Preface
I was recently reflecting in a separate thread on how life has moved on, my coaster enthusiasm, or at least the pace at which I can consume new coaster credits, dramatically decreasing to make room for other hobbies, pursuits, and work. This has especially been the case for those more elusive parks and creds that I never had the chance to visit during one-off CF-Lives or ancillary travel. And so it was that I nabbed some spare vacation days to do a dedicated, five-day run with a best friend to finally visit Six Flags Great Adventure, alongside a few other planned and surprise coaster credits!
Day 1 – The Dorney Dash
Upon landing in Philadelphia and picking up our rental Tesla, we immediately drove up to Dorney Park for 3-4 hours, which I estimated to be the rough amount of time for a proper cred run. It was my friend Kevin’s first time at the park, so I’m curious about his reaction!
Walking into Dorney, you are greeted with a lovely, old-timey carousel. But for the more Cedar Fair astute, this is a quite merry go round from Cedar Point’s Frontier Town, far better than the Cedar Point Main Midway and Kiddie Kingdom Carousels as it sported wider rows and better pageantry. We had to give it a whirl, as the last time Kevin rode it, he would’ve ridden it. He would have been 6 or 7! With Merry Go Round down, we jumped right into Dorney’s crown jewel:
Talon
Ride Experience
While Talon was the recipient of a solid “second class” bird-of-prey theme miming Raptor (welcome to 1990s Cedar Fair corporatism!), the coaster still delivers an ever-solid performance of great inversions, solid g-force, and a super-fun finale of low-to-the-ground overbanked turns. I’m a sucker for 90s B&Ms, and Talon is no exception!
Things that still stand out for this coaster are excellent g-force and inversion stringing between the vertical loop, zero-g roll, and Immelmann. But the coaster’s excellence lies in the second half, if I’m honest – the great pop of airtime coming from the not-a-an-MCBR-but-feels-like-an-MCBR with low flying, overbanked turns and wingover inversion are just a blast.
As we continue the tour of Dorney Park, diadem:
Hydra
I’d say, “Oh how the mighty have fallen”, but Hydra was always *ahem* punching-above-it’s-weight-class type of ride. You cannot deny the ambition of park management to cram seven inversions into a 100 ft. tall roller coaster, even inventing the now beloved jojo roll inversion in the process. But what the coaster brings in visual appeal…
Ride Experience
… is still lacking in ride experience. A lot of speed loss from the first hill into the inclined loop means tame, floater-ish airtime through the zero-g, corkscrew, and cobra roll. I last rode this coaster its opening year in 2006, where the back row did deliver some good, tugging airtime throughout the layout – but the coaster just seemed to chug a lot, regardless of row selection, during this visit. Bummer.
Thunderhawk
I am talking of coasters that chug – Thunderhawk! I was curious to check out this coaster again with its new PTC train design and updated livery to celebrate its recent anniversary (50 years? 100 years? 1,000 years?). The new PTC trains are just old ones with holes cut in the front of them (
), but the updated aesthetics is well deserved for a wooden coaster nicely nestled in the park's heart.
Ride Experience
Last I rode Thunderhawk, every trim brake was grabbing with full force, creating a moment of wonder that we had enough momentum to carry us back to the station versus valley mid-run while the coaster was still running… as meh as ever, at least the trims weren’t biting as hard!
Steel Force
This is different from the Magnum you are looking for. There’s been a recent resurgence? Zeitgeist? That Morgan hypers are somehow “good,” “wonderful,” or “better than Arrows.” I’m here to tell you these people are on drugs and need help.
Ride Experience
Don’t get me wrong, Morgan hypers are fine. The layouts are meant to be fun-loving out-and-back designs with good speed and drops. It’s just the lack of airtime that I always find so annoying compared to Arrow hypers – Ron Toomer was designing with coat hangers and pen to paper; how hard is it to emulate and mirror his masterful triangles of floater?
At any rate, Steel Force was fine. Drops were good, and speed was SPEED, especially in the unending 540-degree turnaround (which, I will say, is my favorite of the Cedar Fair hypers, wrapping nicely into the hillside and brush).
Iron Menace
Dropping in (har har) 2024.
Possessed
Woof. I have heard that Wicked Twister’s removal was a good cause of operational/maintenance downtime and complicated upkeep. While I haven’t witnessed much Intamin Impulse downtime across those I’ve ridden, Possessed was a sterling example of a coaster in need. The launch was under launching about every other ride, giving a TT2-style launch that had the train barely creep up the front spike. Since LIMs are more straightforward machines than LSMs that operate in a more binary fashion of on/off (versus LSMs, which have more specific train tracking and mathematics afoot to actively calculate the train’s speed and modulate power to obtain target speed), the train eventually got up to speed after 2-3 passes, reaching the full crest of spikes. I guess it's proof that you can limp these coaster designs along, but it's hilarious to see the retching exercise.
Ride Experience
It was absolutely delightful (aside from the maintenance boondoggle) and left me longing for my older, former glory. Even with the back spike holding brake off (boo), I have always enjoyed the pure floater on Impulses.
Let’s also do a quick tour of two other favorite thrill rides while in the park:
The Whip
I’m a sucker for older rides that are kept in good standing. Dorney’s Whip is a near-immaculate example of the proper, full-sized whip. I’ve always appreciated that they kept the pavilion and sign in good shape (looking at you, Kennywood) to give the ride a proper presentation. The ride speed was excellent, with incredible lateral forces!
Demon Drop
This ride was MY JAM back in Cedar Point. I’m not a fan of massive drop tower rides, but Demon Drop’s easy 100-ish ft. drop is easy to tackle for thrill seekers. What’s better, the audible *clank* of the safety brake decoupling at the top also gives an easy warning when you’re about to drop, removing any anxiety of not knowing when you’ll fall.
Interestingly, the ride cycle operation is close to the original dispatch – loading three cars as three cars are in the dispatch/ride cycle. This is far more efficient than Cedar Point’s operation of loading and unloading 1-2 cars on a more rotating basis, partly driven by a more cautious ride cycle operation after an unfortunate ride malfunction resulting in a car mid-lift in the elevator falling on top of another car. The drop cycle was also a little longer once at the top; rather than a simple 3-2-1 countdown, we were up there for a steadier 10-15 seconds. At least you get a nice view!
Ride Experience
Twas lovely. It has a great pop of floater airtime, with all the old-school pneumatic and clanking sounds to accompany it. Unfortunately, it is one of the last Gen 1 Intamin drop towers out there, making it even more rare than the Whip ride!
After the quick volley of coasters and rides, we tagged on for a few passages; but dinner and beer were beckoning to help us prepare for our next day's journey…
I was recently reflecting in a separate thread on how life has moved on, my coaster enthusiasm, or at least the pace at which I can consume new coaster credits, dramatically decreasing to make room for other hobbies, pursuits, and work. This has especially been the case for those more elusive parks and creds that I never had the chance to visit during one-off CF-Lives or ancillary travel. And so it was that I nabbed some spare vacation days to do a dedicated, five-day run with a best friend to finally visit Six Flags Great Adventure, alongside a few other planned and surprise coaster credits!
Day 1 – The Dorney Dash
Upon landing in Philadelphia and picking up our rental Tesla, we immediately drove up to Dorney Park for 3-4 hours, which I estimated to be the rough amount of time for a proper cred run. It was my friend Kevin’s first time at the park, so I’m curious about his reaction!
Walking into Dorney, you are greeted with a lovely, old-timey carousel. But for the more Cedar Fair astute, this is a quite merry go round from Cedar Point’s Frontier Town, far better than the Cedar Point Main Midway and Kiddie Kingdom Carousels as it sported wider rows and better pageantry. We had to give it a whirl, as the last time Kevin rode it, he would’ve ridden it. He would have been 6 or 7! With Merry Go Round down, we jumped right into Dorney’s crown jewel:
Talon
Ride Experience
While Talon was the recipient of a solid “second class” bird-of-prey theme miming Raptor (welcome to 1990s Cedar Fair corporatism!), the coaster still delivers an ever-solid performance of great inversions, solid g-force, and a super-fun finale of low-to-the-ground overbanked turns. I’m a sucker for 90s B&Ms, and Talon is no exception!
Things that still stand out for this coaster are excellent g-force and inversion stringing between the vertical loop, zero-g roll, and Immelmann. But the coaster’s excellence lies in the second half, if I’m honest – the great pop of airtime coming from the not-a-an-MCBR-but-feels-like-an-MCBR with low flying, overbanked turns and wingover inversion are just a blast.
As we continue the tour of Dorney Park, diadem:
Hydra
I’d say, “Oh how the mighty have fallen”, but Hydra was always *ahem* punching-above-it’s-weight-class type of ride. You cannot deny the ambition of park management to cram seven inversions into a 100 ft. tall roller coaster, even inventing the now beloved jojo roll inversion in the process. But what the coaster brings in visual appeal…
Ride Experience
… is still lacking in ride experience. A lot of speed loss from the first hill into the inclined loop means tame, floater-ish airtime through the zero-g, corkscrew, and cobra roll. I last rode this coaster its opening year in 2006, where the back row did deliver some good, tugging airtime throughout the layout – but the coaster just seemed to chug a lot, regardless of row selection, during this visit. Bummer.
Thunderhawk
I am talking of coasters that chug – Thunderhawk! I was curious to check out this coaster again with its new PTC train design and updated livery to celebrate its recent anniversary (50 years? 100 years? 1,000 years?). The new PTC trains are just old ones with holes cut in the front of them (
), but the updated aesthetics is well deserved for a wooden coaster nicely nestled in the park's heart.Ride Experience
Last I rode Thunderhawk, every trim brake was grabbing with full force, creating a moment of wonder that we had enough momentum to carry us back to the station versus valley mid-run while the coaster was still running… as meh as ever, at least the trims weren’t biting as hard!
Steel Force
This is different from the Magnum you are looking for. There’s been a recent resurgence? Zeitgeist? That Morgan hypers are somehow “good,” “wonderful,” or “better than Arrows.” I’m here to tell you these people are on drugs and need help.
Ride Experience
Don’t get me wrong, Morgan hypers are fine. The layouts are meant to be fun-loving out-and-back designs with good speed and drops. It’s just the lack of airtime that I always find so annoying compared to Arrow hypers – Ron Toomer was designing with coat hangers and pen to paper; how hard is it to emulate and mirror his masterful triangles of floater?
At any rate, Steel Force was fine. Drops were good, and speed was SPEED, especially in the unending 540-degree turnaround (which, I will say, is my favorite of the Cedar Fair hypers, wrapping nicely into the hillside and brush).
Iron Menace
Dropping in (har har) 2024.
Possessed
Woof. I have heard that Wicked Twister’s removal was a good cause of operational/maintenance downtime and complicated upkeep. While I haven’t witnessed much Intamin Impulse downtime across those I’ve ridden, Possessed was a sterling example of a coaster in need. The launch was under launching about every other ride, giving a TT2-style launch that had the train barely creep up the front spike. Since LIMs are more straightforward machines than LSMs that operate in a more binary fashion of on/off (versus LSMs, which have more specific train tracking and mathematics afoot to actively calculate the train’s speed and modulate power to obtain target speed), the train eventually got up to speed after 2-3 passes, reaching the full crest of spikes. I guess it's proof that you can limp these coaster designs along, but it's hilarious to see the retching exercise.
Ride Experience
It was absolutely delightful (aside from the maintenance boondoggle) and left me longing for my older, former glory. Even with the back spike holding brake off (boo), I have always enjoyed the pure floater on Impulses.
Let’s also do a quick tour of two other favorite thrill rides while in the park:
The Whip
I’m a sucker for older rides that are kept in good standing. Dorney’s Whip is a near-immaculate example of the proper, full-sized whip. I’ve always appreciated that they kept the pavilion and sign in good shape (looking at you, Kennywood) to give the ride a proper presentation. The ride speed was excellent, with incredible lateral forces!
Demon Drop
This ride was MY JAM back in Cedar Point. I’m not a fan of massive drop tower rides, but Demon Drop’s easy 100-ish ft. drop is easy to tackle for thrill seekers. What’s better, the audible *clank* of the safety brake decoupling at the top also gives an easy warning when you’re about to drop, removing any anxiety of not knowing when you’ll fall.Interestingly, the ride cycle operation is close to the original dispatch – loading three cars as three cars are in the dispatch/ride cycle. This is far more efficient than Cedar Point’s operation of loading and unloading 1-2 cars on a more rotating basis, partly driven by a more cautious ride cycle operation after an unfortunate ride malfunction resulting in a car mid-lift in the elevator falling on top of another car. The drop cycle was also a little longer once at the top; rather than a simple 3-2-1 countdown, we were up there for a steadier 10-15 seconds. At least you get a nice view!
Ride Experience
Twas lovely. It has a great pop of floater airtime, with all the old-school pneumatic and clanking sounds to accompany it. Unfortunately, it is one of the last Gen 1 Intamin drop towers out there, making it even more rare than the Whip ride!
After the quick volley of coasters and rides, we tagged on for a few passages; but dinner and beer were beckoning to help us prepare for our next day's journey…
