Dorney Park 7-30-2012

DorneyPark7-30-2012

My son’s swim team did a team trip to Dorney, took my daughter along as well.

Started out in Wildwater Kingdom, did a few laps on Patriots Plunge, the big family slide, and the lazy river, then swam in the wave pool for a little bit. By 1 PM kids wanted to dry off and change.

Talon was a walk on, but I didn’t notice the fat guy seats until later in rows 4 and 5, so the op stapled me in pretty good making it not so enjoyable. Kids went on Hang time.. cant do the spinning thing anymore..

We then walked on Hydra (sitting in row 4 so I could have the fat guy seat) making for an enjoyable ride (although it scrambled my guts a little LOL) We hit the little flume (which only had a short line due to the ridiculous nature in which it loads 1 log at a time instead of having one of those turntable deals) but a nice little flume none the less.

Next up was Thunder Hawk, sat in the front car, probably not the greatest seat it was rough as hell, but got some good pops of airtime. Rode Steel force 2 times once in the front, and once in the back, a nice welcome smooth ride after having my jimmies rustled on Thunderhawk, although I wasn’t expecting that brake to hit that hard midway through the bunny hops at the end.

Kids rode Revolution and Enterprise as we were making our way back to the car for lunch, then I thought it would be a good idea to ride Monster because I loved those type of rides as a kid and you never see them anymore… NOT! Damn near got sick and was going to ask the ride op to stop if it made one more revolution as I was on the precipice of hurling LOL.

Somewhere in there we rode Possessed 2 times walking right on, once in the front and once in the back. I thoroughly enjoyed it, kids not so much.

By the time we made it out to the car it was 3 pm and 91 degrees so we sat in the car with the AC on and ate lunch. Went back and rode Ferris wheel 2 times (walk on) Whip (walk on) Tilt a whirl (walk on) and the Zephyr little train ride which was also a walk on. I had a mild chuckle when the "engineer" was giving his little spiel as you rode through the park talking about their new for 2012 Vekoma boomerang...Dorney really is the red headed step child.. why 2 drop rides? Stinger wasn't even working, but we have ridden the same ride at Morey's and Hershey so it really wasnt that big of a deal.

Made our way back to the little flume again, Hydra and Steel Force 1 or to train wait for all, kids didn’t want to ride Possessed again LOL.

We rode Demon Drop (which brought back memories of SFGA in the 80's) and Dominator in there somewhere also...

Paid the 4 bucks for the kids to ride the screamin swing and they enjoyed it (they kept yelling "Never again Grace", but the cycle seemed short for an upcharge but it was only 2 bucks each, so cant complain too much.

By this point it started raining lightly, so we headed up to Talon again and got 2 laps in the rain, where it felt more “out of control”. I managed to get a row 4 or 5 fat guy seat this time so it was a lot more enjoyable. By this point everyone was tired and their feet hurt so we cut out which was a good thing. As soon as we left the sky opened up, I decided to just take 309 back toward Philly so we could stop somewhere besides a turnpike rest stop to eat. Ended up at a diner in Coopersburg which was pretty good.

I haven’t been to Dorney in years, and I must say, I remember it being kind of dirty and crappy, but Cedar Fair has really spruced the place up IMO.

Somehow or other, as many times as I've passed the Screaming Swing, I never looked at the price. I don't do upcharges, but I never knew it was that inexpensive. Was there maybe a weekday special, or was that price just for kids, or what? If it was only 4 bucks, I might actually try it, if I'm not too big.

It was 2 bucks per kid, not sure if it was a special. I didnt ride, but I told the kids I would spring for it if it wasnt too expensive.

I seem to remember it being $5 at Knott's 7 or 8 years ago when I was there, so $2 for a mid-week kids price doesn't seem out of line.

It's free at Cedar Point, Dollywood, and Kennywood. lol I wonder why that is? Could it have to do with... Capacity? lol

LK, I believe you're thinking of something different...SkyHawk, Barnstormer, and whatever Kennywood calls theirs. The Screaming swing Billb was referring to at Dorney is akin to CP's Skyscraper..one long arm with seats at each end that spins. Sorry I can't be more technically descriptive, but we're talking about two different animals.

I rode a Skyscraper at Dorney in May of 2000. It was opening day and ops were rather slow: it was a little unnerving sitting at the top for at least 10 minutes while the other end got loaded up and carefully secured. And it cost at least $10.

I do believe that particular ride was moved to Cedar Point's Challenge Park a couple of years later. $10 is the discounted rate for Platinum Pass holders, not valid Saturdays.

So is the Dorney ride an S&S screaming swing?

Mike Gallagher said:

LK, I believe you're thinking of something different...SkyHawk, Barnstormer, and whatever Kennywood calls theirs. The Screaming swing Billb was referring to at Dorney is akin to CP's Skyscraper..one long arm with seats at each end that spins. Sorry I can't be more technically descriptive, but we're talking about two different animals.

No, Travis is correct.

Dorney's upcharge Screaming Swing is an S&S Swing.

The ride you're talking about is the Skyscraper.

It was removed from Dorney years ago, moved to Valleyfair for a while and finally moved to Sandusky where it's is now actually the Skyscraper that is at Cedar Point that you're talking about.

And yes, if I were a betting man, I'd guess Dorney's Screaming Swing is an upcharge because it only moves 8 people per cycle.

So?

Ah, Bill, you should have looked back at my Dorney trip report. It could have saved you the near vomit experience. The newly redone Monster is wicked fast and even more wickedly spinny. I love it, but I heard lots of complaints about people feeling sick from all the spinning. Of course, I can spin until most people would die on stuff like that. Can't do Gravitron anymore though (boo).

Glad to hear you thought the park was clean and pleasant. I haven't noticed the park being unkept at all in my years there, but I went through a period of time where I didn't go to Dorney much, so maybe it was pretty shady for a while. Also glad to hear you liked The Coop (Coopersburg Diner). Their food is some pretty darn good diner fare. I DO miss when they were open 24/7 though. Chocolate chip pancakes taste fantastic at 4 in the morning. Hehehehe...

Oh, but Stinger is NOT the same as the Moreys or Hershey's Vekoma. It is a suspended boomerang with the seats facing each other. It is still no big deal to miss though and is actually VERY VERY rough in the front. I hate it and wish it would just do what stingers normally do: get stuck and get removed.

Are you saying it didn't leave you sore for days afterward?

No so, Gonch. I was just pointing out that if you go to another park, you can get the swing thing experience for the price of admission. The ride that Dorney has right now is much better off being an upcharge because of it's very limited capacity.

I mean, the line would suck chocoballs if their 8 person swing thing was included in the POP, and even more so if it was included in the Fast Lane.

I wonder if their pricing for the Screamin' Swing at Dorney is similar to the upcharge rides at Kings Island. The price changes throughout the day according to demand. I've seen the ripcord type ride there advertised for only $10 a person at night on a slow day, for example.

I agreed with you. I still do. It only moves 8 people. The line would suck. It makes more sense as an upcharge.

Hell, I think that's how entire parks should run. Pay-per-ride with dynamic pricing.

And on top of dynamic pricing, there's be two levels of access at my park...and a small admission fee.

Unfortunately, it'd get much too complicated for anyone's good.

So we'll stick with stupid lowest-common-denominator POP pricing and the subsequent whining about the ride acces expectations of said POP admission.

Originally the Screaming Swing price was $5 for 1 ride, around 2 years ago it changed to $3.50 for 1 ride or $5 for 2 rides with season passholders getting buy 1 get 1 free also. It sounds like they lowered it again probably because of the low demand. I very rarely see anyone riding.

I'd like to see them try to run it as a non upcharge attraction, maybe on a slow weekday just to see if the line would be manageable. In another park it would never work but considering this is a park that frequently has single digit riders on the B&M coasters and Steel Force when the waterpark is open on a weekday so it may not have too bad of a line.

@Bunky666...

Yes that Monster was insane, I was >< this close to asking the op to stop the ride when the cycle ended LOL.

I didnt realize stinger was suspended it wasn't running and we didnt take that close of a look at it.

My vauge recollections of Dorney being kinda dirty are just that, vauge, and date back to when WWK was a seperate admission, I believe, because I don't remember ever doing the water park. It is always nice to be pleasantly supprised though, I wasn't expecting much going in. I am going to keep Dorney on my list of go to parks for a day trip since it was closer than I remembered, little less than an hour and a half to Burlington County NJ.

Just by sheer happenstance I will be doing the SEPA park circuit this summer. My son won tickets to Hershey at a minor league ball game, so we went back in June. My son's swim team did a Dorney trip Monday, and we already had an August Knoebels trip planned. We didnt get a chance to do Morey's this year because we weren't down the shore on a Monday or Tuesday, and those weekday specials are the only way I am shelling out for 4 wristbands to Moreys LOL.

Well I will say WWK used to be disgusting before cf bought them, so I wouldn't be surprised if dorney was bad too (wont even tell you what all used to float in the wave pool).

Ensign, no...only coaster that's left me sore for days this year was Skyrush. Stinger just sucks.

My bad, Travis and Gonch. I had the wrong type of ride in mind. But Dorney's is still not the same ride as those at CP, Dollywood, and Kennywood, which I believe Travis implied.

Most supprising to me was the fact that noone was there.

We were getting on rides so fast you didnt have time to recover from the last one LOL. My kids are power riders and always want to stay until closing. They were done by 7 PM or so.

No harm done, Mike. I make mistakes on here ALLLLL the time. It's awesome to have these guys to tell me when my facts are wrong. :p

KI has a flyer?