Louisatsweetlou

I can see a cool new exhibit of the baboons in a new enclosure on the Golden Kingdom path. This way, the people get to see them and we do not have to worry about them destroying the trucks!

I love that they added the bacon wrapped kebabs over by Macho Nacho in the Carnavale section!

I think all indoor locations should have Coke Freestyle machines. Yum Yum, Granny's, and Best of the West could benefit from this and reduce the amount of staffing needed so there is less time that they are understaffed. Plus its much faster. There should also be a line in the indoor restaurants for just drinks so you do not have to wait in line for just a drink.

Pricing is ridiculous. For me to go, there will need to be a student discount or a coupon in general. I will not pay more than $40 for the park when I can go to Six Flags with my season pass or Dorney for $30 student discount.

I was shocked to see that the majority of guests were well behaved. Dorney also had a lot of security around all day. The best part about their security was they were not stationed at specific locations but rather they were out and about walking.

On 10/27 myself and two friends from college decided to head down to Dorney Park. The park is in the midst of the last few operating days of the season and were offering a great student discount: For $30 you get entry into the park, and for those of you unaware, this also includes Dorney Park's Haunted Attractions. I think that this is the first great thing about Dorney's Haunt as opposed to Fright Fest. If you are going to a Haunt event then most, if not all of your attractions should be included in the gate fee. Anyway, back to the trip. We made the wise decision of heading to the park for opening since none of us have been to the park in at least five years, we wanted to be able to make the most of our day. They had several parking attendants and we got there at 10:40, 20 minutes before the park opened (Season pass holders appear to be able to have early entry and ride time which is cool). We were directed to park in the second row of the lot, with only about 20 other cars already parked and not many behind us. We thought that maybe these crowds would last but there was plenty more people arriving later in the day to make it a moderately crowded event. We purchased our tickets at the booth with our student IDs and waited for the 11 AM official welcome and opening. I like how they play the national anthem and say good morning to everyone. Once the gates were open it took between 2-5 minutes to enter the park as there were not that many people in front of us. Our game plan was simple- we had no game plan. We just wanted to go on as much as we could so we could enjoy the Haunt at night. We headed for Hydra and I liked it just as much as I remember. The inversions are fun, especially the roll right out of the station. It is a floorless coaster, like Bizarro at GA but is much shorter (both in height and ride time). Despite this, I think that I enjoy Hydra more than Bizarro. Side note we were the only people on the train and we decided to ride twice without getting off. Great re-ride policy! We then headed to the left through one of the scare zones set up for later in the night. We rode Steel Force front row, no line and we re-rode in a separate row. I have heard a lot about this coaster, dubbing it "Steel Forceless" but I liked the ride overall, especially the second half of the ride which delivered some great airtime. Then we doubled back towards Thunderhawk, their wooden coaster. I really enjoyed this coaster and makes me wish we had a family wooden coaster at GA. Somehow, I don't see it happening anytime soon. With Jersey devil coming next year, I don't see us getting another coaster for a while (but side note: JD looks like it will be so much fun). Again, great woodie, loved it. Then we hit Possessed, which I remembered being very afraid of when I went when I was 13 but this time it was just a lot of fun. No wait, front row, I have trouble re-riding shuttle coasters so this was a one and done for the day although the line was short all day so we could have gotten on. In the Possessed plaza, they were having a Monster truck special event which was really neat. A highlight was you could actually ride IN the truck. We ended up skipping the ride because of the consistent 1 hour line throughout the day and did not feel like spending the $30 to skip the line. Then we hit a bunch of flat rides which were so much fun. Flat rides like the Whip, Music Express, Tit-a-whirl, and more is why I love Dorney Park. It has such a great family vibe. In the area by Tilt-a-Whirl, there were some skill games which I never feel tempted to play but today, they got me. They put a Stacker game near them and I blew $15 on it. It is a really addicting game and they had prizes like Airpods in there. I always get to the top row and, since its rigged, I never get it. Anyway, I had fun wasting my money so that's what counts haha. Moving on. Demon Drop. Is. So. Much. Fun. I love Zumanjaro but Demon Drop gives me a fun amount of anxiousness that no other ride does. I wish we still had it at GA, although I do love Wonder Woman which eventually took freeFall's spot. Even though none of us were kids, we decided to walk through Camp Snoopy and I love how cute it was. The atmosphere was great, there were so many rides, and the kids were having a blast. (So were the parents). This is a kids area done right and I think GA should take a nod to Cedar Fair and theme their kids area this nice with photo opportunities and great rides, etc. I suspect we will be seeing a new kids area in 2021 so GA, take notes. Somewhere in between all this, we got lunch at the counter-service Chickie's and Pete's. I am not a fan of the kiosk ordering at the locations around the park. Especially paying cash. People paying cash have to go to the cashier anyway so why not just have them take your order as well? Food was good, the wait was a little long (probably like 20 minutes) and my biggest complaint was that most places around the park ran out of ketchup. They close for the season next weekend and I assume they are looking to cut costs but a lot of people were unhappy about it. As for clientele, I found almost everyone we ran into being super friendly and having a good time. The employees were good too. Special shoutout to the operating running the two main drop towers. For those unaware, one shoots you up and one shoots you down, so they are different. Dorney Park must be short staffed (as most parks are this time of year) so this one ride operator was hustling and rotating between each of the towers. 2 cycles on one and 2 cycles on the other. Although the line was a bit longer than I expected it to be, I give kudos to this man for hustling through the day with a smile on his face. At around 4 in the afternoon, rain started falling heavily and so we got a hand stamp and retreated to our car to take a rest even though the rides were all still running (good on Dorney for this as there were people still riding them in the rain) I have some work to do so I will be posting part 2 (Haunt) at a later time. For now, just know I was very impressed.

So, at this point, if BBNP will be open for HITP, all that will be closed is the Golden Kingdom (the one by KK and Zu) Plaza del Carnaval and Frontier Adventures. I wonder if they will have the food places open like the Pizza place, Go Fresh, and Mama Flora's Gyro place. It will also allow for better park flow to the Boardwalk because the lake path by joker (where the graveyard is now) will be open all the way to the four tents area. With this, I also imagine the two shops in the tent will be open in addition to the arcade which is yet another place to go to if it gets cold.

could we finally be seeing DC Universe?

Typically, if we JUST got into line and they are going in front of like 5 people, I'll let them go through but my past visit, Nitro had about a 20 minute line and a group of people said "our friend is up there" and continued cutting the line until they got into the station.

I will probably bite the bullet and get a gold plus membership for the park next year. It comes out to like $5 more per year than a season pass and dining pass if I did my math correctly. I hope that they have the free upgrade to platinum that I have been seeing because, to me, that will make it much more worth it.

You know I had a hunch you were going to hope that

If it was the new addition for next year, it would make complete sense. Those kids areas by Nitro are in dire need of a refurb

So this new industry trend is upon us: New themed lands like Star Wars, Harry Potter, and Pandora are amazingly themed- but they have a very limited amount of attractions for visitors to go on. Compare this to how things used to be (and how they still are at regional parks) where there are areas with light theming (or none at all) and a lot more rides. Think Adventure Alley for GA or Fantasyland in the Magic Kingdom. Would you rather have high themed lands with limited rides or the reverse: low amounts of theming with more rides? Discuss below!

I enjoyed the park during my visit, after lowering my expectations. (call me crazy) but I personally like their Superman more than our Nitro. Their wooden coasters are a lot of fun, especially since GA has no traditional woodies and I guess I forgot how they rode until I went there to ride them. I went during a Saturday during Fright Fest (the day portion) and there were NO LINES- it was packed but no one was on line for the major coasters- it just felt very strange. I didn't get a chance to ride their batman ride because they were running one train but apparently people actually liked this ride because, while Superman had a station wait, batman had a TWO HOUR wait- it was crazy I completely recommend heading to the back of the park to try out that coaster first.

Most rides I’m okay with sharing- coasters I have no problem, Skyscreamer I have no problem but the big wheel and skyway would be weird to be trapped with people you don’t know

I can actually see Magic Mountain replacing their Tidal Wave

yeah, I don't see people paying for the mirror maze without a special theme

I';m wondering, if we are changing this to DC Universe or something like it, can we expect a new Fright Fest theme instead of Demon District- I like what they did with MM and turning it into suicide squad

also, I don't know if anyone saw this but free in park wifi????? that's pretty cool

Also, it says that Dining Plans are offered at every single park location- I think that's a first- very exciting!!

Glad the park did something that will work for them as well as the environment.

It was a big help getting from El Toro to Kingda Ka- Next we get rid of the paintball building!!!

Honestly, they just need SOMETHING- I never visit Hurricane Harbor because of how long the lines are- the only days the lines aren't terrible are cold days when I don't want to be there either. Like others have said, a water coaster would be great, fantastic ride and has great throughput compared to other slides- Besides the water coaster, there are two other types of water attractions that I love. The first one is something like Water Country USA in Virginia has with Hubba Hubba Highway- for those unfamiliar, it is like a lazy river but instead of tubes, you wear life vests that keep you floating and the water current goes CRAZY FAST- it is probably my favorite water park attraction out there. The other type of water attraction is something that I don't even know how to compare it to. Dorney park used to have a similar one but it is gone and I do not know the name- it is, again, like a lazy river- this time actually on tubes. The difference with this one is its little pools and then there is a water slide when you get to the end of the pool- after that slide you go into another pool that is like a lazy river and then another slide- it is so much fun having slide after slide after slide- Whether these come true or something else, HH NEEDS another attraction.

the only thing that REALLY needs to get done about the Carousel is the last few mirrors that are missing- everything else is a plus

I wouldn't be surprised if the park decided to change movieTown into something like a DC Universe like we see at other parks- I dont think it would be the worst thing in the world because you do have batman, the dark knight, wonder woman, cyborg, and justice league- if they were to do this, I would add the show into the Batman Theater- Do I think at all they are going to? No, not at all. Do I think it would make total sense? Absolutely- Having an alternative to rides will make everyone happy- Even if it was only two shows a day