Best Place in America to Live for a Coaster Enthusiast

Glad to see an Impractical Jokers reference. That was a brutal punishment.

I don't know if it is because Joe left the show or if they simply have run out of ideas, but I have given up on the show.

Orlando would be pretty ideal for sure.

Someplace like Louisville or Indianapolis would be good. Where you could drive to several parks and cities within a day drive like Sandusky, Cinci, St Louis, Pigeon Forge…and even Branson and KC.

Or SoCal with Disney, Knots and Six Flags.

From Indy:

• Kings Island: 2 hrs
• Kentucky Kingdom: 2 hrs
• Indiana Beach: no thanks
• Holiday World: 3 hrs
• SF Great America: 3.5 hrs
• SF St. Louis: 4 hrs
• Cedar Point: 4.5 hrs

So nothing in our backyard so to speak, but a lot of nice options within half a day’s drive.

Orlando is great if you like our parks, but the big thing to remember is our parks are different (and expensive!)

Yeah, we have Velocicoaster, Mako and Guardians. But in terms of quantity and variety, if you are looking specifically at coasters, we actually fall shorter than a state like Ohio or PA.

If you are a theme park/attraction enthusiast, yes, we are the place to be. But if you are strictly a coaster enthusiast looking for lots of big and intense coasters Orlando can actually be a letdown.

It's interesting that the qualifiers come up, because as I mentioned to someone the other day, trying to see a lot of coasters got old to me a long time ago. They're not generally different enough for me to justify all of the travel.

Yeah, if you're not in it for track record padding then I completely agree, especially in regards to all the SF parks. I do think that CP, KI and HW have a decent amount of destination coasters. That's what drove my wife and to venture farther away from home in our younger days: the draw of a big, new, unique coaster--Kings Dominion for I305 (a bit of a letdown) and SFGAdv for El Toro (definitely not a letdown). But in terms of overall experience, I'd much rather spend a week at Universal.

Vater:

Touchdown:

Cater read the thread title again

I will not vater to your stipulations.

Hmm...you edited.

Touchdown:

Vader read the thread title again

I am altering the deal, pray I don't alter it any further.

Can't Read... Can't Spell... did you go to Can't State?

Don't drink Don't smoke What do you do

BrettV:

Yeah, we have Velocicoaster, Mako and Guardians. But in terms of quantity and variety, if you are looking specifically at coasters, we actually fall shorter than a state like Ohio or PA.

I think that when you include Busch Gardens (and the Fun Spots) that changes quite a bit. I agree that the Ohio/ Pennsylvania region is amazing for coasters but to get anywhere requires a significantly longer drive than Orlando -> Tampa. Kings Island -> Cedar Point = 3.5 hours. Kings Island -> Holiday World = 3 hours. Kennywood -> Cedar Point = 3 hours. Kennywood -> Hersheypark = 3.5 hours.

Eastern Pennsylvania has Hershey, Dorney, Knoebels and even SFGAdv within a day trip from one another. Kings Dominion and Busch Gardens an overnight trip away. But you still have the winters...

Bakeman31092:

Indiana Beach: no thanks

Why the hate? Two decent woodies, plus whatever LoCoSuMo is, a Schwarzkopf, and soon a Schwarzkopf looper. (Plus a Galaxi, if that's your thing.)

Bakeman31092:

Yeah, if you're not in it for track record padding then I completely agree, especially in regards to all the SF parks. I do think that CP, KI and HW have a decent amount of destination coasters...But in terms of overall experience, I'd much rather spend a week at Universal.

In my younger days we generally planned trips around regional theme parks. But now we pick locations for cultural significance and experiences. If there happens to be an amusement park in the area we may hit that up. With that being said I will be credit whoring it up this summer. But that's probably the last time.

Contributing to the topic on hand, we are planning on snow birding in the Orlando area while still maintaining a home in the Chicago area for the spring, summer, and fall. We had considered Juneau for the summer months but that's going to be too far away from our progeny.

I was half-joking about IB. I haven’t been since I was a little kid, and from what I’ve read in recent years, sounds like it’s become kind of dumpy, to say nothing of the ownership issues. But hey, not going to rule it out forever.

It has been a few years since I was there, before at least one and maybe more ownership changes. Definitely had a nostalgic feel (could also be interpreted as: hadn't kept up with the times). But I'm hopeful it's on the upswing.

(I also forgot to mention the other looping coaster that was in the middle of the parking lot.)

I think of myself as an enthusiast, but at the low end 2-3 out of 10. Local parks kind of thing. So I met this guy who was riding a coaster with me. His age and being alone set my spider senses that he was an enthusiast. So after the ride, the wooden coaster ROAR, he was complaining about how it killed his back. I mentioned I wasn't a big fan, but never ride this coaster other than the front seat! (He was right in back of me in the second row of the first car.) He then pulled out his phone to log his ride (another dead give away of an enthusiast). He was using Coaster Count and said he was on a US tour of parks. He could speak English, but with a distinct European accent. He wanted to ride "Mind Eraser" next, but I told him that park section was closed. He said he was on vacation and on a US Theme Park excursion. He was upset because Pantheon was not open at Busch Gardens, I305 was not open at Kings Dominion, and Superman was not open at Six Flags. He showed me his app "Coaster Count", to track his rides and this was his 855th different coaster that he has rode at 135 different parks! I nearly Sh!t my pants. Is this normal in the enthusiast community or did I just spot a purple, orange and white squirrel?

That ain’t me either, I’m in between you too. I travel the country but I haven’t totaled my ride count in decades. At this point I mainly go to parks I really enjoy. I also am way past the point of only caring about coasters, I go to Dollywood at Christmas and spend 3/4 of my day in shows. I enjoy going to Disney parks, theme parks are an escape, not a coaster riding marathon (not that I don’t do that a few times a year when the lines are right but it’s not my goal usually.)

Before kids I was probably a 6 or 7 but definitely a 3 or 4 now. Coasterbuzz and Screamscape are the only coaster sites I regularly visit anymore. While I do enjoy riding new-to-me coasters I'm cool with riding 5 rides in a visit, with the exception of Disney. There it's game on. Other than Disney the best time I've had at an amusement park was at BGW during their Food and Wine Festival. I think we only got on 3 rides that day.

885 is a serious obsession. I've stopped judging people. That guy found something in life that they love. Good for them. I have 228 on my track record at age 46. I doubt I will get over 300 in my lifetime but I'd love to tour Europe and Japan hitting all of the parks along the way.

I recommend CoasterBuzz as an easy place to keep track of your ride count. It’s pretty accurate and all rides past and present at each park are listed. And you can submit rides that you identify as missing. There’s also a place to rank the park and the rides if you’re into that.
One day I took the time to go down the list and check off rides I’ve been on. When I was done I was shocked at my total, it seems like I’ve lived a good life. Now, whenever I hit a new ride I immediately look it up here and tally it.

Same!

I'd say it's pretty hard to beat Cincinnati. It's a little further from CP than Columbus is, but that much closer to HW and DW. Nice central location, reasonable drive to to IB and SFGA. And unlike Harrisburg , Indy and Columbus, we have a convenient home park in KI with pretty reasonable pass/perk pricing and a great selection of rides. Seasonality is definitely a drawback, but they do run weekends til November, and Winterfest even had a coaster open. Jan-Mar are good for Orlando roadtrips.

Note: am biased, live in Cincinnati.