Dorney Park and Wildwater Kingdom Discussion Thread

[neil009]

Clearly Dorney doesn't consider roller coasters important to their business model, that's why you never see pictures of roller coasters in any of their advertising.

[coasterkid124]

i saw elsewhere on here that there are strong rumors of a 2017 coaster for us, i feel out of the loop what are the rumors stating?

 

[DorneyKid14]

I've seen coasters in their advertising before....

[VF15]

i saw elsewhere on here that there are strong rumors of a 2017 coaster for us, i feel out of the loop what are the rumors stating?

 

[coasterbill]

And clearly coasterbill has never been to the park when it is busy....

Wait, Dorney gets busy?

 

Dorney gets very busy.

 

 

[neil009]

I've seen coasters in their advertising before....

 

No idea what you're talking about, they never put coasters in their advertisements because they know no one goes to Dorney for the coasters. Everyone goes for the food and the kiddie rides. Any coaster would just be a wasted investment, instead they should just keep installing cheap hand-me-downs, because that's what all the other super successful amusement parks do. I mean just look at how great they're doing now, they're totally dominating all of their regional competitors, clearly whatever they're doing is working.

 

I'm being sarcastic.

[coasterbill]

Keep joking but there's a reason it's been over 10 years since we got a custom coaster. Yes, people come to Dorney to ride coasters but not as many people as other parks... the coasters never have lines. They probably put through more riders than the other rides in the park because of their capacity and yes that does mean some people are riding them but again... Not as much as they are at other parks as evidenced by the fact that they never have lines exceeding a few minutes.

 

It seems obvious to anyone who's paying attention and isn't blinded by how much they personally want Dorney to build a GCI (despite the fact that Cedar Fair is awful at maintaining wood coasters and it would probably suck within 10 years) that if Cedar Fair thought they would get a good return on investment by building a custom coaster at Dorney they would have done it already.

[DorneyKid14]

The thing is Dorney does in fact get lines. When steel force is running all three trains filled to the max, there is a line. When talon and hydra go through almost half of its queue lines, its busy. When parking gets baxk behimd stinger and by steel force amd dino alive, its busy. Yes we don't get big as lines all the time like some other bigger parks do. Dorney had record attendance this year, and that was with adding flyers. Yes it would be nice to get a custom coaster in the park. Do I see it happening in the near future, I sure hope so.

[coasterbill]

When steel force is running all three trains filled to the max, there is a line. When talon and hydra go through almost half of its queue lines, its busy. When parking gets baxk behimd stinger and by steel force amd dino alive, its busy. Yes we don't get big as lines all the time like some other bigger parks do.

 

You're right, if any of those things ever happened it would be busy. I guess I'm just going on the wrong days and have been for the last 15 years or so. Usually we go on summer Saturdays, Holiday weekends and Saturdays during Haunt and we deliberately go to Dorney over other parks on those days because we know the coasters will be pretty much walk ons while at Great Adventure on those same Haunt Saturdays we'd be waiting between 2 and 3 hours to ride Nitro (because on late Haunt Saturday's Flash Pass backs up all the way down the stairs and Exit Passes fill multiple rows on every train).

[michaellynn4]

I've been to Dorney Park several times over the last couple of years, and the only time I've ever waited in anything I would call a line (wait time > 5 minutes) was one Friday night during Haunt 2013. Even then, they were very manageable, the longest being 25 minutes for Steel Force. Even rides that did have a line when I first got there (Talon, 15 minutes) were walk-ons after a couple hours into the event.

[boldikus]

There are certain moments where this gif is just the perfect response.

[DorneyKid14]

Yup you all know way more than me. I forgot you all know everything about Dorney and the attendance the park gets. Sorry. My mistake.

[boldikus]

Relax, it has nothing to do with knowing more about the park than someone else. Its about the parks reputation. You can pull up any number of trip reports about Dorney on here or other any coaster forums, and 9 out of 10 of them are going to say the coasters were walkons.

 

Personally, I have only been to Dorney a handful of times but its always been on weekends, and two of those were on Saturdays during Haunt. Its never been crowded, the coasters were either walkons or a 5-20 minute wait. Compare that to 30-90 minute waits I'm used to seeing at Great Adventure, where I'm at much more frequently, and Dorney then gets lumped in the "never crowded" group of parks. For me, so does Moreys. It is what it is. No need to take it personally.

 

Also, I love JLaw and that gif.

[DorneyKid14]

It just pisses me off because everyone expects parks to draw in mass crowds like Great Adventure or CP does. Dorney doesn't get 3 hr lines for coasters like some parks. When I spend 5 an a half hours out in the parking lot on a Saturday to help park cars, usually the park is busy. The other thing is, Saturdays when its "not busy" is because everyone is in the waterpark. And trust me, by 6 7 oclock , the par is packed and there are lines for coasters. Steele.force had like a hour or more wait the one day this year. And as I've never been to GA haunt, I've heard that theirs is not so good. Dorney can get crowds for haunt, because we had them this year, but go to asylum and you'll wait 1.5 hours for it. Go up to talon and it will be a walk on. Dorney is better known for their haunt, that's why coasters well be a walk on and haunt attractions will have all the lines. There were a hand full of times when they parked cars back by Steel Force, which only happens when the main lot and over flows fill up. There was a few times when there was three plan traffic coming into the park. Do we draw in 40,000-50,000 thousand people like GA or CP may do. Hell no. But we do draw in 20,000-30,000 thousand, which for Dorney, is CP or GA highest attendance.

[coasterbill]

I never said the park didn't get crowded, I said the coasters never did. There's a difference. I agree that Dorney does a better Haunt than Great Adventure but nobody was talking about that.

 

Also why do Dorney fanboys have such a chip on their shoulder? I like Dorney but I'm sorry... Fury 326 isn't coming to your park. If it did it would be sending half empty trains all day.

[DorneyKid14]

Fury 326? If only.Dorney could actually build over 200

[boldikus]

Dorney is better known for their haunt, that's why coasters well be a walk on and haunt attractions will have all the lines.

 

I think you hit the nail on the head right here. Haunt is what - 6 weekends out of the year? The coasters are open all season. If the coasters are always empty then those of us in the enthusiast world will always associate Dorney with being never crowded. I have GP friends who share that opinion when discussing Dorney. Its about reputation. It is what it is.

 

What I don't understand is why it pisses you off that people would/wouldn't expect the park to draw crowds like GA or CP. I could see if you owned the park but what difference does it make if Dorney is known as a park that doesn't get seriously heavy crowds? As long as they are getting the crowds to keep them in business it makes no difference what their reputation is. I like Dorney probably more than most around here as a park in its own right. Talon and Possessed are big favorites of mine, and I like the park itself, even though the majority opinion seems to be that its "generic" and that its "lost its charm". The fact that it never seems to be crowded (from my own experiences and especially what basically anyone else ever tells me about their experiences there) is a really nice bonus.

 

And speaking of Haunt, while that may be their busiest days of the year - I doubt you'll ever see Dorney as crowded as

[neil009]

Keep joking but there's a reason it's been over 10 years since we got a custom coaster.

 

CGA waited 12 years for Gold Striker, Kennywood went ten years between coasters, Lake Compounce went fifteen years between coasters, SFGAdv has gone ten years between new custom coasters, Playland's Castaway Cove is getting a new steel coaster out of nowhere. Quit acting like you know what's going to happen when you don't.

 

Also why do Dorney fanboys have such a chip on their shoulder? I'm only saying nobody who goes to their home park likes roller coasters and that a new coaster there would be a waste of money. Why should that upset anybody? Also, why do I keep getting wet every time I go out walking in the rain? It just keeps happening and I don't understand why.

Edited December 4, 2015 by neil009

[coasterbill]

Dorney's weird for me because it's a perfectly nice park but it's just surrounded by infinitely better parks and it's really unfortunate. Great Adventure is absolutely punishing them in the thrill ride department, Hershey is much better in every way (coasters, family rides and atmosphere) and Knoebels is obviously the greatest place on planet earth and it's surrounded by sunshine and rainbows 24/7 365.

 

Dorney's biggest selling point is being well rounded. It has a little bit of everything, it's very well maintained (Cedar Fair excels at making their parks look pristine), the rides are fun and it's a great option on days where the other parks will have huge lines. They don't need to invest in big coasters though, the water park is the big draw and they invest in that all the time. Haunt is a big draw and they built new Haunt buildings just this year... they know what they're doing and occasional relocated coasters are fine for them. The fact that attendance is growing despite the fact that they never get new coasters proves my point. Their market is kids and families, many of which come for the waterpark. The problem is the hardcore Dorney fans want it to be a major coaster destination and that's never going to happen (and that's totally okay, they're doing very well for themselves).

 

You people get so defensive, lol.

[Physical]

Dorney does get packed /sometimes/ It's just not consistent. Seems most of our attendance comes when a bunch of buses come down from New York or up from Philly. Once the water park closes, everybody floods over to the dry side. I've seen a 2.5 hour wait for Steel Force with all the switchbacks filled and the queue spilling out to the entrance of Dino's Alive. It's rare, but it /does/ happen. Just my 2 cents.

[boldikus]

Sad face for anyone that would wait 2.5 hours for Steel Force.

[dorneyfan93]

There were big wigs at Dorney all summer, big things are coming soon

[Suspence1127]

It's so funny because last time I was there I had to wait 20 minutes for stinger, 15 minutes for thunderhawk, 15 for possesed, 30 for Hydra, and only 5 for Talon (but front row would've been another 10 minutes). I couldn't even get on steel force because it had a 45 minute wait. This was also in the middle of the summer while the water park was open. So they do get busy sometimes.

[ejot]

Agreed that the coaster waits at Dorney are generally very minimal. But we did hit a busy Saturday last year. After waiting 40min for Hydra and just getting to the station, it went down, and we gave up waiting 20min later. Then we waited 15min in the Talon queue, got halfway to the station... and it went down.

 

Long lines at Dorney and broken B&M's... I'm pretty sure we'd torn a huge hole in the space-time thingy and entered some sort of parallel universe.

[boldikus]

Long lines at Dorney and broken B&M's... I'm pretty sure we'd torn a huge hole in the space-time thingy and entered some sort of parallel universe.