Dorney Park Trip Report (PA/NJ Trip 2017) 7-11-17

I went to Dorney with the full intention of getting the credits I was missing, getting a few rides on Steel Force and then taking pictures most of the day. It was cloudy almost all day, but it was HUMID as hell. I sweated through two shirts like it was nothing actually.

I arrived at about 9:45am with a 10am opening and got right into line. I got to watch Sean C. and his family get named "Family of the Day" at the park and Sean and his cousins got to open the park with the countdown -- I got to meet Sean and his mom and cousins near the end of the day as well, which was cool. I always enjoy saying hello to people that follow my blog and/or Instagram accounts.

After getting inside, I immediately headed for Talon for missing credit #1. I walked right on to the back row and even though I'm not a big fan of inverts, I really liked it. I really liked some of the elements, even though they're typical B&M invert elements and I truly enjoyed the ride. I really believe it is super underrated. I'm not sure when they last painted it either, but it looks really really good still. The colors are vibrant and I love the logo and entrance sign.

After Talon, I headed over to the Wild Mouse for missing credit #2. I accidentally cut a family and jumped into the back of a car. I assumed they weren't going b/c they just stood there, and the mother started jawing with me about 30 seconds later. Well, I'm not one to bite my tongue usually so I let her know that she came up the fast lane entrance without fast lane and was lucky they let her stay up there without having to get back in the regular line - which wasn't long, but it was the principle of the thing. I was wrong but so was she. I still rode in that car and didn't move.

Finally, I went over to Stinger for missing credit #3 (I actually had 4, but once I saw what 'their' woodstock express was, I was not about to ride that). Stinger was basically the same as Invertigo at Kings Island. It wasn't fun, I headbanged, but I got the credit to get me up to 179 before heading to Hersheypark tomorrow for the last day of my trip.

After Stinger, I went to Steel Force and rode in the back of the train with only two other people on the whole train. Steel Force is a very underrated ride. Its not rough, the airtime hills are fun and its pretty well-kept. My only complaint is the lack of places to take pictures. But the ride is great.

After Steel Force, I decided I wanted to take pictures. Typically, I walk around with my zoom lens first, then make another lap with the fisheye, wide-angle and my normal walk-around lens. I made the rounds as usual. I got some pics of Hydra's jojo roll, but I would not get tall enough, even elevating on a bench and some rocks, to get the bottom of the track out of the way and my zoom isn't long enough to zoom past it. They didn't come out bad, but they weren't great either. I did figure out however that I could walk back towards the picnic pavilion to get some other shots of Hydra that I didn't know were available.

Interestingly enough, when I was back by the picnic pavilion, I noticed a film crew (I found out later it was for the travel channel) as well as a guy with a drone in one hand and an iPad strapped to the other. I assume the drone footage was also for the documentary, but it might be for some promotional stuff or a new ride teaser as well. We will see.

I did some shopping and made some more rounds taking pictures, but nothing was too special or interesting after that point. I found it funny the train has the name "Cedar Creek" on it. I found a bunch of $1 lapel pins, which was awesome and I bought a Talon shirt that I thought was pretty cool. I had some lunch at Chickie & Pete's which I found to be better than the CP version. I had the Cheesesteak, and it was glorious.

To close out the day, as I mentioned before, I got to meet Sean and his mom and cousins. We talked about parks and our individual trips this year as well as some photography stuff before we all headed out.

Dorney is a great park. Its kept in amazing shape for not receiving many new rides over the past couple years (other than in Planet Snoopy). I think with Mike now in charge and with the way Matt and Jason have talked about spending money on the "secondary" parks, that we will see some kind of big new ride in their future. Maybe a 2019 GCI like Anthony from Ride_the_Thrills mentioned to me earlier today. I figured it would be dead (it was), but they need something to pull bigger weekday crowds in. It doesn't have to be an RMC or anything, but definitely need some additions.

Speaking of Anthony - This is my official thank you to him for all his help with tips for Great Adventure and Dorney this week. His knowledge helped a ton in terms of my personal planning and whatnot. So thanks Anthony!

Off to Hersheypark tomorrow.