Dorney Park, May 3, 2013

I was excited for many reasons to start my season off as soon as possible, but Great Adventure was not feasible today, so I went to Dorney to process my pass. A few things:

1) The park was DEAD. I mean like nearly ghost town dead. I walked on to Talon, Hydra, Thunderhawk, Steel Force, and Voodoo (still not calling it Possessed). Had a one cycle wait for Tilt A Whirl because the ride ops didn't wait for me and let two kids ride by themselves with no other cars filled. Apollo was a walk on as well. Perfect, beautiful sunny day, 71 degrees, and no lines? Awesome.

2) Season passes are still slow as dirt if you didn't already purchase online. I waited for about 20 minutes for one group of three people before me. Little ridiculous. When I left the park, the SP line was almost to the ticket booths and re-entry gate. I felt sorry for those people and hoped they weren't going to try to ride anything since they were gonna be in line all night.

3) My weight loss and additional inches lost from working out make for a more comfortable but much looser and unnerving coaster riding experience. There WAS a certain sense of security about being wedged into seats like a canned ham. Heehehe...

4) Dorney is trying a virtual cash wristband thing that lets you walk around with no money or credit cards all day. I was very interested in it for future visits, but I need to check it out when I have more time.

5) Met my first very unfriendly ACEers today. Tried to talk to them and got grunts in return. Whatever.

Also, Talon was running great, Hydra was vibrate-y from the second to last seat as per usual, but I didn't bang my head, Thunderhawk had ALL the trims on, so it was pretty lame, and Steel Force was a little draggy but exceptionally smooth from my favorite seat (second car, first seat).

Normally, I'd do more more description, but I need to go eat. Held off so I could go to LongHorn instead of eating at the park. Yum!

Ride Count:

Talon, Hydra, Apollo, Tilt-a-whirl, Thunderhawk, Voodoo, and Steel Force all once. In less than three hours with a smoke break, pass processing, and a futile 15 minute wait for a Frappuccino (they only had whole milk). Awesome, awesome day

+1 for Longhorn. Muy delicioso.

Sorry about your experience with the ACErs. You get some like that, but a good many are extremely nice, friendly, outgoing people. I went to the Carolina Coaster Classic a few years ago and met some really nice folks.

I love me some Talon and Hydra, by the way, although I think my favorite memories from the park were on Steel Force during Coasting for Kids events.

bunky666 said:

5) Met my first very unfriendly ACEers today. Tried to talk to them and got grunts in return. Whatever.

Nice to know that RRC is still going strong....

I kid, I kid.... ;~)

I have heard that the Coasting for Kids marathoning on Steel Force is an excellent time. I might actually do it this year (I think I remember seeing it is in June? Not sure).

LongHorn filet makes me happy. Hehe...

These particular ACE-holes were what seemed to be the exception to the rule...I've always enjoyed speaking to ACE people before today.

RRC?

June 9, Bunky. I'll be there. Will you? It's a great time, and we'd love to have you. Carrie won't be there this year, so there's an "empty seat," so to speak..

I gotta look into it more, but I should be able to go.

bunky666 said:

5) Met my first very unfriendly ACEers today. Tried to talk to them and got grunts in return. Whatever.

It's difficult to communicate effectively while consuming gravy.

I missed the gravy meme and when trying to look it up, about a million results came up. It is one of the memes (along with pancakes) that although I have NO idea what it refers to, it sounds funny enough to me that I laugh anyway. Did I just have to be there, or was there a Coasterbuzz forum origin?

I don't know that the whole gravy joke started here, but essentially, it is often joked that gravy is the preferred food item of ACE due, in many ways, to the fact that buffets with gravy are common at ACE events and revered by the members. I, as a former ACEr, can recall captions in various magazines that give specific mention to gravy buffets and how wonderful they are.

For some amusement, if you google "gravy buffet," the first item that pops up is a Coasterbuzz explanation of said buffets.

There were some videos made wayyy back by a coaster-riding Reverend named "Coasters and Gravy." (Before C-Buzz was even born). It was a 3-parter in VHS format (and came with some extremely clever warnings, as well as "props" such as the aspirin to consume PRIOR to viewing). The videos were had some ride footage, a lot of witty banter, some interviews, music, and shenanigans/skits. The usage of the word is a reference to the old line "....and the rest is gravy." His second series, called "Panning for Gold," was predictably, panned. (You may groan now, the Rev would want you to).

The food thing came up a little bit later as a joke about how enthusiasts/enthusiasses sometimes behave in buffet lines...

Excellent.

Mike Gallagher said: Carrie won't be there this year, so there's an "empty seat," so to speak..

Dude. Nobody can fill my seat. ;-)

Darn right! It wouldn't be the same, although I feel bad that I won't be partying with Mike at this year's event. KD for me this go-round.

Everything was a walk-on and you only went on stuff once? For me, if something's a walk-on, I hit it three or four times in a row.

Carrie J. said:

Mike Gallagher said: Carrie won't be there this year, so there's an "empty seat," so to speak..

Dude. Nobody can fill my seat. ;-)

True dat, Carrie. You set a high (lap) bar. Actually, there's 42 people registered, but most are nowhere close to the $75 fundraising minimum. But we've still got a bit more than a month to go, so hopefully we surpass last year's total..which was indeed the highest total yet raised by Dorney participants.

Incidentally, Dorney STILL has not announced their details :(

Bjames, I had other plans yesterday evening. I was originally going to get on Talon once and then leave, so I did more than I thought I would.

The pancakes meme came from this thread which came after a classic thread in which a member of the board swore he saw Jeff at the park and even after being ridiculed for being a stalker and kind of weird, still wanted to know if it was Jeff. He just would not let it go.

For the longest time, searching for "gravy buffet" on Google and Bing showed ACE as the first result, due to link bombing. Good times.

Jeff, I looked it up on Google, and now gravy buffets pull up Old Country Buffets first. Judging from some past posts I DID find, it is still appropriate. *laugh*

Andy, thank you for the pancake meme link. That's hysterical. Seems I came to CB one year late.

"gravy buffet" and "gravy buffets" - both singular and plural give me the CB thread as the top result.

The effect of personalized results?