Dorney Getting 08 Woodie??

[GADVwow]

From The Morning Call

December 24, 2006

Up in the air?

Old-style roller coaster fans hope the rumors are true and Dorney is planning a new wooden ride. Park officials aren't saying.

By Kurt Blumenau Of The Morning Call

Roller coaster enthusiast Jeff Putz says coaster fans like swapping scuttlebutt about new rides almost as much as they like riding what's out there now.

If that's true, then fans of Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom are relishing this off-season like a steep drop leading into a barrel roll. That's because the South Whitehall Township amusement park is rumored to be adding a new wooden coaster for the 2008 season a report that has had coaster aficionados buzzing for several months.

The claim, which surfaced in September on a theme-park fan site called Screamscape.com, has yet to be proven or debunked. Officials at Dorney and Cedar Fair Entertainment Co., Dorney's parent company, said they do not comment on rumors. Cedar Fair will not release its capital spending plans for 2008 until after the end of the 2007 summer season.

Lance Hart, who runs Screamscape.com in Charlotte, N.C., said he could not identify his confidential source for the rumor. Hart also said he has not received a reply from Dorney or Cedar Fair.

As coaster enthusiasts wait for firm information to emerge, they are debating the rumor. And both sides make plausible arguments.

Supporters say Cedar Fair, which owns 12 amusement parks and six water parks, has a history of copying successful rides among its properties. Its decision to build a new wooden coaster for the 2007 season at its Valleyfair park in Shakopee, Minn., could signal that other wooden coasters are coming to other parks.

Doubters point out that Dorney tore down a wooden coaster, Hercules, just four years ago. They also say Valleyfair was due for a major investment, more so than Dorney, which got a $13 million steel coaster called Hydra: The Revenge for the 2005 season.

Dorney typically announces a major new ride every four years, with smaller attractions added in other years. Hydra was Dorney's most recent major addition. It was preceded by two other coasters: Talon in 2001 and Steel Force in 1997. Based on that schedule, Dorney's next major new ride would be added in 2009.

Putz, the editor of another coaster-fan site called CoasterBuzz.com, isn't coming down on one side or the other yet.

''You could make a case either way,'' Putz, of Brunswick, Ohio, said. ''If you see survey marks and spray paint on sidewalks late in the 2007 season, then I think it's a safe bet that they'll announce a new ride of some sort.''

The main attraction of wooden coasters is their old-school feel, according to Pittsburgh-area coaster fan Katie Olszewski. Olszewski is editor in chief of another coaster site, Thrillnetwork.com.

Wooden tracks have ''a rickety old feel,'' while steel tracks ride as smoothly as glass, she said.

''Wooden roller coasters and steel roller coasters are just different feelings,'' she added. ''You get a little jostled, but in a very good way.''

Wooden coasters, while less common than they once were, are far from extinct. Amusement park buffs in Pennsylvania who want to get their jostle on still have plenty of wooden rides to choose from--including Dorney's ThunderHawk coaster, which dates to 1923.

Lakemont Park in Altoona is home to the world's oldest roller coaster, Leap-the-Dips, built in 1902 and restored in 1999. Knoebels Amusement Park & Resort in Elysburg, Northumberland County, has two wooden coasters, the Twister and the Phoenix. Hersheypark also has a pair, the Wildcat and the Lightning Racer.

Both Hersheypark rides were designed by Great Coasters International of Sunbury, Northumberland County. The company also designed Renegade, the new $6.5-million wooden coaster being built at Valleyfair. Renegade will stand 104 feet tall, feature 91 feet of drops and hit peak speeds of 52 mph, according to Cedar Fair.

If Renegade is a hit, Cedar Fair will likely want to add similar rides to other parks, Screamscape's Hart said. As proof, he points to the ''hypercoaster'' trend of the '90s, in which Cedar Fair installed similar 200-foot-tall steel coasters at four parks over a period of several years. Dorney Park's Steel Force was the third coaster in that series.

Hart also believes another wooden coaster would be ''a big hit'' for Dorney. He said another park, Holiday World in remote Santa Claus, Ind., has drawn big crowds of coaster buffs for its new The Voyage wooden coaster.

''Coaster enthusiasts have flocked to that park from around the world,'' he said.

But Olszewski, of Thrillnetwork, isn't so sure. She does not expect Dorney to get a wooden coaster for 2008, or any other year in the foreseeable future.

For one thing, wooden coasters cost more to maintain over the long term than steel coasters. Olszewski believes the removal of Hercules might signal that Cedar Fair is no longer willing to bear the maintenance budget of another wooden ride.

She also said Cedar Fair rarely installs back-to-back coasters unless one is at the company's flagship property, Cedar Point.

''Rumors are a very big thing in the amusement park industry,'' Olszewski added. ''They can be totally false, and some are dead-on.''

Other doubters on the Dorneyonline.com Web site raise concerns about noise, suggesting the park's neighbors might oppose a wooden coaster. Dorneyonline.com is an independent fan site devoted to Dorney Park. It is not affiliated with the park or Cedar Fair.

''I could see the local neighbors fighting a wooden coaster more than a sand-filled steel,'' a Dorneyonline user known as Steelforceguy wrote. ''They all know what Hercules sounded like, and how loud it was. There's not much you can do to quiet a wood coaster either.''

Putz of CoasterBuzz said said a new coaster at Dorney is ''not out of the question,'' but will depend on management's vision and direction for the park. Improvements to Dorney's water park might deliver a better return on investment, in terms of attracting families, he added. The park's new ride for next year will be a ''mat racer,'' a six-lane, open-air water slide.

''Coasters always bring in teens and thrill seekers, but you have to ask if the attendance improvement will be significant enough to justify the cost,'' he said. ''If I had to choose between teens and a family of four buying more hot dogs and sunscreen, I'd take the family.''

It's going to be a long time until the public knows Cedar Fair's real plans. Until then, it's likely to be a topic of conversation all next summer at Dorney--giving coaster buffs the pleasure of talking about future attractions and riding current rides at the same time.

kurt.blumenau@mcall.com

610-820-6664

Copyright ? 2006, The Morning Call

http://www.mcall.com/business/local/all-co...sinesslocal-hed

[Robert T Ackerman]

I was already a "follower" of these rumors... I'm just trying to figure out where they can build it? Maybe next to Lazer in that feild out there? They could use the side of the hill where Herc was, and intertwine it with Hydra back by the rapids ride as well... Who knows, only time will tell.

[UrsaMajor]

The area back by Laser could use some life...

I think we can learn a lot about this rumored woodie by looking at Renegade. If that's the direction CF is going with their woodies, it would work SO well at Dorney.

[PcMan]

 Rumor Dorney has put in permits to add a new power line to the park to support a future attraction project. If this is true, there is speculation that this could be a sign that Dorney may become home to Geauga Lake?s Steel Venom coaster (removed from the park map) which would likely require the additional dedicated power supply for the magnetic launch. Just a wild rumor at this point   
source: screamscape/dorneyonline

So it may be that a New Woodie won't happen until 2009 since rumor has a New Woodie at Worlds of Fun in 2008  ?
Any new coaster is a good thing and a impulse coaster is pretty fun.

[rjholla2003]

If that's true, I'll finally get to ride one of those suckers!

[David Jr]

^ you and me both.

[PcMan]

An awesome ride in the Front seat

[Dubya91]

Ive ridden Wicked Twister, fun ride,and Steel Venom im sure will be, could this be the end of Laser!?

[GADVwow]

I MUCH prefer Steel Venom to Wicked Twister.  If Dorney does get it, I hope they keep Laser, too.  The ONLY thing I wish about Laser is that you could pick your seat!

[coastersue]

I would give anything to have Steel Venom at Dorney.  That would actually make me want to go to Dorney all the time.  Impulse coasters are so much fun and it's a shame that there's none near here.

[Dubya91]

Impulses are OK, Get used to them though as we may have two coming to the area...

An Impulse would work very very well for Dorney, but wouldnt you think Steel Venom would go back to Geauga Lake as a trade off, unless if they have one which i think they do

[PcMan]

From what I read
Lazar got new magnetic brakes and maybe another paint job over the off season .
So I don't think it's going anywhere. 

I rode Vertical Velocity, or V2 at SFGA over last summer and front seat is great

www.joyrides.com/sfgam/photos/vertical_velocity1.jpg

Video
www.sixflags.com/video/shared/VerticalVelocity.mov

[Dubya91]

I rode in the back of Wicked Twister, correct me if i'm wrong, but aren't the front and back sorta the same thing?

[GADVwow]

Nope...not even close.

Especially not on a coaster like Steel Venom, where one end is a spike (not twisted).  That end has a hold brake, too!  If you are in the front seat, you end up facing the earth with nothing between it and your harness, and, oh 70 feet or so of air...  And there's airtime when that brake takes hold, too.

Don't get none of that on Wicked Twister, ceptin the nuttin but air part.  No hold brake.  No airtime. 

For a short while, Geauga Lake had disabled the hold brake on Steel Venom.  Then it came back.  Then something happened...and now, it's leaving...

[Bubba Z]

Quote from: GADVwow on Today at 06:58:20 pm
  The ONLY thing I wish about Laser is that you could pick your seat!


^ I wish you could do that and  leave stuff on the side of the exit ramp. That's the only ride I know of where you must carry everything with you on board. I'm going to win the biggest stuffed animal they have and see if I could still ride with it.

[David Jr]

http://www.screamscape.com/html/dorney_park.htm

Latest from screamscape says DP could have a problem placing SV. the park has some height restrictions, couple that with the well known noise issues and you see where this is going.

[PcMan]

This happens every time a new ride may go in.
The park has been ther how mnay years  ?
I sure hope  they can work it out.

[Dubya91]

I love how people choose by their own will to move in, but once they do they complain, amazing....