National Park Road Trip: Cleveland to Minnesota (Part 2)

July 11, 2019InACents Leave a comment

The first leg of our families epic summer road trip to see National Parks started out not at a typical park at all. After a brief overnight stay near Chicago, our family made the trip up to Minnesota to visit Valleyfair amusement park and Mall of America to check out Nickelodeon Universe.

Along the drive, we used our RoadTrippers app to find interesting roadside attractions. For example, the Pink Elephant at a Shell gas station near DeForest, Wisconsin.

Eventually, our family made our way all the way to Mall of America as our first official stop of the trip. Our first order of business was to find a place to eat. After quickly trying to get our lay of the massive complex, and trying to find a place that offered a variety of menu items, we sadly decided on the Rainforest Cafe.

Certainly not my personal choice, but we knew it would appease the kids and also offer something vegan/vegetarian friendly for me.

Mall of America/Nickelodeon Universe

After eating, we did a quick look around the mall, but the highlight we all wanted to experience was the Nickelodeon Universe amusement park. Fortunately, we finished eating right before 5:00 pm, which offers a discounted evening ride wristband to experience the entire park.

What I was reminded of shortly after we arrived was that the Nickelodeon Universe amusement park started out as a Knott’s Berry Farm park, a favorite Cedar Fair park of ours (that we also later visited during this trip). So we were able to see things in the park that were reminiscent of the parks past connection.

Today Nickelodeon Universe is themed to characters from a bunch of their archive of animated figures.

Nickelodeon Universe offered some really great attractions that we were really happy to experience.

For example, the Ghost Blasters ride is the same ride we find today at several Cedar Fair parks, now called Boo-Blasters.

Another really incredible attraction was the PEPSI® ORANGE STREAK roller coaster. While the attraction might not have been the worlds tallest, fastest, or any other world record breaking stats, it made up for in being a terrific family ride.

The most surprising aspect for the Orange Streak was how long the roller coaster lasted, making its way around the entire Nickelodeon Universe. We wish more amusement parks offered great family roller coasters like this.

The one ride we were most excited to ride at Nickelodeon Universe was the log ride. Knott’s Berry Farm invented the classic log ride we know today. Did you know Disney modeled Splash Mountain after aspects of Knott’s log flume?

When Knott’s owned the park inside Mall of America, they also constructed a very similar log ride complete with animatronics!

What we did not know was that on the day of our visit, apparently one of the Stranger Things actors was in the park and they added a special overlay of scenes and music to the attraction. So we got to see the ride with a very special overlay, which was pretty cool.

Valleyfair

On the second day of our adventure in Minnesota, we headed to Valleyfair amusement park. This was a special day for our family, because it marked our families first visit to the park. In addition, after our visit, it meant our family has now gone to 10 of the 11 owned Cedar Fair parks.

Maybe it was the newness to us, but we absolutely LOVED Valleyfair. Great collection of rides, cute park with fantastic landscaping, and really good food (which is important since we run the CPFoodBlog)!

Our absolute favorite roller coaster was Renegade at Valleyfair. This super fast wooden roller coaster hugs the ground and flies through the track, offering an intense experience that is a lot of fun.

I have rode roller coasters and rides all over the place. I have jumped out planes. I have never been scared of a ride until North Star. While the ride has the appearance of your typical rotating swing attraction, North Star takes you up 230 feet. With so little holding you up but some small chains, North Star is absolutely terrifying!

While North Star is totally safe, it was a surreal feeling spinning so high in the air.

One of the coolest things we got to try when visiting Valleyfair was their new signature Colonel Oompahpah Shake. A massive margarita style cup is rimmed with sprinkles and filled with milkshake. Then it is topped with whipped cream, chocolate sauce, and more sprinkles. Then skewers with funnel cake, donuts, cotton candy, and a sucker are inserted into the dessert.

While the Colonel Oompahpah Shake was massive, our three boys devoured the entire thing within a matter of moments.

You can get yours this summer at the Valleyfair Cool & Creamy stand.

Minnesota Accommodations

Our family’s go-to hotel and reward program is through IHG. Therefore, we elected to go with the Crowne Plaza Suites, MSP Airport – Mall of America for two nights.

The hotel adequately met our family’s needs with two queen beds.

The boys also thoroughly enjoyed the indoor pool complex complete with hot tub and sauna (which our kids had never seen before).

A block away from the hotel was also a nice little park that allowed the boys to use their scooters and get out some energy on one of the mornings we were killing some time prior to Valleyfair opening.

We also took advantage of the breakfast buffet at the Crowne Plaza which offered a nice assortment of warm and cold selections that were a step above the typical IHG breakfasts.

The only con of staying at the Crowne Plaza was the attached parking structure was in terrible shape and left a bad impression on the hotel. The first thing you should experience is not a dilapidated parking structure, especially when the facility houses conferences.

Following our adventure in Minnesota, next we were off into the heart of the trip and head towards the Badlands!

National Park Road Trip: Cleveland to Los Angeles (Part 1)

July 9, 2019InACents 7 Comments

Several years ago when our family learned that the United States government offered a free family National Park pass for kids in 4th grade, we started making plans for the summer of 2019. Starting from Cleveland, Ohio, we would make our west, trying to visit as many parks as we could within at least a two week period.

While we always planned on driving out west, initial thoughts contemplated were about purchasing a motorhome to make the journey. However, after researching a vehicle and logistics for a family of five, any type of camper became cost prohibitive. Even a pop-up camper was considered, but lots of the national parks we were told only allow hard sided vehicles because of the threat of bears. So our trip would be done via van and staying in cabins or hotels.

Once we knew the travel logistics, it was time to plan the route. We knew ultimately, we wanted to get to Yellowstone as the main point of interest. Since our family is also Cedar Fair Platinum pass holders, we also wanted to try and make a stop at Valleyfair (and Mall of America) on the way out. So we started plugging and chugging, looking for tools to help the planning.

Ultimately, we landed on the RoadTrippers program. This was an invaluable tool once we knew the route. We were able to plug in our stops along the route, and then search if there was anything nearby to see.

So for example, on our drive from Cleveland to Minnesota, we would pull up the RoadTrippers app and look for additional points of interest, like one of the last remaining Pink Elephant gas stations for a quick photo stop.

We ended up buying a yearly subscription to RoadTrippers, since it allowed us to add additional points of interest to our map beyond what the free version allows.

When it comes to accommodations, the early you start the better. We started booking cabins and hotels about a year out for the national parks since they do fill up well in advance. We succumbed to the sticker shock at staying in the national park cabins because we feared during the peak summer travel months, traffic can be a nightmare, and did not want to worry about having to drive hours back out of a park to a hotel outside the boundaries of the park to save a buck.

We will get more into each of the resorts as we go through this series of posts, but one note is that booking so far in advance and getting locked into a route comes with its own set of pitfalls. As we continued to plan the trip, we considered changing routes, days, etc.; however, since some of the properties sell out a year in advance, we found ourselves unable to change plans since there were no other rooms to switch into without often paying a huge premium above the cheaper rooms we had booked.

Continue reading about the journey at the links below.

2019 Discount Elitch Gardens Theme Park Tickets

June 18, 2019InACents Leave a comment

Located in the heart of Denver and celebrating 129 years of fun, Elitch Gardens is Colorado’s only world-class combination theme and water park. From thrilling roller coasters to pint-sized adventures, a splashin’ water park and tons of special events, there’s thrills for all. The park is open April through October. This year, there’s more entertainment than ever before with exciting new family shows, Dive-In Movies, a free summer concert series and three stunning fireworks extravaganzas that will light up the Denver skyline, plus Fright Fest in October! And don’t miss the breathtaking views of Denver atop the 20-story Observation Tower or while plummeting 200 feet on the Tower of Doom.

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