Dorney Park and Wildwater Kingdom Discussion Thread

[DorneyKid14]

Haven't seen this talked about at all.

[thesman]

Went to the park yesterday and it was completely empty at some points I Was the only one on the train which was kind of awkward but still a cool experience. I actually really liked the park and the water park. In my opinion this place is definitely under rated.

Parking lot looked this empty all day

And I was also proud of this picture

[Physical]

There's rumors swirling around Dorney about them removing the buzz bars on thunderhawk and installing lap bars like they have on The Beast, and the KD woodies. I sure hope that's not the "improvements" they have planned for Dorney.

 

The excuse being "We can't find parts for the PTC Buzz Bars anymore"

 

Honestly I feel that style of lap bar is utter crap and will completely ruin the last redeeming quality of Thunderhawk. The airtime in the first half of the ride. I find those lap bars to be extremely painful as well, beats on your legs the entire ride. I can't imagine Thunderhawk would be fun with those lap bars, espessially in the final turnaround right before the trimmed air time hills. That turn is brutal as is, add in a hard metal bar (even if it's coated in foam) and you have a recipe for some bruises.

[Philrad71]

^If anything, I wish that more classic coasters would bring back the buzz bars.

 

If Knoebels can maintain theirs on Phoenix, why can't CF?

[boldikus]

There's rumors swirling around Dorney about them removing the buzz bars on thunderhawk and installing lap bars like they have on The Beast, and the KD woodies. I sure hope that's not the "improvements" they have planned for Dorney.

 

That's a big bummer.

[Genx24]

So no rumours about what could be coming to Dorney for next year? Just about lap bars? I wonder if CF will attempt to try to have Dorney compete with GAdv and Hershey again in the near future. Because they certainly aren't now. And that's a shame, because Dorney is such a nice place and deserves a new headliner.

[TyRush]

^Although I agree they need some kind of new headline attraction, they just will not ever compete with Hershey or GAdv in terms of the dry side of the park. But, they can certainly improve as they haven't gotten their own new coaster in a decade.

[Genx24]

^It just surprises me that they don't at least try anymore. In the early 2000s it certainly seemed like they were, with additions like Talon and Hydra, but they stopped adding custom rides after that. While that's probably due to CF acquiring Paramount, you'd think they'd still want to give their park in one of the largest markets in the country something besides relocations. Both GAdv and Hershey are in the top 20 for US park attendance; a few new additions to Dorney and they possibly could join that list as well. But admittedly this is extremely wishful thinking.

[njcoasterguy34]

I don't want the attendance to grow too much. I enjoy the short lines.

[boldikus]

^

 

It really is one of the best things about the park, not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing.

[Genx24]

Short lines are nice, but the park is stale. I'd rather wait a half hour for something new than have a station wait for the same bland rides over and over again.

Edited August 13, 2015 by Genx24

[boldikus]

Maybe its because I don't go to the park often but I wouldn't call Talon, Possessed, Demon Drop, Dominator or Steel Force stale. I love not having to wait long for them after dealing with Great Adv crowds most of the time. I love Morey's for this too.

[Brassinthegrass]

I do t think stale is the right word for Dorney... I feel like "generic" is a better term. Everytime I go, I love the coasters, and the quiet crowds, it the lack of the wing, and bland buildings leave something to want...

[Genx24]

Stale, bland, generic, etc. are all good adjectives to describe Dorney, imo. I have a lot of fun when I visit too because yes, no waits is awesome. But the park still seems stuck a decade behind other parks in the region. All I'm saying is it needs a new custom headliner to give the place a shot in the arm.

Edited August 13, 2015 by Genx24

[LiftThrill]

Relocate Millennium Force to Dorney. Bam. Problem solved.

[EastCoastKid]

Short lines are nice, but the park is stale. I'd rather wait a half hour for something new than have a station wait for the same bland rides over and over again.

 

I absolutely agree that the park has become lackluster and "stale." I drive down to the Lehigh Valley once in a while for work and I drive right by the park. For me, I look at the park's skyline and I just truly have no desire to step foot inside the park any time soon with the current attraction lineup. That, along with the unimaginative and bland environment that Brassinthegrass has mentioned, Dorney just doesn't have what Hershey and SFGAdv have... which is just a shame.

[rwk]

Dorney Park was that dead yesterday? If you go to the Kaman's Art site and select Dorney Park and look up the photos taken of guests and some ride/park views like shots of Talon, etc. select a date and you will see all the photos taken that day. After a couple months the older dates no longer work. You can generally only look up photos for the current season. Yesterday there were 371 photos taken. Last Saturday there were 5040 photos taken and last Sunday 3489. The numbers are higher on the weekends which indicates that the park is busier on weekends. Rainy weekdays the numbers are much lower. The reason why Dorney is behind other parks is because of lack of room to expand. Hershey must have been able to acquire land to expand the park, Dorney is surrounded by residential neighborhoods, a nature reserve or whatever it is, and Rt. 222 to the south. They just a have a few pieces of land unbuilt on. They could build something in the grassy areas between Steel Force area and Dorney Park Rd. Dorney also gets a rough and rude crowd especially on busy weekends because a majority of them are inner city people of color. I see why the park needs a security force and now an officer from South Whitehall Township on the property. I heard they had over 30 arrests this year it said in a news article. The park is serious, you do something stupid you get your a** thrown out with the possibility of being trespassed from the park for the rest of the season. If you're a pass holder, your pass gets revoked. There was a TV show with chief Dan Hall on it and he threw a guy out for spending too much time on the swan boats which are no longer there. He took the guy into the lower security office and said you are banned for two years or something and then took the guy to the gate near the Whip, the guy was turning around with his middle finger in the air as he walked away. Here is the show

 

Also, there's a hint about witches for this year's Haunt on the Dorney Park Haunt instagram page, and Screamscape mentioned it, too. I think it's the new indoor haunt they're building by Steel Force and the old parking lot on the hill. Last year Cedar Point built a new indoor haunt near the main entrance called Hexed, a haunted house themed to witches. We'll find out the new haunt additions on Sat. Aug 22.

[coasterbill]

My opinion of Dorney is that it's a good park that has the misfortune of being very close to a bunch of parks that have much more to offer. There's nothing wrong with Dorney, it's very clean and well maintained and the rides are fun but when you put the coaster lineup against Hershey or Great Adventure it doesn't come close. When you put the flat ride lineup against Hershey or Knoebels it doesn't come close... and now Hershey has a waterpark included with admission and they're also competing with a few free-standing waterparks like Camel Beach, Hurricane Harbor and Action Park.

 

I haven't seen the numbers but I would think Dorney's revenue is mostly from the waterpark. Their waterpark is quite good, and the fact that it's included with theme park admission is a big plus for them. Sure Hershey has this too, but if people are looking to go to a waterpark in the Allentown area they're not going to travel to Hershey when they could just head right over to Dorney. I would think for the dry park people would be willing to go a little further.

 

Dorney probably does better numbers than we think, sure the coasters never have lines but walking around the midways the park's never dead. The flats seem to have lines... the park really seems to appeal to families pretty nicely and even though Hershey does the same thing now the fact that you get 2 parks for the price of one seems to be their draw and their advantage over Great Adventure and Knoebels (which outside of the enthusiast community isn't as well known).

 

From an enthusiast perspective of course Dorney is looked at as pretty generic. Very few rides stand out... the flat ride selection would be more appealing if Knoebels wasn't crushing them in that department, the only rides I would consider overly unique are Demon Drop (which somehow is the parks biggest draw to enthusiasts), Thunder Creek Mountain as a terrain flume is pretty cool and Hydra I guess. Hydra's layout is actually totally unique and nothing like any other B&M... the problem is it's still a pretty middle-of-the-road coaster. Luckily enthusiasts make up a tiny percentage of the market so the fact that it doesn't have as much appeal to enthusiasts doesn't matter.

[rwk]

Knoebel's being in the middle of nowhere seems to get a not so rough crowd like DP. DP draws all the inner city people from NY, NJ, and Philly. It's one of the busiest and most attended parks in the Cedar Fair chain due to it's location being so close to NY, NJ and Philly. It's also smaller than other parks so cramming thousands of people into the park makes the park seem crammed. Especially the waterpark. I grew up with the park, I was born Jan 1974 and started going to the park in 1976 when it was a small family run park with a zoo.

[TunaSled]

^Yes you've made it very clear that the park is not white enough for you.

[Jcoaster]

^Yes you've made it very clear that the park is not white enough for you.

 

[rwk]

Hey, I was just saying how crowded the park gets not how black it is. I said inner city people not black people in the last post. It is true that a majority of summer guests look like they stepped right out of the ghetto, but that's because we're so close to those urban areas that people are close enough to drive to the park and back in one day. And rough refers to the behavior of the guests, not their color. Some people can be downright rude.

[neil009]

Dorney also gets a rough and rude crowd especially on busy weekends because a majority of them are inner city people of color.

And rough refers to the behavior of the guests, not their color.

 

Hey man, you said it, not us. It's not just you, of course. Inner city parks like Kentucky Kingdom often get criticized for the quality of the clientele that's implicitly a mixture of racism (these people are too black/latino), and classicism (these people are too poor). So I applaud you for at least having the balls to say how you really feel. Funny thing is I never expected to see this directed at Dorney, which sits in dopey podunk Allentown PA and gets a clientele about as diverse as, I don't know, every other park on the east coast?

 

I guess it's because amusement parks are one of the last places where privileged suburbanites are forced to intermingle with the "rough inner city crowd", but the biggest irony is the worst crowds I've ever seen are those days in the spring when school is still in session and the park is filled with obnoxious unsupervised teens and tweens on field trips who, surprise surprise, mostly come from rich suburban school districts where all the parents who complain about the inner city live.

[YoshiFan]

I hope Thunderhawk keeps the buzzbars. PTC's headquarters are 40 minutes from the park so the can't get parts excuse doesn't make sense.

 

As for competing with Hershey and Great Advneture I don't think anything Dorney adds will have an impact. I don't like Stinger but it was still another coaster for the park. If Great Adventure or Hershey had added it, there would have been lines for it especially when it first opened. I went to Dorney on Sunday of opening weekend and for Stinger's 2nd day of operation and it was 10 minutes. It was the same with Hydra's opening day. The line got up to 20 minutes at the most. As much as I'd like a major new coaster at Dorney, I'm ok with what they have now and when I want to ride coasters I go to Great Adventure. When I want to spend a lot of time in a water park with some coaster rides thrown in, I go to Dorney.

[coasterbill]

Every time there's a new post in this thread I'm afraid to click on it. I always worry someone might have found a 2016 teaser that says something like "Standing Room Only 2016" or "Something SHOCKing is coming to Dorney" or "WAVE goodbye to your man-parts #dp2016". You know... something corny and annoying like that.