Where to go with young kids besides Disney parks? (yes, I did ask that)

[newtowdw1]

We've done tons of stuff in central Pa (to west) and NY. Our top favorites:

http://www.northpoleny.com/
Santa's Workshop in Northpole, NY (near Lake Placid). We stay at the NorthPole Motor Inn and Campground. About 45.00/night for a two room cabin. OR stay at the motor inn for a little more. Very inexpensive. About 10 miles to Lake Placid which is phenomenal. We go every year in September and spend, oh, way less than $300. all told for 3 nights. And we shop too. I wouldn't come all the way from MI just for Santa, but you can have a truly great time in Lake Placid and surroundings.
http://www.campingfriend.com/NorthPoleCampgroundandMotorInn/default.asp?source=arvc

Knoebel's northeast Pa, free admission, just pay for the rides. Great for us, as DH and I don't do that many rides. Definitely toddler, preschooler, big kid heaven. Food has won awards for best amusement park food in the nation!It was only 1.5 hours from us, so we day-tripped it, but tons of motels. Knoebel's has its own campground that looked very nice. Does have a waterpark attached that looked pretty nice and small (easy to keep track of little guys).

Corning, NY family weekends at the glass museum with story telling. Cooperstown, NY-- baseball hall of fame, farmer's museum, James Fennimore Cooper museum

New York City--we've done day trips to the Bronx zoo, New York Aquarium, National History Museum all in the past 10 months. Imagine all the cool things in New York!

We plan to do Idlewild soon, as it has a trolley and Mr.Roger's neighborhood. DD8 and I both cried when he died. Oh, also in Pa are TONS of factory tours...Crayola, Herrs snack food, etc.
Subscribe to Family Fun magazine. They have a great travel section.

 

[ryan840]

That all sounds soo fun, I'll have to do it all one day!

 

[suebee828]

Last year, our DS was 2, and we had a family reunion near Gettysburg, PA. We live in Massachusetts, near the RI border. Originally, we were going to stop at Sesame Place, but I kept reading negatives. Plus, it sounded like the vast majority of rides were water rides, and my son isn't a water baby. I also considered Hershey Park.

Long story short, we ended up staying overnight in Lancaster and going to Dutch Wonderland. We had the best time! I believe it's by the Hershey Park folks, but it's specifically oriented to younger kids.

We stayed, literally, across the street at the Country Inn and Suites. Great place to stay!

http://www.countryinns.com/lancasterpa

If you are going to that area for a vacation, you could hit both Sesame Place and Dutch Wonderland. We also planned to hit the railroad in Strasburg, but had so much trouble dragging DS out of Dutch Wonderland, that it was too late to make it worthwhile.

 

[suebee828]

McKelly - just posted about Dutch Wonderland, then saw your post about Boyds. I went to Boyds Bear Country last summer, but was already in Gettysburg and starting collecting Boyds well over ten years ago. If you're not a collector, I'm not sure it would be worth it. As a collector, I found it overwhelming (and dangerous to my bank account!). And, I don't even actively collect anymore.

Sometimes, Boyds has special events, such as Civil War re-enactments. So, that could make it more worthwhile. They also have a nice "food court" on the bottom floor.

 

[Gillian]

My son loves trains, and in the Lancaster area there is a train ride, model train museum & a cute little Thomas the Tank Engine store! The train is the Stasburg railroad. Not sure about the model train museum's name.

 

[tiff211]

OK, I have to go to Sesame Place next year. Is anyone willing to help me plan my trip? I think we will drive, (it's about 10 hours and hubby will drive through the night so we can all sleep ) so our first day we will just stay at the hotel and relax. I figure the second day, we'll hit Sesame Place for the first of our two days there, and that's all I've got so far. I need help with finding any discounts, what hotels/cities to stay in (I don't mind staying a few miles away to save money, we need to keep it to a minimum) and help with planning the rest of our trip. Here are the places we hope to see- can they each be done in a day, or two in one day? We'd like to go to Ocean City, Hershey Park, the Philly (?) Aquarium, the Please Touch Museum, the Philadelphia Zoo and Dorney Park, if possible. I have no idea how much these places cost, the distance between them, or how long to spend at each, that's why I'm looking for help. I think about 8.5 days total would be good- (leave on a Friday night and return the following Saturday night), and we have no particular month in mind, although I was thinking of August, for my son and husband's birthdays. Thanks to everyone in advance! Oh, if anyone knows a message board that can help me out more, let me know!

I went to SP on 4th of July weekend last year and it was not too bad. My 2 and 4 dd's loved splashing in the water all day!! Elmo's world is a hit, there is another show with all the characters. 4 yr DD has picks with ELmo, cookie monster, Telly, Zoe, Grover, and Big Bird.

I go on entertainment.com and sign up for a membership which is 3.99 a month. I do it a week before we leave. It is just like the book, except an online mebership. You can print out coupons in the Philly area. The are mostly buy 1 get 1 free. Even if you just use the one for the aquarium and the museu, you save close to $30. Then we you get home cancel the membership! I think there is one for the zoo as well.

Pm me if you want more info!!!!

 

[Briarprincess]

So compared to WDW, just how crowded is Sesame Place? I suppose you can't really go any time of year due to the weather...

BTW Briarprincess, I fell in love with Moulin Rouge the second Ewan opened his mouth!! (I was already in love with him of course , but I never heard him sing!!! I ask my husband all the timehow he's going to get him to sing to me on my birthday! Just had to get that out of my system...

Sesame is pretty crowded, and since it's in PA, it's only open for the Spring and Summer...

Ewan is amazing. Moulin Rouge is one of the best movies I've seen. Plus at the end of Down With Love, he and Renee Zellweger sing a song together (I loved her in Chicago, another favorite ) His acting is great too. I LOVE Big Fish and watch it once a week or so (my saturday night movie)