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Dorney Park lining up more thrills

Allentown Morning Call

Original Article »

February 02, 2011

Mum's the word on a new ride slated to join Dorney Park's lineup of belly-dropping, giggle-inducing thrillers, and park representatives say enthusiasts will have to wait until summer 2012 to try it out.

Dorney Park's parent corporation, Cedar Fair L.P., submitted a plan to South Whitehall Township for a new 138-foot-high amusement ride. But the plan doesn't mention what kind of a ride it is, and the park's general manager, Jason McClure, said his lips are sealed.

"We are keeping our focus on 2011 and all the new things we have in store with Planet Snoopy," McClure said.

The park's opening day will reveal the results of an $8 million top-to-bottom makeover of 10-year-old Camp Snoopy, the 3.5-acre children's area named after the too-cool beagle from Charles Schulz's "Peanuts" comic strip. The renovation will bring six new rides, an amphitheater, a souvenir store and a "soda pop shop" featuring root beer floats.

Dorney representatives will take questions about the proposed 2012 addition from the South Whitehall Planning Commission on Feb. 17, but even that won't demystify the new ride.

"The Planning Commission can ask us a variety of questions… but it's premature to get into a lot of detail," McClure said.

That hasn't stopped people from speculating that the incoming ride will be a coaster from California's Great America called Invertigo. The coaster happens to be 138 feet tall and is being relocated to another park within Cedar Fair's amusement park empire, according to a Great America news release issued last week.

Invertigo takes riders sitting face to face up a 138-foot-tall tower, then on several loops and twists both forward and backward through three inversions.

The rumor of the swap surfaced last week on a theme-park fan site called Screamscape.com, but Dorney spokesman Chuck Hutchison said the rumors are just that — rumors.

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

Under Dorney's proposal for a new ride, several kiddie rides would be 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.

 



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