TR – Dorney Park 10/21/07

[edboxer]

TR – Dorney Park 10/21/07

 

I decided to hit Dorney one more time before they closed for the season. Beautiful weather for October – mid-70s and sunny. I arrived at 11:45am – 15 minutes before opening and parked in the first space next to handicap parking. There couldn’t have been 100 people there at noon.

 

Once in the park, even though everything was a walk-on, they were running two trains on Talon, Steel Force and Hydra.

 

Ride Count:

 

8 rides on Talon, 6 front row, 2 back row, including two where I was the only person in the front row! I love this inverted, it just doesn't let up until it hits the break. It was running fast, and with light trains, a little rough in the back.

 

6 rides on Steel Force – 5 first car second row, 1 last car second row. Great g's in the spiral and nice airtime, especially on the run after the mid-course brake.

 

2 rides on Hydra – front row. This is such a disappointing coaster. Nice string of 5 inversions in a row, but just not that exciting.

 

1 ride on Lazer – this is such a cool coaster. One of the very few rides that actually makes me dizzy.

 

Halloweekends – I did Screamworks, which was pretty lame. I didn’t bother with Dr. Doom. Since it was broad daylight, Fright Zone wasn't in action.

 

VooDoo update: They have cleared the site for VooDoo, but I didn't see any footers (at least not when I looked while on the lift hill for Steel Force). But there is track back by the final break run of Steel Force. Actually, this is going to be a great site for Voodoo, right against the fence by the entry to the parking lot. So it will be seen when driving in the park. The down side, its in a treeless zone so my scalp will fry!

 

Having sated my quest for g's and airtime, I left around 2:30 – 17 rides and Screamworks wasn’t bad at all.

 

Until next season…..

[YoshiFan]

Nice TR, it's always fun to go to Dorney and be able to ride as much as you want.

 

It actually got a little more crowded later in the day. Lines were around 10 minutes for Steel Force and Dominator (I know 10 minutes is nothing but for a Sunday Halloweekends at Dorney that is long).

 

They don't bother with the Fright Zone or using actors on the train on Sundays since there is an 8:00 closing. I don't mind though since Saturday nights when those areas are open bring horrible crowds.

[Jim S.]

Halloweekends – I did Screamworks, which was pretty lame. I didn’t bother with Dr. Doom.

 

Doctor of Doom was better than Screamworks, but only because it was darker. Screamworks would've been better if they hadn't had so many UV lights that you could see perfectly by the blue leakage -- they might as well have had white lights. Either they need to lose at least half the lights or find a source of better tubes.

[kraken613]

I havnt ridden Hydra. It looks like a cool coaster but everyone says its not that good.

[Jim S.]

There's nothing especially wrong with Hydra, people are just comparing it to bigger B&Ms I guess. But it's the only floorless in the state, in fact it's the only non-inverted B&M in the state, so unless you're a habitual Great Adventure-goer, it's a good ride for where it is. Similarly, I've seen people knock Steel Force. So what if it doesn't have violent ejector airtime? It has almost continuous floater airtime, which is more than you can say about anything else in the area. And compared to other rides in the park, and other parks in the area, operations on Hydra and Steel Force don't suck.

[edboxer]

There's nothing especially wrong with Hydra, people are just comparing it to bigger B&Ms I guess. But it's the only floorless in the state, in fact it's the only non-inverted B&M in the state, so unless you're a habitual Great Adventure-goer, it's a good ride for where it is. Similarly, I've seen people knock Steel Force. So what if it doesn't have violent ejector airtime? It has almost continuous floater airtime, which is more than you can say about anything else in the area. And compared to other rides in the park, and other parks in the area, operations on Hydra and Steel Force don't suck.

 

Excellent Point - Its not a bad coaster, its just not a great coaster. The Jo-Jo roll is cool, but the rest of the ride just lacks power. It just all feels too safe. And I'll take Dorney's efficiency over Great Adventure's one train operation, hideously long lines any day.

 

As to Steel Force, yeah its not ejector air (no Magnum thigh bruises), but I rode with a couple of SF GADV season pass holders who afterward said they preferred Steel Force over Nitro because of the continuous floating airtime. They had not been to Dorney before and were impressed that Dorney was running multiple trains with so few people in the park.

[edboxer]

There's nothing especially wrong with Hydra, people are just comparing it to bigger B&Ms I guess. But it's the only floorless in the state, in fact it's the only non-inverted B&M in the state, so unless you're a habitual Great Adventure-goer, it's a good ride for where it is. Similarly, I've seen people knock Steel Force. So what if it doesn't have violent ejector airtime? It has almost continuous floater airtime, which is more than you can say about anything else in the area. And compared to other rides in the park, and other parks in the area, operations on Hydra and Steel Force don't suck.

 

Excellent Point - Its not a bad coaster, its just not a great coaster. The Jo-Jo roll is cool, but the rest of the ride just lacks power. It just all feels too safe. And I'll take Dorney's efficiency over Great Adventure's one train operation, hideously long lines any day.

 

As to Steel Force, yeah its not ejector air (no Magnum thigh bruises), but I rode with a couple of SF GADV season pass holders who afterward said they preferred Steel Force over Nitro because of the continuous floating airtime. They had not been to Dorney before and were impressed that Dorney was running multiple trains with so few people in the park.