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International travel to parks

STEJENT

STEJENT

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As someone who loves rollercoasters, my absolute dream destination would be Cedar Point. I feel like I need to make it one of my life's missions to get there.
But I don't know where to start, I find it such a daunting task to arrange travel, accommodation, transport and park tickets.
Coupled with the fact, I don't really have any friends/family that like rollercoasters and theme parks as much as I do, so wouldn't want to travel that far with me.
I'm sure there are people here who have been/go and will have some advice on how to go about arranging it and what they do with regards having accompaniment when they do. Perhaps people have formed friendships here and have gone together?

So I'm interested in hearing other people's experiences with travelling to these places.

I would also like to visit the other Cedar Fair park, Kings Island that is within the same state.

I have been to Florida and all except Sea World and Busch Gardens as the people I went with didn't want to go to them, so I got a half-baked experience.
 
If you don’t have a group of friends ready to go then perhaps you could consider a solo European trip, Liseberg for example is incredibly easy to visit and get to from the airport. As for US parks then perhaps you might want to keep an eye out for what Club PBE (Pleasure Beach Experience) have planned for the future perhaps.
 
I visited Cedar Point on my own in 2012. I had gone over to visit a friend and visited the cities of Boston and Baltimore with him before flying solo to Cleveland.

The major issue is getting from the UK to Cleveland. From there your maybe 60 minutes from from Sandusky. I didn't drive in 2012 so got a taxi there and back (I stayed 4 nights). However I recently saw Air Lingus advertising flights to Cleveland starting in 2023 so that would make flying considerably easier.

Kings Island is maybe 4 hours from Cedar Point, whilst the park can be done in a day I'd definitely not recommend trying to day trip it as a days break from Cedar Point. Which we did in 2019.

Regarding booking things if your going all that way you'd may as well look at staying on site at Hotel Breakers so when at the park you can easily pop back to your hotel. You can book your hotel and ticket packages directly with them.

Going with a club could be a plan but then it's hoping they go to Cedar Point anytime soon, Club Pleasure Beach visited this year and are planning different parks for 2024.
 
Cedar Point is really high on my list too, but I’m personally the sort of person who wants to get bang for their buck when travelling any sort of distance. Going all that way for just one park really doesn’t appeal to me. The only real exceptions to that rule I’ve ever really made are EP and DLP, but even then it pains me to drive past Asterix and Walygator without stopping off. I have so many trip plans saved in various places, including Cedar Point, that I’ve never quite manage to bring to fruition (yet!) but it’s often the time and travel elements that can be offputting.

On the subject of group trips, I think the key thing of going away with any group, big or small, is that you’re all on the same page. That could be that you’re all into the same thing and want to do the same rides, or it could be that you’re all happy breaking off and doing your own thing. For me, a visit to an international park is often a holiday, so I like to take things at my own pace. I’m not going to loose too much sleep if I only do a headline attraction once, or miss a bit of filler. I value being able to go off and enjoy a meal at a restaurant, take in a show, or just sit in a nice bar for an hour or two and soak it all in. I said to someone on a trip to Disney recently that I could quite happily spend a day at Animal Kingdom without doing a single ride and still feel like I’d had a great day. But I also know that for some people, ticking everything off is a must, and the thought of doing the above would make them recoil in horror! It’s times like that when it’s good to have the option to break off and do your own thing without worrying about upsetting anyone. I’ll always say to anyone I’m at a park with “if you want to do that, you go do it”. I think/hope it helps people go off guilt-free.

All groups have different dynamics, but I think it’s important to make sure you all have that common ground and understanding. Otherwise, you can find yourself sinking a lot of cash into a trip that ultimately you come away not enjoying/fully fulfilled from. It’s just something to consider with group trips, but you do you. I’m by no means trying to put anyone off group trips. I’ve had so many amazing trips and experiences at different parks with various friends (some from TS, some not) that I wouldn’t change at all (well, maybe aside from freak weather phenomena or car breakdowns 😂), but having the right group is key in my opinion.
 
Some of the American parks are very hard to get to without a car, and some parks do have buses, but only in the summer vacation period. Urban parks are generally easy to get to. For example you can easily get to Santa Cruz Boardwalk on the train from San Francisco. Coney Island is near a subway station. You can walk between Disneyland and Knott’s Berry Farm. Six Flags America is part of the DC transit system and is easy to get to with frequent buses. Mount Olympus is part of Wisconsin Dells, which at least used to be on a Greyhound route. Magic Mountain is within walking distance of a train station. When I visited LA 10 years ago public transport was generally very poor, but someone told me it has improved. Six Flags Great America used to have buses from Chicago (and might still do), but I think I visited around the summer.

Cedar Point seemed to be very difficult to get to without a car when I looked into it, but it might be easier in the summer vacation period.
 
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Very much agree with what @Ian said about travel companions. Super Saturday on the Misery Trip was very different to my last day at EP for example. You can't do 7 different parks with 14 coasters between them in the same way to leisurely wandering around a park drinking before going to look at one of the hotels because you feel like it.

I've been abroad 7 times with people from here. Honestly, get yourself on a few meets, we don't bite (too much) and enjoy yourself.

Regarding Cedar Point, can you drive? How far are you willing to drive? First questions to be answered. You could for example fly into Columbus Airport, go north for CP and south for KI fairly easily and have a travel day to go north to south as Columbus has a zoo and 3 creds within the area if creds are what you're after as well. Can't offer advice from a visitor point of view as I've never been to the States.

Trip planning is something I enjoy (serious or not, get in the minibus we're off to Vietnam for a wacky worm) and use basic tools for. Where is your main place you want to visit, where's the nearest airport with reasonable flights, then adding extras you want to do, throw in some means of transport and some hotels and you're most of the way there. Maps, hotel/flight/car hire comparison sites and things like RCDB and Coast2Coaster are great for such things.
 
Poisson said:
Very much agree with what @Ian said about travel companions. Super Saturday on the Misery Trip was very different to my last day at EP for example. You can't do 7 different parks with 14 coasters between them in the same way to leisurely wandering around a park drinking before going to look at one of the hotels because you feel like it.

I've been abroad 7 times with people from here. Honestly, get yourself on a few meets, we don't bite (too much) and enjoy yourself.

Regarding Cedar Point, can you drive? How far are you willing to drive? First questions to be answered. You could for example fly into Columbus Airport, go north for CP and south for KI fairly easily and have a travel day to go north to south as Columbus has a zoo and 3 creds within the area if creds are what you're after as well. Can't offer advice from a visitor point of view as I've never been to the States.

Trip planning is something I enjoy (serious or not, get in the minibus we're off to Vietnam for a wacky worm) and use basic tools for. Where is your main place you want to visit, where's the nearest airport with reasonable flights, then adding extras you want to do, throw in some means of transport and some hotels and you're most of the way there. Maps, hotel/flight/car hire comparison sites and things like RCDB and Coast2Coaster are great for such things.
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I certainly intend to get on some meets when the new season starts, I'm looking forward to get to know people from here in person (have been friends with a fair few on facebook since the days of MSN).
Yes I do drive and would certainly hire a car in the US, and am not against driving long distances, even if it means booking different hotels to fit in with the plans for attending different parks on different legs of the holiday.
I have quite a disorganised mind, so planning trips, the more complicated, with flights, park tickets is a nightmare for me, especially if they become difficult to time.
 
STEJENT said:
I certainly intend to get on some meets when the new season starts, I'm looking forward to get to know people from here in person (have been friends with a fair few on facebook since the days of MSN).
Yes I do drive and would certainly hire a car in the US, and am not against driving long distances, even if it means booking different hotels to fit in with the plans for attending different parks on different legs of the holiday.
I have quite a disorganised mind, so planning trips, the more complicated, with flights, park tickets is a nightmare for me, especially if they become difficult to time.
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Write it down. Use Google Sheets or something similar. I'm not the most organised but with everything written down I don't have to be. I even use whiteboards at work because I am so disorganised. It works!

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John_P said:
The major issue is getting from the UK to Cleveland. From there your maybe 60 minutes from from Sandusky. I didn't drive in 2012 so got a taxi there and back (I stayed 4 nights). However I recently saw Air Lingus advertising flights to Cleveland starting in 2023 so that would make flying considerably easier.
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British Airways are starting to fly to Cincinnati five times a week from Heathrow on 5th June 2023. Handy for starting at Kings Island.
 
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Cedar Point is always seen as the ultimate bucket lister for enthusiasts, and people tend to avoid actually getting round to doing it as it's deemed unrealistic.

It's actually pretty easy.

Personally I always assumed it would be too expensive, but if you don't need a Mustang and 5 star hotels it's fine.

Flights are often around the £400 mark to Chicago, car hire is £200ish for a week. Booking.com is great because of the free cancellation option. There are 1000s of motels available in the US for £30 a night.

You should 100% go for it. It may seem daunting but modern technology takes away so much of the hassle. You've got Google maps, booking.com etc at your fingertips at all times. Book the flights first and then plan around it.

I've not done a US trip on my own but 100% would do so. Americans are really friendly. They don't hear many English accents in the bars around the regional amusement parks, you will probably make friends along the way.
 
I have done a California trip solo and absolutely no issues. Stayed near universal Hollywood for a few nights and did Universal and other tourist things around that area (inc Santa Monica) via public transport. Picked up a car for a few days- drove to six flags magic mountain, stayed near the park for two nights (I went when fright fest was on so park was open until 12am) before driving to Anaheim and dropped car off- then had 6 nights in Anaheim- disney was 10 min walk and used bus to knotts which you got on in disneys bus pick up/drop off area, but an Uber wasn’t much either. Buses available to other places like the outlet mall etc. used Uber from Lax airport to Hollywood and had booked a transfer back from Anaheim to Lax.
 
STEJENT said:
I have quite a disorganised mind, so planning trips, the more complicated, with flights, park tickets is a nightmare for me, especially if they become difficult to time.
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I totally get this! Planning trips this complex can seem really daunting, I have ADHD which seems to getting worse with age and my ideal holiday booking now is one return flight and one hotel for a week, preferably somewhere out of season so I don't have to worry about prebooking anything else!

The good news is that for multi-park trip planning there isn't one question you'll have that someone on here doesn't know the answer to - whether that's park ticket deals, opening days, hotel recommendations and/or feasibility of travel plans. Travelling as a group can also take away some of the burden as you can assign responsibility for different parts of the trip to different people - helps with spreading the cost as well. Hyperfocus is (for me anyway) the fun part of having a disorganised brain and can be very useful although I'll admit to sometimes getting sidetracked and looking at all the £1000 pn suites at Europa Park I know I'll never be able to afford!

If it still seems too daunting, I believe there are some organised trips you can book onto that take care of all the travel planning, run by groups such as Rccgb and CoasterBreaks. I've never done one of those so I don't know what they're like but I reckon you could probably do you own thing a bit and meet up with the group as and when you wanted to. Might be more fun than doing a whole trip solo anyway.
 
Ian said:
Cedar Point is really high on my list too, but I’m personally the sort of person who wants to get bang for their buck when travelling any sort of distance. Going all that way for just one park really doesn’t appeal to me. The only real exceptions to that rule I’ve ever really made are EP and DLP, but even then it pains me to drive past Asterix and Walygator without stopping off.
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Now that I have finally been to Walygator, I will take great joy at driving right past in on the way to EP without ever call in! 🤣
 
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