Burbs
TS Team
- Favourite Ride
- Steel Vengeance
Today we have returned from a thoroughly fantastic frolic across the east coast - and beyond - of the US, visiting 10 different big-hitter parks (some bigger than others) for a major summer holiday this year! This particular jaunt involved regular forum and meet-up members @AstroDan, @Alsty, @John @Rob, @Ancient and myself doing a round-tour road trip from Philadelphia over 2 weeks. The plan was as follows:
Day 0: Travel to Heathrow {LHR}
Day 1: Fly to Philadelphia {PHL} via Dublin {DUB}
Day 2: Dorney Park (Pennsylvania)
Day 3: Hersheypark (Pennsylvania)
Day 4: Kennywood (Pennsylvania)
Day 5+6: Cedar Point (Ohio)
Day 7: Brewdog New Albany and Columbus Dogtap (Ohio)
Day 8: Kings Island (Ohio)
Day 9+10: Dollywood (Tennessee)
Day 11: Carowinds (North and South Carolina)
Day 12+13: Busch Gardens Williamsburg (Virginia)
Day 14: Kings Dominion (Virginia)
Day 15: Six Flags Great Adventure (New Jersey)
Day 16: Fly to London via Dublin
Quite hardcore I'm sure you'll agree, and a lot to pack in. This was the "less intense" version of the trip, and given how tired I am right now trying to write this report (partly to try and overcome the jet lag by staying up as late as possible), I'm kinda glad we didn't add any other parks on like Sesame Place. All of the parks were brand new to myself, Alex and Gaz, which made the trip even more exciting, whereas Rob had visited 7 of the 10 before, and for the veterans Dan and John, it was a case of mopping up anything new while enjoying the rest of what was on offer.
Day 0+1
In order to reduce costs, it was decided that we'd make use of connecting flights in Dublin to get us to the States. We booked the whole journey with Aer Lingus, although the DUB-PHL part was operated by American Airlines. The added benefit of flying from Dublin is that TSA Pre-Clearance is a thing, which means that you don't have to queue for potentially ages at your destination to get into the country; it effectively acts as a domestic flight. We headed down on the Friday night and stayed in the Hilton Garden Inn at Hatton Cross which isn't too expensive and is walkable from a nearby pub (The Green Man), meaning you're not tied to hotel restaurants and bars. Not the cheapest option around (that honour probably goes to T4 Premier Inn?), but it's a lovely hotel you can guarantee a good night's kip in.
Our flight out of LHR was slightly delayed but this was no issue as we had lots of time at DUB before our connecting flight, which ended up with a delayed take off anyway! Pre-Clearance was easy enough, although always slightly more tense than most other border controls, and both outbound flights were perfectly comfortable. However, when we landed at PHL, there was some weather rolling in, which resulted in us sitting on the tarmac waiting for a gate for over 2.5 hours. By this point our plans for the evening were scuppered due to how late it was (drinks at Foundry Pub and Beerhall, then a meal at BJ's Brewhouse), so we ended up just picking up the hire car and driving straight to the hotel, calling it quits for the night. Our hire car was more like a bus - a 7-seater GMC Yukon. Mostly very comfortable, extremely reliable and it served us well for the duration of our holiday.
The first hotel of the trip was a Motel 6 in Allentown, just a short drive away from Dorney Park. A mixture of budget-friendly and more lavish accommodation options had been booked, in order to keep the average cost per-person-per-night down while providing us with better nights where required.
I will endeavour to update this thread as regularly as possible with my views of each park and the rides within.
Day 0: Travel to Heathrow {LHR}
Day 1: Fly to Philadelphia {PHL} via Dublin {DUB}
Day 2: Dorney Park (Pennsylvania)
Day 3: Hersheypark (Pennsylvania)
Day 4: Kennywood (Pennsylvania)
Day 5+6: Cedar Point (Ohio)
Day 7: Brewdog New Albany and Columbus Dogtap (Ohio)
Day 8: Kings Island (Ohio)
Day 9+10: Dollywood (Tennessee)
Day 11: Carowinds (North and South Carolina)
Day 12+13: Busch Gardens Williamsburg (Virginia)
Day 14: Kings Dominion (Virginia)
Day 15: Six Flags Great Adventure (New Jersey)
Day 16: Fly to London via Dublin
Quite hardcore I'm sure you'll agree, and a lot to pack in. This was the "less intense" version of the trip, and given how tired I am right now trying to write this report (partly to try and overcome the jet lag by staying up as late as possible), I'm kinda glad we didn't add any other parks on like Sesame Place. All of the parks were brand new to myself, Alex and Gaz, which made the trip even more exciting, whereas Rob had visited 7 of the 10 before, and for the veterans Dan and John, it was a case of mopping up anything new while enjoying the rest of what was on offer.
Day 0+1
In order to reduce costs, it was decided that we'd make use of connecting flights in Dublin to get us to the States. We booked the whole journey with Aer Lingus, although the DUB-PHL part was operated by American Airlines. The added benefit of flying from Dublin is that TSA Pre-Clearance is a thing, which means that you don't have to queue for potentially ages at your destination to get into the country; it effectively acts as a domestic flight. We headed down on the Friday night and stayed in the Hilton Garden Inn at Hatton Cross which isn't too expensive and is walkable from a nearby pub (The Green Man), meaning you're not tied to hotel restaurants and bars. Not the cheapest option around (that honour probably goes to T4 Premier Inn?), but it's a lovely hotel you can guarantee a good night's kip in.
Our flight out of LHR was slightly delayed but this was no issue as we had lots of time at DUB before our connecting flight, which ended up with a delayed take off anyway! Pre-Clearance was easy enough, although always slightly more tense than most other border controls, and both outbound flights were perfectly comfortable. However, when we landed at PHL, there was some weather rolling in, which resulted in us sitting on the tarmac waiting for a gate for over 2.5 hours. By this point our plans for the evening were scuppered due to how late it was (drinks at Foundry Pub and Beerhall, then a meal at BJ's Brewhouse), so we ended up just picking up the hire car and driving straight to the hotel, calling it quits for the night. Our hire car was more like a bus - a 7-seater GMC Yukon. Mostly very comfortable, extremely reliable and it served us well for the duration of our holiday.
The first hotel of the trip was a Motel 6 in Allentown, just a short drive away from Dorney Park. A mixture of budget-friendly and more lavish accommodation options had been booked, in order to keep the average cost per-person-per-night down while providing us with better nights where required.
I will endeavour to update this thread as regularly as possible with my views of each park and the rides within.
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