2024 Travel Plans?

With 2024 upon us, what does everyone have in store for this upcoming park season? Out of those plans, what are the most anticipated rides or parks you will experience?

In May, we head off to England (into Manchester) to do one of my lifelong park bucket list trips... Primarily, Alton Towers, and in particular even more, Nemesis. We will be in the country for about 10 days, so we will be visiting Blackpool Pleasure Beach, Flamingoland, Drayton Manor, Alton, Thorpe and Chessington. But also have time set aside in Manchester, Leeds, York and London of course before flying home from Heathrow. The England parks as a whole have been at the top of my "need to do" list for quite some time, so we are really excited for that one. Originally we had planned to do this trip in 2023, but because Nemesis was getting overhauled... We postponed and did other stuff this year instead (Netherlands/Belgium/France/Germany/Austria).

At this point, Alton Towers has been on my bucket list for as long as I can remember.. Ever since I was a little kid, honestly. B&M inverts have always been my favorite types of coasters, too, and Nemesis, well... Self explanatory. Really excited to finally ride the "new and improved" version of it, it looks fantastic. Also Blackpool and Thorpe, especially with the new Mack going in, that ride looks insane. Look forward to challenging my brain out driving on the 'wrong' side of the road over there... Maybe?

That is the only trip formally booked right now, but in early August we also have penciled in a trip to Scandinavia... Flying into Copenhagen and home out of Stockholm, driving through and visiting a bunch of parks along the route (Tivoli, Bakken, Djurs and Farup Sommerland, Liseberg, Kolmarden, Grona Lund), at least right now. Have it mostly planned out, just need to commit and book the flights... Our backup plan if we want to do something 'smaller' would be Spain, into Barcelona and out of Madrid. But honestly, outside of the England parks, the parks in Denmark/Sweden are probably next on "the list" so I do hope to make it there in 2024. I wish the operating season was a bit longer up there to space the trips out a bit more, but whatever.

That will probably wrap up 2024 for us. We probably won't do too much domestically outside of maybe a visit to Cedar Point to check out Dragster 2.0. At least, nothing else planned yet at this point. Pretty likely we end up in Orlando for a few days for a quick visit or for HHN next fall.

I kind of wish there was more going on domestically, but it's a pretty null year overall for new stuff (park wise).

My wife and I are doing a fjords cruise that starts and ends in London and are looking to see if we can integrate Alton Towers into the trip because like you it's been a bucket list park for me since I saw Nemesis on a roller coaster VHS tape. In all likelihood we will just stay in London and save Alton Towers for a different trip.

We didn't renew our Cedar Fair pass and will likely wait until fall to do it. We will do a Universal Mardis Gras trip for a few days. That's all we have planned for now.

The one bummer about Alton is it's location, with no easy way to get there outside of renting a car. Not a huge deal, but it is nice when you can more easily access places via rail or something. England is not as well connected as some other countries over there, so a car is kind of a must (at least for our trip).

Thorpe I think is a bit more accessible from London, I want to say maybe about an hour or so train ride? But Thorpe doesn't look quite as epic as Alton Towers, but still an idea if you want to do a park on that trip and have time available.

We will only have about a day and a half in London proper, and probably that half day spent chilling at the Airport hotel plane spotting (other nerdy hobby). But hey, if we love our small taste of it we will just go back. Good problem to have!

We haven't committed to anything specific outside of the inaugural DCL cruise to the new Lookout Cay. I don't generally travel anymore for the purpose of going to parks, but I have to admit that going to Tivoli, even just for six hours, was a highlight of our Northern Europe trip. Diana really wants to go back to the UK, and if we do that, I imagine we have to stop at a park or two.

I might finally ride Hagrid's at IOA.

Last year, I visited Carowinds and Kings Dominion for Memorial Day weekend. I'll likely do a repeat of that and hopefully add in Busch Gardens Williamsburg. But aside from Cedar Point and Kings Island, I'm planning to visit:

• Hershey Park (first time)
• Dorny Park
• Six Flags Great Adventure (first time)
• Dollywood
• Six Flag Magic Mountain (first time)
• Kennywood (first time)

SteveWoA:

The one bummer about Alton is it's location, with no easy way to get there outside of renting a car.

For me, driving on the opposite side of the road is about 50% of the reason I would like to visit England!

Count me as very interested in the New for 2024 "Flash" coaster at Great ADventure. I picked up a seasons pass, after saying no for last year. I liked that the Diamond Pass will allow access to the shady area of the water park. It was only for club memberships in the past.

I will also plan to hit the usual suspects for me...Dorney, SeaSide Height, Wildwood, Keansberg, Rye (But not only to ride, but to fish, relax, etc.

Rye had an insane Black Friday / Cyber Monday deal that I regret not pulling the trigger on. $100 for a seasons pass including rides, parking, swimming pool, beach and rowboats.

I also anticipate many trips to Asbury Park with their guilt driven 2 for 1 admission holiday sale.

As typical, CP, KI, Dollywood, BGW and SDC are on the list, there all practically annual trips for me. I have my last WDW visit in January before my pass expires. I’ll be going to Universal to use my pass there multiple times, likely SWO as well and will be going to get a Magic Key to DLR in October and go to Knotts and SWSD as well. As for the rarer trips, going back to HW for the first time post pandemic, and will be hitting up Texas for the first time since 2018 (Schlitterbahn Galveston and New Braunfels, SFFT, SWSA.)

I have no plans whatsoever right now beyond getting to the new coasters at Emerald Park.

Going to Southern California for Christmas & New Years with my kids. Planning to visit Universal Studios Hollywood, Disneyland, California's Adventure, and Knott's Berry Farm. (Gonna have to save Six Flags MM for a future trip. My son is only 50 inches at the moment so not quite there yet for the big coasters.)

Also hoping to do Canada's Wonderland for the first time Memorial Day weekend.

And Worlds of Fun in August during a trip to Missouri to visit family.

Plus I'm sure we will hit Cedar Point and Kings Island a couple of times as well since they are local parks for us.

Jephry:

I'm planning to visit:

• Hershey Park (first time)
• Dorny Park
• Six Flags Great Adventure (first time)
• Dollywood
• Six Flag Magic Mountain (first time)
• Kennywood (first time)

Knoebel’s is actually on the way.

I visited Thorpe Park using public transportation from London and it was easy, but very time consuming. I was in town for IAAPA Expo Europe which was held at the ExCel center near the London City airport and it took nearly two hours each way. Tube to Waterloo station, followed by a local train to Staines railway station. A dedicated bus called the 950 runs from near the station to Thorpe Park and back. The park itself? Its a dump to be polite with an awful crowd, but some rides are really nice, like Nemesis Inferno, Stealth and the future Mack hyper coaster, Hyperia.

Chessington World of Adventure is also easily accessible from London, closer than Thorpe Park. Take a train from Waterloo Station again and head to Chessington South. The park is a 10 minutes walk from it. The park itself is in better shape than Thorpe Park and while it doesn't have the thrill machines seen at Thorpe Park, Vampire is a gem and should be ridden sooner than later, as I am not sure how long Merlin will keep it around.

My travel plans for 2024 are a visit to Vegas in March. I will go to Indonesia a few months after, possibly combined with a visit to Tokyo for the grand opening of Fantasy Springs at Tokyo DisneySea and the grand farewell to Space Mountain 1.5 at Toyko Disneyland.

I will return to Europe for IAAPA Expo Europe and close out the year with IAAPA in Orlando.

My buddy Matt, who lives in Sandusky, just asked me to visit Busch Gardens Williamsburg with him in the Spring. I usually don't plan ahead unless a friend wants to meet up at a park or something else is taking me to the area. I usually try to kill two birds with one stone, if you will.

Mom wants to visit a cousin in Atlanta, so maybe I'll get to SFoGA this year. Not planned yet.

I'm not really excited about any new coasters next year.

Nothing concrete planned; my wife and I are fairly spontaneous trip planners and we usually plan our trips a few weeks in advance.

We still like going to Orlando for long weekends. Not for the parks other than Disney Springs or City Walk for a cool meal or two. Been to the Orlando parks and attractions so many times the past two decades we are kinda over that, but we like booking a nice resort villa and hanging out there by the pool and relaxing for a few days. Plus flights from the northeast to Orlando can be dirt cheap if you time it right.

We typically do a long weekend Spring Training trip to Tampa every, or every other March. Another fairly low key, and cheap long weekend trip to get away from the last part of the northern winter and enjoy shorts weather for a few days and take in a few baseball games and the Clearwater beaches.

In the fall, we penciled in a longer trip to London and Paris, a few days at each. Haven’t been back to London in a good 15 years and my wife has never been. The only park attraction we may hit up is Disneyland Paris for a day if the itinerary allows. Just for something cool to do and if it works out; but I’m certainly not revolving the trip around Disneyland Paris.

Our next big trip in the next several years is a Dubai/Qiddiya trip. We both visited Dubai about 8 years ago as an extension of a work trip I was on at the time and loved it. Want to get back for a few days and stay at Atlantis or one of the Jeremiah properties.

I want to wait a few years for the Qiddiya project to further develop and mature beyond the theme park. It looks like an unreal community concept….a little like the original vision of Epcot…just on a completely different scale.

I’ve been out of attractions management for a few years now but I still have close industry friends who live in those regions and can host and play tour guide; so I certainly want to take advantage of that while I still have those contacts.

I have many fond memories doing park trips, especially earlier in my attractions career. They were really fun. But the last 5 years or so, I’ve been venturing off to other experiences. Cruising, beach destinations, international travel, etc. Just part of the life cycle I suppose. But I do still enjoy reading about park trips on these boards.

If you're looking for other things to do in Orlando, check the schedule at our world-class performing arts center. It's extraordinary, and we get all of the good stuff.

Made it official the other day and we booked our Scandinavian trip in August. We focused it a bit more, removing the Sommerland parks to reduce all the driving to reach those parks in Denmark and the added days needed... Giving more city time in Stockholm, Gothenburg and Copenhagen. But still on for Grona Lund, Kolmarden, Liseberg, Bakken and Tivoli on that trip (maybe Bon Bon, depending).

Flying into Stockholm, home from Copenhagen.

As an aviation nerd, super excited as I was able to catch a deal back from Copenhagen through AMS on DL/KLM codeshare via business class... So on our main leg from AMS -> ATL, we have the business class private pods up front with lay flat seats on the newly redone 777-300ER cabins (plus first/business on the other legs of that trip home). So that's pretty dope. Kind of a bucket list thing with the lay flat pods and always wanted to fly on KLM, to boot.

At the same time, also lucked out with our England trip in May flight wise. Originally booked via Delta/Virgin codeshare in Economy Plus and "Economy Delight" on Virgin, but the other day I called to rebook one flight to reduce layover time coming home (website was being funky for whatever reason) and in process they bumped us up to Premium Economy to/from on Virgin for the long treks across the pond. So that was pretty nice of them... That will be a first, too.

That should conclude our big trips for 2024... Probably a small weekend trip and/or HHN in fall if things look good event wise this year.

When I worked in attractions, my old park would fly us in business class on the trans-oceanianic legs for the 2-3 international trips that I used to take each year.

Once you fly international business class, you’ll never go back. You certainly get spoiled with lay flat seats and all the related amenities that come with that class of service.

Albeit it was on my companies dime, it was a very nice perk and it made the trips much more comfortable for the long haul legs.

Yeah, I'm sure it will be hard to go back... But the price can easily keep me in line, haha. Each time we have flown across the Atlantic it has just been economy plus (or comparable) and I have been lucky enough to get exit row with endless leg room on all of those. Being 6'5" or so, the legroom is key of course.

Usually when I peak at Delta One or other business/first options, especially on long haul, the prices are just way out of line... Thousands more than economy plus per seat. However, for some reason on this routing, it was a really great deal that I just couldn't pass up... To put into perspective when I originally looked at these flights in economy plus months ago, it was just $300 cheaper per ticket than the business/first I was able to get last week. And I had a ton of different routing options, airlines (due to codeshare), aircraft, etc... So it was fun picking and choosing which experience to go with with the best cabin and all that.

But yeah, after the upcoming Premium Economy and Business seats on our upcoming trips, I'm sure our next big trip (tentatively Japan in 2025) we will be seeking our Premium Economy at a bare minimum... Especially pushing beyond 12hrs+ per leg on that one.

And here I thought I was living large when I spring for the exit row on Frontier