Hydra the Revenge at Dorney Park is one of the most maligned Bolliger and Mabillard
floorless coasters out there. But does it deserve as much flack as it receives?
This floorless coaster features an impressive seven inversions and a unique layout.
So in this video, I will be reviewing Hydra. From 1989 through 2003, Dorney Park was home
to Hercules, a record-breaking wooden roller coaster from the Dinn Corporation.
Hercules stood just 95 feet or 29 meters tall, but it opened with a 151 foot
or 46 meter tall drop that was the tallest on any wood coaster at the time.
Like many Dinn Coasters, Hercules quickly turned into a rough and painful ride. After the 2003
season, the coaster was torn down and Hydra the Revenge was announced for the 2005 season.
And this was a very clever name. In Greek mythology, the Hydra is a multi-headed beast with
one head that was immortal. For Dorney Park’s version, Hercules slayed the beast and buried
the immortal head underground. But eventually Hydra grew out of the ground killing Hercules.
It was a rather dark twist on the familiar story since the hero is now dead, but by all accounts
Hydra is a superior ride to Hercules. Beyond the background story for Hydra,
there really isn’t any theming to be found. That being said, the coaster does look really cool.
It has bright green track and an awesome logo. That’s something Cedar Fair always
seems to nail and Hydra is no different. Dorney Park usually has manageable crowds
on the amusement side, so Hydra is usually no more than a 10-15 minute wait. And the park
always runs both trains on this coaster. Each train seats 32 riders across 8 rows.
The front tends to have the longest line, but there is only one place to ride Hydra
in my opinion- the back row. The inversions feel similar in any row, but there are a few drops that
can only be fully appreciated in the back row. The trains feature the familiar B&M
over-the-shoulder restraints. They are rather hard, but fortunately Hydra tracks fairly well.
There’s some jackhammering in a few valleys, but the transitions on this coaster don’t cause any
headbanging. In fact, there’s an argument the transitions on this coaster are too smooth.
Hydra’s biggest flaw is its intensity. The early B&M loopers were revered for their
snappy inversions and heavy positive Gs. Hydra has neither of these things. This coaster is graceful
almost to a fault. But there are some redeeming elements.
The most notable is the jojo roll out of the station. Rather than heading right up the lift,
B&M threw everyone for a loop literally. Hydra begins with a super slow and elongated heartline
roll. The hangtime on this element is incredible. It’s one of the best sustained hangtime moments
in the world and it’s even crazier since it feels like your hands can hit the ground beneath you.
Hydra then rounds a corner and ascends a lift hill just as tall as Hercules.
When Hydra was announced, I envisioned this coaster having an identical start to Hercules,
dropping down the hillside. However, Hydra never drops down the hillside, which makes it one of
the smallest B&M floorless coasters out there. That being said, it does still have one of the
best drops on any B&M looper. Most B&M loopers have twisting drops. Hydra has a straight drop.
So if you’re in the back, you get some nice floater airtime the whole way down.
It’s more reminiscent of a drop on a B&M hyper coaster than one of their looping coasters.
And the drop is technically larger than the lift, as it drops 105 feet or 32 meters.
The pullout from the drop is one of the spots on the ride with some shuffling. From here,
Hydra traverses a barrage of inversions. But it doesn’t follow the usual flow for a B&M looper.
There isn’t a single vertical loop and all the inversions seem to occur out of order.
The second inversion is a controversial one, the inclined dive loop. Dorney markets this as an
inversion and while it may just barely cross the 135 degree threshold to classify as an inversion,
it feels more like an overbanked turn. And unfortunately, it isn’t particularly forceful.
The exit from this element is another valley on the ride with some shuffling.
That’s followed by a large and floaty zero-G roll ripe with hangtime. It’s the second best
inversion on the ride after the jojo roll. Then comes a large and slow corkscrew that
feels more similar to a zero-G roll than a conventional corkscrew. While it doesn’t
offer as much hangtime as the prior zero-G roll, it does offer some light hangtime.
Hydra then navigates this awkward cobra roll. The track entering and exiting the
element are almost touching, which causes the element to flare widely outwards.
And unfortunately, this element is super forceless. It doesn’t really offer any whip,
positive Gs, or hangtime. It just exists and pads the ride’s inversion count.
The exit from the cobra roll is the ride’s final shaky valley and then Hydra coasts over this large
S-hill that runs alongside the station. But it’s too slow and drawn out to offer any airtime.
The final drop that follows does offer some good floater airtime for those in the back though. You
drop back down to the ground and then zip around a mildly snappy corkscrew. It’s the
only element on the ride with any sort of whip. Hydra then winds uphill in this forceless helix
before hitting the brake run after treating riders to 3198 feet or 975 meters of track.
So what would I rate Hydra the Revenge? I would give this B&M floorless a 6 out of 10. Hydra is
a flawed coaster. It offers barely any positive Gs or whip, which are two hallmark traits for a B&M
looper. This leads to some throwaway elements that hurt the coaster’s pacing. Instead,
Hydra excels where the other B&M loopers don’t. It offers an original layout,
a few elements with great hangtime, and a few straight drops with good airtime in the back.
Hydra is towards the bottom of my floorless coaster ranks, but I always make sure to take
a lap on this coaster whenever I’m at Dorney Park. The ride is fairly smooth and it has a
great start with that legendary jojo roll and airtime-filled first drop.
So those are my thoughts on Hydra the Revenge, the B&M floorless coaster at Dorney Park.
What are your thoughts on this coaster? Do you enjoy it for its uniqueness? I would love to
hear what you think about Hydra down in the comments. If you enjoyed this review, I’d
appreciate it if you gave this video a like and you considered subscribing since there will be a
lot more roller coaster and amusement park videos here at Canobie Coaster. Thanks for watching!