July 11, 2024 • 21 mins
In the first 6 episodes of this podcast I’ve taken you on trips to different counties in Maryland and Virginia, and we made a stop in New Jersey. This week I thought we’d check out one of the premiere amusement parks in the country. Let’s visit Dutch Wonderland.
I’ll admit that I’ve lived in the mid-atlantic now for about 25 years and up until last year I had never been to Dutch Wonderland. The jewel of Lancaster Pennsylvania sits on some 48 acres. It was opened back in 1963 with the theme being a KINGDOM FOR KIDS.
I think that’s why I hadn’t gone before. I had been told that it is largely designed for families and children. While it took me becoming a dad to finally make my first trip to Dutch Wonderland I’m so glad I finally made it. The place is great. I genuinely felt like I was in a safe space with my daughter. There’s something special about being in a place with a lot of other parents and kids. It’s like everyone was looking out for one another.
My daughter had an absolute blast, and even though she was only 2 ½ at the time, she still got to ride so many different rides. We’re looking forward to going back again this summer.
On today’s episode of Delightful Destinations I’m speaking with Dutch Wonderland marketing director Courtney Burkarth. She’ll give us all the scoop about the best attractions, where you can stay when you come visit and other things to take advantage of.
I’ll admit that I’ve lived in the mid-atlantic now for about 25 years and up until last year I had never been to Dutch Wonderland. The jewel of Lancaster Pennsylvania sits on some 48 acres. It was opened back in 1963 with the theme being a KINGDOM FOR KIDS.
I think that’s why I hadn’t gone before. I had been told that it is largely designed for families and children. While it took me becoming a dad to finally make my first trip to Dutch Wonderland I’m so glad I finally made it. The place is great. I genuinely felt like I was in a safe space with my daughter. There’s something special about being in a place with a lot of other parents and kids. It’s like everyone was looking out for one another.
My daughter had an absolute blast, and even though she was only 2 ½ at the time, she still got to ride so many different rides. We’re looking forward to going back again this summer.
On today’s episode of Delightful Destinations I’m speaking with Dutch Wonderland marketing director Courtney Burkarth. She’ll give us all the scoop about the best attractions, where you can stay when you come visit and other things to take advantage of.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
Hey, what's going on? Everyone? Welcome to Delightful Destinations. My name
is Jeff Sapierre. Delightful Destination.It's a show designed to give you an
inside or deeper look at vacation locationsaround Maryland, the mid Atlantic, and
of course some other spots too.I hope here is to speak with folks
who know these areas inside and outand maybe inspire you for your next getaway.
In the first six episodes of thispodcast, I've taken you on trips
(00:24):
to different counties in Maryland and Virginia. We made a stop in New Jersey
as well. This week. Ithought we'd check out one of the premier
amusement parks in the country. Solet's go ahead and learn more about Dutch
Wonderland. I'll admit that I've livedin the mid Atlantic now for about twenty
five years, and up until lastyear, I had never been to touch
Wonderland. The Jewel of Leicester,Pennsylvania, sits on some forty eight acres.
(00:45):
It was opened back in nineteen sixtythree with the theme being a Kingdom
for kids, and I think that'swhy I haven't gone before. I've been
told my friends that have been thereIt's largely designed for families and children.
And while it took me becoming adad to finally make my first trip to
Dutch Wonderland, I am I'm soglad that we went. This place is
amazing. I genuinely felt like Iwas in a safe space with my daughter.
(01:06):
There's just something special about being ina place with a lot of other
parents and kids. It's like everybody'slooking out for one another, and people
were in a pretty good mood.My daughter had an absolute blast, and
even though at the time she wasonly two and a half years old,
she's still got to ride so manydifferent rides and we're looking forward to going
back again this summer. On today'sepisode of Delightful Destinations, I'm speaking with
Dutch Wonderland marketing director Courtney Burkharth.She'll give us all the scoop about the
(01:30):
best attractions, where you can staywhen you come to visit, and of
course other things had taken advantage ofwhile you're there. Thanks for having me.
I went to Dutch Wonderland for thefirst time in my life last year,
and I've lived in I lived outsidePhiladelphia starting in nineteen ninety nine,
and then I in this general regionsince then, and I can't believe it's
(01:51):
the first time that I've gone.Your place is amazing. Thank you.
So you brought your daughter right,yes, yeah, yeah, I think
that helps because I do think DutchWonderland is much more family oriented than some
other parks. Yeah. Absolutely,So what did your daughter think? What
did she enjoy? She seemed tohave a blast. It was last July
or last August, so just overtwo and a half is how old she
was when we went, and sheseemed to love it. I mean,
(02:13):
the amount of rides you have forsomeone as little as her were incredible.
Yeah. Yeah, I have atwo year old and a four year old
and my kids started riding ride theDutch Wonderland and about a year and a
half. So they have rides foreverybody, which is awesome. So no
matter whether you have like twelve yearolds or an infant, there's plenty to
do for the whole family. Andwe were actually voted the world's best family
(02:34):
park for the past four years,so we're really excited about that and really
got to offer entertainment and rides andfood for anyone in your group. So
it's been a lot of fun.So just in case somebody listening is not
familiar with Dutch Wonderland, tell usa little bit about it. Sure.
So we are in like sester,Pennsylvania, and we've been here for over
sixty traded our sixtieth birthday last year, and we started as a family owned
(02:57):
business and have thrown and we havethirty rides. We have a water park.
We have dive shows. Which didyou get to see a dive show
when you were here? No,we stayed away from anything that would have
put us in one spot for toolong. My daughter does not like to
sit still, so we had tomove. So you'll have to try it
again this year. Because the diveshows are amazing. They jump from sixty
to the highest purchase sixty five feetin the air. They hit the water
(03:21):
at fifty five miles per hour,so they're all stunt divers. It's really
incredible to watch. And you cansit and splash zone cool off all summer,
which is great. And then wehave the water park. We have
big coasters. We have coasters forkids as young as probably about four,
so it's a lot of fun andyeah, you can come, you can
spend the day here. We havea hotel on property, which is the
(03:44):
Cartoon Network hotels. You can stayovernight if you want to, and then
we also have a campground on property. Yeah, I want to talk about
the staying. We'll get into thatin a little bit here. I just
I think it's fascinating. Like yougo to like carnivals and fairs and there
are some other amusement parks that I'vebeen to that definitely you know, try
to cater to a younger audience,but you guys, really you have nailed
it where it's like there were rides. I my daughter at about two and
(04:05):
a half years old, was goingon by herself and there was no there
was no nervousness. That was justlike she's totally fine hanging out and doing
this by herself. She can seeas she loves it, and I just
don't feel like I've experienced that inother places. No, I agree.
So before I was working here,I was actually a season pass holder at
Dutch Wonderland because my kids were littleand it was just always a great experience,
(04:26):
which is part of why I wantedto work here. Because we were
kind of talking before we got onhere about we both have kind of like
wild children. Yes, I loveto have fun, but my youngest cannot
stand in a line to save hislife. Like we've tried other parks,
it just doesn't work out. It'sstressful for everyone and just with the age
that they're at and so coming toDutch Wonderland, you don't experience that.
(04:47):
It's a you can park very close, you can walk right in a lot
of the rides, you don't haveto wait a long time. You maybe
wait for one ride cycle if that. So it's perfect if you have little
kids like you were saying, thatneed to move each to be active,
that can't stand too long. Thereis always something to do, and it's
also open year round from March toNew Year's so you can come and experience
(05:10):
different things throughout the year. Rightnow, we're you know, obviously in
our peak summer with our water parkand dive shows and splash Floom and all
that fun stuff. But then wealso have a huge Halloween event and a
huge Christmas event that are completely uniqueexperiences, so you can keep coming back
and enjoying it with your family.The lines thing was really impressive too,
because I was I was nervous,just expecting because we were going again.
(05:31):
I forget exactly when it was Julyor August, and I was like,
this is like peak amusement park time. But I can't tell you. I
don't think we waited more than fiveminutes for any ride that we tried to
do. I think the longest waitwas at the water park trying to go
down one of the slides, whichmakes sense. It was like ninety degrees
that day, but we didn't haveto wait for anything, and I was
like, this is beautiful. Ohyeah, no, it's definitely. It's
(05:53):
a great experience. We always havea lot of fun with my kids.
I earned cool parent points when Istarted working here and then they could come
whenever they go on it. Butbut yeah, it's definitely I recommend it
if you have kids, and that'sit that sweet spot where they're toddlers and
you don't even have to stay,like especially your season pass ordor you don't
even have to stay a very longtime because you can come and go as
(06:14):
you please, stay at the hotel, go swimming if you're coming for a
drive. So there's definitely a lotto do on the resort property for everyone.
Yeah, and you know, stayingthere is another great point in season
pass holders. I mean it's Imapped it today. Was an hour and
twenty two minutes I think from myhouse is what the maps were saying.
And I live in Baltimore City,so I mean an hour and a half
max from Baltimore City to get upthere really close. The season pass is
(06:36):
really affordable too, I mean Iwas kind of blown away the prices.
Yeah, it's pays for itself andtwo visits. And you also, especially
if you're coming from a feeder marketlike Baltimore or GC, you get a
discount on the Cartoon Network hotels stayas well, so your season past discount
applies to that, so you cancome stay the night, spend a weekend,
and it's really affordable for a familyto just get away for a weekend.
(06:57):
And Lancaster is a great weekend destinyeven you know, you visit the
park, you're at the hotel,but there's a ton to do for families
in the area in general, soyou definitely wouldn't run out of like farm
visits and everything will be the amishand come to the amusement park and just
really make like a trip out ofit and stay at the hotel at it
really just counted great as a passholder. No, for sure. I
(07:18):
mean, I know this interview isabout Dutch Wonderland, but I think we
spent about twenty four hours up there. We stayed at the hotel directly across
the street from Dutch Wonderland, andso we just walked across the street and
went to the park, which isgreat. But yeah, we went to
a restaurant down the street, anAmish restaurant. The next morning when we
got up, we went to oneof the Dutch markets, I forget the
(07:38):
name of it. We went tothat and there's there's the outlets right there,
and I mean there's something about outlets. Whenever you're on vacation, you
have to stop at an outlet.I don't know why they're r at that.
So you're right, I mean,just in there you can make You
could go like a couple of daysand hang out and have a lot of
time at the park. But there'snever something You're never going to be bored.
There's always something to do. No, it's it's a great destination for
families. There's there's so much inthe area in Dutch Wonderland. The Cartoon
(08:01):
Network hotel are like right in themiddle of it, so You could really
easily if you want to stay atthe hotel for a few days, do
a park day, and then goexplore the rest of the area within ten
minutes. There's a million things todo for kids, so it's definitely at
a great getaway. So tell meabout the Cartoon Network Hotel that's in partnership
with you guys. We have aresort property, so we have the Judge
Wonderland Park. We have Old MillstreamCampground where you can also stay, and
(08:24):
then we also have the Cartoon NetworkHotel. So if you stay at the
hotel, you can walk right overto the park. It's really close and
we can we have entertainment at bothlocations, so you can come spend the
day at the park and then goback to the Cartoon Network Hotel. It's
the only one in the world andyou can meet and greet with characters.
There's a restaurant on site, there'sa bar, there's an arcade that we
(08:46):
just expanded, there's movie screenings,there's indoor and outdoor pools, splash pads.
There's a lot to do even righton that property without leaving, so
you could definitely come for a whileand stay very busy at the hotel and
very busy at Dutch Wonderland and havevery tired children who will sleep very well
for you when you're all done.The campground is really cool too. I
think we took like the I forgetwhat it's called, but like the tram
(09:07):
that took you around the park andwe got to see some of the campground.
Yeah, yeah, and it wasso cool to see all these people
just like hanging out, like they'rejust spending time in the campground. They're
going to walk into the park later. I was like, that's a really
good idea. It's great, it'spet friendly. There's cabins on site if
you you know, don't have anRV or you can do tent camping as
well, but there's cabins like littlelog cabins are super cute and I know
(09:30):
some of them can hold I thinkup to eight people, so you can
bring a party. Yeah, comeover to the park, and you do
get discounted if you're not a passholder, you do get discounted tickets at the
campground. And then Coaching Network Hoteldoes have stay and play packages where your
tickets are included. So there's alot of easy ways just to come and
have fun this summer. Let's talka little bit about the packages because I
know you have this Loyal Royals programtoo, so tell you more about that.
(09:54):
Yeah, so if you're a seasonpass holder, you get you know,
your standard pass holder perks, whichyou get just counts on you know,
it depends on your past level,but you get discounts on food and
beverage and retail. You get freeparking, you can Bring a Friend tickets
where you can bring a friend forfree. But then throughout the year we
throw in these like Loyal Royal parkswhich change all the time, so you
it ranges from early ride time whereyou can come into the park an hour
(10:18):
before opening and have the park toyourselves, which is really nice, and
then there's really no lines. Likethis week, we have buy one,
get one free iced coffee because it'sso hot. We have free pretzel happy
hours sometimes where you can just stopand get a free pretzel with your season
pass. So there's all kinds offun. There's bring a Friend free days
actually, which is today too.Every Tuesday and June is free bring a
(10:41):
friend for free, and you don'thave to use your free tickets. So
yeah, there's just we throw anextra perks. You can keep up with
them on our website or social media, and you just always get like fun
little additional things were coming to visit. So you definitely get a really good
value out of your season pass withthe standard parks and then the Loyal Royal
parks just are kind of icing onthe cake. But it's it's been a
lot of fun to come up withlike fun things for pass holders to come
(11:03):
experience or try new things. Likewe have a new funnel cake stand,
so that's they're part coming up wherethey can come and get a Dolesoft serve
and funnel cake at a discount whichare delicious. There's a cookies and cream
one that you don't want to missif you come back. It's very good.
We have fried Oreos over there nowtoo, which are delicious. I've
had some fried oreos there, Ibelieve, Oh so good. They're they're
amazing, So definitely recommend trying those. But but yeah, so there's a
(11:28):
lot of good ways to like justcome use your season pass and and get
discounts and try new things as well. I will say something else that I
really enjoyed about Dutch Wonderland is lookI love my family. I love spending
all the time that I can withmy family, but sometimes after a long
day at a theme park, youjust want to have a beverage as a
parent, an adult beverage. Andyou guys also will serve beer on site.
(11:48):
Yes, you have to have Penley'sPub, which has local brewer like
Lotcal Breweries beers. And then wealso and they have these giant pretzels too,
which are really good. I hadthe pretzel and I had a beer.
That's what we did. We satdown for that. Yep. Yeah,
And there's like outdoor seating around it, so it's really nice to just
relax. They do fun seasonal drinkstoo, if you ever come at Christmas
or Halloween. And then we alsoare opening a new beer garden, so
(12:11):
that will be right by Market Square, which is like the center of the
park. So we have in MarketSquare there's like bubble dance parties, there's
character meet and greed, so yourkids can run around and have a great
time doing all of that and youcan kind of sit and enjoy it.
Beverage there's it's also next to ourit's Dragons, Fire Barbecue and Bruce,
so you can also get like pulledpork sandwiches and mac and cheese. It's
(12:33):
all at like comfort and a beer. It's and same thing outdoor seating.
You can sit back and enjoy whileyour kids have fun. I love how
much you know the park inside itout, you know, like the names
of all the stands too. Thatmakes that That makes me happy that you
know like literally everything about this park. Yes, no, I have.
I have been on every inch ofthis park with my children and we have
we have been everywhere. They knowit very well. They're like the biggest
(12:56):
promoters, which is nice. Theygo into preschool and spread the word for
me. But it's awesome. It'sa great way to spend time with family.
And I've always really enjoyed it asa parent because, like I'm sure
you know, having a toddler,a lot of parenting can be like forcing
them to brush their teeth or goto bed, and like you know,
setting all those boundaries. And thenwhen you get to come to a place
like Dutch Wonderland, like you getto be the fun parent and just enjoy
(13:18):
those like like well, yeah,let's get like hot and candy and let's
get ice cream and let's go ona bunger rides and have a great time.
And it's always just been a reallyfun place to fond with my kids.
And that's part of what I loveworking about working here is just like
creating that atmosphere for families where theycan come make memories. And we hear
that from families all the time too. We've been here for sixty years.
People say I came as a kid, then I brought my kids as and
(13:41):
now I bring my grandkids as kids, and it's just being part of someone's
family memories. It's really special.I think there's also something there too that
I felt very safe with her.And I don't mean to say that I
feel not safe in other places,but I don't know if it's yeah that
some other places like the size ofthem makes it feel more unsafe because there's
more nooks and cran somebody can getlost in. The rides are bigger,
(14:01):
they're more dangerous, there's more people. I felt the Dutch Wonderland. I
felt very safe walking around with mytoddler and if she, you know,
if she got away from me andwalked twenty feet ahead of me, I
didn't get worried something terrible was goingto happen to her. I was like,
I feel like I'm in a safeenvironment right now. Yeah. Absolutely,
I feel like, you know,not every park is geared towards such
(14:22):
small children, so you encounter allkinds of different things, whereas like here,
you're kind of surrounded by you know, families also with small children,
and they're all in the same boat, and they're all you know, here
for the same thing, so itis like a very I've always felt like
really safe with my kids, LikeI'll bring them by myself a lot too,
so I don't have too many hands, but it's always manageable. And
(14:43):
yeah, you're just like it's agreat environment and just to be around,
you know, other families with littlekids, just having a nice day,
and everyone's usually in a good moodbecause they're you know, like I said,
they're not standing in line, they'rehaving lot of fun. So yeah,
I don't know, I've always justenjoyed the atmosphere here. It's always
been really like relaxing for an amusementpark. I guess, not very stressful,
(15:03):
it's not very as a parent,it's not very overwhelming, and we've
just always had a really good time. I remember specifically a couple of moments,
one was getting off one of therides. Another one was in Duke's
Lagoon and where like other parents camein to assist right Like the Duke's Lagoon,
my daughter got away from me alittle bit and she tripped and there
was a parent that was right thereto like help pick her up, make
sure she was okay. And Iwas like, this is great, Like,
(15:26):
this is awesome that other people arelooking out for other people's kids as
well, which I also I'm nottrying to talk smack of other parks,
but I just don't feel like there'sthe community aspect the same way, Like
maybe that's the word I'm looking for. Dutch Wonderland feels like a community absolutely,
And we have a lot of employeeshere as well that have parents that
our parents with small children that arein the park all the time, and
I think that does help create thatenvironment because you just have people that are
(15:50):
in it now and in the middleof parenting and know what their kids like
and what's problematic, like what youknow, and have ideas for kids that
they know like kids will enjoy becausethey're in the thick of it. So
we had to have a lot ofparents on the staff, and we really
enjoy creating things that, you know, especially around holidays and stuff like.
(16:11):
So right now we have bubble danceparties for the summer, which are really
a lot of fun. Halloween wehad bubble dance parties. You could pop
them and fog came out, soit was really spooky, which was fun.
And then we also at Christmas wehad blizzard dance parties where snow machines
would go off and you could justcreate these like really cool environments for kids
and it's simple and it's not alot of work for the parents. They
can just kind of come and lettheir kids run, but your kids have
(16:33):
a great time, so it's reallyfun to create that. I'm glad you
brought the other seasons back up againbecause I wanted to get into that with
you because you said that Dutch warnerLand is open for about nine months out
of the year. There's a smallbreak there between January and March, but
otherwise you guys are open, soyou offer a lot of opportunities in a
time where a lot of other placesclosed down. Yeah. Absolutely, So
we have a really big Halloween eventand it's actually starting earlier than ever this
(16:56):
year, it starts in mid September. I believe it's September fourteen, so
you can come anytime from then tillthe end of October on the weekends typically,
and pretty much all the rides areopen except for water park and like
the splash flim liking as we getwet, but everything else is open.
Last year we had a Halloween diveshow actually, which was really cute,
and it was a nighttime dive show, so they had all kinds of special
lighting and effects and stuff that wasvery cool. So yeah, you can
(17:18):
come ride all the rides. Wehave all kinds of seasonal treats, like
and like we're saying, like seasonalbeers at the Penley's Pub, and it's
at night, so everything's like lit, really spooky. It's it's really immersive.
It's fun. So that's actually myfavorite time to come to the park.
The weather is great and it's justwe decorate, like our team is
decorating for NonStop for weeks between thetwo seasons, so it looks really nice.
(17:45):
And then Christmas we also have wehad Santa's you come get your picture
with Sanna and Santa's Jolly Lodge.He has like a whole house set up
here. You can come do theBlizzard dance parties. Still a lot of
rides are open, you know,it's pretty much everything that can run in
any kind of cold temperature. Solike you know, we don't do again
water rides, but a lot ofthe rides are still open. And then
(18:07):
plus there's a ton of entertainment.We have puppet shows we had that were
like kind of musicals you can singalong. We had all kinds of just
fun seasonal activities and we're excited tohave those come back again this year,
so it should be a lot offun. So it's definitely you can come
and the hotels you know open aswell, so you can come to the
hotel and the park year around ifyou're making the trip and yeah, have
(18:30):
a just have a good time andmake some memories. Again, it's a
beautiful place. Like you can comehang out at Dutch Wonderland, experience some
of these seasonal activities, but there'sso much to offer in that general region
as well that people can make aweekend out of it. Even if they
do one day at Dutch Wonderland.You can spend so much time in the
Lancaster area just hanging out and experience. There's so much around there that there's
always something to do. Yeah,absolutely, And a lot of the attractions
(18:52):
are open kind of like we areat least nine months out of the year,
especially on weekend. So and likeyou we're saying, we were right
across from hanging outlets. You comeat the holidays, you can get your
holiday shopping done, go to DutchWonderland and make a whole thing out of
it. But there's always fun likelight shows, and we have hundreds of
thousands of Christmas lights in the park. So it's had a walking trail that
(19:14):
was like a light show. Wehad actually we had two light shows.
This's here and then Merlin's Forest waslike a live show where Merlin was making
He's our wizard, he was makingthe forest come alive with lights and stuff.
So there's there's a lot of justfun, immersive, seasonal things to
do in the area. But wehave a great time putting on those events
for sure. You mentioned the outletsagain, I don't know what it is
(19:36):
like. Whenever I stay at ahotel, something in the back of my
mind goes like, you're in ahotel, where's the closest outlet mall like,
I don't know. If you forgetanything, it's fine, and it's
right across the street. Don't worry. It's so funny, so funny.
All right, So where do peopleyou're in the thick of it right now,
I mean you are getting into peaktime at Dutch Wonderland. Where do
people go to find out more information? Where should they get their tickets?
(19:57):
All of that? Yeah, sobuy online. You can actually save up
to thirty dollars online, so it'syeah, you definitely don't want to buy
at the gate. Definitely buy aheadof time online. But it's Dutch Winterland
dot com. They're as low asthirty nine to ninety nine right now.
You can get your season passes onthere as well. If you wanted to
get a season pass, you canget your tickets on there. You can
(20:17):
check out entertainment on there. Youcan also keep an eye on social media.
We tend to post all of ourentertainment schedules and everything on there as
well. By yeah, just getat Dutch Winterland dot com and get all
all the information, the calendar,all that stuff. We're been ten am
to six pm daily and for oursummer hours and then we'll move on to
weekends perfect well. Cordy Burchard's marketingdirector for Dutch Waterland, thank you so
much for your time. I loveyour part. Really, we're looking forward
(20:41):
to getting back up there again thissummer. We haven't found a date yet
boats on our list of things wehave to accomplish because we had so much
fun last year, So absolutely justshoot me an email. Oh all right,
I'll hit you up. Let youknow and we're coming again. To
buy tickets and get more details,just go to Dutch Wonderland dot com.
Thank you again to marketing director courtBurkhard for her time, and thank you
(21:02):
to everybody listening right now to anotherepisode of Delightful Destinations. Y'all are fantastic.
Until next time, be well,
Hey, what's going on? Everyone? Welcome to Delightful Destinations. My name
is Jeff Sapierre. Delightful Destination.It's a show designed to give you an
inside or deeper look at vacation locationsaround Maryland, the mid Atlantic, and
of course some other spots too.I hope here is to speak with folks
who know these areas inside and outand maybe inspire you for your next getaway.
In the first six episodes of thispodcast, I've taken you on trips
(00:24):
to different counties in Maryland and Virginia. We made a stop in New Jersey
as well. This week. Ithought we'd check out one of the premier
amusement parks in the country. Solet's go ahead and learn more about Dutch
Wonderland. I'll admit that I've livedin the mid Atlantic now for about twenty
five years, and up until lastyear, I had never been to touch
Wonderland. The Jewel of Leicester,Pennsylvania, sits on some forty eight acres.
(00:45):
It was opened back in nineteen sixtythree with the theme being a Kingdom
for kids, and I think that'swhy I haven't gone before. I've been
told my friends that have been thereIt's largely designed for families and children.
And while it took me becoming adad to finally make my first trip to
Dutch Wonderland, I am I'm soglad that we went. This place is
amazing. I genuinely felt like Iwas in a safe space with my daughter.
(01:06):
There's just something special about being ina place with a lot of other
parents and kids. It's like everybody'slooking out for one another, and people
were in a pretty good mood.My daughter had an absolute blast, and
even though at the time she wasonly two and a half years old,
she's still got to ride so manydifferent rides and we're looking forward to going
back again this summer. On today'sepisode of Delightful Destinations, I'm speaking with
Dutch Wonderland marketing director Courtney Burkharth.She'll give us all the scoop about the
(01:30):
best attractions, where you can staywhen you come to visit, and of
course other things had taken advantage ofwhile you're there. Thanks for having me.
I went to Dutch Wonderland for thefirst time in my life last year,
and I've lived in I lived outsidePhiladelphia starting in nineteen ninety nine,
and then I in this general regionsince then, and I can't believe it's
(01:51):
the first time that I've gone.Your place is amazing. Thank you.
So you brought your daughter right,yes, yeah, yeah, I think
that helps because I do think DutchWonderland is much more family oriented than some
other parks. Yeah. Absolutely,So what did your daughter think? What
did she enjoy? She seemed tohave a blast. It was last July
or last August, so just overtwo and a half is how old she
was when we went, and sheseemed to love it. I mean,
(02:13):
the amount of rides you have forsomeone as little as her were incredible.
Yeah. Yeah, I have atwo year old and a four year old
and my kids started riding ride theDutch Wonderland and about a year and a
half. So they have rides foreverybody, which is awesome. So no
matter whether you have like twelve yearolds or an infant, there's plenty to
do for the whole family. Andwe were actually voted the world's best family
(02:34):
park for the past four years,so we're really excited about that and really
got to offer entertainment and rides andfood for anyone in your group. So
it's been a lot of fun.So just in case somebody listening is not
familiar with Dutch Wonderland, tell usa little bit about it. Sure.
So we are in like sester,Pennsylvania, and we've been here for over
sixty traded our sixtieth birthday last year, and we started as a family owned
(02:57):
business and have thrown and we havethirty rides. We have a water park.
We have dive shows. Which didyou get to see a dive show
when you were here? No,we stayed away from anything that would have
put us in one spot for toolong. My daughter does not like to
sit still, so we had tomove. So you'll have to try it
again this year. Because the diveshows are amazing. They jump from sixty
to the highest purchase sixty five feetin the air. They hit the water
(03:21):
at fifty five miles per hour,so they're all stunt divers. It's really
incredible to watch. And you cansit and splash zone cool off all summer,
which is great. And then wehave the water park. We have
big coasters. We have coasters forkids as young as probably about four,
so it's a lot of fun andyeah, you can come, you can
spend the day here. We havea hotel on property, which is the
(03:44):
Cartoon Network hotels. You can stayovernight if you want to, and then
we also have a campground on property. Yeah, I want to talk about
the staying. We'll get into thatin a little bit here. I just
I think it's fascinating. Like yougo to like carnivals and fairs and there
are some other amusement parks that I'vebeen to that definitely you know, try
to cater to a younger audience,but you guys, really you have nailed
it where it's like there were rides. I my daughter at about two and
(04:05):
a half years old, was goingon by herself and there was no there
was no nervousness. That was justlike she's totally fine hanging out and doing
this by herself. She can seeas she loves it, and I just
don't feel like I've experienced that inother places. No, I agree.
So before I was working here,I was actually a season pass holder at
Dutch Wonderland because my kids were littleand it was just always a great experience,
(04:26):
which is part of why I wantedto work here. Because we were
kind of talking before we got onhere about we both have kind of like
wild children. Yes, I loveto have fun, but my youngest cannot
stand in a line to save hislife. Like we've tried other parks,
it just doesn't work out. It'sstressful for everyone and just with the age
that they're at and so coming toDutch Wonderland, you don't experience that.
(04:47):
It's a you can park very close, you can walk right in a lot
of the rides, you don't haveto wait a long time. You maybe
wait for one ride cycle if that. So it's perfect if you have little
kids like you were saying, thatneed to move each to be active,
that can't stand too long. Thereis always something to do, and it's
also open year round from March toNew Year's so you can come and experience
(05:10):
different things throughout the year. Rightnow, we're you know, obviously in
our peak summer with our water parkand dive shows and splash Floom and all
that fun stuff. But then wealso have a huge Halloween event and a
huge Christmas event that are completely uniqueexperiences, so you can keep coming back
and enjoying it with your family.The lines thing was really impressive too,
because I was I was nervous,just expecting because we were going again.
(05:31):
I forget exactly when it was Julyor August, and I was like,
this is like peak amusement park time. But I can't tell you. I
don't think we waited more than fiveminutes for any ride that we tried to
do. I think the longest waitwas at the water park trying to go
down one of the slides, whichmakes sense. It was like ninety degrees
that day, but we didn't haveto wait for anything, and I was
like, this is beautiful. Ohyeah, no, it's definitely. It's
(05:53):
a great experience. We always havea lot of fun with my kids.
I earned cool parent points when Istarted working here and then they could come
whenever they go on it. Butbut yeah, it's definitely I recommend it
if you have kids, and that'sit that sweet spot where they're toddlers and
you don't even have to stay,like especially your season pass ordor you don't
even have to stay a very longtime because you can come and go as
(06:14):
you please, stay at the hotel, go swimming if you're coming for a
drive. So there's definitely a lotto do on the resort property for everyone.
Yeah, and you know, stayingthere is another great point in season
pass holders. I mean it's Imapped it today. Was an hour and
twenty two minutes I think from myhouse is what the maps were saying.
And I live in Baltimore City,so I mean an hour and a half
max from Baltimore City to get upthere really close. The season pass is
(06:36):
really affordable too, I mean Iwas kind of blown away the prices.
Yeah, it's pays for itself andtwo visits. And you also, especially
if you're coming from a feeder marketlike Baltimore or GC, you get a
discount on the Cartoon Network hotels stayas well, so your season past discount
applies to that, so you cancome stay the night, spend a weekend,
and it's really affordable for a familyto just get away for a weekend.
(06:57):
And Lancaster is a great weekend destinyeven you know, you visit the
park, you're at the hotel,but there's a ton to do for families
in the area in general, soyou definitely wouldn't run out of like farm
visits and everything will be the amishand come to the amusement park and just
really make like a trip out ofit and stay at the hotel at it
really just counted great as a passholder. No, for sure. I
(07:18):
mean, I know this interview isabout Dutch Wonderland, but I think we
spent about twenty four hours up there. We stayed at the hotel directly across
the street from Dutch Wonderland, andso we just walked across the street and
went to the park, which isgreat. But yeah, we went to
a restaurant down the street, anAmish restaurant. The next morning when we
got up, we went to oneof the Dutch markets, I forget the
(07:38):
name of it. We went tothat and there's there's the outlets right there,
and I mean there's something about outlets. Whenever you're on vacation, you
have to stop at an outlet.I don't know why they're r at that.
So you're right, I mean,just in there you can make You
could go like a couple of daysand hang out and have a lot of
time at the park. But there'snever something You're never going to be bored.
There's always something to do. No, it's it's a great destination for
families. There's there's so much inthe area in Dutch Wonderland. The Cartoon
(08:01):
Network hotel are like right in themiddle of it, so You could really
easily if you want to stay atthe hotel for a few days, do
a park day, and then goexplore the rest of the area within ten
minutes. There's a million things todo for kids, so it's definitely at
a great getaway. So tell meabout the Cartoon Network Hotel that's in partnership
with you guys. We have aresort property, so we have the Judge
Wonderland Park. We have Old MillstreamCampground where you can also stay, and
(08:24):
then we also have the Cartoon NetworkHotel. So if you stay at the
hotel, you can walk right overto the park. It's really close and
we can we have entertainment at bothlocations, so you can come spend the
day at the park and then goback to the Cartoon Network Hotel. It's
the only one in the world andyou can meet and greet with characters.
There's a restaurant on site, there'sa bar, there's an arcade that we
(08:46):
just expanded, there's movie screenings,there's indoor and outdoor pools, splash pads.
There's a lot to do even righton that property without leaving, so
you could definitely come for a whileand stay very busy at the hotel and
very busy at Dutch Wonderland and havevery tired children who will sleep very well
for you when you're all done.The campground is really cool too. I
think we took like the I forgetwhat it's called, but like the tram
(09:07):
that took you around the park andwe got to see some of the campground.
Yeah, yeah, and it wasso cool to see all these people
just like hanging out, like they'rejust spending time in the campground. They're
going to walk into the park later. I was like, that's a really
good idea. It's great, it'spet friendly. There's cabins on site if
you you know, don't have anRV or you can do tent camping as
well, but there's cabins like littlelog cabins are super cute and I know
(09:30):
some of them can hold I thinkup to eight people, so you can
bring a party. Yeah, comeover to the park, and you do
get discounted if you're not a passholder, you do get discounted tickets at the
campground. And then Coaching Network Hoteldoes have stay and play packages where your
tickets are included. So there's alot of easy ways just to come and
have fun this summer. Let's talka little bit about the packages because I
know you have this Loyal Royals programtoo, so tell you more about that.
(09:54):
Yeah, so if you're a seasonpass holder, you get you know,
your standard pass holder perks, whichyou get just counts on you know,
it depends on your past level,but you get discounts on food and
beverage and retail. You get freeparking, you can Bring a Friend tickets
where you can bring a friend forfree. But then throughout the year we
throw in these like Loyal Royal parkswhich change all the time, so you
it ranges from early ride time whereyou can come into the park an hour
(10:18):
before opening and have the park toyourselves, which is really nice, and
then there's really no lines. Likethis week, we have buy one,
get one free iced coffee because it'sso hot. We have free pretzel happy
hours sometimes where you can just stopand get a free pretzel with your season
pass. So there's all kinds offun. There's bring a Friend free days
actually, which is today too.Every Tuesday and June is free bring a
(10:41):
friend for free, and you don'thave to use your free tickets. So
yeah, there's just we throw anextra perks. You can keep up with
them on our website or social media, and you just always get like fun
little additional things were coming to visit. So you definitely get a really good
value out of your season pass withthe standard parks and then the Loyal Royal
parks just are kind of icing onthe cake. But it's it's been a
lot of fun to come up withlike fun things for pass holders to come
(11:03):
experience or try new things. Likewe have a new funnel cake stand,
so that's they're part coming up wherethey can come and get a Dolesoft serve
and funnel cake at a discount whichare delicious. There's a cookies and cream
one that you don't want to missif you come back. It's very good.
We have fried Oreos over there nowtoo, which are delicious. I've
had some fried oreos there, Ibelieve, Oh so good. They're they're
amazing, So definitely recommend trying those. But but yeah, so there's a
(11:28):
lot of good ways to like justcome use your season pass and and get
discounts and try new things as well. I will say something else that I
really enjoyed about Dutch Wonderland is lookI love my family. I love spending
all the time that I can withmy family, but sometimes after a long
day at a theme park, youjust want to have a beverage as a
parent, an adult beverage. Andyou guys also will serve beer on site.
(11:48):
Yes, you have to have Penley'sPub, which has local brewer like
Lotcal Breweries beers. And then wealso and they have these giant pretzels too,
which are really good. I hadthe pretzel and I had a beer.
That's what we did. We satdown for that. Yep. Yeah,
And there's like outdoor seating around it, so it's really nice to just
relax. They do fun seasonal drinkstoo, if you ever come at Christmas
or Halloween. And then we alsoare opening a new beer garden, so
(12:11):
that will be right by Market Square, which is like the center of the
park. So we have in MarketSquare there's like bubble dance parties, there's
character meet and greed, so yourkids can run around and have a great
time doing all of that and youcan kind of sit and enjoy it.
Beverage there's it's also next to ourit's Dragons, Fire Barbecue and Bruce,
so you can also get like pulledpork sandwiches and mac and cheese. It's
(12:33):
all at like comfort and a beer. It's and same thing outdoor seating.
You can sit back and enjoy whileyour kids have fun. I love how
much you know the park inside itout, you know, like the names
of all the stands too. Thatmakes that That makes me happy that you
know like literally everything about this park. Yes, no, I have.
I have been on every inch ofthis park with my children and we have
we have been everywhere. They knowit very well. They're like the biggest
(12:56):
promoters, which is nice. Theygo into preschool and spread the word for
me. But it's awesome. It'sa great way to spend time with family.
And I've always really enjoyed it asa parent because, like I'm sure
you know, having a toddler,a lot of parenting can be like forcing
them to brush their teeth or goto bed, and like you know,
setting all those boundaries. And thenwhen you get to come to a place
like Dutch Wonderland, like you getto be the fun parent and just enjoy
(13:18):
those like like well, yeah,let's get like hot and candy and let's
get ice cream and let's go ona bunger rides and have a great time.
And it's always just been a reallyfun place to fond with my kids.
And that's part of what I loveworking about working here is just like
creating that atmosphere for families where theycan come make memories. And we hear
that from families all the time too. We've been here for sixty years.
People say I came as a kid, then I brought my kids as and
(13:41):
now I bring my grandkids as kids, and it's just being part of someone's
family memories. It's really special.I think there's also something there too that
I felt very safe with her.And I don't mean to say that I
feel not safe in other places,but I don't know if it's yeah that
some other places like the size ofthem makes it feel more unsafe because there's
more nooks and cran somebody can getlost in. The rides are bigger,
(14:01):
they're more dangerous, there's more people. I felt the Dutch Wonderland. I
felt very safe walking around with mytoddler and if she, you know,
if she got away from me andwalked twenty feet ahead of me, I
didn't get worried something terrible was goingto happen to her. I was like,
I feel like I'm in a safeenvironment right now. Yeah. Absolutely,
I feel like, you know,not every park is geared towards such
(14:22):
small children, so you encounter allkinds of different things, whereas like here,
you're kind of surrounded by you know, families also with small children,
and they're all in the same boat, and they're all you know, here
for the same thing, so itis like a very I've always felt like
really safe with my kids, LikeI'll bring them by myself a lot too,
so I don't have too many hands, but it's always manageable. And
(14:43):
yeah, you're just like it's agreat environment and just to be around,
you know, other families with littlekids, just having a nice day,
and everyone's usually in a good moodbecause they're you know, like I said,
they're not standing in line, they'rehaving lot of fun. So yeah,
I don't know, I've always justenjoyed the atmosphere here. It's always
been really like relaxing for an amusementpark. I guess, not very stressful,
(15:03):
it's not very as a parent,it's not very overwhelming, and we've
just always had a really good time. I remember specifically a couple of moments,
one was getting off one of therides. Another one was in Duke's
Lagoon and where like other parents camein to assist right Like the Duke's Lagoon,
my daughter got away from me alittle bit and she tripped and there
was a parent that was right thereto like help pick her up, make
sure she was okay. And Iwas like, this is great, Like,
(15:26):
this is awesome that other people arelooking out for other people's kids as
well, which I also I'm nottrying to talk smack of other parks,
but I just don't feel like there'sthe community aspect the same way, Like
maybe that's the word I'm looking for. Dutch Wonderland feels like a community absolutely,
And we have a lot of employeeshere as well that have parents that
our parents with small children that arein the park all the time, and
I think that does help create thatenvironment because you just have people that are
(15:50):
in it now and in the middleof parenting and know what their kids like
and what's problematic, like what youknow, and have ideas for kids that
they know like kids will enjoy becausethey're in the thick of it. So
we had to have a lot ofparents on the staff, and we really
enjoy creating things that, you know, especially around holidays and stuff like.
(16:11):
So right now we have bubble danceparties for the summer, which are really
a lot of fun. Halloween wehad bubble dance parties. You could pop
them and fog came out, soit was really spooky, which was fun.
And then we also at Christmas wehad blizzard dance parties where snow machines
would go off and you could justcreate these like really cool environments for kids
and it's simple and it's not alot of work for the parents. They
can just kind of come and lettheir kids run, but your kids have
(16:33):
a great time, so it's reallyfun to create that. I'm glad you
brought the other seasons back up againbecause I wanted to get into that with
you because you said that Dutch warnerLand is open for about nine months out
of the year. There's a smallbreak there between January and March, but
otherwise you guys are open, soyou offer a lot of opportunities in a
time where a lot of other placesclosed down. Yeah. Absolutely, So
we have a really big Halloween eventand it's actually starting earlier than ever this
(16:56):
year, it starts in mid September. I believe it's September fourteen, so
you can come anytime from then tillthe end of October on the weekends typically,
and pretty much all the rides areopen except for water park and like
the splash flim liking as we getwet, but everything else is open.
Last year we had a Halloween diveshow actually, which was really cute,
and it was a nighttime dive show, so they had all kinds of special
lighting and effects and stuff that wasvery cool. So yeah, you can
(17:18):
come ride all the rides. Wehave all kinds of seasonal treats, like
and like we're saying, like seasonalbeers at the Penley's Pub, and it's
at night, so everything's like lit, really spooky. It's it's really immersive.
It's fun. So that's actually myfavorite time to come to the park.
The weather is great and it's justwe decorate, like our team is
decorating for NonStop for weeks between thetwo seasons, so it looks really nice.
(17:45):
And then Christmas we also have wehad Santa's you come get your picture
with Sanna and Santa's Jolly Lodge.He has like a whole house set up
here. You can come do theBlizzard dance parties. Still a lot of
rides are open, you know,it's pretty much everything that can run in
any kind of cold temperature. Solike you know, we don't do again
water rides, but a lot ofthe rides are still open. And then
(18:07):
plus there's a ton of entertainment.We have puppet shows we had that were
like kind of musicals you can singalong. We had all kinds of just
fun seasonal activities and we're excited tohave those come back again this year,
so it should be a lot offun. So it's definitely you can come
and the hotels you know open aswell, so you can come to the
hotel and the park year around ifyou're making the trip and yeah, have
(18:30):
a just have a good time andmake some memories. Again, it's a
beautiful place. Like you can comehang out at Dutch Wonderland, experience some
of these seasonal activities, but there'sso much to offer in that general region
as well that people can make aweekend out of it. Even if they
do one day at Dutch Wonderland.You can spend so much time in the
Lancaster area just hanging out and experience. There's so much around there that there's
always something to do. Yeah,absolutely, And a lot of the attractions
(18:52):
are open kind of like we areat least nine months out of the year,
especially on weekend. So and likeyou we're saying, we were right
across from hanging outlets. You comeat the holidays, you can get your
holiday shopping done, go to DutchWonderland and make a whole thing out of
it. But there's always fun likelight shows, and we have hundreds of
thousands of Christmas lights in the park. So it's had a walking trail that
(19:14):
was like a light show. Wehad actually we had two light shows.
This's here and then Merlin's Forest waslike a live show where Merlin was making
He's our wizard, he was makingthe forest come alive with lights and stuff.
So there's there's a lot of justfun, immersive, seasonal things to
do in the area. But wehave a great time putting on those events
for sure. You mentioned the outletsagain, I don't know what it is
(19:36):
like. Whenever I stay at ahotel, something in the back of my
mind goes like, you're in ahotel, where's the closest outlet mall like,
I don't know. If you forgetanything, it's fine, and it's
right across the street. Don't worry. It's so funny, so funny.
All right, So where do peopleyou're in the thick of it right now,
I mean you are getting into peaktime at Dutch Wonderland. Where do
people go to find out more information? Where should they get their tickets?
(19:57):
All of that? Yeah, sobuy online. You can actually save up
to thirty dollars online, so it'syeah, you definitely don't want to buy
at the gate. Definitely buy aheadof time online. But it's Dutch Winterland
dot com. They're as low asthirty nine to ninety nine right now.
You can get your season passes onthere as well. If you wanted to
get a season pass, you canget your tickets on there. You can
(20:17):
check out entertainment on there. Youcan also keep an eye on social media.
We tend to post all of ourentertainment schedules and everything on there as
well. By yeah, just getat Dutch Winterland dot com and get all
all the information, the calendar,all that stuff. We're been ten am
to six pm daily and for oursummer hours and then we'll move on to
weekends perfect well. Cordy Burchard's marketingdirector for Dutch Waterland, thank you so
much for your time. I loveyour part. Really, we're looking forward
(20:41):
to getting back up there again thissummer. We haven't found a date yet
boats on our list of things wehave to accomplish because we had so much
fun last year, So absolutely justshoot me an email. Oh all right,
I'll hit you up. Let youknow and we're coming again. To
buy tickets and get more details,just go to Dutch Wonderland dot com.
Thank you again to marketing director courtBurkhard for her time, and thank you
(21:02):
to everybody listening right now to anotherepisode of Delightful Destinations. Y'all are fantastic.
Until next time, be well,
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