A tough East vacation choice

Just wanted to add that BGE is 5.5-6 hours away not longer, I live in DC and HP is 2 hrs 45 mins away and BGE is 2 hrs 15 mins away with no traffic.

Sorry, Touchdown. I never drove it from Hershey. From my front door, it is 5 to 5.5 hours... I just added an extra hour to account for the 40 - 60 min it takes me to get to Hershey (which is in the opposite directions). So that might make Dollywood 11 hrs, not 12, from Hershey. Still... 11 or 12... it's still the better part of a day to drive there.

I would recommend never setting foot in a Six Flags park. After our experience there in June, we will never return.

Busch Gardens is absolutely fabulous...I would highly recommend that goes up to your number one choice.

Skip the Vekoma Flyer...that will be the biggest waste of time youve ever had.

BGE...especially considering the people you have in every age group, is the perfect fit. *** Edited 7/12/2006 2:44:59 PM UTC by OhioStater***

To counter OhioStater...

I am more eager to give Six Flags parks a second chance now after years of sheer hatred and disgust toward them. Why? Because in visits to three different Six Flags parks this year (SFA, SFKK, SFStL), I have found them to be comparable (and in some minor details even better) than the other parks visited this year... including Hersheypark, Knoebels, PKI, Beech Bend and even (better sit down for this one) Holiday World (gasp!).

---

Touchdown said:
I live in DC and HP is 2 hrs 45 mins away and BGE is 2 hrs 15 mins away with no traffic.

---

You must drive slow (or not live *in* DC). When I lived in Anacostia, I could get from HP's parking lot to my front door in 2hrs 10minutes =/- 5min, routinely.

But you can ask I-fan about my driving ;)...

^Im on the other side of the river (Crystal City) so I have the bridge, 395/295 and Penn Ave to deal with too. And as for my driving, my general rule is I go the speed that will keep me in the middle lane most of the time, usually that means 5-10 mph over the speed limit but sometimes it is larger. A speeding ticket is just way too costly (insurance wise) in my age bracket.

^^I should add that was when I was in my "Roaring 20's" and, quite frankly, didnt care about tickets. I typically now set the cruise control 10mph over and dont think about it. I've always said that one day I'm going to drive the speed limit the entire day....but I have no desire to get run over by the flow of traffic.

As an aside, it's always been a pet peeve of mine when people say they are from a city but dont live in the city they are claiming. I understand that it's a 'shothand' way of giving information, but it still bothers me. I lived *in* Chicago and *in* DC and now that I live in Springfield, I just say I live in NoVA or "The DC Metro Area".

Like I said, it's just a pet peeve...

^If I lived in Fairfax or Alexandria I wouldnt say I live in DC but when Im one block from the Pentagon and 2 blocks from the river and can look out my window and see the monuments, I consider myself "living in DC."

---

Because in visits to three different Six Flags parks this year (SFA, SFKK, SFStL), I have found them to be comparable (and in some minor details even better) than the other parks visited this year

---

Unfortunately we went to SFGA. I admit, Cedar Point has me spoiled, but I have never been to a more disorganized amusement park in my life, and our experience there was bad enough to turn us off from ever visiting another park from SF...at least for the forseeable future. Their job is make a guest want to come back, and that park gets a huge "F". Unfortunately, we liked several of the rides...the problems were all, 100%, managerial-type problems that lead to a nightmare of a trip. I wish the new CEO all the luck in the world with that one, and if he can turn the ship around, he deserves all the respect in the world.

^ SFGA? Great America, Gurnee, IL? Great Adventure, Jackson, NJ?

Just curious, 'cause the Chicago-area park almost always gets great reviews....and in my limited experience, they've been DESERVED.

The NJ park, OTOH, gets majorly mixed reviews, more bad than good for the most part, and I can CERTAINLY believe that that's the park you're referring to...

Austin,

Good luck with your trip. I have the opposite scheduling problem -- my wife get's her schedule 1-2 weeks in advance.

BGE impresses visitors well beyond the coaster enthusiasts. Good service, good theming, good food, excellent shows and free beer -- how can you go wrong? The area boasts a huge assortment of hotels and resorts, not to mention the one-of-a-kind Colonial Williamsburg.

SFA - Based on my visits to SF parks this season, the chain as a whole has not yet achieved a level of service where your entire family can be assured of a positive experience.

Dollywood - It has a solid reputation, but I have never visited this region of the Appalachian Mountains, let alone Dolly Parton's country-and-western themed park. It sounds like a fun place, but I might need earplugs. ;)

As for your coaster wish list, you may want to lower your expectations. BBW and AC were good coasters, but IMO, they were inferrior to BGE's highly themed attractions (such as Alpengeist and Escape from Pompeii). Vekoma Flyers are good (I've ridden X-flight), but not worth taking your family into a park with unproven guest service.
*** Edited 7/12/2006 7:23:16 PM UTC by greatwhitenorth***

I thought I might need earplugs for DW as well. Turned out OK, more "folk" than country. ;)

---

Intamin Fan said:
I think you've already made your mind up so why did you start a topic asking for advice?

---

Well, I hadn't made the choice when I posted the topic. After the bad experience my family had at Paramount's Great America this year, they refuse to visit PKD. So it's either SFA or BGE, and after hearing no negative comments about BGE and multiple negative comments about SFA, my choice is made.

---

Austin the Ninja said:
After the bad experience my family had at Paramount's Great America this year, they refuse to visit PKD.

---

That's kind of a shame, because even INSIDE the Paramount family, there is a sense of recognition that "somethin' ain't right" with that park in NorCal. It's not JUST enthusiasts that seem to know it...

Rollergator, it was the NJ park I was talking about. Ill do a trip report when I get around to it, but wow...from before we got into the park...literally...at parking...to the moment we left, there was another problem that left us, more than anything else, scratching our heads in disbelief.

I would actually be curious for anyone out there who has Great Adventure as their home park to hear their opinion. I guess it is a bit extreme for me to say "Six Flags"...like a blanket statement...but let me use Cedar Fair as an example, if I may. Cedar Point is, while certainly not without its flaws (and recent decline in several areas), a very well run park, and my wife and I have never left the park "mad" about an experience there. We have been to both Geauga Lake and Dorney Park, and, quite frankly, both "felt" like Cedar Point. Similar staff treatment, food stands, etc...Cedar Fair does a good job, IMO, with consistency in their parks. Busch Gardens Williamsburg was equal, IMO, to Cedar Fair...excellent guest service.

Now consider SFGA. We have never been to a Six Flags before, so here a company had a chance to make an impression on two people who love theme parks and was going to, supposedly, their "flagship".

They blew it. Big time. So, while I do not want to generalize, just hearing the words "Six Flags" makes me roll my eyes and remember our nightmare trip.

Want to know how we felt? Watch Vacation, and consider how Clark felt when he got to Wally World.

Ohiostater points out one of the problems when you go to any park or business that has a corporate name; you have one bad experience and you assume that every other park/business must be the same. For example, I don't know what kind of problems you had at Paramount's Great America. You never elaborated. Paramount has the same problems that Six Flags does on a much smaller scale.

You've got different parks owned by different companies who then fell under the Paramount name. For instance, King's Dominion and King's Island were owned by different companies than Great America, which was a Marriott property. So you're family is basing their experience on a California park, when they might love the Doswell, Va/Mason, OH properties, as well as, the park in North/South Carolina.

So the same thing applies to Six Flags. You go to Great Adventure and you think all the parks must be exactly the same, just because they're called Six Flags. There are excellent Six Flags properties such as SFGAm, SFOT, SFFT, and SFNE. Great Adventure is not my homepark, but it's my slightly close-to-home homepark next to SFA. I've had good days and I've had some pretty bad days at Gadv. One of the bad things that happens unfortunately is that you may never visit one of the better run parks above because you didn't like Gadv. And you're right to blame your anger at Six Flags corporate. But hopefully, one day you will visit SFGAm and realize what the model for a Six Flags park should be. Heck, I came out of there a month ago saying I didn't want to leave because it didn't feel like a Six Flags property!

Okay, I understand about the Paramount Parks ownership. I did before. Any enthusiast does. I didn't say I refused to go, I said my family did.

^^ re: I-Fan

While that may be true, there's no reason to go to a Brand X park instead of a Brand Y, when you've had crappy experiences at Brand X parks and good experiences at Brand Y. Yes, you might have a good time at Brand X, but you're pretty much assured a good time at Brand Y.

I had GAdv. as my home park for about three years. It was definitely a hit or miss. Some of the things were run quite well most of the time (Nitro, for instance), some of the things were run quite poorly most of the time (Kingda Ka) and overall a LOT of stuff was hit or miss (different policies and enforcement thereof, ride op enthusiasm/efficiency, Chiller).

I can totally understand how a person would have a miserable day at GAdv. There was one night during fright fest where it took me 45 minutes to get into the parking lot, I parked in the grass for the Hurricane Harbor lot and the only thing I did in the park was wait 45 minutes to play one game of DDR before taking another hr. to get out of the parking lot. Living 30 minutes away, I wasn't too too pissed, but if that were my one trip of the season, I would've been seething.

Then again, there've also been days when the ops have been friendly, helpful, and efficient and the ride lines were short.

---

ApolloAndy said:Then again, there've also been days when the ops have been friendly, helpful, and efficient and the ride lines were short.

---

Are you SURE you were at GAdv? ;)

Kidding! :)