Dorney Park and Wildwater Kingdom Discussion Thread

[GigaG]

For the Snake Pit drop box slides they don't allow shirts. For the Snake Pit tube slides, shirts can be worn.

 

I don't see why a guy shouldn't be able to wear a rash guard. It's the same as a girl wearing a typical one piece.

 

One pieces are usually quite a bit more snug than a t-shirt.

 

Ah I thought the issue was about the shirt getting caught in a gap between slide pieces, not the shirt coming up and over.

[ScreaminNewEngland]

I can't believe how underrated this park is. Honestly, it's on my top 3 favorite parks.

I went to sfgadv and dorney with two of my friends, one being @ScreamHD We had an awesome time!!

 

Crowds: Moderate (dry park)

Heavy (WWK)

 

Ride Count and Reviews:

Steel Force: 8x

Possessed: 5x

Hydra: The Revenge: 5x

Talon: Grip of FEAR: 5x

Wild Mouse: 1x

Thunderhawk: 1x

Demon Drop: 6x

Dominator: 1x

Apollo: 1x

Enterprise: 1x

Whip: 1x

Monster: 2x

White Water Landing: 2x

Thunder Creek Mountain: 1x

Screamin' Swing: 1x

Thunder Canyon: 1x

 

Wild Water Landing

Constrictor: 1x

Lightning Falls: 1x

Boa Blaster: 2x

Aqua Blast: 2x

Aqua Racers: 2x

 

Steel Force:

We started on day of on steel force. The ride is excellent. Extremely smooth, awesome airtime, forcefull turn around and very comfortable trains. The ride had amazing operations, as did the rest of the rides. I really find this ride under-appreciated. I think I will take this over Nitro, I found that as I rode it more, the more I liked it. 10/10

 

Hydra: The Revenge:

Another ride that I found better after every ride. A step up from Bizarro at SFGAdv and worlds away from Batman: The Dark Knight. The jojo roll is great but I found the over banked turn and first drop to be the best part. The jojo roll was awesome though. The only thing I could complain about was the run out before the corkscrew and after the cobra roll. I loved the ride nonetheless. Very smooth too. 8.5/10

 

Talon: Grip of Fear

I LOVED this ride. My personal favorite ride at the park. The ride was forceful, fast, thrilling and extremely smooth. This ride kicks all sorts of ass! I really don't know what else to say but Amazing.

10/10

 

Possessed:

Very good ride. I loved the launches and the brake at the top. Exhilarating and fun, I wish we had more of them! The one thing I do have to say is that it was too short. The ride only goes up 3 times, 2 or 3 more times up would satisfy more. 8.5/10

 

Wild Mouse: Typical wild mouse. Wasn't anything to write home about but fun nonetheless. 6/10

 

Thunderhawk:

It was okay. Very rough but I admire it's history and it's great layout. For a 90+ year old coaster, I respect it. The ride could really use a good revamp though. 6.5/10

 

Monster:

One of my favorite flat rides. I couldn't stop spinning! I really loved the classic style of the park, this was a great example. 10/10

 

Whip:

Speaking of classics, this ride was much better than I expected. Really fun and exciting. I'm sure a lot of enthusiasts don't even realize how historic the park is. 10/10

 

Apollo:

Awesome flat ride. Didn't realize how thrilling it would be, I also love how unique it is to the park. It's a centerpiece to the hillside area of the park! 9.5/10

 

Enterprise:

The only disappointment of the day. Very short program and it doesn't even go upside down. 7/10

 

Meteor: Better than time warp, great ride and it was very comfortable. 9/10

 

Demon Drop: Another favorite of mine!!! The drop is amazing! My favorite drop tower so far, plus it is the last one around! 10/10

 

Dominator: Same old s&s tower. Launch was pretty weak but the view was spectacular. 7/10

 

Crowds: Busier than I expected, the water park was insane, way too many people. We had the fast lane plus so we skipped the water slide lines.

Talon, Hydra, Steel Force and Hydra were the bigggest lines of the day between 30-45 minutes. Hang Time, Apollo, Meteor, Wave Swinger and Revolution seemed to be their most popular flats. All three water rides in the dry park had lines between 15-50 minutes long. (another great benefit to fast lane)

 

Operations: This park HATES lines lol. They have the best operations that I have ever seen. Their was a 20 minute line for steel force and they ended up putting the third train on! Talon has the absolute best operations, they dispatch crazy quick, once the train hits the brakes, the other train dispatches.

The park is also much nicer than six flags. They use big cubies for every ride! Every ride and area locks top notch and NOTHING brakes down. Were as Nitro, EL Toro, batman, green lantern, log flume and sky screamer broke down the day before.

The park is beautiful. It is located in a hilly area with valleys and trees. The park is also as clean as could be. I truly loved the feel of Dorney.

The rules are not shoved down your ears like six flags. They really don't care about video tapping rides. The only thing they enforce is taking pictures of the on ride photos, lol.

 

Wild Water Kingdom:

I loved the slides! Very fun but very busy. The lines were insane for the regular queues.

Aqua Racer was awesome but I'll take LC's and Funtown's over it. 7/10

Aquablast was the best rapids slide I've been on. The slide is extremely long. 10/10

Snakepit is an amazing slide tower. 10/10

The two tube slides had amazing drops and the drop box was fun. The constrictor slide was a total gimmick though. I couldn't tell weather I was in the small or big part of the slide. But it was an insanely long slide! 9/10

 

The gift shop was actually really cheap. I got two posters for two dollars each! T-shirts were 13 dollars and my magnet was 3 dollars. Not bad!

 

Food was a step up from six flags. Went to that 60's diner in the front of the park.

 

The park was so picturesque, especially when the lights turned on!

My photos are on the way! I will be back soon! The park is amazing, if you have not been, make a trip. The park is not appreciated enough and actually bigger than I expected.

[Jcoaster]

Steel Force better then Nitro? Interesting, this is the first time I have ever heard anyone prefer Steel Force to Nitro. I know it's a personal preference, but I would love to hear why.

[ScreaminNewEngland]

I found both to be top notch coasters. The both had awesome floater and ejector air time, along with a great, forceful helix! I'm still not sure which one I like better, they're just so awesome! Plus their trains are extremely comfortable.

[Jcoaster]

Steel Forceless is just always disappoints me, I found it very bland during the first half of the ride with minimal airtime. The only airtime I had was on the back end after the MCBR. The helix I didn't find that powerful, although it was fun due purely to the speed the train hits the helix at. Of the hyper coasters I've been on (Nitro, Apollo's Chariot, Superman:Ride of Steel and Steel Force) I found Steel Force the weakest, I honestly prefer any other coaster in the park to it.

[coasterbill]

I agree that Steel Force is unbelievably dull, though I do think it's considerably better in the front seat. I kind of feel like with the exception of Talon every coaster at Dorney is a bit lacking. In my opinion the only stand out things at Dorney are Talon, Thunder Creek Mountain, Demon Drop and Chickie and Pete's.

[A.J.]

I really like Hydra. The jojo roll is wicked fun, the entire coaster just glides through the layout and there's a fun airtime hill too!

[ScreaminNewEngland]

Steel Force was not forceless. Awesome airtime and great force on the turn around, I loved it!

 

Stinger was fully intact. Don't believe those rumors. The train was being worked on in the station and the fun tv's were on for some reason in the queues. I herd it is going to be up soon bu the possessed crew.

[bert425]

I agree that Steel Force is unbelievably dull, though I do think it's considerably better in the front seat. I kind of feel like with the exception of Talon every coaster at Dorney is a bit lacking. In my opinion the only stand out things at Dorney are Talon, Thunder Creek Mountain, Demon Drop and Chickie and Pete's.

 

Agreed 100% on Steel Force.

 

we rode in the middle car, and I thought it was a bit dull.

 

then rode again in the front seat on the right side -- not only a TON of airtime, but plenty of G-force in the Helix.

 

good coaster.

[Genx24]

The first time I rode Steel Force was towards the back of the train, and it was quite awful. The second time I rode was second row, and I caught a nice little bit of airtime on the return bunny hills. But overall, for me, Steel Force gets a resounding "meh".

[rcjp]

I really like Hydra. The jojo roll is wicked fun, the entire coaster just glides through the layout and there's a fun airtime hill too!

I agree. Most people don't really seem to like it much, and I've even heard some complaints about roughness so I was pleasantly surprised when I rode it. I'm not a big fan of hangtime but I did enjoy the jojo roll and the rest is quite fun too: a zero g that really does provide zero g (unlike a few I've ridden), a few moments of air and I like the way (especially in the front) that you hit the second corkscrew quite hard after a sort of pause.

[saweetdude05]

Headed to Dorney for my first time in a few weeks. I'll be going on either a Tuesday or Wednesday. From the sounds of things, it doesn't seem like I should have a problem riding all the coasters, however it sounds like the water park gets pretty busy. If we decide to hit up the water park, any tips on which slides to go to first and which ones to skip if necessary?

[Canobie Coaster]

The first time I rode Steel Force was towards the back of the train, and it was quite awful. The second time I rode was second row, and I caught a nice little bit of airtime on the return bunny hills. But overall, for me, Steel Force gets a resounding "meh".

 

I haven't been on Steel Force in almost 10 years. The last time I rode it, it was my first hypercoaster so I didn't really have much to compare it to. I found it to have tons of airtime while being glass smooth. I plan on hitting up Dorney again sometime in the next year or two and I'm interested to see how it compares to the Intamin and B&M mega coasters I've been on.

[YoshiFan]

Headed to Dorney for my first time in a few weeks. I'll be going on either a Tuesday or Wednesday. From the sounds of things, it doesn't seem like I should have a problem riding all the coasters, however it sounds like the water park gets pretty busy. If we decide to hit up the water park, any tips on which slides to go to first and which ones to skip if necessary?

 

Aqua Blast and the Snake Pit Python Plummet slides get the longest wait. If I were going to skip any slides, I would skip the speed slides as they are only a few seconds and can be painful. I would also possibly skip Jumpin Jack Splash. Since they now have runouts instead of going into a pool they aren't as fun and since the height requirement has been lowered, it got more popular with longer lines because it's the only full size slides that have a 42" height requirement except Aqua Racer. Also, the Python Plummet Boa Blasters are almost identical to the red and white slides at Patriot's Plunge so it probably isn't necessary to try all 4 of them (although Constrictor at Snake Pit next to the Boa Blasters is different). Also on the ride side, Thunder Canyon can get somewhat of a wait since it's next to the water park and White Water Landing is rarely more than 5 - 10 minutes, also near the water park.

[Genx24]

The first time I rode Steel Force was towards the back of the train, and it was quite awful. The second time I rode was second row, and I caught a nice little bit of airtime on the return bunny hills. But overall, for me, Steel Force gets a resounding "meh".

 

I haven't been on Steel Force in almost 10 years. The last time I rode it, it was my first hypercoaster so I didn't really have much to compare it to. I found it to have tons of airtime while being glass smooth. I plan on hitting up Dorney again sometime in the next year or two and I'm interested to see how it compares to the Intamin and B&M mega coasters I've been on.

 

It definitely doesn't compare. The drop is like coasting down a hill on a bicycle. There's absolutely no " force" on Steel Force. But it does still run pretty smoothly for being almost 20 years old. Next time you get to Dorney, definitely prioritize Talon, Possessed, and Hydra over Steel Force.

[rcjp]

^While the drop wasn't a big deal, I thought that it had a pretty decent amount of airtime (more than I expected), especially on those last hills.

[Genx24]

^While the drop wasn't a big deal, I thought that it had a pretty decent amount of airtime (more than I expected), especially on those last hills.

I agree, those return hills pack a little punch, but they don't make up for the first half of the ride being decidely average.

[ScreaminNewEngland]

There in-fact is force on the turn around, it was awesome.

 

I also realized that the go karts are not operating this year...strange.

[Jcoaster]

What I would like to see at Dorney is a new coaster that isn't a relocated one. I mean its been what.....NINE years since Hydra? Get ride of that "Dinosaurs Alive" mumbo jumbo and give us a nice GCI Woodie back there

[neil009]

The first time I rode Steel Force was towards the back of the train, and it was quite awful. The second time I rode was second row, and I caught a nice little bit of airtime on the return bunny hills. But overall, for me, Steel Force gets a resounding "meh".

 

I haven't been on Steel Force in almost 10 years. The last time I rode it, it was my first hypercoaster so I didn't really have much to compare it to. I found it to have tons of airtime while being glass smooth. I plan on hitting up Dorney again sometime in the next year or two and I'm interested to see how it compares to the Intamin and B&M mega coasters I've been on.

 

It definitely doesn't compare. The drop is like coasting down a hill on a bicycle. There's absolutely no " force" on Steel Force. But it does still run pretty smoothly for being almost 20 years old. Next time you get to Dorney, definitely prioritize Talon, Possessed, and Hydra over Steel Force.

 

Hydra over Steel Force, seriously? You are very sadly misguided.

[Jcoaster]

The first time I rode Steel Force was towards the back of the train, and it was quite awful. The second time I rode was second row, and I caught a nice little bit of airtime on the return bunny hills. But overall, for me, Steel Force gets a resounding "meh".

 

I haven't been on Steel Force in almost 10 years. The last time I rode it, it was my first hypercoaster so I didn't really have much to compare it to. I found it to have tons of airtime while being glass smooth. I plan on hitting up Dorney again sometime in the next year or two and I'm interested to see how it compares to the Intamin and B&M mega coasters I've been on.

 

It definitely doesn't compare. The drop is like coasting down a hill on a bicycle. There's absolutely no " force" on Steel Force. But it does still run pretty smoothly for being almost 20 years old. Next time you get to Dorney, definitely prioritize Talon, Possessed, and Hydra over Steel Force.

 

Hydra over Steel Force, seriously? You are very sadly misguided.

 

Hydra over Steel Force any day of the 7 my friend. I could fall asleep on Steel Force. Hydra's first drop is great for a floor less an I found it more enthralling then any part of Steel Force.

[Genx24]

The first time I rode Steel Force was towards the back of the train, and it was quite awful. The second time I rode was second row, and I caught a nice little bit of airtime on the return bunny hills. But overall, for me, Steel Force gets a resounding "meh".

 

I haven't been on Steel Force in almost 10 years. The last time I rode it, it was my first hypercoaster so I didn't really have much to compare it to. I found it to have tons of airtime while being glass smooth. I plan on hitting up Dorney again sometime in the next year or two and I'm interested to see how it compares to the Intamin and B&M mega coasters I've been on.

 

It definitely doesn't compare. The drop is like coasting down a hill on a bicycle. There's absolutely no " force" on Steel Force. But it does still run pretty smoothly for being almost 20 years old. Next time you get to Dorney, definitely prioritize Talon, Possessed, and Hydra over Steel Force.

 

Hydra over Steel Force, seriously? You are very sadly misguided.

I'd ride Thunderhawk before Steel Force.

[neil009]

I don't understand how a glass smooth hyper with solid air during the return run loses to a sluggish rattly floorless.

[Jcoaster]

I don't understand how a glass smooth hyper with solid air during the return run loses to a sluggish rattly floorless.

 

At least Hydra is unique. Steel Force is about as dull as they come, especially when it comes to hyper coasters. Lets face it, Steel Force is outdated when it comes to other hyper coasters. It was great when it opened in 1997 but it did not age graciously in the terms of intensity/fun.

[neil009]

I also don't understand how other, better hypers being built after it somehow makes it a worse ride than it was when it opened.