Planning a theme park road trip

[ali-s]

I've promised DS23 we'll do a trip of his choice this year, and his choice is multiple theme parks. We have a maximum of 3 weeks , including travel days. I'm thinking August 15th - September 3rd/4th, the US schools should have gone back and most of the parks are open until 7th September ( I was surprised they all closed on week days after the 7th).
It may well be just me and DS , he doesn't drive and I don't particularly enjoy driving, though I'm sure it will be a better experience than driving around the UK.

The itinerary so far is ; fly to Washington DC,
Washington DC to Kings Dominion , 2 nights
Kings Dominion to Busch Gardens williamsburg, 3 nights
BGW to Carowinds ( Charlotte) 2 nights
,Carowinds to Dollywood, 3 nights
Dollywood to Holidayworld, 3 nights
Holidayworld to Kings Island, 2 nights
Kings Island to Cedar point, 3 nights
Cedar point to Cleveland Hopkins airport, fly to Washington DC and home.

We won't have time for any site seeing, the focus is theme parks, but I want to stop often on our travel days, so any suggestions on where to stop are welcome.
DS also wanted to visit Canada's Wonderland , which is relatively close to Cedar point, but while we could fly into Washington and out of Toronto for no extra cost, the getting from Cleveland to Toronto is proving either too expensive ( direct flights $463 ) or too time consuming, any suggestions on a way around this ?

[buryboy]

Sorry , can't help with your question - other than wouldn't have thought the drive to Canada's wonderland - six hours - would have been much more time wise tha getting to Cleveland airport , waiting, then the flying time to Washington Dc ?

But my real reason to post was to say what a wonderful trip it looks

[ali-s]

Driving to Toronto did cross my mind, but we already have 2 drives 5+ hours long, most are between 3 & 4 hours and I feel that's plenty long enough.
I've found cheaper direct flights to/ from Toronto and Charlotte or DC , but it's just trying to work it into the itinerary.

[tiggertastic]

We are planning a theme park trip, but we have had to scale back our plan quite a lot so we now only have 10 days. We are only doing 3 parks cedar point, King's Island and Kennywood.

We have scheduled 3 full days for cedar point and part days either side, the queue for steel vengeance can be in excess of 3 hours on busy days. And that's just the one drive.

Have you looked at pittsburgh for flights? That's where we found to be cheapest with BA, but that is return flights.

[kiwiinabd]

My wife's family is fromSouthern Indiana and we have visited Cedar point, Kings Island and Holiday world in the past.

Its very frustrating that the parks close midweek once the US schools go back !

Holidayworld is closed midweek from the 6th Aug !

Kings Island is closed Midweek from 14th Aug

Have you looked at a customised BA fly drive into Washington DC and return via Detroit, Cleveland or Chicago ?

Chicago also has Six Flags park

When we were at Cedar Point we stayed at Hotel Breakers so could walk into the parks.

On one trip we flew into Toronto and drove down via Niagara and the theme parks. What you could do would be to drive to Niagara and hand your US car hire back on the US side and then cross over to Canada and then get a hire car for a couple of days to complete your trip and leave via Toronto airport ! Niagara Falls would make a good overnight stop and are very impressive ! I think it took us about 5 hours from Niagara to Cedar Point !

[JLH]

Originally Posted by kiwiinabd

My wife's family is fromSouthern Indiana and we have visited Cedar point, Kings Island and Holiday world in the past.

Its very frustrating that the parks close midweek once the US schools go back !

Holidayworld is closed midweek from the 6th Aug !

Kings Island is closed Midweek from 14th Aug

Have you looked at a customised BA fly drive into Washington DC and return via Detroit, Cleveland or Chicago ?

Chicago also has Six Flags park

When we were at Cedar Point we stayed at Hotel Breakers so could walk into the parks.

On one trip we flew into Toronto and drove down via Niagara and the theme parks. What you could do would be to drive to Niagara and hand your US car hire back on the US side and then cross over to Canada and then get a hire car for a couple of days to complete your trip and leave via Toronto airport ! Niagara Falls would make a good overnight stop and are very impressive ! I think it took us about 5 hours from Niagara to Cedar Point !

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my sister used to live in Indiana, we visited in August , wanted to go to Kings Island and was surprised to see it was not open all the time. We did go and enjoyed it , so far that was the only place in America I have been to where they couldn't understand my accent so ordering a meal at lunchtime took ages

[Orlando Soon]

Sorry no advise to give just wanted to say wow, can I come please

[ali-s]

Originally Posted by kiwiinabd

My wife's family is fromSouthern Indiana and we have visited Cedar point, Kings Island and Holiday world in the past.

Its very frustrating that the parks close midweek once the US schools go back !

Holidayworld is closed midweek from the 6th Aug !

Kings Island is closed Midweek from 14th Aug

Have you looked at a customised BA fly drive into Washington DC and return via Detroit, Cleveland or Chicago ?

Chicago also has Six Flags park

When we were at Cedar Point we stayed at Hotel Breakers so could walk into the parks.

On one trip we flew into Toronto and drove down via Niagara and the theme parks. What you could do would be to drive to Niagara and hand your US car hire back on the US side and then cross over to Canada and then get a hire car for a couple of days to complete your trip and leave via Toronto airport ! Niagara Falls would make a good overnight stop and are very impressive ! I think it took us about 5 hours from Niagara to Cedar Point !

See more...

Yes, I'm going round in circles at the moment. Holidayworld and Kings Island are awkward as they need to be done on a weekend, but I planned on 2 days at Holiday World then Kings Island a day later.
I hadn't thought of changing hire car at the border, will look into it, but I'm not sure DS will be tempted by Niagra falls.
I've added Hersheypark and Kennywood as possibles to the list, both are open longer than Holidayworld and Kings Island , I'm also playing around with starting somewhere other than DC so we could do those 2 parks before they close midweek, but that throws the rest of the itinerary out. and now DS has mentioned Silver Dollar city, which is nowhere near my circular route, makes planning a Disney holiday look easy

[kiwiinabd]

Originally Posted by ali-s

Yes, I'm going round in circles at the moment. Holidayworld and Kings Island are awkward as they need to be done on a weekend, but I planned on 2 days at Holiday World then Kings Island a day later.

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If you need to re-plan, Kings Island is better than Holidayworld !

We felt that holidayworld was more of a water park with a few good coasters !

Our kids really enjoyed Niagara, even if its just for an overnight stop ticks the box to have done it in a lifetime !

[ali-s]

Originally Posted by kiwiinabd

If you need to re-plan, Kings Island is better than Holidayworld !

We felt that holidayworld was more of a water park with a few good coasters !

Our kids really enjoyed Niagara, even if its just for an overnight stop ticks the box to have done it in a lifetime !

See more...

Yes, DS has said if we have to get rid of one it will be Holidayworld, but then that leaves a big gap between Dollywood and Kings Island, so Dollywood will have to go as well, and that's the one I was looking forward to
I've given DS the calendar and list of dates the parks are closed and left him to it, my head is spinning.