Coney Island or SFA?

I will be traveling to Maryland on May 19th. As my wife has no interest in riding coasters or going to amusement/theme parks other than Disneyland ,she does not want my passion for coasters and railroads to dominate this trip. I will probably have half a day to persue some coaster riding. In interests of keeping my marriage intact,what would your advise be for this coaster starved Oregon resident?

Thank you for your help. *** Edited 4/14/2004 5:00:11 PM UTC by Ronald S. Anderson***

Coney Island is only open weekends until Late June, so it looks like SFA.

More bad news, Ron: SFA isn't open on May 19th either. Neither is PKD and BGW.

Looks like you're out of luck ;-(

If your willing to go to Coney Island in NY why not try SFGADV or Hershey park and or Dorney. Good luck!

SFGAd and Hershey are open that day. Dorney and Knoebels are not. HP closes early though.

Hours on May 19th

SFGAdv: 10a-8p
Dorney: Closed
Hersheypark: Closed

wups, you're right, HP is closed.

I will in Maryland from the 19th through the 24,so I can probably make one of these parks on the weekend,so my question is which one would be the most worthwhile as I can only do one park .

Thank you:)

Well why didn't you say so in the first place, Ron? ;)

Given the choice between SFGAdv, SFA, BGW, PKD, Hersheypark, Dorney, and Coney I'd choose Knoebels, which is open the weekend you're back east.

Take Knoebels out of the equation and I'd choose in this order: Hershey, Dorney, Coney, BGW, PKD, SFA, SFGAdv.

A lot of good parks near me, it's a shame I can't drive yet. :(

*** Edited 4/14/2004 8:23:55 PM UTC by RCT_MASTER***

I didn't know Moosh was on Dorney's payroll...;)

I'd pick Hershey, but I could *never* fault someone for choosing to go to Knoebels....what awesome atmosphere (and two of the finest wooden coasters going)...:)

...but knowing Moosh, he's there for the Fascination...;)

Dang right, Gator!

Of the parks near there, my fav is PKD, but I would choose SFA. You don’t have all day, and it is closer with less drive time. If you get there at open, you can go straight to SROS and marathon that as much as you want. The line is short early and they don’t make you walk around if there are empty seats. Then you can go ride the woodies. Wild One has great air in the front, and both have good laterals. The rest of the park is really not worth your time, but that would still be a great coaster fix in half a day.

Go to Coney Island if you just have to ride the Cyclone. Otherwise, there isn't much there except hot dogs. Though you might be able to dump your wife next door at the aquarium while you ride.

Any of the parks mentioned above provide a better overall day at the park than Coney Island.

Looks like it is going to be SFA. Thanks for all your help.

"Go to Coney Island if you just have to ride the Cyclone. Otherwise, there isn't much there except hot dogs.'

Wow...I couldn't disagree more!

A trip to Coney isn't complete without riding the Wonder Wheel, the B&B Brass Ring Carousel, Spook-o-Rama [one of the last original Pretzel dark rides], and The El Dorado Bumpercars [aka the Disco Bumpercars, where you can "Bump, Bump, Bump your ass off!"].

And if you're a flat ride junkie I dare you to find better run flats than at Coney. In particular the Breakdancer, Top Spin 2, and Zipper are all manually operated and totally insane. And they allow single riders on the Zipper...the only in the US to do so.

IMHO, anyone going to Coney and settling for a ride on Cyclone and a Nathan'd dog is missing out on a lot of good stuff.

YMMV.

mOOSH

I was ready to post asking where the Coney love had disappeared to in this thread, then I got to Moosh's entry.

In addition to all of that, I just 'get off' on the idea of actually being at Coney Island. The atmosphere, the history - the mysterious intangibles. It's just a cool place. The very idea that it was once the mecca of those looking for a day at the park and thinking of how the grand structures of that day once stood there gets me giddy like a schoolgirl.

I personally would spend 4 or 5 hours at Coney before I spent a whole day at SFA (all other factors being equal).

Sometimes there's more to enjoying a park trip than "How many 'name' coasters do they have?"

I've only been to CI once during a park run down the coast. Like others here I figured it was only worth a short stop and we planned our itinerary accordingly. We ended up staying about twice as long as planned (skipping a few of the Jersey piers to compensate) and I still felt like we cut it too short.

Gonch - is it just me or have we had this exchange before? And I agree...there's just something intangible about being at Coney..it's truly magical.

mOOSH

We might have!

It gets to the point where it all feels the same sometimes.

Just had to chime in after so many people made Coney feel almost like an afterthought and maybe my love is artificially inflated a bit since I watched that special on the history of CI last week - but I still think its not to be so quickly dismissed as a trip that's "worth it"

Yeah, the Brooklyn charisma got ya'll hooked :) Take a trip to the Bedford Stuyvesant neighborhood also. Now that's a treat!!