How do you people do it?

Posts have proved that you people have been to so many amusement parks. How much free time do you have? I have been to 4 different parks in my life!

They're fans (short for fanatics) and it's something they feel passionate about so they are willing to go the extra mile so to speak. They (I assume) plan their holidays around parks, like I plan my holidays around landscapes or historical value

Man that must cost money to do that!!! To tell you the truth ride rollercoasters

[Xzentrificenceo]

Well I live in So. Cal. There are quite a few parks in the area. I visit SFMM about once a month.

The closest park to my area is SF Marine World. But That is still a whole 90 miles and I dont drive! Hey Xzentri... do you know of any parks in the Sacramento area???

[Xzentrificenceo]

Well SFMW(which I am goign to next month) is probably the closest to you. There is also a Paramount park in San Jose. That is about it that I can think of up in that area.





PS You can just call me Xman. <--original screenname.

SFMW the closest one

ok Xman easier to spell

[Xzentrificenceo]

But it is a nice little park. Probably one of SFI's best kept secrets. Roar is a nice wooden coaster. Kong is ok not much to it. But they have begun a nice little collection of rides. They have Medusa a great floorless, V2 and they just added Zonga which looks like fun. It is an up and coming park. Well worth the hour drive for you. I know the speed limit is 65 but this is CALI. where 65 = 80mph.

[Harpo]

Well, I'm probably the person here with the most amusement park experience (4 year total = 392 coasters in 115 parks), so I'll see if I can tackle this question!

First of all, for expense, it helps to obtain appropriate season passes. The passes for Cedar Fair and Six Flags are reasonably priced and are good at all their parks. The Busch and Disney season passes, however, are rather expensive unless you live close enough to one of their parks to visit frequently.

Also, it's important to keep in mind that a lot of these parks are rather small. Many have one or two coasters. Those parks can be visited in just a couple of hours.

It also helps to live in the right area. From my home near Detroit, I can easily do weekend (or possibly day) trips to Cedar Point, Michigan's Adventure, Canada's Wonderland, Six Flags Worlds of Adventure, Kings Island, LeSourdsville Lake, Coney Island (Ohio), Wyandotte Lake, Indiana Beach, or Six Flags Great America. It's a little bit tougher, but it would also be possible to do a weekend trip (although a 3 day weekend would be better) to Kennywood Park, Lakemont Park, Waldameer Park, Conneaut Lake Park, ValleyFair, Holiday World, Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom, and, possibly, HersheyPark.

I'll often do weekend trips in the spring and/or fall. Then, I'll take a summer road trip (usually taking off 7 or 8 working days, and incorporating 2 weekends). I've done that type of trip for the past 4 years. The Northeast U.S. is a great place to take such a trip, as there are lots of parks reasonably close together. On my first trip, in 2000, I focused on Pennsylvania, hitting 11 parks in that state, plus 2 in Ohio. The next year, I finished off the other Northeastern states. In 2002, I did the Southeastern states (except Florida). This year, I visited the South-Central region.

Additionally, for the past few years, I've taken an extended weekend during the winter to visit the L.A. area, plus another extended weekend to visit either Las Vegas or Florida.

Yes, it does tend to be a bit expensive. That's part of why I started in 2000. I've been working as an electrical engineer since 1992. After 8 years of very hard work, I had enough of an income (including investment income) to be able to pay for these trips.

Time is a bit tricky. However, it helps that I've now been with the same company for over 10 years. Last year and this year, I had 4 weeks of vacation.

I couldn't have done these trips 10 years ago -- I didn't have the time or the finances. Also, my trips go at a very fast pace. As a result, I can't really be certain that I'll be physically up to such a thing 10 years from now. Besides, if luck is with me, I'll have found the right person to be my wife! I won't completely give up coasters for her, but I would be willing to give up these rather extreme coaster trips for the right woman! (I'm a highly competitive person. For all the other activities I do, while I enjoy them, they tend to add stress to my life. Roller coaster riding is the ONLY thing I've found that reduces my stress level. As a result, I'll still need to have a few days at Cedar Point!)

If you have any questions, I'd be glad to attempt to answer them. I hope this explanation has helped a bit!

i am too young to go on my own or i would have been to more parks, that i know of-i've only been to 5 parks and rode around 15coasters.

[Frito]

I would love to be able to do what Harpo does, but I'm in the position he was in. Not enough vacation time and not enough pay to take those trips.
I did do a PKI, CP, BGW trip in 2000. I left Richmond, VA on a Sunday morning and arrived at PKI around 5p. I pitched a tent at thier campground for $14 per night for 2 nights ($28, using AAA discount) which the campground gave me a coupon that allowed me to purchase PKI tickets for the next day for a cheaper price than AAA could give me, as well as $5 tickets for the remainder of that night (about 6 hours at this point). So I spent Sunday night and all day Monday at PKI.
I then traveled to Lorain, OH, where I have relatives, on Tuesday, spent the day doing whatever with them. Then we went to CP on Wednesday, using AAA discount (which was about $15 off the gate price). Packed lunch and dinner in a cooler to keep us from buying food and drinks at the park.
On Thursday we came home to Richmond, VA and decided to go to BGW on Friday. Again packing lunch and dinner. One of my friends had a sister that worked at BGW so she got us really cheap tickets and parking passes.
All in all, we spent less than $100 each for 3 parks that week, including lodging at PKI and travel expenses. For the really cash strapped, I suggest you not eat at fast-food places when traveling, take a coolers that are well insulated, stock it with whatever you want. Just make sure you stop for ice when needed, which isn't that often if you have the right kind of cooler. You don't even have to pack everything you need for the whole week. Remember, there are grocery stores near parks as well.

[Frito]

I've been to 7 parks (Walt Disney World if you count that as a park, SFoG, BGW, PKD, PKI, Geagua Lake which is now known as SFWoA, and CP). I'm to tired right now to count how many coasters that make, I'm guessing about 75, but it's probably more.
I'm planning on adding SFA, SFDL, Hersey Park and Kennywood. SFA sometime this summer, the others I'm planning on the other 3 along with PKI, SFWoA and CP, maybe more.
Anyone in the Richmond, VA area want to go to SFA sometime this summer, let me know.

Man. You are lucky. I dont get to do that even, I cant drive and my parents aren't big about going to amusement parks.

[Squid2]

Okay, I'm a big rollercoaster fan, theme park fan, and I've got extensive knowledge of coasters, mostly from fan sites and rcdb. However, I've only been to two theme parks in my life, Six Flags Over Georgia and Busch Gardens Williamsburg. I've got tentative plans to visit several more, but right now I lack the resources to do so. However, this lack of riding coasters does not prevent me from being a coaster fan.

Squid2

The truth is that I dont and havent ridden a Roller Coaster before. And am a little scared to .

See i can take a lot of things but I cant take motion quite well. Some reason going fast on a spinning ride (like the scrambler but the ride is just spinning and you cars not) and love thrill rides. I can take rides like the log plumes, that you go down a 35 ft. Incline to the ground level again.

But the things I cant take are sharp turns and hills. Well I am not exactly sure but I can get carsick going over the sierra nevadas at 20mph. I would want to go on a coaster but i think I might get sick.

Plus were would I start on one. The closest park I know is SFMW and that has the Medusa, Roar, Boomerang, V2, and that upcoming one, Zonga.

[Harpo]

I'm not sure if this will help or not...

I used to be absolutely terrified of roller coasters. I simply wouldn't go on them. When I was 15 years old (i.e. 21 years ago!), I promised my best friend that I'd ride Gemini with him. At the time, Gemini was Cedar Point's largest coaster. Well, I was more than a little nervous -- I'm told I looked totally pale! I gripped onto those grab bars tighter than anything I've ever grabbed in my life. (My handprints are permanently embedded in the bars.) (Note: When I made that promise to my friend, I really sort of expected to start with the smaller coasters and work up, but my friend and my family decided that Gemini would be the first ride of the day, hence being my first major coaster. Prior to that, I had been on Space Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, and Cedar Creek Mine Ride, but those are quite small in comparison to Gemini.)

After getting off the ride, I decided I rather liked it. (However I needed a bit of a rest to let my heart rate slow down to a mere 250 beats per minute!) By the end of that day, I had been on all of Cedar Point's coasters. Now, all these years later, you can't keep me off the things! My biggest fear successfully turned into my biggest passion.

My recommendation: Just head for the biggest coaster near you, and (at the risk of sounding like a Nike commercial) just do it. If you don't like it, you never have to do it again. If you do like it, you've done the biggest at the park, hence the others will be easy.

If you can handle the spin-n-go-puke rides like Scrambler, I would expect that you can probably handle the motion on the coasters. Be sure to keep your eyes open, and watch the track. The visual feedback will help your mind and body to adjust to the motion.

Good luck!

Car sickness is an inner ear problem, one part of your body is registering movement while another part isn't. The way to most effectively combat that is by focusing on the horizon while sitting in a car. (which is why only passengers get car sick, the driver is paying attention to stuff outside the car)

Wear loose clothing, drink plenty of fluids and eat nongreasy stuff to combat stomachproblems, don't focus on the track you are sitting in but the real world instead.

Look at the coaster as you cue up and imagine what ratings it would get in RCT2, you know the stats for a lot of SF rides already so you can compare.

First of all, for expense, it helps to obtain appropriate season passes. The passes for Cedar Fair and Six Flags are reasonably

did you mentiona season pass to six flags is good in all six flags parks? I dont know about cedar far though, can you tell me if their season pass is goo in all cedar fair parks??

[Top Thrill Drag]

yes, a cedar fair park's pass works at all the other cedar fair parks

thanks for the response Top Thrill.
how many different parks do they have.
So if you buy season passes then your cost of the trip will go to fuel, lodging and food.

[Top Thrill Drag]

They have six major amusement parks:
Knott's Berry Farm
Valleyfair
Worlds of Fun
Michigan's Adventure
Cedar Point
Dorney Park

I am going to cp at the end of july. July 21st i believe. I have never been what do you suggest heading to first

That helps. But I am still not sure. I look at the the coasters and they seem to intense. What Rides at SFMW have no loops. I would like to start without that.

[Top Thrill Drag]

I'd say get in line for Top Thrill Dragster (if its open) first thing. I probably wont have as long a ride if u run there right when the park opens. However, if it isnt open, id recommend starting in the back of the park with Mean Streak and work your way to the front of the park because rides in the front of the park like Raptor and Wicked Twister always have their longest lines early in the day and their shortest at the end.

hihogo here and look around. this is for marine world in san fran


top thrill apreciate the info when i go to sfog I usually head for dejavu first (whenj running) or superman

[Xzentrificenceo]

Well hiho I would say start with Roar. It is a wooden coaster and has no inversions. Then perhaps Kong after that. It is a pretty short inverted coaster, don't recall how many inverts it has but it is not very intense.

Hmm. I dont get to go to amusement parks like SFMW because, of my parents say it is too expensive. The next time I could go to a park would be at the Boardwalk. It'll be with my grandparents and maybe I will try their Woodie "The Big Dipper"

I get carsick, but coasters don't bother me. I think you'll be fine, it's quite a rush.

I dont know. Would it matter on how intese the ride is?

[IEATPASTE001]

Well this is the first year of having a season pass to Cedar Fair parks, and it has been a blast! i have had so much fun my girl and i went out and go season passes to SFI parks as well! I have been to Cedar Point over 12 times i believe it is around 14 now, and i am going to MiA again, and this friday i am going to SFOhio and CP again, Getting the right season passes and living in the right area is the true secret.