Ultimate Road Trip

Your fantasy road trip.

From rick stevens
Posted July 27, 2009 at 4:59 AM
I was wondering what your ultimate road trip might be. How much of the country would it cover and what parks would you have to visit. Money and time are no objects on this trip. Please include what "must rides" you would want for each park. This could become a long list, but keep it to your must experience.

From Nick Markham
Posted July 27, 2009 at 5:45 AM
Well I would love to travel from my theme park bare (except for my small but still descent homepark LAgoon) hometown of Salt Lake City all the way to sunny Orlando, but using a long route.

Parks in order would include:

Elitch Gardens- Twister II
Worlds of Fun- Mamba, Patriot, Prowler
Silver Dollar City- Wildfire, Powder Keg
Six FLags St. Louis- Evel Knieval, Mr. Freeze, Boss
Six Flags Great America- American Eagle, Vertical Velocity, Raging Bull
Holiday World- The Voyage, The Legend, The Raven
Six FLags Kentucky Kingdom- Chang
Kings Island- Diamondback, The Beast
Cedar Point- Maverick, Millennium Force, Top Thrill Dragster
Waldameer- Ravine Flyer II
Kennywood- Phantom's Revenge
Dorney Park- Talon, Hydra's Revenge
Hershey Park- Storm Runner, Farenheit
Six Flags New England- Bizarro, Batman: The Dark Knight
Lake Compounce- Boulder Dash
Six Flags Great Adventure- Kingda Ka, Nitro, Bizarro
Six Flags America- Superman: ROS
Kings Dominion, Volcano: Blast Coaster, Dominator
Busch Gardens Europe- Griffon, Alpengeist, Apollo's Charriot
Carowinds- Afterburn
Freestyle Music Park- The Time Machine
Universal Studios Florida- Revenge of the Mummy, Hollywood Rip, Ride, Rockit, Men In Black Alien Attack
Islands of Adventure- Hulk, Dueling Dragons, Spider-Man
Sea World Orlando- Kraken, Manta, Journey To Atlantis
Walt Disney World- TOT, Everest, Toy Story Mania, Space Mountain, etc.

That would be the trip there. But on the trip back (in order):

Busch Gardens Africa- SheiKra, Montu, Kumba
Six Flags Over Georgia- Goliath
Dollywood- Mystery Mine, Thunderhead
Six Flags Over Texas- Texas Giant, Titan, Mr. Freeze
Sea World San Antonio- Steel Eel, Journey to Atlantis
Six Flags Fiesta Texas, Superman: Krypton Coaster
Sea World San Diego- Journey To Atlantis
Belmont Park- Giant Dipper
Legoland U.S.A.- Mini Lego Cities and other Lego Attracions (no good coasters)
Disneyland Park- Indy, Pirates, Space Mtn., etc.
Disney's California Adventure- California Screamin', Soarin, TOT, Toy Story Mania, Grizzly River Run, etc.
Knott's Berry Farm- Xcelerator, Silver Bullet
Six Flags Magic Mountain- X2 (hopefully with fire this time), Tatsu, Goliath, Scream, Terminator (hopefully with music this time)
Universal Studios Hollywood- Revenge of the Mummy, Studo Tour
Buffalo Bills- Desperado
Adventuredome- Canyon Blaster
New York New York- Manhattan Express
RETURN HOME!

This would be the best theme park road trip for me! Though it sure would be a long one!

From James Rao
Posted July 27, 2009 at 6:10 PM
This is an interesting topic for discussion. I don't think I would do just ONE trip -- heck, who would mow the lawn while I was on the road for 6 months?! No, I think I would do several trips, broken up by region. I will give it some more thought and post something later on....

....but if I had to pick just one Dream Trip it would have to include Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea, which is truly just a dream because there is no way I will be able to afford an excursion to Japan in this lifetime!

From M. Ryan Traylor
Posted July 27, 2009 at 9:50 PM
This is a trip I'm planning for 2011:

Fly from my current home in LA to my childhood home of Richmond, VA. Then hit the road to visit:

Kings Dominion
Carowinds
Dollywood
Kings Island
Cedar Point
Dorney Park

Fly back to LA for Knotts Berry Farm

From rick stevens
Posted July 27, 2009 at 9:49 PM
One of the reasons I thought of this was that I have never ventured outside of SoCal to visit a park. I love the trip reports and hope that some day I will have the opportunity to take a park road trip (wife willing). I think it would be similar to the baseball fantasy trip of visiting all of the major ball parks. Had not thought of the Europe or Asia market, but I would hope that these could be included.

From Brandon S
Posted July 27, 2009 at 10:20 PM
^^You can't fly on a road trip! You'd have to drive there.

From John Jackson
Posted July 28, 2009 at 4:05 PM
^Sure you can. You can fly in to a central location, then drive around and hit all of the parks on a roadtrip. With the parks he has listed, it's not like they're right next door...yes, definitely counts as a road trip in my books.

(the reason I say that is because I did the same thing this summer, lol)

From James Rao
Posted July 29, 2009 at 3:20 AM
Okay, I came up with three US trips (including a brief foray into Canada) that are possible, but not probable. Within each region, I have listed the parks in travel order. The attractions listed are not necessarily the best attractions at a given park, just attractions I find most intriguing.

North Eastern Trip
Start: Kansas City
SF Great America (Illinois) - Raging Bull, Dark Knight, Whizzer
Cedar Point - Maverick, Millennium Force, Wildcat
Canada’s Wonderland - Behemoth, Thunder Run
Six Flags New England - Bizzaro
SF Great Adventure (NJ) - Kingda Ka, El Toro, Nitro
Knoebel’s - Haunted Mansion, Phoenix, Award Winning Food
Hersheypark - Fahrenheit, Lightning Racer
Kennywood - Phantom’s Revenge, Thunderbolt
King’s Island - Diamondback, Flight of Fear
Holiday World - Voyage, Legend, Raven
End: Kansas City (3000 miles)

South Western Trip
Start: Kansas City
Lagoon (Utah) - Wicked
SF Discovery Kingdom - Six Flags does SeaWorld?!?
California’s Great America - My old stomping grounds
Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk – More of my old stomping grounds
SF Magic Mountain - X2, Terminator, Colossus
Universal Studios - Studio Tour (w/King Kong), Transformers
Knott’s Berry Farm - Pony Express, Calico Mine Ride, GhostRider
Disneyland - Original POTC, Blue Bayou + Monte Cristo
DCA - Cars Land, World of Color, Ariel's Adventure
Legoland - Knights' Tournament
SeaWorld San Antonio - Steel Eel
SF Fiesta Texas - Rattler, Poltergeist, all the award winning shows
Schlitterbahn (NB) - Master Blaster, Dragon’s Revenge, Congo River
SF Over Texas - Judge Roy Scream, Titan, Texas Giant
Silver Dollar City - Powderkeg, Wildfire, Thunderation
End: Kansas City (5000 miles)

South Eastern Trip
Start: Kansas City
Dollywood - Mystery Mine, Thunderhead
SF Over Georgia - Monster Mansion, Goliath
Wild Adventures - Cheetah
Busch Gardens Tampa - Kumba, Montu, Gwazi, SheiKra
Walt Disney World - All four parks multiple times
Blizzard Beach - Summit Plummet
Typhoon Lagoon - Surf Pool
DisneyQuest - Cyberspace Mountain
SeaWorld Orlando - Kraken, Manta
Aquatica - Dolphin Plunge
Universal Studios - Revenge of the Mummy, Rip Ride Rockit
Islands of Adventure - Spider-Man, Harry Potter, Hulk
Freestyle Park - Time Machine, Monstars of Rock, Round About
Busch Gardens Williamsburg - Apollo’s Chariot, Curse of the DarKastle
King’s Dominion - New Giga, Dominator, Volcano
SF Kentucky Kingdom - Greezed Lightnin' was one of my very first coasters (I rode it when it was Tidal Wave at Marriot’s Great America)
End: Kansas City (3600 miles)

Three possible but improbable Dream Trips that, once completed, would provide travelers with pretty much the best the US has to offer in theme park attractions.

This discussion has been archived, and is not accepting additional responses.

Park tickets

Weekly newsletter

New attraction reviews

News archive