Dorney 9/29, awesome!

Let me start off by saying that i love Allentown. Ive never been to Dorney or Allentown before so i did not know what expect. The people are friendly (the ones i came across) and the town is superclean and placed upon the beautiful hills of PA. Its a great town to visit - get there if you can.

Anyways, on to Dorney. The view from outside the park looking into to it is amazing. I had to stop my car the night before i got my chance to go in and just gaze at the lights and how the whole park is layed out before you. very cool.

I got to the park around 9 am to be there first. I didnt know what expect do to the fact that it was the only day of the weekend opened to the public. (Saturday was some corporate thing that booked the park for the day). It was pretty desolate till about 9:50 when , i'de say 20 people showed up. Heh, i was pretty relieved. The park basically stayed empty till about 12:30 - 1:00 pm. The whole morning at Dorney belong to the very few that got there when the gates opened up.

My first coaster i hit up TALON : 4 rides:

No line, i was the first rider of the day. -All day long there was no line at all, just walk-ons or a one train wait. I rode it just about every hour.

Ok, whoever said Talon was a forceless BM was completely wrong. ( i have seen people post that) This coaster packs a good punch with strong g's and what i think is a great layout. The drop has one of the best kick-outs ive been through, with a great snap. Then come the g's! lots of positive g's into and exiting the loop. ( i greyed out on my last ride exiting the loop and it freaked me out). The zero g roll was frantic, i enjoyed it better than B:TR. Then come more g's heading into the Immelman.( no trims, good speed) TALON immelman is awesome! I found it bettter than Alpengiests - it had a great swoop exitng it, just awesome.

The second half of the ride was intense, much like the B:TRs. the swoops were swoopy and the flat spin was fast and powerfull with a killer snap followed by more strong positive g's thru the final helix which was a treat.

TALON is one of my top 5, definitley. Its just a great ride. The silent hush of the train was erie. and I thought B:TDK at SFNE was quiet... you wouldnt know if Talon flew right by you head if you didnt see it. Excellent coaster.

STEEL FORCE : 4 rides:

My first Morgan Hyper. Loved it. The trains were so roomy and snug, made for a great ride. After riding NITRO and SROS at SFNE this year, i kinda had the feeling this ride wouldnt top those two off. It didnt, dont get me wrong here, this coaster is great. The thing i enjoyed most about it was that it had a old-school feel to it. It wasnt flashy, floorless or overbanked-obviously- but thats what i found great about, just a good solid ride.

The back seat had some great air on the first drop , and few of the bunny hops, that was about all - but it was excellent goin over the first drop, what a rush. The helix was my favorite part. Strong forces and nice speed right by the water, sweet. A little shaky here and there but it was all good.

THUNDERHAWK: 1 solo ride:

Cool ride. A little rough in some spots where the track turns, banks and drops. The major thing that bothered me was the trims right before the final run to the staion. They were on so hard you could feel the air time commin then WHAM!, the feeling is gone..... and the train coasts over them will not much to it. Kinda killed a quick and fun ending to the ride.

HERCULES: 1 ride, no more:

Wow what a nice looking drop, too bad we were braked till we got half way down it. Like Haux posted in a earlier thread i posted about Dorney, the train a pretty much braked till the entire train came off the lift. Follwed by an absoloutly brutal turn over the water with weak g forces so i was rockin and slammin all over the place. ouch. The best part was the rather rampant trip out of the station to the lift hill, yikes.

WILD MOUSE: 1 ride:

Fun wild mouse, freaked me out . i havent been on one since '97 at BGW. No line, just a minor downtime for, what seemed to be a brake adjustment in the staion, who knows. it was fun.

Im pretty sure all of the flat rides were running.

Keep in mind my home park is SFGADV, so im not used to seeing all flat rides running at the same time. It blew my mind.

Dominator was a rush. My first ride of that type. i cant even imagine CPs Power Tower, damn.

The park was extremely clean. Maybe do to the fact that there were garbage pails every 10 feet. but whatever... it was great.

The staff was really nice. That was a real treat, i didnt really expect people to be that nice there, they were really helpfull when i asked for driving direction to some stores. :)

Dorney is an excellent park that should not be missed, i cant belive i put off goin there for this long. The location is nice and the park seemed peacefull (compared to SFGADV). I enjoyed it all!

My only advice is to get there early. Get your rides in before it gets crowded. I noticed the crowd started to get bigger around 1:00 pm like i mention before. I was there from about 9am till 2:30pm. . I got all rides in and had a great hassle-free time. Get there and ride!

SFGAdv is my home park also but I like it better the Dorney because the coasters are alot better IMO. I have been to Dorney around 20 times and I have never had a crowded day though. Power Tower at CP is great and I really suggest you get there abd ride it.

I disagree with alot of things though. I have rode Hercules about 30 times and everytime it is a little rough but not nearly as bad as some say. I think the same way about Mean Streak. The ride was also alot better before they braked the hell out of it. I used to think Steel Force was a good ride but I rode it too much and now its boring IMO.

I also diagree with Talon. I rode it opening day and I remember trims before the immelman so they must have been removed. I also rode it 4 times opening day in front back middle and tried end seats and everything but I just got a forceless ride everywhere. I went back in July thinking it might have been the cold weather but it was the same. Went twice this year and its still forceless. How does everyone compare this to Raptor. Raptor takes your breath away. I don't know why but Talon is the worst invert IMO.

*** This post was edited by medusafanatic on 9/29/2002. ***

SFGADV does have better coaster, but i have say Dorney Park was just a better experience. SFGADV can be a pain to enjoy sometimes, this park was a breeze.

As for Hercules, the only part that was slammin was that turn after the drop. The layout after that was pretty sedate. ill take Rotting Lu... Rolling Thunder(left )anyday over Hercules

Hey I am glad you had a good time at the park. Almost all the points you covered are ones that we all try are hardest to please our guest. I'll tell you keeping that park clean isn't easy!

As for talon...THANK YOU. I just don't know how people can call it forceless...plus I think what make Talon so awesome is it's ending from the point you drop off of the s-curve to the brakes the thing never lets up and is so eventfull.

As for Steel Force it's still the awesome ride it has always been. It's just that other rides have been built that are better. The airtime is really good in the back and in the second car provides some nice floater air on the second hill. The helix is packed with so many Gs but it is a little bumpy since the guide wheel are free to shift around since their is about a 1-1.5 inch gap. As for the B-block (mid-course brake) the train usaully enters it at about 32 MPH and Exits around 24 MPH (if I remember right).

Anyways I am going to stop talking now
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www.alexsplace.com
2 years working in rides at Dorney Park
01' Indy Cars, 02' Steel Force

Why do people say Talon is forceless? I been on the front and back and it has strong intense G's but I rode it after the rain. I liked it and its a re-ride coaster. I almost thought it was better and had more forces than Medusa. The trim is still before the immelman but it dosn't be on. I can't pick a favorite part of this ride because I liked all of it. Oh yeah this thing is mad quiet, I was walking to WWK next to the helix and I just turned around and saw this flash of green and blue coming to me, I jumped cause it was so quiet and I just realize its the coaster train flashing. This is my 3rd favorite coaster.

Well , after further review, TALON is my new #1 coaster. I really like inverted coasters, especially enjoyable ones. My favorite inversion is the Immelman and Talon's immelman is the best ive been thru.

S:ROS at SFNE was my former number one, but i liked all that Talon had to offer. Just a great ride.

It does seem to have more forces than Medusa (east), Jay_Rider. Talon is full them, just nonstop action like Alex Nagel said. I rode 4 locations on the train, and the middle of the train made me grey-out in the loop. The back was superb, the best spot while exiting the immelman.

Hey, what about the Laser!? How could you have gone to Dorney and not went on the Laser? One of Schwartzkopf's finest indeed and part of a dying breed.

i did not ride laser cause i have a broken foot and it started to seriously hurt by the end of the day when i planned on riding it. Along with a bit of a head ache and 3 hour drive ahead of me, it kinda was not to good a move. Laser looks intense, i just wasnt in the mood. I just wish i rode it earlier in the day. So, since im mostly positive ill be back there soon, ill ride it then.