Memorial Day Weekend Plans

[Harpo]

Have you got any coaster riding plans for Memorial Day Weekend?

It's still a bit up in the air for me, but I made hotel reservations yesterday, so it looks pretty likely. I'm planning on visiting Kennywood Park on Friday, Dorney Park on Saturday, SF Great Adventure on Sunday, and, if the drive is going well and I'm not too tired, I might pop into Knoebels for an hour or so on Monday.

My wife is hoping she'll be able to go, too, but is still uncertain. At Great Adventure, I plan on meeting up with a friend from London who I met due to my Cedar Point Virtual Tour website.

[Alpengeist]

Good luck with Great Adventure, Harpo.;)

As far as plans go, I was going to head up to BGW till I remembered it was a holiday weekend with a new coaster. Not the best combination, so I'll wait a little longer to go.:( My next trip won't be for a few weeks. I'll be heading up to Kings Dominion to get that Italian Job credit. I guess my Florida trip from a couple weeks ago will have to hold me over till then.;)

[SnooSnoo]

Have fun with all that Harpo. I'll be at home, most likely drinking with friends. haha

[Squid2]

Hey, Alpie, you think you could still do your plans for BGE? The fiancee and I are planning on hitting BGE this weekend, as we don't think we can do it until October otherwise. It'd be great to finally meet you!

Squid2

[icutoo]

I'm going to Fl. to see my folks. They're an hour north of Orlando but, I'm not going anywhere near the over crowded mess that will be WDW.

[BoRJoYZeE]

Driving to California for this Summer. I will do a 3 day night stay at Disneyland.

[kylr23]

ill be working at a amusment park in oob maine palice play land:D :up:

[Hemmy]

Begin my road trip to Cedar Point.

Wont be there until after Memorial day though

[Darth Gilbert]

I'll be taking Cedar Point Vacation 2 with my son and his friend. We'll be driving down early Saturday morning and staying until Monday evening. I'll try to ride the one coaster I missed on opening weekend, Top Thrill Dragster. We'll probably spend alot of time in Soak City as well...

Harpo, that's alot of mileage for one weekend. I wish I could visit as many parks as you do. One of my issues is I always like spending multiple days at parks I visit, so my trips usually cost a fortune. Well, I haven't been to any of the parks on your agenda. Maybe I'll take a weeklong cruise through Pennsylvania one of these times and add a few to my resume...

[new2this]

you HAVE to go on griffon

[xXGrimReaperXx]

Hell no, I'm pretty sure the parks will be packed. :|

[Harpo]

DG, assuming the parks aren't swamped, one day is easily enough for Kennywood, Dorney Park, Waldameer Park, or Knoebels. While I also like staying multiple days at a park, I really feel those parks are one day visits.

My last time to Great Adventure (in 2001), there were 9 rides closed, including 3 coasters. So, as it turned out, 1 day was sufficient for that park, too. If they've got everything open, then I could see it as a 1.5 day park.

Now, I don't frequently go to the water parks, so that also makes a difference. I enjoy water parks, but I prefer the roller coasters, so I'll usually only go to the water parks if I have some spare time after doing all the rides. Dorney has a very good water park, so, if you really enjoy the water parks, then you could spend 2 days at Dorney.

Grim: from my experience, 3 day holiday weekends are generally nowhere near as busy as people expect (probably because everyone expects it to be very busy). For that reason, Memorial Day weekend and Labor Day weekend are actually good times to take such a trip. The busiest day is usually the middle day of the 3 day weekend, but even that day is nowhere near as busy as a mid-summer Saturday.

[Albert Caine]

Islands of adventure
The Incredible Hulk coaster
Dueling Dragons
Universal Studios
Revenge of the Mummy

[IEATPASTE001]

I will probably be getting wasted and playing Halo 3 or Catan.

[Hemmy]

Maverick OPEN!!!

that is my real plan

[Darth Gilbert]

Fate has intervened and I will be at Cedar Point for Maverick's opening day, though not until noonish. I applaud CP for getting this issue resolved so quickly...

Harpo, I hope you've made last minute changes to your agenda. You can't justify visiting a Six Flags park on Maverick's opening weekend. :D Although you said you were going to Kennywood on Friday, so you may already be on your way...

[jaronamo70]

An amuesment park? on memorial day? dont think so, i like riding more than one ride when i go to parks!

[Harpo]

I got the news of Maverick's opening too late to alter my plans. I made a slight alteration in order to visit CP on my way home on Monday night, and got to the park just in time to see Maverick break down.

Oh well. I had a great time at all the parks I visited, and the waits were generally quite short. Most of the crowds arrived in the evening, after the water parks closed. (Saturday at Dorney was great from both a coaster rider's perspective and a shareholder's perspective. For most of the day, there was zero wait for any coaster, but the parking lot had a lot of cars in it. Most of the people were at the water park. When the water park closed at 7 PM, then the amusement park became swamped with people, but I'd already ridden everything I wanted to ride, so it didn't matter.)

Great Adventure was much better than on my last visit. Instead of 9 rides closed (as on my last visit), there was only 1 ride closed. For Six Flags, that's about as close to perfect as I ever expect to see! That park is outrageously expensive. I thought it was interesting that Kingda Ka is so much bumpier for the entire ride than Top Thrill Dragster. In my opinion, because of the rough ride of Kingda Ka, it is my opinion that Dragster is a far superior coaster. El Toro is a very good and smooth coaster. With its upward stresses in some spots, however, I really wonder if it'll remain good. If Six Flags isn't remarkably vigilant with their maintenance, I could see that coaster becoming horribly brutal within a couple of years. I hope they keep it in well maintained, but I've not come to expect good maintenance from Six Flags, so I'm skeptical about how long it'll be before El Toro goes from excellent coaster to migraine-producer.

[Alpengeist]

I'm glad to hear you had a good time and liked El Toro, Harpo.

As far as the upward stresses, I don't think it's much different than Balder or Colossos. ...and from what I hear they are both still very smooth, so I guess time will tell. ...or should I say Six Flags will tell.;)