This made me actually LOL at work! Thanks, Parka!

There's a 6 Flags America in the Washington DC, Baltimore area, its near Annapolis MD. Good waterpark and some rollercoasters to enjoy.

http://www.sixflags.com/america/

yeah,,i am psyched for euro disney...

Just south of Minneapolis in Shakopee, MN is ValleyFair. Pretty good coasters and yummy funnel cakes. Been going there since I was a kid.
http://www.valleyfair.com/

A few hours east of Minneapolis in Wisconsin is Wisconsin Dells. I highly recommend it if you're anywhere between Minneapolis and Chicago. They have some coasters but the real fun is the go-karts. Unlike any go-kart experience I've ever had. Multi-level wooden tracks (one with a giant trojan horse you go through.
http://www.mtolympuspark.com/outdoor_theme/index.htm

Does the Las Vegas strip count as an amusement park?
Or maybe it is the opposite haha

Anyway, I finally get a chance to go up to the top of the Stratosphere this weekend.
Not sure if I'll have the chutzpah to take on the rides though. Plus it's gonna be cold as a mofo up there

Belmont Park, has a roller coaster thats over 100 years old.

The site you want is http://rcdb.com/

This lists every operating roller coaster in the world (and many defunct ones too).

You can search for parks by area, find parks that are near other parks, see details on all the coasters in a park, and see pictures of all the coasters.

The Belmont Park coaster, the Giant Dipper, is not 100 years old. It opened in 1925, and isn't even the oldest operating coaster in California--that would be the Giant Dipper in Santa Cruz (1924). There *is* an operating coaster that is over 100 years old...Leap-the-Dips (1902) at Lakemont Park in Altoona, PA.

(There's a reason my board name is coasterbear.)

If you mean the Giant Dipper yep, we rode it in August, It opened in 1925 though, so its got a bit before it reaches 100. It was a really weird ride.

but nothing beats this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leap-The-Dips

which we rode in the fall. Leap the Dips opened in 1902! intense.

haha i obviously didn't read coasterbear's post.

are you in ACE?

We are in this picture!


find us!

thanks for the link to that database, had to add it to my faves.....

and i see you in the picture.....right...over.... there.....yeah....with the face.....right there......uh huh.....

this thread is making me wish that my kids were older so that we could ride some coasters together......they are only 4 and 6 now.....so it'll be a few years.....gots to love them coasters.....

thanks for bringing back some fine memories.....

a year or two ago I went on Hypersonic XLC @ Kings Dominion in Virginia.....by far my favorite coaster experience ever. I just did a little research and it looks like they've given up on that ride. I heard it was down for repairs a lot. I'm not really a coaster freak...in fact I don't really like most of them, for some reason I really loved this one. I think it was probably because of the technology which this coaster used, I found it to be less rough & less jarring than other coasters.

Busch Gardens in Williamsburg Va.is a great place to visit,good food,beer and the coaster's kick ass! Stayed a week there this past summer and I will go back for sure..They have the worlds tallest dive coaster called the Griffon and it's a beast!

I used to live in Williamsburg. There's a secret "military" base there...heh...if you take the wrong exit into williamsburg you will find it...they will probably very quickly tell you to turn around shockingly, while i was there, I never went to BG. But many years later I went there, great rollercoasters. Loved the Griffon actually..not too rough

playland comes to mind.
and of course 6 flags...

HAHAHA! gabba! Nice work! i could barely find us, and I was there!

they sold it to another park, but I can't remember which. it is a really good coaster, but since it's opening there are now similar coasters at other parks that take the same concept but do it bigger and better, so I think they want to upgrade


hahahaha way to go gabba

I rode the girffon when it opened, and was "meh" about it. i actually prefer the old woodies to the new thrills. but i left that one after a 2 hour wait thinking "wait, that was it?"

If you liked Hypersonic, then you'd LOVE DoDonPa at Fuji-Q Highlands in Japan. Hypersonic was actually the prototype for DoDonPa...which is much longer and much faster. It held the roller coaster speed record for several years.

There are some great coasters in Japan...I spend 2 weeks touring amusement parks there a couple years ago with ACE (American Coaster Enthusiasts) and ECC (European Coaster Club).

One of my favorite coasters was Thunder Dolphin, which is at the LaQua shopping center in Tokyo, next to the Tokyo Dome. Check out these pictures:

http://rcdb.com/ig1845.htm

262.5 feet high, 80.8 mph, an 80 degree drop, and goes through the center of a hubless Ferris Wheel. Woot! There's more to do in Japan than hit toy stores

Storm Runner out here at Hershey Park in PA does the whole Hypersonic things, plus some looks and other goodness added on

hey coasterbear,,

do you know which coaster in tokyo is on top of a building?? you can see it when riding the red metro line...

i have been curious about that one...

It could be Thunder Dolphin...parts of it are on top of the shopping mall.

Or it could be Don Quixote:

http://rcdb.com/ig3383.htm

I haven't ridden that one (apparently it never operated because the neighbors complained about the noise) but I rode another like it in Denver...which was brutal.

Storm Runner has some similar features to Hypersonic and DoDonPa, but is a different company and different technology (a hydraulic launch instead of air pressure). Those Intamin coasters are great fun...but the air launch ones have extreme ejector air-time at the top. I've never been so glad for a lap bar as I was on DoDonPa!

As I could be soon relocating to the area nearby, I am somewhat excited by Banksy's new project, Dismaland. Old theme parks (and seaside resorts) are pretty good as it is, so I am interested to see what he has done with it. Though, to be honest, as cool as an 'art installation' as this might be, I do have a bit of of concern over the popularity of it kind of forming a kind of contradictory nature to the message pf it (e.g. people actually seeing it as a tourist destination, and it being filled with people taking 'selfies ), as well as ruining the experience of the abandoned/outdated nature of the environment. Still, worth checking out I would say.

Some quick photos:




Bonus content for extra keen readers/park afficionados:

A CBC article on the park in Weston-super-Mare.

Plenty more photos over on Chris Jobson's blog.

And an interview with the artist.

Nice! Hopefully people will get the meaning behind most of the installations and not just go because it's Banksy. I like any artist that shines a light on the collective asshole of the world.

The park employees get to wear ill-colored vests that say DISMAL on the back of them.