Dorney Park and Wildwater Kingdom Discussion Thread

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Maybe Dorney is preparing themselves for when they open up their new GCI that everyone was talking about. It's going to break all sorts of records, Dorney will be CROWDED with people, and wait times for every ride will be no less than 20 minutes.

 

 

 

This park can actually get super crowded during their Halloween event.

Agreed. We went a few years ago and the place was packed.

wait times for every ride will be no more than 2 minutes.

Updated for accuracy.

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Maybe Dorney is preparing themselves for when they open up their new GCI that everyone was talking about. It's going to break all sorts of records, Dorney will be CROWDED with people, and wait times for every ride will be no less than 20 minutes.

 

 

 

This park can actually get super crowded during their Halloween event.

 

Agreed. We went a few years ago and the place was packed.

When I went 3 or 4 years ago the lines for all of the coasters were about 30 minutes. That is pretty packed for Dorny. The mouse was an hour. Also, all of the haunts were at an hour+ wait as well.

I just got off Hydra and they're assigning rows...it's a walk-on... This park makes absolutely no sense.

I never had this happen to me and I went on it twice and never got assigned to a row. I would of never listened to the ride attendant anyway. I have seen it happen this year it was on the busy day of the year where they were just trying to fill the trains on Hydra

So yesterday I went on Demon Drop for the first time since it left Cedar Point. First ride of the day for me. The car ahead of me got stuck at the bottom where it transfers to the lower track to go back to the station, so I got stuck at the very top for about 15 minutes. One of the ride hosts came up to the top to keep me company and took a pic for me. Nice way to get a look around the park lol.

So yesterday I went on Demon Drop for the first time since it left Cedar Point. First ride of the day for me. The car ahead of me got stuck at the bottom where it transfers to the lower track to go back to the station, so I got stuck at the very top for about 15 minutes. One of the ride hosts came up to the top to keep me company and took a pic for me. Nice way to get a look around the park lol.

Heh, sounds like Demon Drop to me. The view is pretty great up there.

 

Heh, sounds like Demon Drop to me. The view is pretty great up there.

Even the Vecoma looks good from there.

The park sure was bumping that day.

The park sure was bumping that day.

That was taken during opening checks, part of opening Demon Drop involves climbing the tower, hitting an e-stop, and flicking some car position sensors. I took that pic while doing that.

Dorney will be getting Winterfest next year. Smart move and a decent amount of capex goes into getting this event off the ground. Will do well as Lights on the Parkway, LV Zoo and other Christmas themed events in the area perform well. Still working on other improvements in the park.

You generally seem to know what you’re talking about so that’s cool news if it’s true. I’ll probably never go since Hershey and Great Adventure will blow it to hell in terms of rides but more parks doing Christmas events is always a good thing.

^ I didn't realize Hershey had a Christmas event.

Dorney will be getting Winterfest next year. Smart move and a decent amount of capex goes into getting this event off the ground. Will do well as Lights on the Parkway, LV Zoo and other Christmas themed events in the area perform well. Still working on other improvements in the park.

I've been told differently.

I'd probably go once a year for Winterfest. Seeing the ride lineups at other Cedar Fair parks makes me think maybe just Wild Mouse and 1 of the B&M coasters would be running if only the top section of the park was open.

^ I didn't realize Hershey had a Christmas event.

I went to the event last year for the first time in 10 years and thought it was great. Cheap admission (around $25) almost all the flat rides are open including the drop towers and 5 coasters (6 with the kiddie coaster) are running.

I prefer Great Adventure's event but we enjoyed our time at Hershey. If they would learn how to string lights on trees and run a few more coasters it would be the best in the region.

^ I didn't realize Hershey had a Christmas event.

It's been going on for an eternity. It used to be that there was like *a* ride open back in the early 2000s. They've expanded as others have entered that market to compete.

I was at the park for a few hours on Saturday. I wanted to go to Knoebels but with the Bloomsburg Fair likely causing horrible traffic on the way to the park and Knoebels having a buy 1 handstamp, get 1 for free next May, I thought it would be very crowded. The park was crowded (for Dorney) with some of the coasters besides Wild Mouse actually having 15 - 20 minute waits.

There is a new coaster where Stinger used to be, unfortunately for anyone hoping for a new ride, this one is made out of pumpkins.

Thunder Creek Mountain was closed. I was hoping it might be open, at least during the day.

Cedar Creek Flyers was already the worst flying scooters in the area because of the slow speed and short ride cycle that was under 2 minutes. They actually made it worse. The ride starts to slow down less than 50 seconds after it starts moving and from start to complete stop is barely over a minute.

While riding Thunderhawk, I heard someone said that it was a better ride than Phoenix because Thunderhawk's trains have better padding. The person riding next to them agreed with that.

I walked through the main gift shop on the way out of the park. In the middle of the store there was a display of Phillies hats for 80% off. It seemed really random for Phillies merchandise to be sold there but since it's Dorney I can't say I'm that surprised.

Chickie's and Pete's had the longest line in the park. There were at least 20 people waiting to order and the line to the pickup window was past the bar area and the total wait time from getting in line to order and actually getting the food was probably close to 45 minutes.

The coaster in Stinger's spot. I know it's not a great picture but the only way to see the whole display well is to ride Steel Force. The lighter pumpkins on the right are supposed to be a coaster train.

There were a lot of people, both kids and adults with these necklaces.

Nice report!

I cringed at their opinions of Thunderhawk, but to each their own.

Cedar Creek Flyers was already the worst flying scooters in the area because of the slow speed and short ride cycle that was under 2 minutes. They actually made it worse. The ride starts to slow down less than 50 seconds after it starts moving and from start to complete stop is barely over a minute.

Hey, we were there on Saturday as well... my wife and my best friend's wife were on a girls' night out on the town in Philly that evening, so we decided to take the kids out to Dorney. Definitely agreed about the Flyers. So short and kind of punchless. The only upside is when we rode them early in the day, the wind was super strong and really caused us to sail much more than those ones typically allow.

We didn't do too much of coasters throughout the day... we started off by heading towards Possessed, but it was down for a bad sensor. Thankfully after two rounds on the Flyers it had just reopened and we got two rides on that. The only other coaster we ended up doing was Woodstock Express at the behest of my daughter, and I gotta say, I'm just getting too damn big for these tiny little Zamperlas these days. She loved it though and that's what's important, right? We were going to try and do Steel Force as well but that also ended up down for maintenance early.

Other than that it was all flats... Monster, Whip, Dominator, Apollo, the carousel, and a handful of stuff in the Planet Snoopy section. Shout to whomever was operating the Kite-Eating Tree... most ops on kiddie rides look like they're so ready to be done with their shift, while this guy was just hamming it up for the kids with audience participation call-and-responses. It was a nice change of pace.

Also, we ended up discovering that kids with a pre-K Pass got select free midway games. We found this out at the balloon burst game, where after checking her pass, the game op allowed my three year old daughter to stand up on the counter and try throwing darts at the balloons. She didn't hit any balloons, or even make it more than halfway past the floor, but she came pretty close to stabbing my shoulder with one of those darts. Great idea, guys.

We ended up booking it out of there just before five to try and avoid the haunt stuff, but overall it was a pretty good if short and uneventful day.

I hate the no boos. I get they are an easy money maker, but they shouldn't allow them in the mazes.

I hate the no boos. I get they are an easy money maker, but they shouldn't allow them in the mazes.

According to the last bit on the sign, they don't.

I hate the no boos. I get they are an easy money maker, but they shouldn't allow them in the mazes.

 

According to the last bit on the sign, they don't.

Well that is new for this season. About time they do that.

But also...

Maybe they're going to receive whatever coaster Kings Island is closing.

Invertigo would fit nicely on Stinger's old pad.

Bring on the brand-new pizza stand for 2019!

^^I have also heard speculation that Kings Island may be removing Firehawk.

But would Dorney really take a used Flying Dutchman? That might make sense, as Dorney is already the "Six Flags America" of the Cedar Fair chain. (Not saying those two parks are on the same level, just comparing the two for being the dumping grounds of their respective chains)