Overrated and Underrated Parks

[Matt N]

Hi guys. Sorry if a thread like this already exists, but as we have a thread for overrated and underrated coasters, I thought we might as well have one for parks as well. So, I'll get the ball rolling with the parks that I personally find overrated and underrated:
Overrated

• Busch Gardens Tampa - Now, let me explain this one as I can tell that it's going to generate some controversy. Don't get me wrong; Busch Gardens Tampa has the makings of a world class theme park, in my opinion. It's got good thrill rides and nice scenery, and I did like the park when I visited in August 2016. But there was something about it that meant that I couldn't truly love it to the extent that some do, and I can't quite put my finger on what it is. It might have been down to the fact that my family seemed to not particularly like the park, for all I know. I think I might well need to revisit BGT some time in the future and reevaluate my opinions of it.

Underrated

• SeaWorld Orlando - Again, I apologise as it would seem that this may be quite a controversial one, but I enjoyed the time I spent at SeaWorld in August 2016 far more than most people seem to. I found the park to have a really nice atmosphere, a fab coaster selection and really nice scenery, although it would seem I'm in a minority who like SeaWorld Orlando!
• Blackpool Pleasure Beach - In my eyes, Blackpool is just a sight to behold! I loved my visit here in August 2018, and it was a park that I'd been looking forward to for years! It certainly didn't disappoint; I found the park to have a lovely atmosphere, a ride for just about everyone to enjoy and very efficient operations! I don't often seem to see much love for Blackpool Pleasure Beach these days, but I love the park; my 2nd favourite UK park and my 5th favourite overall!

 

[Howie]

Overrated: Phantasialand. Soon as I saw the thread title, this practically leapt to mind as the most overrated park in the world. Totally don't get the salivating, undying love for this place. I mean, It's alright I guess. Sure, Taron is the dogs bollocks, and Black Mamba is decent if you get the right row, but otherwise ... meh. It's small, it's cramped, the main entrance is crap, the surrounding area is dull as f**k, it's short on creds, Sh*tehawk and that Hollywood boat ride are two of the worst rides I've ever been on and there's literally not one tree in the entire place. AND they've spent the last 18 months and God-knows how many millions building a f***ing wall.
Not deliberately trying to wind up the Phanboys (What am I saying? I LOVE winding up the Phanboys ) but honestly, I just don't get the love.

Every Disney park. Just not a Disney kinda guy, I guess. Much, much prefer the vibe from a Universal park.


Underrated: Quite a few, actually. Walibi Belgium for example - that's better than most people give it credit for. Their mine train is actually better than Colorado Adventure!

Kings Dominion - had a really great day there. Likewise at World's of Fun in Kansas City, heard a lot of bad stories about the place beforehand, but I thought it was absolutely fine.

Thorpe Park. Operational issues and Merlin decision making aside, I f***ing love this place! The ride line-up is right up my street (although Slammer was a Big loss), it has a great vibe and I'm really looking forward to going again in a few weeks

 

[TPC]

Overated

• Portaventura - this is a nice park but the operations regarding express and cattle pen queued really make the park harder to enjoy. Really the 3 coasters that are must do are stampida blue, furius baco and shambhala. All the other coasters feel average st best. Since Ferrari Land opened, every enthusiast has gone to PA but it's just nowhere near as good as people make it out to be.

Underrated

• LEGOLAND Windsor - I know this is a more family orientated park but enthusiasts just treat this park as rubbish just because it doesn't have crazy intense rides. LEGOLAND has a lot of charm still and the ride selection is by no means perfect but fun to be on.
• Gardaland - If you know me, I love Gardaland, yet barely anybody talks about this park. I'd say it's similar to Portaventura but it's a nicer park to be at. The music is great, whether it be the orchestral pieces or general park music. I Corsari is at this park which is something people barely mention despite being such an impressive ride. Gardaland to me is the best Merlin park by quite a lot.
• Thorpe Park - I'm as bad as every other enthusiast for complaining about Thorpe but it doesn't deserve every bit of hate it gets. I'm a fan for most of the new music and I love the island like no other branding. Standout rides are Inferno for intensity at night, Stealth for the launch in front row, Saw for theming and Rush for airtime.
• Movieland Italy - this park takes the theme park rulebook and completely rips it up. Magnum 2 is absolutely insane and is miles better than the Studio Tram Tour at Walt Disney Studios. This is another just fun park that is barely mentioned despite being one of the funniest parks I have ever personally visited.

 

[Benenen]

Completely agree with Movieland, what a little gem of a park. Every ride feels a bit sketchy but it's part of the fun. The Top Spin runs one of the longest and most intense cycles I've seen (all with a soundtrack and fireballs), the special effects tour bus feels like its going to flip over or catch fire any second and there's a first gen Intamin drop tower. You can ride everything in a few hours as it's never busy which leaves lots of time for the Caneva water park next door. I've never seen such a collection of intense bruise inducing water slides before. The drop slide shreds your back, the crazy river rapids causes you to smash into other riders after the drops and on the lay down mat slides you hit the tight corners so fast that it's hard to keep your arms tense enough to stop your chin smacking into the slide. Back in the dry park there's also the John Rambo Stunt Show which is so OTT and gratuitous in the action but also produced to a high budget and standard. I've never watched a show with such a big grin plastered on my face before, for me it's a top two theme park show along with Raveleijn at Efteling which I was not expecting at all.

Also in Italy, you don't hear Mirabilandia mentioned much. It's a well rounded park which has coasters, water rides, flats and a decent dark ride. There's some lovely theming especially in the park entrance and area round Katun plus there's a big lake and lots of trees. It's not an exceptional park by any means but it's got good theming and landscaping, a wide variety of rides and two world class coasters. Shame the new coaster and area this year will bring the whole tone down.

Flamingo Land is also underrated. For a UK park the coaster line up is great, the three headliners all provide something different and compliment each other well. Kumali is painfully intense, Mumbo Jumbo is quirky with nice pops of airtime and hangtime and Velocity has a great launch which feels even faster due to how exposed the restraints and riding positions are. Yeah the park is a bit drab to walk around but it's nowhere near the **** hole you guys make it out to be.

I'm feeling in a nice positive mood tonight so I can't think of any parks I find overrated, might add to this later though.

 

[Hutch]

I have a couple of underrated examples:

Alton Towers - This is based off of the local's thoughts and general Merlin disdain, but as someone who only visited once and didn't know much about the park outside the coasters, I really enjoyed my time there. I loved the design of the park layout, with the main field, towers, gardens, and themed areas along the perimeter. The staff were good, the crowds were fine, and the rides were fun. Ok the coaster selection honestly isn't that great but I'd definitely want to ride most of the coasters again, and Nemesis can keep me busy anyway. It's really the atmosphere and setting that elevates it for me. I think it's in my Top 5 favorite parks.

Honarable mention to Thorpe Park for similar reasons. It's not at Alton Tower's level but I guess it gets a lot more hate than it should.

Kings Island - I'm not really sure why this park gets a lot of hate. I suppose it's a bit of a chore to get through all the creds, but even still I'd happily get another ride in a few of the supporting coasters (Vortex, Invertigo, and the kiddie stuff I'm not bothered with, but everything else is fine). Then you got Beast and Diamondback, which I love, and others love Banshee, and I hear great things about Mystic Timbers. Beyond the ride selection the landscaping is decent and the staff are satisfactory.

 

[DelPiero]

Overrated: Phantasialand. Soon as I saw the thread title, this practically leapt to mind as the most overrated park in the world. Totally don't get the salivating, undying love for this place. I mean, It's alright I guess. Sure, Taron is the dogs bollocks, and Black Mamba is decent if you get the right row, but otherwise ... meh. It's small, it's cramped, the main entrance is crap, the surrounding area is dull as f**k, it's short on creds, Sh*tehawk and that Hollywood boat ride are two of the worst rides I've ever been on and there's literally not one tree in the entire place. AND they've spent the last 18 months and God-knows how many millions building a f***ing wall.
Not deliberately trying to wind up the Phanboys (What am I saying? I LOVE winding up the Phanboys ) but honestly, I just don't get the love.

This took me 2 ****ing seconds to find.

Thorpe Park. Operational issues and Merlin decision making aside, I f***ing love this place! The ride line-up is right up my street (although Slammer was a Big loss), it has a great vibe and I'm really looking forward to going again in a few weeks

Wow. Says it all about your opinion on parks

 

[Howie]

This took me 2 :emoji_zipper_mouth:ing seconds to find.

Wow. Says it all about your opinion on parks

As I said, literally not one tree in the entire place. I can see at least a dozen there.

 

[CSLKennyNI]

This took me 2 :emoji_zipper_mouth:ing seconds to find.

Nah he's totally right. Not a bit of greenery in sight. What a ****hole.

 

[cookie]

Tbh I think Phantasia's tight design is part of the charm. It's like it's own little labyrinth.

 

[Kw6sTheater]

Overrated:
Cedar Point: In no means is this a remotely bad park. I came out of the Point underwhelmed, as I'd been told by countless people that it was the roller coaster mecca and heaven for roller coaster enthusiasts. Most of the coasters here failed to live up to my expectations, save for Millennium Force, Valravn, Maverick & Gatekeeper. And that's when I had a major realization about parks in general, that they're so much more than the rides they contain. Cedar Point, outside of the endless selection of rides, doesn't contain a whole boatload of other things to do like Knoebels or Busch Gardens Tampa.
Underrated:
Family Kingdom: I love this little place to death. It has antique cars that ride under their marquee attraction, a train ride that circles the entire park, and a surprisingly aggressive 50 year old PTC woodie by the name of Swamp Fox. Swamp Fox is literally Phoenix's southern brother, as on every single hill it delivers sensations ranging from sustained floater to breakneck ejector. Also the ending turn has some crazy laterals.
Knoebels: Currently my favorite park of all time. I came in expecting a permanent carnival setup with some okay coasters, and came out with a new favorite park of all time. Maybe it was that I had just left Cedar Point disappointed the day before, or that Phoenix was my 100th coaster credit, or that they happened to have my favorite ice cream flavor (An awfully obscure one by the name of black raspberry... I made a bet as a joke that if the Mill ice cream place had black raspberry, Knoebels would be my new #1 park, because EVERYTHING was going right for me that day... shockingly the Mill did have black raspberry and in humongous proportions too!), but this park rubbed me in all the right ways. The skyride is fantastic, it goes all the way up a mountain and comes back down 30+ stories providing an incredibly beautiful view. Makes me wish Dollywood had one of those. Knoebels is situated in a valley-- a lot like Dollywood-- which means you are surrounded by the beautiful rolling hills of the Pennsylvania Dutch countryside instead of the Smokies. Twister, Impulse and Phoenix are all spectacular rides, with the latter at my #9 coaster overall, and I understand well why their Haunted Mansion dark ride is revered as one of the best. It jumpscared me not once, but twice! I could go on all day about how amazing and reasonable the food, rides and merchandise are priced, or the charming and quirky atmosphere to the park, or... You know what I'll just cut this short
Kings Island: I was really surprised by how much I genuinely appreciate this park. I love how it's among the trees in a way that the paths aren't confusing (Thinks back to Six Flags Over Texas visit), and that there is an amazing top 4 (Beast, Diamondback, Mystic Timbers, Banshee, in that respective order for me) backed up by 4 good supporting coasters (Bat, Racer counts as 2, Flight of Fear). In my opinion there are only two bad coasters here in the forms of Vortex and Firehawk. The giga will amp this park up to the next level, I tell ya. Also, the blueberry ice cream was a pleasant surprise and maXair became my favorite flat ride at the time (Dethroned by Harley Quinn Spinsanity at Over Texas the following year).

 

[Chris Coasters]

I had trouble coming up with parks that I feel are overrated but have one park that I would like to give a shout out to that I feel is definitely underrated and that's Alabama Splash Adventure. I went to the park in 2017 on my usual road trip down south and was going to Mississippi from SFOG so Alabama Splash Adventure was right along the way. I saw ECG's videos from the park and his interview with Dan Koch and was excited to visit the park for Rampage and it is in my top five wooden coasters easy. The park only has one other cred (wacky worm) but my experience in the park was a very good one and they are adding to the waterpark and getting a new flat ride next year and definitely feel like the park is only going to continue to get better every year. I didn't stay that long because I had a couple more hours of driving ahead of me but I could have rode Rampage all day. Solid park with lots of room to get even better in my opinion.

 

[Smithy]

This took me 2 :emoji_zipper_mouth:ing seconds to find.

Wow. Says it all about your opinion on parks

It's ironic that you choose that picture though because it's taken right at the arse-end of the park where there's literally **** all there apart from a wasted space of missed opportunity.

Phantasialand is easily the most overrated park I've experienced. The rapids were amazing, Klugheim is gorgeous, Black Mamba is good. But it's almost half a park, because if you turn left down the main street you've just got corregated metal buildings with a **** rollercoaster, a bit of a dingy grimy building with some spinners in it and then the weird pond of nothingness that stretches out to nowhere for no real reason.

I'm sure it'll be a lovely park once it's finished though.



As for underrated, I'm going Flamingo Land. People hate it something rotten but I've had some of my best theme park related experiences there, never had any issues with operations, I've always enjoyed the zoo part of it too.

 

[Sandman]

Walibi Belgium for example - that's better than most people give it credit for. Their mine train is actually better than Colorado Adventure!

I can understand your reasoning behind thinking Phanny is overrated but wuuuut?! That Walibi mine train doesn't do anything! Re-think this statement

 

[Kw6sTheater]

Also I have another park to add to Overrated: Hersheypark. I remember this park so fondly from my 2014 and 2016 visits, but after going back in 2018 I got the impression that it was Six Flags Pennsylvania. People tend to praise it for more than Hersheypark really is. The ride selection is very good; however, the park has a very awkward layout and it can be hard to get around sometimes. Many rides are sponsored and there are advertisements tacked on throughout all of Hersheypark. The waterpark when I went (July 9 2018) was a literal nuthouse and the only things I got to do were the wave pool, lazy river and the giant splash playground. And even then, I waited for half an hour for the slide at the top of the splash playground, and left the line because it felt waaaaay too long for a little slide. I still like Hersheypark though, and the neighboring Chocolate World is a fun little stop on your way out the park.

 

[Theme Park Information]

Underrated-Knott's Berry Farm. Has a great mix of rollercoasters in a warm and friendly environment.
Overrated-Disney Animal Kingdom- I have not been to this park since 06- So it may have become a lot better. Just found it somewhat boring and very busy. A disney park busy shock/horror.

 

[Kw6sTheater]

Underrated- Holiday World. Has a stellar top 3 of Voyage, Legend & Thunderbird with Voyage being my favorite coaster of all time! The park staff are outstandingly friendly (I got to meet Matt, the knowledgeable manager of Holiday World, and talked to him at Holiwood Nights 2018) and the waterpark is the best I've ever been to. No one ever talks about this park outside of Voyage but it deserves a LOT more love than it gets! I also have to say I love the placement of the picnic groves, it's in this great little corner that makes you feel isolated from the rest of the park but is atop a hill that provides spectacular views of Voyage & Thunderbird. To pinpoint a location, the Holiday World picnic groves are next to the rapids and flying scooters.

 

[cookie]

It's ironic that you choose that picture though because it's taken right at the arse-end of the park where there's literally :emoji_zipper_mouth: all there apart from a wasted space of missed opportunity.

That entire area is right next to residential homes. They're hardly going to use the land more than they do now.

 

[Niles]

Underrated, I think - Flamingo land

Went here just to get the creds and I thought they had a little zoo.

I went around Halloween 2018 and was surprised by the selection of rides and a brilliant zoo with lots different species of animals and nice enclosures with lots of land. Did not queue longer than 15mins and got on everything I wanted, food was good and staff seemed nice.

Kumali - best slc I’ve done ( not much competition )
Hero - honestly not as bad as people say.
Mumbo jumbo - odd but fun, bit rough in places
Velocity - my fav here, great launch, like the seating, nice pops of air with great turns and due to it being so quiet I got to ride it about 7 times.

If this is your local I can get that there’s been no new coaster since hero and it was a bit cheap in some areas but coming for a first visit it was great.

Stick a dark ride and a good coaster like lech in and I’d be happy.

 

[JJLehto]

Overrated:
I could agree with BGT and absolutely Disney.

Perhaps controversial and I'll admit this may not hold anymore: SFMM. Huge coaster selection but 20% of them are kiddie/lame so off the bat I didn't bother to do a fifth of them, quite a few others are just OK/nothing special. Even many better ones are just solid. The only 2 great coasters imo were Tatsu and Full Throttle which I actually found the most fun. Usually parks have tiers of rides, Kings Island being a good example. SFMM had those 2 then a steep drop off, maybe Riddlers was in between. OK so at the time there was no T.C. and X2 was closed. Once I get to ride these the lineup will be better but still, seems like lots of quantity but not as much quality. Like Hersheypark or Holiday World have a higher overall quality of rides. On top of it, there was the Six Flags feel and since I didnt think the park had enough at the time to overcome that, yeah overrated.

Kennywood. Overrated. It seems to get so much love for its small park feel, but it was a mess. The rides not opening with the park was annoying, theres literally nothing to do so ya just stand on line for half an hour, though we were close. It would've been a walk on if it just opened with the park. At least the day I was there they didnt even all open at the same times, coasters and rides continued to open over the next 30-60 mins. Fairly annoying. It was said to me this is just "Kennywood time" sorry that sounds like enthusiast justification! If one of the big/corporate parks did such things it'd be never ending criticism and rage.
The ops on things outside Phantom's Revenge were dreadful, and even with PR despite the line getting huge they waited kinda long to put a 2nd train on. Not sure if any of this is common or just a bad day.
While I appreciate the history, the big 3 woodies really are just OK rides. I didnt get on exterminator or Skyrocket, both closed, but the former is just a wild mouse latter is pretty famous for being just OK. The park really had only one legit GOOD coaster. All that left me pretty let down for what was a surprisingly pricey ticket.

Underrated is tough. We enthusiasts know the small gems, I was pleasantly surprised how much I liked Knoebels, Holiday World but we all know that.
I guess I'll go with King's Island. Historically I never thought much of its lineup but by the time I finally went I'll agree with the above comments, it has a high quality AND quantity of coasters, the only ones I disliked were Flight of Fear and Vortex (which wasnt even thaaat bad). If it does add a giga, its lineup is gunna be knocking on the door of #2 The park was clean and had a nice feel and the ops were A+ They were moving fast on nearly every ride and despite it being a quiet day, 2 trains on all rides. Had a lot of rides, lots of good rides and still maintained a good feel. Which is impressive...I love how Hershey has transformed from quaint little park to powerhouse but its certainly lost all its feel

 

[VikingsAf]

Underrated: Quite a few, actually. Walibi Belgium for example - that's better than most people give it credit for. Their mine train is actually better than Colorado Adventure!

I agree with that Walibi Belgium is getting better and deserves some love... But saying that their minetrain is better than Colorado Adventure??? Realy, the Walibi minetrain is the biggest ****hole attraction I've ever ridden, and I rate it FAR below Vampire and Cobra. It's in fact the only major attraction I've only ridden twice (in any parc that I visited more than once), and that was because I found that I'd at least had to give it a chance in both front and back row. (P.s. I'm Walibi Belgium pass holder, so I visit this park pretty often)
So yeah, could say Walibi Belgium is an underrated parc, but on the other hand, I never see it rated that low.

(Also, there are indeed some Phanta fanboys as you say, and I won't deny that it is my favourite parc as well, but saying that this parc gets rated so high all around the world is bull**** as well.)

Overrated parcs
100% Europa Park. I mean, you need to make things true if you get chosen as best parc in the world. I visited it 3 times now (1 mid season weekday visit and 2 out of season visits (sunday and monday)) and the parc couldn't realy ever impress me.
First of all, I feel like their handling of big crowds is just pure ****. Never had the feeling of not being able to move somewhere in a parc before, which I had on one of my visits. In fact I don't find the atmosphere in the parc nice at all, because it always feel too busy (even when it's not even that busy at all, read 30 minutes max waiting times for all but Wodan).
Secondly. Their themeing is not as impressive as it could be. Okay I was baffled by Wodan's queue, and didn't mind waiting 40 mins. Too much 'wanna be disney'. They don't even have themed music in the area's, as they play the same EP-soundtrack everywhere (they do have themed music in the rides though)
Thirdly, they have 0 good flat rides, and 2 good coasters (sorry, but Silver Star was a pure dissapointment on all but one rides I had on it)