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Dorney Park and Wildwater Kingdom Discussion Thread

p. 201 - Iron Menace announced for 2024!

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  • 2 months later...

http://www.cedarfair.com/ir/press_releases/index.cfm?current_root=15&mode=story&story_id=306

 

Cedar Fair Entertainment Company (NYSE: FUN) today announced that Lehigh County has accepted its $2.75 million bid to purchase 6.75 acres of land adjacent to Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Pending approval from the Lehigh County Commissioners, this land acquisition will enable the Company to continue enhancing the guest experience at the park through the introduction of new rides and attractions, future park development and the expansion of parking facilities. The transaction is expected to close 30 to 60 days following approval by the County Commissioners.

 

"We are excited about the expansion and development opportunities this additional space will provide to Dorney Park, as well as the increased economic impact it will have for the county," said Dick Kinzel, president and chief executive officer of Cedar Fair. "In addition, we appreciate the opportunity provided by the Lehigh County Commissioners to bid on this property and would like to thank them for their ongoing strong support of regional economic development and tourism. We look forward to expanding our ability to provide unique, family entertainment at a great value in the region."

 

Recognized as one of the most visited amusement parks and water parks in the United States, Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom is home to more than 100 rides and attractions, including eight roller coasters, dozens of state-of-the-art thrill machines and one of the country's best-ranked water parks. New for 2011 is Planet Snoopy, a kid's theme-park offering the largest collection of kid's rides in the region.

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That would be great, along with bringing back the season pass lot if possible. I have never been to the park on one of those Saturday's in the summer but I have seen pictures and the parking situation is horrible. Besides the overflow lot being a very long walk to the gates, they sometimes have to park cars on the grass on the side of the overflow lot.

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The parking situation at the park on summer weekends is horrible, I think I sat still for about 45 minutes a few years back. The next time I knew where to park so that didn't happen again. It's great they were able to buy land and expand!

 

Everyone should look at Hersheypark because you can get in and out of there so quickly!

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Definitely some promising news with the land acquisition. I've always really liked Dorney Park, but it would be nice for their sake if they could break this streak they're on of "hand-me-downs" from other CF parks! I mean, I understand the reasoning behind it, but a legitimate NEW ride would be awesome.

 

And add me to the list of folks that thinks a GCI would be a fantastic addition to their coaster lineup!

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PhantomNick wrote:

 

Definitely some promising news with the land acquisition. I've always really liked Dorney Park, but it would be nice for their sake if they could break this streak they're on of "hand-me-downs" from other CF parks! I mean, I understand the reasoning behind it, but a legitimate NEW ride would be awesome.

 

 

I hear you. Besides, Dorney Park isn't the only park getting hand-me-downs. Take a look at Carowinds and the hand-me-downs they received in the past - Nightwing (formerly Stealth from CA), Scream Weaver (formerly Apple Turnover from KD), Woodstock Flight (formerly Eagle Flight from KI), and Carolina Cobra (former Head Spin from GL). Even my home park of Kings Dominion got three hand-me-down rides from the defunct GL: Dominator, Americana, and El Dorado.

 

Besides, hand-me-down or not, the park is getting another ride and that is still better than getting no ride at all.

 

"Done yet? Good! Come to me!"

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Alrighty, Thursday will be a busy day!

 

I'll be leaving my house at 8AM, then get to Dorney at around 2 or 3 and stay until park closing. I'm guessing the park won't be too crowded on a Thursday and I'll be able to get everything in.

 

But, I'm afraid my dad won't have much to do. He's ridden Top Thrill Dragster, Millennium Force, but if a ride has an OTSR he stays as far away as possible from it. Which means the only rides he'd want to ride are Steel Force (he's ridden Magnum and said it was a little rough) and Thunderhawk (how rough is this classic woodie?).

 

So what flat rides would you guys recommend that aren't too extreme and have regular lap bars? I don't wanna leave my dad in the dust the whole day.

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PhantomNick wrote:

 

Definitely some promising news with the land acquisition. I've always really liked Dorney Park, but it would be nice for their sake if they could break this streak they're on of "hand-me-downs" from other CF parks! I mean, I understand the reasoning behind it, but a legitimate NEW ride would be awesome.

 

 

I hear you. Besides, Dorney Park isn't the only park getting hand-me-downs. Take a look at Carowinds and the hand-me-downs they received in the past - Nightwing (formerly Stealth from CA), Scream Weaver (formerly Apple Turnover from KD), Woodstock Flight (formerly Eagle Flight from KI), and Carolina Cobra (former Head Spin from GL). Even my home park of Kings Dominion got three hand-me-down rides from the defunct GL: Dominator, Americana, and El Dorado.

 

Besides, hand-me-down or not, the park is getting another ride and that is still better than getting no ride at all.

 

"Done yet? Good! Come to me!"

 

Carowind's enterprise is NOT the one from KD....theirs was relocated from elsewhere in the park while KD's was sent to the park's boneyard to my knowledge.

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Apollo 2000 (or whatever its name is) would definitely be on the top of my list for flats with just lapbars. You could also ride the Log Flume with your Dad, it's pretty good. There's also a Musik Express, Tilt-a-Whirl, Swinging Ship, and Enterprise, all pretty standard, and two train rides. There's also the Wild Mouse.

 

Do you know why he avoids OTSR? None of Dorney's coasters are headbangers (Talon is very smooth in particular), and Meteor is a great flat, but has them.

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Do you know why he avoids OTSR? None of Dorney's coasters are headbangers (Talon is very smooth in particular), and Meteor is a great flat, but has them.

 

Well, he's GP so he always says "the hanging ones" are painful But the main reason is that he feels constricted into the seat, he wouldn't even ride i305 because of how strapped in he was in the test seat.

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Well, it's been a long day. Packed up my things and left Virginia at 8:30 and arrived at Dorney at around 3:30. I love how close you are to Possesed as you're driving up. I watched a completely empty train, except for three people, greet me as I walked in. This was the story of the whole day. One train wait for everything, even for the front row at times, and good operations. But after 6 I got bored, went to the waterpark which was OK at best, until 7. Then got a couple more rides in and called it a day. I'll be going back tomorrow morning for a little while before continuing on my trip.

 

Steel Force x6: I think of this ride as okay, nothing to go crazy over. The first drop is fun and you get decent airtime at parts, but its my least favorite hyper so far. (Magnum was much better)

Hydra x2: Very fun in the front seat, the jo Jo roll was my favorite part of the ride. Experienced some headbanging.

Talon x4: Very fun invert. Rank it a little below Raptor and much higher than Alpengeist.

Possessed x1: This just doesn't do anything for me. I just didn't have any fun on it for some reason. The holding brake was really neat though.

Thunderhawk x1: LOVED this old woodie!

 

Overall fun day, but the park got boring real quickly. Sorry if this is a crappy trip report... This is from my iPod!

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^I agree, whenever I go, I usually have a great time, but I usually get bored after a few hours.

 

I think it needs a new coaster. And I don't mean the Vekoma that is on it's way, I mean something completely different from any of the rides in the park (Invertigo and Possessed are WAY too similar to me). You know, a Eurofighter would have fit perfectly in Laser's old spot...

 

Or maybe I've just spent too much time in the park, and that I've just grown bored of it.

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It's rare I spend more than 3 hours at Dorney, especially if I am just going to the ride side. I can get 1 ride on Talon, Hydra, Thunderhawk, Possessed and Steel Force in around an hour on most days and I am to the point where I am tired of the rides so I rarely get more than 2 rides on any coaster on a trip to the park even without lines. I really would like to see a GCI added or something different. Even if Invertigo didn't have such a bad history, it's not a coaster I would go for multiple rides on each trip.

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Full trip report!

 

Well, last thursday I packed up my things and drove up to Allentown with my dad to give Dorney a visit. Left at 8:00 in the morning and got to the park around 3. I had low expectations for the place, I didn't exactly hear fantastic things about it, and while the park was far from fantastic, it was a nice little park with some good (albeit tame) rides.

 

As I was walking up to the park entrance I saw that Talon, the park's invert, had only one row filled up on it's train. Now I know it was a weekday and it shouldn't be too crowded, but this is the first or second week schools are out in Allentown...you'd think it'd be a little more than empty! (Not that I'm complaining!)

 

The first thing I rode was Talon, which was a nice little invert, pretty forceful. I'd rank it above Alpengeist, but below Raptor. Gave a good view of the waterpark, too.

 

Then I went over to Steel Force, the park's Morgan hypercoaster. After riding Magnum, I had extremely high expectations for the ride and expected the CRAZY airtime that Magnum always gave. But, the airtime on Steel Force was very tame, except for the last two bunny hills. The huge helix was a lot of fun, though. I walked right on to the front row for this one, which is a nice plus.

 

Then I rode the park's Wild Mouse, which had AWFUL capacity, my god...it's loading procedure definitely needs to be worked on! The ride itself was fun, though...not enough to go through the line (I was maybe one of about four groups in the station) again.

 

Then, I rode Hydra: The Revenge, which was the park's unique floorless coaster. The first drop was fun, so was the heartline roll out of the station, but that was about all it had to offer that was enough to go "crazy" over. Again, I walked onto this one's front row. I hope attendance isn't a severe problem for this park on weekends.

 

Then I rode Thunderhawk, and I really loved this classic woodie! My only complaint was the trim brake on one of the last airtime hills, which resulted in little airtime. It wasn't too rough and it was the only one in the park that ran 1 train.

 

After that I rode Possesed, which is an Intamin Impulse that I didn't like very much at all. It was way too...loud I guess, which is part of the ride's theming? Because Wicked Twister definitely was much quieter than this. But the holding brake on the back spike was very fun.

 

After that I just rode whatever I wanted. I got bored by about 6, and I never get bored at theme parks...there's just something that this park is missing, and the new Invertigo for next year definitely won't fill that gap. Went to the average waterpark and rode a couple rides, then went back into the park for a couple rides on Steel Force, then left. I had originally planned to go the following morning but decided not to in favor of sleeping in.

 

Steel Force x6

Hydra x2

Talon x4

Possessed x1

Thunderhawk x1

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Well, I plan to go to Dorney Park in early August as part of my coaster tour vacation trip, and I must admit the last few times I've been at the park I would have done everything (plus more) within a few hours. I don't think I ever been to the park in which I thought it was crowded and all the rides you walk up and ride with little or no wait time(except if I'm ridding the Wild Mouse, doggone if that ride always have a long line).

 

Now that I heard about all the coasters, now how about some reviews concerning the rest of the park ( for example, the Whip: is it still whipping? And how is Planet Snoopy?). This rider and amusement park flyer wants to know!

 

"Just I would like to know when are you coming back to bed. I miss you badly."

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  • 2 weeks later...
There's also a Musik Express, Tilt-a-Whirl, Swinging Ship, and Enterprise

I think you're thinking of Six Flags Great Adventure's SBNO and defunct rides

Hey there, watch it! We still have a Swinging Ship!

 

I thought the Whip was decent last time I went- it was whipping enough to slam me into the middle island after each turn. Meteor was fun, as always, and I thought Demon Drop was running slightly better than last year, though it still was not really a fulfilling ride experience.

 

Planet Snoopy looked very nice, though I didn't actually go on any rides. The new ones included a simple elevated track ride, a powered swing (oh how I wish we had those when I was little), and a Samba Tower. The older rides all still look great as well. The Ice Show is revised this year with an increased emphasis on actual people skating, which I thought worked better.

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