Associated parks:
Dorney Park, Allentown, Pennsylvania, USA
My home park pleasantly surprised me during this visit. It's the most underrated park I've been to, but I may be biased. The atmosphere for the event was great and the scare zones were done well. At points, I actually enjoyed the scare mazes more than the coasters. Overall the operations were good and there weren't any rowdy guests that I came across. They have a bag policy that states no bags of any type after 4 PM, the park hours were 6 PM-11 PM and they weren't allowing bags in, but that was expected so I didn't bring one. I got there around 5:30 and we were actually let in about 10 minutes early. Haunt didn't start till after the "Overlord Incantation" Show and the houses opened at 7:15. So I went to Hydra since it had just opened its queue.
Hydra: Running really slow but I was on the second train of the night with guests in the second row. Jojo roll is always a treat and this floorless is really smooth unlike Bizarro at Great Adventure. It just didn't have any whip cause it just opened. Overall an enjoyable coaster. 7/10
That was a walk on so the show wasn't ready to start yet, so I went over to my favorite coaster in the park, Talon
Talon: Unlike Hydra, this was running just as good as I remembered in the back. Smooth, whippy, and still one of the most underrated coasters I've experienced. It has little surprise pops of airtime and it's decently intense. My 3rd favorite invert, below Raptor and Alpengeist. 9/10
Talon was also a walk-on, and at this point, it was 6:35 so the show was ready to start. So that was the next destination
Overlord's Incantation: This takes place in Hydra's plaza. It's basically your big introduction to the event. It's fun for what it is but it's nothing mind-blowing. I do enjoy the fire effects, the story is pretty generic, shows about 5-10 minutes long
I was hungry so I went to the nearby Chickie & Pete's, this was a surprise since the burger was much better than I was expecting and the regular fries were delicious as well. Waited 20 minutes tops from sitting down to getting the food, so not too bad. Now it was time for the first house.
Blood on the Bayou: WOW this was really well done! It's themed to New Orleans but I didn't get the story behind it. But that's ok since the quality of the house certainly made up for it. This was my favorite scare maze out of the 3 I did. Some of the actors were well hidden, especially in the swamp area. The ending was the best with a big sna... well you'll have to experience it to find out! 9/10
Now my original plan was to go to Corn Stalkers, so I went through the CarnEvil scare zone, this one was fun and I went through it during the 2019 event. It's got your common evil clown theme and isn't too big. The plan changed cause I wanted to hit up Steel Force, so I went through the brand new Hollow scare zone. This one looked nice, themed to a colonial forest. I had to go through this 4 times throughout the night lol. Scare actors are funny and the area gives off a spooky vibe. The plan changed again since I ended up right next to Possessed, so I did that while I was there.
Possessed: This was running really well! I rode back row and I waited about 10-15 minutes. The launch was much better this time than the last time I rode it. The spiral is decent in the back. But the best part in the back is the weightlessness on the spike. That's a rare and cool feeling. Overall Possessed caught me off guard and I would be sad to see it leave. 7/10
After Possessed I went over to Steel Force's area to do my next scare maze, Necropolis.
Necropolis: Necropolis is an outdoor scare mazed themed to a haunted graveyard. This one was done well due to the lighting and fog effects. That made it pretty difficult to see where the scare actors were placed, which added to the fear factor. This was my least favorite of the 3 mazes but was still done great. 7/10
Leaving Necropolis I noticed Steel Force had a massive line. I skipped it for now and went to the next scare maze, Tourist Trap
Tourist Trap is themed off of the murder hotel in Chicago created by HH Holmes, where people would enter but never leave. This gave off the most haunted house vibes out of the 3, this one was really well done and the theming was great. This was my second favorite of the mazes cause of the theme and the quality of it. 8/10
NOW it was time for the last ride of the season for me, Steel Force, my first hypercoaster back in 2017.
Steel Force: Ok, I don't know what they did to it this season, but this ride was running at Magnum XL-200 levels of wildness during the last stretch of airtime hills, Holy cow this was the best ride on Steel Force I've ever had. I was in the back car first row and I waited about 40 minutes which was well worth it. It was also pitch black since it was about 10 PM at this point. That's definitely gone up in my rankings. 9/10
The only thing I wanted to do that I wasn't able to do was Corn Stalkers, but I'm sure it will be back next year. This was probably my best visit to Dorney and I can't wait to visit more!
Ride Count:
Hydra
Talon
Blood on the Bayou
Possessed
Necropolis
Tourist Trap
Steel Force
I have never been to Dorney for Haunt season, but I always have a great time there and enjoy the park very much. Outside of the awful new-ish trains on Thunderhawk, the park has some solid rides, a fantastic log flume, and Demon Drop. I have always had a great time there and it does what it does very well. I never have understood the hate.
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