Dorney Park or Hersheypark

Dorney = thrill park with steel & a killer waterpark. Hershey= family park with wood. I vote Dorney. But I'm not bias or anything. *** Edited 1/17/2005 6:45:31 PM UTC by DorneyDante***

I think it's really tough to decide which one is "better" (excluding location/employment biases people may have). They're both really great parks with a good selection of rides, good atmosphere, and much to offer that the other cannot.

I'd really recommend doing both parks if at all possible.

If you visit Hershey, you get to ride Turbulence!

Oh wait.........

(my screen name says it all)

For me, it comes down to the fact that I think Dorney is a good park while Hershey is a great park. Just my opinion. It's a shame that you can't fit both in. Like others have said, Hershey is an all day park while Dorney is more of a half day park. If you did Dorney for a half day, I would try to hit up Knoebels in the evening if you have never been there.

Here's an alternative view - what does anyone see in Dorney besides Talon? Honestly, if Talon wasn't at Dorney I'd have no reason to visit, and even with Talon I seem to frequently drive past Dorney in order to visit SFGAdv or Hershey instead.

Dorney lacks a good wooden coaster. Dorney's hyper is an oversized mine train with no forces. Laser is a great little ride, but not something one can re-ride, IMO. Hydra could be really good or it could bomb completely; I think it's a bit premature to talk as though it's the second coming. The atmosphere at Dorney is one of the worst of any park I can think of. The entire park is sterile and soul-less. The flat ride selection is decent, I suppose, but there's nothing overly unique. Employees and operations at Dorney were pathetic compared to Hershey. Honestly, I don't even consider Dorney "good", much less equal to Hersheypark.

Hershey, on the other hand, is a very pretty park with an excellent collection of flats and coasters. Odd loading procedures on the ferris wheel aside, operations were excellent. Storm Runner and Great Bear are two great steel coasters, while Wildcat and Lightning Racer compliment each other nicely. Employees at Hershey were generally friendly.

Dorney is a park I can spend a couple hours at to ride Talon and Laser before escaping for some shade, some soul, and some atmosphere. Hershey is an all day park, and even then you might be wanting more time. Most of the people here urging you to visit Dorney have their bias clearly displayed in their screen name. Neither park is my home park, and I have no bias. My observations are simply based on my experiences at both parks.

-Nate
*** Edited 1/18/2005 3:44:22 AM UTC by coasterdude318***

Ya know it's funny I've been going to Dorney and Hershey for about 10 years on a regular basis and it's always been the same thing with Hershey for me, they have terrible Park Operations. At least for the kind of people they bring in anyway. There are so many times that I go to Hershey and I want to scream my head off because I have to wait 1-1.5 hours for a front seat ride on Great Bear because they are only running 1 train. Hershey brings in what--2.5 million people a year? Well I can honestly say I don't think their operations department handles that 2.5 million very well. On the other hand, I go to DP and they almost always have 2 trains running on Talon and it's a walkon for over half the day. Maybe these two parks should talk with each other and find a happy medium instead of being the two extremes.

Before hitting either, I am looking forward to Hershey more because it seems to be the better overall park as far as rides etc, but I think that Dorney may be "emptier" when I go, and I'm looking forward to Hydra, Talon and Steel Force more than any of the coasters at Hershey.

I, like dorneydante, am probably biased on this one. I would vote for Dorney for sentimental reasons. Hercules was my first roller coaster and I have so many great memories of summer days at Dorney as a kid.

I have visited Hershey on occasion though just to visit chocolate world :o)

Hershey has awesome Ride Operations. I went 2 years ago at the end of June, and Their were walk-ons all day for every ride except Comet and to some extent 'looper.

DorneyMan88: That's funny, because I've visited most of the Cedar Fair parks, and if I had to pick the one with the worst operations of the bunch I think it'd be Dorney. I have never seen two trains on Laser, and have seen two trains on Talon about half the time. There were also some bizarre procedures going on in which they only loaded half the train on some rides.

Hershey, on the other hand, had some of the best operations I've ever seen in a corporate non-Disney park.

-Nate

You're correct on the laser, and dead wrong on Talon. Call me a park rat, fan boy, whatever you want, but living about 5 minutes from the park, I'm there somewhere around 80% of the days it's open (and no, that's not exagerrating). In that time, I've only ever seen Talon run 1 train about a half dozen times. All were rainy days that were horribly dead to the point where even running 1 train the front row was almost walk-on.

That aside, I'd have to agree that I haven't had a bad experience at Hershey either.

Oh, a side point: Having the word 'dorney' or 'dp' in the screen name does not constitute an inappropriate bias that should make the objectivity of their opinion null and void. All it means is that they happen to feel that the park is superior enough to warrant inclusion in their name. It doesn't make their opinion any less valid, and definitely not cause alone to simply ignore it. It's just like voting for the president - gee, I wonder who George W. Bush voted for in November? You might say his vote is biased. No more so than any other person voting. GWB thinks that GWB is the best candidate. His vote is just as valid and just as important as anyone else's. Just my 2 cents. Ok, I'm done now... or at least FOR now ;):)

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DorneyMan88 said: Maybe these two parks should talk with each other and find a happy medium instead of being the two extremes.

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Or maybe you've just happened to pick the wrong days to go? Every time I've been there (multiple times, mind you), I've seen 2 train ops on all the rides. So there..."pfffft!" :)

Edit: Of course I'm talking about Hershey... *** Edited 1/18/2005 7:52:30 AM UTC by BigJim4Life***

I'm sorry, but I am not "dead wrong" with what I said about Talon. I respect your opinions, but you really have a knack for telling people that what they experienced never happened. Out of the times I have been to Dorney, Talon was running just one train at least half the time. Your experiences may be different - good for you - but mine are not "dead wrong."

As for the bias thing, sometimes people do have "unfair" biases (homepark situation or someone who has worked at said park, for example). Oftentimes, someone who has worked at a park or who has "home park pride" for that park will defend it to the bitter end, and usually those are the people with the park's name in their SN. That's fine, but those might not be the opinions you're seeking if you're looking for a fair comparison of two parks.

-Nate
*** Edited 1/18/2005 8:07:08 AM UTC by coasterdude318***

Yep. from my experiences, single-train ops are fairly rare at both parks for the megacoasters (with the exception of the laser and thunderhawk at dorney which doesn't really need a second train most days)

EDIT: Let me clarify what I meant by 'dead wrong'. I didn't mean your experiences were dead wrong. I meant that you either don't have many trips to dorney, or happen to go to the park on the slow days, or both, because your experiences (which I'm not doubting you experienced them), but those are not indicitive of the park or their operations on the Talon. *** Edited 1/18/2005 8:05:49 AM UTC by dannerman***

What days do you guys usually go on that it either isn't full or they are running two trains. I try to get out to Hershey about twice a year, which starting next season will hopefully turn into 5 or 6 times a year (since I bought a season pass) I realize that isn't enough times in one season to get the gist (sp?) of their Ride Operations as a whole, but each time I go I always 1) have to wait forever for Great Bear and 2) have to wait forever for Wildcat (and every now and then Comet) due to 1 train operations. Obviously, I make it to Dorney more often since I live a lot closer. coasterdude318, these bizzare loading procedures you're talking about, could you please specify which ride, and did it happen to be raining out?

Comet almost always has long lines, and I've always seen it with two train operations, both on weekdays (a Wednesday or two) that I've gone and weekends as well. Great Bear can have a long line, but I've also been on walk-ons for it, and Wildcat about half the time seems to be a breeze to get on...if you can stand that sqwaking noise coming from the brakes everytime the train rolls back into the station.

With the exception of some slow times (some weekday evenings), I have seen two train operations on all 8 out of Hersheypark's 9 full circuit coasters (Trailblazer being the exception). Even on "special operating days" I have noticed two train operations... IF there is dry weather (on rainy days, it is one... but not sure if this is because of the rain or lighter crowds.)

Even sooperdooperlooper wich seems always to be a walk on gets two train operation, even on slow days.

Hersheypark is another example of my "uniqueness" as an enthusiast. To be entirely honest, I don't 'get it' - the accolades that is. I find Hershey to be average. I find nothing exceptional about the park (Storm Runner excluded) and to me it feels like they have roughly the same ratio of nicely shaded landscaping and concrete fields as Dorney. There are huge areas of Hershey that offer little or no shade as there are areas of Dorney that are the same.

As far as operations, again, neither park seems exceptional over the other. I've seen multiple train operation every visit to Hershey and I've never seen Dorney run less trains than they should (in fact, they usually run multiple trains when one would be fine).

I really like Dorney. Probably because of the ridiculous amount of time I've spent there, but in that time I've never run into anything that would make me dislike the park. It's run just fine and the concrete thing doesn't bug me nearly as much as it seems to matter to some people - besides, I find the concrete/tree covered ratio to be compareable to most major parks - Hersheypark included.

Hershey, while not even close to a bad park, still has nothing (again, Storm Runner excluded) that I find particularly exceptional. It's a big park with lots of rides and I think it's very compareable to parks of similar size.

For a first time visitor, I'd recommend Hershey just because it's bigger and will feel like there's more to do. But as someone who's been to both park several times, my personal preference would be Dorney.

I haven't been to Dorney, but have been to Hershey multiple times. It is an excellent park. Especially for families.

Great, varied coaster lineup. All very RErideable.

Lightning Racer in my opinion is probably the best racing coaster in the world. Simply because CCI desgined it to be an exact race, and Hershey operates it as a racing coaster (unlike the half-operated Paramount and Six Flags parks). I could ride this coaster for hours, and one can given the wait is usually minimal on it.

Hershey has a LOT to do. Many flat rides, the zoo, coaster, shows. One could spend 2 days their with ease, the first day to do everything and the 2nd to redo the best things.

Evertyime i have been to Hershey, all the rides have been in full operation except the Consetoga, and that was the last operating weekend before it was removed.

The park is very clean, even on the crowded days we attended. There seems to be a better "element" of guests there than some theme parks--a lot of families with well-behaved children. That seems to help with the cleanliness of the park. I don't recall seeing line jumping or even smoking in the lines on my visits....

Hershey is also designed better to keep families together all day long, with kid's rides throughout the park.

The pricing at Hershey seems to be better than the theme parks here.

I give Hershey thumbs up all around EXCEPT for the removal of the double Giant Wheel this fall for nothing......It was a great, unique long ride.

Dorney has some appealing coasters also, 2 B and Ms, a hyper and a classic Schwarzkopf.

At Hershey you get 1 B and M, the rocket, 2 CCI wooden and a classic Schwarzkopf. Hershy does have atmosphere. Most of the park is well shaded except the Midway America section, which seems to go with the theme. There are some nice themed areas, Midway America, Minetown, Pioneer Frontier, Comet Hollow (its sort of boardwalk-ish) and the Euro entrance a all have a nice feel to them. I don't know what the heck the theme of Music Box way is supposed to be LOL.

coasterdude318, I don't know when you went to Dorney, but Talon ran two trains every day this season, minus occasional one train op for an hour or less to fix something (very rare). Through downpours with nobody in the park, dead weekends in September, everything, Talon was running two trains.

I used to really love Hershey, but I've enjoyed the park less each year. The operations have been worse each time I visited, and the park is getting more and more crowded, both with people and with rides. Storm Runner, though a great ride, I think killed a lot of the atmosphere in that area of the park. Hershey does have more to do for a full day though.

Bottom line, I'd say if you want a full day of a variety of things to do like shows and chocolate, go to Hershey. If you're mainly looking for rides and getting in lots of rerides, go to Dorney.