The Worst Overall Theme Parks

[IntaminToWin]

Pretty self-explanatory: Parks that, in general, don't give the best experience.

I would say the worst that I have ever been to is Six Flags Great Escape. Even though I went a long time ago, I remember, and looked later, at the fact that it has a whopping 1 big ride. It has Comet, an older woodie, but besides that and a decent location...nada.

 

[Hyde]

Moved to Coaster Polls & Opinions.

 

[Youngster Joey]

Amusement parks or theme parks?

 

[bmac]

Go to the any shore park in New Jersey not named Moreys Piers, you'll blow the bank and have a really bad time...

My least favorite legit amusement park would probably have to be Clementon due to it's really small size and the presence of a meh at best woodie. What they've done in the last few years has been good to grab some attendance but they really need a family coaster to tie the park back down to the ground again.

 

[ECG]

^Wow! You obviously haven't been to that many bad parks, because a few the Jersey Shore parks other than Morey's aren't that bad. I also think that Hell Cat at Clementon isn't that bad either, especially for an S&S woodie.
Keansburg is the worst of the Shore parks, but Camden in West Virginia and Conneaut Lake in Pennsylvania are much worse imo. There are about another half dozen or so parks I visited this summer that come close to those three, but I'd rather forget about them than list them here tbh.

 

[Youngster Joey]

I hear Darien lake a lot but I'm sure as ECG can attest there is likely much worse out there.

 

[nadroJ]

Ignoring stuff like crappy seaside parks, I have a few.

Firsty, Camelot. The place is dire, which is sad because it has so much potential. Everything looks run down and dirty, the rides look like death traps, the food is really awful, there's vandalism without any clear security in the park and it just looks generally shoddy and badly maintained. There are no redeeming features.

Secondly Bobbejaanland. The place has 7 creds so you'd think it has something to offer? Wrong. Every coaster was vile and badly in need of a paint job, the staff were vile and rude and the place had a severe atmosphere problem, as in, there was none. I don't think I've ever been to such a bland place in my life.

The third on my list is SFNE. Mainly because of the rudeness we experienced from the staff there. Absolutely appalling customer service topped with the general grossness in design that the east coast SF parks seem to favour, if Bizarro didn't live there I would definitely not be in a hurry to return.

 

[Mike]

I'm going to give my obvious answer and say Kings Dominion.

As well as being concrete heaven with large open spaces providing little shade, it has my bottom 3 woodie coasters in Rebel Yell, Hurler and Grizzly; three of the worst pieces of crap I've ever been on. I never got to ride Shockwave, but I could imagine it being awful as well. The rest of the rides are mediocre at best (before i305 was built).

Add in rude staff (the ride operators complained about us to our faces when we tried to use some fastpass things we were given to use), generally crap personal experience with other people in the group that day (not the parks fault, granted, but it all affects my memories of the day), and a dilusional KD manageent team ("We ARE better than Disney World"), and you have my worst overall park!

My secondary choice goes to Sea World in Australia.

Sea World looks like a park that was abandoned about 20 years ago but thy never told their employees. The layout is awful, the animal enclosures are nonexistent, and the shows are also seemingly nonexistant (no signs and nothing to tell you if anything is actually going on that day). The 3 rides that make up the park are all pretty crap, and the food is by far the worst I've ever had in any park, ever (the chipswere still cold and raw in the middle, and the burger was like a piece of cold leather).

Honorary mentions go to Happy Valley Shenzhen and Camelot.

 

[bmac]

^Wow! You obviously haven't been to that many bad parks, because a few the Jersey Shore parks other than Morey's aren't that bad. I also think that Hell Cat at Clementon isn't that bad either, especially for an S&S woodie.
Keansburg is the worst of the Shore parks, but Camden in West Virginia and Conneaut Lake in Pennsylvania are much worse imo. There are about another half dozen or so parks I visited this summer that come close to those three, but I'd rather forget about them than list them here tbh.

Been going to them since I was a tyke and I used to work on some of the rides at seaside for a few summers. The state inspectors have field days when both parks open for the year, and the area is nigh impossible to navigate on weekends.

Actually now that I've checked my park count again I forgot Rye Playland. The park is actually pretty nice scenery wise but there's nothing about it that made me want to spend the entire day there, most of the rides were shut down and it really looked like nothing new had been added for at least 6 years. I'm not totally dismissing the park though, the county it resides in treats it like utter **** and every time I read an article about it there's so much politics being thrown around that it makes no question they wanted to shut the place down. I hope Zamperla can do a good job with it like they did with Coney Island, at least bring it back to a shimmer of it's former glory.

Also agreeing with Mike that KD can be pretty crappy at times, too. The park really embodies what it's like to be on the edge of falling into shambles. The employees are really on all sets of the spectrum, some just don't care and others actually try to make sure you have a good day. The ride collection is the oddest set that could ever exist with three tower rides and three launchers all on the same side of the park. It also doesn't help when it feels like that a ride is plopped in a spot that's open and doesn't require much construction in order to fit it with the park (Backlot, i305, Hurler, Ricochet, Dominator). At night areas of the park can be so dimly lit that you can barely see the people around you, and then you have the starlight spectacular which can be seen from almost anywhere in the park (and sometimes heard, too). It's kind of like a conglomerate of rides and half themed areas that blend together to make a park.

Dinos didn't really do the park justice this year either.

 

[IntaminToWin]

I hear Darien lake a lot but I'm sure as ECG can attest there is likely much worse out there.

Darien Lake can be fun, actually. Viper, Ride Of Steel and the Motocoaster are all pretty solid rides.

 

[ECG]

Darien Lake can be fun, actually.

Fail :roll:
Absolutely nothing about Darien Lake is fun.

 

[Youngster Joey]

I actually enjoyed predator despite it's extreme roughness but other than that it's mostly +1's

 

[BBH]

SFA.

Nuff said.

 

[madhjsp]

I don't know that I've been to any truly awful theme parks, except perhaps Elitch Gardens. And I'll be honest, I don't remember much about it at all since I was only about 9 and was far from able to judge things like park quality and atmosphere. I have been to a couple rinky-dink beach parks in New Jersey and Myrtle Beach, as well as Astroland at Coney Island, but I wouldn't really count them for this topic. They're more like fairs than anything.

I guess the worst major park I've been to would have to be Carowinds. It's not a terribly unenjoyable place, but the knocks against it would be:
- VERY little shade. It was a fairly hot day when I was there and I was exhausted by 3:00, so I since I had nabbed all the credits I could (except for Nighthawk spiting me... grrr) and managed a couple re-rides on Afterburn and Intimidator, I just left.
- Aside from Afterburn, the coaster lineup is pretty weak. Intimidator is alright, but it's not even close to as good as the other B&M hypers I've ridden.
- Not much landscaping, and theming is minimal-to-nonexistant.
- The selection of flats is pretty limited and vanilla

It's understandably most like Kings Dominion compared to the other parks I've visited, but it compares unfavorably to KD in each of those aforementioned categories. If it weren't for the fact that I didn't get to ride Nighthawk & am pretty curious about trying a Vekoma flyer, I wouldn't really have any desire to go out of my way to get back there any time soon.

 

[Jake]

Major parks which should know better:

Six Flags America
Kings Dominion
Happy Valley Shenzhen

That's all I can think of for now.

When you include small parks and seaside parks the list really is endless, especially when I think about some of the dark corners of Chinese cities we went to just for creds. The UK has some gems too, with Coney Beach in Wales shining the brightest.

 

[andrus]

For me it has got to be either Holiday Park or Six Flags America.

Holiday got one big ride that's supposed to be good but irl is crap! They're in a wooded area and as a result of that should have a nice atmosphere, but somehow they messed it up and the place looks like a dump Holiday park should get some cred though for having one of the best flumes around

Six Flags America was just an overall uninspired park with pavement everywhere and no really good ride to back it up. I mean Superman and Apocalypse are ok, and Jokers Jinx is very good even but just plonked on some pavement I've a hard time getting excited for it!

 

[kimahri]

Six Flags America can **** off.

Kings Dominion is ugh as well but Six Flags Americaaafs;DKHNgm.

 

[Youngster Joey]

To anyone who has been to both, is SFA or Darien Lake worse?

 

[Jake]

SFA, obviously.

Darien Lake has some of the same problems (nothing amazing if you take away the Superman cred), but is generally a lot more pleasant. SFA just feels so neglected and putrid.