Starlight at Dorney 9/2

I have been back at college for a week now, and we already had our first long weekend. What better way to spend part of it then by going to an amusement park? Seeing as how I have been to Dorney dozens of times, I wasn’t concerned with getting there early. My friends, being college students, were more interested in the Starlight price of just $18.50 for 5 hours worth of Dorney (Starlight starts at 5:00), which is more then enough.

We pulled into the parking lot and found it totally full, even the overflow. I wasn’t all that concerned however, because you can see Laser’s line from the entry road, and it wasn’t even close to full. My friends got their tickets and I went into the season pass entrance and we were off.

The first ride of the day was Talon, which was just about a 5 minute wait. I love how it looks like a long line when you get in it because there are no switchbacks in use. Lucky for us, everyone wanted to be in the back or the front rows, so we scored the second row without a single train wait after we got into the station. We went on again later in the night around 8:30 or so and waited three trains for the front row. Talon never gets old and I always enjoy it.

We then went to Hydra and got second row on that one as well with no additional wait in the station. The inline twist right out of the station freaked one of my friends out. Overall, it’s a good ride, but nothing spectacular. We had another ride on it around 8:15 in the last row. While we were going up the lift there was a fireworks show to the left. We watched that all the way up, and all the way down the first drop. It added an element of surprise, which made the ride better. We took a final lap on it around 9:00 and waited two trains for front row.

After Hydra we wondered on down to Dominator. We did both the drop and blast sides in 10 minutes. The park was getting a little more crowded around this point as WWK closed. Thunderhawk was the next coaster on the list, but with one train, and a long line, we decided to save it for later.

We walked down the path that splits Thunderhawk and went on Steel Force. The fist switchback area was full, but proved to only be a 10 minute wait. We got the last car and had some great airtime. I don’t know what it was, but this ride on Steel Force on one of the rougher ones that I remember.

The Laser was next on the list. It had a four train wait, but we got front row, which made it fun. The last two times I’ve been to Dorney, I’ve gotten front row on Laser each time. I’ve been going to Dorney since I was ten, and I’ve only gotten on the front row once in all of that time before my last two visits. It’s a classic looper and one of the gems of the park. I really hope those rumors turn out to not be true.

You can see a few markers from the Laser’s line. There was a John Deer tractor with a cart that had a covering on it. Some kids were taking pictures and saying how it was part of Steel Venom, but it was really just a water tank. You could tell because there were hoses with sprinkler heads coming out of the top of it.

We then went back to Thunderhawk, which had a much smaller line, and to my surprise, two trains. The crew did a great job; there was not a single instance of stacking the entire time I was there. I saw in 1-3 and my friends in 2-1 and there was some great ejector air as always.

We finished the day going to the coasters I made note of above and took a ride on Meteor and Hang Time. Overall, we stayed 4.5 hours and had a great time with almost no lines. Not back for a full parking lot. We stopped at a diner called Trivet Diner on the way home and it was delicious. That and we didn’t think to plan on eating food before we went to the park. It was a great night and a perfect way to end the summer.

Funny you mention Steel Force as I was there Saturday and Monday (but not Sunday) and on Saturday I thought it was running great from the back, but on Monday it was disappointingly very rough and I wonder what changed from Sat to Sun??

They may have switched trains.

Quite possibly, but I'm pretty sure the red and blue ran both days, but I'm not 100% on this...

You probably just found a bad wheel. It happens occasionally on Steel Force, and if you let an operator know they'll usually have someone check it.