Dorney Park and Wildwater Kingdom Discussion Thread

^ I wouldn't be surprised to see Dorney Park announce that they will be getting Winterfest sometime in the next year or so

^ I wouldn't be surprised to see Dorney Park announce that they will be getting Winterfest sometime in the next year or so

It wouldn't work. The weather in the northeast is very unpredictable and Tyson does not allow their chicken tender stands to operate below 40 degrees Fahrenheit. I doubt the event would be a success without their new marquee attraction.

Wimterfest at Dorney could be a lot of fun. Doesn't seem like CF is too keen on running their B&Ms in the cold, though, so there's a pretty good chance they block off everything past Hydra and Planet Snoopy and the only open coaster is the wild mouse.

It's an easy park to section off. To cut off the top half of the park you only need to cut 2 narrow paths, one near the new(ish) BBQ place and one by the games to the left of Apollo.

Then you have the kids area, an indoor show venue, a train ride that you can line with standup light displays and the whole top part of the park including Talon, Hydra and the Wild Mouse, 2 of which would probably be closed because Cedar Fair's holiday events are lame.

They might try something and I have no doubt the lights will be very nice but if they keep up this Cedar Fair trend of offering horrendous ride lineups for Winterfest (both in terms of intermediate flat rides for kids, family rides and coasters) when they're an hour from Hersheypark and 90 minutes from Great Adventure, good luck with that.

Agreed, those weak ride lineups might work at a park like Kings Island where that is the only park in the area open but not in this part of the country where there are so many parks open. Having no indoor rides probably doesn't help either.

I know some things about it, but not sure if it's all 100% correct.

Mike Fehnel lives in my development. My kids play with his. Winterfest is coming and could be as early as 2018.

Would be in for a Winterfest at Dorney. That could be good, their halloween event is great.

From my understanding, dorney *might* be announcing winferfest before the start of next seasson. The soon to be CEO said that one of two parks announced it, the one being KD.

If you think about it, dorney has added two new family rides, two coke refill stations, and new pavilions all at the top of the park. From my understanding, and from talking to others at the park, the main midway and planet snoopy would be open for winterfest. Like what coasterbill said a a few post ago, the park could easily close off the lower s3ction of the park, but he said down by the other section of games. All they have to do is close it off by airbrush/hydra gifts, and both sides of Auntie Anne's. You would have all snoopy rides open, the carousel, wave swinger, dodgem, the trokia, wild mouse and the train open. The train could have amazing theming if dorney could get the capital for it. Hydra and talon *could* be open. You could push to have Apollo, sea dragon and musik express and enterprise open. Hence why all the new additions were at the top of the park. (The two new flats werent even suppose to happen originally.) Plus, all the buildings up that way; chickies, good time gifts, snoopy boutique, coasters, arcade, and cinnabun all have heating. The games would be easy to add heat.

Not trying to be a buzzkill here, but Dorney Park does not seem like the type of park Cedar Fair would invest that much money into. WinterFest is a much bigger investment than most people realize. Not only are the lights and decorations very expensive, but also the infrastructure needed for a winter event is a huge undertaking for any park. I think it’s out of Dorney’s price range for the time being.

Plus, wasn’t Canada’s Wonderland already confirmed to be the second park by a Cedar Fair executive? I may be wrong but I thought I remembered reading that.

If they opened the upper half of the park, including Hydra and Talon people would show up for this event in droves. Why? Cause there ain't jack balls to do in Allentown in the winter, unless you go to the Poconos for skiing, etc. I think they could absolutely pull it off (Great Adventure and Hershey's winter events are obviously doing quite well) and we know they could open those coasters, but will they? I'm interested to see what happens with this. Its only an hour from me, and I'd be more than happy to have more rides to ride in the winter months.

Not trying to be a buzzkill here, but Dorney Park does not seem like the type of park Cedar Fair would invest that much money into. WinterFest is a much bigger investment than most people realize. Not only are the lights and decorations very expensive, but also the infrastructure needed for a winter event is a huge undertaking for any park. I think it’s out of Dorney’s price range for the time being.

I'd agree with you if we were talking about Dorney getting a new coaster, but in this case I don't think you can look at this like you would most investments (like a new coaster, for example). Six Flags invested in Holiday in the Park at Six Flags America and they never spend a dime on that sh*t hole.

It's an event with tangible ROI that allows a park to extend their operating schedule by 2 months and dramatically increase their annual attendance numbers by six figures even in an average year to an event where in-park spending is likely well above average. In addition, it's a major driver of Season Pass sales and retention (which they keep bringing up on conference calls).

It's not cheap, but it's a much cheaper way to drive up attendance numbers and revenue than basically anything else they could do. It's not like they would be investing 15 million dollars into a coaster hoping it would drive attendance. If you add Winterfest, attendance WILL go up unless you're doing something horribly wrong because you're adding about 30 operating days to the schedule where you could reasonably expect large enough crowds to draw a profit.

Plus, wasn’t Canada’s Wonderland already confirmed to be the second park by a Cedar Fair executive? I may be wrong but I thought I remembered reading that.

You're right. I don't know if it was "officially confirmed", but it came out in that Cleveland.com article that went viral a few months back. I don't think Dorney is getting Winterfest in 2018, but that doesn't mean they won't get it soon. They're in a decent sized city in a park with a perfect layout for it since everything you need is kind of near the gate and easy to section off (decent grouping of flat rides, indoor heated theater and kids area). I would be shocked if they don't get Winterfest in the next few years.

there ain't jack balls to do in Allentown in the winter

Also this

Dorney Park management was talking in fall of 2016 like Winterfest was coming as early as 2017. Makes sense that they would make improvements to the upper portion of the park if that was the case. I've also heard that this will coincide with an expansion to Camp Snoopy. They would basically create a new entrance where the Bouncy House use to be and gobble up the land where enterprise is. Some rides will go and new ones will be added.

Big news!

(No... for real, I couldn't believe it either)

Dorney has posted a winter update full of details on all the usual things you would expect like progress on their new, world record breaking chicken tender place, information on new food options and updates on general maintenance but buried at the bottom is a huge piece of news!

Finally, from time to time we have to move things around or even remove them completely in order to look to the future. Stinger, which came to us from our sister park California's Great America in 2012, will be removed to make room for future planning opportunities. We don’t have details to share right now, but we are working on future planning and development of the park.

I'm not sure what could really go in that spot, but basically anything would be an upgrade.

Link

As long as its not Possessed. I will say that while it was a piece of shit, I enjoyed Stinger. Comfortable, no headbanging, kind of fun. Better than a regular boomerang imo. Wonder if its scrap or being moved.

THANK THE GOOD LORD!!!! ITS ABOUT DAMN TIME!!!

Stinger being removed is great news. That was probably the worst coaster there. Glad they're not getting rid of Possessed. I loved that one, and generally all of that type.

So, Stinger is leaving...

Please forgive me but I do not keep up with things like many others.... are there any other Cedar Fair parks removing coasters that we know of that would fit in Stinger's place?

I'm really glad to see Stinger removed. I was really disappointed to see it added to the park in the first place and with problem after problem, especially the incident on opening day in 2014, I had no interest in riding the coaster ever again (except once last year to see if I still disliked the coaster).

So, Stinger is leaving...

 

Please forgive me but I do not keep up with things like many others.... are there any other Cedar Fair parks removing coasters that we know of that would fit in Stinger's place?

Did we ever figure out where Knotts boomerang went?

Considering that Silverwood has kept a GIB running for almost a decade, I find it hilarious that Stinger only managed five years at Dorney Park.

Though, if CGA wasn't building the far superior RailBlazer, I would have vouched for them to get Stinger back. It was actually my favorite coaster at the park (having visited pre-Goldstriker).

Great news! I did not enjoy this ride at all. For some reason I found it so much worse than Kings Island's, and it seems to have so much down time as well. Plus, the park already has two (vastly superior) inverted coasters, so this is really no loss in my eyes.

With Dinosaur's also rumored to be leaving soon, GCI perhaps? Or just wishful thinking...

Not thrilled with this unless another coaster takes it's place in 2019. Why can this coaster exist at Kings Island and not Dorney if it's strictly maintenance? Surely they use the same parts.

Yeah, I'm with you there. I really like Kings Island's GIB, but Dorney's was awful. Possessed next door is so much better, this isn't a loss.

I believe I rode Stinger twice, I regretted it both times as pretty bad headaches followed. I keep hearing that the one at KI is pretty good and I can believe that, but Stinger was pretty rough. I know Dorney doesn't tend to get much love from Cedar Fair but hopefully they can get something decent to replace it.