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 Review of Hydra the Revenge @ Dorney Park
6 Rating Posted by: Hercules on 5/7/2005 7:23:00 PM
Finally the day has come - the day has arrived to meet my nemisis face to face (face to face time 9 if you want to get technical), Hydra: The Revenge. I got to the park for opening day at around 9:45, and they had already opened the gates, so I was a little worried that there would be a decent sized line. There was a line. "Oh well I said." However, what seemed to be a decent sized line moved very quickly and I was to the station in no time. That is a good thing about this ride I found out throughout the course of the day: the line moves very quickly especially if you dont wait for the front. Over the past months, and especially the past week, excitment was mounting within me. That was only some of the time however. There was also that little bit of bias towards the ride, since it is in the space of the fallen Hercules. I was excited to get to my home park on opening day, but as I walked towards the right, that bias started to increase especially when I turned the corner and saw the ride dominating the midway. Yet, I pushed all of that aside and went on the ride with a very open mind. The excitment for the ride increased as I was in line and the bias died down to the point that I was completely impartial. I was going to go straight up with this ride. Now, back to the walking and seeing it from the midway. When I turned the corner, it just dominated everything in site. The biggest thing that caught my eye was the sign which was much bigger than what I thought it was from seeing it in pictures. The smoke effect coming out of the nose is very cool too. I got up to the station after a 10 minutes wait, which was about the average for the day. I got into one of the middle rows on the right side, got straped in and I was off. The ride ops were very good too, which heightened the anticipation for the ride itself. I was surprised since it was only the first day of the season. And dispatch. Into the Jojo roll. What a funky element. The feeling on it is indiscribable and can only be felt through the experience itself. It goes so slow through, it is awesome. Now the excitement is in full overload. We picked up speed coming around the turn to the lift hill, just like Hercules, just smoother and not as fast as what Hercules was. Up the 95 foot lift, and down 105 feet we go. The drop was short, but unexpectedly good. Then, this is where the ride kind of started to lack. The dive loop is considered an inversion, but I dont consider it one. It is just an overbanked turn to me in look and feel. Then into the other elements, the zero-G roll and the corkscrew. The were decent. Then there is the cobra roll. It is a weird looking one, but didnt do that much for me. The two "airtime" hills deserve the quotation marks around them because there is only some air. By some, I mean minimal. However, the ride slows down in that area and kills the need for mid-course brakes which I found to be a plus. No mid-course brakes is a good thing. Then came the last corkscrew and the "twisted track". Then, the break run and..... Well, this ride is certainly a fine piece of engineering glory and is absolutely beautiful. It is truely a piece of art. B&M and Cedar Fair really outdid themselves in the planning of this custom floorless coaster. They really used the terrain to their advantage and some of the elements make the ride very unique. The park did such a good job with the landscaping of the area and the all around making of the ride. However, after getting off the ride, I found myself saying "That is it?" I felt like I had tamed the beast. This is what took Hercules down... a fairly weak ride. It is nice to look at and is unique and all of that, but is just simply lacking. I got a lot of rides in during the few hours that I was at the park. I got 19 to be exact, and they were all rides that I was simply trying to just like the ride. It just wasnt there for me. It is like going out on a date with someone an
 

Review Comments

WAR2174 on 5/7/2005 10:30:55 PM said:
Well, Herc I know it must have been hard to feel down after so much anticipation. It is like when you see a trailer for a movie all winter, and you just cant wait for it to come to the theater and then you see it and its like"what the? I waited for that?" I think you will catch some flak from people who may believe this is a biased review. However, I believe that you gave a very honest one. This was one of the most highly anticipated rides of the year, sometimes it just doesnt pay off. If it doesnt deliever, than so be it. This is your opinion and I think it was well thought out. Others may find Hydra, breathtaking. Sorry it wasnt quite what you had hoped for, but good job on the review.
BobFunland on 5/7/2005 11:05:57 PM said:
I am the opposite of shocked. I had this quirky feeling it wouldnt like up to expectations, and your presentation of your thoughts and feelings is terrific. One of the best non-10 reviews ever :thumbsup:

(but we are still gonna ride this damn thing )
fergusonat on 5/7/2005 11:27:03 PM said:
Man, that makes me nervous, Hercules...I hope this isnt a disappointment when I ride it Great review, though...it must be hard to give your homeparks new B&M a low rank, but you did it gracefully,lol
coaster05 on 5/7/2005 11:39:46 PM said:
Excellent review you did a great job accenting the positives and the negatives both and Im sorry it didnt give you more of what you wanted.
Godsentone on 5/8/2005 8:02:37 AM said:
I dont think anyone would think his review was bias, besides Dorney Park is his homepark. Thats what made the ride review credible. I, too, along with everyone else appreciated how well you gave us the perception of actually being there with you. I hope that the pacing is due to the wheels not breaking in yet. Did you ride this at night? Maybe B & M has come up with a coaster that gets faster and better as it is broken in a bit. A Man can hope, right?
bb_dg on 5/8/2005 9:43:53 AM said:
from the looks of it, this coaster always worried me that it would be a "thats it?" type of ride. it seems to start off so strong then all that gets killed with the hills (which do look weak) and the finish doesnt look like much either. ive been really anticipating this ride because it is so unique but now im worried that it might not live up to that. ill just have to see in a few weeks when i get up there.
Hercules on 5/8/2005 9:54:15 AM said:
Godsentone - no I didnt ride the ride at night. I was out of the park by 5. And it was not bad pacing. I said that it just killed the need for a mid-course break run, but it still would have been nice to get a little bit of air on those hills. I was a little happy that they found a way to not have to have a break run though. And this thing isnt getting faster. It is going to go exactly what it says it is - about 53 mph. The first hill is only 95 feet and the drop is 105 and there is nothing else on the ride to make it faster. Thank you for the feedback though.
Waitj786 on 5/8/2005 10:01:11 AM said:
i love the review, i was there yesterday too with my friends after prom, but i didnt like the ride too much. i found it lacking in all of its inversions, and nothing really got me excited except for maybe the begining barrel roll. i definately wish herc was still there, that ride was my first coaster and it scared the crap out of me.
darkridrMD on 5/8/2005 8:49:30 PM said:
Great review. Ive actually yet to ever make it to Dorney so I guess Ill never know what I missed with Hercules. I do intend on getting there sometime this season, especially considering its only 2 hours away from me.
Godsentone on 5/9/2005 10:14:06 AM said:
You are welcome for your gratitude. I am looking forward to taming this beast, as well, next year.
fergusonat on 5/9/2005 10:29:16 AM said:
I have a question for anyone whos very familiar with Dorney Park: Is the park very crowded in mid-late June? I may have convinced my parents into letting me go up June 19th, the Sunday after I get out of school...anyway, advice on when to go would be greatly appreciated
Hercules on 5/9/2005 4:02:19 PM said:
At most points in the summer it gets very crowded. Granted, the place only brought in 1.2 million people last year, so it may not seem like a lot, but their capacity isnt that huge. Mainly it starts to get busy on Memorial Day, then it dies down until school is out, then throughout the summer on just about anyday it is busy until mid to late August. It starts to die down a little going into September. Sundays arent that bad towards the end of the day, but late morning and mid afternoon is about the same as anyother time - pretty crowded. Who knows what the park will be like with the new ride though. It could be worse. Who knows.
fergusonat on 5/9/2005 5:30:06 PM said:
when does school get out up there?
Hercules on 5/9/2005 5:35:57 PM said:
Considering I grew up out of the area of Dorney Park (about 2 hours away or so) my school got out in mid June. My school ran from the last week in August to sometime in mid June. Im not completely sure when they get out here. I would assume that it is about the same time. I know that they dont get out in May, so it has to be in or around early to mid June. That has a lot to do with how the park is. Once school gets out, they get pretty well packed everyday of the week. Its not like a "Oh, its the middle of the week, the park shouldnt be that bad." kind of thing. Ive learned that over the years that you cant expect the park to be calm on most days during the summer if it is a really nice day. You would think that people work and stuff. If it is nice and hot, Dorney Park and Wildwater Kingdom is the place to be.
fergusonat on 5/9/2005 7:58:39 PM said:
crud...i better wait till August then Thanks for the advice, man
Cyclonic on 5/10/2005 12:08:47 PM said:
You should be OK if you show up early and hit the ride side. The waterpark is like the local swiming pool, it gets very busy while the rides are pretty dead for the first few hours. Dont go in late August, scholls around this area dont go back until after Labor Day for the most part, and late August tends to be very busy. Going in mid June should be your best bet.
Hercules on 5/10/2005 2:15:05 PM said:
Yeah, sorry I gave you the wrong impression. I probably chose my words wrong. However, I didnt know that they went back to school Labor Day. I was always used to heading back as early as August 22 in my Pennsylvania school. But anyway, Wildwater Kingdom really is the local swimming pool. Mid-June is the best bet, but it is busy. When you do get there, like Cyclonic said, head to the back of the park and you can get a lot in towards the morning hours with rides like Steel Force and Laser and Thunderhawk and a few decent flats back there. It takes a while for people to flood into the back of the park.
fergusonat on 5/10/2005 6:22:00 PM said:
Hey thanks...I would have gone to the back of the park early anyways And you made me feel a lot better about going mid-June...now if only Hydra was as good as we thought it would be. Even from the beginning, though, I half-expected the ride to be tame in comparison to other B&Ms. As soon as I found out that the drop was only going to be 90 ft or so, I knew it wasnt going to be as intense as many would like. I for one really dont need an extremely intense ride to be happy. What I look for in a ride is if the layout is unique, if the inversions are interesting, and if the visuals are good, so from what people are saying, this might be the ride for me
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