What's your OTHER favorite Theme Park?

[KCMiller]

This should be an interesting discussion. While we all know nothing compares to Disney , there are a lot of other amusement parks out there - what are your favorites?

I'll start with my top two. First, Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio is a beautiful, clean, safe lovely resort, with its own hotels, located on beautiful Lake Erie. Full of wonderful rides, spacious walkways, great landscaping - I can't say enough about this place. And historic, too - they have a small museum on the grounds.

Then, just this past June, we spent a day at Sea World San Diego, and it was wonderful. We had breakfast with Shamu (and lunch, too!), fed dolphins and sea lions, rode some great rides, signed up for a beer tasting , saw some great shows - fantastic landscaping, well thought out crowd control, lovely people working there - if it weren't for the killer whales, I would have thought I was at Disneyland !

What are your favorite parks (apart from the MouseHouse)?


KC

 

[jerbroni]

In descending order (and excluding any Disney parks):

Islands of Adventure
Silver Dollar City
Universal Studios Florida
Holiday World
Sea World Orlando
Knoebels
Busch Gardens Tampa
Cedar Point
Six Flags Great America (outside Chicago)
Indiana Beach

 

[TuppenceABag]

WHAT!? There are other theme parks besides Disney Parks? Well, well, well...You learn something new every day here on the DIS!

 

[cleo]

Discovery Cove
Islands of Adventure
Busch Gardens Tampa (and Williamsburg)
SeaWorld Orlando
Cedar Point Ohio
Universal Studios

I'll cheat a bit and include Disneyland Paris, right up near the top of my list.

 

[freakylick]

Also in descending order:

Busch Gardens Williamsburg
Hersheypark
Knoebels
Lake Compounce
Sea World Orlando
Cedar Point
Busch Gardens Tampa
Kennywood


(For reference purposes, I have been to the Ohio parks and almost all east coast parks except UO/IOA and Carowinds….therefore, some great parks don't appear on my list that others may have).

 

[stauncie]

Hands down, its Holiday World, in Santa Claus, Indiana.

The free parking, FREE unlimited softdrinks (Pepsi!), VERY reasonably priced food, and free sunscreen in the waterparks can't be beat.
The park is clean, Clean, CLEAN, and the employees are friendly.

Can't wait for "Thanksgiving" to be built. The "Voyage" coaster is SOOOO cool. 2006 is gonna be a great year.

And it sure beats the 19 hour drive to Disney!!!

 

[fanofdisney]

I don't understand the question.

 

[figmentfan1]

I've been to many over the years....

I'd say

Cedar Point
King's Island
Seaworld (in Ohio)
Busch Gardens in Williamsburg,VA

I like them all (esp Busch) but NONE are even close to Disney!!

I do want to add that I've been to Six Flags in Dallas and Astroworld in Houston and will NEVER return to either!! YUK!!

je

 

[Sorcerer Figment]

Well, nothing compares to Disney.

But the only other park I honestly like... is Dollywood!

 

[disgram]

Have to agree with TUPPANCEABAG, was not aware there were any other parks!!

 

[ufgator]

WHAT!? There are other theme parks besides Disney Parks? Well, well, well...You learn something new every day here on the DIS!

I agree with TuppenceABag

I like Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen next to Disney. Disney got a lot of ideas from here. One of the rides we went on was so much like small world. The park is really old - since 1800s, I think. There is a combination of rides and entertainment. We went on an old wooden coaster that was operated by someone in the car with us.

I like Asterix outside of Paris. There were some unique rides there and Asterix is a French cartoon character so we had a little local flavor.

Also, Knotts Berry Farm, though I haven't been since I was ten.

I've also been to Universal in CA and FL, Sea World in CA, Six Flags in Texas and Atlanta, but nothing compares to Disney.

 

[Jen_in_NH]

Busch Gardens Williamsburg. I also like Canobie Lake Park in NH - it's a cute place for a day trip.

Jen

 

[RussH]

IOA
USF
I dont go to any others

 

[lulubelle]

Universal and IOA.
San Diego Zoo is pretty cool, too.

But nothing compares to Disney.

 

[jfritz]

Busch Gardens in Williamsburg VA and HersheyPark are my other favs.

 

[fitzkerry]

Cedar Point gets my vote, be sure if you go there to visit a pub called the One Eyed Pony.

 

[erikthewise]

I don't attempt to go to every theme park I can find, but I will say a good word for our local park, Kings Island (Paramount). While it concentrates too heavily on thrill rides for my taste, that's true of most theme parks, and there are lots of other things to do. It has an excellent kid's section and a pretty good waterpark, both included in any admission. They introduce a major new attraction every couple years, this year's offering being "Italian Job Stunt Track", a really fun intermediate coaster with some theming based on the movie.

I'm sure Cedar Point is great, but with season passes to Kings Island it's hard to justify dropping a bundle to go there, a 3+ hour drive for us.

 

[TLC371]

I haven't really been to alot of theme parks, but here's my list:

Busch Gardens Williamsburg -- it's about 40 minutes from me, we have platinum passports and we go several times during the summer. We're actually heading up there on Sunday. I won 4 tickets in a radio contest and we're taking some family with us...they expire on the 18th so we gotta use them!

Sea World Orlando
Universal Studios
Kings Dominion...

I think that other than Disney parks, those are the only other parks I have been to.

 

[ryanmilla]

I'd have to second Tivioli Gardens in Copenhagen. We go about once a year, when we got back to Sweden to visit family (Malmo, Sweden which is right across the water from Copenhagen). Another cool thing about it is you are right in the middle of historic Copenhagen. Such a great city.

Next, I would have to say Cedar Point. I'm a coaster junkie and where else can you get the thrill than Cedar Point.

But in the end they are just amusement parks. I could never imagine planning an entire vacation to any of these. Just day trips. WDW is still the best!

 

[O2BNWDW]

Busch Gardens - Williamsburg