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How many days per park?

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qbacreative

Roller Poster
Hi,

We are going on our first rollercoaster road trip in August, we are planning to visit 4 Cedar Fair parks. The issue is that we don't know for how long we should visit each park. We already paid for Cedar Fair's Platinum Passes and Platinum Dinning Plan, so everything from food to park entrance and parking is already paid for in advanced.

So far we are planning to stay 3 nights per hotel, so we can do 2 days at each park. On the day we arrive at each hotel, after a long drive, we are planning just to chill out in the room, and go to sleep, then the next morning we will go to the parks, same for the day after, and on the fourth day in the morning, we will leave the area for the next park.

These are the parks we are planning to visit in this order:

1. Kings Dominion

2. Carowinds

3. Kings Island

4. Cedar Point

So the question really is, is it worth it to spend 2 days on each of these parks? or some of these parks, really required only a one day visit?

Thanks!
 
Its a bit hard to say, it really depends on how you want to approach the parks - you could easily just do one day in each of them (perhaps apart from CP, although there are plenty of peeps on here that will have done a single day at CP too). Invest in FastLane too and that takes any Q-stress out of the days.

Your route would take you nearby (well as "nearby" as you can get in the US) several other very good places though, so aside from any culture/sight-seeing you should be thinking of spending time at Busch Gardens Willamsburg, Dollywood, Kentucky Kingdom, Holiday World (for starters!) rather than eeking out another day in a place you've already "done". But that's just my opinion of course, as I say its up to how you want to experience the parks.
 
davidm said:
Its a bit hard to say, it really depends on how you want to approach the parks - you could easily just do one day in each of them (perhaps apart from CP, although there are plenty of peeps on here that will have done a single day at CP too). Invest in FastLane too and that takes any Q-stress out of the days.

Your route would take you nearby (well as "nearby" as you can get in the US) several other very good places though, so aside from any culture/sight-seeing you should be thinking of spending time at Busch Gardens Willamsburg, Dollywood, Kentucky Kingdom, Holiday World (for starters!) rather than eeking out another day in a place you've already "done". But that's just my opinion of course, as I say its up to how you want to experience the parks.
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Thanks for the reply davidm,

I forgot to mention that we are only interested on the main coasters at each park, so probably 2 or 3 Coasters per park, we want to ride only the biggest, smoothest and fastest.

I agree with you that Cedar Point is definitely a two day park.

We weren't planning to visit Kings Dominion on this trip, because we knew that only an hour away was Busch Gardens Williamsburg, and those two parks could be a trip on it's own, mixed with visiting Washington DC, but after just seeing a video of Busch Gardens Williamsburg rides, other than Alpengeist, they are pretty close to what they have at Busch Gardens Tampa. We just flew back from our Florida Vacation, where we visited all the mayor parks, including a two day visit to Busch Gardens Tampa.

About all those others parks you mentioned, we are planning to visit them eventually. We feel we could create small trips in the future to visit each of them. Rollercoaster is something new, we just got into last summer because our two kids, but there is only so many amusement parks my wife can put up with, within a road trip ;)
 
You could easily do all those parks in a day each if you’re only focusing on the major coasters, avoiding Saturdays and you should everything in a single day at those parks.

Thing with Cedar Point is that it’s right on the lake so more prone to weather shutdowns than the average Park. So whilst you could do everything in a day if that’s a dry weekday, it’s a bit of a risk. Fine if your local, not so fine if it’s your one and only chance of going.

BGW is a great park and different themeing so does feel different, but Pantheon should be open by then. Having one day there and one at Kings Dominion wouldn’t be a bad option.
 
Fi said:
You could easily do all those parks in a day each if you’re only focusing on the major coasters, avoiding Saturdays and you should everything in a single day at those parks.

Thing with Cedar Point is that it’s right on the lake so more prone to weather shutdowns than the average Park. So whilst you could do everything in a day if that’s a dry weekday, it’s a bit of a risk. Fine if your local, not so fine if it’s your one and only chance of going.

BGW is a great park and different themeing so does feel different, but Pantheon should be open by then. Having one day there and one at Kings Dominion wouldn’t be a bad option.
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Thanks Fi, good points
 
Fi said:
BGW is a great park and different themeing so does feel different, but Pantheon should be open by then. Having one day there and one at Kings Dominion wouldn’t be a bad option.
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Fi I just checked Pantheon and it looks like it will be an amazing ride, I guess we'll have to visit BGW :)

Ok what about this for a plan, Like you said Kings Dominion one day, BGW one day, Carowinds one day, Kings Island one day and Cedar Point two days?
 
qbacreative said:
Fi I just checked Pantheon and it looks like it will be an amazing ride, I guess we'll have to visit BGW :)

Ok what about this for a plan, Like you said Kings Dominion one day, BGW one day, Carowinds one day, Kings Island one day and Cedar Point two days?
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I think that’s a solid plan ?

If you wanted to, you could do Dollywood between Kings Island and Carowinds, great park and breaks up the journey.
 
Fi said:
I think that’s a solid plan ?

If you wanted to, you could do Dollywood between Kings Island and Carowinds, great park and breaks up the journey.
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Fi there is no way I can add another park to this trip lol, it took some convincing to add BGW, my wife likes rollercoasters but no with the same intensity that the kids and I do, so 5 parks in 3270 km is already a big accomplishment, a week ago Kings Dominion wasn't part of the plan :)
 
qbacreative said:
Hi,

We are going on our first rollercoaster road trip in August, we are planning to visit 4 Cedar Fair parks. The issue is that we don't know for how long we should visit each park. We already paid for Cedar Fair's Platinum Passes and Platinum Dinning Plan, so everything from food to park entrance and parking is already paid for in advanced.

So far we are planning to stay 3 nights per hotel, so we can do 2 days at each park. On the day we arrive at each hotel, after a long drive, we are planning just to chill out in the room, and go to sleep, then the next morning we will go to the parks, same for the day after, and on the fourth day in the morning, we will leave the area for the next park.

These are the parks we are planning to visit in this order:

1. Kings Dominion

2. Carowinds

3. Kings Island

4. Cedar Point

So the question really is, is it worth it to spend 2 days on each of these parks? or some of these parks, really required only a one day visit?

Thanks!
Click to expand...
As I've visited all four of these parks in August (2017), I'm happy to say that I can provide input.
1. Kings Dominion, from my experiences as well as what I've heard from others, only requires a single day. It wasn't very crowded when I went, so I was easily able to ride everything I desired.

2. Carowinds is my home park, so I probably know this one the best. I've been to its water park as well, Carolina Harbor, and among the other chain water parks I've been to, it's nothing too unique. If you're aiming to ride everything, visiting for two days would be a safer bet - Carowinds has been quite crowded in recent times, with Fury 325, Intimidator, Nighthawk and Copperhead Strike garnering sizable lines - but one day could work if you are efficient with your time.

3. I did two days at Kings Island (well, sort of). Since Lightning Rod and Mystery Mine were closed at Dollywood, I decided last-minute to drive to Kings Island for some evening and night rides. I spent the majority of the next day at Kings Island, leaving in the evening. However, with Orion coming in 2020, two days will likely be necessary to cover all of Kings Island; The Beast's night rides are legendary, so I highly recommend staying late on at least one of your days at Kings Island.

4. Cedar Point definitely requires 2 days at minimum - I spent a full day here from opening to closing, followed by the next morning and afternoon for re-rides and getting remaining credits. I did quite enjoy Cedar Point Shores, as it wasn't as crowded as Cedar Point itself, and the beach-side setting sets it apart from every other water park I've been to - I visited this waterpark for the afternoon of my first day. As for staying late at Cedar Point? Maverick and Millennium Force have great rides from my experience, and I've heard that Steel Vengeance does too.

If you plan on doing the water parks, then two days is practically a necessity for each park.
 
1. Kings Dominion is very easily doable in 1 day and you should be able to get everything you want and multiple rerides.

2. Carowinds is the same as KD, but might be a little busier. Fast Lane might help, but the park does not need 2 days.

3. Kings Island is doable in less than a day and honestly isn't worth more than that unless you like mediocrity.

4. 2-3 days at Cedar Point is definitely worth it as it's a big park and will probably be pretty crowded this summer.
 
Kw6sTheater said:
As I've visited all four of these parks in August (2017), I'm happy to say that I can provide input.
1. Kings Dominion, from my experiences as well as what I've heard from others, only requires a single day. It wasn't very crowded when I went, so I was easily able to ride everything I desired.

2. Carowinds is my home park, so I probably know this one the best. I've been to its water park as well, Carolina Harbor, and among the other chain water parks I've been to, it's nothing too unique. If you're aiming to ride everything, visiting for two days would be a safer bet - Carowinds has been quite crowded in recent times, with Fury 325, Intimidator, Nighthawk and Copperhead Strike garnering sizable lines - but one day could work if you are efficient with your time.

3. I did two days at Kings Island (well, sort of). Since Lightning Rod and Mystery Mine were closed at Dollywood, I decided last-minute to drive to Kings Island for some evening and night rides. I spent the majority of the next day at Kings Island, leaving in the evening. However, with Orion coming in 2020, two days will likely be necessary to cover all of Kings Island; The Beast's night rides are legendary, so I highly recommend staying late on at least one of your days at Kings Island.

4. Cedar Point definitely requires 2 days at minimum - I spent a full day here from opening to closing, followed by the next morning and afternoon for re-rides and getting remaining credits. I did quite enjoy Cedar Point Shores, as it wasn't as crowded as Cedar Point itself, and the beach-side setting sets it apart from every other water park I've been to - I visited this waterpark for the afternoon of my first day. As for staying late at Cedar Point? Maverick and Millennium Force have great rides from my experience, and I've heard that Steel Vengeance does too.

If you plan on doing the water parks, then two days is practically a necessity for each park.
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Thanks a lot Kw6sTheater,

We don't want to do water parks, our local park has a big water park, so we don't care to do water rides on those parks. We really don't want to do any flat rides or any mediocre ride either. We are doing this trip only to ride the best 2 or 3 rollercoasters at each park, we want to only ride the fastest, smoothest and tallest. We were thinking in two days at Carowinds to be able to ride Fury 325 as much as possible, but maybe one day from rope drop to closing is enough
 
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Pear said:
1. Kings Dominion is very easily doable in 1 day and you should be able to get everything you want and multiple rerides.

2. Carowinds is the same as KD, but might be a little busier. Fast Lane might help, but the park does not need 2 days.

3. Kings Island is doable in less than a day and honestly isn't worth more than that unless you like mediocrity.

4. 2-3 days at Cedar Point is definitely worth it as it's a big park and will probably be pretty crowded this summer.
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Thanks Pear with all these one day per park, we could easily do it all in less time, the only issue is that we want to visit Cedar Point on August Tues 25 - Wed 26, because is the last week of August, so we can experience an emptier park, since the kids from Ohio should be back to school by then. I'm concerned that some of those other parks like Carowinds, may no open during week days on the last weeks of August. I'm waiting for the hours to be posted at each park website, so I can make changes to the hotels. but I guess they may do it at the end of January.
 
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Carowinds is usually closed the Monday - Thursday before Labor Day

Cedar Point is nice to have two days at, but it's not a requirement IMO but then again I'm an Ohio native -- if you're able to leave a 2nd day option kinda flexible that's probably best due to the temperamental weather of Lake Erie and sensitivity of Cedar Point's big ticket attractions to said weather. But barring any weather obstacles it wouldn't be a time crunch to do one day
 
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Mack said:
Carowinds is usually closed the Monday - Thursday before Labor Day

Cedar Point is nice to have two days at, but it's not a requirement IMO but then again I'm an Ohio native -- if you're able to leave a 2nd day option kinda flexible that's probably best due to the temperamental weather of Lake Erie and sensitivity of Cedar Point's big ticket attractions to said weather. But barring any weather obstacles it wouldn't be a time crunch to do one day
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Thanks for the info Mark! btw when is labor day? I'm driving down from Toronto, so our holidays are different
 
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