New Coaster For Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom

Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom cleared a step Feb. 17 in its proposal to bring a 138-foot inverted coaster to South Whitehall from another amusement park owned by its parent company, Cedar Fair L.P.

Dorney officials did not disclose the name of the coaster, described as an inverted boomerang that will carry 28 riders at a time through several loops. They said only that the ride was in corporate stock.

However, a sketch of the coaster submitted to the township planning office identified "Project 2012" as the Invertigo coaster from Great America park, which Cedar Fair owns in California.

"It's being reconditioned," said Brad Neiland, Dorney's vice president of maintenance and construction. He told planners that the ride's seven-car train is being rebuilt, the track inspected and a new control system installed.

The planners are recommending the project to the South Whitehall board of commissioners for final approval.

Invertigo was at Great America for 12 years.  According to published reports, 24 riders got stuck on the ride for hours in 2009 because of a mechanical failure. No one was injured. The ride was reopened at the park last summer.

Invertigo is also one of the rides at Cedar Fair's King's Island in Ohio, and at another of its amusement parks, said Dorney spokesman Chuck Hutchison.

King's Island's website promotes the ride this way: "Sit back and witness the terror flash in the eyes of your fellow riders as you experience the only face-to-face inverted roller coaster in the Midwest! Scream your face off as you are lifted up a 138-foot hill and then released to soar at speeds reaching 55 miles per hour through three inversions forward and then backward."

Attorney Joseph Bubba, who represented Dorney Park at the planning meeting, said the park does not anticipate that the new coaster will drive up attendance, as do some of the park's signature rides, such as Steel Force and the Talon.

"It's a great coaster, it's a great ride, but it's a modest coaster," Hutchison said later.

If South Whitehall commissioners approve the project, Dorney Park will put the new coaster in its western portion, where the old Laser coaster (removed in 2008) used to be located. 

Existing kiddie rides in that area, a basketball game and concrete midways would be removed. 

In response to a planning official's inquiry about the park's direction, Neiland said the park will continue to cater to families. He pointed to the new Planet Snoopy under construction at the park. It is set to open on April 30.

"We're just changing the way the park flows," Neiland said.

Bubba likened it to "us moving furniture in the living room."

The new coaster would affect about 1. 7 acres of the 187-acre property, according to Dorney's application for planning approval.

Neiland said the coaster ride will last about one minute, 30 seconds. It is expected to carry 850 people per hour.

Planners asked about the ride's noise level, referring in part to the screams that the ride is bound to elicit. Neiland said the ride was not put through any acoustical analysis, but he did not expect the sound level to be any higher than that of the Laser ride.

After the meeting, Hutchison said that a portion of the park that will hold the coaster would be inaccessible this summer, if plans proceed.