Dorney Park, 5/18/19

[Yoshi]

I was almost driving past Dorney on Saturday and stopped in for 2 1/2 hours for my first visit of the season. It was crowded (for Dorney) with most coaster lines 10 - 20 minutes.

 

I went to pick up my Fast Lane wristband. The first store was sold out, the 2nd store was sold out. I was told to try another store that had the wristbands but told me I can only get the daily Fast Lane wristband there which was incorrect but the employees insisted I couldn't get it and to to go guest services. I wasn't going back and waiting 20+ minutes in line so I tried a 4th store who wanted to charge me the daily price for it. I had to explain how they ring up the Fast Lane wristband, then scan my season pass and it should make the total $0.00. It was kind of frustrating. Also to add to the frustration, some rides like Steel Force had no ride attendant at the Fast Lane merge point. This meant that I had to force my way into the line at the merge point and hope people wouldn't get angry thinking I was cutting them in line.

 

Thunderhawk was running 2 trains which was nice to see since it usually only runs 1 train except on more crowded days. In the station I was surprised to see people leaving smartphones in the cubbies especially because the ride attendants were not sliding the door to cover the cubbies for the train that was in the out on the track. There is no way I would leave anything important in the station.

 

The Whip got some new historical signs near the entrance for it's 100th season.

 

Wild Mouse's operations are worse this year. 1 ride operator has to advance the cars to both loading areas in the station and advance them to dispatch, tell people which car to go to and check restraints. This meant much of the time only 1 car is running with the other 3 in the station. Seeing how slow the line was moving, it was probably an hour wait. The same like at Great Adventure or Hershey would be 15 minutes for their wild mouse coasters.

 

On a more positive note, I bought the All Season Drink Pass this year and it was great being able to walk up to a drink station or any food place and get a drink and not have to carry around a souvenir bottle and leave it in the station.

 

 

Ride Count:

Talon, 1x

Hydra, 1x

Steel Force, 1x

Thunderhawk, 1x

Wild Mouse, 1x

Dominator Green, 2x

Cedar Creek Flyers, 1x

Whip, 1x

 

Here are some pictures of the new sign at The Whip:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[The Master]

I was at Dorney on Sunday for their season pass holder preview for WWK, which was exclusively for SP holders, not even bring a friend. Most of the waterpark attractions were open. Stangely, the Runaway River was closed but the Wildwater River was open, generally it is the other way around when only one river is open. Also the older wave pool and the Cascade slide were closed, but everything else was open. Crowds were not bad at either park. Talon was only operating one train but Steel Force and Hydra were ruunning two trains. The Dominator drop tower has new color changing LED floodlights installed and it does look nice. 

[Yoshi]

Were crowds low for the preview? I was originally considering going before having the chance to stop at the park on Saturday and didn't feel like going to Dorney 2 days in a row. Talon was running 1 train on Saturday as well.

[The Master]

Crowds were pretty low for the preview. There were times in the middle of the day when even Aqua Blast didn't have a line. The slide lines did fluctuate throughout the day. One trip up there is no line, next trip the line is a 1/3rd down the tower, the longest lines were for the Boa Blasters, which were shutdown when somebody got hurt on Python Plummet. Another eventful sight I saw was over on Steel Force, where a group of 4 was detained by not unlocking their restraints until security arrived to escort them away. Wonder what they did for the park to do that? You would never see GADV security do that.