Coaster trips 2012

[Brett7710]

I'm sure that as the 2011 season is drawing to a close for most parks and many of the plans for new 2012 attractions have been announced plenty of us will already have something in mind for next year.

There has already been a mention of possible Euro Lives and Japan trips with CF, but what is everyone else planning?

Personally, I'm hoping to head over to the States for the second time. I would have been going to the NYC/Boston/NJ area but i'm holding off in the hope that rumours of a GCI at Moreys Piers turn out to be true in a couple of years.

Therefore i'm planning a trip to start and end in Washington DC. Here's the Itinerary as it stands just now;

Day 1 - Fly to Washington DC, Drive to Bowie Maryland (35 mins)
Day 2 - Day in Six Flags America
Day 3 - Drive to Hershey (2 hours 35 mins) Day in Hershey park
Day 4 - Day in Hershey park, Drive to Dorney Park (1 hour 20 mins)
Day 5 - Day in Dorney Park
Day 6 - Day in Dorney Park, Drive to Knoebels (1 hour 45 mins)
Day 7 - Day in Knoebels
Day 8 - Drive to Lakemont Park (2 hours 35 mins) Visit Lakemont Park and Del Grosso's, Drive to Idlewild Park (1 hour 30 mins) Visit Idlewild Park
Day 9 - Drive to Kennywood (1 hour 15 mins) Day in Kennywood
Day 10 - Day in Kennywood
Day 11 - Drive to Williamsburg (7 hours) visiting Adventure Park USA on the way
Day 12 - Day in Busch Gardens
Day 13 - Day in Busch Gardens, Drive to Kings Dominion (1 hour 25 mins)
Day 14 - Day in Kings Dominion,
Day 15 - Day in Kings Dominion, Drive to Washington (1 hour 40 mins)
Day 16 - Day in Washington DC
Day 17 - Fly Home

Any thoughts or anyone want to talk about their plans?

 

[davidm]

You do realise that you dont have to fly out of the same place you fly into and then you don't spend half your time back tracking on yourself? (Have to be careful with the car hire though so you don't incur one-way charges)

 

[Brett7710]

Yeah, it's partly planned the way it is to avoid one way car hire fee's. But also when its plotted out it does kinda make a circular route, albeit one with a 7 hour drive.

 

[gavin]

Personally, I think you're allowing a bit too much time in some of those parks. It's all up to you obviously; it's your trip, but here are a few of my thoughts on it anyway.

Hershey: They had an offer on last year, which might be worth checking to see if it's still on. If you go in after 5pm (I think), you get that evening and the whole next day for the same ticket. It saves you the cost of a day's entry which you'd be paying if you're planning two days. Realistically, two full days is excessive. You can get everything done in one day, but the "free" evening is definitely worth taking advantage of; the park should be quiet and you can get some excellent night rides.

Two days in Dorney is way, way too much time; you only realistically need a few hours to be honest (it's tiny), and that's including rerides. In fact you could easily do Dorney and Knoebels in the same day; neither one of them warrants more than a few hours, though Knoebels is a really pleasant park to just hang out in.

Kennywood definitely doesn't need two days either. A full day, possibly, if it's busy. Again, in one day you'll cover everything you want to with time for rerides as well. Personally, I think it's a **** hole, and I'd be getting out of there as soon as possible. Regardless of my personal views of the place, two days is still absolute overkill.

As far as Busch and KD go, neither one of them needs the two days either. However, I'd happily spend a second day at Busch; it's fantastic. KD has a lot of rides as well, so a second day will give you a bit more breathing space. One day is enough, but you'll be quite rushed.

Anyway, I've got no plan for 2012 at all yet. I haven't thought about it at all.

 

[Brett7710]

I had though about taking a day of Kennywood, and Dorney Park was originally going to be one day. I just worry about missing credits or not getting enough re-rides. Last year I only did one day at Kings Island and I seemed to be rushing it, I got every credit apart from the kids rides, plus 3 rides on Diamondback and Beast, but I could have done another half day just riding those two again. At Toverland this year I did Troy 10 times and loved every go. Double days were for re-rides at Dorney, Hershey and Busch, whilst at Kennywood and Kings Dominion it's to make sure we don't miss any credits. My partner tells me that she likes to feel like she's on a holiday as opposed to rushing around.

 

[davidm]

Gavin speaks the truth ; Kennywood/Dorney are not 2 day parks, Hershey a day is ok, Knoebels 1/2 a day, KD and Busch a day ok.

How about; don't book any hotels (just pick them up on the road as you go - its easy) then after you are totally bored by the one day at Dorney (etc) you just move the plans "up" and do something else*. I love the parks, but if I felt that my holiday plans "made" me go back to somewhere that I had exhausted the day before I'd go spare!

* - like another park - GAdv is easily drivable from Dorney etc

 

[gavin]

^^I can totally appreciate that, but honestly, Dorney and Kennywood are not very big parks, especially Dorney; you'll have no problems at all getting rerides there.

Even though they have a lot of coasters (by UK standards at least), you really won't be rushing around at either park. Plus neither one of them has much, if any, atmosphere to speak of. It's not like somewhere like Busch where you can just enjoy the atmosphere of the park. Dorney is basically just a soulless slab of concrete with a bunch of rides squeezed in.

Dave just posted as I was typing, and I agree with him. I'd hate to feel "forced" back to a park I'd done because of an over-structured itinerary. I don't know you obviously, but I'm confident in saying that a forced second day, with the expense that brings as well, at Dorney or Kennywood is not going to make for a happy holiday.

 

[Thekingin64]

Going back onto what the topics for (talking about what we're going to do in 2012), I'll basically be going round every British Merlin park and attractions.

 

[Brett7710]

I think i'll be having another look at the plan then. I didn't really want two days at Kennywood to begin with, if people are pretty confident I can do there and Dorney in a day each I might trim it down. Six Flags Gadv was missed out because I would be doing it on the other trip. Having said that, i'm sure I wont mind going back to a park that has 3 of the worlds best coasters.

 

[Snoo]

Two days at Kennywood? Shut up. Go to Waldameer for one of those days. Ravine Flyer II is not passable if you have the time in the region.

 

[Brett7710]

I think i'll be having another look at the plan then. I didn't really want two days at Kennywood to begin with, if people are pretty confident I can do there and Dorney in a day each I might trim it down. Six Flags Gadv was missed out because I would be doing it on the other trip. Having said that, i'm sure I wont mind going back to a park that has 3 of the worlds best coasters.

@Snoo. I'm planning to visit Waldameer on another trip which includes Toronto and Niagra falls. I don't want to be heading that far out when i've got the drive back to Virginia. It's all planned into the bigger picture

 

[bizarrofan10]

Ditto what's been said above.

For me, 2012 East Coast Trip: Rye Playland, Luna Park, SFGAdv, Dorney, Herhsey, Knoebels, SFA, BGE, KD
9 parks, about 2 weeks total

 

[tomahawk]

Depends on where/if I get a job and if I go on study abroad to Germany in May. If I do, well Europa, Phantasialand, probably Heide, and maybe Holiday Park. If I don't well it is a shot in the dark, I really would like to go to Dollywood and then SFoG but who knows. Still hoping for Germany.

 

[Jer]

For me in 2012, i'm repeating the trip I took with my friends back in 2010. Over 2 days we'll be going to, Hershey for Skyrush, that will be the whole first day, then the second day will be Knoebels, and Dorney, both of those parks will have a new credit as well.

 

[Brett7710]

Depends on where/if I get a job and if I go on study abroad to Germany in May. If I do, well Europa, Phantasialand, probably Heide, and maybe Holiday Park. If I don't well it is a shot in the dark, I really would like to go to Dollywood and then SFoG but who knows. Still hoping for Germany.

Sounds good, all the parks you've mentioned there are worth a visit, if you do get over to Germany there are a few other smaller parks like Tripsdrill and Belantis that could be worth a visit. Ring Racer might finally open too . . .

Toverland is also very close to the German border.

 

[nadroJ]

I'll be hitting up Vegas in January, my BIG America trip is probably looking to be end of June/beginning of July (4 weeks in the East Coast, 2 weeks in LA - it's a travelling AND coaster tour, so I'll be doing the sights and historical crap as well as parks and chilling out ;]).

I'll most definitely be doing Parc Asterix and Europa Park too, but I'll wait and see if CF do that as a Live before I make my own plans ('cos I'm lazy).

Other than that I'll probably so the usual Merlin crap as well as continuing to scoop up a few more UK creds.

So yeah, pretty psyched.

 

[Nemesis Inferno]

Defo a weekend at Asterix and Europa Park (separately of course)...


Then sommat else... I'm looking at options since other plans aren't going to happen, so somewhere I haven't been to in Europe... Perhaps Scandinavia somewhere...

 

[Martyn B]

For me nothing is confirmed yet, but I know its going to be my biggest and best year to date, with trips almost certain to Madrid, New York and Florida. Also going to be getting to a few Dutch parks, and possibly Phantasialand and Parc Asterix.

 

[Josh73]

My family hates Amuesement parks, so only Hershey for me... Posibly florida though. I will get back to you on that.

 

[Colossus]

Hoping to do France (Asterix,Disney) and Germany (Europa, Phantasia, Hiede) in April then hopefully Florida in October.