Dorney Park 6/5/05

I thank everyone for the suggestions.

I drove up to Allentown from BWI via I-83 to US 30 to US 222. There were considerable constructions along the way. It took me about 3 hours and arrived at Dorney around 12 pm.

I went through the guest service to get tickets for KBF season pass and off I went. I visited this park 3 years ago with my daughter but did not ride any big coasters since she was too little. She would be happy to ride these now but she could not come since I was here because of a business trip.

Talon: (9/10) No wait whatsoever. 5 consecutive walk-ons. Great! This is a great inverted coaster. I LOVE inverted coasters. I rode this near the back. Raptor is my favorite but this one came really close. It is becoming somewhat of a blur now. Montu and Silver Bullet were also good. Talon was more intense than Montu or Silver Bullet. I thought Raptor may be slightly more intense.

Hydra: The Revenge (9/10) Again, no wait. 8 straight walk-ons. Also, this was my 100th coaster and third floorless. The beginning inline twist was a big surprise and a sweet element. I will rate Scream! and Dominator as being better than this but very, very good nevertheless. I was able to see supports of Hercules, which I never got to ride, all around. This is a winner for this park.

Thunderhawk (6/10) No wait for this OLD woody. One ride. I thought this was an ok ride. Maybe, I am spoiled with The Beast and Ghostrider but I did not think this ride was anything special.

Laser (7/10) One ride. Again no wait. Again, decent ride but nothing special. A decent looper. The ride reminded me a little bit of Mind Bender at SFOG which I really enjoyed. This was nowhere near as good as that one.

Steel Force (9/10) 10 rides. What in the world is going on here? Every single one that I rode was a walk-on in this park. (I certainly was not complaining!) Some of you may know that my favorite is Magnum at CP. This ride is a distant cousin of Magnum. I realized very quickly that this coaster is nowhere as intense as Magnum. I love the Helix part and the bunny hops. The air time on Steel Force is more of a floater. Magnum is mostly ejector (at least during bunny hops). Still, I enjoyed this ride enough to do 10 straight time.

Overall, I spent 3 and 1/2 hours at the park and rode 5 Talon, 8 Hydra, 1 Thunderhawk, 1 Laser and 10 Steel Force. Not bad! I thought the park was rather busy but most of the people were at the water park. I only wish all my trips are as enjoyable as this one.

Glad everything turned out OK, woodyman, as far as the traveling and the directions went. Sounds like you had a great time. You hit it lucky with the weather too-- got warm enough to have most people thinking wildwater instead of coasters. I think you made the right choice going to Dorney.