YoshiFan

Steel Force around 8 hours ago

Yeah the park can get insanely crowded in October. I remember last year it was mentioned on at least 1 Saturday, the main lot, overflow lot, Hurricane Harbor lot were all full with cars also parking on the grass. I usually go on Friday nights which arent too crowded especially compared to Saturday or Sunday. Columbus Day is also good since many schools don't have off that day.

Living 45 minutes away from Dorney and less than an hour from Great Adventure. 7 B&M's and 4 Intamin coasters combined between the 2 parks.

I'd expect lines of 10 to 20 minutes while the water park is open on a weekend in August. As others said everyone goes to WWK but overall there will be a lot of people there with the main lot full, overflow lot being used and possibly full as well with cars parking on the grass if the weather is good.

Yeah no re rides is annoying. Not only is Dorney keeping the current rules but adding more rules this year. Now you have to be 8 to ride the Wild Mouse even if you meet the height requirement, Hangtime is not recommended for kids under 10 and kids under 8 can't ride the Music Express unless with an adult.

Exactly, I mean if the line had a long line because it was just popular and had a lot of people in line that's one thing but when the reason that the line is so slow moving because of the policies in place, it's annoying, especially when a line down the ramp from the station is over a 20 minute wait. A supervisor of the ride on a Dorney message board years ago said that on a good day, the ride gets 320 riders an hour when RCDB lists the theoretical capacity at 900 riders an hour (which is probably unrealistic but the coaster should be getting more than 320 riders an hour).

The Wild Mouse has a rule of only 2 teenagers or adults per car which is why they were going out half empty. Combine that rule with the added seatbelts, only 4 cars (usually) running and a confusing loading system (with the 4 gates and 2 opening at a time but only 1 gate of riders is supposed to board) and it makes it a painful wait. I usually only ride it once or twice a season. There was actually a time I waited 10 minutes just in the station and what would be a 10 minute wait for The Dark Knight at Great Adventure is easily a 30 minute wait for Dorney's mouse. As for the clientele, that is one of the reasons I don't go on weekends in the summer as I have heard from others in the past that the weekday crowds are very different from the weekend crowds and based on what you saw, it sounds like it is still the case.

All coasters that have 4 seats per row I also think they should start at the entrance, I dont like how Green Lanterns single rider line doesn't start until the switchbacks before the station.

2005, 16 coasters Great Nor'Easter, Sea Serpent, Great White, Doo Wooper at Morey's, Sea Serpent and Python at Playland, Wacky Worm at Gillian's, Steel Force, Talon, Hydra and Laser at Dorney, Great Bear, Sidewinder, Lightning Racers, Wild Cat, Wild Mouse at Hershey

You didn't miss anything by skipping Wild Mouse and Demon Drop. Wild Mouse at Dorney is the worst wild mouse coasters I have ridden. It is very heavily braked to the point of being painful at some points of the ride when you get thrown into the lap bar and the line is very slow moving because of the way it is run. Demon Drop although has nostalgic value isn't that great either and also is very rough when you get lowered from lying down to the reverse portion of the ride.

Steel Force about 2 1/2 hours ago

Scream at SFMM because they put it right over the parking lot and did nothing after that with the parking spot lines still there.

The walkway from Thunderhawk to Steel Force at Dorney. It goes right by Thunderhawk and has a lot of trees (for a Cedar Fair park) and a lot of benches. Usually most people take the midway that goes by Possessed and Stinger to get to Steel Force.

There is a drop off area next to the overflow lot. You then have to wait for a shuttle bus that takes you to the entrance area.

The park was crowded today as well, but it doesn't sound as bad as yesterday. All the major coasters had 30+ minute waits with Superman and Green Lantern both over an hour. I rode the other coasters like Skull Mountain, Runaway Mine Train and Dark Knight waiting 5 - 10 minutes for each and waited 45 minutes for Nitro.

Nitro about 6 hours ago

Bizarro at Great Adventure around 5 hours ago.

I was there from 3 - 7 today. Sky Screamer was closed the entire time I was at the park. Superman broke down and then went to 1 train and Kingda Ka broke down while I was in line. Crowds were still light but it was a little more crowded than my 2 other trips to the park this month.

Flashpass will probably be needed on that Sunday, since there is a concert that day, though it will depend on the weather. You can probably get away without it on Monday.

Interesting, so anyone with Fast Lane could have gone to Screaming Swing today since Stinger broke down (not stuck on the lift though). But Screaming Swing appeared to be closed at least when I walked by it today. I wonder how well Fast Lane is selling at the park. This was my 4th trip to the park this season and I have yet to see a single person use it at any rides. I did see a family of 4 at the Fast Lane booth with wristbands but it certainly wasn't needed today. All rides had a wait of 0 - 10 minutes.

I was at Camden Yards today to see the Phillies play the Orioles and there was a Hersheypark games area set up. There was a bean bag toss themed to the Boardwalk, a mini golf game and a test your strength game with the different levels with all the different heights of the coasters. The games earned tickets for a raffle for a 4 pack of tickets. They also had some Hersheypark trivia with prizes, with the first person to raise their hand and answer correctly winning. Most of the questions were simple like what is the park's website, how far is the Hersheypark from the stadium (88 miles but they had it written on a dry erase board right next to the person running the trivia). One of the questions was what was the oldest ride in the park which I said was Comet since I was thinking coasters and not rides in general (someone else guessed SDL). The final question was name 5 coasters in the park, which I made up for getting the old ride question wrong. I won an aluminum water bottle with the park's logo on it which I then had to return to the car because it wasn't allowed to be brought into the stadium even though I had won the prize right outside where the turnstyles were. Then during the game, in between an inning they showed a POV of Skyrush on one of the jumbo screens and asked everyone to raise their arms like they were riding the coaster and put videos of people in the stands on another screen above the POV. I thought it was kind of cool they did all of that since the only thing I have seen at a Phillies home game is just Hershey and Dorney advertising on the screens in the stadium.

I had another great trip to the park today. Other than Kingda Ka being closed until a little after 3:00 and then getting a long line, everything except Superman, Sky Screamer, Congo Rapids and Green Lantern (it was a walk on using the single rider line around 2:30 and stayed that way) was less than a 10 minute wait and in most cases a walk on or 1 - 2 train wait.

I would say crowds are moderate, I would see how crowds are before deciding if a Q-Bot is needed but if you want re-rides on a lot of coasters, I'd consider it. It is important to get there at opening since from 10:30 to around 12:30 the park is rarely crowded. Since Green Lantern opened, it has been the coaster most people go to first (though many probably go to Sky Screamer now too). When I get there at opening, I usually start at Green Lantern, go to Superman and then Kingda Ka.

Mid to late July

It has broken down at some point on over half of my trips to the park this year, sometimes with multiple breakdowns while I am there. Last Friday I went to the ride and it was broken down, around an hour later I went back to it since I saw it was running. 3 weeks ago, it broke down, reopened for about 15 minutes and broke down again.