Dorney Park 10/04/09

Decided to try Dorney and see what their Halloween experience was all about. Since many of the local haunts (and there are a lot here) were charging around $30 for a small number of attractions, it just made sense to try a place with rides as well, and since i missed out going to DP this year, it just made sense.

Arrived at about 3PM with a friend (coaster fan) and my b/f (coaster-phobe) to a largely empty park. This would not change throughout the day odd considering how absolutely beautiful its was all day (see also, YoshiFan post).

Every ride was a walk-on or a one train/cycle wait, except for the wild mouse, which we decided to ride when hydra was closed sometime around 430ish. Also, at one point we found completely empty stations for both Talon and Steel Force.

Ride Count:
Talon - 3x
Hydra - 1x
Steel Force - 3x
Possessed - 2x
Wild Mouse - 1x
Dominator (Upshot) - 1x
Revolution, Musik Express, Wave Swinger, Ferris Wheel, The Whip all - 1x

As for the Haunts, most were OK to good. Some had lines though the longest we waited was about 15 minutes for the first one (Asylum) and many others were also walk-right-in (after the standard disclaimer of not touching the actors.) Pirates Passage wasn't scary, but was so thick with fog that you kept just running into people and the actors were really having fun.

The Corn-Stalkers trail was quite good; plenty of hiding spots for the actors. And the Backwoods camp trail was fun (if somewhat short, i thought). Death Trap, was probably the most disappointing along with the Headstone Hollow (which just seemed under staffed and under fogged) As for the houses, Club Blood had the best atmosphere, though none were truly "scary" - or maybe i'm just old and jaded. Lots of strobe lights in mirrored rooms (standard but effective).

All in all, it was a pretty great day! :)

Surprising the attendance was so light. The Eagles weren't playing, and I don't know of anything else going on. Maybe people around here just aren't geared up for Halloween yet, or maybe they just don't go out on Sunday nights-- school night and all.

I was expecting it to be crowded because of the Eagles as well. I think it last year or the year before during the bye week and the park was more crowded than normal. Not that lines were much of an issue anyway (10 - 15 minutes).

It will be interesting to see the crowds later on, last year on Sunday nights the rides had short waits and the Haunt attractions had longer lines (looked to be around 20 minutes for a lot of them). With so much more this year maybe it will help keep lines shorter even if crowds pick up a little.

They are expecting it to be more crowded this upcoming Sunday as they are open until midnight since Monday some schools are closed I guess.