2025 Travel Plans

Following last years "2024 Travel Plans" post... As the park season (and year) come to a close, what is on the radar for everyone for the next year?

We currently have nothing set in stone just yet for 2025, but really close to booking an April trip to Japan (first time for us into Asia). Tentatively, flying into Osaka and out of Tokyo (with stops in Kyoto and Nagoya along the way). It would include a few parks, but mostly this trip is for the cities/culture/food/etc... Park wise, we would go to Universal, Fuji-Q, Nagashima Spa Land and Disney Sea (not sure if we will bother with Disneyland), along with Tokyo Dome, but that is kind of given due to it's location in the city. I have the draft itinerary laid out, but just trying to get the right dates (avoiding "Golden Week") and watching airfare... Prices keep bouncing so just trying to catch it at the right time for Premium Economy as I can't do anything less on 12hr+ flights.

If that doesn't shake out for whatever reason, we likely will return to Europe again in some form on a longer trip visiting some new countries to us. I'm thinking something like flying into Krakow for a few days to kick it off (sightsee and visiting Energylandia) before flying to another country or two TBD (Italy? Spain? Finland? Portugal?). If we do the Japan trip in spring, we would probably just end up doing a short/easy trip in fall... The front runner here being Poland and then Germany/Austria again. Poland would be new to us and specifically heard Krakow is pretty amazing. Germany (Munich specifically) we just love, so hanging out there a few days and going back to Austria via day trip on the train would be a good time. A laid back, don't have to think about much type of trip as we have been a few times now to Germany.

And while not in 2025, we are headed to Prague for a few days in the coming weeks. This actually replaced our HHN trip, mainly because as I was prospecting random trips it ended up being cheaper than flying to Orlando for HHN all-in, plus this year didn't exactly look the most appealing to us... So yeah, easy choice there! Of course as beer nerds we will be going to Pilsen for a day and visiting/touring Pilsner Urquell and the underground cellars and such while there. But honestly, the cities just look so amazing, so it should be a really fun trip.

So as of now, that is the plan for the big trips... Ideally the big Japan trip in spring and the smaller Euro one in fall. Nothing really on the domestic radar outside of maybe Epic Universe depending how that all shakes out... Or a chill weekend staying at the TWA Hotel at JFK to plane spot and such at some point and doing some more exploring within Brooklyn.

Just activated my key to DL so I’ll have multiple trips to there and Knotts this year. I’ll also have the usual suspects of CP, KI, Dollywood, SDC and BGW. I’m Planning on going to Universal to experience Epic and HHN this fall. Also will be doing a trip to Toronto and Ottawa so will go to CW for the first time. The trip I’m most looking foreward to however is this summer I’m doing a Adventures by Disney tour of the British Isles and while I won’t hit any theme parks in the UK (will be doing cultural stuff like castles, museums, Giants road, etc) I do have a few days booked at Disneyland Paris as a pre trip.

Having a four month old baby at home slows down the travel planning :)

At the moment the only park I'd really like to get to in the near future is Six Flags Qiddiya once it opens.

From a coaster perspective, I am hoping to get back to Port Aventura, that was the plan for this month just gone but we went to NYC instead.

Main holiday next year is South Korea so we will probably up at a couple of parks then but it's certainly not a coaster trip.

SteveWoA:

not sure if we will bother with Disneyland

I thought it was worth it. Looking back I would have liked 2 days at DisneySea and 1 at Disneyland.

My wife and I have a few nights at 1 of the new Universal hotels booked for an Epic Universe trip when it opens. Other than that we don't have any park trips booked. We may go to Salt Lake City for the Kilby Block Party in the spring so a day at Lagoon will be in order if they are open and we also have tickets to see Oasis in Dublin.

Ironically while I have visited 14 parks this year (will probably have 15 total by end of the year) most were unplanned trips, only formulating 1-2 weeks prior.

For 2025, I have my internships so I am not sure what the future holds. I plan to intern in Allentown, so definitely Dorney/SFGAdv during the summer. Cedar Point and KI are probably in the cards for spring and fall. I hope to do SFGAm or Canada's Wonderland, and (hopefully) Epic Universe in November '25. I really don't know what the plan is.

So a few updates on our 2025 plans as things are starting to shake out and two have been officially booked.

1. We did indeed swap Japan with Poland/Germany for our spring trip, so we are flying into Krakow and among the usual exploration/food/etc... Will visit Energylandia and Legendia. Half way thru, will fly to Munich for the second half and might hit up Bayern Park, but also might just stick to the city and surrounding places for day trips.

2. The other half had some PTO to use up before her anniversary date, so we ended up booking a short notice trip to Spain at the end of February into March. We will fly into Barcelona and have our full arrival day plus two days in BCN, which will include a day at Port Aventura. We will then take the high speed train to Madrid which is a quick 2hr 45min ride or so. We will have two full days there, one of which will be at Parque Warner Madrid and likely a quick stop the other day (as there is not much and its basically right in the city) at Parque de Atracciones. Then we fly home the following afternoon.

While we would love more time, we also really like quick/condensed trips too to get a 'taste'. We did that with the Czech Republic in November (we did end up going for basically 4 full days when you cut out the travel to/from) to Prague and Pilsen, which ended up being one of our favorite trips yet!

3.) We still plan a 3rd fall trip, but now that is our only real TBD at the moment. As of now, still thinking if we can swing it to squeeze Japan back in on a slightly more condensed plan (from a 13-14 day down to 10 give or take) we might do that... But also some other options if we need to cut it down shorter or just want something 'easier' to close out the year... Finland/Norway is on the radar, as is a England/Scotland combo... But this one is pretty fluid yet and probably subject to how the first two go.

Nice to hear you're coming to Europe - Japan is such a cool place though !

I'm off to Krakow this weekend but no coasters. Just wonderful beer !

It does look really amazing and everybody seems to love it unanimously, so I'm sure it will not disappoint when we get there. It's always so tough to pick where to go, but I guess a good problem to have.

Have you been to Krakow before? Have to let me know of any must do beer spots!

Na zdrowie!

SteveWoA:

which will include a day at Port Aventura.

Have you ever been to PortAventura World? Its a lovely park to visit. Make sure to try the food, my mom and I were impressed by the food at the park.

We have not, it will be our first visit to Spain all together. Good to note on the food! I find most European parks completely dominate the food options and quality compared to the US, so really not surprised there (except maybe the UK parks in our experience at least, so far). It's actually part of the fun to look forward to eating at parks for once, in which we avoid it like the plague over here usually.

We will be at the parks on their opening weekend, according to their calendars. Seems like crowds are super light historically and should be a good time to go. Worst case we buy the front of the line passes or whatever they call them if need be. Port Aventura is probably at the top of my "got to get to" parks at this point, so super excited to finally visit.

My plans since I have the Six Flags pass will probably center around.

Great Adventure, Dorney Park, Kings Dominion, Carowinds, Six Flags New England, Great Escape (maybe), Cedar Point, and Kings Island

Add ons on those trips could lead to stops at

Lake Compounce, Quassy, Funtown (Saco Maine), Kennywood, and Busch Gardens Williamsburg

Hersheypark could be a day trip also.

My recommendations for PortAventura/tips

-Fastlane isnt needed but will help (esp on Shambhala)

-uncharted has a seperate fastlane (worth the wait though)

-Ferrari Land usually opens later in the day verses the rest of the park, and is separate admission

-Red Force absolutely needs a fastlane if you're only there for a day. It has 3 car trains like Maverick but usually only runs one

-Do not skip the sesame street dark ride. Its pretty good and the Queue is well themed.

-The park does have a Standup Drop Tower. It usually has a long line though

-The park has signs in English, Spanish, and French.

-You can get subtitles on Uncharted and Sesame Street using bluetooth on the app. Set it up before you board the ride (although I understood the plot without them)

-The american west section has an Oscar Meyer Hotdog Stand. Just a funny note.

We will be in Australia this summer for family travel. My kid's band is playing at the Sydney Opera House. Looking into Warner Bros. Movie World and Luna Park among other non-coaster related things.

Alexander James:

-Red Force absolutely needs a fastlane if you're only there for a day. It has 3 car trains like Maverick but usually only runs one

Appreciate the tips! It does appear though that Ferrari Land will be closed the day we are there (opens in April according to their calendar), but I am not too bummed as Red Force isn't exactly something I have not done with before with Dragster, Kingda Ka, Stealth, Xcelerator, etc... And I'm not exactly a credit person (quality over quantity for me!)

On the bright side, if we love the park (and country) we will for sure go back and flights to/from Spain tend to be some the cheapest year-round from us to Europe.

I don't have any specific plans this year. I'm so cognitively loaded down from parenting and work that I just haven't thought about it, which is also the reason I need it. Was hoping to return to Europe, but I just don't know yet. Also considering New Zealand to meet a friend there, maybe.

Turns out my wife and I will be in Salt Lake City for Lagoon's opening weekend so we're gonna check that out before we drive to Park City for the ski portion of the trip.

So far for my 2025 year I will no longer be interning in Allentown (change of plans my side) and thus I might not go to Dorney/SFGAdv. However, I did windup at EPCOT and Funspot Kissimmee last weekend so that was fun. Still no plans for the season other than CP/KI opening days.

At this point I'm meant to be going to South Africa, and we'll see whether I can swing a few hours at Gold Reef City. Depends on whether my Peace Corps nephew is interested.

Other than that, I have the NSFW All-Parks pass, so Great Adventure (home park) and Dorney are definitely on the list, probably Kings Island (since the only roller coasters I got there two years ago were the Great Pumpkin and Woodstock), and hopefully a trip upstate to Great Escape, Seabreeze, and Darien Lake.

For 2025...the usual suspects...

Great Adventure, Sea Side (Casino Pier & Castaway Bay), Wildwood, Dorney...

Rye playland (if it opens)

Also...lots of local and not so local beaches...the local town and county pools.

Its kind of weird thinking about this stuff in early February in New York. But the calendar says summer will come and I hope it's right.