Coaster Madness, a roller coaster special event hosted by Dorney Park, has been going on for quite a few years, and was not really on our radar until this year. After looking into the event, we found Coaster Madness to be an exceptionally great value that not only included behind the scenes tours, exclusive ride time (ERT), two meals, and a raffle, but also all-day Fast Lane Plus/Fright Lane that was good for rides and Haunt! To consider that the event cost less than Fast Lane/Fright Lane for the day, it was a definite deal that our family jumped at the chance to attend.

TIP: Do not forget if you need to join a coaster club to gain access to these types of events, we offer an exclusive two-year Coaster Crew deal that can save you money versus buying them individually each year.

Upon arrival to the park at 9:00 am, we were able to secure great parking spots, go through security, and get all registered for the event. Included with admission were an all-day souvenir drink bottle, lanyard that gained us access to tours, our Fast Lane/Fright Lane wristband, a wristband to get us into Fright Feast, and the absolute highlight for us, one of each of the 2019 Dorney Park tweet up coins! But wait, there is more! Since we were one of the first 50 people to register for Coaster Madness, we each got a t-shirt! Seriously, if you are considering attending a coaster event, the hospitality of Dorney Park was tremendous!

Coaster Madness officially kicked off at 10:00 am. We were first treated with a behind-the-scenes tour of the Talon roller coaster, where we were taken down into the “tunnel” near the Immelmann turn. The public is never allowed in this area and provided some really great photo ops of the roller coaster.

From there we received ERT for one hour (10-11 am) on The Whip (which celebrates 100 years in 2019), Possessed, and the Monster Jam Thunder Alley and Freestyle Experience.

We were absolutely thrilled to see several of the same Monster Jam employees that we really enjoyed hanging out with when the event was at Cedar Point. Our kids instantly struct a connection with the incredible staff and loved seeing them again!

We were able to get in a ride on both Monster Jam Freestyle trucks before the park opened to the general public, where the line can extend for hours. How often in life do you get the opportunity to drive around a specially made course in a Monster Jam truck? It is a fantastic experience, and we were so glad to get to do it again at Dorney Park.

The good news is that Monster Jam will be rolled out to some new parks in 2020…stay tuned!

From there we were able to casually walk and enjoy the park a little bit before lunch at noon in the Parkside Pavilion. We were very pleasantly surprised with a great lunch from the food & beverage team, offering a salad bar, coleslaw, grilled veggie wraps, pulled pork and brats, mac & cheese and apple cobbler. The meal was very good and well received!

During lunch, guests were given the opportunity to enter a raffle to win various prizes from around the park. Old banners, signs, sweatshirts and ride parts. We were delighted to see our names drawn to win what we thought were two of the best prizes available: a piece of wood from the former Hercules roller coaster and lap bar from the original ThunderHawk trains.

We were also given the opportunity for a question and answer session with Dorney Park’s General Manager, Mike Fehnel. Some of the highlights include the following:

– Grand Carnivale returning
– Summer Nights coming
– 4th signature beer coming: Ale Alfundo
– Alfundo character meet n greets
– Dino Alive area: Lots of easement in area so unlikely for new structures
– Monster Trucks will be at different parks in 2020
– Nothing in pipeline for Winterfest
– Possessed holding brake unlikely to be back due to hard to acquire part
– No plans for Stinger area

We would also like to take this moment to make note that Mike has to be the most personal GMs we have encountered. He came up to us and struck up a conversation that was absolutely fantastic! Some people have a gift of being honest and genuine that really comes across in conversation. Full of knowledge and so much insight, and we can see why so many people call him the Greatest of All Time!

Following lunch, we were taken on a secret behind-the-scenes tour. The Dorney Park team took us down below Hydra and Steel Force, where not only did it provide some fantastic photo opportunities, but also gave us the chance to see remnants of the former Hercules roller coaster. Up until this point, we were not even familiar with the story of Hercules, and thus its replacement, Hydra, which now all makes sense.

The tour concluded with a tour of the Cornstalkers maze.

From here, we had the remainder of the day to enjoy the park. This was also a perfect time to get some rides in on a former Cedar Point classic, Demon Drop. Our family also got what some consider the holy grail of rides on Demon Drop similar to a rollback. Sometimes the ride vehicle does not have enough to get all the way to end of the bottom, where it then proceeds in reverse back into the station. So ride ops then need to come and push the ride vehicle further down the track, far enough for the reverse mechanisms to move the vehicle. All riders were happy to get to experience, after marathoning Demon Drop.

We later took the kids over to The Great Pumpkin Fest inside Wildwater Kingdom, then came back over to the park to use our Fast Lane and enjoy some of the rides. One of the highlights was undoubtedly the Wild Mouse roller coaster. While skeptical since most Wild Mouse type rides are not always the most comfortable, we were pleasantly surprised just how FUN the Dorney Park roller coaster was, and this was the opinion of all guests in our party.

At 6:00, we were given access to the Fright Feast meal, that not only provided an all-you-can eat meal, but also access to lots of the scareactors. The meal was great, with the highlight being the Pumpkin Ravioli with a Brown Butter Sauce, which we heard lots of people raving about!

At 7:00 we had the Overlord’s Resurrection, which we thought was a very well done call of the scare, signaling the beginning of Haunt. Little did we know we also happen to be standing near one of the sacrifices called to the stage during the show!

Blood on the Bayou

We started our night with Blood on the Bayou, themed after the French Quarter. Having grown up going to Cedar Point’s HalloWeekends, we have gone through our Blood on the Bayou numerous times, in what is an outdoor walk through. We also got to go through the Knott’s Scary Farm Voodoo a couple years ago, which was a similar concept. The Dorney Park Blood on the Bayou seemed very similar to the former Scary Farm maze. Excellent scares. Very detailed sets. We all absolutely loved Blood on the Bayou, as it was the standout maze of the night!

Chamber of Horrors

The Chamber of Horrors maze is themed to a wax museum gone wrong. The house featured a collection of wax figures of historical murderers and then proceeds to take guests through the tormented behind-the-scenes of what is really going on. There were some good scares that got our kids pretty good.

We opted to skip the adjacent Black Out maze.

Tourist Trap

If you ask most people in our party, almost all of them really enjoyed the Tourist Trap maze. Themed after an old hotel, there are lots of surprises inside and beautiful decorations and hidden secrets inside.

Urgent Scare

Being a scare actor has to be an exhausting task. Constant yelling. Scaring guests. It takes a lot of energy. One maze that we think really carries a high level of energy is the Urgent Scare maze, were actors need to constantly portray a demented state. That is one reason we really enjoy the Urgent Scare maze at Kings Island, where the actors really portrayed what it might be like inside a hospital.

This is one maze that sadly sort of fell flat during our walk through. Maybe some of the staff were on break during the moment, but there were lots of scenes with no one inside them. The first guy as soon as you walked in sitting in a wheel chair really set up the scene well and gave us high hopes for what to expect. Unfortunately, this maze may need a second try on another visit.

Necropolis

Having been in lots of haunted houses over the years, until we experienced Necropolis, we had not realized we had never been in a full walk through cemetery before this, which of course is the ultimate setting.

After walking through the “church”, guests enter into the cemetery where they are greeted with the creatures of the night. This maze was exceptionally good with the fog rolling through. There was one actor that was low to the ground hiding behind a above ground burial chamber and as our son came around the corner, he did not see him and really scared the pants off of him. It was so funny. Loved the Necropolis maze!

Trick-or-Treat: Lights Out

We first experienced Trick-or-Treat a number of years ago at Knott’s Scary Farm. Excellently decorated and executed. The Haunt builders put so much work into elaborate set builds, it is quite stunning to see all their work.

Sadly, with the Lights Out version of Trick-or-Treat, it is exactly that, and guests are given a small flashlight to make their way through the maze. This means you do not really get to see the full story being told by the sets.

What we did see was stunning and very similar to the previous Trick-or-Treat mazes we have seen. It is a great story telling of the covenant of witches.

The maze also happen to be light on actors during our walk through, making dark rooms even more mysterious.

Cedar Point did the same thing to their Hexed maze (Lights Out), which is again a shame not getting to see all the great details and just counting on the jump scare to set the scene.

The above is all just my personal opinion, as our youngest son really enjoyed getting to go into Trick-or-Treat 3 times in a row with Fright Lane while the rest of us rode Steel Force.

While in the area we also took the opportunity to ride Steel Force and ThunderHawk, which was the first time we have ever gotten to do both at night. Take any good roller coaster, and change the setting from day to night, and it just infinitely becomes so much better. Both were fantastic!

While in the area, we also took the opportunity to check out The Lair outdoor scare zone. This Haunt was an absolute surprise from the normal outdoor walk thru mazes that we have experienced in the past. The Lair was fantastically themed and then we realized we were not even indoors!

Conclusion

We have already gone over what an incredible value Coaster Madness provides enthusiasts. Meals, ERT, tours, Fast Lane/Fright Lane. It is an absolute deal and one of the more affordable events we have seen considering all that is included.

In addition, we have visited Dorney Park quite a bit since our first visit in 2015. We all agreed, Coaster Madness was the most FUN we have ever had at the park. We met lots of new friends, and even reconnected with others we have met at other events.

We are absolutely sold on trying to make this event an annual tradition based on our 2019 experience.

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