PKI - CP
CP - KW - SWWOA
SFKK - HB
SFMM - KBF
SFGA
MA - timberfest, here I come
The ring around Ohio may be the best coaster road trip. Others are the east coast run, Orlando and stops on the way, and of course California if you can afford the air fare.
With that said, the longest road trip I've taken is about twelve consecutive days. You'd be amazed at how good of a planner I have become. :)
Starting in 1998 I have taken a seven - nine day long East Coast trip. In that time I would visit at least one park everyday, sometimes two (who else can say they've ridden both SFDL *and* SFNE versions of SRoS in the same day! LOL). Doing that you can definitely hit more parks on your trip, while not sacrificing a lot of attractions (I doubled up on SFNE/LC as well).
My tastes in parks usually are for large, corporate theme parks in which I can utilize my season pass and get on a ton of coasters. So a road trip for me would usually consist of three SF parks, two Paramount Parks, two Cedar Fair parks, and a couple independent amusement parks. That way I get to sample a *ton* of different atmospheres, all in one trip.
About the issue of price...I don't know where you think you're going to get $18 hotel rooms, unless you have some sort of connections. Anyone who knows me knows I am great at finding the cheapest hotel deals around, and I have *never* gotten an $18 room. Lowest I can remember is $25 for a Townplace Suite room on PKI closing day 2001 (What a freakin' deal! Thank you Priceline!).
I think you could do a 14 - 16 day road trip and get in more coasters than you could imagine, at least 110 or so. If you purchase season passes to all the large chains (SF, Paramount, CF, etc) you can save some loot there, too. After about 2.5 weeks though, I would be ready to go back to work to save up for my next road trip...that's how I've done it for the past four years.
Either way you go, it's a long time from now and things can change. Hopefully I've helped you with something! Good luck and have fun.
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"Look for the big black sack of Mofuggin Nuts at your local grocery store". -- Radio ad in FL
SFGAMDie HARD said:
Hampton Inn all the way!
What happened to the $18 rooms? I can't remember the last Hampton I've stayed in for under $90.
If you want to stay relitively cheap, do one of the low-end chains - Super 8 or Motel 6. They both have on-line reservations now, so pre-planning is easy. I use a trip program, Orbitz and Travelocity. With a little bit of homework, you can easily plan a trip that will be easy to follow with no surprises.
And contrary to everyone else, I'd love to go out for a month! I've done a couple of 14 day trips, but 30 would be great! That'll have to wait a couple more years, though...
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Without the chaindog, you'd never get up the lifthill...
SFGAMDie HARD said:
Geez, I didn't think my month thing would be slaughtered so badly. Why does everybody have a problem with how I spend my money? I love adventure, and a road trip, McDonalds all the way, $18.00 motels bragging color tv is adventurous and would be a blast. And if I'm going to drive, I'm not going to go from Wisconsin, to NY, to NJ and then turn back and the next summer, drive back to NJ and go down to Georgia and drive back and then the third summer, go down to Florida and Louisiana and Texas and drive back! That would be insane! I'd never get tired out, the adrenaline rush would push me on!
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There isn't a problem that can't be solved.
Suicide is NOT a solution!
Send me an AOL instant message, my sn is unXplanibleSo, then why did you ask what we thought about it?
SFGAMDie HARD said:
has anybody else taken maybe a month road trip hitting a bunch of parks?
If its somethin you wanna do and ya think you can handle a month long trip I say go for it! Dont let these light weights talk you out of it :)~
Back in '76 we took a little road trip that lasted around 6 weeks, drove from the state of new jersey to the country of panama......roughly 6000 miles, and then 3 years later made the return trip. It was awesome!
Al
Over the past couple of years I've made trips to several parks in a period of a few days and could see doing a week or two *maximum* beyond that and you're just not going to be getting as much out of it. After a certain point your body becomes so used to coasters that the forces are harder to enjoy.
I'd highly recommend doing a swing like the others are suggesting. Travel around Ohio, go down the east coast, visit Texas or California, just don't try and do them all at once! IMO it's better to take several smaller trips throughout the summer so you can have the most fun possible without getting burned out or being dead broke for the rest of the riding season.
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* The Legend @ HW
* Superman: Ride of Steel @ SFNE
* Mondial Top Scan
Now lets cut this cost thing down here
First off Motels, you can't find $18 motels and if you do you wouldn't want to stay in them unless you want to get shot or worse. I would say about the cheapest you oculd get is 30 bucks, and then you are pushing it. that would be $900 bucks for motels alone. I would suggest perhaps getting a tent and camping out, would be a lot of fun and would be about $10 bucks a night. Would also make the next issue easier.
Food, an average meal at McD's would be about 5 bucks. Couple of them a day and we are looking at $300 bucks. Easy way to get around this, eat out of an icechest take a coleman stove all that good stuff, you could save a lot of money there. Also don't drink pop, that can get very expensive. Water is better for you and you can get it for free. Thats what I would go with. As for food in the parks don't buy it, take your ice chest to a picnic area and eat that way. Park food will break you.
The Parks, I would assume that to go to each park you would get a season pass when possible for the chains. SF, CF, and Paramount. Those three right there would be about $250. Then we have all the other small independant parks, you are looking at about 30 bucks each for them. You could easily spend 600 bucks on park admissions. Also souveniers at the pak say a T-Shirt from each which would be cool we are talking say $20 there. That would be another 300 bucks there.
Finally we get to Gas, I don't know what kind of car you have but we will say it is in good mechanical condition and gets good mileage say 30MPG. 3 years from now say gas is 1.40 a gallon. anyway i could see gas easily costing you a couple thousanad dollars for a month long trip.
So lets add this up
Motels- $900
Food- $400
Parks - $900
Gas- $1700
Misc- $300
Total- $4200
So it could be done but I would have at least 6000 bucks to be able to do it safely and incase something would happen etc. You could do some of the things I said to save money and that might bring your total down to 3500 or so but not much difference.
Anyway more power to ya if ya wanna try.
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Does CCI know how to make a bad coaster?
It could probably be done inside of a week, maybe 3-4 days, probably 5 tops.
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RCT hypercoaster crazy!
Glidein said:
Little A-Merrick-A (3 coasters).
Four coasters :)
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Off with the trims!
My fellow Americans; Let's Roll!
http://www.woodencoaster.com
Thankyou very much to the following people who answered the question, it made me more excited (anybody I missed? You know who you are, thanks!)
Jeff, Coastermanmike, Legendary, Chaindog, Memphomaniac, RCThempark36, and Magnum Force.
Now my real question, have you taken a semi-major coaster road trip, please share experiences, idea's, costs, etc. If you haven't and you have plans to, please explain.
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Milwaukee Wisconsin, we bring you beer, brats and cheese. But don't be fooled, "Milwaukee truly is a special secret getaway that I will be sure to tell my friends about!" Erin Brockevich, not to mention that we are an hour from SFGAm........
Talk about crazy
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Does CCI know how to make a bad coaster?
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