Man this is a little late, but hey, here we go!
D-D-Dorney Park!
I got to the park at 9:15ish and zipped through season pass processing, which didn't have a line. Sweet!
The gates opened oddly early at 9:30, which was apparently so people could go down to Stinger. I didn't. I decided that I should go check out Talon, but it was still closed, and I ran into a supervisor friend of mine who informed me that Talon would opening late anyway. Bummer!
Walked past Waveswinger and saw this?
New longer exit, undoubtedly for the Fast Lane. This would've been helpful years ago, when small children and other people rushed in as soon as the gates were open.
I went down to the employee entrance to meet up with Danny, and we headed over to Stinger, which had a mini-line. We had to wait maybe ten to fifteen minutes while Jason McClure spoke and everybody looked awkward before the ride opened.
Jason McClure, Vice President of Dorney Park, ladies and gentlemen.
The first ride from Twitter contest winners, and confetti, yay!
So, after being told by several people that under no circumstance should I ride in the front, Danny and I happily got in line for the last row, facing the lift. We had a two train wait. But when the second train loaded, one of the seatbelts stopped working. Okay. So one more train turned into two more trains and we rock-paper-scissors'd for who would go first, on the next train. That train comes back and there's a delay? People kept getting stuck in seats, but apparently that's not unusual. Then they didn't load anybody... and then boom, temporarily closed for maintenance. We stuck around for awhile, hoping to ride it out but one of the managers informed me that it would actually be closed for longer than we'd want to wait.
So long for now, Stinger!
Possessed didn't really have a line, so we headed over there. Walk on for the back seat? Okay, if you insist. Next up, Steel Force! But first, a bathroom break by the DinoStore.
You're so punny, Cedar Fair.
Fossils!
That's a T-Rex SubAdult, I believe. I've learned so much!
Naturally, Steel Force enticed us and we listened!
I doubt any of you care about the rider safety signs, but they are new.
This is the new Fast Lane entrance for Steel Force, which means we get to walk all the way through the queue line, and go up where the emergency exit previously was. They even put in a new path to cut across the mulch area so you don't have to walk all the way through the back queue. I have no idea how this is going to look once the queue is full, though.
Look, dinosaurs!
We walked on the first row of the last car of the black train (Sirius is his name, if you were wondering). As always, an enjoyable ride. It's hard to get sick of airtime.
Stinger, are you open yet? No, okay.
What's next, you ask? Thunderhawk!
Featuring the awkward black mesh of the Fast Lane. I can't wait to take a picture of this mesh by the end of the season. Anyway, the entrance to their Fast Lane is immediately to the right of the normal entrance. Can't miss it.
For some reason, the front row's lapbar wasn't working on Thunderhawk, and the crew failed to inform us until the train was arriving back in the station, much to our annoyance. So we relocated to the first seat of the second car. A former co-worker of mine was on the train previous to ours and informed us that the trims were disabled.
WHAT.
Now way more entusiastically we rode and let me tell you, those trims just should not be on. Getting airtime into the brake run? Priceless.
Dominator time? Dominator time.
Walked on both the red tower and the green tower. It turns out, I know the majority of the kids that work there this year, haha. Awesome!
It's almost like they're stalking us...
We decided it we had a moral obligation to ride Hydra, so we headed up there.
They were running one train, which I later found out was because Travel Channel's new coaster show would be filming the next day and the other train was all rigged up with cameras. I think we waited one train for the back, but I can't remember, haha. It wasn't long at any rate.
One train!
Anyway, it was SMOOTH. I was amazed. Danny theorized that it had to do with the wheels, but I rode later on and it was not as smooth - and it was colder. I think we just lucked out and had good conditions.
Next stop - Talon!
On the way, we passed White Water Landing.
Nananana Fast Lane!
And a brand new bridge! Whoa!
AND TALON! *crowds cheer* *heavenly angels sing* Okay, so not really.
But he did get a fantastic new paint job.
I think our first ride was in the seventh row. Word of warning folks: On both trains, the seventh row is the roughest row. Play it safe, always ride the back or front. We had a stair wait, but the crew was doing pretty well, so it was less than a ten minute wait. I know there's two or three new kids, a girl who worked at Hydra last year and then one of my best friends, who is a lifeguard, but who has worked at all of the coasters before, and they were doing really well.
We kind of meandered after this and headed down towards Stinger. We were about to walk away from it, but saw it testing.
Okay! We were first in line. And we were first in line for about an hour, too. A bit of miscommunication, I suppose, but we did get on, finally. And, the seatbelt was working, so we got to ride the last row!
It was smooth! Seriously! And that loop was super weird! Going through it the first time, it goes slow and it's sort of this nice, lazy loop. And then the second time... you WHIP through it! SO many positive G's, it's crazy. It was really fun, though.
Danny got his nerd shot. Hahaha.
And I took some more pictures.
Dominator, you're so short!
And then it was one, so lunch time! We walked around awhile, because I didn't want to pay $8 for a smallish bucket of fries, even if they are crab frieds. We decided we had to get the new "fresh never frozen" burgers for research purposes. We ate at coasters, and my meal was just below $10, as I got the bacon cheeseburger basket. Everything was pretty good! And it's pretty much normal restaurant prices, so I can't complain about that. And I was definitely full afterwards, so I'd recommend it.
Alright, that's part one! I'll post part two tonight when I get out of work. Cheers.
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