Dutch Wonderland® Family Amusement Park — Attraction in East Lampeter Township

An absolutely fantastic place to take a family. As a longtime pass holder to, and now a current employee of another nearby amusement park, I tried out DW for the first time today with my 3 year old son. What a WONDERful day. We will definitely be back! That said it’s far from perfect, and I have both cheers and jeers to share.

Had a pretty historically bad start while waiting in line for the Wonderland Special train ride immediately upon entering, as it rolled backward out of the station with guests disembarking, and several operators frantically trying to stop it. Very lucky that an entire train full of people weren’t injured pretty badly. Once it was operating (we opted to wait a few hours) it was a great ride; arguably better than their nearby competition’s kids train. My son says it was his favorite thing he did all day to “ride the red train.”

Don’t miss the Dive Show, it is a true standout and was personally my favorite part of the day. The performers all deserve top marks both during and after the show for their showmanship, and their abilities… just awesome. Nothing like it at other nearby parks.

My son loves dinosaurs and had a great time visiting them in person on Exploration Island. The fact that the animatronics are getting very dilapidated didn’t phase him one bit and won’t phase your younger kids either, while I noticed a lack of teeth (most of the t-rex’s are gone), lots of tears and holes, and in some cases a lack of function altogether in several of the dinos… this is past due for some TLC as it is another otherwise GREAT area that stands out from other parks. In my opinion statues would be more satisfactory than a clearly neglected “moving” exhibit.

2023’s new teacup ride was a delight. Both my son and I completely enjoyed the ride amidst laughs and smiles. As a larger dad, I was also pleased I managed to fit to ride with my little guy.

Merlin’s Mayhem is the most modern coaster in the park. It’s not a coaster park so don’t set your expectations too high as an enthusiast, but it’s an awesome little ride for more daring kiddos. Parents expecting something “bigger” for themselves to ride shouldn’t expect much. It was empty all day when we attended, and feels out of place among many other more budget-feeling kiddie attractions.

Our lone food purchase was a $10 order of french fries from the aptly named Potato Patch. The line was long, the employees were young and inexperienced, and the fries were hot and soggy/greasy. Not terrible, not great.

The only absolute “whiff” on the part of the park is a lack of water bottle filling stations, or any clear instructions on where we might find water fountains; we struggled for a few hours until we finally found a fountain near the rear station skyride restrooms. We asked for water at an f&b location and were presented a laughably small styrofoam cup. While completely acceptable to offer, bottle filling stations would have made this a complete experience for my family.

The bag policy wouldn’t be as tedious as it felt if more modern security measures were in place. Manual search was quite a shakedown, even though we packed very light and opted to picnic from our $27 preferred parking space (parking is limited, but we figured if $22 was the low price, we might as well be closer). A definite pain point prior to entering the lovely renovated castle shop.

The only other thing I couldn’t help but notice was that the bulk of public-facing employees, also serving as season pass billboards, were between 15-18. It says something that there seemed to be no longer-tenured folks operating rides or working f&b, hold for a few. It makes a big difference when an adult happily engages with my kid while checking their restraint on the airplanes, versus a gondola-operating teenager asking guests what time it was, lamenting that it’s their break time soon.

All-in-all, it’s a park full of charm and wonderful family moments, with room to improve. Would be pleased to return and see what’s next as they continue to reinvest in their...

What in the world was my spouse and I doing here? Entertaining two little ones along with their mother! At first I was told we'd be spending the day at Sesame Place. I checked them out online and voiced my concern that there was absolutely nothing for an adult to ride there. Luckily plans changed which is how we ended up at this 48-acre park which opened in 1963.

TICKETS: Purchase the Family Pass online for 4+ bodies as it's the cheapest route. I did not see this option posted at the park entrance so it might be an online special.

PARKING: Preferred parking (closest to park) was full at 12pm so we headed to general parking which was $5.00 and not much further away.

THE PARK: The park is divided into three sections, separated by a small creek. The main and largest section is where you enter and where the majority of the attractions are. The back section, dubbed "Exploration Island", is smaller with way less things to see/do. Duke's Lagoon is the smallest parcel off to the side and is the park's water playground with a few slides and water features. There were lots of shady spots to hide from the brutal July sun with napkin dispensers within easy reach from the food stalls to wipe away sweat. A few characters were walking around for photo ops. Ride lines were minimal to none! Crowds dwindled after 5pm.

EXPERIENCE: Amphitheater - A small stage with animatronics. We watched a short bear-themed skit that malfunctioned at first but was fine after resetting.

Celebration Theater - Live musical shows under a tent for the little ones.

Choo Choo Charlie - Self-propelled trains on tracks that an adult can manually assist with by pushing from the back.

Double Splash Flume - Adequate open-flume ride with a small drop at the end. You'll get small splashes but nothing soaking.

Gondola Cruise - Auto-propelled small boats on tracks that take you around Exploration Island. Nothing to see except for foliage.

Kingdom Coaster - A short but enjoyable wooden roller coaster with fun dips and airtime. Pass on this if you have back or neck issues.

Merlin's Mayhem - A suspended steel coaster that was pretty intense even if it's void of loops and short on length. Ended up riding this one 3 times.

Monorail - Good views of most of the park from the outskirts. Miserably hot inside as there was no a/c.

Ponyback rides - Additional charge of $8.50 for two assisted laps around the corral, or $12.50 which adds a souvenir cowboy hat.

Prehistoric Path - A walking path under the shade of trees with animatronic dinosaurs and exhibits. Not impressive at all.

Sky Ride - 2 person elevated ski lifts, very slow, takes you from the front to the middle of the park.

Wonderland Special Train - Great way to see most of the rides the park has to offer. Located up front as soon as you enter.

Wonder House - A spinning house with stationary seats. I wanted to try it but was afraid of others getting sick! LOL.

FOOD & BEVERAGE: The outlets sold differing cuisines with some repeats. Most were catered toward little ones (nuggets, etc.)

Potato Patch Eatery that serves chicken tenders and fries that looked pretty good. But man, talk about super slow service!

That Panini Place They sold paninis and salads. Teeny boppers were running the show so needless to say service was comically horrible, even sad. As the millennial poured dressing on my salad, about half of it dripped into other containers and the ice below. SMH. My custom-made salad was decent though the romaine leaves were brown. To add insult to injury, there was no black pepper to be found. Avoid.

OVERALL: Not overly crowded for a Monday in July. It's not crazy busy like Disney or similar theme parks which made it more enjoyable. I'm glad I experienced it but I don't need to...

This was my first visit to Dutch Wonderland in probably 30 years, and the first chance I’ve had to bring my kids. I had fond memories of the park and so had high expectations on the day we went and every one of them was met! We had an absolute blast. This park is perfect for families and is geared towards kids. My 3 and 5 year old loved it and talked about it all the way home. We are a theme park family. Knobles, Hershey, Legoland, and the land of make believe, are all within hour and half drive so we visit fairly often. On rarer occasions, Disney and Universal in Florida. So my perspective on this review comes from my experience at those parks. Now you can’t directly compare Dutch Wonderland to some of those heavy hitters, but once you go to some of those places, you can really appreciate the value and benefits of going to a park like Dutch Wonderland. We bought our tickets early, around Black Friday so they were Cheap, less than half of normal admission, so huge bonus there. We went on a weekend in June, arrived right at park opening and had no trouble entering the lot, paying for parking and finding a spot. For 5$ more you can get preferred parking, pretty much right at the park entrance, so we found that well worth it.

Security went quick, no problem bringing in some bottles of water and snacks for the kids. Getting into the park was also very easy and quick, with minimal waits.

Once inside, first thing I noticed was how clean the park was, pretty well maintained and quite pretty. The staff that we encounter were all helpful and friendly, not like over the top at Disney but no one was rude or off putting.

Restrooms were clean and we never had to wait in a line to get in one. Best ones we found were the ones under the sky-ride/near Dragon’s lair

The rides were all great, especially from the kids point of view. Are they thrilling for adults? No, not really, but to my kids they were amazing! Dragon’s Lair, the train, antique cars, bumper cars, frog hopper and monorail were some of their favorite rides. I loved the monorail to get a tour of the park, but this seems to be in dire need of a refurbishment. And it’s HOT in there, not much air movement, even while underway. Most of the day there were virtually no waits and we walked on to just about everything, the train had the longest wait, probably 10mins or so.

The park has some good options for food. We share a lot to keep from spending too much and that way we can try more things. We did Penly’s Pub for lunch. Pretzel bun sandwiches were very good, but the pretzel sticks for a side seemed to be too much pretzel, and we like pretzels Regular chips would be nice. The giant pretzel was “the best pretzel” a 3 and 5 year old had ever had. My local beer was very good. Everything was reasonably priced, dare I say cheap, compared to other theme parks we’ve been too, or even food trucks nowadays. The refillable cup is 17.99, with free refills which is a good bargain considering the price of single fountain drink or items from the vending machines. We buy one cup and share so it really becomes a value. Turkey hill ice cream was good as always. Towards the end of the night, we were at the potato patch where we got the French fry and chicken tender bucket. 8 tenders and an absolute pile of fries for 25$. Decent quality food, and to feed a family of 4 was again, a pretty good deal I feel. And if you wanted, could get a refill of the bucket for a discount price. So all around a great experience, an absolute blast, and both my kids said they enjoyed it better than Legoland, which is saying something cause they love Legoland. Can’t wait to go back and enjoy this gem while the...