how do you all park so much

I got to visit many of the parks "under my belt" growing up, going on family vacations. Pre-college trips also included short trips with school clubs, and once or twice with a youth group (love Jesus or not- it got me a couple of cheap park trips).I grew up in Tulsa, OK so SFoT, SFFT, SFStL, SDC, Frontier City, Bells, and others were a quick jaunt from home.
I went to University of Kansas for school, and was able to drive to many parks from there. Many were too far, oh my poor Honda! My freshman year I was dying to finally make it to CP so I got a buddy of mine from high school to plan a trip for us and our dads. The dad's loved the idea of a father/son trip, and we got a trip to CP (and priceless time w/ our dads).
I also use the method described by the now college students whom have posted. Going to a huge school people come from everywhere in the US. I still have couches all over the world I can sleep on because of my time in college.
By using savvy travel tips, such as those in the "pinned" thread, in combination with saving well should get you very far, if you're over 18.

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Mamoosh said:
Hey Nasai...need a sugar daddy?

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Sure! I love candy!

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how do you all park so much

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Well, first I ask her out, and then... oh wait...

You mean amusement park...

Oops!

Turbo - Since you live in Florida, it's a lot harder for you to drive to parks for a weekend trip. Plus there is not a large variety of rides in FL, especially with airtime. Your only choices are: a) rack up tons of credit card debt and frequent flyer miles, b) transfer to a different school, or c) stick it out, knowing that one day you will get out of FL.

As a UCF student, I chose option C above. Since graduating, I have moved to Atlanta where there is more than just an existant job market - there are many parks within a day's drive and MUCH better coasters to choose from! Good luck with school.

We have a class, "The Amusement Park in American Society." As part of the class we travel to 12 parks a year. Being a school group, we get student rates on admissions, lodging, etc., and sometimes get early admission or walkbacks or other perks. of course, we do more than ride roller coasters. We also ride everything else, and we study the engineering behind every ride, the history and economics and design of parks through the 20th Century. There are essays and research papers. We build working models. And we try to schedule talks with engineers, designers and park executives.

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jimmybob said:

Well, first I ask her out, and then... oh wait...

You mean amusement park...

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I'm surprised it took that long for someone to make that joke.

"Park" used as a verb means something totally different to me too :)

I hit twelve parks in 2002. Here's how: Take one business trip and travel an hour-and-a-half to Carowinds the following day. Use the company truck loaded with sound gear. The boss won't mind:) Hit SFA with season pass many times. Next take the Coaster Zombies tour of Texas. Rack up four more parks (SFAW, SFOT, SFFT, and SWT). Make a small trip to PKD using PC pass. Get fired from job and take another tour with a friend. Rack up another four more parks (SFKK, HW, PKI, and KW). Lastly, hit SFGAdv. for Frighfest, using SFA pass.

The key is to a) have flexible hours b) vacation time and c) lots of money

Sadly, I only have choice a) out of the list at this time. I've been to PKD, and will probably only hit HP and KW, with a possible return to PKD once the waterpark opens up. Going to parks is just too damn expensive.

We have a 22 ft travel trailer and we camp a lot. I also am self-employed and can take many long weekends. Season passes come in handy also to make those weekends and a loving and understanding wife that also likes coasters(not as much as me though).

Olsor's park-hopping tips:

• Live near a park. I grew up 30 minutes from SFGAm, and now I live 20 minutes from SFFT and Sea World.
• Move to Texas. Four major parks in three cities under 200 miles apart. We would also accept OH, PA, FL and CA.
• Mislead friends and loved ones into traveling to certain destinations that are, coincidentally, home to amusement parks. My fiancee loves historical sites... like Williamsburg, Philadelphia and Boston. Check, check, and check.
• Being unemployed for 14 months doesn't hurt.

Normally I take a 9 day trip each year but this year I am going on a 11 day trip because I am going on a New England trip (CP,Astroland,Great Escape, La Ronde,Funtown,Canobie Lake,SFNE,Lake Compouce,Playland,Morey's Piers,SFGAdv,DP,HersheyPark,GL,CP again,SFGAmer).I get time from work in june not calling in sick or taking time off rest of the year.

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coasterqueenTRN said:
Being in WV I am within 3 1/2-5+ hours to a ton of parks, with PKI or Kennywood being the closest.

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Woah woah woah, there tina, lets get it straight about this WV thing(since I'm the only other nut on here from West By God Virginia).

Being in a Populated Part of WV with access to Interstate roads.

I, on the other hand, live in Souther WV, where men are men, and sheep are scared, and live no closer than 4(sometimes 5 depending) hrs to any decent park. Unfortunately, I never get to Camden.

But I will this year, if only to bug Tina;). Well, Camden and Beast Buzz.

Yes, going to parks depends heavily on how close you live to a highway. When in Fairmont(North Central WV), I was about an hour to Kennywood. And no, the state isn't that large, but the hills, curvey, mountainside roads, rednecks, and mullets make it hard to get around.

Speak for yourself Clint, ;-)

Maybe those sheep are scared because you keep chasing them. LOL!

-Tina

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Mamoosh said:
I thought he was hotter than Cam D?

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*Blushing!*

Tina -

I thought that photoshop was going to be for our eyes only! I am glad you changed your mind;)

-Jim (firing up p'shop as we speak...)

Enthusisast are certainly a different type of people.

My wife Heatherw pretty much covered it. We go away to parks every other weekend during the in season, and we go to our home parks more frequently. Closest Park is Hersheypark. 7 minutes from home. Williams Grove 30 minutes. Dorney 1 hour away. Knoebels, and SFA within 1.5 hours are also considered home parks. SFGadv & PKD are 2.5 - 3 hrs away. We have season passes for all of those parks except Williams Grove because they don't offer them.

We signed up for Choice Privilages rewards programs through the www.choicehotels.com website. We stay at a lot of Comfort inns, Sleep Inns, Clarion Inns, and when really on the budget Econolodges(They don't count towards the members choice rewards program.) Alot of the time they offer stay 2 nights get 1 free. Right now we have 3 free nights.

I also belong to www.goldpoints.com and have 3 free days at any Radisson or Town & Country Suites. These programs really come in handy when being a frequent traveler. Alot of the time that we go on trips the only thing that we have to worry about paying for is parking, food, and gas because everything is covered by season passes & one of th hotel clubs.

I also have a flexibible schedule. I am a dispatcher for a trucking, and work a 3 or 4 day a week schedule. The week we travel is my 3 day week. So I work Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday nights 8pm - 8 am, and have Wednesday to Sunday night off. This is the 1st season that I've had this schedule. The other trucking company I worked for was Monday through Friday daylight hours. This is working much better.

The only bad part is that Heather works for Hershey Medical Center, and still has the mon- fri daylight schedule. She just plans extra long weekends so that we can go away.

Of course we do have 2 weeks of vacation. With my new schedule using a weeks vacation actually gets me almost 2 weeks off. It should work out well for coaster trips. We are planning a big midwest coaster trip. PKI, SFGam, IB, HW, SFKK, MiA, and maybe several others. It depends on our schedule.

For my lovely wife and I it usually works like this:

1. Six Flags season passes. So that takes care of our home park, SFGAm and the occasional trip to SFStL, and until now, SFWoA.

2. Weekend trips to PKI, Holiday World, Cedar Point, and Michigan's Adventure using Priceline (or similar) to save a lot on rooms. And, of course, we drive saving a few bucks.

3. Indiana Beach as a stop over on the way back from PKI and sometimes HW. We have never stayed overnight at IB as we can do the park in a couple of hours or less.

4. ACE membership which saves money at PKI, HW, and IB. The annual membership more than pays for itself at PKI alone. Getting in for 1/2 price is great.

As a note, we used to get season passes to PKI but have cut back to a couple of trips a year due to job issues; so, the ACE membership negates the need for PKI passes. We used to go there about 4-5 times in a season and needed the passes but no more.

Well, always keeping an eye on travel bargins helps.
Working as a Hospital Equipment Tech, helps, alot of weeks for me involve eveings or weekends in the OR, that are made up for with a Friday or monday off the previous or following weekend, so i get lots of three and 4 day weekends along with alot of no day weekeds too.
Also every one of my work related trips seems to get me to places that have a three or four day school, then the Travel days and weekend are mine! I infact just last month turned in lunch and dinner receipts with Disneyland and Mrs. Knotts on them, I had a convineient 24 hr layover in LA on the way back from Atlanta, (it was actually cheaper to fly Atlanta-Indy via LAX than direct or thru chicago that week)! *** Edited 5/7/2004 2:24:50 PM UTC by kneemeister***

Double edge swords those jobs...

Not having a job would allow you greater free time to visit parks...

BUT...

Unless you are independently wealthy or have one heck of a trust fund, gotta have a job to be able to pay for the park visits.

My job is very INflexible, HOWEVER: I use every minute of vacation time to ride coasters! Forget Easter, Thanksgiving & Christmas - the family gets over it. (I usually work Thanksgiving friday.) I also work harder at getting to parks/coasters than at my job! (Work hard, play HARDER.) Some examples - I did 96 coasters on the west coast within 2 weeks - 3800 miles on a rental car. I've done over 100 coasters in 2.5 weeks while putting 5700 miles on my personal car! My longest "day trip" (I cheated, left home at 3am - got home the next 2am!) is 960 miles! I've also done 7 or 8 parks in a regular weekend. You get the idea - plenty of time to sleep after I'm dead!

On the ACE 2002 European trip - most complained of the "hectic" pace - it seemed "leisurely" to me compared to what I usually put myself through!

"I've also done 7 or 8 parks in a regular weekend."

Wow, Fubar... that name surely fits. That weekend would be "<censored> up beyond all reason".