Afternoon all ... just got back from vacation which included Dorney Park and Hershey Park. We had planned to go to Knoebels as well but got rained out for several days and could not fit in the schedule.

First up is Dorney 6/13/09

We drove up from Richmond, VA on Fri afternoon leaving at 2pm. After 7 hours, $11 in tolls and more frustration at traffic issues than you could shake a stick at we finally made it to our hotel (should have taken only 5 hours but traffic was AWFUL!!) Stayed at a Best Western Garden Inn and Suites - $80 for the night through hotels.com. Nice place, clean place, good breakfast, hard as a rock beds!!!

We arrived at Dorney around 10am to sparse parking lot but plenty of folks coming in behind us. We parked pretty close to the front gate hopped out and made our way to the entrance. After waiting for about 15 mins for a Platinum Passes to scan in the system (home park is KD) we were in and ready to roll.

Weather was a little cloudy here and there, about 70 degrees. Very comfy. Sun came out hot and bright around 11ish and carried through until about 2pm when a MASSIVE thunderstorm hit that lasted about an hour. After that the sun was out and hot and humid. Overall a good weather day even with the storm.

As soon as we got in I split from the wife and kids and hit Talon -- 3X in a row, 1-2 minute wait max. 2 rides in back 1 in front. What a great fun ride this is, too short but lots of fun. I still like Montu the best in the invert category but this one may very well slide into the #2 spot. If it was a little longer I would say absolutely #2 and perhaps #1. Loved the signs on the floor going up the lift hill ... nice touch. I could ride this all day as I enjoyed it that much.

Moving along I caught up with the family and we road the train, nice simple ride and the kids were happy (bear in mind they had already ridden several rides while I was on Talon). We then worked our way to the back of the park and I hit Hydra while the kids hit the Woodstock area.

Hydra - Walk on got 2 rides (one in front and one in back). Not a bad floorless coaster, again too short. Very "rattly" though which is weird as normally B&Ms don't rattle like this at all (although I have noticed Dominator does this as well). I liked it ok LOVED LOVED LOVED the Jo-Jo roll. That thing is just darn silly -- very cool feature. I would say this is the worst of the 3 floorless I have ridden. Kraken is #1, Dominator #2. Hydra is not forceless at all but it is just kind of there. Worth a ride but not worth marathoning or closing the park with one night.

Hung out in the kiddie park with the kids for a while and hit the god awful painful Woodstock express with my son. Geeze I cannot ride the kiddie coasters as they just tear me up. I am not a huge guy in anyway (6' 180lbs) but man I come off bruised and battered from all of them (especially Taxi Jam at KD -- OUCH!!)

Moved along to the backside and hit the Ferris Wheel and Old Carousel multiple times(kids loved the Ferris Wheel).

Moved down to the bottom of the park and hit Dominator (aka Power Tower etc). Only did the red side (shot up). Fun as usual for this type of ride. Again the kids hit a few more kiddie rides in the area.

Now to the highlight of the day ... THE WHIP!!!

My son asked to go on this and naturally I said sure (he is only 6 and just getting into rides ... his sister is not a "rider" at all so she did not go on it with us)

So we get on this thing (it appears to be a very old ride looking it over) and we start going around and then we hit the corners aka the whip. We take the first one and my son cinches up tight next to me and I am thinking oh crap he is freaked. We hit the second one and he loosens up some we hit the third and he starts hootin' and hollerin' like this was the greatest thing since sliced bread. He was laughing and giggling his 6 year old butt off. It was hysterical. Finally after what had to be 10 cycles on the ride we came to a stop and he paused real quiet like and goes "THAT WAS AWESOME!!" so loud that all the whole area of that park could hear him and everyone just laughed. We got off and he went about 900MPH around the exit to the entrance telling me to hurry up and ride again. We did and then spent the next 20+ mins riding the whip and let me tell you riding the whip (especially this one as it has some serious yank to it) did a # on me. I was beat after this and had to take a break but it sure was a lot of fun and great to see my son having a blast with it.

We move further down and the BLACK (not gray) clouds came rolling into the area very ominous. My son and I hit the Monster (aka octopus ride) which he thought was ok -- he did not like the spinning of the car at all. I then hopped on Voodoo, Possessed or whatever it's name is this year and grabbed a quick ride while the kids did the menagerie of kiddie rides right there. I don't what it is about this style of ride but I really liked it much like I love Wicked Twister at CP. Wait time was about 5 mins.

At this point I told the wife let's get under some shelter as it appeared it was going to open up any second so we went and sat down and had some cheesesteaks at the stand next to Possessed. Man those were excellent cheesesteaks. I was really surprised. They were $8 and LOADED with steak. Not bad at all.

So we hung out here for an hour as the storm passed through and as it cleared I figured I better get in the rest of my rides asap in case it rained again.

Steel Force was next. Got there and she was testing and we all lined up waiting for them to open the ride. About 30 mins later (and a poor worker having to walk to the top of the lift hill and back down for phone checks) they let us in and I hopped on the first train going out. Sat towards the back - second to last car I believe. Nice ride, nothing special. Good airtime on the hills on the way back to the station but that was about it. I will say this though that has to be the biggest, beefiest, roomiest hyper train I have ever seen or been on. My goodness the cars for this thing are HUGE!! I gotta wonder if this is one reason the ride does not feel as "out of control" as other hypers out there. 1 ride only as I wasn't too wowed by it to wait again.

Thunderhawk was next. What a great little woodie. Again nothing spectacular but it was just outright fun. On downer note I was riding next to someone else this time and of course had my hands up in there. Well in order not to knock the person on my left unconscious at one turn I "anchored" myself with my right arm/elbow area and well it tore me to shreds. Cut up my arm in about 4-5 places and gave me a massive red mark (turned into some nice bruising later) about the size of a softball. It was my fault for "bracing" in the manner I did instead of putting my hands down so I paid the price. Still a fun ride that was worth a reride but I did not get one. 1 ride wait time was about 15 mins (only 1 train running).

By now it was heading on to close to 3pm and we decided to start wrapping things up. We hit the Ferris Wheel again, the whip 2 more times, the carousel again and on the way out I hit Talon 3 more times.

We rolled out of the park around 4:30pm to head to Hershey for the rest of the week. Our timing was on the money as another major storm hit was we were pulling out of the parking lot.

Dorney notes -- What a nice fun little park. My wife and I noted how clean and tidy it was, paths were easy to get through, crowds were busy but not mean/nasty/rude. Park staff was friendly and super efficient on the rides and the lunch we ate was excellent and pretty reasonably priced IMHO. Park is well worth another visit. Not worth going up just for it alone coming from Richmond but certainly worth hitting if you are in the area or doing other parks nearby.

Good job Dorney & Cedar Fair!!

Hershey Park TR later.

Greg

When you hit Bizarro at SFGADV Hydra is just going to keep moving down in line.

When I bought a Maxx Pass in 2007 at KD I had problems scanning it at Dorney as well. I had to take it to guest services.

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Thrillnetwork Moderator - Sophomore Original sn: CHILLERLC1
2008 & 2009 TN Coaster Draft Champion
You knew I wanted the other repeat too

In 07 when I had a Maxx pass and did all the parks in Ohio and Michigan I had to go to guest services every time to get my free ticket for admission and at a couple parks (CP was one) they even had people signing a log book saying what park their passes were from and all that. A bit less convenient then Six Flags where you can scan right in. But can't go wrong with getting in for free all over the place anyways.

Nice trip report. Dorney like all the parks in PA (minus Hershey) have always been on my to-do list for a day/weekend trip, someday I'll finally get up there...

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"For each path you walk down, there are several others you have to bypass. Maybe walking those paths would have made you happy, maybe they wouldn't have. You'll never know. Choose your path, walk it, and make the best of it."

I'm not sure when I'll return to the park post-Laser. Hopefully there will be a new woodie down the line.

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Thrillnetwork Moderator - Sophomore Original sn: CHILLERLC1
2008 & 2009 TN Coaster Draft Champion
You knew I wanted the other repeat too