Dorney Park, 9/1/10

I wanted to get back to Wildwater Kingdom 1 more time before it closes for the season and this week seemed like a good time to go with school starting for some districts. I got to the park a little after 10:30 for WWK's 11:00 opening. The lot wasn't that crowded early in the morning.

At first it seemed like there was a lack of lifeguards and a lot was going to be closed. I expected the 2nd lazy river and wavepool to be closed but Wildwater Rapids (4 body slide tower), a couple of kids areas were closed. When I went to Patriot's Plunge, they weren't using the red slide (which I think is one of the best slides in WWK because of the double down). Around 12:00 - 12:15 they opened up the closed attractions and opened up the red slide but at that point crowds were so bad I was almost done with the waterpark. Never before did I see a line to get a tube for Patriot's Plunge and Aquablast almost had a full queue with the 2nd side not being used.

Over on the ride side, it was the opposite one of the emptiest days I have seen. Talon and Steel Force were occasionally dispatching completely empty trains. The only line on the ride side with a wait was Thunder Canyon at about 20 minutes. The line wasn't that long, maybe 50 - 70 people but they were only loading 2 rafts each cycle instead of 4 or 6 that could be loaded and they were putting as few as 2 people in each raft.

I guess the record setting 97 degrees kept everyone in the waterpark.

When I was done with the water rides I went to Talon that had 2 people in the station. It really seemed to be running well today.

Wild Mouse had no wait to get into the station, normally I skip the ride because of the slow moving line but couldn't pass up a 2 minute wait.

Hydra had people just waiting for the first row and the more I ride Hydra, the less I like it. I don't know what about it makes me not like it as much other than comparing it to Bizarro which I think is a way better coaster.

Demon Drop had no one in line, and the cars were sitting empty waiting for riders. This was my 3rd time trying the ride and I still don't like how it hurts your neck.

Thunderhawk also was a walk on for a middle row, it looks like some of the wooden track might have been replaced as it looked new. I'm not sure how recent it is since I hadn't ridden Thunderhawk since June.

Walking to Steel Force I saw a couple people be turned away from the scrambler because they were single riders. CF really needs to go back to allowing single riders.

Steel Force had a wait for the front and last rows but the rest of the station was empty. I got 2 rides and went to Possessed which was a 1 cycle wait.

I was going to ride Talon again and stop at Dominator but the heat was really starting to be annoying and uncomfortable.

With WWK closing for the season Monday, I guess I can focus on the coasters the rest of the season since even though this was my 9th trip to the park this season, other than Talon I have yet to ride any coaster more than 10 times total this season.

Regarding your Hydra comments, I actually really enjoy that ride. I like how different it is from so many other floorless coasters out there.

My complaint is how uncharacteristically rough it is.

I don't remember if it was rough the year it opened, but regardless, it's just an underwhelming ride overall.

The ride being rough and vibrating is a major reason I like the ride as much as I should the other reason is the layout. I know it's probably the most unique B&M floorless with the jojo roll, inclined dive loop and different cobra roll all not found on any other B&M but I feel like something is missing. Maybe part of the problem is that inversions 2 - 6 are right after one another with nothing in between and no vertical loop (my favorite inversion).

It's unfortunate that the best part of the coaster is 10 feet from the start. The jojo roll is great, after that the ride suffers from too small of a footprint.

A friend of mine (who rode it for the first time with me last year) said that the 2nd half of the ride "was like making a coaster on RTC. By the end, you are just throwing random pieces of track together to get back to the station any way you can."

Made me laugh. :)

I'll agree that once you leave the cobra roll the ride is more or less over. However, I admire that they tried to spice things up a little as opposed to just tossing in a couple zig-zags.