Associated parks:
None
Park: Dorney Park in Allentown, PA
Weather: Mostly Sunny
Temp. High: 92 degrees(a scorcher!)
Crowds: Light to Moderate
Rating Scale: -5(worst) to +5(best)
Arriving at the park at 8:00am, we quickly got inline for registration, which was free thanks to the good old CP Season Pass. Morning ERT this year was on Thunderhawk and Steel Force. ERT began at 8:30 and lasted till 10:00. First up...
Tunderhawk +3 - 80 Year Young Woodie
Terrifically fun ride. A must ride for all park patrons. The ride delievers its very best in 1.3. Airtime on every single hill, plenty of laterals, and 3 Bench PTCs. Fantastic ride.
Steel Force +3 - Morgan Hypercoaster
The ride really does deliever everything that a hyper is designed to do. Breathtaking drops, ultra smooth tracking, tunnels, speed, laterals, and more then enough airtime. Though the air is more floaty then anything else, none of us had complaints. We liked to think of it as Magnum(Mistake By the Lake) Ver. 2.0.
After laping a considerable amount of times on both rides, ERT came to an end and we ventured to ride other attractions. The rides in no particular order...
Lazer +3 - Schwarzkopf Looper
By far, the very best Schwarzkopf looper i've ever ridden. Very similar to Scorpin at BGT and Viper at SFAW but for some strange reason, far superior. Ultra smooth ride, very strong positive Gs, and no OTSRs! A timeless classic.
Wild Mouse 0 - Maurer Shone Mouse
If you know me, you know i'm not a fan of these rides. They just don't deliever the kind of thrills i'm looking for.
Talon +5 - Bolliger and Mabillard Invert
...speechless... Most definitely the most perfectly desgined B&M i've ever ridden. ZERO HEADBANGING. All of the transitions are perfectly designed, the ride is cricket quiet, and the G forces(both Pos & Neg) are very abundant. Absolutely superb steelie. By night fall, the ride was really cooking and flying at breakneck speeds through the entire course.
Having been to the park before, Joe and I opted not to ride Hercules and Woodstock. We did managed to ride many other non-coaster attractions as well...
Tilt a Whirl +1
Once this thing starts spinning, there's no stopping it. Like many other installations, we walked off the ride with grins ear to ear.
Joker -2
Sooooo slooooow. Definitely the slowest Rainbow i've ever seen. The car ride to the park was more thrilling and I even have acrophobia.
Zypher and Railroad 0
Provided some very different views of the park and was all around very relaxing.
Ferris Wheel +1
Thanks to its location of perched on the hillside and light winds, the gondola started rocking and my nerves went into insane mode. The ride gives you a very nice view of the entire park.
Swan Boats - 0
Is the water supposed to fill into the boat through little holes on the side? After a long enough ride, the pedals were basically underwater.
Meteor +1 - Zamperla Hawk 48
Though thrilling in many ways, Kennywood's version out performs Dorney's with a longer cycle time. Nonetheless, a fun ride.
From 12:00 to 1:30, the park hosted us to a picnic. Today we were served hotdogs, hamburgers, and chicken. While the food wasn't spectacular, it was a huge improvement over last year's food. Very tasty burgers and dogs but the chicken was tiny and barely had any meat to it. Oh ya, did I mention FREE Pepsi. :o] They also had some fabulous giveaways but for some strange reason, they called a million blue tickets and left us yellow tickets hanging. Oh well...
Joe and I began lapping Talon at about 9pm and didn't let up till ERT(10pm-11pm) ended. Though we lost count, we ended up with about 40 rides in two hours. The crew was fast and very efficent. Mad props to them for a good well done.
At the beginning of Night ERT, we were told that State Inspectors were on hand in the morning and observed seatbelts unfastened on Steel Force. The park realizes that there is a good chance that we were readying ourselves for exiting the ride but requested that for Night ERT that our belts remained fastened until instructed. They took no actions for the morning's incident but warned us that if it was repeated that night that the person or persons that failed to follow instructions would be asked to leave the event. If enough people failed to follow instructions then the park would turn down next year's event. While most of the group followed the instructions to the T, there were some who failed to follow instructions and were quickly asked to leave. Hopefully, their actions won't reflect on those of us who did follow instructions and that the event will be again held next year.
It just pains me to see that someone elses bad judgement reacts on those who follow the instructions and co-operates with the park. Please think twice next time.
All in all, another terrific CMadness event. The park did a terrific job running their coasters. Two train operation on ALL 4 COASTERS! Even the deserted Hercules platform! The park shined on friday. I'll be sending a letter their way informing them of a job well done.
It was great meeting Beastmaster from URC as well as meeting up with Rich and Sue Barry. Sue, next time, try and keep up with my lapping. You'll either feel younger or older by the time its all said and done. :o)
Coasterman Mike
------------------
"Sometimes I just kill myself!" - The Joker
You must be logged in to post