YoshiFan

Sounds very crowded just like it was on Monday. I'd hate to see how bad the weekend crowds are with the weekdays being so crowded.

It wasn't that bad as Halloweekends at least compared to other parks in the area (Hershey does nothing really, Frightfest at Great Adventure is bad). Halloweekends had 3 indoor mazes (1 for families), 1 outdoor walkthrough and some shows. Haunt really was a lot better last year though and this year looks even better. And the best part is that the haunted attractions take lines away from the rides making all coasters have very short if any waits.

I did notice the Hydro Thunder cabinet but as soon as I saw a picture of the gameplay before I saw the Hydro Thunder cabinet the first thing I thought of "That look a lot like Hydro Thunder"

That new arcade games looks like an unofficial sequel to Hydro Thunder. I can't wait until an arcade near me gets it since it looks awesome and Hydro Thunder is one of my favorite arcade/Dreamcast/XBox[Midway Arcade Treasures 3] games.

Once you earn the 15% off discount, they send you an e-mail letting you know in the fall they will e-mail you a 15% off code. From the wording of the e-mail it sounds like you have to buy the pass online to get the discount. With the $10 shipping cost, that almost takes away the savings so I am going to wait and hope they have a 20% or 25% off deal like they usually have in December. I just got my bring a friend free coupon today which is the last reward. The e-mail says it has to be used by November 1st but the actual ticket you print out says October 12th.

Hopefully, what made no sense was Laser ran at Dorney from 1986 - 2008 and CF owned the park from 1993 yet seatbelts were added in 2007. What I mean is why all of the sudden did CF add seatbelts especially since under their ownership of the park it ran without seatbelts for 14 seasons.

A lot of coasters- Medusa, Nitro, Superman, Kingda Ka, El Toro, Dark Knight but not much of anything else. The only new non coaster rides added since the few rides still there from the War On Lines 1999 additions are a few kiddie rides (Bugs Bunny National Park and 1 ride in Wiggles World) and Tango which has not operated at all this season. What has happened to the park is it has become nothing but coasters and kiddie rides. The are approximately 12 flats/water rides in the park that are currently operating. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad to have the coasters but the lack of rides for people that don't ride coasters is a major problem with the park.

Great Adventure, rides removed since the beginning of 1999 (end of 1998 season) Poland Springs Plunge (2nd log flume) Stuntman's Freefall Chiller Swings Evolution Jumping Jack Flash (Huss Jump) Time Warp (Inverter) Pirate's Flight (Balloon Race) Spinnaker A bunch of kiddie rides from Bugs Bunny Land 2 kiddie rides from Looney Tunes Seaport this year 1 kiddie ride from the Golden Kingdom this year Viper Taz Twister (Rotor) Rodeo (Break Dance) El Sombrero (Trabant) Chaos Joust A Bout Spinmeister (Enterprise) Pendelum (Frisbee) Looping Spaceship Scrambler Movietown Water Effect (Splashdown Boat) Adventure Rivers (section of wet/dry slides) Koala Canyon (kids water play area) Houidin's Great Escape (SBNO) Bumper Cars (SBNO) Music Express (SBNO) Tango, Rockin Tug (SBNO) There are probably a few more I missed too.

^ Ridiculous (the park guests I mean), they shouldn't have gotten mad at you. ^^Sounds like it was horrible with crowds, the wait time signs are not accurate at all though. Nitro at the 90 minute sign with 3 trains running is around 25 - 30 minutes so I am surprised Flashpass gold gave you a 15 minute wait. If I keep reading TR's about crowds being this bad, it looks like I won't be going to the park again until September.

Crowds will be moderate, and lines will be longer than normal because Kingda Ka is closed. Get there at opening and get Superman, El Toro and Bizarro out of the way first as those 3 are going to have the longest lines. Flashpass decreases as more people are on the unit, $35 is for 1 person, 2 people is $54 or $55 and so on. It is a virtual line system. If the wait for a ride is an hour, it tells you to come back in an hour and you go right into the station or up the exit (depending on the ride). I would see how crowds are before deciding if you need it or not. You can leave stuff in your pockets, they don't need to be placed in a locke r. All coasters except the kiddie coasters and Rolling Thunder and the Runaway Mine Mine Train have them.

I think the park is asking for trouble with this promotion. I'm sure lots of people are going to go to the park for this deal. When other parks have given away free or charging next to nothing for admission it always causes problems (Knott's Cinco De Mayo, SFOG free ticket radio promotion). If 1st time visitors go to the park and have to deal with packed midways, and huge lines, they might not want to return. I think the park would have been better off charging $14.99 or $19.99 a person as a special promotion. Very cheap for a park but expensive enough to not make the place jammed (I realize they want as many people as possible to visit the park though)

Interesting Disney didn't allow you to bring in food to the park back then and now they are one of the few parks that allows food to be brought in.

The brake wasn't on too bad today. In the last row I got air time only on the return hills but it was ejector type air. Then I rode the 3rd row of the 1st car and got more floater type airtime on the first few hills and return hills.

I always go to WaWa, either before I go to the park or afterwards since it is a real pain to leave the park and then re-enter just to get food. It could take close to an hour by the time you walk out of the park to the car, leave the lot, go to WaWa, order the sandwiches, eat and then go back into the parking lot, walk to the gates and go through the metal detectors again.

I rode Steel Force last Tuesday, the MCBR isn't as strong as it was in past years (in 2005 it was bad, 2006 - now has been better). I get plenty of airtime in the front of the train and sometimes in the back of the train. I am probably going tomorrow as well and will probably ride it (if I make it over to the ride side since I might just be going to WWK for an hour).

When I went to the park last year I ate at the Alamo. I couldn't believe the prices for a sitdown restaurant. It was cheap for a restaurant let alone one in a park. $3.25 for a tuna salad sandwich with chips. I regret not trying anything in the International Food Court or Cesari's.

Yeah the Mouse usually has a crazy line because of the stupid rules (no more than 2 adults per car, seatbelts, not many cars on the track) As others have said on weekdays Dorney never has lines for most rides. That is because 2 trains are always on Talon, Hydra and Steel Force and operations are very fast. It is very rare to see a train stack for more than a few seconds. I would get to the waterpark at opening or try to go later in the day in the last few hours it is open since that is where the crowds are. I went last Tuesday, on the ride side nothing had a wait at all unless you wanted the front (and even then it was less than 10 minutes) except the mouse. The waterpark had lines of 0 - 20 minutes, not bad considering how crowded it can get (Aquablast was 20 minutes) but that is the main draw of Dorney.

I went to the park on July 4th a while ago but it was on a weekday. Waits weren't horrible. I remember the person at the entrance of BBW saying it was 20 minutes in the middle of the day. Of course since it is on a Saturday this year that might make the park a lot more crowded.

It was running when I was there on the 22nd, only a 10 minute wait too.

Weekdays in May and early to mid June are usually quiet (exception is days like Student Council Day which also happened to be the day Bizarro opened). Then during the summer, weekdays can get busy but not jammed usually. I went on a Tuesday in July last year and in the middle of the day, waits for rides like Batman and Nitro were 20 minutes. August is usually worse, with lines a lot longer. That is why I usually stop going to the park around this time of year and just go to Dorney where lines aren't bad on the ride side and start going back to Great Adventure in September.

It's Buy 1 Get 1 free with a can of coke on weekdays. WaWa right outside the park also sells tickets for $29.99 but that is a little more expensive than Buy 1 Get 1 Free.

Crazy lines can differ that much in a day. Great Adventure wasn't crowded at all yesterday. Kingda Ka was 10 minutes, Bizarro was 10 minutes, Toro looked to be around 15 minutes, everything else was less than 10 minutes. Dorney was empty today, at one point Talon had 3 riders on a train. All coasters except the Wild Mouse were walk ons. The only lines were in the watepark but it wasn't too bad there either. I'm sure it will be the same tomorrow.

Dorney is away from actual downtown Allentown and is in an ok area. Security is serious at Dorney, most of the guards carry guns and are there in a few minutes when there is a problem (the only problems I have witneseed are line cutting). I have been to the park 50+ times since 2005 and never felt unsafe. I would avoid going on a weekend if possible since the summer weekends have a lot of bus trips with some questionable crowds (to put it nicely, not really dangerous but more trouble making) but I always go during the week and like I said I have never felt unsafe during those visits.

No, I didn't see you. I was there from around 3 - 5:30 but didn't go to the 3rd floor at all and spent a lot of the time in Macy's (Father's Day gift shopping)

They haven't allowed the running of the bulls since last summer. On a Friday night Frightfest last October they were stopping everyone from running, I was walking at a fast pace but not running and the guard told me to slow down. I remember reading TR after TR about how bad opening day was this year, I was upset at missing opening day at first but seeing so much closed made me glad I didn't go. I went on Sunday of opening weekend and it was much better. All coasters except Nitro were open and everything was a walk on.