Music In The Parks - Dorney - Part 1 - May 27, 2016 - Fast Lane Upgrades

I took my first of two Music in the Parks trips with one of my schools. (The second one will be next Friday)

Not go into full details about what goes on at a Music In The Parks Event, as I have done that in year's past - but still some stuff to report on.

Hot, near 90, met at the school at 4:30. Kids came at 4:45. Depart at 5.

Performed at Kutztown University not too far from the park. The facilities for the chorus and orchestra were spectacular and the Music in the parks staff were well organized. Beat all traffic on the way to Pennsylvania - except for some of the road construction near the University. The children performed very well.

There were rumors that the waterpark would be closed and that it would start operation until the next day. That was confirmed when we got there. Apparently they don't start the waterpark attractions until Memorial Day Weekend - which was actually the next day.

With no new major attractions to promote (New paint, trains and chaser lights for Thunder-hawk) and the waterpark closed, we figured we should spring for the fast lane passes. It turned out to be a great idea. This year, Dorney is promoting that they added considerably more rides to the fast lane list, which is now up to 20. (The bands are about 40 bucks and for 10 bucks more riders can add certain waterpark attractions when they are open) This was a huge deal for me as rides like the Whip and scrambler have been added. That to me means a whole lot more than the new trains and chaser lights and paint on Thunder-Hawk...at least to me.

In any case the award ceremony was a little lighter than usual - perhaps because it was the Friday before Memorial Day weekend and the rest of the music folks were looking to book when everything is up and running. 98 percent of the people in the parks were wearing music related T-shirts and were well supervised.

Again we met for dinner at the air conditioned Chickie and Petes and again we hated everything - the food, the service and the cost. We will try for something else next year. (25 bucks a head for something that was awful and there were 11 of us at a table.) We asked for a pitcher of water and were told we couldn't get one. "That is for special parties." We did get cups of water and figured that it would have been more economically sound to give us the pitcher compared to the cost of all of the cups and the time spent delivering them. Very poor decision making all-around.

By the way - The bus driver told me that Dorney does not charge buses to park. Some parks allow the drivers into the parks without charging them and most of the time, the drivers take a hotel room to sleep during trips like these. Who knew?

I will try to provide another report next week after my second trip with another school.

Thank you for reading this.