King's Island or Worlds of Fun?

My painful move to Salt Lake City is coming up faster than I would like it to, and I have time to hit one park on the way. On the way is King's Island, Kentucky Kingdom, Holiday World, SF Saint Louis, Worlds of Fun, and Elitch Gardens. Although I'd love to stop at Holiday World, something in me gut says either PKI or WOF.

Can anybody with the experience point me in the right direction?

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Musician, snowboarder, member of ACE and the ECC

If you could, go to both PKI or HW. Its up to you though.

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You can't run and you can't hide...The Beast at PKI
*** This post was edited by PkI FaNaTiC on 5/22/2001. ***

As much as it pains me to say this, as I am an SFBrat, if you truely can only hit one park, go ahead and go to Holiday World. I'm not one who is big on the whole 'traditional' aspect (though HW *is* a theme park). But look at it this way. You *might* find youself one day in Cincinatti for business or pleasure as it is a large city; same for KC, StL and heck even Louisville. And Denver, while not exactly close is a more viable trip from SLC (no pun intended) than any of the others.

However, what other reason would you have to go to Santa Claus, IN. The park might as well be in BFE. If you can pass it as part of your road trip, I would encourage you to do so. Otherwise, think realistically when else you would visit the park. And with Raven and The Legend, just sitting there begging to have an enthusisats butt upon their seat..well you just HAVE to go!
lata,
jeremy
--NOTE: These are the ramblings of a man still enraptured by the power of The Legend. Be advised that comments may be biased. ;)

Skip Holiday World!? ug! If you wanna whole day with a large variety of (very very varying quality, mostly low quality) coasters, go to King's Island. If you want 2 of the most kick-butt rides you'll ever ride (and FREE pop, nice employees, clean walkways, free parking, etc.) go to Holiday World :>

AMD much shorter lines, great flat rides, alot of trees and low foot-mileage too!
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Ow! My lap bar IS down all the way. *** This post was edited by coasterbill73 on 5/22/2001. ***

Forgot something! Holiday World is only 1 (one, count em!) hour west of SFKKingdom! You can hit em both! And SFStLouis is 3 hours west of Holiday Wolrd. They're all in a line :> Once I was driving back from LA, to Chicago, and I started at Magic Mountain, then Desperado, Elitch's, Lakeside, and finally WOFun. They're all pretty much in a line too! In less than 3 days!

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Ow! My lap bar IS down all the way.

WOF is a nice park but PKI has more Coasters

Kings Island, Because of SOB!

I was just at PKI this past weekend. It's a good park but not in my top 5. Besides the Beast and Sonny (maybe Topgun), I really don't like the park. If you have already been to the park go, if not skip it. The park was crowded and the employee's seemed to move extremely slow. SOB & Beast crews were great.

SFSTL is a nice park. HW would be a great choice if you want to get some serious coaster riding in. The crowds will probably be light, offering many rides on the greatest woodies on the planet.

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BMCOASTER

bmcoaster@wi.rr.com

PKI has the best collection of woodies, and their launched coaster (Flight of Fear) is like a whole new ride this year! I would recomend PKI any day, but it is wiser to go on a weekday and not on a weekend to avoid heavy crowds.

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Visit my new PKI site at www.geocities.com/coastersrz. Please email me suggestions/pictures!

My choice would be SFSTL because this park has an amazing collection of coasters. They've got good wood with Boss and Screamin' Eagle, but probably not as good as HW. Add Batman, Ninja, and Mr. Freeze, though, and you've got a winner. WoF is also a great park with Timberwolf and Mamba. In the end though, you should go to SFSTL.

PKI no doubt in my mind

DO not go to WoF. Its my home park and it blows. I would recommend PKI!

How I would choose:
6)SFEG(I've heard this park has no redeeming qualities unless you like boomerangs, SLCs, and bad woodies)
5)SFKK(Thunder Run is excellent. Twisted Sisters is ok. I hate stand-ups, but nice design if you like B&Ms-ok park overall)
4)WOF(Mamba and TimberWolf)
3)SFStL(The Boss, Mr. Freeze, BTR, and Screamin' Eagle all should be good coasters-looks like a nice park and atmosphere)-tie
2)HW(Two of the best woodies anywhere-and then some)
1)PKI!!!(Two of the best woodies anywhere-and then a lot more! Tallest gyro drop in the US/World?, an intense invertigo, fun forward/backward Racer, one of the best mine trains, two superb steel loopers, a short but sweet suspended, great motion sim, 4 pretty good diverse kiddie coasters-everything is really good quality, a very safe park, and a fun atmosphere-An early warning-LONG lines on weekends, A top 5 park!)


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Everything above was my opinion.If you disagree,please respond in an intelligent fashion.But before you post,I warn you that some people say I'm just too smart to understand. Please take that into consideration.

Go to PKI, I'm not sure what the other parks are like, but I've been to PKI and it's a really good park.

Wow, I'm surprised how helpful everyone's been! I thougt I would get a "go to PKI it's my homepark and it kicks" type response.

Ok so it looks like Worlds of Fun isn't the place to go, (why?) but I could hit both SFKK and HW in a day. SFKK in the morning with enough time to do what I need, and then ride Legend and Raven till 10 pm? Or would a full day at PKI be more rewarding? Of course, my gut hasn't been to any of these parks, so I might be asking for an "Oh Come ON!"

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BMCOASTER said:
"The park was crowded and the employee's seemed to move extremely slow. SOB & Beast crews were great."

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I agree. Although I would head to PKI regardless (although I am a little biased).*******WARNING PARK HINTS COMING NEXT******** The park tends to be crowded on saturday, and the two food carts are slow in the action zone. If you want fast service, and you are in the zone, go to the cart with the skinny guy (name is Martin) in it. The bigger of the two (names Alex) is the slowest. sually he has the bigger line. ****END OF PARK HINTS****
PS you didnt hear this from me.

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http://www.islandguide.8m.com
all about PKI
the Beasts` Den

since i live only 20 min from PKI, i should say "go for PKI!!", but my true instinct is to head over to HW. PKi has a wonderful variety of coasters and unique rides, but they are in serious need of capacity-handling help. HW is much more worth it than PKI. AWESOME coasters, free drinks, cheaper admission, super friendly people, where else can you see santa claus play skeeball? it's only about 10 mins off I-64, so stop on in. treat yourself and hit HW

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1 SRM 2001 t-shirt, $12; 1 used Gerstlauer lapbar, $50; Getting bruised kidkeys from the Legend, Priceless

If you want a safe and fun trip then go to PKI. The rides are great, especially Flight Of Fear, and the flat rides are awesome like Zephyr or Monster.

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SOB and The Beast were the winners of the wooden coaster poll on the site. SOB Best New Woodie and The Beast Best Woodie Overall. The Raven and The Legend were close in both categories though. Most likely b/c of amount of visitors, but it's impossible to go wrong. PKI is more all-day than HW, but you can make it all day. One day at PKI and half and half at SFKK and HW is a good choice. Just be at HW for the better half. It's really one of the best traditional themed parks anywhere. If you could just walk around the park and not ride a single ride, you would still have loads of fun.

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Everything above was my opinion.If you disagree,please respond in an intelligent fashion.But before you post,I warn you that some people say I'm just too smart to understand. Please take that into consideration.

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Ed said:
"Ok so it looks like Worlds of Fun isn't the place to go, (why?) but I could hit both SFKK and HW in a day."

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Argh!! Don't write off my home park yet. I'll be honest with you--PKI probably would be a better choice (based on coaster reports alone, since I've yet to visit PKI). But it's not like you'd be wasting your time going to WOF. Mamba and Timber Wolf are definitely two of the most underrated coasters (Morgans are awesome, despite the near constant bashing it seems they receive), and the Orient Express is a good coaster as well (although admittedly a little rough these days, but nothing intolerable and actually a little better this year than the past few). Although I've never been to either, I imagine that HW and PKI would be excellent choices as well. SFSTL is fun, and the Boss is running better this year, but go to WOF if you go to a Missouri park (or SDC, but that is a little out of your way). WOF has, again IMO, a better coaster selection, a cleaner and better landscaped park, better theming, faster ride ops, and much shorter lines when compared to SFSTL. I don't mean to talk badly about SFSTL, but WOF never gets any credit.

You ask why no one thinks WOF is a good place to go? Well, I honestly believe that it's because very few people have been there. KC gets less tourism than many other areas, and WOF does not do much advertising. I look through many of the track records of CB members, and I only find a handful that list the WOF coasters in their line up. It saddens me, because while WOF is a CF:LP "chain" park, it has a lot of its own flavor, being themed around five of the places in "Around the World in 80 Days." While WOF cannot match up with the shear number of coasters at PKI, and it doesn't have quite the charm of HW (from what I've heard), it's a great park and a "hidden" gem of the midwest. Visit, and I guarantee you'll be pleasantly surprised.

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Mamba--One of the Tallest, Longest, Fastest Roller Coasters in the World

Adam Rentchler