Last August Sam, Greg, Renee, and I made a trip to Dorney Park. Although there were limited operations because of the Covid-19 pandemic, we still managed to ride all of the park’s roller coasters, minus one. That coaster was Possessed, which was down for the entire year. Since it was Sam’s, Greg’s, and Renee’s first-ever visit to Dorney, they were a little bummed, but we knew we’d be back at some point.
Of course, with the ride not opening last year, rumors began to swirl about its possible removal. That, however, doesn’t look to be the case. Not yet, anyhow. Possessed has been running in 2021 and Sam and I decided to head up to the park on short notice so she could claim the credit. We were going to go either on Wednesday, July 7, or on Thursday, July 8. With Tropical Storm Elsa headed up the East Coast, we decided to go ahead and do it on Wednesday.
Rides - We Were Inverted
Okay, first things first. Sam and I spent some time being inverted yesterday, but two of the rides I want to discuss feature no inversions. I figured I’d state that I do in fact, know this, before someone comments, “But, Possessed and Steel Force don’t have any inversions.” I’ve been around the internet long enough to know how things tend to go.
I also won’t be brining up Talon with these rides. I have a special section at the end of this trip report going over some tidbits on the ride and a noteworthy collectible I was able to obtain during this visit.
Possessed
At this time last year, Sam was struggling to find a launch coaster that up and running during some of her early park trips. Fast forward to July 2021 and she has over a dozen of them, and Possessed is now among them.
Although these Intamin Impulse models are a bit of a one-trick pony to me, I have always enjoyed them. Like I told Sam, I’ll get on them every time I go to a park, as long as there is no line. Well, unless I still need one for a credit, obviously. They’re good fun, but if presented with a 20-30 minute wait to ride, no way. Thankfully, we only had to wait for one train before boarding. Why they weren’t running two trains is beyond me. And yes, that’s sarcasm before anyone comments, “They can’t run two trains on this model coaster.”
After our ride, Sam said she felt the same way I do about the ride. She’d ride it again, which I did want to do, but said she could take it or leave it in all honesty. A second ride never did end up happening, however, since we ended up riding some water rides and the park’s train, Cedar Creek Cannonball, instead.
Hydra: The Revenge
While waiting to enter the park, we noticed Talon was dispatching over and over without riders. That canceled our plans to ride it first. Instead, we decided to head to Hydra. Well, that was the plan. Before doing that, we had to go through the slowest bag check of all time. It didn’t help that a lady a few people in front of us, was carrying seven or eight backpacks. When those were opened to be checked, each one of those bags had two or three more bags inside of them. No, I’m not exaggerating. Everyone in our line was rolling their eyes and making comments under their breath.
Once we made it into the park and into the queue for Hydra, we struck up a conversation with two fellow enthusiasts, Ryan (@R_Freund), a.k.a “Mr. Toro,” and Vinny (@Lol_Vinny). We had a great time comparing our favorite rides and chatting about coasters in general. The four of us rode together too, which was fun. It’s always great meeting other enthusiasts. Hopefully we’ll cross paths again one day.
As I have said for years now, Hydra is one of the most unique Bolliger & Mabillard (B&M) floorless coaster in the United States. That being said, it is not my favorite. I prefer both Dominator at Kings Dominion and Rougarou at Cedar Point. For the longest time, I also preferred Bizarro at Six Flags Great Adventure (SFGAdv), but for the last two years, that ride has picked up a constant, annoying rattle. Sadly, some rides on Hydra, I notice that as well. It’s nowhere near as bad, or as constant, but it is still there. I didn’t notice it much on our first ride, but our second ride, even Sam noticed it.
Steel Force
I’m going to be up front. I used to think Steel Force was really good early in my enthusiast days. In later years, I’m guilty of joining the group of people who sometimes refer to it as “Steel Forceless.” My last few visits I’ve gotten little to no airtime at all, the helix pulled no g-forces, and worst of all, the ride just felt slow. Well, yesterday’s visits saw improvements on all of those issues. We did sit in the back row and had a full train, so maybe that had something to do with it?
When it came to airtime, none of it was sustained. It came in pops, but some of those pops made me stand up in my seat. The large airtime hill after the drop featured the biggest surprise. After a quick pop of airtime, my backside slammed down into my seat hard. It kind of hurt. It wasn’t as forceful as backside slam from Steel Force’s Morgan Hyper cousin, Phantom’s Revenge at Kennywood, though. Lastly, the helix did pull some G’s, although they were still a bit on the tamer side.
Has anyone else found the coaster to be better this season? Last year the park was skipping two rows between each group during our lone visit, so the trains weren’t full. It was also very hot yesterday, so I’m sure the ride was hauling just a little extra. Speaking of which, Dorney Park… That mid-course brake run hampers the airtime over the bunny hills. As much as I would like to see if entirely turned off, which I doubt that will happen, is there any chance you could have it not slow the train down to a crawl?
Rides - We Were Wet
Up until 2021, water rides were something Sam and I pretty much avoided during our park visits. I’ve always enjoyed log flumes, but Sam did not. I said “did,” because now she does. If you’ve been reading through any of the recent trip reports, you know that Sam has been claiming numerous log flume credits since our June trip to Knoebels. She even picked up Coal Cracker at Hersheypark with her girlfriend, Kyla, last week. Well, on this trip, not only did Sam and I jump on the park’s log flume, but we rode their rapids and shoot-the-cutes ride too. And yes, we got wet. Drenched, as a matter of fact.
As for the subheading above, since Sam has taken such a liking to log flumes, I keep telling her she should start up We Were Inverted’s sister site, We Were Wet, focusing entirely on log flumes. She has yet to take any initiative to make this happen and I am disappointed.
Thunder Creek Mountain
Our log flume ride was actually our second ride of the day. We were already hot, so getting a little wet sounded like a good idea. Well, I ended up getting more than a little wet. Sam was sitting up front and I was in the back. The funny thing was, I got soaked before the final drop. When we made the small dip at the turnaround underneath of Hydra, a huge splash drenched me from the waist up. I told Sam I had just gotten soaked. She thought I was goofing off, but when she turned around, she saw that I wasn’t joking.
Sam didn’t have much time to look back my way, however, as the log was turning into the main drop. That gradual drop downward doesn’t seem like it’s going to cause much of a splash, but I got it once again. I got off the ride soaked and even messaged Chance, from the YouTube channel, Cheapthusiast, to tell him how wet I got. He didn’t believe me.
“No way. It’s weak,” he claimed.
I assure you, from the waist up, I was dripping wet getting. Anyone else ever come off this ride soaked? I’ve gotten wet on this flume before, but not like I did yesterday.
Thunder Canyon
Now, I’ve always loved rapids rides. I’ve just never loved the wet, squishy shoes and socks that come with territory. Dorney Park is one of the parks that allow you to leave your shoes and socks in a cubby on the ride platform. Sam went that route, but I left mine on. Luckily, my shoes bleed water quickly and I wore some thinner socks yesterday. It’s a good thing too!
There is absolutely no way that anyone comes off Thunder Canyon dry. There’s no way that they even come off spritzed or slightly damp. You pass underneath so many water falls on this ride that it’s impossible not look like you went swimming with your clothes on.
As for the theming of this ride, I’ve always enjoyed the rockwork and the ride signage cut into the rocks. You can see in the photo of Sam and I above. I also like the long bridge you have to use to exit. No particular reason why, I just do.
White Water Landing
Since we decided to ride the rapids, I told Sam we should just go over and ride the park’s shoot-the-chutes ride, White Water Landing immediately afterward. She agreed.
The rides are not far apart and when we arrived, there was about a 10-15 minute line in the queue. By time it was our turn to ride, our clothing had already begun to dry out. It was that hot outside. Those clothes were about to get soaked once again though. We made our way up the lift, around the bend, and down the steep drop, which gave us a little bit of airtime. We didn’t expect that at all.
Getting off the ride, we were dripping wet once again. I decided to stand on the bridge and capture one of the boats coming down the drop while Sam waited on dry land. I shot a total of 71 photos, capturing the boat at the bottom of the drop, it’s initial splash, and the water hitting the camera full blast. I’ve included 11 of those in the gallery of key moments in the sequence.
Final Ride Counts
Cedar Creek Cannonball (1)
Hydra: The Revenge (2)
Possessed (1)
Steel Force (1)
Talon (2)
Thunder Canyon (1)
Thunder Creek Mountain (1)
Thunderhawk (1)
White Water Landing (1)
Owning a Piece of Talon
Before wrapping up this trip report, I wanted to take a moment to talk about Talon, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary here in 2021. As many of you have noticed, this site’s logo features this B&M invert. I’ve always been a fan of the orange and blue color combination in general, so when I was thinking of inverts to use in the site’s design phase, Talon immediately came to mind. Plus, I’ve always thought Talon was one of the most graceful and smoothest coasters I’ve ridden.
While at Dorney Park’s main gift shop (just inside the entrance), Sam spotted the metallic Talon plate above. There were two, side by side. One featured a uplift wheel axle and the other, a ratchet. I asked about the price and decided to go ahead and splurge. I wanted the one with the axle, which cost me $100. They are a limited run of 64. I thought the axle looked neater on the plate itself, so I went with that one.
For those interested, the ratchet version cost $80 and is a limited run of 240 pieces. Oh, and they also have a lamp made up of parts of Talon that costs $350. That was out of my budget, although I did try to talk Sam into buying it since she was the one who encouraged me to get the plate since the coaster is in the site’s logo.
While on the topic of Talon, the ride still runs great. It didn’t open until after 4 p.m. yesterday, which worried us. The entire day we saw it cycling empty trains. We weren’t sure if we would get in any rides. Thankfully, we did. It’s long been my favorite ride at Dorney and one amazing invert overall. I’m happy to now own a piece of it and you can literally smell the grease when opening its protective box. It’s truly something us enthusiasts can appreciate.
Dorney Park Photo Gallery - July 7, 2021
If you would like to use any of the images in the gallery above for your non-commercial projects, feel free to do so. I ask that you credit We Were Inverted whenever they’re used. I also ask that you do not alter the image or remove the watermarks. If you need any images/video resized or without the watermarks, please contact me directly.
CREW MANIFEST
The following flight crew members attended this park, & earned the respective credits below:
Patrick
CAG
New Credit(s): n/a
Sam
Admiral
New Credit(s): Possessed
