dorney

I was at Dorney for Halloweekends Sunday. Very light crowd, nice weather, great time!!!

Now to my questions? Last time I was at Dorney, Talon stopped on the hill climb cause someone undid their seat belt (idiots!!!) This time we were going up the hill, it banged then stopped, which I thought was weird cause the first time it happened to me their was no 'bang'. Then after doing a seatbelt check we sat their for almost 10mins before the lift restarted. what causes that???

And, almost the same thing minus the bang happened on steal force. on the way up the lift we just stopped. Sat their for around ten minutes and started again.

What I found peculiar was after they got us going on both steel force and talon, there were no test runs, just business as normal. SO I figure the problem couldn't have been serious, I am just curious. ANy thoughts on what happened???????????

When the train stops on the lift, it'll move back an inch or two when the lift cuts off. If the train moves back and hits a rollback, it'll make a bang; if the weight of the train is still being carried by the chain or the train doesn't slide into a rollback, it won't make a bang. As to the no test-run, you answered your own question--if the problem wasn't with the ride, then there's no reason to cycle empty trains.

It seems like Talon and/or Steel Force stops on the lift almost every time I am at the park. It's amazing how many people unbuckle the seatbelts or are holding on to a cell phone or camera. Then everyone gets all freaked out in the station or in line thinking the ride is unsafe or there is a problem.

It's because you didn't have enough question marks. ;)

Wow, surprised to hear about the light crowds at Dorney. Once folks figure out there's a better option than the poor rider capacity at Great Adventure, I bet that will change.

I would have thought they would catch on by now considering Great Adventure has had ridiculous lines for years. I just don't understand it at all. Dorney has 5 minute or less waits for all coasters except Wild Mouse and the same day Great Adventure has 2 - 3 hour or more wait times for all the major rides. 2 hours for Medusa or 30 seconds for Hydra, I know which I would pick. Not to mention Dorney is a much better value, $17.95 on Friday night and $17.95 after 5 on Saturday and 3:30 on Sunday (which is plenty of time to ride everything you want in addition to having time for re-rides) plus $6 less for parking that Great Adventure and slightly lower food and drink prices in the park.

In a way, I kind of hope everyone in the area keeps ignoring Dorney during these non peak times since it's nice to know on any given day in May, September and October I can spend 1/2 a day at the park and easily get 20+ rides in (I usually average 6 rides an hour including walking between rides) versuss 2 or 3 at Great Adventure in that same amount of time. *** Edited 10/11/2006 7:36:49 PM UTC by YoshiFan***

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rc-madness said:
Wow, surprised to hear about the light crowds at Dorney. Once folks figure out there's a better option than the poor rider capacity at Great Adventure, I bet that will change.

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Nope. Been like that since at least 2002.

I have no interest in SFGAdv the way it is right now. I'm willing to do without KK and El Toro to get away from having to choose between paying $100 + to have a decent park experience or spending all day to get 4 or 5 rides in.

If I go to a big megapark in the foreseeable future, it will be Cedar Point. Fortunately, that park is reasonably close to me.

In my opinion, bigger is not always better. In the case of CP this might be true but there are many smaller parks where you can have a lot of fun as well.

You do know that even CP is not invulernable to the same trends as any large park, right?

Then of course, if everyone really gets so annoyed that the small parks reap the rewards of the mass exodus from the big parks - then the small parks become the 'big' parks and are now faced with the same problems.

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Lord Gonchar said:

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rc-madness said:
Wow, surprised to hear about the light crowds at Dorney. Once folks figure out there's a better option than the poor rider capacity at Great Adventure, I bet that will change.

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Nope. Been like that since at least 2002.

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Dorney has always been like that. I dont know if its the feng shui of the park layout or what, but that park handles crowds better than any park I know. Even on the most crowded day of the season, between both parks, there is a nice even disbursement of guests making wait times minimal. Its always been like this.

I suspected as much, but 2002 was my first year in Allentown (and Dorney) so I couldn't speak for anything beyond the past 5 seasons. :)