Dorney Park and Wildwater Kingdom

Yesterday on my post concerning this blog's birthday, I mentioned that I went to Dorney Park and Wildwater Kingdom near Allentown, PA with Craig and his family on Sunday, staying over his house Saturday night into Sunday and Sunday night into Monday. So I'm going to tell you a couple of stories from the park that day and some of the experiences that I had there. So without anymore interuptions from the underpants-stealing gnome that lives in my middle drawyer in my dresser, I shall begin telling you of these adventures.

I was playing Runescape Saturday morning when Craig sent a message to me asking if I was busy at all on Sunday. I was like, "I think my father might have something planned." Then Craig responded with, "Oh, because I wanted to know if you wanted to go to Dorney Park with me tomorrow." I quickly responded, "Screw any plans! Heck yes I'll go!" After talking some more, Craig told me that I'd stay over his house that night because it would be convient being how early in the morning we were going to go, and then stay over the next night because of how late we'd be getting back. I kept on telling Craig that I wasn't going to go on any extreme rides or rollercoasters, but in the end that all changed.

That night at his house we stayed up pretty late because it was hard to fall asleep for some odd reason. We just talked a bit in whispers so we didn't disturb everybody else sleeping while watching Adult Swim on TV and some Nick at Night. We went to bed around three and woke up four hours later at seven to get ready to leave at eight. We wanted to get at the park as soon as it opened at ten to get a good parking spot and go on some of the water rides before the lines got too long. We were going to the Wildwater Kingdom first, then to the other side of the park later after lunch. On the way down we watched Little Nicky, which is one of those great movies that you can watch over and over again. The van we went down in had a DVD player built into the roof of the van, so that's how we watched the DVD.

The parking space was already pretty packed when we got there and the park was only opened for ten minutes when we arrived. We parked the van between two cars in which the owners of them were from out of the state (I think New York state), were friends, and were both Spanish-speaking Mexicans with large familes. They must've been pissed or something that we parked between them, even though the parking lot guys told us to park there, because later on while we were eating lunch they kept on making weird noises at us and yelled some stuff at us in Spanish everytime they walked inbetween their car and ours. When we came back to the van for lunch, they had folding chairs right at the back of our van like it was no problem. And when we left the park there was a mess everywhere where they were parked, and a slice of a watermelon was underneath the front wheel of our van.

Never being at Dorney Park before, but only seeing a small sight of a rollercoaster once while driving down an interstate highway to an outdoors store (I don't know the spelling but the name of the store is pronounced as ka-bell-la's), the sights of the park were amazing and beautiful all at the same time. Upon entering the park, the only way to get into Wildwater Kingdom was to go below a large steel rollercoaster called the Talon, which is the longest and tallest inverted coaster in the Northeast. I was in awe at the ride being that I never saw a steel rollercoaster that large up close before. Actually before going to Dorney, the only steel coaster I ever saw in person was the Whirlwind at Knobels, which I have heard is no longer there.

At Wildwater Kingdom, we rented a large locker to put our stuff in, such as our shirts, and went off to the water slides and other rides. Water slides are great - both one that use tubes and one where you lay on your back and cross your arms over your chest. I went on these rides multiple times with Craig and his family. We didn't go to any wave pools while we were there but just the basic rides. The one ride that we all enjoyed was the Whitewater River, as you can ride on it many times without having to get off. The ride is practically like a river somewhat where you ride around in a big circle on tubes while you go underneath waterfalls, mushrooms that rain down water on you, and other small falls of water run off into this ride. Another thing that stands out is something called the Lily Pads. What you have to do is hold onto a plastic "rope" (a suspended cable) as you try to balance on these huge "lily pads" that stay in place in the water, and try to cross to the other side, but if you fail you'll still be satisifed falling into the blue, refreshing pool. Around six in the afternoon, Craig's parents let Craig and I wonder off by ourselves back over to the Wildwater Kingdom because it was quite hot out and we wanted to get wet. We went on a second ride similar to the Whitewater River but it was a different one, and the enterance to it was on the other side of the exit, right? Well, we left our shirts and shoes at the enterance of this ride and when we got off and wanted to just wade over to the enterance to get our stuff, we were yelled at to go around and get them, a five minute walk! Plus we could only stay by ourselves until seven thirty at it was only ten minutes away, so we ran, fast. By the time we got back to meet up with Craig's parents, our feet were sore from running and we had some cramps. Craig and I cursed at that woman who told us to go around for the rest of the day because besides a five minute walk we could've just waded down to our stuff within thirty seconds or less and been on our way.

After lunch, we went into the other side of the park from Wildwater Kingdom, Dorney Park. One of the first intense rides that I went on was the Wild Mouse. An excellent ride indeed. I liked the sharp turns at the top and then the hills and climbs that made it feel like a rollercoaster. Then we went to my next intense ride that I said that I'd never go on, a rollercoaster, called the Hydra. Stolen from Dorney's offical site, here is a description of the ride: "HYDRA The Revenge is the first and only floorless roller coaster in Pennsylvania with a unique twist that flips riders upside-down as the train exits the station, then sends riders soaring through the sky along more than a half-mile of coiling steel track." Was I afraid? Yes. Did I live? Yes. Did I like it? I loved it. The Hydra turned out to be my favorite rollercoaster out of the other ones I went on -- these being the Talon and the Laser, and I even went on it twice. Another time was after we ate supper at the Game Day Grille around night. Then after going to the Hydra and running to the bathroom due to bladder problems, I ate some good ol' Dip n Dots ice cream -- the ice cream of the future.

Craig's brother and father went on the Steel Force, which I was terrified to go on, even after going on the Hydra. Craig wanted to go on it but we ended up not doing so. He became afraid after a train got stuck at the beginning of the 200 feet plus climb. Even after that incident happened, Craig's brother and father still went on the ride. They were lucky, however, because the rollercoaster car after theirs broke down again.

There are many other stories to tell of the park, but due to my horrible memory, I'll need to discuss politics with Craig about what else happened and maybe come back here and tell some more stories. For example, at night right before we were going to go home, Craig's brother, Jimmy, ran around to different locations getting pennies pressed into pictures of some of the different Peanuts characters, from Charlie Brown. The Peanuts characters are the mascots of the park. I was dissapointed that there was no giant Snoopy wandering around. I needed to hug him.

Just a quick news flash in Runescape News: I got a crystal key. During a slayer task once killing desert lizards, I got the teeth key half from them and then yesterday I got the loop key half killing ice giants. Currently I'm at the baby blue dragons getting my prayer level up one or two, but after that I'm going on a new Runescape plan to prepare myself for doing tons and tons of quests.

Make sure you have a good one.