New for 2009: The Twister (Rodeo)

That's right! The Rodeo is now calling Dutch Wonderland home after being removed from Hersheypark for the Seaquel. The move includes some improvements such as LED lights and a new entrance sign.

I have never ridden the Rodeo at it's old location, but I did ride the carnival model several times.

I think Knoebels' Wipeout is a better, more intense, experience. While I always liked this ride, Wipeout really blew me away. I hope Hershey gets one down the road.

I always loved to ride Rodeo. It had an interesting queue line, too. It was nice thrill ride - even better at night when it's all lit up - except for all the little bugs! -lol!

I'll have to make it back out to Dutch Wonderland sometime to ride it in its new home. It looks better than ever with the new lights (yes they do looked multi-colored). It's also weird how other than that, nothing else looks different.

Yes, Wipeout is one of the most intence flats that I have been on.

So did they boost performance as well? Does it go up and down faster and rotate more often?

Where did they put it in the park? It's been seven years since I visited Dutch Wonderland, and it seems a lot of rides have come, gone, moved, changed, etc.

They put it where Panda Party was, beside Crazy Plane. They moved Panda Party beside The Earthmovers (Dukes Dozers).

The flume ride is right there, too. It's basically an offset area of the park.

It's nice to see that area be livened up a little. They've almost done the same thing when the Flying Trapeze was re-located to its current spot, and they added the Turtle Whirl next to it. They need to put some more rides down in that area amongst the trees.

The area where it starts to slope down to where those few game stands are against like the river could have some rides. I rarely see anybody play those games or go to that part of the park.

Dutch Wonderland , just like Hershey, renames their rides at Halloween. The Twister was still called The Twister. What is scary about that?

Im glad to see dutch wonderland has taken good care of our rodeo lol.

Not all of their rides are re-named, unlike ours. The only one of ours that fits perfectly in both the summer and October is Howler. They could've at least gave the Twister its old HP in the Dark ride name, Spooky Spinner.

Yes, that would've been nice. But I can see why Twister would still be considered a "scary" name.

Fanatic wrote: But I can see why Twister would still be considered a "scary" name.

You can?

"scary" -

Twister - can be seen as "twisted". When something is twisted (not in the twisted rope type of way) it means wicked, scary looking.


I just immediately thought twisted when reading twister, so..

You do have a good point, I could not see that until now. thanks Now it wont bother me.

Yeah, you kind of have to think in a weird way to get it to seem like that. : P

Stormwinder wrote:You do have a good point, I could not see that until now. thanks Now it wont bother me.

^ lol I guess we like to dig deep into Hershey too much that we are concerned about things such as names. It's what makes us such dedicated fans.

I have been to Dutch Winter Wonderland twice this year, (and might go again) and the first time I went The Rodeo-Twister was running fine all day. The second time I went it was sitting in pieces.







I know Hershey always took it apart for the winter, but the ride was scheduled to be open and ran last winter and even one year at Hershey. It is taken apart even more now than it was when it was at Hershey.



I wonder if Hershey still had full ownership over this ride and wanted it back after the sale. If so, I hope we se it running at Hersheypark again soon.

Hmm. I never thought of that. I wonder if it could be something like Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom when that park was sold (Six Flags had to get what they wanted to keep out of the park before new owners take it over).
The ride was scheduled to operate the rest of the event and I don't think they would take it apart this soon to inspect it for the off-season. But then again they could've not operated the ride at all and took it apart earlier since the sale occured in November.

This seems interesting to follow and I'm interested in seeing what's left if you go back to the park soon.

EDIT: By the way, it looks good for being over 20 years old.

The ride was operating fine when I was there as well, a couple of weeks ago. As I rode it, I was wondering what would become of this ride under Palace's ownership. This was something that I was concerned about when the sale of this park was completed. If Hershey does, indeed, get this ride back in 2011, it would make me feel better to know that it's still theirs. Yeah, the park wouldn't just go and close down a ride like this before an event is over for no reason (unless it's a major refurbishment, like what's currently happening to HP's Ferris Wheel). You're correct in that it did run for one year during CCL in 2004 I believe. Usually when it was taken apart at Hershey (and also at DW I think), the only part that was removed were the seats am I correct? Having a refurbishment to this ride is unlikely since it probably went through one before it was moved to DW.

This is, indeed, interesting. Moving this ride back to Hershey would be a good move, IMO, and probably save them money from having to purchase an entirely new flat for the upcoming season (similar to what they did with Starship and Balloon Flite in 2005). I'll be keeping my eyes open on this situation, hopefully it'll turn out for the better!

I emailed Dutch Wonderland about this to see if this had anything to deal with the park being sold to Palace.
The reply I got back was that it closed early because of the cold temperatures so that it could start it's offseason maintenance inspections. So it won't be going back to Hershey.

That answers that question

At least nothing bad is happening to it. As long as Dutch Wonderland is doing their part to keep it operating, that's good.