Dorney Park and Wildwater Kingdom Discussion Thread

[coasterbill]

Thinking of going back for HAUNT, is it any good? It looks like it's included with a day ticket? (aka platinum pass holders get in free?)

 

Last year we did both Dorney and Great Adventures halloween events - once @ each park and overall I enjoyed Dorney's much more. In fact I want to do it again this year. Shorter lines for the coasters/rides, the parks lighting/fog game were much more on point, no waits for the coasters, better scare actors in the scare zones (we dont do trails), and did I mention the walking onto coasters thing? The park was decently busy too, but no waits whatsoever for the coasters/flats. I can't comment on the lines for or quality of the trails @ Dorney or Great Adv though, but I know that we got a gold flash pass when we did Fright Fest @ Great Adv.

 

My sentiments exactly...

[Brassinthegrass]

Quick Question:

 

I'm going to Dorney at opening on October 10 with some friends, one of which is TERRIFIED of haunt stuff. Can anyone confirm that there aren't any haunt related things (especially characters) walking around the park during the daytime? We'll prob be out of the park by 2-3pm.

[coasterbill]

We'll prob be out of the park by 2-3pm.

 

Oh yeah, you'll be fine. They don't really bring any haunt things / characters out until they close the kids areas.

[Brassinthegrass]

Great! Thanks Bill!

[boldikus]

Last year it seemed like the actors came out at sundown. We got there at 4:30/5 and stayed til midnight and there were no actors out for the first hour or two we were there.

[talon2017]

thats my favorite time of the night when the haunt characters start coming out because you start hear the creepy music and the best is when the fog starts rolling in. OMG that got me so excited for this haunt I CANT WAIT FOR WHEN I GO!!!!

[ImNotOneOfYou]

I remember last year an actor came up from behind me. Instead of doing his job, he casually walked with me from Steel Force to Thunderhawk. It was an enjoyable experience

[DorneyKid14]

Just got home from employee preview night for haunt. The new Trick or Treat is awesome! Corn stalkers/bloodshed is incredible. The time they put into building corn stalkers is awesome! Best one by far IMO. They also added apple dumplings with ice cream over by Center Stage. Hope to see some of you at the park

[Physical]

Just got home from employee preview night for haunt. The new Trick or Treat is awesome! Corn stalkers/bloodshed is incredible. The time they put into building corn stalkers is awesome! Best one by far IMO. They also added apple dumplings with ice cream over by Center Stage. Hope to see some of you at the park

 

ah I forgot about haunt sim night. Missed it! I got to see them build Cornstalkers all year though, it does look really well done.

[YoshiFan]

Trick or Treat appeared to be very popular tonight, it had about a 2/3 full queue. It seemed like everyone in the park was there for the Haunt attractions with all the coasters walk ons, even Wild Mouse. Steel Force opened about an hour after the park opened.

[talon2017]

how was haunt this weekend? im going next weekend!

[DorneyKid14]

how was haunt this weekend? im going next weekend![/quote

 

Friday night wasnt to busy but saturday was crazy. Haunt attractions i would imagine were way more busy than the games were at night (it slowed down a lot for games after 7)

[Physical]

how was haunt this weekend? im going next weekend![/quote

 

Friday night wasnt to busy but saturday was crazy. Haunt attractions i would imagine were way more busy than the games were at night (it slowed down a lot for games after 7)

 

Can confirm Saturday was absolutely /insane/

 

Thunder Creek Mountain was over an hour wait, Demon Drop was over 45 minutes. Utter insanity for Dorney.

 

If this is a trend for the rest of the season, do not go on Saturdays.

[rwk]

Saturdays are insane in the summer, too. I think it has something to do with people having off from work, thus more people have more time to go to the park on a Saturday. Which results in insane crowds. Now, Saturdays are the only full day the park is open, Friday's it's just 6-12, and Sun until 8 pm with no haunt. So, you have the daytime crowd with the families with children plus the nighttime crowd on Saturdays. I guess if you want shorter lines for the haunts or rides go on a Friday night rather than a Saturday night. Probably the main reason people are going to the park now are for the haunt attractions. And the new and changed attractions this year are drawing people to the park to check them out. I'm glad they got rid of Psycho Circus, Club Blood, Terror Square, Backwoods, etc. those kind of sucked. I didn't go this year yet, has anyone been through Trick or Treat? How is it compared to let's say, Mansion House Hotel? I know MHH is larger, longer, but ToT is supposed to be good. The picture of the façade that was posted on DP's twitter and the uncompleted shot on News Plus Notes looks great. There haven't been any inside shots other than the concept drawings that they posted on facebook. I hope to get there one of these weekends. I live only a few miles west. There is a Trick or Treat at Knott's, but the exit is in the rear right corner, Dorney's version looks completely different on the outside and the exit on Dorney's version looks to be in the front on the left. At least DP now has an additional indoor haunt at the far rear of the park, besides Asylum. I rode all the old scary rides at Dorney years ago from Bucket O' Blood to Gold Mine to Journey to the Center of the Earth, and even the 1992 Mystery Mansion haunted house that was by Thunder Creek Mountain area, it was a pay extra attraction.

[talon2017]

believe it or not but im actually happy to hear dorney was insanely crowed on saturday because they had a rough season attendance wise. maybe people are finally realizing that dorney's haunt is better than six flags. now we just have to get on par with six flags on rollercoasters

[boldikus]

Saturdays are insane in the summer, too. I think it has something to do with people having off from work, thus more people have more time to go to the park on a Saturday.

 

[YoshiFan]

how was haunt this weekend? im going next weekend![/quote

 

Friday night wasnt to busy but saturday was crazy. Haunt attractions i would imagine were way more busy than the games were at night (it slowed down a lot for games after 7)

 

Can confirm Saturday was absolutely /insane/

 

Thunder Creek Mountain was over an hour wait, Demon Drop was over 45 minutes. Utter insanity for Dorney.

 

If this is a trend for the rest of the season, do not go on Saturdays.

 

I'm glad I got there early on Saturday. I was there from 11:30 to 2:30 and walked onto everything but when I was leaving, it was starting to get more crowded and when I drove by the park again around 7, I saw the main lot was full and the lot on the other side of the toll booths was filling up as well. It was a nice surprise to see Thunder Creek Mountain open, I thought it was closed for the season.

[Physical]

how was haunt this weekend? im going next weekend![/quote

 

Friday night wasnt to busy but saturday was crazy. Haunt attractions i would imagine were way more busy than the games were at night (it slowed down a lot for games after 7)

 

Can confirm Saturday was absolutely /insane/

 

Thunder Creek Mountain was over an hour wait, Demon Drop was over 45 minutes. Utter insanity for Dorney.

 

If this is a trend for the rest of the season, do not go on Saturdays.

 

I'm glad I got there early on Saturday. I was there from 11:30 to 2:30 and walked onto everything but when I was leaving, it was starting to get more crowded and when I drove by the park again around 7, I saw the main lot was full and the lot on the other side of the toll booths was filling up as well. It was a nice surprise to see Thunder Creek Mountain open, I thought it was closed for the season.

 

TCM doesn't close until either the leafs start clogging the filter, or it gets too cold, whichever comes first.

 

Landing and Canyon are down for the season though. If you want to ride TCM do it as soon as possible, because it's the only water ride open it's been getting /packed/

[coasterbill]

Thunder Creek Mountain was over an hour wait, Demon Drop was over 45 minutes.

 

As they should be

 

Anyway I wonder what caused the crowds. We went to plenty of Haunt Saturdays last year and lines were never waited more than 15 minutes for anything (except Maybe Thunder Creek Mountain but that ride always has a line), maybe they had a bunch of groups in the park? That's incredibly strange but good for them.

[Physical]

except Maybe Thunder Creek Mountain but that ride always has a line

 

Ahh the woes of a high demand, low capacity ride, that is also reasonably long duration wise.

[coasterbill]

So can we safely assume based on the complete lack of rumors / teasing / land clearing that we're not getting crap next year? If so, no major loss but it's odd that we haven't heard anything yet.

[njcoasterguy34]

Well, there is a perfectly good plot of land that's already cleared near Talon. Maybe we'll see something there next season.

[Suspence1127]

So can we safely assume based on the complete lack of rumors / teasing / land clearing that we're not getting crap next year? If so, no major loss but it's odd that we haven't heard anything yet.

I read this news article about VR on a Cedar Fair rollercoaster (which we now know much more about) that says somewhere near the bottom of the article that Dorney will be announcing their 2016 addition some time in September (so assuming that they are telling the truth we dont have to wait much longer ) It also said that they declined to say if it would be a dark ride. Maybe a dark ride in that building that has the show near the entrance? (There also havent been any dark rides announced yet by Cedar Fair this year and they said they would really like one at every CF park).

 

Here is the article: (Scroll near the bottom to find the 2 sentence paragraph about it)

 

http://www.mcall.com/business/mc-dorney-park-parent-reports-earnings-20150804-story.html

[KBrylczyk]

^ A new hot dog stand. Here's the twist, though: The hot dogs are "virtually" real meat.

[Brassinthegrass]

Still an upgrade from what they have now...