Our family elected to visit the famous Dutch Wonderland amusement park over the Thanksgiving weekend once we learned how close it was to our stay at the Red Caboose Motel. Dutch Wonderland had always been on our list to visit, it just never worked out that we were in the area until now.

Dutch Wonderland opened in 1963 and celebrated 50 years of operation in 2013. Dutch Wonderland is geared more towards kids, as almost all of the rides in the park are kid friendly, though several had height restrictions which our middle two year old was sad he could not ride.

The park was decorated with lights and special decorations for the holidays, making it a perfect kick-off to the season. After visiting Busch Gardens Christmastown last year, our family had been a little bit spoiled with super detailed and well thought out holiday decorating. So we were not sure what to expect with Dutch Wonderland.

However, while rides were not rethemed for the event, I did like seeing several audioanimatronic scenes, and specifically the gingerbread house, which appeared to be brought in specifically for the event.

While the park had your typical swinging ship, bumper cars, and train ride, I was delighted to get to try our a “new” ride we had never seen before, the Dutch Wonder House. Once guests were seated inside, the house spun around the guests, which to people on the outside, it appeared like the participants were being rolled around inside the house. The ride was more visual and meant to throw off your sense of balance. While not the most exciting and most technological of rides, it was fun and unique.

I also liked how the park had little plaques along with “remnants” of rides that are no longer in operation at the park. The most notable was the Old 99, which was in operation from 1974-2002. Guests boarded individual motor operated train engines, rang the bell, and rode them along the track in the center of the park.

I can only assume the Old 99 ride was removed to make room for newer rides.

Our family of course rode the train around the park first, which conveniently is located immediately when guests enter the park.

Unfortunately, Dutch Wonderland also has their own monorail, which was not in operation during our visit. It would have been great to experience their monorail, as it is rare to find one outside of Disney.

Overall, our family was really impressed with Dutch Wonderland. Our boys absolutely loved all of the rides. The Christmas lights and displays were well done. We even ate a quick dinner at Merlin’s, and while the food was your typical amusement park accompaniments, our boys got to meet Merlin himself, who was absolutely great, funny, and very personable with the kids!

Tickets for the Dutch Winter Wonderland were an affordable $10.99 after a $2 discount with code Winter.

Have you been to Dutch Wonderland?

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Source: InACents