Travel Tips - Check here before asking!

Another travel tip:

Travelzoo.com

I've recently been using this site, and to my suprise is very useful and posts specials that I can't always find on any other site. The beauty of it is it only shows you the great deals, and puts them in an easy-to-read list. Site loads quickly too! Hotels, Flights, Cruises, Rental Cars, etc. It's updated several times a day, and gives all information necessary to get the deal (promo codes, websites, phone numbers, etc.)

HIGHLY recommended.

Here is another tip:

I'm going to Paramount's Carowinds on the 14th. I looked online, and if you order tickets atleast 7 days in advance, they are about $12-$17 cheaper(and if you order closer to your date than that, they're still cheaper than the gate). I'm paying thirty bucks, gate is fourty two.

So check with the parks site before you buy, as you can print yourself for paramount and its so much cheaper(and no processing fees).

Thanks, Danimales and Scorp...I'll add those to my list.

SFOG has the Qbot line system, does any of the other S.F. Parks have this Qbot system or something similar?

Some SF parks do, yes. You'd have to check each SF park's website for prices and availability.

MOST of the parks are operating some sort of "Fastlane" system....the Qbot is definitely the next step UP form that, and from what I gather the Qbots have some additional *enhancements* this year...first, they come equipped with a stun gun for unruly kids...;)

Sweet! Beats smackin' em silly. lol

-Tina

Another money-saver not mentioned is camping, for those who can tolerate tenting it instead of a hotel (and depending on the weather :P).

You can always check the web address for the state you will be visiting to connect with their state park system (for example pennsylvania would be state.pa.us) for some really cheap rates for both tents and RVs. Unfortunately, I've found AAA's info on tent camping to be lousy and practically non-existant. They want you to go for the hotels and travel services they provide.

Of the parks I visit most often, I call tell you that Holiday World and Indiana Beach are two places have inexpensive campsites nearby. PKI's is excellent, too, though you spend a little more for your spot. CP and Kennywood are more of a challenge (for economy and proximity). Lucky for me, I live in Pgh and don't have to haul all the way out from Raccoon State Park.

D'oh! I should have thought of that option. I'll add it to the "saving money" section. Thanks, D-Earl.

I posted this here, but thought it may be of use in this thread too.

I'm starting to think people don't have the problem with where to look, but rather how to look for information for planning their trips.

The original poster (Greg) asked about a travel tips section detailing things such as:

What airport to fly into

Airport rental car or shuttle service to the park/hotel

How far is the park from the airport

Best hotel to stay in

Best travel route to the park

My response was:

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For the questions you listed, I'd do the following.

1. What airport to fly into?

I personally stick with Major Airports. Typing the name of the city the park is in (or the nearest 'big' city) into any of the travel sites and choosing to search the largest radius will give you a list. The choice is yours.

2. Airport rental car or shuttle service to the park/hotel?

All the major companies have airport terminals. Most travels have a personal favorite choice they'll use - just go to that site and search for rental cars at the airport you chose in step on. If price is the biggest factor over brand loyalty, then do a search on one or two travel sites and you'll get an idea of which company is the cheapest. Check their site (often a better deal can be had directly). Go with the best price. If the hotel is near the aiport, they'll have a shuttle. If you're unsure, go to step 4 first and find out.

3. How far is the park from the airport?

Mapquest. Driving directions. Park address in one location, airport address (zip code only give very close approximations) in the other. You should already have a general idea if you did step 1.

4. Best hotel to stay in?

This is all a matter of personal preference. I might like the such and such hotel at $199 a night, but you're looking for a deal. Or maybe the opposite, I prefer the 39.95 a night "place to sleep" hotel and you're after room service, breakfast and a bar. As with the other choices most people tend to have a brand preference. Go to that hotel chain's site and search for hotels in the same city as the park, the site with list the closest hotels.

5. Best travel route to the park?

Again, what is 'best'? Shortest, fastest, what?

I personally wait and get directions from the hotel. They always know the best way to get to the park. If you chose one of the hotels listed when you did step 4, they'll know how to get there. Alternately, mapquest gives step by step directions that work just fine.

Of course, much of this info can be found on the park's site itself (especially directions and accomodations info - often more)

I'm starting to think the problem people are having isn't where to look (as Moosh's thread has so thoroughly covered), but how to look for the info to plan their amusement park travels.

For me the hardest part isn't planning the trip, that's the easy stuff. The hardest part is deciding where to go :)

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Hardly a thorough examination on the subject, but it's gets the point across on how to use these tools to plan your trip. Anyone need more guidance than that? I could get WAY more detailed on each step.

I hope this helps everyone a bit.

Thanks, Gonch.

And one of the most important things I've found is: The Parks website is your Friend:).

It tells you when the park opens. It tells you what rides(usually with pix) they have. It tells you where you can eat in the park. It tells you about the shows. It tells you about shopping. It gives you tips on planning your day(when to arrive, what to do when, where to stay, how to get there, do they have pet services, etc., etc., etc.)

Always look extensivly at the park's website while planning a vacation. I know its been talked about here before, but they do offer more than just park info. They want you to be able to find your way there, and stay a few days and play with them too!

Thanks, Clint...that was covered in my first post ;)

Just wanted to mention, if you are traveling in the Mid-Atlantic area, listen to the various traffic reports carefully. Last week I traveled between Hershey, Six Flags America, Kings Dominion and Busch Gardens Williamsburg. I encountered serious contruction delays on the Baltimore Beltway (Between the I-70 and I-95 Interchanges) and on the Washington Beltway between (I-95 and I-270). An alternative might be to travel I-95 or I-895 and go through the tunnels. Pick up I-97 and U.S. 301/MD Route 3 South. You can pick up 301 about 3 or 4 miles north of Kings Dominion and it's a nice scenic way to beat the Washington Beltway/I-95 traffic.

Best Traffic channel in the Washington/Baltimore area is 1500 am.

I know, Moosh, but I've seen so many people ask questions since then that they could so easily find on the Park's website, I tought it needed re-iteration;).

Regarding the one-way rental drop-off charge that AA referenced above...apparently that is NOT universally applied, since I got a car to come home from Orlando for 21.99 (OK, 28 and change with ALL the assorted taxes, etc.)....but it seems that if you drop off the car in the SAME STATE, the one-way rental fee is not applied universally. (BTW, this was with Budget)...

P.S. Small airports suck for a WIDE range of reasons....one is that your flights are more likely to be delayed and/or cancelled because larger airports receive a higher "priority"...this becomes uber-important when trying to make necessary *connecting flights*....;)

Last year I found this free upgrade coupon for Alamo. It seems they keep updating it each year and put a new exp. date in.

http://ta.alamo.com/AgentIncentive/freeupgradecoup.asp

Today, I noticed Diet Coke cans have an offer for Six Flags America for $25.99. That beats the online ticket price of $29.99

Sort of unrelated post, but I didn't know where else to put it... Sorry.

I called The Beach Waterpark (across from PKI) & was told there are buy-one-get-one-free coupons available at the Kroger across the street from them & Arby's.

Since it hasn't been tackled yet, I figure I'll take a stab at park strategies. I'm going to use GAdv. as an example because I'm really familiar with the park, but obviously you can apply the thinking to other parks. I'm also assuming you're going to want to whore all the coasters, hit a few flats and/or water rides, and power ride some of the bigger rides. I'm also going to assume that you're not buying a q-bot because, if you do, you should've read my guide and saved your $15. ;)

Finally, if you like the freedom at a park to do whatever you want whenever you want, just ignore this guide. I'm anal and when I go to a new to me park, I go open to close, scrambling between rides trying to get as many rides in as I can.

First, before you even step out the door, make sure you know what the park has to offer. Go to RCDB.com, print out the page with the coaster listings and keep it with you to make sure you've gotten everything at the end of the day (I've cut out said pages, stuck them to 3x5's and laminated them, but I'm anal). Also write in the flats and other rides (drop towers, dark rides, water rides) that you really want to hit.

I normally classify crowds into 3 levels: Heavy, medium and light. I use different strategies for the three different levels of crowds, but really my strategy for light is "ride whatever, whenever" because it really doesn't matter at that point. The difference between a heavy day and a medium day is really evident by midday (see below) but I can usually figure out which day it'll be before I head to the park. Is it Sat.? Is there some event (physics day, band day)? Is it mid season? Then it's heavy.

When you get to the park these are a few of the considerations to take into account when you choose what to ride when.

Capacity - Bigger capacity (Nitro) means short lines at peak times. Smaller capacity (Chiller) means God awful lines at peak times. A B&M hyper (Nitro) has 36 passenger trains loading every 2 minutes, whereas a premier shuttle (Chiller) has 20 passenger trains loading every 3 minutes or so. You do the math....

Ride newness/quality - Newer, better rides (S:UF) will command bigger lines all day long. Older not as good rides (GASM), and even good ones (Medusa) won't command lines as long.

Location - Rides farther from the entrance of the park (Nitro, B:TR, Medusa) will take a while to build lines, whereas rides close to the front of the park (S:UF) will draw a lot of people real quick. Especially a flashy new ride that is easily visible from the parking lot (S:UF, S:UF, S:UF). On the other hand, rides in the opposite direction of said ride, will take quite a while to build crowds. Also, for whatever reason, people seem to like to go left first. If you go right, crowds will be thinner until mid morning.

One metaphor that I've found helpful is surfing. Once the gates open, the crowd will disperse and start hitting all the stuff in the front of the park. The wave will slowly make its way outwards towards the back of the park. As long as you stay one ride ahead of the crowd and "surf" the wave, you should have walk-ons for about an hr.

Reliability - Unfortunately, this is a consideration when dealing with brand spankin' rides or anything Vekoma. :P If there's a brand new ride that's been known to go down faster than a cheap hooker, you may want to just deal with the consequences and grab it first. GAdv. doesn't have a ride that fits this description, so...

Wetness - Water rides never have lines early-mid morning or later at night. If you don't mind being cold and wet, you shouldn't have to wait for one.

Kiddieness - Kiddie rides or junior coasters will almost never command any line. However, if you're planning on borrowing a kid to ride, it works best if you borrow when there are the most kids around: early afternoon (peak times).

Note on Row Selection - The question that I always ask when I decide on row selection is "How many rides on other things am I giving up by taking this row?" It seems counter intuitive, but the times when the main line is shortest are exactly the wrong times to choose the front row. An extra half hr. wait for the front means giving up 3 back row rides if the line's 10 minutes long, but only half a back row ride if the line's an hr.

The watchwords for strategery are: Lines for older, not as fun rides serve as overflow for the big new rides. If you don't feel like reading the rest of this guide, just remember that sentence and plan accordingly.

Heavy Day Strategy

• First, hit the low capacity, high newness/quality rides first (Both sides of Chiller). Especially the ones near the mid-back of the park. "Surf the wave." Don't wait for front.
• Then get the "okay" rides with low capacity that are in the area, especially wet ones. (B:TR, Stuntman, the boat ride thing, the river rapids, skull mountain, chaos)
• When crowds start to build, go for the high capacity rides, which are usually the bigger newer rides. (Nitro, S:UF)

It's true, you could've gotten 3 or 4 laps on one of the B&M's in the time it took to do all that other stuff, but you'd have to wait for hours and hours to do chiller, let alone all the other rides once the crowd hits. Getting 3 or 4 laps on a well run B&M won't take nearly as long.

• As crowds build, stay on the really high capacity rides (Nitro, S:UF, Medusa (if they actually got a reasonable crew)) or rides that just aren't that popular (Viper, Blackbeard, Roadrunner). You can grab front row trips now too, because you're only giving up half an additional back row ride. Unless you're really hot, stay away from water rides. Everyone else is really hot too. ;) Resist the temptation to go wrap up all the credits (GASM, RT, Mine Ride). Lines for older, not as fun rides serve as overflow for the big new rides during midday, but drop very quickly in early evening. You should never have to wait more than 15 minutes for any of these rides. Keep power riding those high cap rides. ;) Flats are a good idea during peak times as well. The lines typically aren't *that* long (compared to any coaster) and they're something to do while waiting for the real lines to die. ;) This is also a great time to head to the arcade and show off your m4|) |)|)R sk1llz.
• Eat early (11a) or late (3p) and don't be afraid to take a mid-day break. Right around this time, everything is pretty much impassable, so you're not losing much, anyway. ;)
• As you head into dinner time, start checking on the "okay" credits (GASM, Viper, RT, Mine Ride, the flume) that you haven't picked up. Again, there's no reason you should have to wait for these rides more than 15 miuntes. Patience will pay off in the end.
• Wrap up your day with power riding on whatever was your favorite ride. Contrary to what some might think, in my experience, line for big rides don't die at all towards the end of the night until the last 15 minutes or so of the parks operating day. On the other hand, the less quality, older rides are walk ons for about the last hour or so.

Middle Day Strategy - This is the kind of day where you still have to wait for everything, but it's not desperately overwhelming. I won't go into as much detail as I did for the heavy day (mostly because it's not as needed), but things actually work in opposite.

The bold sentence in the heavy day section is really the key for a middle day and the reason things work oppositely. Lines for older, not as fun rides serve as overflow for the big new rides. The thing is, on a middle level day, the big rides never overflow. Thus, the middle day strategy is to hit the big high cap. marathon rides early and late and the "okay" rides midday. The "okay" rides should never have lines on a middle level day (and this is how I tell the difference), so there's no point in using your valuable "open season" time early in the day and late at night on these rides, when you could be marathoning the big rides with very little wait. However, capacity concerns still come into play, in the same direction. My order on a middle day would be: Chiller (each side), Nitro (over and over and over), B:TR, Skull Mt., Roadrunner, Blackbeard, Mine ride, Viper, RT, Medusa, GASM, S:UF (over and over and over).

So that's my thoughts on park strategies. Feel free to comment and YMMV. And the most important strategy: HAVE FUN!

*** Edited 6/27/2004 6:25:33 PM UTC by ApolloAndy***