Dorney Park and Wildwater Kingdom Discussion Thread

[coasterbill]

My honest guess is that it will operate tomorrow. If it operates tonight though I'll feel like I just hit the powerball. I'm not expecting it at all, believe me.

[DorneyKid14]

Dorney Park Haunt Preview

 

last night Dorney had an employee preview of all the haunt attractions.

 

The Ward: almost the same as asylum. They switched the story line around, and switched some of the rooms around. Wasn't much of a fan, but it will still pull the 2 hour line on Saturday.

 

Gravewalkers: nothing changed much from last year. Didn't get to do the skeleton key room. One of my favorite attractions tbh.

 

Trick or treat: changed some things around. Still pretty good.

 

Age or darkness: probably my favorite scare zone. Love the skeleton key room here. Probably the best one in the park.

 

Carnevil: put some work into this this year. Midway looks really cool walking up towards hydra.

 

Blood on the Bayou: wow. Did they spend their time on this one. The story line is pretty cool for when you enter. The maze itself is awesome. Really makes you feel like you're in Louisiana, kind of. The detail are props are incredible.

 

House of wax: not much changed here. Still think it's one of the least popular ones.

 

Blackout: few things changed. They added a story line to this now. Deals with working in a candy factory. The attraction itself is now open to everyone, not just skeleton key people. They also added a new exit to it.

 

Haunted Mansion: mansion got a little redo as well. Skeleton key room is kind of lame. They got rid of the elevator towards the end, upset about that. I believe they expanded it a little bit. It seemed longer than last year. Still my favorite haunt in the park.

 

Cut throat island: didn't spend much time here. Walked through found out the skeleton key room was closed, and left. Liked how they moved it to possessed midway. They also have it fenced off so you have to walk through almost like grave walkers.

 

All in all, it was a nice night or preview. All the haunts look like they'll be really nice once it gets to October and the actors are in mid season form. I only got a few photos unfortunately.

The ward

Some of the theme that went into carnevil.

Blood on the bayou

[robbalvey]

Do we have anyone who would be interested in covering the Haunt media event for TPR on Sept 23rd? If yes, please email robbalvey@themeparkreview.com

 

When you email us, please give us at least a little bit of information as to who you are. Thanks.

Edited September 16, 2016 by robbalvey

[DorneyKid14]

Forgot to add that the park is doing refillable hot chocolate mugs as well!

[DorneyKid14]

My honest guess is that it will operate tomorrow. If it operates tonight though I'll feel like I just hit the powerball. I'm not expecting it at all, believe me.

 

So the verdict is that it will open tomorrow. And after this weekend, they are hoping to get two more weekends out of it.

[coasterbill]

I know I normally make fun of Dorney for not having lines but I'm the busy Haunt season I guess I have to eat my words.

[boldikus]

but I'm the busy Haunt season

someone's been drinking

[coasterbill]

well yeah.

 

Anyway there's a zero minute wait for the brand new haunt maze on it's opening night. Pretty good but the woman in the front is being played by a dude and nobody is fooled.

[SteelForceless]

I know I normally make fun of Dorney for not having lines but I'm the busy Haunt season I guess I have to eat my words.

Wow, looks like the park is slammed tonight! Better luck next year!

 

Hey, at least the flume is open.

[coasterbill]

The flume is closed but it'll be open during the day. That's okay. We're having a great time. Al mazes and rides are walk-ons.

[coasterbill]

Okay, so a few thoughts from last night... we were originally going to get there around 7:30 but we ended up getting there closer to 9:30 since our old neighbors (who aren't big coaster people) moved a few blocks away from the park and we decided to stop by and pregame with a few drinks on the deck. We hadn't seen them in about a year and since they're hardcore Phillie people they're alcoholics like us so it seemed like a great way to spend a few hours.

 

Anyway by the time we finally got to the park we figured we'd only have times for the new maze and a few rides but that turned out not to be the case because there were literally 11 people in the park despite it being a beautiful night... because Dorney. We had plenty of time.

 

I won't go into much detail but just a few highlights:

 

- Our first ride was on Talon where we were the only people on the entire train with the exception of some weird ass who I immediately identified as a coaster enthusiast (he was by himself, had a sungless strap and smelled like he hadn't showered in a week so it was easy to pick up on). He proceeded to sit in the middle of the row so we had to sit next to him and asked to sit next to Brit instead of me "because of arm length". If he were worried about that he could have sat on the end so I sat next to him (there was no way I was going to subject her to that crap) and listened to him b*tch the whole ride. I have no idea who this guy is but if you're on TPR and you're reading this, take a damn shower.

 

- The park was so dead that we walked right on to Blood on the Bayou, Cornstalkers, the Ward and Trick Or Treat (which I think is also new). We were the only ones in our group in the Ward and Trick or Treat.

 

- The decorations throughout the park have really taken a step forward. I loved the area near Demon Drop in front of Cornstalkers (which is now located near the old Go Kart tracks).

 

- The mazes were all fun. Trick or Treat (which I think is new) is probably the weakest. The Ward was really solid, unlike the other 3 it actually had a plot line, the others just seemed like they came up with a cool name and threw in a bunch of random crap to scare you with no thought about why it was there. Blood on the Bayou was fun and actually has a pretty impressive animatronic at the end that seemed like it would be out of Cedar Fair's budget so I didn't expect it. Don't expect Disney here but it's impressive for Dorney.

 

- SeaDragon was a 2 cycle wait with a full boat. I never saw a single coaster send out a train that was even half full but SeaDragon was crushing it. I love the SeaDragon but WTF???

 

- All in all we had a great time (despite Thunder Creek Mountain being closed, lol) and got on a ton of rides and mazes in 2 1/2 hours.

 

Ride list (every single ride and maze was a true walk-on except for Steel Force where we had to wait 1 extra train for the front )

- Talon 2x (awesome as always, walked right on to the front row twice. Better the second time without the creepy ass)

- Hydra (front... actually more fun than I remembered))

- Apollo (DorneyKid14, sorry we missed you! There was a woman running the ride who looked like she hated her job and her life so I figured it wasn't you. She was the opposite of an enthusiast, enthusiast implies "enthusiasm" lol)

- Demon Drop (This is really the ultimate display of the old phrase, "you don't know what you've got until it's gone". Luckily for some reason I don't think anyone understands this ride got a new lease on life and is absolutely my favorite drop tower on earth. I love this terrifying little a**hole of a ride... it's easily the 3rd best ride in the entire park after Talon and Thunder Creek Mountain).

- Cornstalkers (I liked this... didn't it used to be in Wildwater Kingdom? The new setup is better).

- Steel Force (front row. It was fun but after riding Magnum a few weeks ago I'm convinced that Magnum was put on this earth to remind me that Steel Force is a borderline kiddy ride. In all seriousness though we really enjoyed our ride, we were laughing like crazy the entire time and I love the feeling of speed in the helix in the front row).

- Trick or Treat (only ones in the maze, fun but the weakest of the mazes we did)

- The Ward (great maze... again, only ones in our group)

- Cedar Creek Flyers (I felt bad waking the ride op up but Brit wanted to ride. And holy sh*t we actually snapped sh*tty Larsons!

- Posessed (front row, only ones on the entire train... great ride as always).

 

All in all it was a great night. I highly recommend this event. The haunts are fun and it's a great alternative to all of the super-crowded haunt events at other parks.

[boldikus]

Sounds like a good night! No Thunderhawk?

[SkyToro]

Sounds like a good night! No Thunderhawk?

I was also at the park last night and speaking of Thunderhawk, with the colder temperatures the trims aren't as aggressive and it brought back some of that ejector air on the first 2 turnarounds like the old days. It was great.

[DorneyKid14]

No probably coasterbill! Maybe another day!

 

And trick or treat was new for last year, and yes cornstalkers was up in the water park.

[coasterbill]

Sounds like a good night! No Thunderhawk?

 

We thought about it but it was pretty low on our list of priorities and after we rode Posessed we had to pick between one more ride on Talon or a ride on Thunderhawk. There wasn't much debate.

 

And trick or treat was new for last year, and yes cornstalkers was up in the water park.

 

That maze was honestly pretty disappointing. I like the idea of building these Haunt structures since if you don't need to tear them down I would think they could be of a slightly better quality but when you're the only 2 people in the maze and you're still underwhelmed then there's a problem. It was good, but we liked Cornstalkers better and they probably threw that together over the course of a few weeks.

 

Plus we actually had to Google it to see if it was even a haunt maze. The facade and name could easily imply that it's a kids trick or treat trail. We tried to get a Haunt map but nobody had one.

[Satans Hockey]

Anyone do the mansion dinner? Is it worth it? I'm trying to get a group of friends to do it since the price is pretty good and I've seen a lot of good reviews.

 

My other question is I've read a little bit about the skeleton key rooms and do you have to participate or can you just say no and watch? My gf would probably never talk to me again if there wasn't an option lol

[Iby coaster]

Anyone do the mansion dinner? Is it worth it? I'm trying to get a group of friends to do it since the price is pretty good and I've seen a lot of good reviews.

 

My other question is I've read a little bit about the skeleton key rooms and do you have to participate or can you just say no and watch? My gf would probably never talk to me again if there wasn't an option lol

For the skeleton key rooms, you have to pay to participate in it. They are separate rooms from the haunt. Only few has them. If you don't get it, you can still do the haunts it just won't have any skeleton key rooms in it.

[Satans Hockey]

Anyone do the mansion dinner? Is it worth it? I'm trying to get a group of friends to do it since the price is pretty good and I've seen a lot of good reviews.

 

My other question is I've read a little bit about the skeleton key rooms and do you have to participate or can you just say no and watch? My gf would probably never talk to me again if there wasn't an option lol

For the skeleton key rooms, you have to pay to participate in it. They are separate rooms from the haunt. Only few has them. If you don't get it, you can still do the haunts it just won't have any skeleton key rooms in it.

 

Thanks but I meant do you have to participate if you go in the rooms or can you just watch? Just don't want to waste the money as some of them are a bit extreme and some of my friends would definitely not do them, I'm even on the fence about a few I read lol

[CoasterRench]

Anyone do the mansion dinner? Is it worth it? I'm trying to get a group of friends to do it since the price is pretty good and I've seen a lot of good reviews.

 

My other question is I've read a little bit about the skeleton key rooms and do you have to participate or can you just say no and watch? My gf would probably never talk to me again if there wasn't an option lol

For the skeleton key rooms, you have to pay to participate in it. They are separate rooms from the haunt. Only few has them. If you don't get it, you can still do the haunts it just won't have any skeleton key rooms in it.

 

Thanks but I meant do you have to participate if you go in the rooms or can you just watch? Just don't want to waste the money as some of them are a bit extreme and some of my friends would definitely not do them, I'm even on the fence about a few I read lol

 

I'm not sure if it differs from park to park or not, but at KI once you go into the room with the skeleton key you are participating whether you like it or not. There job is to try to scare you, and going in that room means you paid extra money to be scared, they are going to try and give you your money's worth. Both visiting houses and working in the houses, I have never seen anyone older given a "free" pass because they are scared, especially girls. The only way they are letting up is if your a kid or your wearing one of the "don't scare me" necklaces....but please if you wear this, don't go in the haunted house, just stay out and let the others enjoy it.

[Satans Hockey]

Anyone do the mansion dinner? Is it worth it? I'm trying to get a group of friends to do it since the price is pretty good and I've seen a lot of good reviews.

 

My other question is I've read a little bit about the skeleton key rooms and do you have to participate or can you just say no and watch? My gf would probably never talk to me again if there wasn't an option lol

For the skeleton key rooms, you have to pay to participate in it. They are separate rooms from the haunt. Only few has them. If you don't get it, you can still do the haunts it just won't have any skeleton key rooms in it.

 

Thanks but I meant do you have to participate if you go in the rooms or can you just watch? Just don't want to waste the money as some of them are a bit extreme and some of my friends would definitely not do them, I'm even on the fence about a few I read lol

 

I'm not sure if it differs from park to park or not, but at KI once you go into the room with the skeleton key you are participating whether you like it or not. There job is to try to scare you, and going in that room means you paid extra money to be scared, they are going to try and give you your money's worth. Both visiting houses and working in the houses, I have never seen anyone older given a "free" pass because they are scared, especially girls. The only way they are letting up is if your a kid or your wearing one of the "don't scare me" necklaces....but please if you wear this, don't go in the haunted house, just stay out and let the others enjoy it.

 

Thank you, yeah that's why I was asking before I purchased anything, just going to skip the skeleton key rooms and do the regular mazes instead.

[I Like Theme Parks.]

We went to the park just for 3 hours or so for the final time this season today. My younger brother came with us, and even though he's 14, he is still to scared of a lot of rides, but we actually managed to force him onto some big rides! I did everything I wanted to do that was open. On the website it seemed like Thunder Creek Mountain was supposed to be open until dark, but it's closed for the season and already drained out. Ride list:

 

Enterprise - One of the more thrilling rides my brother went on.

Dominator Red

Dominator Green

Whip - It ran great today. It has more laterals than other whips I noticed.

Monster

Possessed

Stinger

Revolution - My brother did this one, too. Wimpiest frisbee ever though.

Steel Force - Greggy's first hyper coaster!

Thunderhawk

Demon Drop

Apollo

Sea Dragon - Turns out it's one of the good ships.

Hydra

Talon x 5 - My brother agreed to ride this masterpiece and he loved it!

[coasterbill]

Sea Dragon - Turns out it's one of the good ships.

 

Chance ships are the only swinging ships worth riding. They come in a variety of themes but the most common are the Sea Dragon or Pharaoh's Fury themes. Some parks have them run crap programs, but for the most part they swing at a near vertical position in the end seats leading to great floater air. Dorney seems to run theirs properly so I almost always ride it while I'm there.

Edited October 4, 2016 by coasterbill

[njcoasterguy34]

I always ride it when I'm there.

 

(I think you meant to say "almost always".)

[coasterbill]

I always ride it when I'm there.

 

(I think you meant to say "almost always".)

 

Fixed, good catch.

 

The only thing is that I wish they would install a back seat rider line. They did that to the one in Rehoboth and I thought it was genius. You can always ask to wait but it's a clusterf**k.

[talon2017]

the new ward haunted house was changed to "urgent scare" due to annoying overly sensitive people complaining at other parks. Noone can literally do anything without someone getting their poor feelings hurt by it. we have a farm themed maze though maybe we should retheme that one because farmers might not like it, we also have a haunted hotel one, hotels wouldn't like that, it would be bad for business, voodoo would be an insult to those who practice the religion, lets complain about that. cemetery owners might not like the idea of zombies in a graveyard. lets cry about that. and we have to change chamber of horrors because wax museums were complaining that it gave them a bad look. oh and age of darkness was an insult to some people so were getting rid of that, cut throat island was historically inacurate so people complained and with all the clown stuff going on, the general public didn't want carnevil. people didn't find anything to be insultingin trick or treat so that is staying