All time favorite theme parks

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I'm trying to plan some theme parks to hit up next year..Plan ahead and all that. For whatever reason, theme parks were just not part of my childhood so I'm looking to make up for last time.

What would you guys suggest? What are your all time favorite parks to hit up in the US? :p As you can already tell, I'm very interested in heading to Magic Mountain.
 
I really used to love Magic Mountain...especially in December when you can get in the park for the cost of a toy for Toys For Tots. It's pretty awesome being able to go to an amusement park during the winter--it's definitely something I took for granted when I was younger (and lived somewhere warmer).
Since you mentioned the LA Area...it really depends on when you want to go to a park to determine the best--
Knott's Berry Farm is great near Halloween.
Disneyland is free on your Birthday...etc.

I live in the Kansas City Area now, and I can tell you that Worlds of Fun sucks...it costs the same as Magic Mountain, but every ride can be hit in like 6 hours...it makes my cheap side cry every time I take the kids there.
 
I've only been there once and my visit was cut short as we were there years ago when the east coast had a massive blackout. But Cedar Point in Ohio is great if you love roller coasters.

Hershey Park over in Pennsylvania is a more family oriented park. Has some fun rides / coasters for people of all ages plus it has a water park. Also, if you visit chocolate world, at the end of the "ride", you get a free miniature chocolate bar.
 
Nothing can touch Cedar Point, especially if you're looking to make up for missing out your entire life. Here's a link of just their roller coasters...approx. 15 not including the kiddy ones. It's the greatest Amusement Park in the world if you care more about content over theme.
 
I agree that overall Cedar Point is the best! I worked there one summer and it was the best summer of my life.

One park that does not get mentioned very often is Worlds of Fun in Kansas City, MO. I went there a few times when I was younger and had a blast, some great rides and a nice clean park.

From just a ride perspective, King's Island has some great coasters but I hate the park itself. It's dirty, and you know you are asking for trouble when they have a sign at the admission gate that tells you which rides are closed for the day - why do their rides break down so often?
 
I have been to that six flags magic mountain, Disneyland, California Adventure, and Wild Water Adventures (in clovis). I will say Six Flags is my most funnest but to be honest I have a nostalgia feeling for wild water adventures because it was the first time I played Dance Dance Revolution with a big crowd watching it was pretty cool I was a standard player at the time and they had a 5thMix machine. This was in 2001 and the only time girls thought I was cool because I was good at a dancing simulator. I havent been at wild water adventures since 2004 and six flags since 2008 for having one of the highest scores in my high school exit exam
 
I really want to go to Cedar Point, it's an 8 hour drive for me so I haven't gotten there yet but I will get there one day.

My 2 favorite parks are Hersheypark and Six Flags Great Adventure. I have season passes to Great Adventure and Dorney Park (Dorney is nice but not as big of a park as the other 2) and usually go to a park once a week when they are open.

I like Hersheypark since it has my #1 wooden and #1 steel coasters and as someone else mentioned a great variety of coasters and other ride types.

Great Adventure basically is all coasters and kiddie rides with very few other ride types but the coasters are amazing. B&M is my favorite coaster manufacturer and they have 5 B&M coasters (for those familiar with the park they are Nitro, Batman The Ride, Superman Ultimate Flight, Bizarro and Green Lantern) so I am very happy with the park. It also doesn't hurt that the park has the world's tallest and North America's fastest coaster, Kingda Ka. Going 0 - 128 mph in 3.5 seconds is amazing, especially when you are in the front row and you feel like your face is being pulled.

I also like Knoebel's, that is a very traditional park with older rides including 2 wooden coasters but it is unlike most of the larger parks, especially corporate parks. Free admission and you pay per ride or buy a wristband and the prices are very cheap for both rides and food plus free parking.

It's times like this during the winter when opening day for Great Adventure isn't for a little over 3 months that I wish I lived in California or Florida so I could ride coasters all year, I hate the offseason when all the parks are closed. If parks were open all year, I'd go even if it was freezing out. Closing day at Great Adventure the temperature was in the mid 30's and it wasn't too uncomfortable.
 
King's Island outside of Cincinatti is pretty cool. Went there in '97 and had a blast. Haven't been back since but looking at the park's website, it looks like they've added quite a bit. This is the park that has the historic "The Beast" roller coaster. An old woody that is world reknowned. I don't typically like wooden coasters but it is bad arsed.
 
Cedar Point is awesome, and The Beast at Kings Island is amazing (and almost five minutes). If they still run The Red Racer there, you can ride backwards on the track.

Disneyland is no longer free on your birthday.
 
Once Cedar Fair bought the Paramount parks, they made all the backwards side of the dual track coasters run forward including Racer at Kings Island, Rebel Yell at Kings Dominion and Thunder Road at Carowinds.
 
King's Island is pretty good but I haven't been there since about 2005 when Son of Beast was still open. I know they had just started taking out some of the classic rides like the Model-T's on rails in the center of the park. Supposedly they were putting in "The Italian Job" ride.

Six Flags over St. Louis absolutely sucks.
 
I live in Florida and work at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal. As cool as theming may be, the traditional "pack in as many rollercoasters and thrill rides as possible" approach of Cedar Point takes the cake. I love that place. Just make sure to go when there's good weather, half the rides shut down when it's windy or rainy.
 
Anyone ever go to Boblo Island in Ontario? It closed in '93. The 18 mile boat ride from Detroit was awesome, they always had a ton of arcade games (among other stuff) on the boat. The park itself was pretty great too...it wasn't like Cedar Point-level, but it was still very good the boat ride to and from the island made it better as far as I'm concerned. Rode The Nightmare relentlessly (indoor roller coaster in the dark).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boblo_Island_Amusement_Park
 
[quote name='JJSP']Cedar Point is awesome, and The Beast at Kings Island is amazing (and almost five minutes).[/QUOTE]
I've only been to King's Island once, years ago, but I'd love to make the long trip again just for The Beast.

I'm less than 90 minutes away from Cedar Point, so I go there regularly. Best time is May or September, just before or just after summer vacation. Not many people there to begin with, and by 3pm the place is a ghost town. Virtually no waiting for any ride.
 
[quote name='KaneRobot']Anyone ever go to Boblo Island in Ontario? It closed in '93. The 18 mile boat ride from Detroit was awesome, they always had a ton of arcade games (among other stuff) on the boat. The park itself was pretty great too...it wasn't like Cedar Point-level, but it was still very good the boat ride to and from the island made it better as far as I'm concerned. Rode The Nightmare relentlessly (indoor roller coaster in the dark).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boblo_Island_Amusement_Park[/QUOTE]

I always liked Boblo over Cedar Point growing up in Detroit. Yeah Nightmare was the premiere coaster and I use to laugh at how the only light was at the end of ride.

The boat ride was almost as fun as the actual park with its grand ballroom that they would play music in or just sitting on the deck feeling the breeze hit you.
 
Cedar Point is definitely the place to go. We live roughly 3 hours away so we go at least 2-3 times a season. I have hit up most of the big parks in the US and Cedar Point is definitely my favorite. If you can, plan your trip there after the kids go back to school at the end of summer. Its a VASTLY superior experience as the lines shrink by 80-90% during that time of the year. We went for a weekend this last year, during that time of the year, and most rides didn't even have a wait. You could go on a coaster, get off and get right back on without even having to wait. We probably rode more rides that weekend than we did the previous 5 years combined.
 
Another vote for Cedar Point.... The Top Thrill Dragster is the best twenty seconds you can spend on a coaster

Kings Island and Kings Dominion are awesome parks too

Busch Parks are awesome, finally made it to the Tampa park for the 1st time, though I prefer Williamsburg. Clean parks, beautiful landscaping, theming... They have it all...

Holiday World is awesome, free drinks and sunscreen... Everyone is friendly, and the park wins cleanliness awards every year... Not to mention Voyage is my absolute favorite coaster.

Been to a handful of six flags parks including Magic Mountain (great coasters)... Over Georgia, Over Texas (New Texas Giant is incredible!!!)

Been to other various parks as well, I'm not as hardcore as some coaster riders, but have seen my coaster count rise from under 50 a few years back to around 120 after thanksgiving...
 
[quote name='YoshiFan1']Nightmare was moved to Astroworld in Houston and then sold to Wonderland Amusement park once Astroworld closed. If you ever wondered what the ride looked like it is now running outdoors:
http://rcdb.com/3513.htm?p=0[/QUOTE]

Wow, good find. It sort of defeats the purpose for me if it's outdoors, but at least they changed the name to Hornet.
 
Six flags over holland as it was called. Now it's walibi world. You can smoke anything there. Get blazed up in lune and go ride Goliath which is just like the Titan at six flags of Texas. Ahhh wish I was 22 again.
 
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