YoshiFan

It's good if you don't mind that there are no Halloween attractions. The park is decorated and some light displays at night but that is it. It is a good value with cheaper admission and just The Boardwalk closed and best of all crowds are usually low except on Saturday nights. I went to the park on a Sunday in October a few years ago and everything except Fahrehnheit was 5 minutes or less. It's nice Coal Cracker will be open, I see they also added Wild Mouse for Christmas Candylane although without any of the Intamin coasters or Great Bear open, I would still rather go to Great Adventure.

2013 was the first year that they started running Fright Fest earlier that year. They even had the park open on Friday nights in September that year that were really empty. http://www.greatadventurehistory.com/GAPubs/New2013Brochure/2013PanelFront.jpg 2012 they had Fright Fest start on the 22nd and on 2011 not until October 1st.

Last year I got a grilled chicken sandwich at the Yum Yum Cafe, the roll was stale and it was only the 2nd day of the season.

I hope Thunder Creek Mountain isn't already closed for the season. On Monday, the ride was drained and none of the logs were in the trough and off to the side near the lift hill. It might have just been closed because they didn't have enough ride operators too with some water slides and the 2nd lazy river closed as well. It was the same with White Water Landing since last week but I somewhat expected that with the queue being used for a Haunt maze.

That is bring a friend free weekend for the theme park which will make the park extremely crowded. What could happen is if a lot of people are passholders with Hurricane Harbor included, they might just go there instead rather than deal with the crowds in the theme park. It is also likely that Hurricane Harbor won't be running at full capacity (at the minimum I would expect part of the lazy river closed and probably at least 1 slide tower closed) so even if it isn't that crowded, lines could still be long with fewer rides open.

Great pictures, that little drop on Thundercreek Mountain at the top gets me every time. It seems like a wave of water hits the entire log.

The park still gets large crowds, on weekends the overflow lot fills up and cars have to park on the grass. It's just that almost everyone there is going to the water park. In the 90s before Great Adventure and Hershey added so many coasters it seemed like Dorney wasn't far behind but now both other parks have much better coaster collections and I feel like most people go to Dorney for the water park and go to the coasters later in the day after the water park closes compared to a park like Great Adventure where the coasters are the main draw.

Dorney sometime this week.

I like water parks but don't visit them often except when I go to Dorney. When I am visiting a new park like last year at Kings Islamd and Cedar Point, my focus was getting all the coasters in and other rides in the dry park I wanted to try. When I visit Dorney when Wildwater Kingdom is open, I usually ride each coaster once, a few flats and spend the majority of my time in the water park and riding the water rides in the amusement park.

Yes, I had wanted to try a suspended coaster for a while and got to ride Bat and Iron Dragon last year. I liked both coasters a lot even though Iron Dragon was kind of tame and wouldn't mind seeing a local park get a suspended coaster.

Friday night isn't usually bad on that weekend either. I remember people posting pictures last year of Sunday of Columbus Day weekend and the traffic was backed up past Wawa on 537 in the afternoon. Monday is usually good especially with the 10 pm closing and 8 - 10 pm are usually walk ons or short waits.

The counter service one near the Sea Dragon is on the dining plan.

If it was the beginning of the season I would pay $99. I spend most of my time in Wildwater Kingdom when I visit during that part of the season and being able to walk right on to all 6 Snake Pit slides and all the other slides offered plus Thunder Canyon would be worth it to me.

Hopefully they last longer than The Dark Knight's effects lasted. The hologram billboards were really cool and one stopped working a couple years after opening and the the other one stopped working maybe a year after that. Same with the Bat Signal that seems to only work half the time and clowns in the subway car at the end of the ride.

I was there on a Tuesday a few weeks ago and the line got up to 1 hour 45 minutes in the middle of the day. Even later in the day around 7 it was still around 1 hour 20 minutes and this was a day the park wasn't that crowded. All the other coasters had 10 to 30 minute waits.

Tivoli Plunge at Tivoli Pier which was a small park inside Trop World/Tropicana Casino in Atlantic City. It was a Zierer Shoot The Chute although it was all coaster track and no water except for a small area after the drop with water jets similar to Maverick that the track stayed above. The park was only open from 1988 to 1995 and the coaster was never set up again elsewhere. It has 8 riders listed on coaster-count. It was a simple rid3, lift hill then a 180 degree turn in a room with a disco ball turning and the drop out of a building over the water, brakes and a small raised 180 degree banked turn over sand and you were back in the station and you went around twice. It ran 1 train with 2 cars each seating 4 riders per car (RCDB says there were 2 trains but I am guessing 1 train was just an extra train since I never saw 2 trains running).

Friday should be crowded. In addition to all the regular school trips it is SeniorNite where the park is open until 1 a.m for anyone participating in that event. The SeniorNite groups can arrive whenever they want during the day and then normally the other school groups leave at around 4 or 5 but they will be staying so even the last few hours the park is open should be more crowded than normal.

I was at Dorney today and spent most of the time in Wildwater Kingdom. There were a lot of school groups but lines in the water park and rides side were short (not that short lines on the ride side is much of a surprise). More things than normal were closed in Wildwater Kingdom. The original wave pool and Wildwater River are usually closed during the week this time of year but Kids Cove, Speed Slides, the red slide at Patriot's Plunge and Constrictor were also closed. Constrictor did open at around 4:45 when another lifeguard was there for the left side of the pool. Thunder Canyon was also closed. This is probably my favorite time of year to visit Wildwater Kingdom since weekdays when schools are in session are one of the few times almost everything in the water park is a walk on or 5 minute wait.

I was at the park 3 years ago on Memorial Day and it was much more crowded. I remember Nitro and Green Lantern were around an hour wait each in the late afternoon.

I think both days will be bad. Friday is not only Music in the Parks and also Health & Welness days for school groups. I was there yesterday and knew there would be a lot of schools but never expected it to be one of the most crowded trips I have ever taken to the park. Fahrenheit, Laff Trakk, Storm Runner, Skyrush and Great Bear all were 45 to 75 minutes most of the day and a few times Fahrenheit got to 90 minutes. Even smaller coasters like Trailblazer were 30 minutes at some point. I also thought it would clear out around 5 but many school groups weren't even entering the park until after 2 and lines were still long later in the day. Almost every school group has music t shirts.

Almost every Friday in May is bad during the day because of Music in the Parks school groups. Unlike at Great Adventure that also has the Music in the Parks, with more coasters and a larger park, crowds are spread out better compared to Dorney. With fewer coasters and almost everyone in the park teenagers who go to the coasters and thrill rides it makes the lines worse than normal.

Talon about 5 hours ago.

There was a step competition and school music competitions that likely added to the crowds.

On a weekend in the summer, it probably is really helpful in the water park especially at Aquablast where it can have a 45 minute wait even on a weekday.

I also won't ride these water rides that get you soaked unless I am going to the water park as well. Dorney has it setup well, both White Water Landing and Thunder Canyon are next to Wildwater Kingdom and you can wear a bathing suit and footwear is not required (although you would want to with the metal walkways at the end of both rides).