Trip Report [Six Flags Great Adventure - Dorney Park- Knoebels - Hersheypark]

Here is my super long first ever trip report. My partner and I both got the Six Flags Gold Pass during the MVP sale last year, so we are trying to hit some parks we have never been to before. Our home park [SFNE] is a 3 hour drive which we went to a few weeks ago to ride the new ride: Quantum Accelerator. It was a fun family style coaster. With our Gold Pass, we also went to Kings Dominion last fall, where we rode our 100th coaster: Grizzly! We wanted it to be Pantherion, but sadly it was closed. We love coasters and have been tracking them using LogRide and are currently at 134 after this trip. We don't have a ton of vacation days, so we try to do multi-park trips where it makes sense. Our style at a park is prioritizing coasters and trying to squeeze in some other rides if we have time. We almost always ride back row as long as the line for it isn't wicked long. We each wear a fanny pack and always bring a sandwich, a protein bar, and a water bottle with an electrolyte tablet for the day. We will get snacks in the park if they look good. We stay super hydrated by refilling our water bottles any chance we get. On this trip we were visiting a friend so we didn't have open to close park days other than the last day at Hershey. We were still able to squeeze everything in that we wanted to, other than closed rides. We would've liked a few more re-rides, but maybe we'll go back someday.

​

6/4 Six Flags Great Adventure (3 hrs)

Good vibes at the park, hot weather, and lots of school groups as expected. Loved the safari and flume! For coasters, El Toro is a perfect ride! Only one train was running, so the line was slow moving, but after the first ride, I knew it was my new #1 wooden (bumped The Beast [Kings Island] down to #2). Also rode Medusa, Nitro, Flash, Skull Mountain, and Runaway Mine Train.

​

6/5 Six Flags Great Adventure (3 hrs)

Again, we only had 3 hours to enjoy the park, but that was okay because it was extremely hot and very crowded with schools (again as expected). A lot of rides were closed in the morning. Barely made it on Jersey Devil before they closed it again. It was our first single rail coaster, and we really enjoyed it. We usually avoid wild mouse style rides but rode Dark Knight Coaster and had fun. It's not as jerky as the others we have ridden. Re-rode some coasters and also rode Battle for Metropolis and I got the high score in my car, which was fun! I am usually pretty bad at shooters. After we left, we went to Belmar Beach, which we found to be a very nice beach.

​

6/7 Dorney (5 hrs)

Loved the energy here. Iron Menace was closed in the morning but thankfully opened up right before we had to leave. Demon Drop did not open before we left, but I was pretty nervous about hurting my neck when we still had 2 more parks to do, so I was okay with it. For coasters, we rode Steel Force (x2), Hydra, Talon (x2), Iron Menace, Possessed, and Thunderhawk. I loved Steel Force, and it was my favorite ride at this park. The first drop is so fun and we were lifted off the seat a bunch. Surprisingly, Iron Menace is at the bottom of my dive coaster list. I found it too rough. I've ridden Griffon [BGW], SheiKra [BGT], and Valravn [CP] and loved them all. I only got to ride once, so maybe that was part of the problem. For other rides, we did the Whip, Carousel, and the Zephyr. We spotted the lucky trout on the Zephyr!

​

6/8 Knoebels (3 hrs)

Knoebels became our favorite park we've ever been to. There are not a ton of coasters, but the vibes are so awesome. We got discounted tickets on our way at Weis Market. We got to the park 1.5 hrs early because we knew we could explore a bit before the first ride. It was beautiful walking around in the morning. We got in line for Flying Turns around 11:40. They opened right at 12. It was a blast. Then we rode Twister, Phoenix, Haunted Mansion, Grand Carousel (my spouse caught the brass ring and got a button! Maybe he had luck from seeing the trout at Dorney), Impulse, Scenic Skyway and then my spouse did Satellite. Sadly, Black Diamond was closed. Scenic Skyway was a nice way to get a cool view of the park. We got merch here and food because the prices were so good. It feels like they actually care about people and aren't trying to take advantage by charging $20 for a slice of pizza like other parks do. We split a potato pancake, a pretzel, pizza rolls, and my favorite snack, funnel cake fries. All the snacks we had were amazing and affordable. The rides were a lot of fun and basically walk ons. We loved the ticketing system. It was fun and different from any other park. We rode back row on Phoenix and OMG. We came into the station after riding and couldn't stop laughing with how crazy fun it was. We definitely want to come back to Knoebels someday and want to try to convince our families to come with us.

​

6/8 Hersheypark Preview (2 hrs)

We were excited to hear about preview hours because we've never been to a park that offers that before. When we got to the parking booth at 5, we said we were there for preview hours and the attendant asked to see our parking ticket. We were a little confused because we thought preview hours were free parking, but we showed it to him, and he scanned it. When we got to the park, we went straight to guest services, who were super nice about it, and felt bad that it got scanned. They were able to undo the scan so we could use it again the next day, with no issue. We were very surprised at the crowd levels. It was busy and very overwhelming after being at Knoebels that morning. We went to Comet first because the lines were super long everywhere else. It was fun! We then did Trailblazer, Lightning and Thunder racers, Wildcats Revenge, and Fahrenheit. The racers were rough, but we loved them. This might be an unpopular opinion but we felt like Wildcats Revenge was missing something. We love RMCs, and we've been on Steel Vengence [CP], Twisted Timbers [KD], Iron Gwazi [BGT], and Wicked Cyclone [SFNE], which were all phenomenal. We still love Wildcats, too, just not as much. My spouse loved Fahrenheit, but I have a fear of getting stuck on a vertical lift hill, especially when it's hot. So I was stressed, but I liked the ride a lot still. We stopped at Chocolate World and rode the tour ride, which was cute, and we bought a few treats to try from the store.

​

6/9 Hersheypark (8 hrs)

It was packed, which we did not expect for a Tuesday. It was also very hot. We have never bought any kind of Flash pass before and don't love the idea of it, but it was reasonably priced, so we splurged because we wanted to make sure we rode all the coasters and saw the crowds the night before. I am not sure we would've without it. The operations surprised us with how slow they were. I'm not sure what the issue was. They had multiple trains, sometimes even 3 trains, and they still would take forever. It was a huge bummer it was moving so slow because we could have ridden so many re-rides if it was moving at a reasonable pace. Wildcats was the slowest even with 3 trains running. We waited for 30 minutes when there were only 8 people (4 trains) in front of us in our row. We thankfully still got on all the major coasters and squeezed in a couple of re-rides. Using Fast Track, in order we rode Candymonium, Great Bear, ScooperDooperLooper, Skyrush, and Twizzlers. After Twizzlers, we went to ZooAmerica because Twizzlers freaked us both out in an awesome way. We love animals, so we enjoyed ZooAmerica, but not as much as the Wild Safari at SFGA. Then we did Reese's Cupfusion, Storm Runner, Howler, Laff Track (x2: Facing front and then again facing backwards), Wildcats Revenge (x2), Lightning Racers (x2), Music Express, Jolly Rancher Remix (we got Blue Rasberry), Storm Runner, Great Bear, Skyrush, Coal Cracker, Reese's Cupfusion, Starship America, and ended the day at 7 pm with front row on Candymonium. There were so many good coasters at this park, it's hard to pick a favorite, but Skyrush was the most fun for us both. We have only ridden floater hypers, and we felt the difference with Skyrush feeling like it's trying to throw you out of your seat, starting with the first drop. Great Bear was great, but Montu is a lot better in our opinion. We felt that there were some sections, especially the end, that could've used another element. We had fun riding Laff Track and Cupfusion, which was a nice break from the heat. Storm Runner was only running one train, so it took 30 minutes to ride even with fast track. The launch into the top hat is so awesome, but the ride felt too short. We don't usually eat out, but it was the last day of our trip, so we splurged and ate at Hershey Social Restaurant. We got the bread and butter, Reese's Take5 Smash Burger, and the Hershey Kisses Martini flight. The burger was very chocolatey in a good way for us. Martinis were good but strong.

​

Trip Summary

It was hot and more crowded than we thought it would be. El Toro was our favorite ride on the trip, and I think my new number 2 after VelociCoaster. Knoebels is our favorite park. The scariest ride for us on this trip was Twizzlers. Most painful was back row on Thunder Racer. Food is worth it at Knoebels to us. Fast Track felt necessary to us for the first time at Hersheypark.