Dorney Park, 6/6/06

I decided to spend a few hours at Dorney today. Got there a few minutes after opening, and noticed there were only 1 or 2 rows of cars but about 12 buses. That quickly turned into 20 or 30 buses but the crowds were very reasonable. As always I started off with Talon. I decided to wait for the front because I never had before and the line wasn't much longer than the other rows. The whole wait was about 10 minutes. The view is so much better from the front and makes the ride a lot more fun. I was going to ride again but the line was into the 1st switchback at that point so I went to Hydra.

Hyrda as usual was empty with a 1 train wait. The more I ride Hydra, the less I like it. I still think it's a good ride but I find it more boring then I did when I first rode it last year. Seeing as there was no wait, I went through the line again for a 2nd ride.

On the way to Steel Force I stopped at the Whip which had no one in line. Only 3 cars including my car had people in it which seemed to be the same with all the flats that day. Monster had no one on it and Dominator was being sent up with half filled cars.

I saw no one was headed towards Laser so I decided to hold off on Steel Force and go to Laser in hopes I could get a front seat ride (which is difficult as it's assigned seating). I tried to get in line when no one was in line (waiting until the queue was empty because the train was only half full) but that didn't work becuase more people started to get in line and they let those people on the same train. I asked the op if I could wait for the next train for the front and expecting to hear no, she actually allowed me to wait. It was much cooler in the front without those headrests blocking your view and it was as forceful as ever.

Steel Force had a 1 - 2 train wait for everything but the front. After the Wild Thing incident I was a little nervous about riding but knew the odds of something happening were almost non existant so I rode. The MCBR wasn't as strong as I remembered last year which allowed me to get some crazy air time on the hills at the end of the ride, to the point where I was getting lifted out of my seat on almost every one of those hills. I also don't remember the helix being so forceful. I went on again since the wait was so short.

Thunderhawk appeared to have the longest line I had ever seen before with the line down the stairs and into a switchback. I thought it was because only 1 train was running but it was because they weren't letting more than 1 train load of people into the station at a time. The wait was really only about 2 trains. Fun ride but nothing that great.

I was getting a little hot so I decided to go on the log flume. Only 4 people in line so I got on right away. The 2nd little drop before the waterfall you go under got me soaked, 3 hours later and my shirt is still wet. I really like this flume because of how it's a terrain flume and the nice drop.

It was getting close to noon at this time so I went for another quick ride on Hydra and headed to Talon expecing a walk on. It was into the switchbacks slightly and was about a 12 minute wait. After I got off Talon, the line was only to the middle of the stairs so I decided to take another ride and by the time I got to the line it was only in the station with a 3 train wait for the front. I decided to wait for the front again for another great ride.

It was around 12:30 at this point and I had ridden every ride I wanted to ride including re-rides so I decided to head home.

In a little less than 2 1/2 hours I got 3 rides on Talon, 3 rides on Hydra, 2 rides on Steel Force, 1 ride on Laser and Thunderhawk and 1 ride on the Whip and Log Flume.

Overall it was a great visit even with a ton of school kids there (which usually means horrible lines)

Must be nice to just up and decide to go to a park on a Tuesday. Harummmph.

Glad you had a good time anyway. ;)

Much love to that log flume, my favorite of all the parks i have been to.