Dorney Park and Wildwater Kingdom Discussion Thread

[alilstronger]

^ I am glad someone agrees with me

[yankeeman311]

Me and my friends had the same problem Saturday at Lake Compounce. Too many people went through at once. My suggestion is to deliberately try to slow down enough to seperate yourselves from the people in front of you. We slowed down and let the people in front of us get a lot further ahead and because of that, our experience drastically improved because we got all the surprises. The only thing is you might not be popular with the employees because we also ended up slowing down everyone else behind us which probably crammed some people.

[alilstronger]

I try that at every amusement park haunted attraction I do. I much prefer the haunted attractions in PA and DE that are strictly haunted attractions - they only send you and your group through so if its just you and someone else - you only go through with just the two of you.

[triggernel]

 

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.

 

 

You're lucky you were even allowed to enter in small groups, the last Saturday before Halloween. Most Haunt events have to start conga lining weeks before that.

[medoman]

was at dorney 2 weeks ago and it was fun, one of the most pleasant surprises was the safety instructions song fro the wild mouse, does anyone know if a copy of the song exists online anywhere?

[cmullin]

I noticed that at CGA too, but it didn't really make a big difference for me, it was usually dark, so you couldn't really tell what was going to happen, just be prepared.

[strwrse1]

I was debating if I wanted to post this, but since you are coming here on a trip, I wanted to give you a possible "heads up". There is a rumor that Thunderhawk will be getting a retro-fit on its PTC cars. No more buzz-bars, instead they will have individual ratcheting lap bars.

[GigaG]

I was debating if I wanted to post this, but since you are coming here on a trip, I wanted to give you a possible "heads up". There is a rumor that Thunderhawk will be getting a retro-fit on its PTC cars. No more buzz-bars, instead they will have individual ratcheting lap bars.

 

Why? It's perfectly fine with them. I'd take normal bars, but only if the ride was retracked and un-trimmed (I heard the trims really neuter the ride.)

[strwrse1]

Apparently last season they had alot of problems with the lap bars not opening. So they are looking to make a change. And yes the trims do kill this ride. I have had the opportunity to ride with the trims off & the trains fly. The pop at the end makes you feel like you are going to actually fly out of the car.

[Dr. M]

I'm assuming individual lap bars will only make the trains heavier, right? Chewing up the track even worse? Good news.

[jedimaster1227]

https://twitter.com/mikefehnel/status/439157710484172800/photo/1

 

Steel has arrived and slide assembly is underway.

[coasterbill]

Thunderhawk is so frustrating because this coaster could be great if they would maintain it properly and get rid of the trims. Doing things like getting rid of the buzz bars is a step in the wrong direction.

 

In the front seat, this ride offers 2 pops of ejector (and I mean EJECTOR) airtime when the trims aren't on, but the ride is so painful you can't enjoy it. I'm sure it would have some great airtime on the final bunny hills too if they were willing to invest in the coaster by doing some re-tracking and turning those awful trims off. If they did that, this coaster would easily be the best ride in the park but it's never going to happen.

 

I understand that turning the trims off makes the amount of re-tracking needed increase even more and I know you can't justify that expense from a business standpoint but it's a shame because this coaster really doesn't have to suck.

[redfoot12]

I have no real context for what years Thunderhawk has been running great or awful. All I know is that in my one visit to Dorney in 2007 I loved it and it took me by surprise. Remains in the top half of my (admittedly short) woodies list.

[arby]

^Same here. When I was there in 2011 for my one and only trip it seemed to be running decent. I was not expecting that awesome ejector air and I think that alone stuck in my mind. My daughter didn't like it for what it's worth.

[eddie200330]

I have no real context for what years Thunderhawk has been running great or awful. All I know is that in my one visit to Dorney in 2007 I loved it and it took me by surprise. Remains in the top half of my (admittedly short) woodies list.

 

You said short woody....LMAO..sorry, couldn't resist.

 

I remember getting slammed into the lap bar hitting the turnaround. Other than that, nothing much eventful happened.

[screaminkid2005]

See I rode Thunderhawk in 2012 and thought it was a POS. I thought it had a great lay out, but the overall ride was way to rough that it made it extremely painful. And that's also coming from me, a guy that loves rough woodies!

[coasterbill]

I have no real context for what years Thunderhawk has been running great or awful. All I know is that in my one visit to Dorney in 2007 I loved it and it took me by surprise. Remains in the top half of my (admittedly short) woodies list.

 

You said short woody....LMAO..sorry, couldn't resist.

 

You'll love this post even more then

 

the overall ride was way to rough that it made it extremely painful. And that's also coming from me, a guy that loves rough woodies!

 

Sorry ScreaminKid... lol

[YoshiFan]

I thought last year it seemed to be running rougher than past years. I think last year was the first year I never rode Thunderhawk more than once per trip to the park.

[Ccron10]

I think the roughest rides I've had on Thunderhawk had to have been back in 2006, which was brutal. A few years later they did a pretty extensive re-tracking and re-structuring project on it, which made it a lot better (but the kick in the figure-eight was still bad). I has been getting a tad rougher each year, but I really don't think it is back to the way it was when I first rode it, but I guess we'll see this year.

 

Kind of looking forward to Snake Pit, but I will kind of miss Riptide Run in the long-run even if it was horribly designed and I scraped my back a few times on the long slide from the foam coming off. Kind of reminded me of a Schlitterbahn-like water slide/lazy river.

[YoshiFan]

Riptide Run was fun and something different. The only thing I didn't really like about it was that on busy days, there were so many people in each section that you had to paddle your way to the next slide and it was difficult moving around with all those tubes so I tried to go to it on days that crowds were low or right before closing when hardly anyone was there.

[Dr. M]

Thunderhawk was the first roller coaster I ever went on, I've been on it many, many times over the years and I can't say I've ever gotten a ride that was even close to being good. Maybe I've just been extraordinarily unlucky, but visiting the park at least twice a year for fourteen years and I've yet to get even decent floater airtime, so I'd say rides without the trims on are rare at best. Sometimes it's rougher, sometimes it's smoother, but it's never good. Maybe the layout has potential, at least to be better than it is, but it'll be a cold day in hell before we ever see it.

[PhantomNick]

On Sunday, June 8th, Dorney Park will once again be taking part in the Coasting for Kids charity event benefiting Give Kids The World. Event details are below. TPR is also supporting this great cause and will have a team of riders participating! Want to join in on the fun? To learn more, head on over to our Coasting for Kids 2014 thread!

 

Registration time: 9:00 a.m. - 9:30 a.m. at the main gate

Event time: 10:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.

Marathon will take place on: Steel Force, Talon and Hydra

Meal: 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. at Food Fest Grove

Awards ceremony time and location: 1:15 p.m. at Center Stage

Regular park operating hours: 10:00 a.m. - 8:00 p.m.

Prizes: 1st place - Dorney Park prize pack including four (4) admission tickets ($400)

2nd place - Dorney Park Haunt prize pack including four (4) Haunt tickets ($300)

3rd place - Give Kids The World gift basket

[coasterbill]

Riptide Run was fun and something different. The only thing I didn't really like about it was that on busy days, there were so many people in each section that you had to paddle your way to the next slide and it was difficult moving around with all those tubes so I tried to go to it on days that crowds were low or right before closing when hardly anyone was there.

 

I loved Riptide Run. It was actually my favorite ride in the waterpark just because I'd never seen a ride like it before. Even without it though Dorney still has a very good waterpark and I'm looking forward to trying out the new slides.

[Kyle Coleman]

Going to dorney this year for the first time this year on memorial day(it is the only day I can go) and was wondering if you have been there in the past what kind of crowds I should expect. I can swing a fast lane purchase if necessary but would prefer to avoid it.

[Dr. M]

Going to dorney this year for the first time this year on memorial day(it is the only day I can go) and was wondering if you have been there in the past what kind of crowds I should expect. I can swing a fast lane purchase if necessary but would prefer to avoid it.

 

If people on this forum are to be believed, you can go literally any day of the year and expect naught but the stray tumbleweed.