ok(honestly it has been a while since I was there, dining pass options may be better now).
7. Chicago - decent park, decent dining options, was there last year.
8. San Antonio - small park, some decent rides, some hurt though. decent dining options.
9. Darien Lake - just went there, small park, some rides rough, the worst dining pass options anywhere.
10. Lake George - small park, have not been there in a while but not many rides when I was there. Not sure about dining options.
11. St Louis - sorry, but I was there last year and the rides hurt so bad I could not enjoy the rest of my vacation. dining pass options were ok.

Anyway, I was back at Cedar Point last week and it is still the best for rollercoasters overall. Not the best value money wise, but if you live close you can not go wrong.

At this point because some rides are hurting my head worse and worse I am pretty much retiring from coasters. In the future I plan to do Universal. I have not been there yet, but damn....560.00 for a annual pass and no meals included? At least their rides for the most part should not hurt a bit.