Disneyfan_76
Well-Known Member
I'm going to have to make a trip to Silver Dollar City. Had not heard much about it, but seems everyone who has been highly recommends it. Holiday World is also a honorable mention if anyone has been.
-
Welcome to the WDWMAGIC.COM Forums!
Please take a look around, and feel free to sign up and join the community.
What is the best park in North America outside of Disney and Universal?
- Thread starter Walt Disney1955
- Start date
Patcheslee
Well-Known Member
We we're split between Dollywood and Silver Dollar City for this year. Dollywood won because we planned a week total out of town and there were more activities we could all participate in closeby.
The problem with a list like this is that I would be shocked beyond belief if you could find anyone that had even been to half of those parks. And if you haven't been to all of them how can you really make a selection that has any validity. I've been to a couple, and while I could tell you which of those was best I'm willing to bet that some of the ones I haven't been to could be better than any that I have. I've certainly heard good things about some of them.
Silver Dollar City is in a very crappy place weather wise as it gets extremely hot during most of the times that it is open. I've been in the summer and it was miserable beyond belief. Very hot, too many trees to get any breeze and the whole park is built in a very hilly area where you feel like everytime you go from one thing to another it requires going up and down hills. I've also been in the Fall when it was cooler and it was fine.... So if you go, be careful about when you go... Of course in the off-season they are often only open on weekends and have limited hours.... At Christmas time they open but once again the weather can be an issue with it being freezing temps which don't work well with rides which get you wet.
The place has gotten better over the years, I recall back in the late 70's or early 80's one of the coasters went down a service line instead of the correct line and lopped off someone's head... so I wouldn't put as much faith in the place as I might a Universal or Disney park. Then again I've seen more accidents at Six Flags Over Texas over the years than I have at Silver Dollar City.
Jrb1979
Well-Known Member
I've been to 4 of them.
Disneyfan_76
Well-Known Member
I have been to all but Silver Dollar City and Canada Wonderland, but I've also been to a ton of others not on the list.
surfsupdon
Well-Known Member
Busch Gardens Williamsburg is gorgeous and beautifully done.
Tom Morrow
Well-Known Member
I've been to most on that list but not Dollywood. Hoping to change that soon, but my vote goes to Cedar Point. It's not just about the coasters. First - the location. It's on its own peninsula (practically an island) on Lake Erie, which of course is big enough to look like the ocean. Beyond that, it's in the quaint town of Sandusky, Ohio - a place you have to traverse through rural farmland to get to from the major highways. A place you would never expect there to be a world-class theme park at. The lake, beach, and insulated nature of the park make it this neat little bubble away from the real world. The awesome atmosphere is also aided by a vibe that other park I've been to matches. Cedar Point feels so incredibly alive and energetic. Kinetic movement everywhere you look, due in-part to the fact that they are renowned for being extremely efficient in their operations.
The park feels both modern and historical at the same time. It is basically divided into two main areas - the front half has a classic amusement park/beachfront/boardwalk park look and vibe to it. The back half of the park is much more wooded and rustic, with even some decent theming in Frontier Town and Frontier Trail. It feels like two different parks, basically. While maybe not the most beautiful park, it is still clean, well maintained, and decently landscaped.
The service - this may not always be the norm but on my recent visit, the service was better than Disney and Universal have been lately. I was shocked at how good it was.
It's also an incredible night-time park. They do impressive lighting packages on all of their coasters so it's very pretty. Also, whenever you're up on the coasters at night, you look out into the darkness that is Lake Erie and it's just kind of crazy.
It's worth mentioning though that it is VERY worth it to stay on the grounds. Being able to walk straight into the park or water park, or right onto the beach, really gives it this all-inclusive escapism similar to staying on WDW property.
The park feels both modern and historical at the same time. It is basically divided into two main areas - the front half has a classic amusement park/beachfront/boardwalk park look and vibe to it. The back half of the park is much more wooded and rustic, with even some decent theming in Frontier Town and Frontier Trail. It feels like two different parks, basically. While maybe not the most beautiful park, it is still clean, well maintained, and decently landscaped.
The service - this may not always be the norm but on my recent visit, the service was better than Disney and Universal have been lately. I was shocked at how good it was.
It's also an incredible night-time park. They do impressive lighting packages on all of their coasters so it's very pretty. Also, whenever you're up on the coasters at night, you look out into the darkness that is Lake Erie and it's just kind of crazy.
It's worth mentioning though that it is VERY worth it to stay on the grounds. Being able to walk straight into the park or water park, or right onto the beach, really gives it this all-inclusive escapism similar to staying on WDW property.
Disneyfan_76
Well-Known Member
These last couple years I have really, really been impressed with not only the service, but all of the food options and quality that they have added. The food is way better than you would ever expect at an amusement park. Several great sit down restaurants and quick service. My brother works at a company nearby. It has become common for many of the people that work there to get season passes just to be able to drive on a lunch break to go eat at the park.
Their nighttime parade and celebration show are great as well. It's also nice that there are random 'entertainment' that pop up throughout the day. A 50s singing group that shows up in front of the diner, music acts at the barbeque place near magnum, all of the citizens of the frontier festival (there are at least 20-30 actors out even on weekdays/off times), random marching bands and music acts, etc.
Beacon Joe
Well-Known Member
This. I could go either way with this poll - Busch Gardens Williamsburg, or Dollywood. I sided with Dollywood since it's such a great park and their customer service edges out BGW. BGW still could have won the day for me, if they still had their beer monorail.
jloucks
Well-Known Member
Six Flags over Texas!
Oh I know, the horror! But let me explain....
Now, Sea World is close, but not literally. The closest is a days drive.
Oh I know, the horror! But let me explain....
- 45 Minutes Away
- World class coasters
- Season passes make attendance super affordable
- Season dining plans make lunch, dinner, and snacks super affordable.
- Nice mid-tier Halloween and Christmas shows and events
- A working train
- Upper-tier haunted houses (but not my cup-o-tea)
- Upper-tier Santa meet-greet
- Crowd levels manageable so long as you avoid Saturday
Now, Sea World is close, but not literally. The closest is a days drive.
Well, you have to to explain that flooding story, if you don't mind. Sounds interesting.
I agree about Ghostwood Estate. I went on it thinking maybe it is very carnival-ish. Well, it isn't Haunted Mansion, or Toy Story Mania for that matter, but better than I thought. That Noah's Ark walkthrough is quite trippy though.
I am the original poster, and I've been to 5 of them (as well as King's Island which got some mention here). I guess my assumption was that many of us have seen several of them, and if you haven't you just pick out of the ones you attended.
That has happened to be fair at other parks. West Edmonton Mall had a coaster called the Mindbender (still runs today) kill three people and severely injure a 4th back in 1986 when the train went off the track. Darien Lake had that war veteran from Iraq that lost his legs literally fly off the Superman Ride of Steel coaster because, well, he didn't have anything to hold him in there. He died too. I guess some places will have things like that where it is the park's fault. Every park has deaths where it is the guest's fault of course.
If you want to find the ultimate place that people died from a theme park's negligence look no further than Action Park in New Jersey (1978-'96). Just horrible accidents there, yikes! So bad that it closed and actually has a documentary on it from HBO. Now that's bad! It has since re-opened under a different name.
Disneyfan_76
Well-Known Member
It happed about five years ago (2017). They closed the park down due to lightning strikes on the radar, but it wasn't even raining yet. You have to understand that the topography of the area is not only hilly, but funnels down towards the front of the park. The front entrance of the park is a large tunnel. We were exiting the park and suddenly it started filling up with water. Then the heavens started opening up and the tunnel filled way quicker than I thought was possible. We had to head back towards the park end of the tunnel and made it out ok, but it was close. It went from a few inches to multiple feet in about 2 minutes. We were traveling with another couple that has an autistic son. He had a panic episode after the tunnel incident and we had to stop to calm him down. They exited us out of the left side of the park using a service exit, but in the 20 minutes or so that it had been raining the entire parking lot was a river. It varied from ankle deep to above your knees. We were all crossing this mess in a large crowd like a herd of water buffalo, when a person 'upriver' from us slipped and crashed into a number of people. The young daughter of the couple we were with got knocked loose and got swept down river with a few others. I was closest and jumped in after her with her mom about two seconds behind me. We all got funneled into a flooded gully and after about a 100ft or so it got shallow enough that a few people were able to get a foothold and start a human dam that caught the rest of us. Luckily, a stranger grabbed the girl before we even got anywhere near her. We got everyone out, but then to add insult to injury it decided to start hailing. We found out afterwards that there was apparently a tornado nearby as well, but we never saw it or heard any sirens. Not my favorite experience in a park.
Disneyfan_76
Well-Known Member
I don't know if anyone has an answer to this, but anyone who has been through this attraction may have noticed this. At the end of the walkthrough, there is a set of stairs that goes up and down. You have to time it to jump off them on the way down. Are those stairs on a hinge, or are they joined to the moving structure? It seems to me that if it isn't hinged or made to break away in some fashion that this would be very dangerous. If someone slipped or got a limb under those stairs it would be kind of like a giant nutcracker. Just seemed super unsafe to me.
Last edited:
Wow, yikes. Yeah I've been to Kennywood, I can picture the experience you had because I know the layout. But still, they should do something in order to make sure there isn't that sort of flooding in the park. It sounds like a big rain storm away from disaster for guests.
Was that the staircase that sort of shifts really hard? I know they are trying to make it seem like you are on rough waters and give you that illusion, but I can remember thinking of falling down those stairs rather than thinking it was fun.
Prepare to be shocked. I've been to 6 of the 9.