Dorney Park: New for 2012: Stinger & Dinosaurs Alive

2012 - Invertigo - Rumor - (1/29/11) In case you missed the rumor from California’s Great America, it has been confirmed that their Invertigo coaster will be removed in the next few weeks to be sent to another Cedar Fair park. The early rumor, even before the removal was confirmed, was that it was going to Dorney Park for the 2012 season. This would make Dorney Park the only park in the country (world maybe too) to have 3 true Inverted coasters. (No, I’m not counting Suspended or Flying coasters) Stay tuned!

(2/3/11) Dorney Park has now submitted plans to the local township for a 138 foot tall ride for the 2012 season. Funny how that proposed attraction height matches up almost perfectly with the Invertigo coaster being removed from California’s Great America. The proposed site will take up the former site of the removed Laser coaster, as well as some surrounding area, removing a few kiddie rides in the process.

Planners OK new Dorney coaster
Amusement park says it's a 'similar' ride to the Invertigo being moved from California.

South Whitehall planners are recommending township approval of Dorney Park's plans for a new roller coaster in 2012.

There's still no name on the books for this mystery ride, which park representatives described as an "inverted boomerang" roller coaster Thursday at a Planning Commission meeting.

But park spokesman Chuck Hutchison said the ride is similar to Invertigo, a roller coaster that's being removed this year from a California park owned by Dorney parent Cedar Fair LP. There's also an Invertigo coaster at King's Island in Ohio, he said.

Hutchison wouldn't confirm the 138-foot ride is coming from the California park, but said the ride is coming out of Cedar Fair's inventory.


On the ride, seven attached cars seat riders face to face, climb a 138-foot hill and are released to go through three inversions forward and then backward, said Brad Nesland, Dorney's vice president of maintenance and construction.

It's a "modest coaster," Hutchison said. Riders have experienced it in other locations and it's no 300-foot-tall Steel Force, he said.

"This is not getting 8,000 more people in our park on the weekends," Nesland said.

Invertigo reopened in Great America in California last July, almost a year after a mechanical failure left two dozen people trapped 80 feet in the air for at least three hours. All of the trapped riders were rescued and no one was injured.

The ride coming to Dorney Park next year will be reconditioned, Nesland said. It will be rebuilt completely and repainted, it will have a new control system and the track will have gone through inspection.

The ride is slated for the western portion of the park, just north of Lincoln Avenue and Dorney Park Road and south of Steel Force, where the old Laser coaster used to be.

The Laser was removed in 2008 after 22 years of double-loop thrills. The portable coaster, anchored by tanks of water, was originally named Colossus. It sat on a 100-year-old flood plain, an issue that prompted township engineer Pidcock Co. to ask Dorney representatives to provide more information before the new coaster goes before the Board of Commissioners for final approval.

The ride will be on stilts and won't affect the flood plain, Nesland said.

Under Dorney's proposal for a new ride, several kiddie rides have been removed, as well as a basketball game, concrete midways and a portion of a paved service drive, affecting about 1.7 acres of the 187-acre property zoned as commercial recreation. The area will be roped off this summer, Hutchison said.

Commissioners asked about the noise and the lighting of the ride, and park representatives said noise will be nothing in comparison to the nearby Steel Force. The ride will be lit from the ground, except for emergency lights on the lift, Nesland said.

Joseph Bubba, an attorney for Dorney Park, said the park will ask the township to waive the customary traffic study. He said the park spent $30,000 on a study 18 months ago, and since then attendance has been flat. The ride won't cause the numbers to spike, he repeated.

Hutchison said the park will release more information on the ride sometime this summer.

It's a "modest coaster," Hutchison said. Riders have experienced it in other locations and it's no 300-foot-tall Steel Force, he said.

HPCrazy wrote:If this isn't debuting until 2012, then they surely need to move those track pieces to another area. I highly doubt they would let them lay out there through the 2011 season. This thing probably won't even take that long to put up.

I just wish Dorney would seriously get their own new coaster/ride. It seems like the last several installments were from other properties (Demon Drop, Possessed and now this). They really didn't need to fix up Camp Snoopy just yet. That area was fine the way it was.

(6/14/11) I’ve been told that Dorney has begin work on their 2012 coaster project, the relocated Invertigo coaster from California. It seems that they are hoping to get most, if not all of the ride up and ready to go by this fall. This doesn’t mean they will open it by this fall of course… only that they’re hoping to get the construction work out of the way before the cold winter. As for the coaster itself, I’m told they are leaning towards some kind of animal themed name.

Belo777 wrote:Dorney Parks New coaster for 2012 name is likely going to be. "STINGER?". PERFECT name for an inverted Vekoma Boomerang coaster! -__-

Ccron10 wrote:

Belo777 wrote:Dorney Parks New coaster for 2012 name is likely going to be. "STINGER?". PERFECT name for an inverted Vekoma Boomerang coaster! -__-

This has been mentioned already...

Belo777 wrote:

Ccron10 wrote:

Belo777 wrote:Dorney Parks New coaster for 2012 name is likely going to be. "STINGER?". PERFECT name for an inverted Vekoma Boomerang coaster! -__-

This has been mentioned already...

Lol, IK, I was pointing out that the name describes the ride VERY well. Stinger, stinging your head. -_-

New attraction announcement, 10:30am, tomorrow morning just beyond Possessed at the construction site. Park guests are invited to join us.

HPCrazy wrote:"We're proud to announce another 'hand-me-down' attraction that was no longer needed at another Cedar Fair park..."

Come on Cedar Fair, when's that rumored GCI supposed to come to the park?

Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom is planning to step back into the Jurassic Age, literally, with the addition of a different type of attraction for the 2012 season: Dinosaurs Alive!

The attraction will include a series of stationary and automated dinosaur figures -- some 37 in all.

Most of the prehistoric figures will be less than 16 feet in height, but the plan also includes two 35- to 40-foot dinosaurs. They will be viewed by patrons traveling through a themed walking path approximately 2,100 feet long in a 3.3-acre wooded area behind and to the west of Steel Force.

The plan was disclosed Wednesday at a meeting of the South Whitehall commissioners, who earlier in the evening approved amendments to the township’s zoning ordinance that standardized zoning throughout the park. The amendment allows parent company Cedar Fair to replace amusements and add additional rides in excess of 85 feet in height without having to get approval from the township.

The commissioners also approved an amendment giving the park a go-ahead to expand its current parking area into a 6.75-acre parcel of land west of Lincoln Avenue. The plot was purchased from Lehigh County earlier this year for $2.75 million.

“The area where Dinosaurs Alive! is planned lends itself very well to this type of attraction,” said Jason McClure, vice president and general manager of Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom.

“It’s a different kind of attraction for us,” he said. “Currently, schools don’t allow students to attend an amusement park on a school day unless there’s some educational value to the trip. With its educational component, Dinosaurs Alive! will give us a whole new dimension. It will give us another little niche as an attraction to schools and camps.”

Plans are to begin construction on the walkway this fall, with completion of the attraction before the park's re-opening next spring.

Kings Island in Ohio, which is also owned by Dorney's parent company Cedar Fair, is home to a Dinosaurs Alive! park. It features 60 life-sized dinosaurs in a 12.5-acre forest setting, according to its website.

Ccron10 wrote:Oh no....

*facepalm* Looks like the location in which they planning on building this is between Revolution and Steel Force (the area where we keep dreaming of a GCI to be built).

gb980109 wrote:It looks painful. Yay Vekoma.

Park Connoisseur wrote:

gb980109 wrote:It looks painful. Yay Vekoma.

I've said this before, but just wait until you ride this ride. If it rides anything like it's duplicates, I think everyone will enjoy it.

These rides (as well as the Giant Inverted Boomerangs) are very well-engineered. They are very smooth, and very fun. One of the neat parts about this ride is the reverse seating that allows you to watch others in your group ride it. Plus, if you are sitting "backwards" it's neat to ride a boomerang in reverse order. This is especially the case in the back seat - it becomes a front seat on the other side.

As much as I want to see Dorney Park add something custom (and wooden), I like this addition to the park's line-up. It's a fun ride, and it will further disperse the coaster-riding crowd.