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Going to Dutch Wonderland--any tips?

Smudges*MomSmudges*Mom member
in Success after IF
We are taking LO to Dutch Wonderland next week to celebrate his birthday. For those of you who have been, do you have any tips or words of advice?

Will we want/need a stroller for our two-year old?

How far are the parking lots? Can we leave most everything in the car or is it better to carry a modestly packed bag?

Can we bring a sippy cup of water in? (I know they don't allow outside food inside the park.)

Any tips of the waterpark part of the park?

I do know that we can get a sticker that says we are celebrating LO's birthday.

Anything that I have not thought of? TIA!!
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Re: Going to Dutch Wonderland--any tips?

  • dundasgirldundasgirl

    I have no advice...but he's turning 2!!  Wow!!

    Happy Early Birthday!  I think I might be away during his birthday.

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  • artygirlartygirl member

    We went last week and had a great time!  Lucas had so much fun!  I think we spent about 3.5 hours there.  We could have stayed longer, but Lucas was gettting pretty tired.

    He is only 20 months and we brought the stroller in.  Sometimes he walked and sometimes he rode.  I thought it was nice to have the stroller because we could stow our gear/diaper bag underneath.

    The parking lot is not far at all.  We were parked about as far away as possible and maybe we had to walk 200 yards to get to the car.  We didn't arrive until noon so we ate our food in the back of my SUV and then went in.

    We brought a sippy cup of water in.  We also had one of the stands fill it with ice because the water got warm.

    We didn't really do the waterpark because it wasn't super hot out and DH and I didn't feel like changing into our swimsuits.  From what I could tell, the water park consisted of a HUGE splash pad and two water slides that you rode down in a raft.

    Have fun and happy birthday to your LO!

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  • soccerwifesoccerwife member

    definitely bring a stroller

    we absolutely brought our own food & drinks (DS has peanut/tree-nut allergy) - no one checked our bag

    I don't think you can go out to your car once you're in the park ( I don't think the allow re-entry, but i could be wrong) - bring your bag.

    go early

    don't go on the weekend

    do water rides LAST because they don't let you on the "dry" side if you're wet

    It's a fairly small park with lots of shade, which is nice. During the week you don't wait on line for more than 5 minutes, which is wonderful. Theoretically, you could do the whole park in a couple of hours, but if you go early, break for lunch, you'll have time to go on rides more than once.

    It's a lot of fun for the little kids. Have a great time!

     

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  • LillyGrrlLillyGrrl member

    We literally got back today from a Hershey Park/ DW trip. DW is perfect for the two year old set.  Our DD is 2.5 and she had a blast.  We had a nice hot day so we did spend a good amount of time at Duke's Lagoon (water park area).  

    You can bring in water but if for some reason they don't let you. PA law requires that they give you a cup of ice water on demand from any food/beverage stand.  We had this issue at Hershey Park (my DH had brought in a camelback full of water and they made him empty it there but not at DW).

    If you are planning on doing Duke's Lagoon I would strongly recommend shelling out the 85 (if you are doing a weekday) for a cabana there.  We did it and it was great, shade, didn't have to fight for a seat and well worth the money, I thought.

    I would recommend a stroller if you think he'll get tired and you'll want to stay after his nap.  We let DD fall asleep in the stroller and then went to the water park and let her nap on one of the lounge chairs until she was ready to get up (again it was in the shade). worked out pretty well for us.

    I would also go at park opening if you can because there will be way less people there.  We didn't wait at all for any ride (neither in HP or in DW). 

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  • artygirlartygirl member
    imagesoccerwife:

    I don't think you can go out to your car once you're in the park ( I don't think the allow re-entry, but i could be wrong) - bring your bag.

    You can leave the park and re-enter.  Since we arrived at lunchtime, we saw oodles of people leaving the park and eating at their car.  While we were eating, a couple of people said to us, "we're off to do the exact same thing"

    Also, they checked our bag but not thoroughly....they just peeked inside.  That probably depends on who the security guy is.

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  • gennyplusbeangennyplusbean

    DW is local for us, but I haven't been there since I was kid - so no advice from me. DH's company picnic is either a day at Hersheypark or DW. DH was disappointed we couldn't take DD this year!

    My question is: She'll be 18mos next summer. Can we take her then or should we wait til the following summer?

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