where to travel next year (help me out)?

I am in vacation mode and was wondering where to maybe go as far as amusement parks since right now I can't decide what I really want to do.

I live in Iowa so I have easy access to Southwest Airlines to fly out of (I have been to most of the big parks such as CP, SFMM, Orlando, etc so I didn't include those).

Prelim plans are any of the following (haven't been to any of these):

Branson (Silver Dollar City which I can drive to from home), Charlotte (Carowinds), Buffalo (drive to Canada for Canada's Wonderland but not sure and yes I have a passport), Tennesee (Dollywood), Atlanta (SFGeorgia)

So where would you choose or any other suggestions?

You could easily do a SFoG/Carowinds/Dollywood trip, and all three parks are nice.

Skip Branson - Head to Dollywood and surrounding gems

You could try a Holiday World/Dollywood/Kings Island trip or something like that. Holiday World and Kings Island are both great parks. I can't speak for Dollywood, but I'm really hoping to get there soon based on what I've heard. So that would be a really fun trip I think.

Dollywood/Lake Winnie/SFoG/Carowinds? In other words, what Clint said but add in Lake Winnie... :)

Am thinking about Kings Island/Holiday World trip next summer. Is Dollywood worth adding to it?

Do you like amazing parks, with great theming, and fantastic food, with the most friendliest employees ever? And do you like spectacular GCI coasters?

You could spend a week in Western/Central PA and go to Kennywood, Hersheypark, and Waldameer. Maybe toss in a trip to Knoebels and Dorney Park (far East PA) for good measure.

Anything that involves Dollywood. With OzCat out of service, Branson has nothing on Pigeon Forge & Gatlinburg, TN.

If you go down to SFoG, DO NOT SKIP Lake Winnie!

Tekwardo said:
Do you like amazing parks, with great theming, and fantastic food, with the most friendliest employees ever? And do you like spectacular GCI coasters?

Depends what makes them supposedly amazing. Not a fan of theming. Waste of money to me. Don't go to amusement parks for food. Friendly employees are overrated at an amusement park. Be competent and efficient and I am happy. Great coasters are the primary reasons why I go to amusement parks.

GoBucks89 said:

Not a fan of theming. Waste of money to me. Don't go to amusement parks for food. Friendly employees are overrated at an amusement park. Be competent and efficient and I am happy. Great coasters are the primary reasons why I go to amusement parks.

Boy, how opinions differ around here. We are pretty much polar opposites. Coasters are fun, but food, theme and friendly employees all come first for me.

Probably explains why my favorite park of all time has no coasters.

From what I have seen, you are in the majority. And it's probably why my favorite park is known around here for lousy/no theming, lousy food, unfriendly employees and good coasters. Different strokes....

Well in that case, next time you ask if it's worth it, you may want to at least tell us a bit about what you're looking for in a park.

And yes, Dollywood has 3 very great coasters, though you may not like Mystery Mine since it's all about themeing. Blazing Fury is quirky fun, but again, lots of theming. But Thunderhead and Tornado are worth the trip alone, and the ride ops are very efficient.

As far as CP goes (I'm guessing that's your favorite park), I don't care about theming at an Amusement park (which is different than a theme park), I care about food quality wherever I go, and I've never had an issue with the employees there, other than the lethargic Mantis crew. In fact, I love the Point. But it only has a few good coasters out of it's large lineup.

Dependswhat makes them supposedly amazing. Not a fan of theming. Waste ofmoney to me. Don't go to amusement parks for food. Friendly employeesare overrated at an amusement park.

I'd say your best bet is to map out all the Six Flags parks and hit those. In general, these parks seem to have the qualities you are looking for.

Aamilj took the words right out of my mouth. :-D

But then again, the same could be said for some Cedar Fair parks as well., especially the part about the lousy food.

Acoustic Viscosity said:
Anything that involves Dollywood. With OzCat out of service, Branson has nothing on Pigeon Forge & Gatlinburg, TN.

If you go down to SFoG, DO NOT SKIP Lake Winnie!

Pretty much what I said except for the Branson piece...I consider OzCat to be history - if there were intentions of keeping it operating, it surely would have moved by now. What's left is probably blueprints at this point...sad. :(

Branson is home to Powder Keg.

Pigeon Forge...isn't.

Aamilj said:

Dependswhat makes them supposedly amazing. Not a fan of theming. Waste ofmoney to me. Don't go to amusement parks for food. Friendly employeesare overrated at an amusement park.

I'd say your best bet is to map out all the Six Flags parks and hit those. In general, these parks seem to have the qualities you are looking for.

But how can that be? I keep reading letters from Q Funding saying how great Six Flags is doing and how Cedar Fair should be emulating them. :)

Have you been to a Six Flags park recently?

I returned to Great Adventure for my first time in 9 years over PPP weekend, and I was amazed. There was tons of new theming, and the park was nice and clean.

My only current gripe with SFGAdv is that I wish they'd fill in some of the empty pads with some (smaller, mind you) flat rides, and spruce up the theming on the Nitro side of the park. The Ka/Toro side of the park looks amazing.

Both sides were clean and well run on both of my visits in 2009 and 2010.