Favorite Non-Disney Park?

What’s your favorite non-Disney park and why? I’ll go first, I love Busch Gardens Williamsburg. It’s beautiful, has nice theming and great roller coasters, plus the shows are really good. The inexpensive price tag is also nice! Your turn! What’s your favorite non-Disney park and why?

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Polynesian Cultural Center on Oahu. Fairly authentic theming, great daytime shows, some hands on activities, CM are from the islands that they represent, night time luau, and an amazing night time spectacular.

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Discovery Cove. Amazing to swim with the dolphins, rays, etc. Small sized not crowded, food and drinks included.

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Cedar Point In Sandusky, OH. An absolute mecca for roller coaster enthusiasts

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Great Sand Dunes National Park.

Apologies for sorta smartalec answer - we just don’t go regularly to any other amusement park other than WDW.

I’ve probably been to Great Sand Dunes as many times as Busch Gardens 6 Flags etc added together.

Sand, water, all sorts of fun.

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Oh! I’ll have to try that one. Is it in Orlando?

Yes!! We’re hoping to go to Cedar Point next year! We just need for DS8 to hit 54 inches otherwise it won’t be very much fun. Fingers crossed!

We’re big national parks fans, too! We visit at least one new National Park every year. Great Sand Dunes wasn’t on my radar. I’ll have to add it to our list.

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@FishAreFriends and @janamelia
We are also big National Park fans! We live in Washington so haven’t been to the Great Sand Dunes. Maybe someday. Our summer trip might be a loop to Glacier, down through Yellowstone to Grand Teton, and then over to Crater Lake. Glacier, Crater Lake and Grand Teton will all be new parks for us.

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I am cheating slightly, UOR. IOA was always my favourite pre Diagon Alley but that’s so amazing that it pulls US closer. Still if I could really only do one it would probably be IOA.

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Great Basin is another park to visit that might be on your way to Crater. After driving west through the bland scenery along the highway, Great Basin is high enough to be really lovely. Tho if you’re not camping, probably this isn’t a stop for you.

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We really like Great Sand Dunes while the snow in the high country is still melting. There’s some sort of surge down the creek, like waves.

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Yes its a park ownd and near Sea World

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@janamelia and @Julianne_fki We really enjoyed Theodore Roosevelt National Park in ND.

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I can’t recall visiting a park in North Dakota. I’ve known about T Roosevelt NP. North Dakota is oddly difficult to get to. :thinking:

That would be an amazing trip @Julianne_fki! I hope you’re able to do it. We spent a week in Yellowstone and it was so nice! Glacier and Tetons are so nice too! We haven’t been to Crater Lake. That’s big on my list. I want to do Crater Lake and Olympic NP together.

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@Jedilogray - I just looked up Discovery Cove. It’s amazing! It wasn’t on my radar because it’s not included in the SeaWorld Platinum Membership (which is a great deal!). Discovery Cove is definitely being added to my list!

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I guess I have to answer Cedar Point. But I’m not sure that’s necessarily accurate.

Of course, Cedar Point is awesome, and our most frequented amusement park…not only because it is the CLOSEST amusement park we have (about 2 hours from us), but it has the most awesome line up of roller coasters.

But in a way, the locality and frequency with which we’ve gone makes it a bit unfair.

For example, we did Silver Dollar City several years back and absolutely loved it. It crosses the line between amusement park and theme park nicely. Not only a great mix of rides, but the atmosphere is so beautiful, and very family friendly…and then there’s Marvel Cave! And if someone said, “We’ll give you two-day tickets to either Cedar Point or Silver Dollar City right now, you choose,” I’d probably go with Silver Dollar City.

Then again, we actually made an entire trip to Orlando in 2018 to see UOR/IOA for four days WITHOUT seeing Disney at all (well…apart from Disney Springs). So, there’s that as well.

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@missoverexcited - I think all of UOR counts! What makes IOA stand out over US? I love the Incredible Hulk ride! I also like the velociraptor meet and greet. That is so cool!

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@ryan1 - I think it’s impressive that you can go to Cedar Point so often and it’s still a favorite park! That speaks volumes! My family loves roller coasters. We can’t wait to visit Cedar Point next year (if DS8 grows a little more!)

We haven’t gone to Silver Dollar City but we’ve seen it on YouTube. It looks so cool! I agree. It looks like it blends amusement park and theme park nicely. How did you get there? We’d have to fly. There are two airports that are both fairly far away. I wasn’t sure if one was better than the other.

And I agree that it’s hard to choose just one! It’s nice that we all have so many options.