Old Dorney Photos

[Cyclonic]

I figured some folks might like to see these.  I just scaned some old photos from Dorney Park that I took way back in June of 1992.  They aren't that great, but the one really shows alot of old Dorney, including the old Circle Swing, Journey To The Center Of The Earth and the coaster station.  The others are of Hercules.

[Bubba Z]

Thanks for the pictures. Since I never got to ride to Hercules it's cool to see pictures of it.   BTW, your avatar is great.

[chilled182]

You didnt miss a whole lot.  It was more rough than enjoyable, and i like rough.  It just didnt have that.. zazz that a classic woodie has.  It had a great over the water element, but something was missing.

Great pictures though!

[Robert T Ackerman]

Thanks for the pictures! It's strange looking at Thunderhawk from that angle and not seeing SF there ( I never visited the park Pre-Talon).

[rwk]

Hi, nice shots. I grew up with Dorney Park, I was born Jan 1974, lived in Allentown my entire life, I still live with my mom and brother in a remodeled 1800's house 2 miles west of Dorney Park. I have seen all of the changes of the park since about 1980. The new Thunder Creek Mountain in 1982, the terrible fire that destroyed the Grande Carrousel and Bucket O' Blood dark ride (where the Musik Express is now, since 1984) yes, I rode them both many times in the couple of summers before the fire. I rode Journey and Iceberg many times and miss them bad. Dorney no longer has any "dark rides" except for the haunted houses during Halloweekends. In fact, the last of the old dark attractions was just torn down, the building that housed the Gold Mine walkthrough in the basement, and had an arcade above. It was the old Solomon Dorney Mansion Hotel & Restaurant. The Gold Mine closed around 1984 or 1985, and was sealed off. I graduated from Parkland School District in June 1992. That was also the final summer for Journey to the Center of the Earth since Cedar Fair acquired the park in July of 1992. I rode it for the final time in August, 1992. By 1993 it was gone. Next, they got rid of the Iceberg, then the old Alfundo building over the Thawk coaster. Cedar Fair seems intent on erasing every last bit of Dorney's history, except for a few things. You younger people who only visited the park in recent years, since Steel Force and Talon, missed out on alot of the old stuff. It's not weird seeing Thawk without Steel Force because most older people in the Lehigh Valley remember it that way more. I have a bunch of old brochures from the 70's and 80's and photos taken in the 70's and 80's when the park was the "old way" and owned by Bob Ott (married Sally Plarr, former park owner Robert Plarr's daughter), who was the president from 1967-1979 and chairman of the board from 1980-1984, then retired with Harris Weinstein (who married Debora Plarr) succeeding him until the Cedar Fair takeover in 1992. My feeling on Cedar Fair is that they're not from the local (Allentown) area, and they get managers from Ohio or wherever, whereas the old ownership (Plarr/Ott/Weinstein) was local and they respected Dorney Park and it's history. Cedar Fair does whatever they want to the park without regard to what they destroy. They're not from our area, so what do they care? All they care about is the latest ride to draw hordes of out of the area tourists and thrillseekers and the almighty dollar.

[rjholla2003]

Welcome to Updates!

Dorney of old is a lot different that the present Dorney.  I remember in the pre-CF days when my parents would take my little brother and I on trips there and it was so much fun.  There were all sorts of dark rides that are just a fading memory now, but I remember having loads of fun on them.  Then I didn't go back there for a long time, and when I came back, it was the CF era.  Dominator was new. which excited me, but I was confused when I walked down by where Lazer is and the old dark ride I remembered as a kid was no longer there.  I wanted to grab a ride on it, thinking it would be lame, but at least I'd actually remember what was going on.  There were a bunch of little things that CF stripped the park of that I do miss, even though I don't remember exactly what they were.

Cedar Fair isn't all bad in my book, but they did take sume of the charm out of DP when they started making it what I've heard is the stereotypical CF "Concrete plaza" style.

[blazzinmatt]

Wow those pictures truly look different than the Dorney today. I mean all old pictures look different than today because of quality of camera and just the colorfulness of Dorney that was added by Talon and Hydra. But Dorney isn't one of my favorite RIDE parks because the lines are always short and I don't think Hydra is such a great ride. Talon never gets old and Steel Force is a great ride, but you can do them over and over again because of the short lines. I really wish I was born a little bit earlier so that I could have experience these parks before they were brought into the new ride era, but hey pictures aren't so bad.

[WadeJ]

Welcome to udpates rwk!  Nice to have you here

As far as I can tell, Cedar Fair has used the exact same formula on Knotts and it is having the same effect.  I'm not a CF hater by any means but it does bother me how they can be so concerned about preserving the charm and history of Cedar Point but destory it at their sister parks.

Ironically, GL seems to be heading in the right direction - back to its roots.

Dorney will never be the same to me.  They removed classics that families could ride together.  Those are what create memories.

[ChuckR]

I never got a chance to go to Dorney until this year. It's a nice park and its better than GL IMO.

BTW, nice photos and I would really of liked to ride Hercules when it first came out.

[Bubba Z]

Rwk , thanks for the history lesson and welcome to Updates !

I see Dorney as one big concrete slab with 20,000 trash cans. Two things I still don't understand about Dorney are ...Laser " The please bring everything with you rule " I want to try and bring one of those huge stuffed animals with me and see what happens. The other would be  Trims on Thunderhawk at the end. , which Kills a great ride IMO.

At least the Log Flume and the Water park are still good.

[rwk]

At least they still have a few of my old favorites, like the Whip and Zephyr train. I miss the boats that used to be next to the Zephyr (Water Skooters), and the Sky Ride. Those were both taken out several years ago. I also miss the old bumper cars that used to be in the old Thawk building (torn down aftwer 1994), and the Krazy Kars used to be the Disco Dodge before 1992. I miss the Gold mine, too and now it's really gone.  :cry:

[rjholla2003]

Two things I still don't understand about Dorney are ...Laser " The please bring everything with you rule

That rule annoyed me a lot.  There's only one train running anyway.  It sucks holding your hands in the air when you're worried about dropping your Hydra cup.

" I want to try and bring one of those huge stuffed animals with me and see what happens.

I double-doggie-dare you!

[Nitro1118]

Awesome pics!

I never got to experience Dorney pre-2002, but from those pics, the park looked like it had the charm of a small traditional park like LC or Knoebels.

Oh well, at leats I got to ride Hercules....

[rwk]

Yeah, it was. In my 70's brochures it says "FREE ADMISSION ALWAYS", yes the park was free gate like Knoebel's and Dorney Park Road went through the park. In 1982 the park was fenced, and an admission fee was implemented, which was $2 if you weren't going to ride or $8.50 with rides, and parking was 50 cents per car (Now it's $8!). There was also ticket books like all older traditional parks had, a book for $7.50 and individual tickets for 20 cents. 1982 was the first year of Thunder Creek Mountain, and the second last year of Bucket O' Blood and the Grande Carrousel, which both burned in Sept. 1983 10 days after the park closed for the season (I have the newspaper). Bob Ott was owner at the time, he retired following the 1984 season. If you want to see pics and info on Bucket O' Blood, Iceberg, and Journey to the Center of the Earth, go to www.laffinthedark.com and go to the Dorney Park article. The park has morphed into a more modern park under Cedar Fair. There was an interview with Chris Ozimek (former park PR guy) where he said how the main midway was all brand new and that they renovated every inch of the park. They replaced all the blacktop with white concrete. Where Talon is used to be part of the Cedar Creek Cannonball train from 1993-2000 (Yeah, the Bill Clinton years), and before that the south parking lot. The whole main midway going back to White Water Landing (at the antique carousel) is all brand new (started around 96-97). The old south entrance was just a small wooden roof like the entrance by Thunderhawk, formerly a public entrance, now employee only. Several older rides and buildings were removed (including Journey and Iceberg and the old Coaster building with Alfundo on top and now the Gold Mine building) probably because they didn't meet Cedar Fair's standards. There used to be more picnic groves in the park, (where Camp Snoopy and Road Rally is) but they were torn down to make way for the new development. And it seems prices for everything have risen, food, admission, parking. And the park gets way too crowded now with all their aggressive marketing to bus groups, out of the area people, youth groups, schools, camps, etc. But, it did look crowded by the looks of all the vehicles in the old public parking lot (now employee) in 1992 in that shot.  You should see Wildwater in July and August on a Saturday. Me and my brother get season passes almost every year.

[NYRfan85]

Cool pics, it took me a little while to realize that was Thunderhawk in the first picture. My first ever trip to Dorney wasn't until August 2004, when I was 19 years old! :lol: So to me, T-hawk looks weird without Steel Force towering over it in the background...

I too wish I coulda rode Hercules, but I have seen a POV of it, and it really didn't seem to exciting.

[rwk]

Yeah, every generation has their own perspective on things. For those born in the 1980's and up, they probably only know the Cedar Fair, Steel Force version of the park so they're used to that. But, for the older generations growing up in the 50's, 60's, 70's, etc. they're more used to the Coaster without Steel Force. As well as the old station building w/bumper cars and the Mill Chute/Journey and Rockets being there. (Before Hercules in '89 the Thunderhawk was known as Coaster since it was built in 1923) The signs outside the older building (torn down after 1994) said SKOOTER/COASTER. And Alfundo's happy face sat on top with the words "DORNEY PARK" underneath that lit up at night. There are pics on websites of this building, check out http://www.elvision.com/tunneloflaffs/contents.html for a nice shot of the old Journey and in the Bill Tracy article (dark ride maker in the 60's that did alot of work for Dorney Park, he passed away early 70's) there's more shots of Journey and the old Coaster building. also www.ridezone.com in the Dorney Park section there's a page of the old stuff that's gone. I could go on and on about the history of the park. It has changed so much since I was a kid. It has changed the most since Cedar Fair came along in 1992. From the early 20th century until the big fires of the early 80's and Wildwater Kingdom the park was basically the same with a few minor changes here and there. Before Cedar Fair the company was known as "Dorney Park Coaster Co." when it was family run, all of them were related in some way through marriage, in-law, etc. Plarr/Ott/Weinstein families. Harris Weinstein made a huge chunk of change in 1992 when he sold the park to Cedar Fair. I'm still wondering though if the Journey to the Center of the Earth still would have been torn down following the 1992 season if Weinstein didn't sell to Cedar Fair, L. P.? Cyclonic can you answer that question? Why did they tear it down? They should have preserved it like Rye Playland did with their old mill. I just don't understand Cedar Fair why they do what they do. Oh, on that tunneloflaffs site there's an article about the late Castle Dracula of Wildwood, NJ that burned down in 2002 after 25 years of operation, it had a walk-through castle and an old mill Dungeon ride built in 1919. That was one of my favorite dark rides. Dorney and Wildwood lost their historic old mills, there's only a few left now like Playland, Kennywood, Lake Winnipesaukah in Gerogia near Chattanooga, TN, the last mill chute with a lift and drop at the end like Dorney's Journey. All my classmates remember Journey, we graduated in 1992, but I bet the younger ones today know nothing about it.

[rjholla2003]

I was blessed enough to be an '85 baby, so I have fading childhood memories of the old DP with stronger memories of the new DP.  This thread has taken me back so much and I love it. Sometimes when I go to DP now I jsut look at the area where the haunted house and the other classic dark rides from the old DP were and just look at the plots like something is missing.  I might have to ask my parents if they remember riding it with me now. :lol:

rwk, do you happen to post on rec.roller-coaster?  There was someone on rrc who had scans of the newspaper that covered the fire at DP and some other DP stuff.

[PcMan]

I was at the Press day in 1999 of the opening of Hercules.
rode it all I could and the free buffet was the biggest I ever seen in my life.
I have some photos that I need to scan as I do with a bunch of other old park photos.  Nowadays  with all the Digital cameras no need for the old 35mm.
I remember I bought my first Digital camera for $300  it was a awesome 1.3mp I still have it .
Happy New Year to all
BE SAFE

RJ  I think I joined ACE in 1985

[Steve]

Nice pics. I do have to say, I was lucky as I rode Hercules the year before they tore it down. The same thing happened to me with Drachin Fire. I got on it before it closed. It seems to be happening with me. It also happened with Viper, but I didn't know that it would be my last  :shock:

[KingdaKaRuler05]

^I remember going on Hercules a few years ago. I thought it was great! I loved how it went over the water too. I was kind of disappointed when they took it down. It will always be in my ride count though!

-KKR05

[sfgadvfreak]

Hercules wasn't that great of a ride.  It was rough and kind of short.  I believe they could have just replaced the wheels with polyurothaine (SP?) ones and it would have been a somewhat decent ride.  Hydra is deffinitly better then Herc, but Hydra is kind of lackluster with it's forces.  B&M really tamed it down a bit.

[rjholla2003]

I always was in awe of Hercules.  Seat 1:2:r was where it's at! :lol: That seat must have had the whole train's vibration transfered to it because it was the worst thing on Earth.  I rode Herc for the first time ever in that seat and the vibration was so bad that I literally was holding my heart while screaming at the top of my lungs in pain because it felt as if my heart was trying to force it's way through my ribcage.  Everyone else in the car was looking at me like I was crazy for screaming "AAH!  MY HEART!" because it wasn't nearly that bad...for them.  So I decided to give Hercules another lap in a different seat, while tricking one of my Herc-virgin friends into that seat.  I forgot who it was, but they were tryign to be tough at the time and talking all kinds of crap about how wooden coasters are lame and how it could never make them scream or anything.  Turns out that my ride was [relatively] smooth, and he was screaming just as much as I was.  Every time I went to DP after that, I would have the "toughest" person sit in that seat, and right before the train left the station I would turn to them and say "You're gonna scream the loudest".  They would always say "Nah, I'm not gonna scream.  I don't scream on coasters' or something like that.  Without fail, they screamed and held their heart.  You would think that 1:2:l would get some colateral vibration, or somehow have somewhat of an unplesant ride, but they would be laughing right along with us.  It was just the magic of 1:2:r.

[PcMan]

Dorney NEEDS a New worldclass Wooden Coaster
and with Gadv  and and Hershey having more then one Woodie  they just may have one in the works.
THunderhawk was good until they added that brake near the end of the ride.
Let me predict a New for 2008 woodie at Dorney
Have a Happy and b safe  talk to ya next year

[Nozzy]

Dorney Park was the first one I went to other than Great Adventure.  I was most excited about the Bearenstein Bears, but I do have my first onride picture of me on Hercules and I was totally in awe of Steel Force.

[rwk]

I have a bunch of old Dorney photos from Ebay, some were taken in 1973, some were taken in 1983-1984. I also have old brochures from the 70's and 80's from Ebay. A few from the 80's were from my own collection. The park was really upgraded by CF over the past several years. I guess for the younger generation under 20, 25, they're used to Steel Force and Talon but for the older generation 25+, they remember the park the way it was when the tallest ride was the old Coaster (Thawk) or Flying Dutchman (metal coaster), and the classics were still there like Rockets, Journey, Lusse Skooters, Sky Ride, Water Skooters, Iceberg, prior to 9/83 Bucket O' Blood dark ride, Grande Carrousel. Every generation has it's own unique experiences. I heard some older ladies at the park talk about the old rides while riding the Zephyr, and some will tell their grandkids about the old rides. However, the park has more to offer now than it did in 1982, or 1992, despite the loss of the old dark rides and old buildings. I met the former owner Bob Ott a few times. He started working at the park in 1937 as a ride operator for the Pretzel dark ride what became Pirate's Cove in 62 and Bucket O' Blood in 74. Then he became park president in 1967 when Bob Plarr passed away, became chairman of the board in 1980 and his son Bob became president and both father and son retired after 1984 when Harris Weinstein took over for 1985. Anyone remember manager Craig Cope or public relations director Michael Crowther? They worked during the Ott/Weinstein era. I think they have tombstones during HalloWeekends with names of former Dorney employees. They have tombstones with all the former rides by the Tilt-A-Whirl area in the fenced in area.