Sacreligious question about Holiday World

July 21st is my birthday. :) I will be 29. :(

My girlfriend and I did a very similar trip to this last summer. Only we took a bit more time. The trip ended early though because of a death in her family so we had to skip the Dells and an extra days at Great America and Indiana Beach.

You can read about the trip if you want.

I would advise hitting Holiday World at night as well. The coasters are soooo different at night. Worlds better. Seriously. The waits are a touch longer though. Also, I would recommend Indiana Beach over Kentucky Kingdom, the place is amazing.

wow that is rough and a lot of driving. I'll try to wing out a plan for you.

Thursday leave Pittsburgh very early in the AM to get to SFKK at opening, hit all the coasters once and Thunder Run a couple of times. Three hours should be enough to hit them all then you could possibly be at HW from 3PM til close. After leaving HW drive towards Chicago.

Friday, I would try to hit SFGAm knowing that SF generally gets very crowded on Saturdays. After the park closes drive towards The Dells.

Saturday you have the morning/afternoon at Mt O and an hour or two at night riding Avalanche. After leaving The Dells head back towards Chicago or even past Chicago.

Sunday morning try to get to MIA when it opens, you shouldn't have a need to be there more than 2 1/2 hours to get all the coasters in including a dozen rides on Shivering Timbers. Then head down to Indiana Beach for a nighttime wristband.

If you get a couple of hours in driving after IB you will have a couple more hours to drive to GL on Monday morning and could coaster whore GL and then head to CLP before returning to Pittsburgh Monday night. (Caveat - not sure is CLP is open on Mondays)

I'm tired just thinking about it, but you have to get to Indiana Beach. If you have to cut parks out, SFKK, MiA and GL will just have to be cut.

You will certainly be missing out on a lot of the positive changes they have finally made to the park if you cut SFKK.

You live in Pittsburgh right? You can totally skip GL and CP though since you are only 2 and 3 hours away from either.

Wow, that's nuts! Sounds fun though.

The only potential problems are the things you can't control...traffic and weather, or a combo of both. This could disrupt your plans so you may want to have a back-up, just in case.

I'll look forward to the TR. Good Luck!

My best friends and I just got done booking our trip starting June 2nd through the 10th. It cost us a pretty penny but here is how our vacation breaks down:

Friday, June 2

-Depart from Oakland, CA at 10:30 p.m.

Saturday, June 3

-Arrive in Louisville, KY at 11:15 a.m.

-Visit Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom (Park open 10 a.m. until 10 p.m.)

-Stay at my bros house in Louisville, KY

Sunday, June 4

-Depart from Louisville, KY to Kings Island, OH

-Travel Time: 2 hours and 20 minutes; 129 miles

-Visit Paramounts Kings Island (Park open 10 a.m. until 10 p.m.)

-Get lodging in Kings Island, OH

Monday, June 5

-Depart from Kings Island, OH to Sandusky, OH

-Travel Time: 3 hours and 59 minutes; 219 miles

-Visit Cedar Point Amusement Park (Park open 10 a.m. until 10 p.m.)

-Depart from Sandusky, OH at 9 p.m. to Gurnee, IL Stop mid-way for the night.

-Travel Time: 5 hours and 45 minutes; 335 miles

Tuesday, June 6

-Arrive in Gurnee, IL

-Visit Six Flags Great America (Park open 10 a.m. until 9 p.m.)

-Depart from Gurnee, IL to St. Louis, MO Stop mid-way for the night.

-Travel Time: 5 hours and 48 minutes; 354 miles

Wednesday, June 7

-Arrive in Eureka, MO

-Visit Six Flags St. Louis (Park open 10 a.m. 9 p.m.)

-Depart from Eureka, MO at 8 p.m. to Santa Claus, IN

-Travel Time: 3 hours and 42 minutes; 225 miles

-Arrive in Santa Claus, IN at Midnight check-in to Santas Lodge.

Thursday, June 8

-Visit Holiday World & Splashin Safari (Park open 10 a.m. 7 p.m.)

-Dinner at Schnitzelbank German Restaurant in Jasper, IL (Open until 10 p.m.)

Friday, June 9

-Visit Holiday World & Splashin Safari (Park open 10 a.m. 7 p.m.)

-Visit the Holiday Drive-In in Rockport, IN (Evening)

Saturday, June 10

-Depart Santa Claus, IN to Louisville, KY

-Travel Time: 1 hour and 25 minutes; 79 miles

-Visit Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom for a few last rides! Leave the Park at 4:30 p.m.

-Depart from Louisville, KY to Oakland, CA at 6:30 p.m.

We decided to take 2 days at Holiday World so we can relax from the massive amount of driving and really take in the park. Although our trip doesn't sound as nuts as yours does it should end up being a ton of fun without much sleep. More power to ya, and good luck! *** Edited 4/26/2006 6:50:46 AM UTC by TheM***

The "Real Fun" will be when you go through the Town that lies between Indiana Beach and Wisconsin Dells.

They always misspell the name of this little town! The Correct Spelling of this town is:

"C-H-I-C-( H-E-"Double Hockey Sticks" ) G-O"! :(

Good Luck!

You guys are killing me, I had forgotten about Indiana Beach! Hmm ... I kicked up a preliminary schedule, it just doesn't look possible, when you're overestimating mapquest drive times by only 15-30 minutes to include bathroom breaks and traffic contingencies, you're cutting it way too close. I think it'll have to be two trips, the "northern" tier and the "southern" tier. I get what a couple of are you are saying about taking time to take in the sights and all that, not being in a complete rush, but the initial idea was more like a beer sampler. I know most of what's coming is going to be good, but I want to get through the entire menu first, decide what I like best, then go back for more of that! I've done a couple of trips that way and it turned out to be a nice way to justify semi-expensive trips to parks without a lot of rides. Last year I did Seabreeze/SFDL/Waldameer in one day, had a good time, but ended my day with the knowledge that I wanted to go back to the Seabreeze area for an entire weekend and SFDL was a great park which I then went back to for an entire day later in the year. Just my approach to the whole enthusiast thing!

Thanks for all your suggestions though. I think I'm going to revise the itinerary and just do like HW, SFKK, IB, maybe toss in PKI and GL and make it a little lazier trip. Maybe later in the year I'll be able to squeeze out the Dells, SFGAm, MiA, CP leg too. I hereby heed your warnings about the HW/Dells leg! ;)

Great idea. Don't forget about Beech Bend now either. I keep trying to find a way to get there this year but can't seem to get my traveling partner motivated to drive the 12 hours.

TheM,
pretty good schedule. Sounds like a fun trip! 2 things though...

Don't forget about time zone changes. Even though you'll be hitting most of them at night, take them into account. When you drive from CP to SFGam you'll gain an hour, then lose it again on your way from HW to Louisville... and important one to remember, as you don't want to miss your flight!

Although adding Indiana Beach to this trip would be tough, you could add BB rather easily. If you do it on your last day instead of hitting SFKK, it would only add a couple hours of driving (since HW->BB is about the same drive as HW->SFKK... it's like a big triangle.) You wouldn't have a ton of time at BB, but enough to hit Rumbler. You could even stay in Bowling Green that night before to maximize your time.

If it were me I'd much rather do that than hit SFKK, although I do enjoy SFKK quite a bit.

Oh one more thing (there are THREE things...)
If you could POSSIBLY manage, I'd highly recommend getting to Gurnee the night you leave CP and staying by the park. You'll save yourself a TON of time by crossing Chicago at 2am as opposed to doing it at 8am. Although, I've hit traffic there at 2am as well, so...

Traffic in Gary, IN is terrible at anytime of the day. It seems like it is ALWAYS rushhour there so plan accordingly on way to/from CP through Chi-Town.