Obviously, Disneyland and Disney's California Adventure are the big parks in Southern California. They're the region's most visited parks, and I think they're Disney's top two parks in America for quality. But how about the other parks?
Now, I'm still planning on covering all the other parks in SoCal. I think they're each doing things I consider important and noteworthy. But beyond that minimum, I want to know how much more you'd like to hear about them. So I've got five polls below - one for each park. Please take a moment to vote in each, to let us know how likely you'd be to read additional features about these five theme parks.
Universal Studios Hollywood
Why it's important: The nation's 10th most visited theme park is about to undergo a major transformation, including the construction of a new Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Its Transformers: The Ride 3D just won our Theme Park Insider Award for Best New Attraction of the year, and new attractions, a new hotel and a new station for its famed Studio Tour all are included in its ambitious new development plan, to be built over the next decade.
SeaWorld San Diego
Why it's important: The nation's 12th most visited theme park is SeaWorld's original park, located a short walk from the Pacific Ocean, on San Diego's Mission Bay. Its more family-friendly version of the Manta roller coaster gave this park its first world-class thrill ride, while upping its standards for decoration and design. With deep-pocketed new owners in place, SeaWorld has the potential for some major new shows and park enhancements.
Knott's Berry Farm
Why it's important: Parent company Cedar Fair's new CEO, Matt Ouimet, recently ran Disneyland, and he "gets it" - he knows the value of theming parks while providing world-class customer service, and he also values Knott's great history. The park's Mystery Lodge remains one of the best shows in the theme park business and new menus are now in place at many of the park's restaurants. And there's that Giga coaster rumor out there which just won't go away….
Six Flags Magic Mountain
Why it's important: Magic Mountain's the world's coaster capital, with more roller coasters than any other park in the world. And the park's not afraid to experiment in the thrill ride realm, with attractions such as X2 and its recent drop ride/coaster mash-up of Superman and Lex Luthor. Next summer's Full Throttle will offer a unique new track element, as well.
Legoland California
Why it's important: Legoland's first US theme park remains one of the world's best theme park experiences for elementary-aged children. Legoland does a better job than anyone in creating participatory attractions, such as the Driving School and the Police and Fire Academy, which involve kids in active play in ways that more passive theme park rides and shows simply can't.
I'll have additional posts like this one in the weeks to come about Central Florida theme parks, as well as for other parks around the country. (I started with Southern California, since that's where I live.) Got some thoughts about these five theme parks, or want to volunteer to help us cover them? The comments await you!
As I said, I'll report what I consider is important, but there's enormous leeway in selecting which parks to really delve into: talking about strategy, aesthetics, technology, food, etc. If readers don't really care about reading that much detail about certain parks, I don't want to waste my time, or yours. I'll just stick with the big news for them.
From what I'm seeing, you seem to really want more info on USH and SFMM. Then Knotts. But I'm not seeing a huge demand for additional detail on the San Diego County parks, SeaWorld and Legoland.
Legoland doesn't surprise me, given its relatively smaller attendance and limited target market. But SeaWorld outdraws Knott's and SFMM, the later by 50%. I was expecting to see more demand for additional coverage there, to be honest.
All the best Water Parks are outside California. (Typhoon Lagoon, Blizzard Beach, Aquatica, Schlitterbahn, Etc)
And here's another social quirk of Southern California: No one drives inland. Wherever people live in the area, they'll drive long distances toward the ocean, but people hate driving inland. The westside crowd hates going downtown. And everyone hates driving to the Inland Empire. That puts the inland waterparks at a huge disadvantage for drawing crowds. If we have to go inland, we might as well be driving to Vegas. That's the only reason anyone out here will drive east.
/generalization
FWIW, I agree with Ben's example, too - I find SFMM much more interesting as a laboratory for thrill ride development than as a place to hang out, as I would do at Disneyland and California Adventure. That still makes SFMM interesting to me, as both a reader and reporter, even though I don't plan as many trips there as I do to other parks. Knowing that, I'm inclined to shift my coverage of the park away from lots of trip-planning pieces and more towards tech pieces and profiles of individual attractions and their place within the industry.
Thoughts on that?
But just happy to see the SoCal parks represented!
And maybe an occasional spotlight on Vegas? While it's not exactly a top 10, there are attractions (There's the Adventuredome....the coaster at NY NY, the coaster at State line, the rides atop the Stratosphere, etc.)
And then there's GA (NoCal)
We can decide what or what not to read.
Our family lives in greater Los Angeles, and I'd like to read more about the theme parks that we attend (our children are 9 and 6). We visit the local Disney parks, Knott's Berry Farm, and Legoland at least once a year. We have not been to Universal Studios (not appropriate for our children) or Sea World (combination of too far away and not interesting for our kids). We used to go to Magic Mountain, but only to visit the Bugs Bunny World, and have not been for a while.
Having been reading your site for about a year, I find the articles about planning vacations (especially financial planning), news about big events (the opening of Cars Land and One More Disney Day), and visits to foreign parks most interesting. If you had meaningful content on the Disney Cruise Line or the Aulani resort in Hawaii, I'd come to the website more often to read those articles. I appreciate all the interesting and well-written content on your site.
I have heard the food and food options (as you noted) at Knotts have improved drastically, so maybe that is an angle you can cover? Also, are there other things at these parks that make them stand out? Hidden gems? Unique experiences outside of the known commodities? In essence, cover things that only a local who can visit every day would have time to experience. That info would be worth a gander.
That said, if anyone would like to volunteer to post to the blog about some of these parks now and then, that'd help us have more coverage of them, too. Especially for the San Diego parks, which are farthest from me.
James Rao and I can agree that Silver Dollar City can be a destination park due to its strong theme. But, the park is small by comparison to many other parks. Which begs the question how can Dollywood be looked at as a destination park but Silver Dollar City which is owned by the same company not be?
SFMM is a Six Flags Park; but, it has been turned into a park with major thrill rides that drives its core business. How do you make an iconic park (Yes, I just called SFMM iconic) like SFMM into something that you have to go see?
I can remember in 2008 when I was in Anaheim stuck on the Disneyland Resort debating renting a car just to go to SFMM. Not, USH or Knotts or even the beach but to go see SFMM. What does that say? It has the potential to be a destination.
In Saint Louis right now there is this huge push for Transit-Oriented Development. The local Public Transit Authority is doing a huge survey asking anyone and everyone what they think and would like to see with development around transit and development of transit around certain things. Taking lots of information from Robert's story on transit in Europe I shared my thoughts on adding transit service to the local Six Flags Park in addition to adding light-rail stops near busy areas along existing lines.
I have sort of deviated but I think its important to cover in some stories especially for folks outside of SoCal and other parts of the country depending on the park(s) how to access those parks.
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