CBCon - Dorney - Hydra - 5/21

This was our second trip to Dorney (the first being just last July), but this time we were able to enjoy some of the gems that we missed last year, like the Whip, Zephyr, and the Krazy Kars. The surprise of the day was the Screamin' Swing, however. What a blast that thing was! For some reason, I seem to remember hearing average reviews of Knott's installation, but our experience was anything but.

As for the coasters, read last year's TR for my opinions on them; they haven't changed. Although I have to mention that I wasn't quite as enamored with Thunderhawk this time, partly because the trim was on...I swear it wasn't last year. But I still have it rated #1 (was faltering a bit until a night ride reconfirmed it), for more reasons than just the ride experience. It's hard to explain. Hydra, on the other hand, was...good. I kind of agree with Gonch about the fact that, although it was very different than anything I've ridden, nothing about the ride was really exceptional (although the jojo kind of took us by surprise on our first ride, but after that it was kind of like a flyer in the sense that once you've done it, it loses its 'wow' factor). Overall, it was fun, as all coasters are to me, but doesn't hold a candle to Talon or Steel Force (and possibly even Laser), in my opinion.

ERT was fun, but in hindsight I regret one major decision: getting up really early to get to the park around opening time. By the end of the day I felt as if we would have enjoyed ERT much more if we had gotten a full night's sleep and arrived at Dorney around mid- to late afternoon. Instead, because of the full day spent at the park (lots of riding and walking), we ended up leaving for a while to check into our hotel and rest up for ERT. We napped for either too little or too long, and we returned to the park groggy and still tired. We rode a few rides before the park closed, and after two rides on Hydra and two rides on Talon during ERT, we decided we'd had enough and left for the night. It sucks, I'm just too old to marathon anything anymore. :(

On a much happier note, Liz and I spent a good portion of the afternoon and night talking and riding with Bob (Kick The Sky), who we had met and gotten to know a bit at SRM (and SFKK the following day) two years ago...plus I met Gonch for the first time which was very cool (albeit brief!). Hopefully I'll be able to meet more Buzzers at a future event (can't make it to BeastBuzz, unfortunately).

Lastly, if you're wondering why I'm writing this more than a week after the fact, it's because CoasterBuzzCon was just the beginning of a week-long vacation for us in the Outer Banks, NC, that we just returned home from last night. It's back to reality tomorrow! :-/

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Vater said:

Lastly, if you're wondering why I'm writing this more than a week after the fact, it's because CoasterBuzzCon was just the beginning of a week-long vacation for us in the Outer Banks, NC, that we just returned home from last night. It's back to reality tomorrow! :-/

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I was thinking the same thing Vater, my buddy and I started at Dorney and then did our weeklong trip and got home the 27th, all in all it was a blast, I am liking these CBCon trips, trying to convince the wife to go to Beastbuzz next year if we don't go to Branson for some PowderKeg action or Texas to visit relatives and hit the 3 SF parks as well as Schlitterbahn.