Dutch Wonder House - still rolling!

So it was a beautiful sunny day today and we made our first full family visit to Dutch Wonderland in 2012.  I didn’t follow my own advice so we missed opening and arrived around 11am.  The place was not crowded at all and plenty of preferred parking was available.  Just a reminder  – if you have a Season Pass to Dutch Wonderland you get free preferred parking, a $10 savings each trip.

Trip Report

So we breezed through security with no line and went into the castle.  The left side (as you enter from the parking lot) is under construction as the new Merlin’s sit down restaurant.  It looks like it’s going to be pretty nice, but it is not large.  Not sure how many folks they’ll be able to seat at a time.

Merlin's Under Construction

We flashed our passes at the entrance and they had the sign up for a free dessert with a meal ticket purchase.  If you like dessert this is a pretty good deal.  If you don’t like dessert, well, pass it up.  The new park maps are very nice though I noticed mine had some white-out correction tape covering an error on the Fun Slide ride.  Also the entertainment info was on a separate sheet.  Perhaps they don’t have the full brochure done yet.

My husband and son had never been to DW before so we took a tour around the entrance area.  The kids rode the carousel and we saw Princess Brooke and The DW Knight.  They take your photo on the carousel which is nice if it turns out, but ours weren’t so nice so we passed them up.  Photos start around $10.   I noticed the face painting stand near the carousel was charging $6-9 for full face painting.  A little pricey for something that would wash off, but still neat.

The kids rode Sky Fighter twice while hubby rode the VR Voyager Simlutor.  I’m kind of fond of the “space” section of the park because it takes me back to the years when we really cared about space travel because it was new and exciting.  I rode the Astroliner as a child and remember thinking it was neat to know someone had walked on the moon.

Sky Fighter

Next we did two rounds of Choo Choo Charlie.  That’s how you can tell the park wasn’t crowded.  During the “on” season you wait 30 minutes just to go around once.  Today we walked onto everything except Huck Finn’s Leaping Frogs.

The kids played in the church and the school house.  They milked Bossie which is a must do.  Hubby had his picture taken with the pretzel…. all these things are pure Dutch Wonderland.  I did them as a kid and my kids have too.

We did a few rides on Off Road Ralley which has got to be the slowest loading ride in the park since attendants have to check all the seat belts.  Then we took a turn on the Gondola Cruise which was relaxing as always – except that this ride is just about 5 min too long for an antsy two-year old.  Keep that in mind if you are traveling alone with small children and want to ride the Gondalas.  In the end you will be holding onto them to keep them from jumping in the stream because they just want off at that point.

We got our souvenir cup and a new toddler cup for our son. DW still has the cheap cups from last year only they are green this year.  I really don’t like the foldover straw.  The toddler cup from last year has seen better days so we’ll probably get another later.  At $2.99 the toddler cups are a good deal since the cups last a long time, but you can’t get milk in the cup.  Only sodas, fruit punch or lemonade.  Or water I guess.

Let’s see, what else.  The Sky Ride was not working which isn’t a big deal to me since I don’t ride it, but some people like it to get from one end of the park to the other.  That is something important to note, it is not round trip.  That means if you have a stroller you need to load the kids up onto Sky Ride I then get off at Sky Ride II, get in line for Sky Ride II and ride back to Sky Ride I.  They do not let you stay on.

I was surprised to see the divers today but they were there doing The Frog Prince and A Dragon’s Tale.  Such good shows but way too cool to be in the splash zone.

Nope, it's not Disney, Dutch Wonderland has Dole Whips too!

We took a turn on the train which is always fun and then headed for a Dole Whip.  Hubby had never had one and he got the orange and vanilla twist.  Well, it was just OK.  I really don’t like the texture of them.  I like creamy ice cream so this is just not for me.  We do want to try the pineapple flavor next time.  Also they don’t have a children’s size for these which is unfortunate. I bring cups from home to use to split an adult one up between me and the kids.  Most folks don’t do that though.

Last we went on the Dragon’s Lair – all 4 of us in one boat.  That was fun and the kids loved seeing the “crocodile” and hearing Duke.  When my daughter and I visited last year Duke wasn’t moving or talking.  They take your photo at the end of this but we didn’t stick around long enough to see how it turned out.

We did buy a games value pack which I’ll talk about in another post in detail, but we didn’t get to use it.  You can buy them at the ticket counter for $15 and you get vouchers for 12 games.  It isn’t quite as good of a deal as it looks, but I’ll tell you why later.

So all in all it was a good trip.  We had one sick child and another that was in a nasty mood by 1:30pm and hubby was hungry so we just decided to leave.  We’ll be going back since there are lots more things hubby wants to ride and the kids want to play some games.  There were a few things that stood out in our trip that I want to mention and I’ve listed them below.  Thanks for reading!

Parking

I’ve often wondered why anyone would pay $10 to park in Preferred Parking at Dutch Wonderland, but now I know why.  You are really close to the entrance if you need to go back to your car for anything.  When you travel with small children it is nearly impossible to carry everything you might need with you so your car becomes an important feature of your trip.  This becomes especially true if you are using Duke’s Lagoon to enjoy the water slides and other wet features.  So I would say that yes, the $10 is worth it if you arrive later in the day and have to park up near the miniature golf course.  The walk from the entrance to that area is probably a good ten minutes and in the heat of summer that can seem like forever.

Security

I saw something today that I haven’t seen before at Dutch Wonderland or Hersheypark, security was checking large purses.  I know they *say* they can but I’ve never seen anyone do it.  I saw it today.  So if you carry a large purse, be ready and hide those “personal” items you don’t want anyone to see.

Employees

Everyone seemed to be in a good mood today.  They smiled at the kids, waved at the train and just generally made our trip better.  Perhaps it was because it was early in the season or because the crowds were light, but whatever it was it improved the trip a great deal.

Guest Services – Not very helpful

Normally I have nothing to complain about with Guest Services at Dutch Wonderland but today I did.  The line for season passes was curled up outside the building and they had no one helping with routine questions.  All I wanted to find out was if they had a allergen listing for 2012 yet but I was treated like a criminal who was line jumping when I tried to ask someone about it.  I was very disappointed that they didn’t have at least one person fielding routine questions.  The line for season passes didn’t move at all while I was in it and for someone who wants an answer to a question that’s just unacceptable.  Hopefully they’ll do this better next time.

The One Problem that sent us home early

We had only one problem on this trip but it was unfortunately a major one.  The food allergen information is not online yet nor do they have it at guest services.  We were able to get a 2011 copy of the food allergen listing to see at Mill Stream Eatery, but I wasn’t going to chance year old information.  It ultimately was this problem that caused us to leave the park earlier than planned around 2:30.  My husband who eats a gluten free diet by necessity was unable to safely eat anything in the park.  Hopefully the park will get their updated info soon.

That’s it from me, see you in the park soon!