Dorney Park and Wildwater Kingdom Discussion Thread

What are crowds expected to be like during Labor Day?

 

There won't be any.

Is there anywhere else where you can get 6 rides on all the coasters in one day, no FL required?

What are crowds expected to be like during Labor Day?

Crowds for labor day maybe a hit or miss. The last few weekends have been busy. I would expect to see a fairly big crowd.

Every park I've ever been to -on- labor day has been very low crowds. Everyone always thinks it's going to be busy and never go . The weekend may be a different story, but Monday should be fine anywhere*, honestly.

Every park I've ever been to -on- labor day has been very low crowds. Everyone always thinks it's going to be busy and never go . The weekend may be a different story

Nope... same story at Dorney. No crowds on Friday, Saturday or Sunday or Monday or any other day ending in a y.

^

Which is good, because I'm stopping in labor day Saturday just to ride everything quick before heading to Gadv

Easy to be done. May I suggest the old sandwich company around the block for lunch before the drive down to GAdv... Then I'd hit best of the west at six flags for dinner!

Just got back from the park for the first time in 20 years.

Went to the water park first, it was kind of crowded, hit up a few things, swam in the pool, did the lazy rive but we decided to head to the park early before the rush of people from the water park came over.

The park was dead,completely empty, everything was a walk on which was great. Have to pick the right time to get days like that at Six Flags Great Adventure.

Got on everything multiple times. I liked that Possessed ride, thought Talon was good and smooth. Hydra was cool. Steel Force was kind of weak in the back of the train, did the front and it was much better, someone said that in here so I took that into consideration. Did a few flats, went on the Freefall ride which I havent been on in so long since it left great adventure. Did Enterprise which I loved as a kid and hadnt been on in years. That was always the first ride we'd hit at Great Adventure back in teh day. That was cool hitting up old school flat rides of my childhood.

Liked that Meteor ride much better than that stupid Great Adventure El Diablo shit. Then we got hot and like assholes we decided to go on Thunder Canyon thinking it was like the one at GA where you might get alittle splashed but not soaked. We were fully dressed with shoes, little did we know you get fucking soaked. That sucked but since we were wet we hit up the log flume and splashwater falls rides, dried off on another round of coasters and then headed out.

Loved that the park was empty, will say one thing the employees are so slow, its like because the park was dead they didnt have to move even slightly fast, it was taking so long to load trains. Guess I'm just used to peopel rushing to get trains loaded.

Was a good day, perfect day. Only 2 hours, well alittle under two hour drive. Will go back next year.

Then we got hot and like assholes we decided to go on Thunder Canyon thinking it was like the one at GA where you might get alittle splashed but not soaked. We were fully dressed with shoes, little did we know you get fudging soaked

Been there, done that. I'd rather jump in the wave pool with all of my clothes on than ride Thunder Canyon ever again. lol

Then we got hot and like assholes we decided to go on Thunder Canyon thinking it was like the one at GA where you might get alittle splashed but not soaked. We were fully dressed with shoes, little did we know you get fudging soaked

 

Been there, done that. I'd rather jump in the wave pool with all of my clothes on than ride Thunder Canyon ever again. lol

If you don't mind getting wet, it's worth riding it just to watch your friends get slammed around when the raft bumps into the walls. Especially if they aren't ready for it.

I remember the first time I rode it, was like "Why does this ride have seatbelts..." as soon as we were on the course, getting slammed into walls, everybody was like "Oh... That's why."

Every park I've ever been to -on- labor day has been very low crowds. Everyone always thinks it's going to be busy and never go . The weekend may be a different story

 

Nope... same story at Dorney. No crowds on Friday, Saturday or Sunday or Monday or any other day ending in a y.

Don't know what park you're talking about but Dorney is always slammed on Saturdays and Sundays.

^That's his joke that he's been making over and over again, ad infinitum, for literally years. I expect we'll continue seeing him joke about it for many happy years to come. It's like celebrating Jesus's birth in December, what may or may not be reality no longer factors into it at this point. It doesn't matter how many times you say, "actually, sometimes the coasters do get pretty hefty lines", he wins via sheer repetition/obsession.

It was absolutely dead when I went on a Saturday a couple of weeks back..

^That's his joke that he's been making over and over again, ad infinitum, for literally years. I expect we'll continue seeing him joke about it for many happy years to come. It's like celebrating Jesus's birth in December, what may or may not be reality no longer factors into it at this point. It doesn't matter how many times you say, "actually, sometimes the coasters do get pretty hefty lines", he wins via sheer repetition/obsession.

It's not a joke, it's true...

It was absolutely dead when I went on a Saturday a couple of weeks back..

The park was dead,completely empty, everything was a walk on which was great.

... see. That's just from this page. I only bring it up because people keep asking if the park will be crowded. I don't see how that's a problem. People are asking questions and I'm answering those questions.

To be fair Dorney does have some busy days, sometimes randomly throughout the week. But Saturdays, the dry side always gets a 2 to 3 hour rush when the water park lets out. When I say "Rush" I mean in the Dorney sense. Most rides won't see anything over a 30 minute wait, but I came into the park as a guest last Saturday and wound up only riding Thunderhawk, as the wait for all the other majors was in excess of 45 minutes.

I'm sure once in a blue moon they do if enough busses come in but personally I've never seen it and I've been going to the park for over 10 years multiple times a summer so it's very rare, and like you said even on their busiest day it's nothing compared to how swamped the other parks in the area can get.

I want to point out too that when I talk about the lack of crowds I'm not making a joke or making fun of them... it's a good thing (from our perspective). Dorney brings in a ton of people, the last 2 times we went we parked in the overflow lot under the main road but even then the coasters were walk ons. The park seems to be doing just fine, the coasters just aren't the draw, the water park is. I like Dorney and I like visiting partially because they never have lines. I'm not bashing them, but it's amazing that they never have lines for the coasters.

Overheard someone saying on a ride that there is a height limit in the state that they cant build rides over a certain height. Is that true? Maybe I didnt hear him right, he was a few rows away but thought he was saying that.

I don't know if that's a state law but I know Dorney can't built over 200 feet because of the two airports close to the park.

And yes the water park does get more of a crowd than the fry side does. But there are a lot of days where steel force is running all three trains and still have almost an hour wait. A few Saturdays ago I got off work so I stayed in the park and every coaster had a 45 min to hour wait. We are smaller than Hershey and SFG and we are not one of the most likely parks in the CF chain. The last few weeks the hour has been going to the lower lot for parking which never happens during the week. On Saturdays when you're one way inbound from 9:30 in the morning to 2-3pm and they are into overflow 4 or 5 (back behind stinger, the asylum, and grave walkers) its pretty damn busy.

I don't know if that's a state law but I know Dorney can't built over 200 feet because of the two airports close to the park.

Isn't Steel Force 205 feet tall?

I don't know if that's a state law but I know Dorney can't built over 200 feet because of the two airports close to the park.

/quote]

Isn't Steel Force 205 feet tall?

The drop it 205. The height of the lift is 200 feet.

The park is usually always busy on Saturdays and Sundays from the beginning of the season to Labor Day, and sometimes during Haunt, too provided there is little to no rain. Sometimes the crowds will show up even if there is a threat of storms. July and August, you usually always see cars in overflow on Sat and Sun. Weekdays aren't as bad but it can get busy during the week, too. One exception was a while ago this month when it was rainy out during the week and there were only 20 cars in the lot. That is rare in the summer. And toward the end of August the crowds are out in full force as families squeeze their last visits in before school starts, remember some of them are coming from a distance and can't really get to the park in the fall.

Despite the complete silence on Dorney's part, after talking with a number of people, a general consensus has been reached on what Dorney is doing for 2016. New trains for Thunderhawk (with lap bars instead of buzz bars ) and a general refurbishment. I would assume this entails retracking and maybe a bit of reprofiling (Here's hoping the trim on the airtime finale is removed)

This is just rumors but I firmly believe this is what they're is doing for 2016.

The trains on Thunderhawk are nothing to write home about. Seat belts minimize the effect of having buzz bars and the ride has so little airtime to begin with that it matters even less, plus the trains have those awful awful headrests. If we end up getting a complete refurbishment including changing the location of the brake at the end, plus newer, standard PTCs with lap bars and no headrests, I say overall that would be a huge win.

The trains on Thunderhawk are nothing to write home about. Seat belts minimize the effect of having buzz bars and the ride has so little airtime to begin with that it matters even less, plus the trains have those awful awful headrests. If we end up getting a complete refurbishment including changing the location of the brake at the end, plus newer, standard PTCs with lap bars and no headrests, I say overall that would be a huge win.

Seatbelts can be loosened. Lap bars can't unless you're carrying a restraint key with you.

The front seat (or car 1, rows 2 and 3, to a lesser extent) ejector airtime on the hills (especially the first one, before the first turn) is actually pretty impressive, even if you have your seatbelt as tight as it'll get, it'll be loose by the final turnaround. I've walked away with bruised knees before from being thrown into the non-padded part of the buzz bar.

The lap bars on PTCs have a lot of wiggle room to them even if you try to staple yourself. I know some people hate them but personally I have absolutely no problem with them. Also I've never experienced anything close to ejector air on Thunderhawk and I always ride the front. I have, however, experienced my fair share of whiplash riding it, and for that reason I would vastly prefer to see removal of the hard plastic headrests over preserving the buzz bars.