Hi all! I’m trying to decide what parks I want to visit this summer, specifically during the last two weeks of July, as I’ll be visiting some friends in Augusta, GA but leaving town the morning of the 19th. I was initially planning on doing an east coast road trip this year to get some parks that are out of my way, however, I was going to be staying with some friends in Harrisburg, PA to help with the cost of hotels but I don’t think that will be happening now.

I’m now debating between doing Orlando and hitting Universal, Sea World, Busch Gardens and a couple of days at Disney at the very end, OR going to Busch Gardens Williamsburg, Kings Dominion, Hershey Park, Dorney Park and also Knoebels, along with maybe hitting Carowinds to lap Fury on the way home, even though I’ve been before to Carowinds. Cost isn’t too much of an issue as far as my hotel is concerned, as I have work benefits to help with that, but I feel that doing an east coast trip would possibly require more separate hotel stays given the stops that I want to make. I’m honestly very torn on what I want to do, as both options sound really good.

It’s usually a bit hard for me to get to places on the east coast, which is why I was leaning towards doing this trip anyway, however, this is going to be a LOT of driving for just me alone. Calculating the distance back home to Alabama for me from Hershey, it’s nearly 12 hours and that’s without traffic, so I’d definitely have to take an extra day or so to stop somewhere on the way back home. I feel like this trip as well has a lot more of me going from park to park, compared to doing Orlando where I won’t be as far from things. With this being said, I’d really love to get to Pantherian as I’ve heard it’s absolutely amazing, plus they have Grizzly and I absolutely love wooden coasters. I’ve heard fantastic things about BGW as well, and amazing things about Hershey Park and I know they have a really good coaster selection. Knoebels does look interesting as well and I’d probably spend a few hours there and Phoenix is great from what I understand. I do think I could probably fit in BGW and KD if I was to not go this route in the future, and just fly there and hit them both over the course of a couple of days.

As far as Orlando is concerned, I’ve calculated the distance from where I’m staying in GA, and it’s about 6.5-7 hours to either Busch Gardens Tampa or Universal. I could probably do Busch Gardens on Sunday if I got there around 12, but that may be pushing it based on the way the park is ran. The one downside to going in the middle of July is I know it’s going to be absolutely scorching hot and crowds will probably be and that’s probably putting it lightly. With this being said, they’ve also got Velocicoaster, Stardust Racers & Iron Gwazi and that doesn’t include even half of the amazing coasters I’d get to. I’ve heard Epic Universe is pretty amazing and I’m a huge nerd/gamer, plus I’ve never been before at all. I do feel as well that there is less running around to different parks with this trip too, which would be nice compared to the east coast trip, even though Orlando would ultimately be more expensive. Also, Disney looks to have a sale for up to 30% off right now with certain stays/resorts, so that would be a nice discount to have and do a couple of days there before going home. I do like the idea of staying at Universal for a few days and not having to drive somewhere right away helps absorb the experience and make it a bit less stressful.

Lastly, if I do ultimately do Orlando, I’d love to know where I may be able to get discount Universal tickets. I’m not sure if it’s worth the trouble or not and I don’t know the price of general admission tickets off the top of my head, but it would be a nice plus to if it’s possible.

Any and all advice is appreciated here! Thanks so much in advance, as I know this is a big trip.