Dorney Park is the Lehigh Valley's low-key coaster gem: a lineup with a modern B&M dive machine, a 200 foot hyper, and a wooden coaster that has been running since 1923, all in a park where the waits are shockingly short. Here is every major coaster ranked.
1. Iron Menace
The 2024 headliner and the Northeast's first B&M dive coaster, themed to a villainous steel magnate.
- Ride experience: a 160 foot climb, a creep over the edge, a held pause staring straight down, then a 95 degree drop into four inversions and a surprisingly snappy layout for a dive machine.
- Height requirement: 54 inches
- Best seat: front row, outside seat. The hold over the drop is the whole point.
- Best time to ride: whenever you want. Our wait data has it averaging under 5 minutes, absurd for a new-for-2024 headliner. Weekday afternoons it is often a station wait.
2. Steel Force
A 200 foot Morgan hypercoaster from 1997 and still the park's signature skyline.
- Ride experience: a 75 mph first drop into a tunnel, two enormous camelback hills, a swooping turnaround over the lake, and a long bunny hop run home with honest floater airtime.
- Height requirement: 48 inches
- Best seat: back row for drop pull, middle for the smoothest ride.
- Best time to ride: night. It averages just 5 minutes in our data, so save your laps for after sunset when the tunnel goes pitch black.
3. Talon
A B&M inverted coaster from 2001 with the classic four-inversion recipe and famously quiet track.
- Ride experience: 135 feet up, then a drop into a loop, zero-g roll, Immelmann, and corkscrew with your feet dangling. Forceful, smooth, endlessly re-rideable.
- Height requirement: 54 inches
- Best seat: front row for the swing, back left for intensity.
- Best time to ride: morning laps. It averages under 6 minutes, so marathon at will.
4. Hydra the Revenge
A floorless B&M with a party trick no other coaster copies: the jojo roll, a slow heartline inversion immediately out of the station, before the lift hill.
- Ride experience: seven inversions total, taken with a floaty, almost lazy grace. The jojo roll hanging you upside down at walking speed is worth the ride alone.
- Height requirement: 54 inches
- Best seat: front row for the jojo roll visuals; outside seats for everything else.
- Best time to ride: midday. Averages about 7 minutes.
5. Possessed
An Intamin impulse coaster: twin vertical spikes, a launch that fires you forward and backward at up to around 70 mph.
- Ride experience: repeated launches, a twisting front spike you climb face-up, and a rear spike with a holding brake that dangles you facing straight down at the ground.
- Height requirement: 52 inches
- Best seat: front row, both for the twist and the view down the back spike.
- Best time to ride: early evening when the launches glow. Averages under 5 minutes.
6. Thunderhawk
Running since 1923, one of the oldest operating coasters on the planet.
- Ride experience: a compact figure-eight layout with genuine airtime pops and a vintage rattle that is part of the charm.
- Height requirement: 48 inches
- Best seat: back row.
- Best time to ride: anytime, it is a walk-on more often than not. Respect your elders.
7. Wild Mouse
The family wild mouse is, hilariously, the longest wait in the park: 20.6 minutes on average in our data, four times Iron Menace's. Tiny cars, slow loading, endless families. Ride it in the first hour or skip it without guilt.
First-Timer Order
1. Wild Mouse at rope drop, seriously, the data demands it
2. Iron Menace and Talon in the morning
3. Hydra and Possessed after lunch
4. Thunderhawk whenever you pass it
5. Steel Force at night
Enthusiast Order
1. Iron Menace front row at open
2. Talon morning marathon
3. Hydra, Possessed, Thunderhawk through midday
4. Skip Wild Mouse unless the credit matters to you
5. Steel Force back row night laps until close