Downpour At Dorney, 7/27/06
Associated parks:
None
As always, Talon was first and since the line was down past the stairs it was about a 10 minute wait for the middle of the train. Awesome ride as usual.
Trying to beat the possible rain, I checked out the Wild Mouse line. It looked to be about 30 minutes or more, way too long so I went to Hydra which had about a 5 minute wait. I went for a 2nd ride and in line, a father was with his son, and the father was quite nervous about the ride asking others if it was scary. I told him it was considered the least intense ride of it's type and that made him feel better but the JoJo roll really freaked him out and at every other inversion he kept telling his son he was going to get him for this. That JoJo roll really seems to get everyone who has never been on the ride before as a surprise as I heard more screaming during that part than any other part of the ride. It was also slightly raining during the rides which was interesting as I had never been on a coaster in the rain before but after the 2nd ride, it stopped.
Before going to Steel Force I stopped at the Log Flume which I later found out was a mistake. Only a 2 boat wait but by the time I got off the ride (and soaked), there was lightning in the sky but not rain. I ran to Steel Force hoping I could either get a ride in before they closed it or wait in the station until the storm passed. That wasn't possible though since they had a guard and an employee at the entrance not letting anyone get in line.
A few minutes after that, the skies opened up and it was a downpour. Everyone ran for cover and I decided to go to the Whip building since it was covered. Surprisingly, the ride was still running in the storm. I probably shouldn't have ridden any ride during a thunderstorm but decided to anyway. It was only a 2 cycle wait (more people were on the other side of the pavillion than interested in riding). I couldn't believe they were running the ride in this storm even though it was covered. The operator was telling people that the Whip and Music Express are the only 2 rides that can run in this weather. I did see the Scrambler and Apollo 2000 running as well but they might have just been finishing up their cycles as they did not run again after that. Towards the end of the ride, the power went out for a few seconds. That whole part of the park (and maybe the whole park as well?) lost power as the lights shut off in the pavillion and the coaster lights went out as well.
At that point the ride was over and they weren't letting anyone else ride. I was going to run to the arcade and wait out the storm in there and saw at Music Express, they were emptying the riders off that ride as well. The walkways were slightly flooding and my sneakers and socks were completely soaked. I stopped at a games area and saw the rain and lightning wasn't going to let up anytime soon so decided to just leave the park. A lot of people had the same idea and there was a huge backup to get out of the lot. What was nice was that there was someone directing traffic since 2 different areas were merging into 1 lane and the employee was letting a certain number of cars go from each lane and then switching which made it easier than having to fight your way into the merge point.
The whole way home the weather stayed the same so I guess I made the right choice by leaving. I would have liked to have ridden Steel Force, Laser and Thunderhawk but I'm glad I got a few rides in before the storm hit the area.
You're right about the JoJo. Every time I ride, I still crack up when the train goes through it. I know it's coming, but I still laugh out loud.
Nice TR for a not so nice trip.
Awesome TR, Yoshifan. Glad you managed to have some fun despite Mother Nature. :)
-Tina
You must be logged in to post
