Theme Park Insider's Google Map of all top U.S. theme parks

From Kelly Smith on April 11, 2007 at 9:49 PM
That's awesome! Thank you!

From Anthony Murphy on April 12, 2007 at 6:49 AM
Thats really great!

From Dustin Kern on April 12, 2007 at 8:44 AM
Just a little curious as to why Darien Lake and Canada's Wonderland aren't on there seeing as how they are the large parks for western NY/Canada.

From Robert Niles on April 12, 2007 at 9:45 AM
Cause I spaced them? ;-) I'll put 'em on when I get back to my home computer this afternoon.

From Anthony Murphy on April 12, 2007 at 12:02 PM
It is also intersting that it appears that a majority of the theme parks in the US are in areas of the North that do not stay warm all year long.

I thought there would be more in the South!

From David Kirby on April 12, 2007 at 3:04 PM
It's funny to see the difference between the amount of parks in the East compared to the West. I'm actually a bit surprised there's no major parks in the Arizona - New Mexico area since that area has been experiencing a lot of growth in recent years.

From Robert Niles on April 12, 2007 at 3:31 PM
Ultimately, I think park locations come down to summer weather. This remains a family business (see Vegas' failures with theme park attractions over the past decade and a half), and parks make almost all their money during school vacations.

The weather in Arizona in summer is just horrid. Northern Arizona's not bad, but the main resident population lies in the south and center of the state. Too many of them would rather head for the cooler California coast, with SeaWorld, Legoland, Knott's and Disney, than stick around to go to an Arizona park in broiling summer heat.

From David Kirby on April 12, 2007 at 8:25 PM
In terms of weather, it's also interesting that so many parks are located in areas where they can only be open half of the year.

From Robert Niles on April 12, 2007 at 10:28 PM
Since that half of the year contains the time that the kids are out of school in the U.S., it works for them.

Can't speak for anyone else, but I'd much rather spend part of August on the shores of Lake Erie than in Phoenix.

From Barbara Boyer on April 13, 2007 at 3:56 AM
You are a wonderful human! Thank you so much!

From Deidre Dennis on April 13, 2007 at 6:09 PM
We're driving to California for an 11-14 day vacation this Summer and I used the maps to print out all of our directions. Thanks a bunch.

On a side note but to comment on an earlier statement, I hear it's unbearable being in that Arizona heat, but I have to admit that the Florida humidity killed me last June. I couldn't believe it. But we were on vacation so we weren't about to let a 15 minute rain stor or humidity stop us. We just made sure to cool out and drink lots of fluids.

From doug ie on April 13, 2007 at 9:42 PM
I really like this map. It's going to be really useful when on road trips around the US. I posted the map on ongopongo.com

From Mitchell Botwin on April 14, 2007 at 3:19 AM
The map is great. Can you make it available as a link on the blog page?

From Anthony Murphy on April 15, 2007 at 9:05 PM
I didn't even know there was a satilite feature!

The addresses to Disney do not seem 100% correct to the park, but still its close enough. Probably Google Maps since it even got my house wrong.

Disney has a lake in the shape of Mickey! It looks to be in the middle of the Petty Race Track!

Also it does take a bit of the magic away from the Kingdom like the whole Haunted Mansion building. Still, very cool!

Again, good job and good idea Robert! I could really see Sea World great!