Allentown, Pennsylvania – Sunday, July 15th, 2012
Steel Force entrance, supposedly based on the Banshee logo that was drawn up for Cedar Point's Mantis roller coaster a year earlier before they changed the name.
Steel Force was celebrating its 15th birthday in 2012, having opened in 1997. I still remember when Steel Force was a top draw for coaster fans along the east coast, and now I feel old.
Between the high capacity and its location way in the back corner of the park, Steel Force usually doesn't see much of a wait.
Steel Force's trains are unnecessarily big and bulky, but they're comfortable inside with plenty of leg room, and they look cool, too. Not the funky retro charm of Magnum's rocket sleds, but hey.
Supposedly Steel Force is the 4th longest steel coaster in North America at 5,600 feet, which frankly I don't believe is accurate but have no way to prove otherwise.
Essentially the same layout as the Magnum sans the 3rd speed hill and two bunny hops on the return run, yet Steel Force is nearly 500 feet longer? It either shows how much track Morgan Manufacturing wastes with slow, drawn-out hills, helices, and brake runs, or I call shenanigans.
Regardless of the actual length, it's still a major attraction that's under-served by the park it's located in. I'm usually reminded of that around this point in the ride.
First drop is about 205 feet, which seems to be the magic number for many hypercoasters.
Tunnel at the base of the first drop, another typically overused coaster feature.
This next hill produces the most airtime on the ride.
Steel profile set against a late-afternoon sky.
The flat, triangular shaping is fairly undynamic compared to other hypercoasters. Still gets the job done.
This third speed hill looks cool from this angle.
A lot of Steel Force has a very shallow, gentle profile. The boxy Morgan trains are inadept to handle sharp transitions, or even heartlining. Speed alone makes this hill exciting.
I like the helix on Steel Force. It slowly builds speed and lateral forces as it descends, and has a section that cruises just feet above the hilly terrain giving a great visual impression.
After a midcourse brake and four bunny hops (which produce actual, honest-to-god airtime over every hill, unusual for a Morgan hyper coaster) Steel Force slinks back over the entrance plaza to the station. All told it's a fairly formulaic take on the hypercoaster genre with few unique features, but it's a solid formula done competently, and if I had never ridden a better hypercoaster I would easily declare it my favorite coaster in Dorney Park.
Dorney's "vertical" thrill rides, Dominator in the foreground and Possessed in the background. I can't be bothered with anything less than a walk-on wait for S&S towers, so to Possessed I go next.
Last time I saw Possessed it was known as Voodoo, and before that it was Steel Venom, and before that it was Superman Ultimate Escape. Half of those name changes were due to copyright issues Cedar Fair had with Six Flags.
Possessed is a basic Intamin Impulse coaster, 180 feet tall and with the twisted front spike and straight back spike.
The colors are the usual high-contrast complementaries that Cedar Fair oh-so-loves. (Although recently they've gotten a thing for two-tone blues, which we'll see soon as well.)
Going up the spiral spike in the front seat is where this ride most shines.
It does have the holding brake on the straight back tower, a feature I could do without but at least it's an attempt to inject some surprise and drama in what's otherwise a very simple concept.
This corner of the park has become Dorney's Orphanage for Inverted Shuttle Coasters.
Stinger, new for 2012, is a Vekoma inverted boomerang with face-to-face seating configuration relocated from California's Great America. This logo not-too-subtly evokes the distinctive scorpion-like shape of the shuttle layout.
I'm not sure if it was worth getting rid of Laser for the Stinger, but it does look nice and fits the park well.
One thing I will give Dorney Park props for, is they know how to make the older relocated rides they've been given look and feel brand new.
The cobra roll certainly makes a strong visual statement on approach to the ride, a feature of Vekoma Boomerangs I always find under-appreciated among coaster enthusiasts.
The back-to-back (or face-to-face) seating is another feature I wish more steel coasters would incorporate. It encourages rerides by offer several different flavors of ride experience, and makes it a fun social mixer by being able to watch the reactions of your riding partners or complete strangers during the entire ride.
Stinger is still a hand-me-down Vekoma Boomerang that outed a classic Schwarzkopf, which makes it hard for me to love.
Dorney does try to be a nice park.
Yeah, that’s pretty much all the highlights there. I love the log flume there and am a huge fan of the Zeyphr, but Thunderhawk is a shell of itself circa 10 years ago before the trims were really turned up. Once upon a time, the opening 2/3 of the ride was all standup air with a trim killing the run to the station. Then they installed one after the first drop and, well, that was that.
Demon Drop is Awesome! It’s the clanking at the top and the release. Great review!
I have a strategy I’d like them to try, it’s called building better rides.
What happened to these 2012 photo galleries?
Looks like the app I was using for a few updates back in 2012 to connect to Flickr is no longer supported and I’ll have to import them manually. Not at the top of my priority list but thanks for bringing it to my attention. This was the gallery it pulled from: https://www.flickr.com/photos/rollercoasterphilosophy/albums/72157635051168226