Dorney Park

Visited: September 22, 2023

Attending: Brian, Buzzed Bars

This event was an informal pre-game for the Sooper Dooper Stumble event. It sort of surprised me; I thought that everyone would prefer to go to Great Adventure, and some people did that. But most people wanted to go do Dorney, either because they hadn’t been before, or because they wanted a smaller park with the limited time a Friday evening would provide. The park was hosting a Haunt event, which isn’t my favorite park activity, but it wasn’t hard to avoid.

Demon Drop

Let’s get this out of the way first: Demon Drop is not a credit. It’s the only remaining first-generation Intamin drop tower left in the US. However, it runs on tracks, is powered by gravity, and forms a complete circuit, so there’s an argument that it’s a credit. However, the manufacturer and parks never called it anything but a drop tower, so I’m sticking with that. Anyway, I rode Freefall at Great Adventure back in the 90s, and I never rode one of these again, until now. Knowing that it’s the last one, I wanted to have this experience. Fortunately, so did the rest of the group, so a bunch of us went there first. It’s almost exactly how I remembered it, although it doesn’t seem nearly so tall anymore. The drop really feels like a straight drop, where it’s nothing but you and a giant steel box plummeting straight down. I don’t know why other drop towers don’t feel quite like that, but there you are. Of course, the feeling only lasts a few seconds, and then you’re lying on your back. I’m glad to have done one again, but I’m not converted into a drop tower fan.

Thunderhawk

In keeping with proper Dorney practice, we headed toward the bottom of the park, leaving the top to the crowds (which were very light at that moment). Some of us had bought fast-passes; others (myself included) did not. Thunderhawk ended up being next, because it was a walk-on. I would have been fine to pass, myself. I don’t dislike Thunderhawk; I respect it for its age and history. However, it doesn’t match up to Phoenix, or Comet, or any of the wooden coasters at Kennywood; it’s just kind of there. And that was this ride too; it was just there. It wasn’t as violent as some rides in the past have been, so that was good, but it wasn’t anything special.

Steel Force

The big attraction for a lot of folks was Steel Force, as many of them had ridden Mamba at Worlds of Fun recently, and wanted to compare Morgan hypers. Personally, I thought my Mamba ride was just OK, but many club members had stronger opinions. It had been a while since I rode Steel Force, and I’ve gotten a lot more coaster experience in the intervening six years. (That’s going to become a theme of this visit.) It didn’t feel nearly so tall to me this time around, but there wasn’t a lot of air on those first big hills. The helix pulled big positives, like it always does, and I think that surprised some people, as Mamba doesn’t have that. The bunny hills on the way back to the station are fun; maybe there’s one too many of them, or maybe that’s sacrilegious to say. I liked it better than Mamba; the rest of the group didn’t agree, but they liked it fine.

Everybody else went on Possessed at that point. I chose to pass, because I’ve done it before and I don’t really care for Impulse coasters.

Hydra: The Revenge

After some random wandering, we headed back up the hill for Hydra. Our group got split at this point, into the older folks who’d paid for fast-passes, and the younger ones who hadn’t. I’m far from a younger one, but I wasn’t cred-running, so I didn’t want to pay for a fast-pass. There was also some randomness with assigned seating, non-functioning seats, and strange grouping. As a result, I rode in row 3 with just one younger guy. He seemed pretty impressed with Hydra. Not that it has exceptional forces or anything, just that it’s a B&M floorless that’s not like all the others, due to the terrain. The jojo roll, the zero-g before anything else, the oddly-shaped cobra roll, the diving off the hillside. The point is that you don’t really know what Hydra’s going to do next, because it’s non-standard, and that can be a lot of fun for enthusiasts. The others in the group didn’t seem to agree, but I enjoyed it.

Wild Mouse

The group was headed for Talon, but encountered the Wild Mouse first, and it seemed to have no line, so they all hopped on. Unfortunately, it was quick for the fast-pass group, but not for the rest of us, so we were separated again. Even more unfortunately, the operations were terribly slow, so we ended up waiting a very long time. I’ve had Wild Mouse on my credit list for a while, because I’m sure I must have ridden it at some point, but I don’t recall when. Regardless, now I’m certain I’ve done it. Nothing special to say about this one; it’s an ordinary wild mouse coaster.

Talon

Because of our delay at Wild Mouse, the older group was long gone. So the younger folks and I went to Talon. Eventually; I forgot where the entrance was and guessed wrong. Anyway, although the operations were slow, there was very little line during a Haunt event. We took the last two rows, which afforded me an outside edge in row 7. Much like Hydra, Talon is a unique layout, and the darkness made it even more unpredictable. I got a little concerned about losing my glasses, so that hampered my enjoyment a bit, but it’s a good collection of elements. Everyone agreed that it was a very good invert, but we found it hard to classify. Montu, Banshee, Afterburn, and Alpengeist are all better, for various reasons. Silver Bullet and Patriot probably rank below. Which leaves Talon on the low side of the curve, which seems unfair, but that’s how it shakes out. We all agreed it depends on where we decide to rank the Batman clones on any given day.

At that point, it was around 9ish, and knowing that I had a lot of driving to do tomorrow, I decided to take my leave. This proved to be an error, as lots of Buzzed Bars folks had arrived in the intervening time, and I missed my chance to join them for Steel Force and Talon takeovers.