Dorney Park, a frightful night.

One of my goals being out east was to travel to as  many theme parks as humanly possible. That means getting a lot done in October before they all close for the season. I started my theme park adventure last Friday with a trip to Allentown, PA to Dorney Park.

First impressions were what I expected, a smaller regional theme park about on par with Valleyfair in MN. Although the longer I stayed the more I realized that this park has quite a bit more to offer. Crowds were a bit scary at first, as it took around 20 minutes to enter the park, but once I got inside I didn't wait it another line for a ride again. Longest wait was about 15 minutes for a haunted house, which I'll get into later. First up, rides:

The first ride you see when you enter the park is Talon: The Grip of Fear. It's a B&M invert that was a little different than other B&M's I've been on. I love inverts, I think they usually deliver more G Forces than most sit down coasters, and Talon was no exception. The lateral forces that were experienced on this ride were really, really good. The turns pressed you into your seat and the drops were great too. Good transitions and inversions. Just a really really good coaster. My favorite at the park. Ended up riding it 4 or 5 more times before park close.

Now is a good time to mention that this was Halloween Haunt at Dorney Park, meaning the park was transformed into a scare zone for Friday night. Another thing to mention is that ALL of the haunted attractions at Dorney are FREE of charge. That's not true at any Six Flags park you visit. The houses weren't lame either, some of them were really, really good houses. The first one I went into was the haunted circus house. This one was a little more kid friendly I think. Lots of neon paint and clowns all over. Was fun.

Not a ton of pictures from this trip. Wasn't a lot of time to take them and it was very, very dark at Dorney. Check out pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/w000dland

After taking some pictures, it was off to ride Hydra: The Revenge. Interesting side note: All of the locals call this coaster Hydro. They are wrong. Hydra is a Floorless coaster with 5 inversions that was built about 4 years ago. It's the only coaster I know of to feature an inversion before you make it to the lifthill. Its called a "jojo" roll and twists you upside down at a very slow speed. It was neat. A different experience on a coaster. The rest of the ride was pretty forgettable in my opinion. First drop was good, but after that the coaster just seemed to lose a lot of its speed and then ended really quickly, even the cobra roll didn't feel right. A bit of a letdown, but its okay. There are other floorless coasters out there that blow my mind still. cough, dominator, cough.

As I was walking to the back of the park I noticed something familiar. Demon Drop! This ride used to sit at Cedar Point until it was taken out and moved here. It's an old Intamin drop ride before Drop Towers became popular. They are super fun for some reason and always give me that true feeling of falling that gets me in the pit of my stomach. Once again, Demon Drop delivered where no S&S tower (think Power Tower) has been able to.

It was time for some haunted houses at this point. Always worth trying them out if they are free, right? The first house I tried out was themed to the Saw movies, and it was really well done. You could tell that Dorney put a lot of money into this house, as the props and sets were very gory and all around creepy looking. They remade a lot of the death devices made in the movie, and the actors were great too. I went in expecting another half assed theme park haunted house and got something that was better than most haunted houses I pay 10 bucks for during October. The best part? There were still 2 others that were BETTER than this one. Very cool.

Rode Dorney's newest coaster, "Possessed." It's a recycled impulse coaster that is an exact clone of Steel Venom at Valleyfair and V2 at Great America. It delivered a predictable ride. I've never been a fan of those coasters. Moving on.

Steel Force. Now I've been on a lot of coasters that are a lot like Steel Force, and made by the same people who made Steel Force, and they have all been pretty lame. Steel Force was surprising, because it didn't suck. Steel Force is a hyper coaster that is made by Morgan and is the brother coaster to Wild Thing at Valleyfair. The first drop was very similar to that of Wild Thing's, but the turn around and 2nd half of Steel Force was what set it apart. Instead of just a little boring figure 8 where the train loses all its speed, Steel Force had a little helix action where the train seemed to be flying, and after the turnaround, there was real honest to god airtime that I experienced. No joke. Insane, right? It wasn't the most incredible coaster out there, but it wasn't bad, and that was a victory for me.

Zoooooom!

After Steel Force I had hit everything at the park other than the Wild Mouse, which I planned to hit later in the night. I felt like another haunted house (hey, they are free, why not?) I was told that the "Mansion House Hotel" house was quality, so I jumped in line. This was the longest line of the night, but it was well worth it. The sets and actors in this house were incredible. There was interaction the entire house. Instead of just jumping out at you in the dark these actors tried to get inside your head and mess with you that way. It was brilliant. They were sarcastic, but also a little scary at the same time. The sets reminded me of the Hollywood Tower Hotel (Tower of Terror) at Disney. Just really great stuff. By the end of this trip, I felt like the Haunted Houses made the $23 admission price totally worth it, the coasters were just a bonus.

Headed back to the front of the park and snagged a ride on the Ferris Wheel for some pictures and a rest. Once I got to the front of the park I jumped on Talon twice more, cause it rocks, then hit the Wild Mouse which was mainly painful. Not the best experience. Grabbed another ride on Hydra, then was told that the park was stopping ride operations an hour early but the haunted houses would stay open until close. That was pretty lame, but I had ridden everything, so it wasn't the end of the world. I went into one last haunted house called Asylum. This house was obviously themed to a Psychiatric ward, and it was probably for the older kids instead of the younger ones. Lots of loud music, strobes, people jumping out of corners, etc. Another solid house, although this one didn't rely on props as much as it did the actors. I enjoyed it.

Overall, I had a really great night at Dorney Park. The coasters were solid, and the Halloween event was way better than anything I was expecting. I'd visit again in a heartbeat, although I can't imagine I'd ever need a full day there. Not the biggest park in the world.

I love roller coasters. Up next: Six Flags Great Adventure....