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Park News - (4/28/08) Dorney Park fans may want to check out the latest News Plus Notes entry which features an interview with Dorney Park’s PR Manager who talk about VooDoo and a number of other topics. We did learn that Laser is still being worked on and isn’t expected to open until close to Memorial Day weekend. They’ve also posted a great logo for VooDoo’s new gift shop called Possessions. (Such a great name for a shop…) which is actually the old DropShop after a face lift. Then they move on to talk quite a bit about this year’s Haunt, so make the jump for all the great details!
  (3/21/08) According to the local news Dorney Park’s infamous HalloWeekends is no more. The Halloween event will now be called Halloween Haunt and it will feature all new and more scary attractions during the 2008 run, September 27th to November 1st. According to Dorney Park, capital spending on the 2008 Halloween Haunt will be nearly three times more than what was spent in 2007 and labor hours up by 187% over last year to allow for an extra 300 workers. New this year will be a new 80 foot by 40 foot 1 story haunted house to be used for Club Blood, a vampire nightclub haunt going near the exit of White Water Landing. Other news haunts will include CornStalkers, an outdoor cornfield maze, and Terror Square, a large new scare zone.
  (3/13/08) I’ve been informed that the revised version of the Dorney Park 2008 Rider Safety Guide is now online and now includes Laser.
  (3/12/08) While checking on the status of the Laser, I asked Charles Hutchison (Dorney’s PR Manager) if they could comment on if Cedar Fair had indeed listed the ride as being for sale or not. He was kind enough to give a lengthy response for everyone to read.

Lance,
At this time there is no public information regarding ride sales or purchases. I will offer my thoughts on the topic for your readers who love Laser like I do.
 
Laser is well loved. Like all rides I'm sure that it is under constant evaluation for safety, ridership trends and interest, maintenance costs, and opportunity cost of the space it occupies. Cedar Fair Entertainment Company and Dorney Park maintain this constant monitoring process on every ride for many reasons like ensuring safety, maximizing and refreshing guest experience, and continuously developing our properties to become better, more fun and more thrilling with each step.
 
Ultimately nothing lasts forever, and one day I'm sure many of the existing rides at Dorney will all eventually be replaced with new experiences, as many attractions before them and many others yet to come. In the end, all it means when any ride is removed is that Dorney has another opportunity to provide a new unique thrill to once again excite our guests.
 
You may be interested to know that there are no attractions left at the park today from its first two decades of operations. The third decade of operations beginning in 1914 saw the addition of The Whip in 1920 which is now the oldest attraction at Dorney. The Whip just got a new floor for the 2008 season. The 1920's also brought Thunderhawk built in 1923, now celebrating its 85th birthday and standing as the 4th oldest continuously operating roller coaster in North-America. Both of these are still thriving and exciting attractions today.
 
We look forward to Screamscape helping us celebrate Dorney's 125th anniversary next year and many anniversaries after that.

  Charles also told us to keep a watch out on the official VooDoo site for new pictures to be added any day now as they are currently putting up the front spiral spike.
  (3/10/08) One of our readers tells us that Dorney Park has posted their new 2008 Rider’s Safety Guide online and that there is not a single mention of Laser anywhere in the lengthy guide that describes every other ride and water attraction in the park. Of course this has lead to some widespread panic that Laser is coming out, but this morning I was able to confirm with Charles Hutchison, PR Manager at Dorney Park, that Laser will be up and running for the 2008 season. According to Charles, “The Rider Safety Guide underwent substantial changes from last year, and there were some erroneous omissions. A corrected document will be uploaded soon. I anticipated the error of omitting Laser would generate speculation and inquiries; please assist us in dispelling any rumors.” So there you go. Go forth and spread the good word!
  (2/6/08) You can see some behind the scenes tour photos from Dorney Park posted to AmusementPics.
  (2/4/08) The forum at North East Coasters has posted some new information about this year’s Haunt given at the Eastcoaster 2008 event. Dorney’s haunt is expected to add Club Blood, a vampire themed nightclub gone wrong seen at some of the other Cedar Fair parks last year. I went through the one at Kings Dominion in 2007 and thought it was one of the best haunts in the park myself. They claim that Club Blood will be placed near the exit of White Water Landing and may require the construction of a special building to house it, which was also the case with Kings Dominion’s Club Blood last year. Other items of note include an outdoor haunt area called Terror Square near Hydra and the addition of Cornstalkers, an outdoor cornfield themed maze that could run from Wildwater Kingdom’s entrance down to the back of Thunder Canyon.
  (1/2/08) Over the last 24 hours, several anonymous sources have wrote in to say that as far as they know Lagoon has no plans to remove Colossus the Fire Dragon. The ride is actually expected to be getting some technical upgrades this off-season as well, so it doesn’t make sense to spend money on a ride you are trying to sell. It was also pointed out that the sales ad mentioned that the mystery ride is 93 feet tall while Colossus is only 85 feet tall, Laser on the other hand is exactly 93 feet tall. Long time readers may recall reading rumors more than once over the last few years about how the park was planning on repainting Laser only to have it cut from the budget. Sounds like this could have been the reason.
  (1/1/08) The possible removal of the Laser is now a little less likely after Duane of RCDB reminded me about Colossus the Fire Dragon at Lagoon (Utah). There is a good chance that the Lagoon coaster could be the one listed for sale at this point as well. According to RCDB, while Colossus opened at Lagoon in 1984, it actually started out in 1981 as a traveling coaster on the German fair circuit for three years with Bruch & Bobrahn before being sold to Lagoon. The coaster is said to be nearly identical to Laser with the addition of an extra helix near the end.
  (12/31/07) While looking over the Ital website at their used coasters current for sale I came across two ads of Schwarzkopf Double Loop coasters. One I’ve seen listed for quite some time, claiming the coaster has only been used once a year since 2000. But the newer listing has no ride photo and lists the ride as a 1981 semi-portable model with two trains in good condition that has received annual refurbishment and asking to be paid in US dollars. There aren’t a lot of these rides around these days and Dorney Park’s Laser is one of them. While Laser has only been at Dorney since 1986, it was relocated from Brazil where it’s history is a little unclear, listed as opening in “1982 or earlier”. Of the top of my head, I can’t think of any other ride that could be a match for this right now, so I’ve got to wonder if Dorney is ready to sell the Laser. Anyone know more?

2008 - VooDoo - (5/5/08) News Plus Notes has posted a new VooDoo update from the park as well as pictures taken throughout the rest of the park.
  (5/1/08) From what we’ve been told VooDoo will now not oen until May May it seems. New signs have been put up at the season pass processing area saying that VooDoo will not open until Late May.
  (4/10/08) Dorney Park Online has posted a huge Voodoo construction update.
  (3/17/08) According to the latest photo reports from News Plus Notes, VooDoo’s layout is now finished.
  (2/28/08) All new pictures of VooDoo and the first competed spike can be found at News Plus Notes.
  (2/21/08) New construction pictures of VooDoo can be seen at News Plus Notes where you can see them putting up one of the ride’s towers as well as the station.
  (2/8/08) In the latest construction update at News Plus Notes, VooDoo has gone vertical at last. You can see even more progress over at the VooDoo webcam during the day.
  (1/29/08) Some new VooDoo construction pictures can be found at NewsPlusNotes. There still isn’t much to see yet, but a more detailed state of things can be found posted in the latest official VooDoo construction blog.
  (1/7/08) Some of the latest VooDoo construction photos taken just before Christmas are now posted online.
  (12/7/07) Dorney Park has updated their construction website for VooDoo this week where you can see track being painted, metal welded and footers being dug and poured. There is also a live webcam mounted to the top of Dominator, but there isn’t much to see right now.
  (11/12/07) Dorney Park has launched a new website to promote the new VooDoo coaster.
  (10/16/07) We’ve been sent a picture of VooDoo’s track at Dorney Park, where you can see track sections painted both yellow and red. I’m curious if they are repainting it or if the ride may have two different colored track sections. You can find more photos over at NewsPlusNotes.
  (10/9/07) You can see some early construction photos for VooDoo posted to the CoasterTalk forums.
  (9/24/07) Dorney Park has apparently let the cat out of the bag and announced VooDoo, the new name for the coaster formerly known as Steel Venom, in their season pass renewal letter. The promotional tag line they are using is “VooDoo – It will possess you in 2008”. The description of the ride is kind of entertaining, claiming that it will be “a suspended Impulse Coaster that takes you breath away” and that it will “will possess you as it sends riders rocketing from one spiral tower to another at speeds up to 70mph” and feature “Dueling towers reaching 180 feet into the air fight for your spirit as Linear Induction Motors propel the coaster to new heights of velocity.” "It's the Curse of VOODOO ... to ride, and ride, and ride!" Big thanks to News Plus Notes for sending us the logo (it is quite spiffy if I say so...) and you can visit them to see construction shots of the site as well as the first coaster pieces arriving on site.

Future Plans - Rumor - (11/8/06) I’ve heard an interesting rumor this week that mentions some possible long term growth plans for the park. We’ve heard that the park may be planning on paving the current overflow parking lot in advance of some long term plans that could see more of the park expanding out into the current existing parking lot near the entrance. We were also told they were looking into possible park redesigns that could someday see the main entrance of the park relocated to feed into the lower section of the park and allow for more redevelopment at the top where the current entrance is.