Day one of our insane coaster trek landed us in New Jersey first after flying into Baltimore from Cleveland. Let me begin by saying that I'm irritated that every road north of the Maryland border has a toll.
I knew Great Adventure had the most ridiculous parking price anywhere, but that didn't make it any easier to take. $10 is too much. Given the fact that our passes would get us in, I just put up with it.
SFGAdv is a really cool park overall. It's very well wooded and well kept. It's also huge and spread out. Our goal was to ride the three B&M's and get back on the road toward Dorney.
First off, Nitro certainly lives up to the hype. What an outstanding ride. The view across the Garden State from the top is breathtaking. The ride overall felt more like Millennium Force than, say, Apollo's Chariot. The hops weren't bad, but I think the ride is more about speed than air. The ride ops, while loading quickly, need to do a better job getting people on the platform, as the front row line blocks everyone else and trains end up going out half-empty.
Batman was next in line, and I still love that small compact design. What's the deal on the noise? Are they using knobby wheels on that thing because it's deafeningly loud! It ended up being our longest wait, again because they couldn't load the entire train. What was different here was that the crew wouldn't dispatch until it was full. The queue was the only nasty place in the park. A junkyard theme is not an excuse to leave trash all over the place.
Medusa was last. What a beautiful looking ride. But here's a pickle... who approved the theme? "Medusa Mining Company?" It's like someone came up with a name then had to retrofit it into a western theme. Duh. In any case, I liked this floorless much better than Batman at SFWoA. The zero-g roll and the flat spin after the mid-course are killer. It made me realize just how indifferent I am about Batman.
That was it. I liked the park, and would have liked to have stayed longer, but we were on a schedule, not a track record blitz. It was rather crowded, as I expected, and it took three hours to bang out those three rides.
Back on the road, we arrived at Dorney by 6 p.m. $6 to park, get tickets from guest relations with our Cedar Point passes, and we're on our way. Talon was pretty amazing to see, particularly noting how fast it was in the last part of the ride, but that was for later. After feeling a spot of deja vu on the main midway (haven't I seen that carousel before? 
), we headed to Laser for our first ride.
I was blown away. This is the first true Anton creation I've been on that wasn't a Wildcat. The portability aspect of the ride was genius, and the lack of OTSR's made it an oustanding and powerful little ride.
From there we went to Steel Force. Believe the hype... this is the way an out-and-back hyper should be. The turn around is perfect and fast, the transitions are smooth and retracting seat belts do make airtime comfortable. After getting off, I gave a swift kick to the jimmies of all enthusiasts who cry about mid-course braking on the ride. It doesn't matter, the air is still superb.
On to the Thunderhawk, a crazy woodie! Lots of fun, though you need to keep your back off those nasty seatbacks. This ride would have been a 15-minute wait, even though they were only running one train. Some moronic manager decided they needed the other, but that process takes 20 minutes by the time they've done all of the blocking tests. It was totally unnecessary. I was severly irritated.
Off to Hercules. Given its relationship to Mean Squeak, I was not optimitic. As it turns, out, it's a very powerful and fast ride, even with the drop trim, but the layout is just so uninteresting. Good use of terrain. Haven't I seen that light show screen and control booth somewhere before?
Wild Mouse was a bit of a wait, but I love those Mack mice. Another enthusiast crybaby ride because of the trims, but they were only used in two places, and lightly at that. The first was following the straight-away, the second on the level below. Good times. I love these rides.
Finally, it was back to Talon. The crowds all went to watch the light show, and Talon was a ten-minute wait. Having watched the thing grow up on RideZone, I thought I knew this ride. Boy was I wrong.
Talon is the best paced inverted coaster ever created. Walter and Claude deserve a Nobel Prize for the thing. The second half of the ride, from the S-curve on, is fast, disorienting, low to the ground and incredible. Two laps in the back left seat. I hate to say it, but I have to put this one above Raptor. It really is that good.
Overall Dorney is a nice park. All of the rides are quality and it's very well run (except for that one snafu). Cedar Fair investors should be proud of that property, because it is an outstanding park with a great assortment of rides and entertainment.
Next stop, BGW...
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