Day 5: Dorney Park / Surprise PTC visit
Day 5: Dorney Park / Surprise PTC visit
Richard Davis and Justin Garvanovic
To start with Justin and I would like to thank for following people for collating reports on their laptops; Chris Hull, David Elvey, Phil Coates and Susan Ellis.
Steve Fagin
Nice little park & another place that laid on weather hotter than July. Two ERSs set the scene, but Talon topped the show, forcing so much blood into my feet hat I felt at risk of DVT. I skipped the Log Flume due to fears about the risk of getting wet, but was tempted onto White water Landing after being falsely assured that I wouldn't get wet.
David Elvey
The first Cedar Fair park of the trip, and of course, amazing. We started with an ERS on Hydra - the fairly compact B&M Floorless. This was followed by a surprise ERS on Steel Force, a Morgan hyper coaster, which is a fast, smooth ride. The highlight of the day for me was hitting my 200th coaster - Talon, a superb B&M inverted, smooth, fast and great elements, intense. What a ride, what a Park. A great day all round.
Dave Scott
I'm buying a house in Allentown. Talon we love you!
Kim Varde Lassen
Keeping it very short. Nice park, not really different from other parks of that kind. Hydra did not blow my mind, but it was OK. Talon however kicked ...!!
Lars Sorensen
I liked this park. Hydra wasn't as fast as I had expected, but still a good coaster. But nothing in this park can beat Talon. Strong forces, quick turns, steep drop, and a very lovely colour scheme.
Malcolm Marr
In Pennsylvania it is illegal for a man to drink alcohol without the consent of his wife, and today we couldn't drink beer without the consent of the park, due mostly to the of kids in the park today. The park did bend over backwards to help us enjoy our day today giving us our own drinking session, ERSs on Hydra and Steel Force and giving us a limited edition Hydra pin badge to take away. The rides are good, Talon in particular. Steel Force is really smooth, Hydra has nice pacing and is like a family floorless. This park did have some shady places, something that other parks lacked, but there is a shortage of dark rides to escape the midday sun. 94 degrees today!! My poor celtic skin is struggling to remain sunburn-free. There may be another embarrassing picture posted today, my excuse this time is that I was unprepared for having a camera shoved in my face; damn paparazzi.
Tim Herre
After 9 years it was back to Dorney Park today. The day started excellently with an ERS on Hydra, followed by a surprise ERS on Steel Force. The park has got a dynamic duo of B&Ms now, and both are thankfully not two of the copy and paste breed out there. Highlight of the day was the rapids ride, which has huge waterfalls that don't shut off but soak you to the bone instead. To me it feels like yesterday when Ralf Lindhorst and I both got our Nikons filled up to the max eight years ago, as we had no idea what we were up to. This time we were more clever, but it was quite embarassing to see Dirk "Diggler" Lather strip afterwards and show off his underwear on a public walkway. You can't take him anywhere - but with Frossi or Lord of Fire on this trip it would have become even more childish. Thank God!
Paul Freeman
Great staff at this park, we were treated wonderfully today - a real contrast to Six Flags yesterday. The split ERS on Hydra and Steel Force in the morning left the rest of the day for riding Talon (the top coaster of this park and on a par with Nemesis) and then the water rides in an attempt to beat the 34 degrees centigrade heat. (No Azelias in this park!)
Midas van de Graaf:
Dorney was a true surprise to me. We were given the royal treatment for which I like all the responsible people of Dorney. Riding Steel Force was a treat and Talon is definately top 5 material. Friendly people, nice athmosphere and some stunning rides. Well done Dorney!
John Coffield
'Hydra' was very smooth, but I must admit was a bit boring. But 'Talon' was brillant, and very re-rideable. 'Steel Force' as always was excellent. And the PTC tour was a delight. Ok.. it's true I can drink a whole pitcher of Guinness by my self. Hey Richard I'm still 90 ahead of you. Get your ass in gear Dude.
Uncle Albert
Did I ever tell you, during the war...............
Chris Hull
Another warm welcome (and a warm day - 34 degrees!) from the park with ERSs on Hydra and Steel Force. Both enjoyable rides. Talon however proved for me to be not your typical B&M inverted. Quite a surprise as it proved to be different from the normal 'cookie cutter' B&M Inverters and was a highlight of the day for me. All in all a really nice enjoyable day.
Mark Riley and Jenny Lamb
Loved Hydra! It's such a unique floorless that provided a wonderful morning ERS. With graceful elements, this is the kind of coaster we're enjoying more! Talon seems far more forceful than in earlier years and was probably the best ride of the day. Really great staff and very fast ride operations - good stuff.
Mark Sebley
Very nice day in this excellent park. A very warm welcome (not just the weather). All the coasters are re-rideable with my pick being Talon and Steel Force (still a smooth airtime filled ride). Hi to Lynne, Gemma and Becca. Daddy's having a great time.
Jeff Holmes
Dorney is a great park with 2 good coasters being Hydra and Talon. Their rapids ride is insane but could do with more water falls!!!!!!! Was it you Paul Worts that was squirting us??
Martin Valt
Shame the rapids weren't a bit wetter. Hydra OK in an innocous sort of way, loved the pre-lifthill element. Steel Force still way overrated IMHO. Talon reigns supreme.
Viper
My first PA park. A lovely park, great weather. Talon my favourite coaster there.
Paul Orsmond
Dorney is a really nice park, Hydra was OK but not one of the best floorless coasters I've ridden, Talon on the other hand is wonderful, everything is perfect about this coaster and I couldn't fault it whatsoever. Excellent staff and slick ride operations too. Really nice day but could have done with being a bit cooler (94 degrees at its peak apparently).
Mick FK
A nice collection of coasters, very friendly staff, a really really wet rapids ride, if i had known I would have taken my shower gel. I enjoyed the hyper coaster, Steel Force, and Talon the B&M inverted. Temperatures of 95 degrees today - ouch. miss my swimming pool. And Hi to Liz, Crystal and Karl.
Bart Van Goethem
Some nice elements on Hydra, but the best B&M was Talon. Smullen! I wished I had more rides on it. Record vandaag 34 graden!
andycoasterboy
Dorney today and a great ERS on Hydra, the replacement coaster for 'Hurt your knees'. Another hot day, nice to get a bit damp on the rapids!!! and then onto the factory tour of PTC - great to see how these great cars are made and produced. Now on the bus back to the hotel after having a meal kindly organised by the great people at PTC and many jugs of beer (of course).
Paul Worts
Is this bus ever coming to pick me up from Europa?
Nige Harness
The boomerang was FANTASTIC :)
Jeppe Nygaard
Dorney Park had a very good selection of rides. Riding Hydra this morning proved that rides that look intimidating for the ordinary rider can be very smooth, easy and fun to ride. The JoJo roll was an innovative element that I really enjoyed. Talon was an excellent B & M inverter - by far the best on the trip so far. I could ride it over and over again. The only bad thing today was that the weather was extremely hot for a person from Denmark; it exceeded 34 celsius.
Yvonne Janik
Heather Kramer is so organized, fun, and efficient. She planned an awesome day for us including a surprise ERS on Steel Force this morning. I loved the sunny, hot weather since I am from Texas. I didn't get to ride the mouse, however. Each time I was in line to get on next, the mouse became temporarily out of service. Alas!
Andrew Lamb
Had a great day today, ERS was great, Hydra gave a very smooth ride, which included the very innovative JoJo inversion. Talon is now one of my favorate b&m invertors. staff were excellent today too, fast and efficent loading keep queue times to a minimum (so we did not have to stand in the 34 degree heat for to long).
David & Susan Ellis
Another amazing day. We spent most of the day at Dorney Park, starting with an ERS on Hydra the Revenge, the unusual B&M floorless with an inversion straight out of the station, before you reach the lifthill! Then we had some time on Steel Force, before enjoying the rest of the park. Yet another hot day, max temperature 93F.
At 4pm we had another surprise...a visit to the PTC factory. We had a good look inside at some of the coaster cars the company are famous for. Then we went to an Irish Bar for food and beer. An excellent day all round...if only it would cool down just a bit!
David Harrington
On paper Dorney Park isn't the park with the most rides, but I was immediately impressed with the friendly and welcoming staff. After getting Cedar Fair season passes we had two half hour ERSs on Hydra and Steel Force. Hydra is an interesting ride but adding an inversion before the lift hill seemed somewhat pointless. Steel Force is a really fun Morgan hypercoaster but seemed to break down regularly. The double looping Schwarzkopf, "Laser" was also a good ride, let down by being forced to take all luggage on, despite only running one train. Also of note was that this park has had the best food so far in the trip - I even got personally escorted by a lovely woman calledKatie to Subway for a vegan sandwich, where she stayed with me despite a lengthy wait. Talon was also a really good, intense ride; the log flume was well designed and just wet enough to relieve the searing heat of up to 35 degrees C. I also got the rare opportunity to try a Whip. All in all, a really enjoyable visit - it felt more like visiting friends that just happened to run a theme park. After the visit to Dorney we made a surprise visit to PTC, a company which manufactures roller coaster trains. We got shown round by the boss, Tom, whose staff had also given their time to answer our questions. Finally we went to a local pub for drinks and food - sitting outside in good company and reasonably mild weather proved a very enjoyable end to the day.
Chris Simon
Very hot day again - made the walk up the hill between Steel Force and Talon even more difficult! Hydra is strange machine, not quite sure what to make of it. The roll out of the station is a great gimmick, yes, but actually quite fun. Especially when you're in the front row of a train just arriving in the station and you see the train in front revolving away in front of you...
Talon and Steel Force just get better, I really enjoyed them. Talon incredibly smooth and very powerful, Steel Force taking a bit of time to warm up and deliver the airtime it's famous for, but when it came it was well up to scratch.
Lutz Konerding
Due to the fact that I'm having a cold I awaited not so much from the day. But there where three hightlights today. Talon, one of the better B&M-Inverteds, Steel Force, the one to proof that not only B&M can build great smooth coaster with lots of airtime and the visit to PTC. Especially the visit to the PTC-plant showed that it sometimes (just) good handicraft to build good cars. And the talk to the PTC-people proof that you need to have a lot of passion to run such a "normal" company.
Alan Prior & Carolyn Buckley
Last night was a bit odd at the hotel, we were puzzled to find that the card keys issued to us didn't work, reception activated them and we managed to get into the room. we realised that something was wrong when an American bloke came into our room at 1.20am in the morning (and rapidly left!) and we didn't get an alarm call this morning. we found out that the hotel had written the wrong room number on the card keys but they sorted it out and reallocated the room to us. A handy hint- use the deadbolt on your door at night!
Dorney park was really good (apart from the hordes of schoolkids - just like Alton Towers so no worries really). Hydra is now the No. 1 coaster on the tour so far, what a ride! Talon was good as well but not as good as Nemesis. The highlight of the day was receiving the lovely limited edition trip badges from Dorney Park. It's definitely a park that we will come back to, it's not do-able in one day and needs at least two to fully appreciate what they have on offer. I (Caz) would like to say a special thank you to Dorney Park for connecting a call to my parents in the UK after a family bereavement. It was very much appreciated. The staff at Dorney Park were great and the despatch of the trains on the coasters was quick and efficient. Six Flags Great Adventure staff really need to go there to see how a park can be run efficiently.
Chris Penn
I'm glad Dorney invested in a new coaster being Hydra it's a good ride but in my opinion steel force is the best coaster in the park.
Steve Davies
Great ERS on Hydra And Steel Force, but for me, Talon was best ride in the park-one of the best inverters I have been on. Very interesting visit to PTC factory and nice pub visit afterwards. All staff were great-thanks guys!
Odd Arne Roste
Didn't do a report yesterday, but here it is. Kingda Ka, 139m, 206 kp/h, 4xB&M. Need I say more. It almost made up for El Toro not running.
Today Dorney Park was beautiful and really fun with no real highlights and no really rough rides. The trip to PTC was very interesting. I hope we get a PTC train in Norway soon!
Eirik Erstad
Clementon Park two days ago was a fun surprise. J2 was "interesting", I can understand why it probably needs a few adjustments. Six Flags Great Adventure was a true Six Flags experience (unlike SFNE...). Sleeping staff was a first! Two painkillers also helped me endure the day at the park, which by the way was nice.
Today was fantastic. First two fun ERSes on Hydra and Steel Force, which I truly enjoyed, especially the latter. The park is beautifully landscaped with a nice mix of family rides. The highlight of the day however was the very interesting tour of PTC. Thank you to those who made that possible. I had a great time! Now Knoebels is next. I can't wait...
Nina Kleppe
Today was a really nice day. It started off with two ERSs on Hydra and Steel Force. Then we got to do the other coasters and some other rides in the park. Talon was the best coaster today. And it was a nice surprise with the visit to the PTC factory.
Even Stangebye
4 things to mention today: (1) Great ERS on Hydra the Revenge. (2) OK ERS on Steel Force (was a bit to slow over the hills in the morning. (3) Amazing $8 for a whole pitcher of beer. In Norway it would have costed $50 at least!! (4) We DESPERATELY need some new PTC-wagons/trains at Thundercoaster (Tusenfryd, Norway) before the Vekoma-wagons kill this wonderful designed roller coaster. HELP US NOW BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE!!!
Ole Bredesen-Vestby
Back seat on Hydra was great. Talon was awesome. The visit at PTC was cool.
Mats Hummel
Nice park and friendly staff. Great with an extra ERS. Loved the Thunderhawk. Talon was great. I guess it came as a surprise for Justin getting stuck on the wild mouse :-) Nice to get some coaster history by stopping by at the PTC factory.
