Theme Parks Near You

We have quite a few theme parks around us. There is Hershey Park, Dorney Park, Six Flags-Great Adventure and Dutch Wonderland. They are all not much more than an hour away. None of them come close to Disney though. Truthfully we have not even bothered to visit any of them since the boys grew up. Hershey Park is probably the nicest of them, with Great Adventure probably being the worse.

scrappy -- Agreed that Great Adventure has slipped in the past few years. I don't even like going there anymore; feels kind of "dirty" these days!

I grew up near a place called Darian Lake (now a Six Flags in Buffalo) and Cedar Point in Ohio, which is an AWESOME park.

Hersey Park is a really nice amusement park. And, the Hersey Hotel and Spa look wonderful. However... the price to stay there is equal to most of Disney's Deluxe Resorts. A chocolate Spa treatment does sounds very inviting though!

I live about an hour and a half from Six Flags-Great America in Gurnee,IL.
The park is actually not bad for a day trip or maybe a two day overnighter if you've never been, but I don't think it could be a vacation focal point.

It's nice enough, upkeep is good and the coasters are pretty fun, it's just not "magical" in the least.
Although it is our time honored school trip tradition here in SE Wisconsin.

Don't forget Knoebel's Scrappy, a historic free park with some heralded rides and a great atmosphere. We have not yet been, but are going next week.

Life,
I did forget about Knoebels. We have never been there. We have been invited a time or two by others who intended to use their camp grounds. I am so not a camper!!!! We have never been to Dutch Wonderland either. I always thought of both of those parks as being more for people with little kids. We must live somewhat close to each other for you to know about those parks.

We're in beautiful Hershey, PA. Dutch Wonderland is a family park, as I understand it. We don't have any plans to go there. Knoebel's though has plenty for grown ups. It is quite famous among park enthusiasts. It has won best theme park food eleven years IN A ROW, best wooden coaster, best carousel, best bumper cars, best dark ride, best park, friendliest park, and even best Halloween event. All of these awards and accolades are best in the world, not just the US. That's right, it beat out all of the Disney parks to take second best park in the world (second only to Cedar Pointe, which wins every year) in 2009. Not comparing it to Disney parks, just pointing out it's kind of a big deal (apparently). The foremost authority in rating theme parks and their attractions is Amusement Today, who give the Golden Ticket Awards - Knoebel's won seven of them in 2009. I'll give you guys a full report after we've been. I'm pretty excited about it, and this thread reminded me why.

Here's a neat review I found. It's a few years old, but still worth reading.

I am very close to Six Flags great adevnture here in NJ. I travel to Hershey, Dorney and Dutch Wonderland as well. I'm about 2 1/2 hours from Hershey. I'm not a huge six flags fan. They have lots of roller coasters but after a while it gets boring and they don't really have anything else to offer.

Great Adventure doesn't compare to Disney but I think it's a pretty good park for a quick day of thrill rides. Their roller coasters are pretty good. I always wish that they could do a park like that with higher overall quality.

To answer the original question, having great parks nearby does sate the hunger for amusement. That said, there is only one thing that can scratch that Disney itch (although the Disney outlet next door to Hershey Park helps). To paraphrase Christopher Walken "I've got a fever, and the only prescription is more Disney magic".

Agreed -- but I'm VERY excited to hear your review from this week! Did you say that park is FREE?!??! No way!!! How do they do that?

It is free, as is parking. It's old school, you pay for tickets. You can spend as much, or as little as you want. They do have some other options, like wrist bands for unlimited rides (with some exclusions). If you read that review I linked to, that family was there for EIGHT DAYS and spent just over a hundred bucks for the whole family on tickets.

We have a park about 5 miles from home that has the same set up (buying ride tickets). It's more of a country park with a few rides and attractions than a full on theme park though. It's a great place to go for a relaxing day out, especially with small children, but not really an option for a dedicated thrill seaker.

Hey Bali!!! I grew up not far from Darian Lake myself (Rochester, NY). Closer to home was Seabreeze Park...a turn of the century "seaside" resort area that town-folk took trains and trolley cars to get to. Some of the summer cottages are still nearby...on the shore of Lake Ontario and some local hot & hamburger stands. Seabreeze is a really small park by comparison but has quite the history attached to it! Not to mention a fair amount of charm.

We now live in NC and the closest parks are Carowinds (2 hrs), Kings Dominion (3 hrs), and Busch Gardens Williamsburg (4 hrs)...none really close but it's hard to compare anything with WDW anyway, so we usually just save our pennies and plan a Disney trip every 18 months or so!!

Hi everyone!

I live less than five miles (by car) from Clementon Lake Park and Splash World in Clementon, NJ which has an amusement park and a separate waterpark. Otherwise I'm about an hour by car from Great Adventure; two hours or so from any NJ shore point and from Dorney Park, and about three hours from Hersheypark.

Jim

Jim: Do you visit the local parks like Splash World?

Oddly enough, my descriptions have the same effect on me. I haven't been to Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge since our honeymoon and am really jonesin' to go back. I REALLY want to check out SkyZip and Adventure Mountain. There's a pretty good Adventure Mountain photo trip report here.

Isn't that always the way? If you keep talking about fun memories, it's hard to not want to repeat them.

Have you ever done a ZipLine before? Doing it in a theme park is a great twist. It must be interesting to see people zipping by overhead.

OK, I haven't been to Pigeon Forge since the Worlds Fair in Knoxville ('82, I think)...this thread is making me want to go again. Just did a Mapquest and it's only about 5 hrs...about half the distance to Disney. Might be a good alternative to a trip to Disney in July...since we're on a teacher's schedule!!

Oddly enough, my descriptions have the same effect on me. I haven't been to Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge since our honeymoon and am really jonesin' to go back.