CoasterEricHP

We were too! On one ride the lap bar was jammed so far down into me I actually had an issue pushing it down in the station to release it! Ugh.

That would be amazing.

Yesterday my girlfriend and I decided to head up to Hersheypark to check out the Boardwalk (which Ive been criticizing since day 1 ), and more importantly to see how the Millenium Flyer trains ran on the Wildcat! We left the York around 4 pm to get there in time for the Sunset plan, which is a good deal. $23 to get in the park from 5-10pm. Sadly.. that's the only good deal at the park anymore. I haven't been too "Hersheypark happy" over the past few years. Maybe it's just me or maybe I spent too much time at Kennywood when I was living in Pittsburgh, but it to me the last few years HERCO has taken the parks traditional roots and have slammed every type of corporate sponsership and commercialization into the park and now it feels like a nice Six Flags or Cedar Fair park than the park I grew up with. I guess thats how it has to be.. but anwyays.. rant done! So.. on the way up to Hershey we hit a massive DOWNPOUR. This would prove to be to our benefit because when we arrived at the park the coasters were shut down and there was a mass exodus of people exiting the park... I've never seen so many people at Hershey!! (but I also avoid Saturdays for the same reason) We were going to check out the now rediculous Chocolate World tour, but all 10 million people exiting the park had the same idea so we went upstream towards the entrance, got our tickets, and went to the rides. First up due to the storm was Reese's Extreme Cup Challenge- 4/10- 30 min wait, 20 min downtime Which was fine due to the rain and storm outside. This was my first time on this ride. Luckily the shooting takes your attention away from the cardboard cut out theming.. and the dip at the end was unexpected. But I wasn't overly impressed even with low expectations. Plus I was dying for Reese's and they didnt have any free candy at the end like I heard they used too! Storm Runner- 7/10- 10 min, back seat We got there right as the queue opened up from the storm. The first two test runs ALMOST rolled back. I have never seen it go up the tophat THAT slow. Storm Runner is a great ride but has alwatys been lacking something for me and is far from the best at the park IMO. It was running great though, decent launch, and smooth. The Boardwalk- We walked through the Boardwalk next. I'll say this.. it could've been WAY worse. I still think Hershey should have just invested in a separate waterpark, but it could've been worse. The theming is really well done, and the area looks great. Plus it does the most important thing.. getting people out of line for the coasters. However, the huge waterplay structure looks like a huge pile of Playskool puke. Wildcat - 8/10- walk on, back row Ahhh.. Millenium Flyer trains! Definately some good with the bad here! The ride is smoother and more out of the control than ever, which rocks! But the lapbars that have always sucked on Lightning Racer are even worse! There is no resistance to these things so you start off being stapled, and then throughout the ride you get some "hip fracture staple'age!!" It was bad enough that you almost fear the airtime! Great ride though and the trains are a huge improvement for the most part. Lightning Racer - 7/10- walk on, front row Lightning Racer was running great! This was one of the better rides Ive ever had on it. We only rode front row on Thunder but it was really moving! There was some kind of brake'age on the first dueling turnaround.. (after the tunnel). Skeeball- 470 points! I love the Minetown 25 cent Skeeball... though the prizes suck and our falling apart Stewie that we won was given a new home in the Great Bear trash. Dinner- $13 for two hamburgers (no fries), and a small drink. WHAT!?! I miss you Knoebels. Great Bear- 7/10- 30 minutes, front row Still a great coaster. Most rows were a 5 minute wait. The ride was running great and would be a top tier invert if it had an ending different than the "Autocomplete RCT ending finale" Comet- 9/10- 35 minutes, back row WOW! It was dark now and the ride warmed up, but this was the BEST ride I have ever had on the Comet. The first drop was still rough at the bottom but the rest of the ride was amazing! The second drop had some ejector air, the third had a nice pop, and the entire last half had some nice floating airtime which I have never had on the Comet. I hope it keeps up like this throughout the season and maybe it'll get some well deserved respect! We then went back to the Wildcat for two more rides, both amazing, but both with massive staple'age. Then we finished off the night with a rather crappy fireworks show. There was no music, and all the lights in the park were still on for this, plus it was an extremely standard show.. I think I've seen the EXACT same show at the York Fairgrounds, and at other firework shows in the area... standard fireworks with the red white and blue finale. YAWN! Anyways, all in all it was a great day at Hershey. I doubt I'll go to to the park much this year with a Six Flags season pass in hand (Hersheypark's SP this year is $130!!!!!), plus its my first summer not in FL for a few years so I have lots of parks I need to hit up. I'll post pictures soon, hopefully someone will have made it this far!! Eric And last but not least, the Comet! The Comet was FLYING. Airtime was everywhere in the back row.. even throughout the back half. Easily regained its #1 at Hersheypark status Check it out at night if you go. I can ride any coaster, but if you get me on these things and I'm finished. Here's one for Derek. For all the lift hill enthusiasts out there. The Coal Cracker is still.. cracking.. coal.. Storm Runner's "dump right" manuever into the RCT Autocomplete. What is that I see?! It's Storm Runner! THROUGH THE TREES!!! Now this was pretty cool. Its fun watching the kids fall off of the mats and get shot back up to the top by the current! Lightning Racer! Oh.. and the new "wave pool" for kids. The Wildcat! Always an awesome ride. The new trains solve the roughness problem, but the lap bars crush your pelvis. Owww.. I think I'd rather have the PTC's back. One of the best looking stations ever! I tried.. Lightning Racer, still a great ride. Insanely smooth for a wooden coaster and running fast! More Ferris Wheel shots, looking towards Storm Runner and The Great Bear. Sponsored by Playskool! Funnel and Toilet Bowl.. The Toilet looked really slow and boring however. The funnel doesn't look too bad though. The huge and IMO hideous play structure in the new Boardwalk area. Everyone exiting from the coming storm.. works for us..

Does anyone else think that Magnum would be improved 100x if they replaced the trains with something that didnt feel like sitting on bricks? Maybe if they have to re-order any trains they will just replace all of them with a new design. Wishful thinking.

Nice.. the last few times I was there the ride op would go insane when people snapped on purpose! Good to hear that the Phoenix and Twister are running great. Twister is becoming a coaster that I'll do one or two obligatory rides on and then spend the rest of the day on the Phoenix and other rides. I've been trying to hold off the urge to go to Knoebels this year until Flying Turns is open.. but I dont know if I can wait that long! Plus gas will be $5 a gallon by then

We had two this year when I worked at IOA, one was a complete outage and the other a power surge.. coaster ride systems do not appreciate either.

Great pictures! Patriot looked really strange to me though, don't most inverts have 8 rows??

Just riding Magnum causes me non life threatening injuries. I wonder what happened tho.. the weather looks pretty crappy on the webcams. Eric

I love the way your park is evolving just like a real park. I'm inspired to reinstall RCT3 but Im just as entertained by watching your park! Keep up the awesome work!

I work at Dueling Dragons.. and obviously bringing a camera on Dragons is dangerous for everyone on your train and everyone on the other train. For most of us riding a coaster is normal and we would rarely drop a camera on the ride.. but trust me when you deal with guests on a regular basis you probably DONT want them to be dangling a video camera around in front of you when you're going 60 mph.

I can also confirm that nothing is going on where Triceratops Encounter is/was. I think the next attraction at IOA will be something BIG (like a Harry Potter themed ride/area) and will be indoors as IOA is in desperate need of more rides that don't shut down every summer afternoon from 3-5! Eric

Nice pictures! I can't decide on how I like the Boardwalk area.. I have to see it myself. Right now all I can see is the massive amounts of concrete where there used to be some trees and grass...

We ended up going with the Wingate! Wasn't too bad either.. only like $170 for two nights. That's about the same thing as staying someplace for $140 and having to drive so we figured why not?! The only crappy thing is I'll be at work (IOA) until 5pm on Thurs so we prob won't even get to Atlanta until LATE. Eric

I'm just checking this out for the first time! Awesome job! I was really sad when Hershey came in and paved over half of the park!! It's cool seeing the park evolve just like how it would in real life.

I'm sure all of the incidents on Intamin rides have made the company design the new restraints. I can't imagine Storm Runner with only a lapbar! That would be insane. From my experience. the OTSR's aren't restricting but you can smash your neck on them pretty hard during Storm Runner's random extreme banking under the monorail.

I'm checking out the Wingate right now.. looks nice! Plus being within walking distance is an added value when it comes to Six Flags! That pretty much saves at least $30 right there. Thanks for the input and saving me from becoming addicted to crack.

Hey everyone, I'm heading up to SFOG for next Fri/Sat for my first trip there! I'm coming up from the Orlando area so has anyone stayed in a decent yet not overly expensive hotel in the area? Eric

TNA TNA TNA! Ok fine.. I like WWE too (even though TNA is free and I work at Universal..) I just havent had time to watch WWE lately.. plus Im tired of matches never ending fairly anymore! However I'll still be looking around for a bar that has Wrestlemania next Sunday. The last WWE taping I went to was Edge's live sex celebration on RAW in Hershey, PA! I can't believe they are going to have WM in an OUTDOOR stadium in ORLANDO.. it is the dry season but the weather is still unpredictable here! What if it rains!? I'm also sad that Im moving back to PA in May and wont be in Orlando next year to go. Eric

Weak! I can't believe I missed you guys at the Flying Unicorn/Dragons! I'm sure I was probably working. Great TR! Yes.. the Hulk is getting very vibrate-y, Dragons on the other hand is still amazing. Eric "1/2 of the Flying Unicorn "TPR" Leads" Geiple

Thanks for the link. Thats too bad about your park though.

I've been bowling for a few years and I can't figure out how to hook the ball to save my life. Are some balls made to hook more or is it all in the arm motion? Any good ways to learn how? Eric

Wow that's awesome! I haven't looked at this thread until now (since I realized recently how RCT2 is far superior to RCT3). You're park is really great. Where did you get all the different types of scenery and the rides that don't come with the game like the swing ride and tilt a whirl? Eric

LOL.. I like the food picture after the sliced open person.. nicee.. I went to the Orlando Science Center to check out the "Our Bodies: The Universe Within" exhibit and I thought it was amazing and really interesting... definately worth checking out if it comes near you. Eric

It sounds like they are retheming the Atlantis (Poseidon) and Sindbad's Village (Sindbad) parts of Lost Continent and not doing anything up by Dragons so that's good. But as long as Universal doesnt cheap out on themeing, invests a lot of money into two or three state of the art great rides/shows, and makes it look convincingly like Diagon Alley or Hogwarts or whatever.. I think its a great idea and will make IOA (where the last "big" ride has been the Flying Unicorn) the park everyone needs to go to again. I'm hoping Universal and Disney can both look at Everest and realize that if you invest money into a huge project you can really boost attendance. Universal could use that since the Sky Trolley, Ivillage Live, and Fear Factor just dont really draw in the people like Soarin' and Everest! Plus, even though Harry Potter's last book is coming out, it's still HUGE and is going to be huge for a long long time. A few months ago they had survey balloons over by Mythos, so that makes sense now at least. Your friendly Dragons op, Eric - Why is Harry naked in that picture Elissa? Edit- nevermind.. Im still disturbed.

I have to agree with Williams Grove... It was so traumatizing I can only remember it having some wooden plank you had to walk up to get in to the building (i'm hoping the stuff under the plank was mud) and that the inside was pretty third world.. As far as best go.. I like Animal Kingdom with the 500 mph hand dryers. Has anyone ever been in Kennywood's where the floor is on a slant and the urinals stay at the same level so as you walk down you have to be like.. 6'5" to use them? Eric