Trip suggestion - Holiday World or King's Island

Me, my wife, and my parents are going to be going on a trip to Cedar Point next year around memorial day and we were planning on stoping at Holiday World or Paramount's King's Island on the way. We are hoping to do both if time and money allows, which if Cedar Fair includes the Paramount parks in with our Worlds of Fun Season pass that should not be as big of a problem.

We have not been to either park before, and my wife has not been to Cedar Point. We will be taking my parents RV with a car towed behind, which is part of why we are going with my parents, because that is free lodging, as they will pay camping fees, the other being they heard Cedar point and begged to go again. :)

Anyway our question is which park if we can only go to one would you suggest from people who have been to both? Me, my wife, and my mom are coaster junkies and will ride just about all rides at a park. My dad will only ride mild rollercoasters and rides. We are hoping to go somewhere that we can still get our great rides, but not have my dad just sit around. He does enjoy going to shows, so if either have good shows that would be a plus as well. I have read trip reports on holiday world and it seems really cool, but did not see any on king's island, but have heard good things about it as well.

Any help or insight would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

If you have to choose one or the other, I would go to HW without a doubt. You're already going to a mega park in CP, so shake things up with a nice mid-size park in the mix. It should add an interesting contrast to your trip.

However....I wouldn't be surprised to see a certain coaster event take place at Holiday World that weekend, so perhaps you should avoid it for your parents' sake. ;) *** Edited 8/10/2006 7:20:08 PM UTC by Acoustic Viscosity***

I find Kings Island to be a spectacularly mediocre excuse for an amusement park.

Go to Holiday World, you'll be glad you did.

Holiday World, no question. As someone else pointed out, it will be a nice contract to the mega park of CP (which I also love). That, and Holiday World is just a different experience altogether.

PKI doesn't have anything that I'm itching to ride again. Whereas HW has 3 woodies that I can't wait to get back to.

I don't know. If you are coaster junkies, Kings Island has some good ones. Never been to Holiday World, but, I'm not sure what else there is after their three coasters.

PKI is a decent park that is showing signs of improving since Cedar Fair closed the sale and has improved operations.

But ride wise? Go to Holiday World. I went there on July 30-31 and I didn't want to leave.

As a fan of both parks, I have to give Holiday World the egde. Kings Island has more things to do in the way of rides and coasters, but for a better quality of rides, coasters, water park just about everything else, head to Santa Claus, IN. It will also be cheaper, since all you have to pay for is admission and food.

Think reviews from CoasterBuzzers aren't enough? Check this out: http://www.holidayworld.com/feedback/feedback.html *** Edited 8/10/2006 8:22:50 PM UTC by CoastersNSich***

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Acoustic Viscosity said:
If you have to choose one or the other, I would go to HW without a doubt. You're already going to a mega park in CP, so shake things up with a nice mid-size park in the mix. It should add an interesting contrast to your trip.

However....I wouldn't be surprised to see a certain coaster event take place at Holiday World that weekend, so perhaps you should avoid it for your parents' sake. ;) *** Edited 8/10/2006 7:20:08 PM UTC by Acoustic Viscosity***

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Yeah and if that certain coaster event does take place, I would have to give the nod to HW, and invite you to sign up for said event. That would certainly enhance your trip just that much more!

Not to mention that the food at HW is reasonably priced.

I do agree that a smaller, more laid back park makes a nice change-of-pace from the big megaparks. Also, HW does some of the things well that CP comes up short on, most noticably, wooden coasters. CP has two of them but HP has three and they are better. HW is very likely the best park in North America when it comes to wooden coasters. Another good thing about HW is that it has a huge waterpark and the waterpark and the dry park are included in a single admission.

Holiday World hands down.

Love Kings Island! But for this trip, I'd definitely recommend Holiday World. It's in a class all its own.

HW! It's not even that close in my opinion.

Thanks everyone for the replies. Sounds like we will definately plan on Holiday world if we can only do one. Also it has been 6 years since I've been to Cedar Point, sadly. I know last time there was a lot to do, and we fit it into one day, but with all the new stuff, do you suggest one or two days at CP? Also from most the trip reports I've read it only really takes a day at holiday world, but would you suggest 1 or 2 days there? We plan on hitting the amusement parks on Sunday or during the week to try to avoid a bigger crowds. I know HW includes the water park, which we will probably take advantage of, but I do not think we would want to spend a day at just the water park.

Once again thanks for all your input.

You may very well want a second day at Holiday World after finishing your first but you should have no problem riding everything you want in one day.

Personally, you can't go wrong with either park (HW and PKI).

Heck, if you have a Six Flags season pass, try to squeeze in a couple hours into SFKK for a few decent coasters since SFKK is between HW and PKI.

If you hit CP during the week, you'll have no trouble doing everything in one day. And, of course, same with HW. So to me it would be a toss up between which park to spend two days at. If you like waterparks, I'd do HW for two days.

If you are more interested in a bigger variety and would like to get the ride n slide option at CP so you can do Soak City, I'd make the two day trip to CP.

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twas6630 said:

Me, my wife, and my mom are coaster junkies and will ride just about all rides at a park. My dad will only ride mild rollercoasters and rides. We are hoping to go somewhere that we can still get our great rides, but not have my dad just sit around. He does enjoy going to shows, so if either have good shows that would be a plus as well.

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Hmmm....what really surprised me was that just about everyone who answered totally avoided this aspect of the question. It was like that part of the question was invisible just because of Holiday World being in the question. Now, Holiday World isn't exactly known for having mild coasters now, are they? Not knowing his dad's limitations, I would say Raven would be as close to a mild coaster as HW is going to get.

At PKI, he could get on Adventure Express, Italian Job Stunt Track, Top Gun (at least, I don't think it's too extreme), Fairly Odd Parents Coaster, Runaway Reptar, and maybe Flight of Fear (depending on your dad's age it might not be a good idea). As far as mild rides go, there's Avatar the Last Air Bender, a Troika, Spider, Tomb Raider the Ride, Scooby-Doo and the Haunted Mansion, plus several shows, a train ride etc. Heck, even Delirium isn't so bad if he can put up with the gforces. It's a very smooth ride.

Of course, if you do go to Holiday World, they have several mild flats as well and Gobbler Getaway, plus you've got the diving show which looks pretty entertaining. They have another small theater for shows.

As far as mild coasters and rides go, your dad won't find much interesting at Holiday World besides Gobbler Getaway. My dad likes Magnum, Gemini, even Mean Streak at Cedar Point, but he can't do any of the Holiday World woodies. My parents enjoyed strolling the park, but they found the shows to be so-so and not much beyond average to offer at Holiday World.

Kings Island doesn't have a lot of shows itself, but if you catch them during the Nick Parade or a show's going on in the Paramount Theatre, it should be good and hopefully Cedar Fair will increase the use of their entertainment venues and add some quality there next season.

There are plenty of mild coasters at Kings Island though. There are two very good junior coasters in Nick Universe- one woodie and one invert. Adventure Express is fairly tame, but has some good laterals, so that will depend how much he can do those. Top Gun and Italian Job are moderately fast and have laterals but doesn't jerk you to the sides at all. Other rides that he might be interested in: The Racer, the motion theatre, the train, the carousel, Scooby Doo and the Haunted Castle, the Wild Thornberries River Adventure, Avatar, going up in the Eiffel Tower, etc.

I'm sorry so many other people in this thread seemingly completely overlooked what you had actually posted. Holiday World and Kings Island both have the same deal of flats and huge, included-in-admission waterparks. Holiday World has three excellent but very intense wooden coasters, free parking, free soft drinks, and a few extra free smiles. PKI has one excellent and intense woodie, two nice and mild wooden racing tracks (backwards and forwards), and a small family woodie. In addition, the thrillseekers in your family will have Delirium, Flight of Fear, Drop Zone, Face/Off, Vortex, and more to do as well. PKI seems like the better choice for this trip you're asking suggestions for in particular, but of course, it's definitely up to you. Good luck. :) *** Edited 8/12/2006 12:28:39 AM UTC by +Danny***

Thank you everyone for the input, esspecially you Intamin Fan and Danny, that was exactly what I was looking for. My dad is about like yours danny, except he won't ride the magnum. Based on what you two are saying it does sound like paramounts kings island is going to be the best for the whole family, even if holday world does have the great woodies for the wilder bunch. With any luck I will be able to do multiple parks, but the input is greatly appreciated. Thank you again.

A coaster enthusiast would say Holiday World. However what is best for your family is something only you and your family can decide. Regardless of what park you visit you'll have a good time. And Holiday World isn't going anywhere...visit it on your next time through the area ;)