Physical

Brick Oven Bistro has some good food and a (shockingly) large craft beer selection. They close at 10 on the weekdays and 11 on Fri-Sat

Even from the "correct" angles it always looked a little... off, this was taken in 2015 and it looked "off" then too. Still sad it's being torn out, but I'm glad I got a few rides on it early 2018.

Did you move from Texas? This weekend is normally the busiest weekend of the year. Ooof, I'm planning a crazy weekend road trip out this weekend. How bad is it? We'll be at the park all day Saturday, having arrived late Friday, and leaving early Sunday (before park open) We're shooting for 90 minute waits on Non-SteVe flagship coasters. As long as we can get on MF, TTD, Steel Vengeance, Maverick, and Magnum we'll be happy.

Small trip report: Went to Knoebels with my sister for PPP, on the way home we decided to stop in on the way back to Philly to check out haunt. We waited about 15 minutes for Talon, and almost immediately decided no coaster here is worth waiting that long for so we ended up just walking through the scare zones (every maze was at least an hour) and checking out Blood Drums (They were awesome, as always.) The major thing, that will ABSOLUTELY have me back before the end of the season. Dorney acquired a special liquor license for haunt that allows you to walk around with your beer or cocktail Couple that with cheap 8 dollar, 16oz, Hijinks brewed beers in front of possessed, and it all adds up to one awesome time drinking good beer and walking around, what essentially becomes, a spooky bar. A+ do recommend, I'm not much for haunt attractions but treating Dorney like a spooky bar is definitely something I can recommend.

For what it's worth: Dorney's maintenance team is top notch. Between Thunderhawk, Possessed, Demon Drop, and Stinger (while it still operated) the maintenance team pulled some real miracles to keep the lineup (mostly) running at least when I worked there. It's my understanding Dorney is used as a training ground for future Cedar Point maintenance crews, due to the variety and frequency of downed rides. If maintenance is the reason KI is removing Firehawk, it wouldn't surprise me if it ended up at Dorney. EDIT: AJ posted between me clicking reply and my actual post. Honestly man, we're talking about Dorney. We got both Demon Drop and Stinger when it was assumed both rides were going to the scrap pile. Demon Drop in particular is a maintenance nightmare, our crew nicknamed it "Demon Downtime" for good reason, and it's still operating. Dorney's maintenance team works extremely hard to keep these nightmare rides alive and kicking. Do I think it's likely? No. Is it possible? Absolutely.

I'll echo Boulder Dash, we rode it last year for the first time. We sat in the back row (which I just recently found out is the wrong thing to do) and the only thing I can remember about it was how rough and jarring it was. It felt very lateral focused, which I find pretty uncomfortable when the damn thing rattles you around as bad as BD did for us. I plan on returning to LC in the coming years to get a front row night ride, but I went in expecting something top tier, and was left battered, and disappointed something so hyped could be so bad.

That was taken during opening checks, part of opening Demon Drop involves climbing the tower, hitting an e-stop, and flicking some car position sensors. I took that pic while doing that.

Heh, sounds like Demon Drop to me. The view is pretty great up there.

No, the chocolate factory is an hour and a half away, duh. Did anyone seriously expect that after tearing down Stinger, what, a few months ago, that they'd have something in its place for the 2018 season? They could start site work / clearing right at the very end of the year and still be able to open a small / mid-sized attraction by Memorial Day 2019. They left the electrical building for Stinger standing. Unless they gutted it already and it's just a shell I honestly doubt anything's gonna get done with the plot for 2019.

Can you (or anyone affiliated w/ the park) confirm if its because of budget/how much power it sucks up, or because its broken and somehow irreparable? I've heard both excuses. Either way its lame. I was told by both a few ride supervisors and a few people from maintenance that it is because it uses so much electricity to run. seconding this. My information comes from one of the maintenance foremen.

I had the chance to ride Stinger quite a bit when I lived 10 minutes from the park, honestly it was only truly horrible if sat in the very front, or the very back. Stinger was the only ride I can think of that provided the best it had to offer in the middle. I maintain sitting in car 4 (the exact center of the train) was a smooth, enjoyable, and extremely forceful experience. Huh, weird. Yeah, I sat in the front because it was a walkon because Dorney. I can understand that logic. First time I rode it I too chose the very front car. Just because Stinger occasionally gave a good ride in a specific car on a lottery of specific days, doens't make it a good ride. Just means I have some fond memories of a ride

I had the chance to ride Stinger quite a bit when I lived 10 minutes from the park, honestly it was only truly horrible if sat in the very front, or the very back. Stinger was the only ride I can think of that provided the best it had to offer in the middle. I maintain sitting in car 4 (the exact center of the train) was a smooth, enjoyable, and extremely forceful experience. I have mixed feelings about Stinger being removed. It definitely wasn't a great ride, by any means. However it still gave a pretty fun ride (and an assured grey out) in car 4. I can definitely see myself at Dorney in 2018 going "Man, I really want to ride Stinger." RIP Stinger, the most "Yeah might as well ride it, it's there" coaster ever.

Was at the park last week, yes, you still exit through a gift shop. Unrelated, but Fury was having some real trouble when we were there (the 5th and again on the 8th) On the 5th it didn't open with the park, and opened about 45 minutes late. It was also down when we went to leave around 4PM, and only ran 2 trains the entire day. On the 8th Fury was down again, we actually spoke to the Live Entertainment manager (Knew him from working at Dorney) and he said "Yeah Fury needs 40F weather to open, it's about 48 so I don't know what they're doing." We went to get in line for Hurler on the 8th and saw Fury cycling, so we queued up hoping to sneak in a ride before we headed back north. Just under an hour standing in line outside the queue, with Fury doing nothing but cycling empty trains the entire time, we decided to leave when we saw them transfer a train off (It was only running 2 to begin with ) I understand it was early season, but damn. Fury being down and operations being molasses slow? Not a very enjoyable experience.

Wow, I was in Allentown last weekend and drove by the park, nothing was done to the track itself but the station was completely removed and it looked like the lift chain was off the ride as well (the return was slacked out instead of taught) Didn't think much of it other than "First stage of demolition" but I didn't expect to see track being removed so soon.

Shockwave is only incidentally in this photo (as I305 is clearly the focal point) however I'd love to contribute to a thread that deserves more posts. I love seeing old photos of rides long (or recently) gone! Taken in 2015, just a few short months before Shockwaves last rides. Here's a rare view for ya, Stinger (While it's not demolished yet, it's in the process, so I'm counting it) from the top of Demon Drop (the ride was not operating at the time, this was taken during startup procedure when I worked on it)