Knoebels vs Six Flags America

Knoebels is a free-admission, pay-per-ride park in Elysburg, Pennsylvania - one of the last major "trolley parks" in America, family-owned since 1926. The park is famous among coaster enthusiasts for two wooden coasters: Phoenix (rebuilt from a 1948 design and widely considered one of the best woodies in the world) and Flying Turns, a rare modern bobsled-style coaster.

Because it's free to enter, Knoebels stays genuinely busy on summer weekends and holidays, with queues building on the signature wooden coasters well before dinnertime. Weekdays are usually very relaxed. Check live wait times before queueing for Phoenix or Flying Turns, and use our crowd calendar to pick a quieter day if you want to re-ride freely.

Six Flags America sits in Bowie, Maryland, between Washington D.C. and Baltimore. The coaster line-up includes Superman: Ride of Steel (a 205-foot hyper coaster), Wild One wooden coaster, Joker's Jinx multi-launch coaster, Ragin' Cajun spinning coaster, and Batwing flying coaster. A Hurricane Harbor water park is included with admission during summer.

DC and Baltimore weekend visits, Maryland school holidays, and the Fright Fest event drive most of the park's busy days. Weekdays in May, September and October stay dramatically calmer, with queue times on most coasters dropping to 10 minutes or less. Check live wait times for Superman and Wild One on arrival, and use our crowd calendar to pick a lower-crowd date for shorter waits across the coaster line-up.