Top 3 Amusement/Theme Parks

[Tony]

Port Aventura - My first theme park and still my favourite, the theming and atmosphere is brilliant. Khan and Baco are both in my top 5 coasters and Stampida was pretty awesome until Kumbak ruined it. Hopefully the 2012 rumours are true as it would be a fantastic addition to the park.

Parque Warner Madrid - Good coaster line-up and nice theming and atmosphere.

Six Flags Great Adventure - Awesome coaster line-up!

Alton Towers is also pretty close to that list.

 

[slappy mcguire]

One quick shout out to Alton. You used to beat Chessington hands down with quirky world first rides, a beautiful old house, Nemesis, a cracking theme tune, and a magical entrance though Alton Village. But the last few times I've gone, you just felt a bit out of touch. Maybe it's just me...

Lordy...clearly the absolute mullering Alton has received on some of the other forums suggest it's possibly not just you...

My list for what it's worth...

1. Chessie. Completely caught me out; was expecting a cut down disappointing version of Alton, but couldn't have been more wrong. The only TRUE theme park in the UK, and one of the few with a good degree of character.

2. Alton. Completely not what it was, and more recent visits have been slightly disappointing, but Nemesis is still stunning, the vista at the entrance still beautiful, and still has the best theme tune too boot. crapper than it was, but by no means crap.

3. Flamingoland. More than anything, because I remember just how bad it was, and what an astonishing transformation it has had. Not perfect by any means, but in recent years, I simply haven't had a bad visit.

Would love to have said LWV, just for the sheer effort the park is making, but frankly the park can still be something of a chore to visit, and still does not have a decent portfolio of rides. The still largely secret plans for the two new areas for 2012 could go a massive way to changing that, and I do have faith in the people making the decisions there to give it there best shot, and having seen the rebirth of Flamingoland, it certainly is do-able.

 

[Thekingin64]

1. Flamingoland- Mainly due to the huge amounts of times I've been there, But rides a great for size of park, Ideal size, and the caravan park's pretty good as well.

2. Alton- Great Park, Great rides and great themeing.

3. Phantasialand- Brilliant themeing, great rides (especcialy River quest) and great fun with friends. This might have been Higher up except I didn't get on Temple of the night hawk,Talocan and the Winjas when I was there. Too busy re-riding Mamba and Colorado adventure made me forget them.

 

[Naemuti]

1. Magic Kingdom - I don't think I really need to explain this. It's Disney, it's awesome, and I'll never get tired of going here.

2. Hersheypark - Something about the atmosphere of this place is better than Six Flags and I can't put my finger on it. Maybe it's because they're not constantly bugging me to buy a season pass. Maybe it's because the food is better. Maybe it's because there are no Flash Pass users to ruin the lines. But I really like this park and I want to return soon. Storm Runner is the best launched coaster I've been on and The Comet is my favorite old woodie.

3. Cedar Point - Okay, so Six Flags Great Adventure probably has a better coaster selection by a bit. But I'm a sucker for the fact that this park is right on the ocean. And I really love Maverick and maXair. And I can't shake off the fact that there's something I just don't like about Six Flags parks in general.

 

[andrus]

1) Port Aventura Amazing park! Great atmosphere, great rides and great weather! :--D

2) Europa Park Maybe the park lacks in the thrill department, but the amazing atmosphere makes up for it! Plus there's a million things to do!

3) Don't know.. I haven't been to a lot of places. Maybe Heide Park, maybe Mirabilandia, maybe Alton? Hmm, but I think I'll chose Phantasialand if I have too! Great parks all of them though

 

[LiveForTheLaunch]

As far as the entire package goes, it'd go like this:

1. Alton Towers
2. Busch Williamsburg
3. Hersheypark

Honourable mentions to Six Flags Great Adventure, Six Flags St. Louis, Cedar Point, and Wonderland .

 

[madhjsp]

I haven't been to a ton of parks either, but these would be my top 3:

1. Busch Gardens Williamsburg - The first park I ever visited, the park I've been to most, and a place I'll never get tired of. Highly immersive atmosphere, wonderful theming and landscaping, and a quality selection of rides.

2. Universal Orlando - IoA and USF are easily the best themed parks that I've been to, and the Wizarding World of Harry Potter is by far the best themed area of either park. Hulk is one of my favorite coasters, and Harry Potter, Spiderman, and Men In Black are my favorite dark rides. Citywalk really adds a lot to the atmosphere and the fun of the resort as a whole as well. My only knock is that it seems they have little to no room for expansion, so new rides aren't as frequent since they mostly only come at the expense of old ones.

3. Tough choice. I'm tempted to say Kings Dominion since I've always had fun there and it does have my favorite coaster, but I'm going to go with Dollywood as the overall better park. It's got a really great feel and atmosphere to it, very genuine and welcoming, and the friendly staff contribute heavily to this. It's got great food, especially if you love barbecue, which I do. It is relatively small and has comparatively few rides, but Thunderhead is a world-class woodie, and the other rides complement each other well.

 

[Darren B]

Ive only done 3 parks outside of the UK so far, so it goes a little like this.....

1. Port Aventura (simply amazing, I dragged the missus all the way to spain for a week for this park and it was certainly worth the hassle :--D )

2. Drayton Manor (Ive done all the major UK parks and this is the stand out park for me, It has a wonderful atmosphere and i just love the trio of Shockwave,Stormforce and apocolypse <3)

3. PBB (Cant explain why, Just something does it for me)

 

[Scott88]

Pleasure Beach, Port Aventura & Thorpe Park.

In that order.

 

[dominoes]

1. Alton Towers
2. Thorpe Park
3. Chessington

 

[CMonster]

1. BGT - Possibly biased, but I love that park and the coaster selection is fantastic, especially with Cheetah Hunt. I always have a fun time there.

2. IoA - The theming is amazing, the rides are great, and I just really like that place. Another guaranteed fun day out.

3. I'm not quite sure about this one, it would have to be between Universal Studios or Magic Kingdom.

 

[Kage]

My top three amusment park are
1.Alton Towers
2.Drayton Manor
3.Portaventura

but i have to be honest i have to many themeparks

 

[caffeine_demon]

1 - Europa Park. I think anyone who wants to design and run a theme park, should come here to see how it's done- Great ride ops and customer service, stunning attention to detail and totally immersive theming, packed to the rafters with smaller attractions, perfect for families, may be lacking in thrills, but you just don't notice!

2 - Alton towers - Maybe I'm a bit biased here, but the place just seems to exude a certain magic, which very few other parks manage. A few areas need a bit of work, and could do with some more flats to take the crowds away from the main coasters. It did go down a bit after air, but has picked up since imo

3 - Pleasure beach blackpool - some unique, historic rides create a bit of magic - and the way the rides interact with each other is great. Can't comment on whether it was better before the pay one price was introduced, as I didn't go before then!

4 -IOA - Technically great, good theming, nice mix of rides

honorable mentions:

Busch gardens Tampa - great coasters, but a little missing on dark rides - safari exhibits almost make up for it

Disneyland resort paris - strange to say it's "outdisneyed" by europa park - but I prefered it to orlando, and was VERY impressed with their tower of terror.

Heide park - I seriously want to go back and totally whore colossos, and take in the rest of the park that we missed on eurolive.

 

[vgmaster9]

Cedar Point
Great Adventure
Universal Studios