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Dorney Park and Wildwater Kingdom Discussion Thread

p. 201 - Iron Menace announced for 2024!

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Certainly sounds like Stinger is gone.

 

A popular rollercoaster taken down for good at Dorney Park

 

When Dorney Park opens its gates on May 4 for its 135th operating season, one popular thrill ride will be missing from its lineup of attractions.

 

Stinger, which came from the South Whitehall Township's sister amusement park, California's Great America five years ago, is no longer. In a winter update on its website, the park stated the ride has been removed for "future planning opportunities."

 

Dorney Park spokeswoman Kristin Hager Wednesday confirmed Stinger is no longer at the park, but was mum on what could be constructed in the coaster's place.

 

"We don't have details to share right now, but we are working on future planning and development of the park," Hager said.

 

Stinger apparently got its name for "injecting" riders with an adrenaline rush. It was one of the only suspended boomerang inverted steel coasters on the east coast with face-to-face seating. The coaster initially was called "Invertigo" when it was situated in Great America.

 

Once released, passengers reached speeds of 55 mph going through the launch station into the "boomerang," which was a a 180-degree turn with double inversions. Once exploding out of the boomerang, riders then returned to an upright position only to head straight into a 72-foot-high vertical loop before rocketing to the top of the coaster.

 

The drop length was 125 feet and the ride totaled 1 minute, 30 seconds. There were three inversions as the ride glided both forward and backward. The winter update also stated another popular, but aging, wooden roller coaster, "Thunderhawk, would be getting a little TLC.

 

About 150 feet of track is expected to be replaced from the exit of the "figure 8" to the final approach. Thunderhawk is the park's second oldest ride and nearly a century old.

 

Construction also continues on the new Tidal Wave Cafe at the adjacent Wildwater Kingdom, which will include a larger shaded seating area. It's expected to be ready for the water park's Memorial Day weekend opening.

 

Two "Coke Refresh" stations are expected to be upgraded, along with an additional station added to the Tidal Wave Cafe. Renovations and upgrades to the main restroom facilities at Wildwater Kingdom also are being completed, the website stated.

 

The park earlier this month also announced it was planning to hire more than 3,000 seasonal employees, coming off the heels of two consecutive years of steady job growth.

 

Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom features more than 100 rides, shows and attractions. Seven other roller coasters remain, as well as one of the largest collection of children's rides at "Planet Snoopy" and one of the country's best-ranked water parks.

 

Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom is owned and operated by Cedar Fair Entertainment Company, a publicly traded partnership and one of the largest regional amusement-resort operators worldwide. The company owns and operates 11 amusement parks, two outdoor water parks, an indoor water park and five hotels.

 

Now, lehighvalleylive.com: define "popular".

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I guess the park did a press release today about Stinger since there's all these articles floating around all the sudden. This one has some interesting info:

 

Despite its past issues, the decision to remove Stinger from Dorney Park was strictly a business decision, said Kristen Bartholomew, marketing manager at Dorney Park. “Stinger had less than half the ridership of rides like Steel Force and Talon,” Bartholomew said in an email. “It has not yet been determined if Stinger will be sold to another property or will be taken down for scrap at this time.”

and

“We don’t have details to share right now, but we are working on future planning and development of the park.” Kristen Hager, the park’s director of marketing and sales, confirmed the news Thursday, adding that Stinger is still in the process of being removed from the property. In addition, she said the park typically doesn’t make new ride announcements until the third quarter, meaning whatever does replace Stinger likely wouldn’t be ready until the 2019 operating season.

 

via Dorney Park is removing a roller coaster from its property

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I find it interesting they made it a point to mention it had half the riders other coasters had. Even if the trains were going out full (of course this being Dorney, that rarely happens), 1 Stinger train holds less riders than Talon or Steel Force and both of those usually ran multiple trains plus Stinger seemed like it took longer to dispatch than other coasters. Not to mention all the down time Stinger had.

 

It's nice to see one of the teams I root for involved in one of these bets. Usually as a Philadelphia sports fan, I'm used to seeing other teams involved. One thing that surprised me was how many Steelers fans there are in the Allentown area and in the Scranton area. The Sears near me has no Eagles items and all Steelers even though Pittsburgh is close to 5 hours away compared to 2 hours to Philadelphia from Scranton and just over an hour from Allentown.

 

One good thing about going to Dorney is at least I avoid negative comments when I wear Phillies and Eagles shirts, compared to Great Adventure where I have had some comments I can't repeat here said when I wear those same shirts.

 

And this is why I keep my Patriots gear tucked safely away once I leave New England. I made the mistake wearing it once out in public at an Oakland train station on the way to Great America.

 

I wrongly thought it wouldn't matter much at Great Adventure since even though it's in the NY sports market area, they have some connections to Philadelphia sports like Iron Pigs (Phillies AAA affiliate) ads in the park in past years and with the Philadelphia area being one of the main markets for the park. I had an answer ready if anyone said anything about my Eagles sweatshirt on my final trip this season "11 and 1."

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161815ba662a06ed19c9e5f8dddab5e1.jpg Does anyone recognize these seats? They kind of look like Apollo's seats but they're not the right color. They're on a Dorney truck.

 

Looks like Steel Force's seats.......

Yeah, shortly after I posted this I figured that out. Had a brain fart for a minute there.

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Though it might seem far-fetched for Dorney's standards, but I could see a Sky Rocket II coaster (like Tempesto or Phobia) in Stinger's place. It looks to be just the right footprint for that space.

Wouldn’t it be too similar to Possessed? Though you could have asked that about Stinger in the first place.

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Though it might seem far-fetched for Dorney's standards, but I could see a Sky Rocket II coaster (like Tempesto or Phobia) in Stinger's place. It looks to be just the right footprint for that space.

Wouldn’t it be too similar to Possessed? Though you could have asked that about Stinger in the first place.

Hey, La Ronde has two full-circuit inverted coasters and Six Flags New England has two boomerangs literally next to each other. Anything is possible lol

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Though it might seem far-fetched for Dorney's standards, but I could see a Sky Rocket II coaster (like Tempesto or Phobia) in Stinger's place. It looks to be just the right footprint for that space.

Wouldn’t it be too similar to Possessed? Though you could have asked that about Stinger in the first place.

Hey, La Ronde has two full-circuit inverted coasters and Six Flags New England has two boomerangs literally next to each other. Anything is possible lol

La Ronde's SLC and SFNE's giant boomerang were relocations like Stinger, weren't they? I'd think they'd be less likely to buy a new ride too much like an existing one.

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Well, CF already has the Patriot trademark...

 

Yeah, my thoughts exactly. Just print up a few of those Patriot logos since they already have the artwork, make up some shirts and call it a day. If they make this bet they could even get started printing them now. They might as well.

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stunt coasters

[attachment=0]thing.jpg[/attachment]

 

"In the rich tradition of the classic Italian daredevils, no single man wowed the crowds like Tempesto®. Take center stage and recreate his signature stunt. " I seem to recall other references to "stunt". At any rate i find its shortness a good thing.

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