Six Flags St. Louis - Holiday World?

I am planning a Massive Trip in the next year or 2 that will include 11-13 Parks. To cut down on days,hotels, and some gas I was thinking about combining a couple parks. I want to go from Six Flags St. Louis to Holiday World but then stay in Louisville that night and go to Kentucky Kingdom the next day.

I know Holiday World and Kentucky Kingdom are alot closer then HW and SFstl but I have been to SFstl before and feel I could navigate it a bit faster knowing my way around some. It's about 3hrs 30min from St. Louis to HW.

If I got to SF at 9:30am half hour before they open would that give me enough time to process our season passes by 10 and then get thru the park and still have plenty of time at Holiday World?

Or should I stay at Santas Lodge the night of SFstl and go to Holiday World the next morning SFkk that evening and stay at a hotel near PKI my next stop on that trip?

SFSL processes Season Passes inside the park across from Xcalibur. I did this in 2005 and it only took me five minutes to process (bought my pass online). I guess it depends on what time of year you're going. If you're just trying to hit mainly the coasters, then on an uncrowded day I guess you could get through SFSL, but I don't think you would have "plenty of time" is for Holiday World.

I've personally never been to Kentucky Kingdom, but if I were you, I would count on spending the most time at Holiday World. It is, in my opinion, a much better "all day" park than SFSTL or what I've heard of SFKK (never been there, so take that with a grain of salt). Build your trip around where you want to spend the most time.

If I spend 4 - 5 hours in SFSTL, I'm ready to go. (waiting for the coasters is soooo miserable here). The pavement is hot. The drinks are highly priced.

I could spend 10 hours in Holiday World, easy. Everyone is friendly. The food is cheap. The drinks are free. The flat rides are fun, sorta half-way between state fair and major amusement park quality. The coasters, of course, are on a completely different level. Holiday World is to wooden coasters what Cedar Point is to steel. Definitely not a one-trick pony. In addition, the water park is world class, and they keep the lines moving in all sections of the park. Put simply, I love this park! When I was there in May, I saw the owner of the park at least 10 times throughout the day. You get the sense they have higher standards here, and their involvement in the day to day operations of this park is evident.

The drive between the two is very reasonable, as well. The problem with Holiday World is the lack of hotel options. There are a few hotels out by the highway, but they jack up the rates pretty high in the summer. SFSTL doesn't have that many more options (it is in a more 'remote' corner of St. Louis County), but Eureka is very close and probably has 5 -10 hotel / motels. Some are good, some are bad.

When I stayed at Holiday World, I stayed in Evansville and just got up 30 minutes early. It worked out pretty well, and I got to stay at a quality hotel for a reasonable price.

Anyway, hope that helps.

Do SF St Louis, go to the Arch, drive the evening and stay near HW. Do HW bright and early til about 4:00 head to SFKK... you'll lose 1 hour with the time change and 1 hour driving, so you'll get there by 6:00
Stay North of Louisville, hit Coney Island, Strickers Grove and Kings Island in the next couple days.

Where to from there? Wyandot will most likely be closed next year, so you can go East to Penn or North to CP, MKP & GL or North East to Erie, Conneaut or Tuscora Park

Cut one SF park and spend an entire day at HW. Anything less and you are credit-whoring, not vactioning.

Kentucky Kingdom generally gets bad marks but it shouldn't be overlooked for a few reasons. Thunder Run is easily the class of the park, but you may need to ride a few times in different cars to find the sweet spot for the time and temperature. Greezed Lightnin' is a Schwarzkopf - need I say more? Hellevator has a good reputation with lovers of drop rides because the brakes are so close to the ground. If you're lucky, a plane will land at the airport next door while you're on top of the ferris wheel. Looking down at an airplane in flight is a unique experience.

How about this scenario: Do the morning stop at SFStL. Drive over to the HW area in the afternoon, book a hotel room, then go to the park and buy a two-day ticket. Hit the park that evening and again the next morning to get in the rides you missed the night before, and to experience the coasters at different times of day. Take the hour drive (two hours of clock time) to SFKK in the afternoon, ride the coasters and whatever else you have time for, and start heading towards PKI. A word of warning, though, hotels are scarce between Louisville and Cincinnati, so you might not find a hotel until you get to Northern Kentucky. On the plus side it means a shorter drive to PKI the next morning.

Heres some questions that should be answered:

Are you going alone?

Which exact parks do you hope to hit?

Which Parks have you nver gone to?

Are you looking to rack up coaster credits or actually enjoy the parks in their entirety?

Are you driving the entire trip? If so, where is your starting point?

Have you considered Flying from One Airport...renting a car...driving partially acrossed the country... returning the car to a different office...and flying back home from that airport

My wife, My Nephew, and myself for sure.

The only parks on this trip I have been to are Worlds of Fun, SFstl, and Adventureland.

Holiday World and Cedar Point are the only for sures. Though Indiana Beach is looking more and more for sure.

Actually Enjoying the Parks number one priority on this Trip since my wife don't ride Roller Coasters If thats all we do she will be bored. (She'll give most rides and coasters that don't go upside down a chance.) Plus I'm not to the Credit Whore type Stats quite yet.

This Trip we are starting at Omaha, Nebraska and the parks basically make a giant circle. With longest time for the next destination is 6 hrs. (SFgam to Valley Fair) Most brives being arounf the 3-4hr mark which helps because my wife's stomach gets out of whack if she sits in a car to long.

Flying to KC is more expensive then driving their.

We got a Hotel in Louisville we can get my wifes discount at she works for Marriott. So we had planned on, no matter what going straight from St. Louis to Holiday World as we can just drive from there to Louisville hotel and go SFKK the next day. Just seemed easier and cut down on number of hotels we have to stay at.

I am interested in those smaller parks if they aren't to far out of the way or if they are out of the way but worth it. You got any info on those John?

Thanks everyone for the help this is truly cool. *** Edited 9/10/2006 3:55:19 PM UTC by TonyBlackjack***

If you can get to IB...you will NOT regret it. I make it a point to try and get there every year - only missed one year since my first visit.

Spend WAY more time at HW than SFKK. Trust me, these are my homeparks. I'd have to agree with the 2 day tickets idea for Holiday World, for it is an awsome park. SFKK doesn't have much besides coasters, there are practicaly NO flats across the bridge except for the ferris wheel, but that's where Chang, Thunder Run, Twisted Twins, and T2 are. Avoid riding T2 in front seat, YOU WILL REGRET IT! Have a great time and enjoy yourself!

If you are not big on water parks, HW can be done in a day, but you should take a full day there. IB is a good park for a part day if you want to save some time by traveling one day that you go to a park. I suggest the full evening session.

As for the longest part of your trip being SF:GAm to VF, you're missing two of the best woodies in the world along the way...one of which can actually be seen from the highway if you turn your head at the right time. Stop at Mt Olympus and Timber Falls on your way for Hades, Avalanche, Cyclops and Zeus. It would be a sin to drive by those coasters and not stop...especially to try to get to VF. Again, those parks don't need a full day. An evening ride wrist band at Timber Falls is fine and you can decided between wrist bands or ride tickets at Mt Olympus (assuming they still sell tickets). Those parks are less than a mile apart and you can do both in less than a day if needed.

If you're not doing Spashin' Safari, then HW can be done in a matter of hours. You can literally conquer the whole park in two or three hours and be out of there. There's nothing flat ride wise that you can't find at most other parks.

Take my word, You WANT to spend AT LEAST TWO days at HW.

:):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):)

I totally agree with BorntoCoast. Holiday World is an experience like no other. It deserves more than a few hours. It is what a theme park should be. Unlike Six Flags, Holiday World sticks to what they know and avoids catering to this or that demographic. They like the idea of entertaining families, which I LOVE.

Gobbler get-a-way is cool. The other flat rides are, well, run of the mill, but the wait for them is nothing. I mean, you can walk right on (except Paul Revere, for some reason...very slow).

Water park or no water park, you can ride the 3 coasters over and over again and have a different experience every time. Try riding Voyage at 10 am. Different experience all together from Voyage at 5pm. That thing gets wicked.

As much as I sing their praises, you might think I work for them.

Whatever you do, spend a whole day at Holiday World. At the very least go in the evening, hopefully on a day you can get night rides.

HW can easily be 'done' in a partial day. It'd probably should be given a full day to truly enjoy (however, I'd say that for all of the parks you mention).

It seems like soaking up the ambience isn't exactly a priority given the schedule you're considering. If it's just a matter of hitting many parks and rides and doing it in a timely fashion, then HW is an easy partial day score.

My only recommendation would be to slow down the trip in general. You might fit a lot in, but when you look back it'll all be one big whirlwind blur. Not to mention with tight scheduling comes much frustration if the slightest thing goes a little off.

With that said, if you insist on keeping a hectic pace and hitting multiple parks in a single day - then HW is an easy half-day park. I'd put it on the same day as SFKK, not on the same day as SFStl with the drive.

How far East are you willing to go for that "circle"?

Eleven to thirteen parks is a lot to do by yourself. If you have some other people who can drive, then I would highly recommend considering bringing someone else along. If you don't know anyone now, then get friendly with someone in the near future.

We (me and one other person) only did six parks on our June midwest tour, and it was a great feeling to say, "Hey, I'm tired, you drive now." All the driving can burn you out if your driving solo. Other advantages to having a "co-pilot" are that you have someone who can navigate for you which is extremely important.

If you're driving during the summer, that person can also look for alternate routes should you come up on congested routes or construction. If you're trying to hit eleven to thirteen parks, you don't want anything to get in the way.

We also broke up the tour with some tourist stuff. Trust me, after a while the amusement park thing becomes stale. By the end of BeastBuzz at PKI–- which was our last park--neither one of us wanted to ride another ride for a while.

Giving our time frame would it be wise to split it up into 2 years (Midwest CF parks one year and the 3 SF's and the rest of the small chains the next) because I would like to enjoy all of the parks. In the sense I'm willing to spend 12 hours at each park if it's worth it.

John for all intents and purposes we will just say Ohio. I will do a East Coast trip somewhere down the road because I will have to get in all the fine PA parks sometime.

Nah, intamin fan, I've done the east coast about 10 years ago by myself started in mass, and ended in Geogria. it can be done.