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2020 USA Coastermania Hyper Trip (Critique Appreciated)

Doublethink

TS Member
Hi everyone, we are booked to go out to the US next year for Coastermania and are going to try for a whistle stop tour of all our bucket list US parks (and six flags St Louis as it breaks up SDC to Dollywood Drive)




I have drafted an itinerary which is attached as a Google docs list. I would appreciate advice from anyone who has done the parks before.



I know it's pretty packed but with light crowds expected we are not planning to stay full opening days at every park. We have a car booked and 2 drivers one of which who is better in mornings and the other in the evening so hopefully travel will work out.

We are time limited with leave from work so just can't extend the trip any further as we would love a couple more days to appreciate some of these parks and take more rest time.

Advice appreciated :D
 
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You're best switching Holiday World and SFSL around. This summer we stayed at the Holiday Inn right outside SFSL which made the perfect base camp for the long drive to Silver Dollar City and back in a day, whilst being perfectly positioned to continue on to Holiday World.

You also won't need a full day at Holiday World. Kentucky Kingdom is about 90 minutes away and has two outstanding coasters there.

I'd say you're better doing Kennywood prior to Cedar Point as well, but this is down to where you've booked flights to and from.
 
Flights are to and from Pitsborugh and driving go breakers day 1 just lines up better with our flight times. Can drive straight to airport from Kennywood at the end is the plan.

Cheers for the advice about at Louis and holiday world. I originally thought holiday world after kings Island as we would knackered after the ERTs at mania the day before so it was less of a drive from kings than st Louis and would give us more of a lay in.
 
Hersheypark and/or Knoebels would break up the drive from Great Adventure to Kennywood.

Skyrush is better than anything at Kennywood so I'd definitely advise squeezing Hersheypark in. Knoebels you can just walk in and ride Phoenix for an hour or so at $3 per ride.
 
You're best switching Holiday World and SFSL around. This summer we stayed at the Holiday Inn right outside SFSL which made the perfect base camp for the long drive to Silver Dollar City and back in a day, whilst being perfectly positioned to continue on to Holiday World.

You also won't need a full day at Holiday World. Kentucky Kingdom is about 90 minutes away and has two outstanding coasters there.

I'd say you're better doing Kennywood prior to Cedar Point as well, but this is down to where you've booked flights to and from.

We are planning to stay at St Louis for two nights also. How did you find driving to SDC and back there in a day as that would help relax us a bit before the drive to Dolly after SFSL

Hersheypark and/or Knoebels would break up the drive from Great Adventure to Kennywood.

Skyrush is better than anything at Kennywood so I'd definitely advise squeezing Hersheypark in. Knoebels you can just walk in and ride Phoenix for an hour or so at $3 per ride.[/QUOTE

This was originally in our plan but Hershey got canned to make time for Silver Dollar City which I would say is my no 2. Bucket list park after CP. We are time limited so couldn't fit much more in otherwise would love a day at kings Dominion and Hershey Park
 
We are planning to stay at St Louis for two nights also. How did you find driving to SDC and back there in a day as that would help relax us a bit before the drive to Dolly after SFSL


All four of us split the driving that day; changing (purely by coincidence) drivers at a service station on Route 66 in both directions. It's a long day and miles away from the rest of the parks, but it is truly worth the distance.
 
All four of us split the driving that day; changing (purely by coincidence) drivers at a service station on Route 66 in both directions. It's a long day and miles away from the rest of the parks, but it is truly worth the distance.
Yeah it just looks like an incredible park and I'm so excited for time traveler and outlaw run. A true theme park rather than the amusement parks that make up most of the states.

I have put in two options for that day- one doing the drive there in the morning and staying in branston and one with an evening return to st Louis and doing the remainder of the trip the next day. I'm not yet sure what the best option will be
 
Definitely the evening return; if you stay by SDC you're going to end up with an inevitable killer journey at some point.
 
Looks an exciting trip.

1 tip from me and I think it would improve your trip ten fold. Cut the Six Flags St Louis Day and have a chill out day in the middle somewhere. You'll be knackered doing that trip, especially as you'll be doing coastermania. If you have a chilled day you'll enjoy the rest of the parks far more. If you watched Shawn's trip you'll see what I mean. They were exhausted.
 
It does look like a very exciting trip but also a very intense trip that covers a lot of ground in just a week and a half. It terms of distance travelled it is probably not far off what we did in 2018 only we did it in 3 weeks (and had more parks along the way).

I don't know how possible it is with your itinerary but where possible try and pick hotel locations where you can stay for 2 nights in a row. It's amazing what a difference this can make on an intense trip! At the moment pretty much every day that you have seems to be a very early start, so on those days where a slightly later start is an option then I would take that option.

You'll have a great time, it's just making sure that you are not totally knackered for the last few parks!

In terms of the parks themselves, look at the ones that seem to be the busiest and explore fastrack options. When you are spending so much money to get out there and already on a tight schedule you do not want to be rushing around and missing out on rides. Gold Flash Pass at Six Flags parks usually works really well.

Also keep a lookout for any Presidents Day offers for Cedar Fair parks.
 
Cheers for the feedback we have actually been working on this over the last few days to up make sure we have at least 8 hours at a hotel every night. We have dropped st Louis for a potential half day at Kentucky Kingdom if we feel up to it with the option to drop that too if we need additional break time or want another morning at KI. I will try and get an updated schedule up shortly
 
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If you're doing two full days at Cedar Point including Coastermania I wouldn't bother with the ert the following morning. You'll easily get all the coasters at CP in the two days.

Coastermania finished at 1.30am this year. Your better off getting a decent nights sleep and then heading to Kings Island, they've got 15 coasters so it'll take time to get them all done regardless of how empty the park is.
 
If you're doing two full days at Cedar Point including Coastermania I wouldn't bother with the ert the following morning. You'll easily get all the coasters at CP in the two days.

Coastermania finished at 1.30am this year. Your better off getting a decent nights sleep and then heading to Kings Island, they've got 15 coasters so it'll take time to get them all done regardless of how empty the park is.
Cheers for the advice. We were originally planning 3 days CP but with one day FLP and a second as mania I don't think we will need that 3rd day allowing us to bring kings forward.

Edit: do people think I will need FLP to get all the kings credits in a day?
 
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Sorry for the double post. Have put in our updated itinerary now (see original post or this one). I'm still working on the last couple of days to get the hours at the hotel up

 
It's doable for sure but my word you will be tired. If it were me I'd definitely be having a day off parks all together in the middle somewhere. It makes one hell of a difference and you'll feel the benefit on the last few days.

Kentucky Kingdom would be the one to go if that was my itinerary.
 
It's doable for sure but my word you will be tired. If it were me I'd definitely be having a day off parks all together in the middle somewhere. It makes one hell of a difference and you'll feel the benefit on the last few days.

Kentucky Kingdom would be the one to go if that was my itinerary.

Thanks for your reply. Our plan is to drop this day off the schedule if we are too tired and visit the gateway arch in St. Louis instead if we are feeling tired on this day. We arnt going to buy tickets in advance and just go on the day for a half day if we feel we would like to visit
 
Thanks for your reply. Our plan is to drop this day off the schedule if we are too tired and visit the gateway arch in St. Louis instead if we are feeling tired on this day. We arnt going to buy tickets in advance and just go on the day for a half day if we feel we would like to visit

This is exactly what we did; visit St Louis in the morning and afternoon and then SFSL in the late afternoon / early evening. It's not an overly large park, however it is hilly particularly towards the back which can be draining.
 
This is exactly what we did; visit St Louis in the morning and afternoon and then SFSL in the late afternoon / early evening. It's not an overly large park, however it is hilly particularly towards the back which can be draining.
We have stolen this plan :D It's actually cheeper for us to buy six flags gold passes with the current two for $100 promo than it is to buy a single ticket for Great Adventure so we plan to pop over to six flags in the evening for some cheeky night rides
 
Just think you'll be disappointed in general with any Six Flags Park. I have visited several and wouldn't go back to any of them in a hurry. Even Great Adventure isn't high up on my must return list and that's the best one I have done. Some great coasters but the park in general was dire and lacked atmosphere and the staff and operations are a joke.
 
Just think you'll be disappointed in general with any Six Flags Park. I have visited several and wouldn't go back to any of them in a hurry. Even Great Adventure isn't high up on my must return list and that's the best one I have done. Some great coasters but the park in general was dire and lacked atmosphere and the staff and operations are a joke.

I don't have high expectations of six flags,I especially after Shawn's scathing reviews of some of the Six Flags parks. It's more of a case of it brakes up the drive to our hotel on the way to SDC for us to pop over to SFSL. A ride on Screaming Eagle, Mr Freeze and The Boss and I would be happy to leave SFSL.

GA on the other hand has El Toro and Jersey Devil opening next year too and with how high El Toro is rated it's a bucket list ride for us to try. Ka will be a nice credit to get too.
 
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