Real World Theme Parks Your Favourite Theme Parks

[Tesseract1]

I have one question for you all - what is your favourite theme park and why? Is it the outstanding scenery? Is it the thrilling rides? Is it the memorable smell of the water? (I'm talking to you, Disney!) Feel free to discuss this question in this thread!

Although I haven't been to many parks, I must say that my personal favourite is Alton Towers - you can't deny, Nemesis is one of the best rides out there!

 

[Philip]

Of course in terms of rides there are much better theme parks out there, but I'll always have a soft spot for my home park, Thorpe Park. I went on my first roller coaster here many years ago, and in my opinion Stealth is the purest form of adrenaline in the UK!

 

[2MileDollywood]

I've never been able to experience true theme parks in terms of Alton Towers. I live in the States and don't get to travel much. I live in a tourist town and live 2 miles from my hometown theme park, which is my favorite park... Dollywood. I do enjoy Disney parks and Cedar Fair properties like Cedar Point, Carowinds, Kings Island and King's Dominion, but there's just something about the charm of Dollywood that makes it my #1 park.

But I don't take just rides into consideration when it comes to having a favorite park. It has to do with the charm of it.

We, here in the Smoky Mountains of Pigeon Forge, TN, pride ourselves in hospitality and welcoming people to our town. And that's what you get at Dollywood. Everybody treats you like your family. You feel welcomed at the park. Not to forget and mention our gorgeous Smoky Mountains is the backdrop at the park. The aroma of the fresh air blended with scents of homemade candy, homemade soaps and lotions, and a whiff of savory homestyle southern cooking fills the area, while watching locals demonstrate their trades in crafts like glass blowing, woodcarving, candle making, and everything between is enough to make you want to stay.

We do have some exciting coasters like Wild Eagle, which is by far my favorite coaster at the park, as well as Lightning Rod which has a bad reputation at the moment. Firechaser Express, Mystery Mine, Tennessee Tornado, Blazing Fury and Thunderhead are MUST RIDES. But my hometown park has a mixture for everybody- great shows, great music and live entertainment, the scenery is mesmerizing, the food is to die for, and rides for tot-sized thrill seekers to the daring thrill seekers. And if you're not into the thrills in the mountains, take a scenic ride of the Smoky Mountains by our 1930's coal-powered steam locomotive, Klondike Katie, on the Dollywood Express.

 

[mr.sugar]

I've never been able to experience true theme parks in terms of Alton Towers. I live in the States and don't get to travel much. I live in a tourist town and live 2 miles from my hometown theme park, which is my favorite park... Dollywood. I do enjoy Disney parks and Cedar Fair properties like Cedar Point, Carowinds, Kings Island and King's Dominion, but there's just something about the charm of Dollywood that makes it my #1 park.But I don't take just rides into consideration when it comes to having a favorite park. It has to do with the charm of it. We, here in the Smoky Mountains of Pigeon Forge, TN, pride ourselves in hospitality and welcoming people to our town. And that's what you get at Dollywood. Everybody treats you like your family. You feel welcomed at the park. Not to forget and mention our gorgeous Smoky Mountains is the backdrop at the park. The aroma of the fresh air blended with scents of homemade candy, homemade soaps and lotions, and a whiff of savory homestyle southern cooking fills the area, while watching locals demonstrate their trades in crafts like glass blowing, woodcarving, candle making, and everything between is enough to make you want to stay.We do have some exciting coasters like Wild Eagle, which is by far my favorite coaster at the park, as well as Lightning Rod which has a bad reputation at the moment. Firechaser Express, Mystery Mine, Tennessee Tornado, Blazing Fury and Thunderhead are MUST RIDES. But my hometown park has a mixture for everybody- great shows, great music and live entertainment, the scenery is mesmerizing, the food is to die for, and rides for tot-sized thrill seekers to the daring thrill seekers. And if you're not into the thrills in the mountains, take a scenic ride of the Smoky Mountains by our 1930's coal-powered steam locomotive, Klondike Katie, on the Dollywood Express.

Why has Lighting rod bad reputation?By the way, for me it is Phantasialand. And Heide Park, but that´s especially since it was the first bigger park I´ve been too and Colossos is just pure joy.On the Other hand Terra Mitica in Spain was the worst experience and will never come back. Thorpe Park could be great, but rides close way too often, fast passes doesn´t work too well either. They have some great rides, but don´t handle them well operation-wise. Just because of this, it is the second worst park I´ve been to.

 

[2MileDollywood]

Well, Lighting Rod is awesome when you're lucky enough to be at the park on a day when it's up and running. They've had some issues with the launch on the lift. Rumors are that they may decrease the speed of the launch but it's just rumors. There's more days where it's been closed than it has been open. I went to the park yesterday just to kill time and it was open. Rode it a few times (which it's a great experience). But I went to the park on Thursday last week and it was closed and it was also closed last Monday as well. I go to the park at least three times a week... crossing my fingers I get a second job there soon.

 

[S100Headache]

For full-tilt theme parks, it's very close between Knott's Berry Farm and Busch Gardens Williamsburg. I have yet to visit a Disney or Universal park.

I give the edge to BGW. I can drive about an hour or so and be at BGW. I have to fly across the country to go to KBF. Then, there's the coaster lineups. Xcelerator, GhostRider, and Montezooma's Revenge easily beat Verbolten, InvadR, and Tempesto respectively, but Alpengeist is slightly better than Silver Bullet, and then BGW has Apollo's Chariot, Griffon, and the Loch Ness Monster, none of which KBF can compete with. The rest of the coasters at KBF are forgettable family coasters, which I can let slide, because they're competing more with Disneyland than with Magic Mountain.

For amusement parks with less theming, Hersheypark wins. A trio of Intamin coasters - Skyrush, the real life version of the "Tiamat" model in Planet Coaster, has the most powerful ejector airtime. Storm Runner starts with an explosive launch and then tears through three inversions (Erm, why can't the "Sprint 500" coaster invert?), and Fahrenheit is probably my top sit-down looper, with the beyond-vertical drop and the Norwegian loop being highlights. After that, you have Great Bear with the unique drawn-out pre-drop, Lightning Racer with those dueling segments, and four solid-to-classic family coasters - the Wild Mouse, Laff Trakk, the Comet, and sooperdooperLooper. Props to Trailblazer for allowing those as little as 36" to ride.

 

[Coaster Cinema]

I'd say Cedar Point is the best park I've been to. With the Magnum XL 200, the first hyper coaster, Millennium Force, the first giga coaster, and Top Thrill Dragster, the first strata coaster. They've been breaking records for years now. Other great coasters include Raptor, a B&M invert, Blue Streak, a classic wooden coaster, GateKeeper, a wing coaster, and Gemini, a racing coaster. But a little bit East in Pittsburgh there's this old school classic park called Kennywood. They are known for having three classic wooden coasters all originally built in the 1920's, they also have an indoor mouse coaster called Exterminator, the Sky Rocket launch coaster, and the world class Phantom's Revenge, which is one of my favorite coasters of all time. They also have the last Noah's Ark funhouse still in operation and the only remaining Kangaroo ride anywhere. Other classics include the Whip, Turtle a tumble bug ride, and Auto Race which is cars you can steer in a wooden trough. Also Kennywood is very beautiful with many fountains and floral displays. The park truly comes alive at night though as it has many dazzling light displays throughout.

 

[ImagineerTim]

Efteling is my favourite theme park. The theming and the nature is perfect! And they got the perfect balance of darkrides and coasters.
They also take care of their classics and there is always something new each year. They built so much new things and not just big rides but also smaller attractions like in the fairytale forest.

 

[Joël]

Efteling is my favourite theme park. The theming and the nature is perfect! And they got the perfect balance of darkrides and coasters.
They also take care of their classics and there is always something new each year. They built so much new things and not just big rides but also smaller attractions like in the fairytale forest.

I can only agree here. Efteling is also my favourite park. The theming is wonderful and the nature is indeed perfect.

Phantasialand is also among my favourites, together with Toverland. Both parks have their specialities. I like Phantasialand for their fantastic theming and exciting coasters ( Taron <3 ) and Toverland for their 'cozyness' since it's still a young park and for their ambition for greatness, which led to Troy and Fenix, both awesome coasters (imo).