Dorney Park
vs
Knotts Berry Farm

On a typical day Dorney Park queues less: about 20 minutes a ride against 24 at Knotts Berry Farm, a difference of roughly 4 minutes on every queue you join.

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01 · On a typical day

What you would normally queue.

Averages across recent weeks, so one broken ride or one wet Tuesday cannot decide it. This is the comparison to plan a trip on; the live figures below are the one to act on today.

Dorney Park and Knotts Berry Farm compared on their typical recorded queue times
Typically	Dorney ParkUnited States	Knotts Berry FarmUnited States
Average wait per ride	20 min (best of the two)	24 min
Rides with recorded waits	13	16 (best of the two)
Longest typical queue	Wild Mouse42 min	GhostRider64 min
Shortest typical queue	Dominator Red9 min	Los Voladores7 min
Average ride uptime Share of opening hours a ride is running	90%	90%

Averaged across every ride at each park with recorded waits. A ride that never opened is left out, so a park is not flattered by counting a shut ride as a queue of zero.

02 · Right now

Both parks, this minute.

Live queue times at both parks. These fill in as soon as the page loads, and keep updating while you are here.

Dorney Park and Knotts Berry Farm compared on live queue times
Right now	Dorney ParkUnited States	Knotts Berry FarmUnited States
Average wait right now	-	-
Rides open	-	-
Opening hours today	-	-
Longest queue	-	-
Shortest queue	-	-

These keep refreshing while this page is open. A closed park posts no waits, so its rows read as dashes rather than zeroes.

Verdict, on a typical day On a typical day Dorney Park queues less: about 20 minutes a ride against 24 at Knotts Berry Farm, a difference of roughly 4 minutes on every queue you join.

03 · Choosing

Which one is your day out.

Every line here is earned by one of the figures above - nothing is a generic sentence with a park name dropped into it.

Pick Dorney Park if…

You want shorter queues: Dorney Park averages 20 minutes a ride against 24 at Knotts Berry Farm
Wild Mouse is on your list - it is Dorney Park's longest typical queue at about 42 minutes, so it is the one to do first
You want Dorney Park's own character - the rides, theming and atmosphere described below

Pick Knotts Berry Farm if…

You will accept a longer queue - 24 minutes a ride here against 20 at Dorney Park - for what Knotts Berry Farm has that Dorney Park does not
You want more to do: 16 rides here have recorded wait data against 13 at Dorney Park
GhostRider is on your list - it is Knotts Berry Farm's longest typical queue at about 64 minutes, so it is the one to do first
You want Knotts Berry Farm's own character - the rides, theming and atmosphere described below

04 · The parks

What each one is.

Dorney Park

Dorney Park sits in Allentown, Pennsylvania, about 90 minutes north of Philadelphia. It's a mid-sized theme park with a strong coaster line-up for its size: Steel Force (a 200-foot hyper coaster), Talon (an inverted coaster), Hydra the Revenge (a floorless coaster), and Possessed. A Wildwater Kingdom water park is included with park admission during the summer season.

Dorney Park's season runs May to October, with peak crowds on summer weekends and during the Halloween Haunt. Weekdays in May, September and October are dramatically quieter. Check live queue times for Steel Force and Hydra on arrival, and use our crowd calendar to pick a midweek visit - most of the coasters stay under 15 minutes of wait time on quieter days.

Dorney Park live queue times

Knotts Berry Farm

Knott's Berry Farm sits in Buena Park, Orange County, California, with a long history dating back to Walter Knott's original berry farm and boysenberry jam stand from the 1920s. It's now a full theme park famous for its coaster line-up: HangTime, Silver Bullet, Xcelerator (a hydraulic launch coaster), GhostRider (a large wooden coaster), and the classic Timber Mountain Log Ride.

Southern California locals keep Knott's busy all year round, but peak crowds align with US school holidays, the extremely popular Scary Farm Halloween event, and Knott's Merry Farm at Christmas. Check live wait times for Xcelerator and HangTime on arrival, and use our crowd calendar to pick a weekday outside local school breaks for shorter queues.

Knotts Berry Farm live queue times

05 · Questions

Dorney Park or Knotts Berry Farm?

Which is better, Dorney Park or Knotts Berry Farm?

If you are judging on queues, Dorney Park: it averages about 20 minutes a ride on a typical day against 24 at Knotts Berry Farm, roughly 4 minutes back on every queue you join. Dorney Park has 13 rides with recorded waits against 16 at Knotts Berry Farm.

Which has shorter queues, Dorney Park or Knotts Berry Farm?

Dorney Park, by about 4 minutes a ride. On a typical day Dorney Park averages 20 minutes against 24 at Knotts Berry Farm. Queues still move hour by hour, and a midweek day outside school holidays beats the gap at either park. See Dorney Park best time to visit and Knotts Berry Farm best time to visit to pick a quiet day.

Can I visit Dorney Park and Knotts Berry Farm in the same trip?

Yes - both parks are in United States, so a two-park trip is realistic over a long weekend. Split the days so you start at whichever opens earliest and drive to the other in the evening.

How many rides does each park have?

See the tables above for ride counts - or jump to Dorney Park and Knotts Berry Farm for the full ride lists.

Is Dorney Park bigger than Knotts Berry Farm?

By rides we track waits for, Knotts Berry Farm is the bigger day out: 16 rides against 13. Acreage matters less than how many you can actually get on, which comes down to queues and opening hours - and on those Dorney Park is the quicker park.

Then pick
the quiet day.

Both parks have a crowd calendar with six weeks of forecast and the best day left to go.

Dorney Park calendar Knotts Berry Farm calendar Compare other parks