Day 5 - Dorney Park and Knobels
Getting our Cedar Fair season passes at
Dorney Park was so much easier than the Six Flags faff we endured a few days earlier. The Cedar Fair passes look better, too. And Cedar Fair park tat is better than Six Flags. All in all, I think I'm a Cedar Fair fanboy more so than a Six Flags fanboy.
Dorney Park is the sixth Cedar Fair parks I've visited. That's half of them. Out of the six, Dorney is by far the most welcoming and nicest of them all. It might not have the best rides (although the line up is far from crap) but it didn't have the imposing grand entrance plaza like Kings Island or the overwhelming clutter of coasters like Cedar Point. It was pleasant. Thankfully that atmosphere carried on throughout the park.
We started off on
Hydra, the floorless B&M.
I don't really pay much attention to coasters, I just like to ride them. I think my lack of goon knowledge surprised both East Coast(er) Goonral and Darren Goonfield throughout the trip. At times I felt like I was the least informed. We sat back row so I had no idea of the "jo-jo roll" immediately out of the station. I squealed with delight as I said "what the **** was that?". I thought it was fab. The inversion out of the station on Smilier had a similar effect on me. The ride passed by in a fun way but never thrilled me as much as the "J-Lo roll" did. A solid ride, it was ok.
The Hydra ride op was female Jarret. Uncanny resemblance!
We walked to the back of the park, passing some nice open areas, flower beds and a thankful lack of concrete, to
Possessed, the Intamin Impulse. I remember getting excited about these coasters in 2007 when I rode the ones at Cedar Point and Valleyfair!, so I was semi-excited about this. During our one-train wait (it was dead quiet), we spotted the ride op manually releasing the OTSR by pressing the circled button (see pic below). I got excited and tweeted from the CF account about it.
[tweet]http://twitter.com/CoasterForce/status/476127297687531520[/tweet]
Seven years and about 400 coasters later, my love affair with Impulse coasters was over. I think I'd rather ride a ZacSpin than an Impulse coaster. Actually nah, they probably rank above Boomerangs but below SLCs.
Steel Force back row was the next coaster. I like Morgan hyper coasters and this was no different. Good fun, abrupt-ending airtime and a slight tinge of vibrating bottom. A coaster I could easily reride. So far 66% of the coasters at Dorney Park were above average. I'm happy with that.
But then came medicoracy in the old, wooden and white coloured shape of a yet another forgettable (probably) ACE Classic Coaster -
Thunderhawk. I can't remember anything about it that sticks out. I was already fed up with riding old, white coasters by this point. They might as well paint them beige so they're sort of white but scream "BLAND".
We minced on after a quick cigarette break and I got excited to see
Demon Drop. For those who think I dislike anything of historical value because I slag off old, white coasters, you are wrong. I like 1st Gen Intamin Drop Towers. They're great fun and their workings and ride experience are very unique. Darren had never done one before so we happily queued for all of five minutes to ride it.
It was ok but the best thing was the station music! Cedar Fair are using a cheesy rap song with an awful beat to inform riders how to ride. "P-p-pull down on your harness, p-p-put your head back and let the operator check-check-check-check!" This had me giggling for about 10minutes. Unfortunately I can't find an audio link on YouTube but I thought it was amazing.
Dorney Park was feeling less corporate than the other Cedar Fair parks I've visited. I was liked what I saw.
The front row of the kiddie cred -
Woodstock Express - was soon ticked off, as was the wild mouse, originally named
Wild Mouse. The only notable thing about these two coasters was the cheese shaped corner supports holding up Wild Cat's station roof. I like detail. Well done, Dorney.
We ended our visit with a ride on
Talon, the B&M invert. It's orange, my favourite colour. (USA: fovorite color).
We rode up front and I enjoyed it. It would probably rank in the top half of my favourite B&M Invert list. It did feel slightly formulaic and there were some longish sections of "dead track", but the immlemann and the second drop under the lift hill into the corkscrew (I think) felt fantastic. Well worth a reride.
We sadly had to leave the park at this point to head to
Knoebels. Darren fell asleep on the way.
Although that sadness didn't last long because Knoebels was such a refreshing change from the corporate America I had become accustomed to. Free parking, free entry and a happy carnival atmosphere without a hint of pikey in the air. Jerry took me and Darren to the offices where we met with the marketing manager and his two new disciples. Best of all, Richard Knoebel met us and gave us free coaster wristbands. Knoebels love (except for one
) coaster groups so they do a special wristband for those who just want to grab the creds. As if that wasn't generous enough, Richard walked us over to
Flying Turns.
I've been in many situations before where a park manager has accompanied me to a ride. I've skipped the queue and walked straight on. Not this time. Richard walked into the main queue and we (with Richard) waited for about 15mins to ride it. Wow. No abuse of power, just a ordinary chap who doesn't want to annoy other (paying) guests. I'm glad we waited because it gave us chance to chat to him about the park, the future of coasters and learn some interesting stuff (my lips are sealed). The four of us rode Flying Turns together and had a ball. It felt like I was trying to walk on ice. It's not the most thrilling coaster but it's one of the most fun rides I've ever been on. The history and dedication to open the ride does influence that opinion, but as Darren remarked, "if a coaster leaves me smiling, job well done."
Richard showed us the control room.
[tweet]http://twitter.com/CoasterForce/status/476126827040485377[/tweet]
The operator can visually check the ride is safe at nearly every (flying) turn. There is also a system that monitors the speed and ride time. I looked down the list and saw a time of about 18 seconds - the fastest in the last 5mins. It had to be ours
Richard left us to do our own thing.
Phoenix, the infamous wooden coaster, was our first stop.
We rode front row on the first go. The airtime was good. Not as exceptional as I've heard but I could see the potential. According to ECG, it rides best in hot weather (it was overcast and about 23c for our visit). I felt a little ripped off because I was expecting orgasm ejector airtime. ECG noted it wasn't a good day for it but, as always, that meant nothing to me. I can only judge it on the ride I had, not what other people think or the weather conditions. We did ride it for a second time later that evening but although it was good, it was never great.
Darren rode it an extra time whilst me and ECG did the
Ghost Train. I liked it. It was old fashioned, as one would expect and it had a sense of humour/in-house cheesiness to it. It went on forever, too!
We rode the Dark Ride/Coaster
Black Diamond next. I really enjoyed it! It told a story of the miners as it went along. It started with miners happily working then something happens and then...well, I don't want to spoil it, but the way the subtle storyline and action was played out by the animatronmics and effects left me with a grin from ear to ear.
Twister was up next. I didn't expect much and I got what I expected. A woodie with some interesting turns, little airtime and a sprinkle of meh.
We passed the carousel on the the way to the final coaster. I wanted to ride it because it's one of the ring collecting carousels that I've yet to experience (it's an American thing). However, it was five mins until closing time so getting our
Kozmo's Kurves plus 1 cred was more important.
Due to the generosity of Mr Knoebels, we ended up spending a small fortune on tat in the tat shop. Darren and ECG bought ****, I got myself a new cap and a few items for the GhosterForce Faffle. I think I've excelled myself by finding something very dreadful. Seriously, it's the worst thing you'll ever see. I can't stand it being in my flat. You'll have to be at CWOA GhosterForce to find out what it is! And no, it's not this hat...
[tweet]http://twitter.com/ianmbell/status/476157691296219136[/tweet]
After the lacklustre day I had at SFNE the day before, this day felt tons better. Dorney Park did not feel like a large chain park or have that hustle and urgency found at the other Cedar Fair (and Six Flags) establishments. Knoebels is a park built with love and proud of it's history (the various references to flood levels over the years shows that). It felt like I had stepped back in time at both parks, as if I had left plastic fantastic America and discovered Anglo-Saxon gold in Staffordshire.
In the next part.... Goon spots Goons, media whore and, well, "it's all about Skyrush".
