It has been at least eight years since I visited Dutch Wonderland and they’ve changed owners twice since then but I was pleased to see that some of the charm of the park I remember from my childhood was still there.
Parking is $10 or free depending on how far you walk
The park opens at 10am this time of year and I arrived early, around 9:30, and found the parking lot filling up quickly. I drove by at 9:10 and the lot was empty even though the Breyers Ice Cream Parlor opens at 8:45. If you’ve been to the park before you will notice a change, parking now comes in two flavors – free and preferred for $10. Of course the preferred parking is closest to the castle. Most people were choosing the free option.
Coffee anyone? You can take it into the park with you!
If you arrive to the park for opening and need something to eat or drink, stop at the Breyers Ice Cream Parlor for a treat. They open before the park and anything you purchase here can be taken into the park unlike other food and beverages. No other outside food is allowed into the park, though they allow one sealed water bottle per person. Most of the food places in the park do not open until 11am so you have an hour lag time if you end up hungry or thirsty.
Duke and the Princess are a minute late to work... 10am sharp!!!
If you are outside the park at 10am sharp you can get your picture taken with Duke, The Princess and the Knight. I saw them walking out from backlot just at 10am. There were many opportunities to see them in the park so don’t feel you need to do this first thing. Autograph books are available in the park gift shop but I’m not sure why you need them for just 3 people unless you get the entertainment folks too.
The cutest bag check sign around!
Dutch Wonderland checks bags just like Hersheypark does either right outside the castle door or right inside depending on crowds. This can take a long time for people with pool stuff for Duke’s Lagoon so save the security guys some time and have your bags open when you get there.
The Castle Gift Shop is HUGE, this in only one side of it. The other is just as big.
The castle is home to the Dutch Wonderland gift shop which is filled with things nobody needs but everybody buys anyway. Pin trading is still going on here at Dutch Wonderland though all the pins today were buy 1 get 1 50% off. That tells me they aren’t moving well and perhaps will be phased out now that Palace Entertainment owns the park instead of Hershey Entertainment & Resorts.
Get the ingredients lists with a smart phone
The first thing I did was go to guest services and ask about guests with disabilities and food allergy information. I was told guests with disabilities are able to enter any ride through the exit with 4 members of their party if one party member wears a special wristband. I was also given a large printout of the ingredients list from every food area in the park. These are also available at all large food stands and on the internet if you have a smart phone. You can also get season passes here and family finder ID bands for your kids.
You can also get a “my first visit” badge from guest services when you go to the park for the first time. Neat little souvenir and you will get some special attention from the park employees who notice it.
The Family Finder program (that is what Hersheypark calls it, Dutch Wonderland doesn’t have it posted anywhere so I don’t know what they call it) just has you put a wristband on your kids that has your cell phone number written on the back. Dutch’s bands are green (Hersheypark’s are red) and you just ask for them. If your kids get lost the staff calls the cell phone number. No names are used. When you see the number of kids under 6 in this park and the meandering paths DW has you’ll know why this is a good idea.
Season Passes are $104.95 in 2011
You can apply your single day ticket price to a season pass if you have a good day at DW and want to come back. This is a nice feature for families who aren’t sure if their kids will enjoy the park or not. You need to keep your ticket stubs to do this and visit guest services.
My applause to Dutch Wonderland for having photo IDs of their employees. I saw this first at Delgrosso’s last week and hope everyone adopts it. It is very easy to pick up park employee apparel at thrift stores (I just saw a pair of Hersheypark shorts yesterday for $1.50 at the Salvation Army) so the outfit doesn’t ensure you are dealing with a park employee and we need to make sure our kids are safe. Thanks DW for doing this. (Hersheypark, are you listening????)
Moments before the train stopped running...
I was going to ride the train to see how it was, but it broke down first thing in the morning and then later in the day as well. Both times the riders had to get off and take paths back to the regular section of the park. Not a big deal but frustrating. I did get to ride the train between down times and it was interesting to note it has the exact same cars as Lakemont Park’s train.
The sign says don't crawl on the pretzel, well what is it there for then? (Everyone should have their photo taken with the pretzel!)
So I made my rounds and took pictures of the rides like I do at every park. I was happy to see things I remembered from my childhood like the pretzel, the cow you can milk and the small houses they’ve always had.
I saw a few employees who were not exactly helpful to guests – one ride operator forgot to get a woman’s child off the ride before it started again and unfortunately the child hadn’t liked the first ride. There were tears and an upset parent. No apologies though but the girl was able to get off the ride.
It was somebody's birthday... yesterday
I saw some cases where the park could have been cleaner – like a birthday party tent that was left up in Duke’s Lagoon with yesterday’s balloons still attached. Kind of sad to see first thing in the morning. The one letterbox station I ran across was not well maintained. The books inside were full, the ink pad was open and drying out and the stamp itself looked liked it had never been cleaned. What a disappointment that would be to find after a long search.
But I have to admit those were the only negative parts of my trip. I encountered very friendly people in most cases. The ones who weren’t friendly were guests – especially one father at the Kingdom Cafe. I hope he was nicer to his children since they were standing with him and heard the things he said to me.
Up front in the monorail - what a neat view!
I had a great ride on the monorail and sat up in the cab with the driver. I didn’t catch her name but she was great to talk with and answered all my questions (Thank you!!) There is a single bench seat in the cab that you can sit in, but one thing to remember is the driver needs to concentrate to keep the riders safe so if you have excitable children you may want to have them sit in one of the other cars so as not to distract the driver.
Ride lines were very short until around 11am. The Kingdom Coaster was short all day and I never saw a full train go out. Many kids are not tall enough for this so it is understandable.
Gem height categories
I’d advise you to measure your kids before you go to the park to be sure they will be able to ride. Dutch Wonderland uses a system similar to Hersheypark where they label height categories by a special name – in this case by gem colors to go with the royalty theme. You can check the rides online to see the gem system and what heights each ride will allow.
Busy right from opening
Let’s see, what was busy first thing? Duke’s Lagoon – the waterpark section. I walked over there at 10:30 and there were less than a dozen empty chairs. Dutch Wonderland has a lot of season pass holders and just like at Hersheypark’s Boardwalk those folks come and snap up the shade at 10:01 and everything else by 10:30. You can rent cabanas at Dutch Wonderland and they are much cheaper than at Hersheypark but a better bet is to wait to visit Duke’s Lagoon until after 5pm. Today the park was open until 8:30 and the water area was open until 8:15. If you wait until 6pm or so to hit the water you’ve still got plenty of play time left, it’s still warm enough and some chairs will open up. Plus you’ll tire the kids out for bed!
Not as cheap as Knoebels, but cheaper than Hersheypark.
Lockers are available and are much cheaper than at Hersheypark. You buy tokens for a dollar and the lockers are either 1 or 2 tokens. They are single entry though so you can’t keep going back to them or you have to pay again.
I am not a fan of waterparks and I think Dutch Wonderland was just fine without one, but heck, everyone else has them, right? This one lacks a kiddie pool which I think is sad. There are kids who do not like splashing and getting water in their faces and they have no place to go in Duke’s Lagoon. I overheard one woman trying to comfort her daughter on this very point and they were both disappointed that there was nothing there the girl felt comfortable doing. Other parks have “quiet areas” where there isn’t so much action for the little ones and I think Dutch Wonderland needs to think about that as an improvement.
The Frog Prince diving show, sit on the right down close for the best view and a little splash
Dutch Wonderland has a lot of entertainment options in the form of live shows of various kinds – one (or more) of them start every half hour. I was able to take in parts of all the shows and I can tell you the kid’s overall favorites were the diving shows. I have a soft spot in my heart for Dutch Wonderland’s diving shows since my fourth grade teacher was one of their divers. She was a great teacher and knowing she dove off that high tower made me like her all the more. I’m glad to see DW has kept this show since there aren’t too many of them left.
The Really Useful Theater - not as useful as you might think
The one show that seemed to disappoint a lot of kids was the Thomas the Tank Engine show. At the one I attended more than half the audience left before it was over. I have a hunch it is because Thomas does not talk. My youngest daughter loves Thomas but I doubt she’d like this show with just two people singing and dancing and Thomas doing nothing more than puffing smoke. (See my update on this in my new trip report here.)
Sing along with "Grandma's Feather Bed"
Another one to skip if you want to keep the kids happy is the Bubba Bear show. Though the older set get a kick out of these animatronic bears, the kids were not at all interested once the novelty of a moving bear wore off – less than 5 minutes. I personally love these shows but I’m afraid this one will go the way of Knobel’s and Hersheypark’s and be gone soon.
2011 Kosher Mart Menu
Now, let’s talk about food. My suggestion? If you HAVE to eat in the park, eat at the Kosher Mart. Their food is high quality for amusement park food and the prices are what you would expect for park food. My best suggestion is, don’t eat in the park. The food is below average with high prices and it is not very good for your kids either. Servings are small and most of the food is extremely processed. (See Ed’s suggestion for passable food in the comments – thanks Ed!)
Where did I eat in the park? Um, I didn’t. I could not bring myself to eat any of the food at the prices they were asking. I know the Kosher Mart has good food because they serve at Hersheypark too and I have eaten there quite a bit – plus the food is Kosher and has quality requirements to it because of that. I got a souvenir cup to have a drink and I got a Dole Citrus Whip ($2.51 with my pass discount.) The citrus whip is a mix of orange and vanilla and it was passable but the texture of the vanilla is not at all like ice cream so it just wasn’t very pleasing to me.
Gluten Free Kids meal for $6.99 at Castle Cafe
I watched people eating all over the park and I can’t say I saw anyone enjoying their food other than a few kids with softserve cones of Turkey Hill ice cream. Especially disappointing were the people eating at the Castle Cafe. This cafeteria style sit down restaurant makes your food to order (sort of) and does have a gluten free kids meal (the first I’ve seen – for $6.99) but I heard many people making unhappy comments/noises while eating their food and much of it got thrown away.
Picnic tables - use them!!!
So where should you eat? Bring a picnic since there are picnic tables OR if you like burgers, get your hand stamped and walk down the sidewalk to Sonic. Prices are high there for a Sonic but no higher than in the park and the food is better. There is an Arby’s across Rte 30 and several other restaurants too but crossing Rte 30 with children is a scary experience. UPDATE: we made a trip in August and I did find something great to eat – read about it here!
Snacking at DW is a little better. Funnel cakes, ice cream, kettle corn and all of that is only expected to be so good so people seemed OK with those.
Duke's Lair, such a relaxing ride
My favorite ride of the day was the Dragon’s Lair. This ride is sometimes busy, sometimes a walk on. It was a walk on for me. You sit on a bench like seat in a log shaped boat and go around the lagoon. It is about 7-8 minutes at my guess and for one person it is great to stretch out and put your feet up and lean back into the boat. If I closed my eyes I probably could have fallen asleep. I would NOT want to ride this with an antsy toddler since there are no restraints and it is a longer ride. If your kids don’t sit still, don’t take them on this ride.
Nice to sit and rock a spell
My favorite spot in the park? A rocking chair along what I think is called the Greenway along the creek. This is an educational part of the park where you can learn about birds, trees and “green” facts from a cheeky little firefly. There are ducks to feed and at one point a covered place with a couple of rocking chairs. Add in a cool breeze and it was a delight.
Tall, tall trees - and shade - and quiet
Coming in second was the stand of tall trees in what used to be the international gardens section of the park. This part of the park is shaded, quiet and cool. If your kids need a nap or you are a breastfeeding mom, this is a great place to visit. (There is a breastfeeding mom area near the train but it was heavily used when I was there and in a noisy section of the park. When I had an infant, I would have taken tall trees and cool shade any day over noise and crowds.)
There is lots more I could tell and hopefully will in other posts, but one thing I wanted to figure out while I was at Dutch Wonderland was would I take my two toddlers ( just turned 3 and 1 1/2) there this year. The answer is no. We will wait at least 2 years to bring our kids when they are 5 and almost 4.
Sure there were lots of families there with kids that age and yes they could ride a lot of rides and have fun in the water section, but frankly it is overkill for kids this age. Our kids will have just as much fun at the town carnival for about 1/4 (or less) of the money. The food is better and we have a kiddie pool with a sprinkler at home that they like just fine.
Little kids do not need all this stuff to have fun and in fact a lot of the kids in this youngest age range were miserable. Too many loud noises, too many other kids, too much of everything. They were overloaded and just couldn’t deal and a lot of parents were saying things like, “If you keep acting like this we’re going home!” Going home after you just dropped $100 or more to get in the gate? How sad. Just think what $100 could buy at the carnival, or at the mall arcade, or at a free admission park like Knoebels?
Am I saying don’t take your littlest ones there? No. They will have a good time I’m sure, but think twice about it and maybe wait until they are older. I do honestly feel Dutch Wonderland is best suited for children 4-8. Over age 8 and it will be corny to most. Under 4 and it just isn’t necessary for them to have all these things to have a good time.
So… Dutch Wonderland is still full of plenty of good family fun for families with small children. If you are in the area, be sure to drop by.
(New trip report with a 3 year old just added here.)
