it's January. PA/NJ is cold, grey, and bleak at this time of the year. by the middle of February I will be going stir crazy and ready to cut someone's throat if I don't go on a trip (luckily we're going to CA at the end of Feb).

regardless, spring will be here soon and I need to start planning out this years trip schedule.

please alert me of any amusement parks, gaudy tourist traps, or roadside attractions in your area that I may have overlooked or whose existence I was unaware of.

thanks

Pittsburgh, PA (& surroundings)

Kennywood amusement park
Idlewild amusement park ( more so for youngins) used to have Mr. Rogers neighborhood shits
Sandcastle waterpark

The Warhol Museum - of course.

We have bodies exhibit now until may at the science center

paramount king's dominion - richmond, VA
paramount carowinds - charlotte, NC
dollywood - somewhere in eastern mountains, TN
six flags over GA

and there is a country doctor museum in zebulon, nc that is supposed to kinda cool

I need to go back to Kennywood. it's been years. I should have gone at Halloween.

I'd actually like to go up to some of those parks near Erie this summer.


Dollywood is definitely on the list. been to King's Dominion (it's in VA actually).

Pickle, is Carowinds worth going to? I mean, all roller coasters are worth riding but....

you guys are coming to stay with us and go to Canobie Lake and Six Flags this summer right?

oops i typed NC instead of VA

carowinds isnt as big as kings dominion as far as i know

lots of rednecks there - and you'll see random hanna barbera characters walking around like fred flintstone or huckleberry hound... that's how it used to be anyway. i havent been in years

actually, you could go to busch gardens in williamsburg which is nicer than carowinds and closer to you

i went to dollywood years ago when it was making the transition from silver dollar city.

oh, if you are headed to NC, you could always try a visit to the grandfather mountain area... blowing rock and tweetsie railroad and stuff like that. they are all within an hour of one another. then charlotte is only a couple hours from there

i used to love tweetsie as a kid - tiny little amusement park and it has a train ride you can take where cowboys and indians get into fights. somewhere i still have the sheriff badge and lucky horseshoe i bought there

Astroworld.....oh I mean Astrofield.

I heard Dollyworld was actually pretty good. I just got back from Disneyworld and it was awesome.

yes

shit. i knew we should have gone last season:
I hope they don't change anything (yet)


Kennywood Park sold to Spanish firm

Date: 12/11/2007
Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Kennywood is being sold.

The families that own the park have agreed to sell the amusement park and Sandcastle to the Spanish-based company Parques Reunidos.

The company owns amusements parks throughout Europe and entered the U.S. market this year by purchasing water parks.

Employees of the company were told this morning at a meeting at the Bradley House of Catering in Baldwin Borough, according to a company spokes woman.

The companies expect to close on the deal in March.

that said, coaster nerds. join this board and we'll compare stats: www.coasterfanatics.com

here's my ride list.
http://www.coasterfanatics.com/sec_memb ... ?id=105082

they already plan to take out one of the dark rides which had its last season this past year

dollywood is entertaining to say the least....

the coasters are OK....

if you are only going for coasters/rides,,you may be a little let-down....

but the experience as a whole & the souvenir shop make it worthwhile...

i am off to euro disney this may/june..looking forward to that!!

i say let's resurrect action park in nj,,,those waterslides were some of the best!!!

one of these days I'll get over there where you live and go to Alton Towers. not sure why, but it's always been one of my most-wanted-to-attend parks

Not much...
We've got Oaks Park in SE Portland. And there's Wild Waves several hours north of here. I think there's a water park in one of the suburbs around here.
Oh, and there's the Enchanted Forest south of Salem!
I think that's about it. None of them worth traveling for.

if you ever head over to the uk,,,i would gladly join in for a trip up to staffordshire...i think alton towers is the only major park over here...

i have never been to a park in the UK (minus the coasters on the brighton & blackpool piers)....

Alton Towers is ok, has a few good rides Oblivion being one of them (suspends you for a few secs then drops you at a 90 degree angle)

Theres also Chessington http://www.chessington.co.uk/

I've seen video footage on Nemesis, the hanging coaster they have there. I think it looks cool with that alien theme.

Nemesis is really good, but its getting on a bit now. The biggest problem for Alton Towers is theres a height limit on how tall they can build the rides, so a lot of them go underground.

They also have a ride called Air where you fly round on your stomach like Superman. Last time I went a very disgusting thing happened on that ride. As we were going round the first corner a friend next to me sneezed and big piece of stringy snot came out of his nose and was swinging away, because of the way your arms are he couldn't reach it to wipe it. Then theres a point where you swivel and end up on your back, as it did so the big stringy snot swung violently in the air and slapped him straight on the forehead! He had to ride the last part of Air with snot all over his face

I guess all we have left in the SF Bay Area is Great America, which I haven't been to since 1977 so I'm totally unqualified to review it at this point. However if you like old-fashioned amusement park-ness, the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk has a fantastic old wooden roller coaster called The Big Dipper that everyone loves. There's also a building with antique arcade games as well as some carnival style "dark rides," etc. I like it for its "lost in time" atmosphere.

I miss Frontier Village in San Jose, a truly great one-off amusement park that got booted by stupid neighbors who moved in and whined and whined about the amusement park in their midst. The owner finally relented and shut it down in the early 80s. Great memories of the old west theme, a beautiful ferris wheel, excellent miniature railroad, fishing pond and horse rides, and best of all, a haunted mine ride that scared little kids and delighted big kids. I can still hear the witch drowning in the psychedelic whirlpool, when I think about it.

I unfortunately didn't get out to Santa Cruz last time I was out there.



that all sounds utterly fantastic

you'll totally love euro disney jeb. i'm excited to go back at some point myself.

i'm looking forward to hitting up our local parks this summer, and Tokyo Disney at the end of the year.

Isn't Marine World still around up in Vallejo? I think that falls under the Theme Park category...but what do I know, I really don't care much for theme parks. Where have all the video parlors gone (as in video games...I think the term "parlor" has become something else now)? Rock Band ps3 anyone?

that marine world in vallejo is now a 6 flags, i went in april. it was alright, a couple of good rides but i don't have much to compare to except rainbows end in auckland, new zealand which sucks a hell of a lot

also would be keen to go to euro disney, will hopefully go in may!