Author Topic: East Coast Trip - Memorial Weekend (Read 6852 times)

sir clinksalot · « **on:** February 15, 2006, 11:19:58 PM »

Hey everybody, so looks like our trip is back on.

We haven't decided WHAT trip we are doing yet.

The trip will be: leaving LA on 5/24 (wednesday night) and coming back 5/28 (Sunday night). Were just trying to figure out what trip and what parks for each day.

Here are the possible trips:

East Coast: SFGADV, Dorney, Knoebels, Hershey (Flying in and out of Philly)
Midwest: Worlds of Fun, Silver Dollar City, Celebration City (Flying in and out of KC)
Texas: SFOT, SFFT, Schlitterbahn (Flying in and out of San Antonio)

Okay, so Kristi and I did the East Coast last year, but the kids want to do it this year. We all did the TX parks in 2004 and we have never done the MidWest stuff.

Since you guys are all the east coast pro's I figured I try and find out what days are best.

This is what I was thinking:

Thursday 5/25 - SFGADV (Hours 10:00 to 8:00) I figured a Thursday would be the better than a Friday, Saturday or Sunday
Drive half (or maybe a bit more than half) way to Knoebels. (need help on this one)
Friday 5/26 - Knoebels (Hours 10:00 to 8:00)
Drive to Hershey
Saturday 5/27 - Hershey (Hours 10:00 to 10:00) I know it will be PACKED but it's the only day to do it.
Drive to Allentown
Sunday 5/28 - Dorney (Hours 10:00 to 10:00) Only need 4 or 5 hours at Dorney then drive back to Philly for flight home.

What does everybody think??? Also, what hotel could we stay at near SFGADV on Wednesday night? There isn't a red-eye so we will be getting into Philly at about 9:30.

Nitro1118 · « **Reply #1 on:** February 15, 2006, 11:23:58 PM »

Great, except 1 thing:

Knoebels will not take all that full day. Knoebels will take like 4-5 hours. Since you know HP will be packed the next day, drive there that Friday and do Hershey that night and all next day.

ChuckR · « **Reply #2 on:** February 15, 2006, 11:37:28 PM »

I would suggest hitting Clementon or the piers in NJ if you haven't. There awesome and you can't miss J2. It's insane!

sir clinksalot · « **Reply #3 on:** February 16, 2006, 12:01:18 AM »

^ Yeah, I don't think we will have time unless we end SFGADV early. This is a possibility since there are only a few rides at SFGADV that Josh can ride.

^^ I thought of that too. We did Knoebels in September and LOVED the place. I know we will spend more time because of the kids though. There were a few things we didn't do that I wanted to. Hershey is open until 10:00 that night so we could possibly do Knoebels from 10:00 to 5:00 or 6:00 and do Hershey until closing.

I just don't want to get yelled at again for not doing the right thing or eating the right food.

(Bubba will get that one)

Bubba Z · « **Reply #4 on:** February 16, 2006, 12:27:55 AM »

Now that you know what you should be eating , I don't think you will have any problems. When you do the trip report you should just show pictures of food nothing else! Or have a Hot dog or something on different rides.

I'm not having any fun but my burger is a having a great time on the Phoenix :lol:

sir clinksalot · « **Reply #5 on:** February 16, 2006, 12:54:32 AM »

^ That's a great idea.

Instead of pictures of us I will do the pictures from the perspective of our food. Take some Peirogies on the Log Flume, Pizza on the Mansion, etc.

Cyclonic · « **Reply #6 on:** February 16, 2006, 07:15:25 AM »

I would actually do a Midwest trip, and instead of what you were considering, that would be a great weekend for Holiday World and Beech Bend. Both parks are holding events that weekend that should be really good. Lots of night time ERT. I would shift the trip back a day, flying back on Monday.

Just something to think about.

Robert T Ackerman · « **Reply #7 on:** February 16, 2006, 09:28:40 AM »

^ That would be a good idea, but I'm not sure his family will want a full weekend of ERT, and the event at Beech Bend will more than likely be PACKED, and one train on KR doesn't sound too wonderful to me.. just my 2 cents on that issue...

Your trip sounds good, except for the Hershey on a Saturday thing... just switch the 2? Hershey is only 2 hours from Phili (I think) and it would be worth it to switch, it will be busy either way, but Saturday at Hershey, on a holiday weekend would be one of the craziest ideas ever! Dorney will be busy too, but their water park (if open that time of year) will take 1/2 of the crowds away, and since Dorney is small, you can do that and Clementon on that Saturday...

The only hotel within 20 miles of SFGAdv is The Freehold Gardens. I'm not sure how it is as I've never stayed there. Maybe you should stay like an hour from the airport, and an hour from the park. That way you arent driving all night to the hotel, and you'll have a decent length of a drive regardless of where you are the morning you are at the park.

It's your trip though, do what you want! :lol:

PM for details about driving to Knoebels... I go up there 2 times a month in the summer and know every back road you can think of to get there... I've made it there in literally 3 hours and 15 minutes from the Atlantic City area (possibly a record?

)

Bubba Z · « **Reply #8 on:** February 16, 2006, 11:02:10 AM »

I was thinking the same thing about getting you a hotel in the city. But the only down side would be the trip to Knoebels at Three hours. But you wouldn't have to pack and re-pack or worry about booking three different hotel rooms. Or I guess you could always Book the same hotel and know exactly which roads you drove before and how the rooms were set up.

I would agree, I have no clue how the hotels are by SF because I never really needed to stay in one. Here's a link to the lodging close to SF. http://www.sixflagslodging.com/

If you stayed in the city here are the driving times.
Sfgadv 45-1 hr
Dorney 1-1.5 hrs
Hershey 2 hrs
Knoebels 3 hrs

Cyclonic · « **Reply #9 on:** February 16, 2006, 11:57:22 AM »

^^Absolutely, it is going to be packed, certainly a downside.

Anyway, if you decide on the East Coast trip, with the parks you are planning on visiting, you best bet is to just get a hotel near the Philly airport and commute back and forth. It really is not too bad, though the Knoebels trek may be a bit much for the kids.

So, here is how I would do it.

Stay near the airport Wednsday night. (the airport is about an hour from SFGAdv).

Do SFGAdv on Thurs, and go back to the same hotel.

Friday, head out and do Hersheypark, staying the night in Hershey.

Saturday, Knoebels, leaving around 6PM and heading for Allentown, where you can stay the night (there are a bunch of hotels in the Dorney Park area).

Sunday, do Dorney in the day, and head back to the airport to fly out.

This circuit will give you the best parks for that particular day, as well as keep the driving down.

sir clinksalot · « **Reply #10 on:** February 16, 2006, 12:09:34 PM »

^ Good idea. I had thought of maybe switching Knoebels and Hershey. The drive from Hershey to Knoebels isn't too bad.

We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express across from Dorney last year and that wasn't too bad. We will probably stay there again on Saturday night. Plus you can walk to Dorney and not have to worry about parking.

We will definately do the water park as well.

Also the other good thing about getting an aiport hotel on Wednesday night is it would save me a day of Car Rental. I could just get the car on Thursday morning before we leave for SFGADV.

As for leaving Monday instead of Sunday ... the big reason for that ... Plane tickets. They are about $200 cheaper round trip (and when you have 4 people flying that makes a BIG difference).

Thanks for all of the tips.

Nitro1118 · « **Reply #11 on:** February 16, 2006, 03:57:31 PM »

Not to make you crazy as I don't know what parks you have been to, but you can tweak your plan to remove 1 or 2 of the parks and go to any of these within reasonable distance:

Kennywood
Morey's
LC
SFNE
SFA

sir clinksalot · « **Reply #12 on:** February 16, 2006, 04:39:58 PM »

Yeah, the wife and I have been to all 4 of those parks, but the kids haven't.

Knoebels and Hershey are two that we can't remove (the kids would kill us). We want to do SFGADV (El Toro) and Dorney is a half day park and is close to Philly.

Next year we are going to do a full week in the NorthEast and do all of those parks.

Nitro1118 · « **Reply #13 on:** February 16, 2006, 04:52:48 PM »

Oh, alright. I think if you could, Morey's or Clementon would be both better choices than Dorney for kids.

ChuckR · « **Reply #14 on:** February 16, 2006, 06:29:52 PM »

Morey's yes! Clementon better than Dorney, no! Dorney has more to do for everyone than Clementon, but Morey;s has alot of flats and kiddie rides and has the beach.

Cyclonic · « **Reply #15 on:** February 16, 2006, 08:08:56 PM »

Only problem with Morey's is it is two hours in the wrong direction.

Nitro1118 · « **Reply #16 on:** February 16, 2006, 08:19:36 PM »

Yeah, but it is worth it. It is also closer to hershey then you'd think (like 2 hours).

sir clinksalot · « **Reply #17 on:** February 16, 2006, 10:04:04 PM »

But to drive from Morey's to Philly to catch a flight ... eh.

We also LOVE waterparks and know that Dorney has a good one. We were sad that it was closed when we were there last year, it was certainly warm enough.

Plus we have CP passes so Dorney is free anyway.

Thanks again for all of the advice, I'm going to book the flights sometime in the next 2 weeks.

I'd love to meet some of you east coast peeps if you will be around that weekend. I will post a final schedule of times, etc once it get's closer.

Man, that's only like 3 months away.

Cyclonic · « **Reply #18 on:** February 17, 2006, 11:44:00 AM »

Quote from: "Nitro1118"

Yeah, but it is worth it. It is also closer to hershey then you'd think (like 2 hours).

Maybe if you have wings. :roll:

sir clinksalot · « **Reply #19 on:** March 06, 2006, 10:03:00 PM »

I'm sad to announce that we won't be coming out for Memorial Weekend. For some odd reason our plane flights shot up the week we were going to buy them (last week).

So we decided we are going to do a driving trip with the kids to Vegas and Grand Canyon.

There is still a possibility we may end up in the area later this year, but for now the only flying trip we have schedules is Florida in October.

If anybody will be out in CA this year let me know, it'd be great to hook up with some of you.

Nitro1118 · « **Reply #20 on:** March 06, 2006, 10:09:08 PM »

Quote from: "Cyclonic"

Quote from: "Nitro1118"
Yeah, but it is worth it. It is also closer to hershey then you'd think (like 2 hours).

Maybe if you have wings. :roll:

It's only 133 miles from Hershey. If you average 60 miles that is around 2 hours and 15 minutes of driving.

Sorry to hear that sir cliksalot. Well, Vegas is definately a good trip in its own right. Hopefully you can get down here sometime soon.

ChuckR · « **Reply #21 on:** March 06, 2006, 10:36:16 PM »

I will be out there in 2 days Gregg.

Cyclonic · « **Reply #22 on:** March 07, 2006, 06:32:32 AM »

Quote from: "Nitro1118"

Quote from: "Cyclonic"
Quote from: "Nitro1118"
Yeah, but it is worth it. It is also closer to hershey then you'd think (like 2 hours).

Maybe if you have wings. :roll:

It's only 133 miles from Hershey. If you average 60 miles that is around 2 hours and 15 minutes of driving.

Sorry to hear that sir cliksalot. Well, Vegas is definately a good trip in its own right. Hopefully you can get down here sometime soon.

I'm not sure what map you have, but Moreys and Hershepark are nearly 200 miles from each other.

sir clinksalot · « **Reply #23 on:** March 07, 2006, 10:39:58 AM »

Quote from: "ChuckR"

I will be out there in 2 days Gregg.

Yeah, we are skipping solace.

PM me your cell number 'just in case' but it doesn't look like we will be around any parks this weekend.

And according to RCDB Morey's Piers is 133 miles from Hershey ... but their miles is "as the crow flies" which basically means a straight line. I doubt there is a straight line road between the two.

According to Mapquest it's 180 miles which is 3 hours with no traffic.

WadeJ · « **Reply #24 on:** March 07, 2006, 11:57:11 AM »

Yup, just like Gadv is located "just" 1 hour outside of Philly and NYC. That 1 hour can turn into 2...3...

If I'm not mistaken, they used to even claim 30 or 45 minutes.

Bummer Gregg. I was hoping we'd get to meet up at Gadv. Well, at least you still have FL in there

There are so many new things to do at the Disney parks this year

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Author Topic: East Coast Trip - Memorial Weekend (Read 6852 times)