Photo TR: Dorney opening weekend; with Hydra review

So this past weekend was Dorney's opening, and its like kinda close to my house, and the weather was nice, so I went. Oh yeah, they got some new coaster too, called Hydra: The Revenge (not to be confused with Hydro: Water's Revenge). Since not much has changed at Dorney (which is a good thing! No obnoxious PA announcing in the stations like at Knotts, rules about not having sweaters tied around your waist or anything of the sorts) I'll just go into my review of Hydra.

Arriving at the former site of Hercules, you notice the lime green track with dark green spine and blue supports of the twisted little Hydra. The lift is a tiny 100 feet. Multiple inversions mark the outlying area of the coaster, and a walk to the station follows the inside course of the first 3 elements, the flatspin being right over the entrance. The queue is laid out similar to old Herc's, with the station being pretty much at the same place as well. Leaving the station though, is the Jo-jo roll. The speed this thing takes is SLOW. (Think Volcano's heartlines its opening year). Photos are taken, and then you turn towards the lift. Shortly thereafter, you climb the cute little lift and then get something you never got on Hercules, air time! Unlike Hercules, you'll actually WANT to sit in the backrow because this is the best place to experience the airtime. Up next is the inclined dive loop, kinda an inversion, but maybe not. Then its the zero g roll, followed by a flatspin, and then the cobra roll. Much like Silver Bullet, the cobra roll has no snap. Then there is a little bounce into a not-quite-yet-effective bunny hill. Following is another flatspin, and then the ending helix into the station. It did some shimmying, but wasn't rough by any means. Its also extremely quiet, much like Talon.

Hydra is one of the new breeds of B&M, meaning that those wonderful engineers in Switzerland have discovered a way to remove all forces from the coaster. If you grabbed Stevie Wonder and slapped him on Kumba or Nemesis, he'd know he was on a coaster. With the new school B&Ms like Silver Star, Silver Bullet, and Hydra, he'd think he was at the movie theater with really good air conditioning. Hydra isn't a bad ride by any means, it just isn't very extreme. Its a good starter coaster for a little enthusiast or enthusiast in training. Its great for the general public who want to go upside down a lot but shy away from it after rides such as Great American Scream Machine or any of the other Arrow multi-loopers. Its a fun ride, just rather forceless. Heck, it made Talon look intense! The only place to sit to actually feel stuff is in the back. Still, its a ride that fits Dorney Park perfectly. It'll be great for the GP, and its certainly better than old Hercules! I think I like it better than Bullet or Silver Star just because it did pretty much what I expected it to.

The rest of the park is pretty much the same. All rides were opened (or at least attempted to be), the music selection was weird, Joker was removed because it blocked the view of Hydra's cobra roll, and the new Screaming Swing was operating, for an additional $5.

Steel Force was running pretty good with the midcourse brake on lite. Needs a paint-job soon though, its faded.

Talon actually seems to have some forces (at least compared to Hydra and Bullet). There wasn't much of a wait on Saturday, but Sunday one train was off.

Thunderhawk, on the other hand was kicking major butt! The trim on the second hill was off, and delivered some awesome airtime in the front of the train on all the hills. Even the end trim turned on couldn't stop the airtime. It was great!

Laser is still the force-filled Anton coaster its always been. Gotta love it!

In short, the weather was perfect, the crowds came to the park (mostly local passholders and some ACErs) but never really caused much of a wait anywhere, and Hydra, although not an extreme coaster, didn't disappoint.

Night falls on Dorney, and Thunderhawk gets ready to start dishing out the airtime

The "Coaster Team" poses for a photo at Talon (just like the awning says to!)

Did you really think I wouldn't include a picture of Talon's vertical loop???!

Thunderhawk and Steel Force trains crest the lift

The Screaming Swing resides between the Wild Mouse and Coasters Diner. (no Haunted Shacks were removed in the placement of this ride)

Looking up from the former site of Joker. Hey! It looks just like the wallpaper on the website!

Though the ride has many moments with no G forces, this is the only Zero-G roll

Is it an inversion or not? Let the debate begin!

A trainful of riders enjoy Jo-jo (no, not the cute 13 year old pop singer)

Jo-jo roll, right out of the station. Its no vertical loop, but it was still kinda cool.

Here's the entrance to Hydra. Mist comes out of his nose, but it was turned off until summer

LOL!

Derek, you need to go to more parks just so I can see your Photo TR's!

Some of my favorite parts:

"It made Talon seem forceful"

"No Hanted Shacks were harmed"

I love your group photo!

Oh, and it looks like you had great weather!

Elissa "Jojo roll is the stupidest name EVER" Alvey

Great TR and photos!

I totally expected Hydra to be another "tame, but good for the park" B&M. Sounds like you need to visit IOA, Alton Towers, or a number of Batmen to get some real kick ass B&M rides in!

After riding Bullet and hearing the reports on Hydra, I'm not expecting much out of Shakira. But who knows, maybe that will be the surprise B&M ride of the year?

We'll get to ride Hydra in October, but I can say that I'm not in any hurry to ride or won't be dissapointed if we end up missing it for whatever reason.

--Robb "I'm totally disturbed by Mark's 'sex pose'" Alvey :shock:

LOL, I was going to mention that too but figured I'd let it go!

Elissa "I can always count on Robb to point out the sex!" Alvey

Well, Hydra was sort of overrated in my book anyways. But on to SheiKra (or ShaKira), its probably going to be "another B&M we got too hyped up for (like I did)". Looking at testing videos a few weeks ago on SheiKra, its going to be a bit forceless, Im just hoping the Carousel Curve would be intense with that banking, but I am not expecting a 'Kumba Helix' where it feels like your head is going to explode because of the positive G's.

But, I would like to ride Hydra, but I am not going to be hyped up for it.

While all you guys aren't getting that excited about Hydra, I'm looking forward to that ride more than all the others at Dorney! It'll be my first floorless coaster and my first 7 inversion roller coaster! If I go on Steel Force(which I probably will) I might like that better than Hydra since it will be the tallest, fastest, and the first hyper coaster I have ridden. But then again, I love inversions so maybe not. I am also afraid of heights so that will probably stop me from going on it. I think I will stop rambling now...

or will I? Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah...

wtf is a jo-jo....I never heard that termonology before.

A Jo-jo roll is essentially a heartline roll (not a zero g roll). It was so named Jo-jo because the guy who came up with the idea for the element was a Dorney employee named Joe.

It's too bad they got rid of Joker, that was one of my favorite non coaster rides in the park

Nice TR and pictures!

Although it's nice that Dorney recieves attractions on a consistent basis, it seems that with every new addition more trees are removed (Area where Joker used to be) and the park loses any charm it once had.

Mark "Typical Cedar Fair park feel... Good thing the waterpark is awesome!" Luskus

I shouldn't be surprised that this turned out to be tame like so many other recent coasters. Again, I think this has a lot to do with the media watchdogs who look out for any accident that may happen, and then jump all over it, thus forcing the park to do numerous things with their rides. It really sucks.

I just picked myself off the floor from the Stevie Wonder analogy, but most importantly ...

Why do most of these damn screaming swings have that STUPID font on them.

I was there on Saturday as well, and rode Hydra, and was generally unimpressed by it. I found it to be a little rougher than most B&M's, ranking right there with Scream IMO.

It was a beautiful day in the park, and it looks like we got a lot of the same pictures...check out mine at my website

Here's a couple of previews:

The "Jojo Roll"

The new Screaming Swing

A nice shot of Lazer

One of those "inspection orbs" over at Steel Force

I too was at Dorney over the weekend and rode Hydra.

The jojo roll at the beginning was fun, but seemed completely separate from the rest of the ride. However, experiencing that much hang time on a coaster was a new experience.

The ride itself reminded me a lot of Riddler's Revenge, both in intensity and pacing (and inclined semi-inversions). There were some serious positive Gs at the bottoms of the first few hills, but not many negative Gs (the most were in the cobra rolls). The ride was running quite rough, with lots of rattling, but if its anything like most B&Ms it will settle down a bit as the wheels get worn in (all the wheels were still perfectly flat).

As for the rest of the park, it seemed rather nice despite the fact that the employees were inept. There was no-one in the park because it was Mother's Day, and the only ride with more than a one train wait was the wild mouse (although the Season Pass processing line was over an hour long). The screamin swing was up and running, but they were often running just one side (can Knott's swing even do that?).

jojo.zip

Sorry for the lousy quality, but I won't have access to a computer with video software on it for a few days, so I had to use my camera's built-in compression.

^ Thanks for posting that....looks kind of strange.

--Robb "Had to open it with WINRAR" Alvey

Rockin' photos! Nice job! Thanks!

Well, I rode Hydra opening day, and then went back last Friday and rode it again.. it's getting better!

To really ride it you have to do it at night, after the track cools a bit, and be in the back seat. I actually felt some positive and negative G's on friday night about 9:15... but the front seat, while good for the "track gon' eat my feets" illusion, is lousy for the ride.. with a bit of headbanging as it gets yanked around by the back of the train. The back is pretty smooth, and while, as noticed above, a bit clanky and rattly, it still moves smartly along.

The only major complaint I have is theres one station.. and it is only large enough for one train. On friday they had a charf hold.. (someone charfed in their seat as it was coming into the station) and they let it sit for 20 minutes in the station for the de-charfing stuff to work. Meanwhile, the second train sat on the transfer track, with the folks swinging their feet and no means to get off the sucker.

I'm by no means a B&M expert, so that may just be the way they are designed totally now, but it seems like lousy engineering to me, that if they have to change a wheel or something, the second train is just hung out to dry, full of people, like that.

But all in all, a good addition to the park.. tho Talon is still "it" for me, in that particular park.

Maeryk