What Are You Most Excited About for the 2019 Season?

It's all about going to parks that I haven't been to for a real long time. In June, it will be Kennywood and Canada's Wonderland. In July, it will be Carowinds, Kings Dominion, Busch Gardens Williamsburg, and Dollywood. There are also some small parks in those areas that I have not gone to. The two in the north that I'm a little excited about are Marineland and Fantasy Island. In the south, I'm a little excited about new things in the Pigeon Forge / Gatlinburg / Cherokee area.

That's awesome that you're going to Cedar Point for the first time! I've only been once and yes, it was overwhelming! Coaster after coaster after coaster. Take your time that day, there are plenty of things to ride!

As for myself, I just want to get to parks this year more OFTEN. I'm going to good ol' Great Adventure this Saturday (5/4) and I'm stoked!

Would loveeee to get to a NEW park this year, however that means probably a far trip that may not be in the cards. We shall see!

mugen828 said:

That's awesome that you're going to Cedar Point for the first time! I've only been once and yes, it was overwhelming! Coaster after coaster after coaster. Take your time that day, there are plenty of things to ride!

As for myself, I just want to get to parks this year more OFTEN. I'm going to good ol' Great Adventure this Saturday (5/4) and I'm stoked!

Thanks for the advice. I am super excited! I can see Great Adventure is your home park. I've never been there, but I have done some research. What do you think of it?

theRock-steel said:

It's all about going to parks that I haven't been to for a real long time. In June, it will be Kennywood and Canada's Wonderland. In July, it will be Carowinds, Kings Dominion, Busch Gardens Williamsburg, and Dollywood. There are also some small parks in those areas that I have not gone to. The two in the north that I'm a little excited about are Marineland and Fantasy Island. In the south, I'm a little excited about new things in the Pigeon Forge / Gatlinburg / Cherokee area.

Nice. Kennywood's my home park, but you honestly can only go there so many times. I'm guessing you'll be visiting for Steel Curtain?

Also, I hope that those 'small parks' you'll be checking out include Waldameer and Conneaut. Love those places!

CenturyFlyer said:

mugen828 said:

That's awesome that you're going to Cedar Point for the first time! I've only been once and yes, it was overwhelming! Coaster after coaster after coaster. Take your time that day, there are plenty of things to ride!

As for myself, I just want to get to parks this year more OFTEN. I'm going to good ol' Great Adventure this Saturday (5/4) and I'm stoked!

Thanks for the advice. I am super excited! I can see Great Adventure is your home park. I've never been there, but I have done some research. What do you think of it?

Never been? Nice!

SFGadv is an awesome park. It's definitely gone down in quality and care in the years I've been going, but it's one of the best Six Flags in my opinion.

Big 3:

- Nitro - B&M hyper goodness
- El Toro - laser cut wood track, intense
- Kinga Ka - nuff said

- Floorless, Standup, Inverted, Flying, 4th dimension types

It's top 3 are worth the trip alone in my opinion.

Never been? Nice!

SFGadv is an awesome park. It's definitely gone down in quality and care in the years I've been going, but it's one of the best Six Flags in my opinion.

Great Adventure definitely does look like one of the best Six Flags. America, on the other hand, doesn't look as hot. I'm not getting my hopes up for anything amazing when it comes to quality, but at least there's two wooden coasters. The reason I might go there as opposed to Great Adventure is because I'll be visiting relatives in the area.

Have fun tomorrow!

Hearing this talk of new parks and parks not visited for a while got me thinking about our upcoming travels. We'll be hitting many parks we haven't visited recently, plus a couple small ones for the first time.

But first to answer the subject line ... I'm most excited about the possibility of running into old friends along the way, as we're including some events in our travels.

First up is just a week away now. We'll be at the ACE Preservation Conference at Kentucky Kingdom and Camden Park next weekend. It's been 4 years since we've been to Kentucky Kingdom, and 12 years since our only visit to Camden. We're also throwing in 2 days at Cedar Point (has it been 16 years?), and visits with a cousin and a family friend.

Next trip after that will be early June in the Jersey area, winding up at the NAPHA event at Morey's Piers June 7-8, and Playland's Castaway Cove June 9 as it's been 13 years since we've been to those parks. We'll also hit some other Jersey Shore parks like Casino Pier as well as Coney Island (it's been 11 years for those) and Adventureland (never been). And of course a return to Six Flags Great Adventure. We're still hammering out the details for the start of the trip the previous weekend.

If we're still alive after all that, we will make the drive down to southern California for the ACE Coaster Con at Magic Mountain and Knott's Berry Farm June 16-20. We go to those parks a fair amount, so that will be mostly for socializing. Well okay, and the ERT as well :-)

That's what's definite so far, though we're also looking at the ACE Summer Conference in Maine and New Hampshire in late July (8 years since we've been there). And I'm really hoping for a return to Phoenix Phall Phunfest at Knoebels in October (3 years since the last one), but those plans are pending a nephew's wedding that may be this fall (keeping fingers crossed they choose a different weekend).

Yikes, that took longer than I thought ... I think I better go crawl back into my cave now.

Rick

CenturyFlyer said:

theRock-steel said:

It's all about going to parks that I haven't been to for a real long time. In June, it will be Kennywood and Canada's Wonderland. In July, it will be Carowinds, Kings Dominion, Busch Gardens Williamsburg, and Dollywood. There are also some small parks in those areas that I have not gone to. The two in the north that I'm a little excited about are Marineland and Fantasy Island. In the south, I'm a little excited about new things in the Pigeon Forge / Gatlinburg / Cherokee area.

Nice. Kennywood's my home park, but you honestly can only go there so many times. I'm guessing you'll be visiting for Steel Curtain?

Also, I hope that those 'small parks' you'll be checking out include Waldameer and Conneaut. Love those places!

I am not sure that Steel Curtain will be open (you know that it's from S&S). Actually, it's been a while so I miss Jack Rabbit, Phantom's Revenge, and Sky Rocket.

I live in Florida, but I'm originally from Ohio. Anyway, last year I drove to SFOG, Kings Island, and Cedar Point to ride their newest coasters. After that, I finished the big loop to head home by going to Waldameer, Conneaut Lake, and Camden Park (West Virginia). Those three small parks had things to offer that I had not been on before.

Going to be a busy year for us- mostly summer, but not quite all.

May 20-23 We're going to the Ark Encounter, St. Louis zoo and Six Flags St. Louis.

mid July I'll be up in KC and may try to sneak over to Worlds of Fun if I can find some cheap tickets.

End of July and first part of August we'll be in Florida- WDW of course, but also should be able to visit Busch Gardens and Sea World for the first time in close to 10 years. Very excited about that. And try to visit some of the smaller attractions in the area as well, like Fun Spot.

Will be stopping at Six Flags over Georgia on the way home- Aug 6 I believe.

August 17th is Coasting for Kids at Frontier City, raising money for Give Kids the World

And first week in October we'll be at Disneyland for the first time in 15 years. Star Wars!!

* This post was modified at 5/4/19 11:09:56 AM *

AirBear, sounds like a fun season! I've heard great things about Phoenix Phall Phunfest

theRock-steel, Camden Park is on my list - it has some striking similarities to Conneaut Lake Park.

SirWillow, enjoy Disneyland! I'm also hoping to visit Six Flags America with Coasting for Kids.

CenturyFlyer - I think that Camden is a little bit better than Conneaut Lake. The old rides are in better shape. It has some new things like a SBF compact family spinning coaster and some thrilling flat rides.

I was looking forward to another exciting thing this summer, but I just rode it. Busch Gardens Tampa is my favorite park in my home state of Florida. In May, things are slow here because the kids are still in school. Tigris was just a station wait. The restraints are a problem getting into but you don't feel them on the ride.

theRock-steel said:

CenturyFlyer - I think that Camden is a little bit better than Conneaut Lake. The old rides are in better shape. It has some new things like a SBF compact family spinning coaster and some thrilling flat rides.

Good to hear. I guess a less turbulent history results in better things for a park.

AirBear said:

Hearing this talk of new parks and parks not visited for a while got me thinking about our upcoming travels. We'll be hitting many parks we haven't visited recently, plus a couple small ones for the first time.

But first to answer the subject line ... I'm most excited about the possibility of running into old friends along the way, as we're including some events in our travels.

First up is just a week away now. We'll be at the ACE Preservation Conference at Kentucky Kingdom and Camden Park next weekend. It's been 4 years since we've been to Kentucky Kingdom, and 12 years since our only visit to Camden. We're also throwing in 2 days at Cedar Point (has it been 16 years?), and visits with a cousin and a family friend.

Next trip after that will be early June in the Jersey area, winding up at the NAPHA event at Morey's Piers June 7-8, and Playland's Castaway Cove June 9 as it's been 13 years since we've been to those parks. We'll also hit some other Jersey Shore parks like Casino Pier as well as Coney Island (it's been 11 years for those) and Adventureland (never been). And of course a return to Six Flags Great Adventure. We're still hammering out the details for the start of the trip the previous weekend.

If we're still alive after all that, we will make the drive down to southern California for the ACE Coaster Con at Magic Mountain and Knott's Berry Farm June 16-20. We go to those parks a fair amount, so that will be mostly for socializing. Well okay, and the ERT as well :-)

That's what's definite so far, though we're also looking at the ACE Summer Conference in Maine and New Hampshire in late July (8 years since we've been there). And I'm really hoping for a return to Phoenix Phall Phunfest at Knoebels in October (3 years since the last one), but those plans are pending a nephew's wedding that may be this fall (keeping fingers crossed they choose a different weekend).

Yikes, that took longer than I thought ... I think I better go crawl back into my cave now.

Rick

Dang Rick! That is quite the action packed season. I liked the "if we're still alive after all that" part!

All this amusement park talk has me really hankering to get somewhere new! :)

Yeah, this is one of those crazy years where we're doing 3 trips in about 7 weeks. It didn't start out that way, as we were looking to go to Europe. But those plans weren't coming together, so we decided to celebrate 20 years since joining ACE and NAPHA by building some trips around events. You can't beat ERT riding with friends :-)

As for the "if we're still alive" ... well, at 64 we're not exactly young-uns anymore. Not really sure what we are, but we're happy to be out there riding still.

Rick

It's interesting that my name is Rick and I am 65 now. My birthday is in early July, so I will be even older before a big trip with many parks before the summer ends.