maeryk

I'm 35.. and my first coaster was Thunderhawk at Dorney.. got dragged on by a cute girl after I had (seeing that it was shut down) bragged about how great it was.. (never having ridden it, and, in fact, terrified of it!) Of course, it began running about 30 seconds after I made that fateful comment. In short succession in the next year I hit Hershey (back when I think the only things they had were Comet and SDL) and then Disney and SF:GA, and rode everything in the parks. This was about 20 years ago or so? Maeryk

Hydra, at Dorney, at 9:15 on Friday night. Next coaster will be Talon, at about 12:10 on Friday afternoon. (working ten minutes from the park and having season passes hath it's priveleges!) Maeryk

Back in the day, before Dorney became a Cedar Fair park, and we had season passes, we did about 20 runs on Thunderhawk without even stopping in the station. There were about 50 people in the park, and we knew the ride ops (went to school with them) and since no one ended up in the queues, they just let it run through and keep going. It, honestly, got kinda boring by the end. They don't do stuff like that anymore.. but it was neat. I could also see that happening at Knoebel's.. but I don't know if they actually do it or not. Maeryk

Well, I rode Hydra opening day, and then went back last Friday and rode it again.. it's getting better! To really ride it you have to do it at night, after the track cools a bit, and be in the back seat. I actually felt some positive and negative G's on friday night about 9:15... but the front seat, while good for the "track gon' eat my feets" illusion, is lousy for the ride.. with a bit of headbanging as it gets yanked around by the back of the train. The back is pretty smooth, and while, as noticed above, a bit clanky and rattly, it still moves smartly along. The only major complaint I have is theres one station.. and it is only large enough for one train. On friday they had a charf hold.. (someone charfed in their seat as it was coming into the station) and they let it sit for 20 minutes in the station for the de-charfing stuff to work. Meanwhile, the second train sat on the transfer track, with the folks swinging their feet and no means to get off the sucker. I'm by no means a B&M expert, so that may just be the way they are designed totally now, but it seems like lousy engineering to me, that if they have to change a wheel or something, the second train is just hung out to dry, full of people, like that. But all in all, a good addition to the park.. tho Talon is still "it" for me, in that particular park. Maeryk

Most all of them will run in a light rain.. if it gets particularly nasty, the bigger rides (Talon, Steel Force, Dominator, Hydra, etc) will shut down.. but the flat rides pretty much run. Maeryk