Dorney Park and Wildwater Kingdom Discussion Thread

[michaellynn4]

^Fixed it, I over themed my post

 

I think he was referring to the typo in the poster itself.

[GnastyGnoric7]

^Wasn't sure where the typo was, so I removed the poster.

[Hercules]

No need to remove the poster. If it is the official poster feel free to put it up. I just noticed the typo in the poster and thought it was funny.

[glucky11801]

I was fortunate to be at the Press Day for Hercules. It was a big deal, since it had the biggest drop on a wood coaster.

It was really hauling a** that day, and it was quite smooth, before the PTC's tore it up. The first drop/turn was FAST and had lots of laterals, before any of the modifications. I do remember saying that Charlie and Curtis tried to get too much height out of that triple up, and that the subsequent drops weren't really deep enough to give it enough speed (and of course the layout after the first drop was basically boring)...

Edited September 17, 2013 by glucky11801

[PalmTree55]

Thunderhawk has always been ridiculously boring to me. I can't think of any other large® park in the country that needs a new wood coaster more than Dorney does.

 

Carowinds.

[coasterbill]

I feel the strange urge to defend Thunderhawk a little bit.

 

We rode this ride during Coastin for Kids and it's hard to deny that this ride sucks now. That being said this ride really doesn't have to suck, and even a few years ago when they did some track work to it it really wasn't such a bad ride.

 

One thing this ride has going for it is two serious pops of air, one on the hill leading to the first turnaround and one on the top of the next large hill. The problem with this ride is that it's been braked to death and has gotten pretty rough. If the park was willing to throw some money at it it could really be a solid ride. They need to re-track everything after the first drop and bunny hop and they need to remove the brakes (one on the first airtime hill and one in the final run of bunny hops). They won't do this because removing the brakes will mean they'll have to re-track it again every few years but this ride has a lot of potential, plus they probably can't justify spending money on a coaster that would be under appreciated even if they did both of these things because it's completely overshadowed by Steel Force.

 

I'm not denying that this coaster sucks right now, but with proper maintenance this could be a really good ride. One thing I do highly suggest is riding this coaster in the second row of the first car... this ride in that seat has by far the most airtime you'll get at Dorney (which isn't saying much) and since you're not in a wheel seat the ride is about as smooth as it's going to get until they finally cave in and re-track it.

[xmichellex]

I like Thunderhawk a lot too...

 

IMO Hydra is way more boring than Thunderhawk. I was at Dorney a couple weekends ago (for the 2nd time), and was still pleasantly surprised with Thunderhawk--lots of fun, re-ridable, etc.

 

Had a great day at the park--I love Dorney! They really do a great job keeping the park and rides looking nice, and the rides are run very efficiently (at least they were each time I've visited).

 

I will never understand Hydra. It looks like it should be so much fun, but every time I've gone on, I'm so bored during the ride, and get off the ride without feeling that "coaster rush." The only parts of the ride that stand out for me are the jojo roll, and the little pop of air after the cobra roll. It's also one of the more rough B&Ms I've experienced--not horrible by any means, it just doesn't help when the ride already isn't that great. Maybe I'm the only one that feels that way, but it's one of the more disappointing steel coasters I've been on.

[Hercules]

I was fortunate to be at the Press Day for Hercules. It was a big deal, since it had the biggest drop on a wood coaster.

It was really hauling a** that day, and it was quite smooth, before the PTC's tore it up. The first drop/turn was FAST and had lots of laterals, before any of the modifications. I do remember saying that Charlie and Curtis tried to get too much height out of that triple up, and that the subsequent drops weren't really deep enough to give it enough speed (and of course the layout after the first drop was basically boring)...

 

I'm not as sure that the PTC's tore Hercules up as I am that I think Hercules tore up the PTC's.

[cmullin]

I agree that Thunderhawk has potential to be good, but Dorney just needs to put some money and effort into it. If they don't work on it at all, then I would agree that it should be scrapped, because as is, it's quite boring.

[Hercules]

Thunderhawk is good when the breaks are off.

[YoshiFan]

I will never understand Hydra. It looks like it should be so much fun, but every time I've gone on, I'm so bored during the ride, and get off the ride without feeling that "coaster rush." The only parts of the ride that stand out for me are the jojo roll, and the little pop of air after the cobra roll. It's also one of the more rough B&Ms I've experienced--not horrible by any means, it just doesn't help when the ride already isn't that great. Maybe I'm the only one that feels that way, but it's one of the more disappointing steel coasters I've been on.

 

I agree about Hydra. I'll admit I liked it a lot more when I first started to become an enthusiast and Hydra was one of the few major coasters I had ridden but now I really don't like the coaster nearly as much. The rattling throughout almost the entire rides just makes me want to ride it even less. I sometimes ride it once a trip to the park, other times I skip it compared to Talon and Steel Force that I try to get multiple laps on each time I am there.

[Vonni]

Hopefully 2015 will bring another Coaster addition. I've not been to Dorney, but I can certainly tell its long over due for a new Coaster. I wouldnt be surprised if its next addition is a Wingrider.

[mark549]

Hopefully 2015 will bring another Coaster addition. I've not been to Dorney, but I can certainly tell its long over due for a new Coaster. I wouldnt be surprised if its next addition is a Wingrider.

 

Only if there's a used Wingrider that can be moved from somewhere else.

[Geauga Dog]

Thunderhawk is not a bad coaster. Not sure if it's still there but based on my rides in 2005 the only part that sucks is the weird brake right before the final brake run that kills it.

[coasterbill]

Hopefully 2015 will bring another Coaster addition. I've not been to Dorney, but I can certainly tell its long over due for a new Coaster. I wouldnt be surprised if its next addition is a Wingrider.

 

I really don't agree. If they build a high capacity coaster like a wingrider it will be a walk on on it's opening day and every day after that just like Talon and Hydra are. The coasters are not the big draw at this park, the waterpark and family rides are much more popular. The only way this would make sense is if they want to build up their coaster collection to compete with Hershey and Great Adventure and if that's the case... good luck with that.

 

I think the appeal that Dorney has is the waterpark and the fact that it's combined with decent flat rides and decent coasters. If you want great flat rides, you'll go to Knoebels and if you want great coasters you'll go to Hershey or Great Adventure but Dorney has a little bit of everything all in one park. I think if this park keeps adding occasional low capacity relocated or cheap coasters (like a spinner or something) they'll be fine.

[Hercules]

2015 = GCI wood

[A.J.]

Dorney Park's coasters aren't walk-ons all the time. When I visited in August, every coaster had at least a two-cycle wait. There wasn't necessarily a sprawling queue line every time, but the coasters were never empty to the point where you could just walk up and hop into any seat.

 

In fact, even at normal dispatch intervals, there were very few empty seats on trains - and the empty seats were usually caused by parties of odd numbers (ex: a party of three people in Talon's front row, which seats four).

[cmullin]

I've been to Dorney 3 times now, and every time every coaster I've wanted to ride was a walk-on, even in the front row sometimes. Only waits that I've ever had are at the water park. But even so, it's worth it because the slides are awesome, but I would love for them to get a new GCI woodie, it'd give me a reason to go back.

[rcjp]

I went there in the last week of August for the first time and it wasn't walk-on. The lines were short, still, there was an average 5-10 minutes wait until the water park closed, then talon and hydra got worse. My last ride was talon at 9 p.m and I waited about half an hour.

[Hercules]

Dorney Park's coasters aren't walk-ons all the time. When I visited in August, every coaster had at least a two-cycle wait. There wasn't necessarily a sprawling queue line every time, but the coasters were never empty to the point where you could just walk up and hop into any seat.

 

Obviously they are not going to be literal walk-on's all the time. But I think that is close enough to constitute walk-on status. Just about anything you can walk into the station, or close to it, and only wait a few minutes to get on is pretty close to a walk-on.

[YoshiFan]

That's how it's been on almost all my trips to Dorney. The only times in around 7 years that I've had to wait more than 5 minutes to 10 minutes for a coaster (not counting Wild Mouse) was when I made the mistake of going to the park on a Sunday in August, closing day 2006 when they were running 1 train on the coasters because of the weather, a Friday in May when there was Music in the Park and 50+ buses and a couple of other days when they were running 1 train because of weather. Even opening weekend last year when Stinger had just opened I waited about 10 minutes for the coaster. At any other park when a new coaster opens, it could easily be at least an hour wait.

 

It seems like unless you go to the park on a Friday in May (at least until around 4:00 or 5:00), a weekend in July or August or a Saturday during Haunt, there will be little to no lines.

[_koppen]

To me it looks like the park lacks a decent family coaster.

Something like this would probably be very popular. They are some of the most fun rides out there.

[alilstronger]

Went to the park this past weekend for The Haunt VI. Which makes me think... have they only been doing a haunted event for 6 years or is it just the 6th year its called The Haunt?

 

Over all I had a great day. Everything was running with no issues at all. I got there about noon and nothing had long lines. We only waited about 1-2 cycles for everything. I was surprised to see every coaster except Thunderhawk running 2 trains with the crowds being so light. I guess they did not want to hold everything up once the crowds picked up later on.

 

The coasters were running great for as cold as it was. You could feel the Wild Mouse slow down a lot during the turns and it sounded like it was rubbing a lot more than usual. Also Talon was running slower it seemed. Only complaints ride wise is I wish they would do better with loading flats. The girl running the Enterprise did not count and seemed to allow more people in then needed for a few cycles. Also at Meteor I wish they filled the thing. This ride REALLY needs a single rider line to fill all the seats from the couples that are riding. Also it had a lot of 'unavailable' seats.

 

Once it got about 6 the crowds picked up dramatically. We got in line for Blood Shed. Yep, waste of time like I thought. The themeing was GREAT but experience was not. Not scary at all. How is getting in my face scary? Also again they send way too many people through at once. We ended up being in a large pack of about 20 people so when things popped out in front of us we knew it was going to happen. After that we decided that rest were not worth our time.

 

The slide structure they are getting in the water park next year looks nice!

[YoshiFan]

They used to have Halloweekends before Haunt but it was a much smaller event. There were only 2 or 3 Haunted attractions.

[michaellynn4]

My brother and I went Saturday. We got to the park around 4PM, and the park was already busier than I've seen in a while. Lines for Talon, Hydra, and Steel Force were 10-15 minutes each. As day turned to night, the crowds REALLY came. Lines for coasters got longer than I've ever seen; Talon used half of its queue (30 minutes), Steel Force used most the back half of its queue (30 minutes). Ride operators dispatched quickly enough to keep the lines moving, though.

 

We only went through the Desolation maze and had a similar experience to alistronger: great theming, but it was overall ruined because they kept sending groups through too frequently. My group ended up catching up to the group in front of us, with the group behind us catching up to us. After that, we went back to the rides until we left around 11PM for the trek home.

 

Ride count:

 

Talon 2x

Hydra 2x

Steel Force 2x

Stinger 1x

Possessed 2x

Thunderhawk

Hang Time

Dominator

Sea Dragon