When theme park tourists head to the southeastern part of the United States, they have two destinations at the top of their list. That’s not to say that central Florida is the only place to go for tremendous theme park entertainment. To the contrary, several other locales are worthy of your time. Here are the best eight theme parks in the Southeast.
8. Six Flags over Georgia
Image: Six FlagsIn this world, nothing can be said to be certain, except death, taxes, and all (continental) Americans having a Six Flags somewhere within a few hundred miles of their house. While I went to Walt Disney World and Silver Dollar City many times, Six Flags over Georgia was the theme park of my youth.
I had a personal feud with Mindbender, the aggressive coaster that would literally give me headaches. As a stubborn kid, I’d keep riding it anyway. This particular Six Flags was once comically bush league to the point that they sold an off-brand cola rather than Coke even though Coke’s home office was 15 miles from there.
Over the years, they’ve grown more corporate, which is good and bad. The park isn’t as amateurish now, but I sometimes miss the low-budget nature of the olden days. The modern Six Flags features an excellent DC Comics copycat attraction called Superman: Ultimate Flight plus one of the Southeast’s first Hypercoasters, Goliah. Plus, free admission to a great water park called Hurricane Harbor comes standard with all tickets.
7. SeaWorld Orlando
Image: SeaWorldLike a lot of people, I have no idea what to say about SeaWorld these days. It was once an iconic part of everyone’s childhood, as kids loved the thought of interacting with fish in a safe environment. What nobody wondered until recently is how the situation felt from the perspective of the fish. You can trace a direct line from the documentary that opened everyone’s rides to SeaWorld’s financial plummet.
As a theme park, however, SeaWorld Orlando is still an incredibly entertaining way to spend the day for a lot of people. It remains incredibly child-friendly but also provides three spectacular roller coasters for adults. Manta and Kraken are both fabulous. My heart belongs to Kraken Unleashed, though. It’s the (augmented) future of attraction design.
SeaWorld remains a delightful place for theme park tourists to visit. Unfortunately, you’ll suffer some awkward thoughts and maybe even some pangs of guilt when you do it.
6. Carowinds
I always loved Carowinds when I was a kid, but I’m more jealous of children today. They get to visit a vastly improved version of the park. Under the guidance of Cedar Fair Entertainment Company, Carowinds has improved dramatically since 2006. It’s now a place with a couple of the best coasters on the planet, the Intimidator and (especially) Fury 325, the latter of which is a Gigacoaster with a mean streak.
Perhaps the best change to Carowinds is its all-year, family-friendly focus. It now throws in free water park admission to Carolina Harbor and has a pair of seasonal events. WinterFest is extremely popular with the locals, but I’m partial to SCarowinds, one of the best Halloween parties at any theme park.
5. Kings Dominion
Image: Cedar FairI’m deeply impressed by the management team at Cedar Fair. Whenever a quality theme park hits the market, they’re ready to swoop in with a bid to buy the place and elevate it. They did this with Carowinds in 2006 and again with Kings Dominion in 2007. Both of those decisions positively impacted the theme park industry in the Southeast.
Under Cedar Fair’s stewardship, Kings Dominion added Intimidator 305. It’s somehow a successor to Carowinds’ Intimidator and a precursor to that park’s Fury 325. The new Intimidator is a Gigacoaster with a nasty 85-degree drop from 300 feet in the air. The park brags that it’s like plummeting the Eiffel Tower’s observation platform, only you’re going 90 miles per hour.
Cedar Fair added a Halloween event here, too. While I believe SCarowinds is better, Halloween Haunt has its supporters, also. Plus, the Planet Snoopy area here is more extensive than at any other Cedar Fair property. Disney and Universal receive 99.9 percent of the media, but Cedar Fair is quietly one of the best theme park companies ever.
4. Busch Gardens Tampa Bay
Being the third-best theme park in Florida is akin to winning a bronze medal in a sport where you weren’t expected to place in the top 10. You’re thrilled to be on the podium because you know that the top two options are better than you. Such is Busch Gardens Tampa Bay’s lot in life. It’s plenty good enough to finish on the top half of this list. Had we excluded the two obvious but yet to be mentioned parks from the list, it would have been a coin flip for first place. By regular theme park standards, it’s a lovely place to hang out. It’s just not, you know…
The star attraction at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay now is Tigris, a twisting, turning,, go back and forth-ing ride that is NOT for those prone to motion sickness. It’s one of the most novel ride experiences in the world, primarily because you’re never quite sure what’ll happen next.
Sometimes, you’ll feel like your coaster cart might not have enough energy to make it over the hill…and it won’t! Then, it might surprise you by having just enough oomph for the next section. Seriously, there’s nothing else quite like Tigris at the moment.
3. Dollywood
Image: DollywoodIf Tennessee ever split off from the rest of the country, I’m convinced that we’d become a monarchy with Dolly Parton as our queen. We’d use technology to keep her alive for centuries, thereby starting the Golden Age of the Volunteer State. I’m only partially joking.
Dolly Parton has done more for my community than any person over the last 150 years. She pays for the college educations of students from her high school. She donates time and money when the community suffers tragedies like the Great Smoky Mountain wildfires in 2016. And she bought the park I previously referenced, Silver Dollar City, turning it into Dollywood.
Sure, you may laugh at the name and the ridiculousness of some of Dolly’s antics. You cannot argue with results, though. Dollywood routinely wins Golden Ticket Awards for its shows and cuisine. It’s also home to several exceptional attractions like Lightning Rod, Mystery Mine, and Tennessee Tornado. And I say with tremendous pride that this place gave my late father a tremendous feeling of satisfaction when he conquered Wild Eagle, a winged roller coaster, at the age of 79.
No matter where you come from or how long you stay, when you’re at Dollywood, you’ll feel like you’re home.
2. Universal Orlando Resort
Image: UniversalWhen we evaluate the theme park industry geographically, some places provide tougher competition than others. For example, I would struggle to choose between Dollywood and Six Flags Great Adventure as the best overall theme park, yet the latter park is my pick as best in the Northeast. Dollywood can only manage third place in the Southeast since it’s pitted against the industry’s titans.
So, when I list Universal Orlando Resort as the second-best theme park in the Southeast, I’m NOT disparaging it in any way. To the contrary, I’d likely list it as the second-best theme park in North America, too. At a minimum, it’d finish in the top four. Its problem is the same one as with Dollywood. Nobody could beat Mike Tyson at the height of his power, and nobody can beat the obvious choice for the best theme park in the Southeast.
Ignoring the competition for a moment, Universal Orlando Resort is a marvelous place to spend a few days. Its hotels are luxurious, its theming is continually improving, and its rides are among the best in the world. The Wizarding World of Harry Potter and the themed land of Springfield embody the pinnacle of non-Disney theme park design. They’re immersive, engaging, and quite simply a blast to visit.
Some of Universal’s older rides like The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man, Men in Black: Alien Attack, and E.T. Adventure have all stood the test of time. Recent attractions like the Megatron character meeting and the (admittedly somewhat creepy) Toothless encounter have demonstrated that Universal has learned from the best and gone a long way toward perfecting their craft.
Universal isn’t merely the little sibling to Disney anymore. This park stands on its own as an ascending challenger with plenty of upsides.
1. Walt Disney World
Image: DisneyThis is your shocked face, right? Look, even the most loyal Universal fanatics have to be honest with themselves about this battle. Disney started almost 20 years earlier in Orlando and have an overall advantage of 45 years in the theme park industry. It’s simply too big a gap to overcome, mainly because, for all of its well-chronicled faults, Walt Disney World maintains its status as the best theme park on Spaceship Earth.
This place has four theme parks, two water parks, a full sports complex that was recently expanded to host more events, and an entertainment complex that would be a pretty decent place to spend a day on its own. With so many rides, shows, and free concerts available, Walt Disney World stakes a solid claim to the entertainment capital of the world. There’s a reason why so many other places try to emulate it.
Yes, Universal has The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Contrast that to Walt Disney World, which has Pandora – The World of Avatar, Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, and an entire zoo contained in a single park. The entertainment options here are so ridiculous that one resort, Disney’s Beach Club Resort, houses a de facto water park.
Walt Disney World is comically overflowing with entertainment options that the seasonal events at Epcot are better than the ones that many large cities host. Oh, and then there’s Space Mountain, and Pirates of the Caribbean, and Haunted Mansion, and Splash Mountain, and Expedition Everest, and…you get the point. All of the parks on this list are worthy of your time and money. The Most Magical Place on Earth towers above the rest, though.
