Upcoming Theme Park Odyssey family road trip....

Greetings Earthlings! I'm new here. I've been reading all I can in preparation for our family road trip from Houston to OH, where we plan to hit all the Cedar Fair parks and hopefully see some other attractions as well.

First, a little about me. I'm a 39 years old, married, father of 3. I work as a dba for a major BigOil company. I've lived my whole life in Houston.

I've been a coaster lover ever since I reached the height requirements for the once #1 Coaster in the world, the Texas Cyclone at Astroworld, and my cousin coaxed me on board. Since then I've been hooked. I'm sorry to say the Cyclone and Astroworld have been demolished and now Houston finds itself without a theme park.

My wife and I had our honeymoon at Disneyworld/Universal Studios in 1989. We rode and saw everything that was available at that time.

We went back to Forida in January, 1993, while my wife was 5 months pregnant. While there, I got to witness a space shuttle launch. I know that's not a thrill ride, but damn it was an unbelievable thrill!

I've ridden all the best that Texas has to offer, including the jubilant torture that was the original 1992 uncut Texas Rattler in Fiesta Texas, San Antonio. You felt your spine compress on that monster, let me tell you, and that's hardly an exagerration. Since then they've neutered that ride a great bit, but it's understandable. It really earned its rep as a safety hazzard, but now I've got no problems letting my kids ride.

The Texas Giant in Six Flags Over Texas is more enjoyable than the rattler these days. It still maintains the bone-jarring out of control feeling that only wood can offer. The Titan (also at SFOT) is an amazing coaster. There's a couple of really good airtime moments and it cruises at a pretty good speed.

Sea World in San Antonio has a somewhat wimpy coaster called Steel Eel, yet it has the best airtime I'm ever gotten. It's great to try to leave a little room between the lapbar and your waist, because then you really get the lift-out-of-your-seat feeling. (not recommended for young children :))

My wife and I went on a trip out of Texas in 1992. We went to WoF in KC, and I recall enjoying the Timberwolf there. We also went to Six Flags St. Louis.

We took a road trip east in 1999. I got to ride Apollo's chariot and the rest of the rides in Busch Gardens. I was bitterly disappointed that Volcano was broken during my visit to King's dominion. I also rode all the rides at Six Flags Great America on that trip.

So, that's my backstory and my street cred. :)

This year is the first year that my younger son is tall enough to ride everything, so we're making the big journey to where the big boys play, OH.

Here's what we've got lined up so far:

The road trip will consist of me, my wife, my sister, and my 2 sons, ages 14 and 12, and daughter age 4.

Day 1, Leave Houston (June 1)

Day 2, Half day at Silver Dollar City, Branson MO.

Day 3, Full day at Silver Dollar City. Probably overkill to spend 2 days in this park, but we've got free room and board in Branson.

Day 4. Arrive Cincinatti

Day 5. Full day at King's Island. Purchase MaxxPass.

Day 6. Arrive Sandusky, 3/4 of a day at Cedar Point

Day 7. Full day at Cedar Point.

Day 8. Full day at Geauga Lake.

Day 9. Maybe 1/2 day again at Cedar Point. Begin journey back home. Possible stop at Mammoth Cave in KY on the way home.

We are toying with the idea of going to World's of Fun in KS first, because it looks like we would stand to save $200 on our MaxxPasses if we bought/processed them their. But we would really like to stop at the Arch is St. Louis too, and we would have to choose one over the other. It's still a tossup.

This seems an ambitious adventure. Reading it back after typing, I can't believe we're even going to attempt this.

This site has been a great source of information to me. I'm extremely excited in getting to try out the best rides in America.

Any advice, tips/tricks would be very appreciated.

How's the traffic from Sandusky to Cleveland most days? It looks like an enjoyable drive. Our plan is to set up a home base in Sandusky and make the trip to Geauga Lake a "day trip", returning back to Sandusky after going to the park.

What other non-theme park attractions are must-see in and around Sandusky. Any great caves? What about COSI?

Thanks for reading. I welcome any and all advice as we gear up for the trip. I promise 3 things in return:

1. Pump some serious dollars into the OH economy. :)

2. Refrain from using the world "Y'all" for the duration of my visit.

3. Write a full account here of all of our adventures.

Thanks for a great site. It really helps visitors like me prepare for a visit.

Hope your trip goes well! For a coaster fanatic, you'll have a BLAST!

Even though they are not coaster or park related, you may want to go a hour south of Cleveland to Canton and see the Pro Football Hall of Fame and in downtown Cleveland is the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Next to the Rock Hall is the Great Lakes Science Center, and this summer they have a special exibit on the history of baseball.

Just thought you might like some other options.

Either way I hope you enjoy your trip hear to Ohio.

Wow! Is your last name Griswald by any chance? :)

Greetings from Columbus, OH. We indeed are lucky to have two and a hlaf (the half is for Geagua Lake) world class parks very close by.

First and foremost, I would recommend this:

Make that stop at WOF. Save the money. Ride on. I don't think you'll regret this stop at all, as WOF has a few surprises up it's sleeves, and you could easily squeeze it into one day, save your money, and ride the Patriot! (one of the newest BM inverts out there). The arch, while impressive to look at...eh...it's your choice, but I would recommend the WOF stop.

Your plan to make Sandusky a base sounds right on. If you and your wife (and sister) enjoy wine, I would make a stop at the Firelands Winery. It's on the map off route 2 just a few exits away from CP. Also, if you and your family what something different that's not a amusement park, how about hopping over to Put-in-Bay? It's a unique little island with all kinds of eateries and shopping. You take a boat out (I recommend the ferry over the Jet Express) to the island that picks you up later. A good time! The caves in the area are just so-so, in my opinion.

If you find yourself with spare time, one really cool attraction around the area is The Rainforest; it's part of the Cleveland Metro Zoo...and is essentially an indoor rainforest exhibit. Just a thought.

I hope you have a blast at all your parks, especially CP.

EDIT: Here's a link:

http://www.byways.org/explore/byways/59836/index.html

If you look at the "Explore this Byway" link, it will give you pretty much a full list of choices of things to see and do in your area. Have fun!
*** Edited 5/18/2007 3:25:48 PM UTC by Kevinj***

I HIGHLY recommend trying to squeeze in Holiday World in Santa Claus, Indiana on your way home. It is an outstanding park (and waterpark) with 3 Top 10 wooden coasters.

Looking at your plans, I'd scrap what you currently have on Day 9 and put HW there. Mammoth Cave is cool, but I guarantee it will fail to excite after a week of thrill parks. Go to HW instead. Trust me, you won't regret it.

I was thinking the same thing.

You seem to like wooden coasters, and it would be a shame to miss the Voyage! That ride would be worth the stop alone.

Sounds like you have an exciting trip lined up. My friend and I just did five straight days of parks and it even wore me out a little. I can't imagine doing that much driving AND parks in that short amount of time. I bet it will be awesome, but I hope you plan lots of rest too.

Also... while your at Silver Dollar City (which is an AMAZING park IMO), you might as well drive like 5 miles and head on over to Celebration City. It's nothing big... but they have a few coasters, and one of them being Ozark Wildcat which is a fun little GCI woodie.
If I remember correctly, you can use your ticket from SDC to get in CC.

Thanks all for the advice and links. I'll have to give some further thought to changing our itenerary. I talked it over with my wife and right now we are hesitant to change. We'll just have to save some of the fun stuff for future trips. But, "the voyage" does look like an amazing coaster, so I'm not ready to rule out a stop there just yet. :)

We do have a lot of rest planned at the end of our journey. we will be staying at a resort in theTexas hill country before finally coming back to Houston. There, I plan on doing nothing but chilling.

Carlucci, that sounds like a pretty damn good lineup