CoasterEricHP

Alright like always I'll make it quick.. Im starving. My friend Kelly and I went up to Hersheypark today to use up the free tickets we have (and handing out the extras to a random family..) and it was relatively busy. The weather was BEAUTIFUL though.. mid 70's and sunny, so obviously people took advantage of that. We were really in no rush to ride much. Actually all we did was Lightning Racer (15 minutes), SooperDooperLooper (10 minutes), Comet (25 minutes), the Monorail (walkon), and Storm Runner (45 minutes). I mainly wanted to check out for myself to see if this old ice rink was really being demolished for "a 2006 attraction". Well its GONE.. On to the pics. Eric Penguin or Duck?? Comets rather.. curvy lift hill. Great ride until the neutering, which is also visible in this pic. Obligatory Top Hat photo. Storm Runner gave a great ride in the back seat! Aww.. Kissing Tower. I'm always amazed that the Tower = 320 feet high to the top of the flag pole. Dragster = 100 feet more Did I mention it was a really nice day? ....I'm more of a Zero G Roll person myself. Vertical Loop. Enjoy that Derek.... Some Lightning Racer twist'age. One thing about Hershey's wood is during the day its *"eh..." during the night its "WTF just happened?" *(IMO) Postcard'ish picture! It was a pretty day.. you can almost feel the breeze. Out in Midway America lies a stage and a podium.. Hmmm.. should we have gotten there in the morning for an annoucement? Or will there be one soon? Their webpage has nothing new.. From the monorail here's a birds eye view. Hershey needs an indoor ride so anything will do great.. but please NOT A NASCAR THEME!! No more small ice rink. Rumor has it a dark ride will be going here and the buildings to the left will be moved.

haha.. I thought it was pretty good. I dont think he was going for amazing accuracy. Did you ever think about tuning your skills and doing characatures? Eric

I hope that the person inside the costume wasnt a girl.. what kind of freak thinks its cool to do that to?! I mean are the people who walk around with the characters going to have tazers now? Alcohol was probably involved. One of the bad things about Universal (from a working there standpoint) is selling alcohol. I couldnt even start to count the number of times I had issues with drunk guests. Eric

I have a lot of friends that work at Disney, especially at the resorts. Occupancy rates say a lot about how the park is doing and i can tell you that they have not been struggling to bring people into the resorts and the parks. Sure they have some issues to fix and some sections of the Walt Disney Company may not be up to par, but they are far, FAR, from a meltdown. We'll see how much it changes when Eisner has his puppet regime in office . At least the new guy is going to get back into talks with Pixar since we see how well Disney is doing with trying their own animation. I miss the standard animation but obviously American families would rather take their kids to see Scary Movie 3 over Brother Bear.. Eric

Yeah its a looping one. Im glad I didnt risk my life on it if it doesnt count

Haha.. I dont mind ferris wheels but the minute you get me on the swings... Im done for! This ferris wheel was pretty high quality for a fair though. I usually dont do anything that can be transported on a trailer every week Eric

I'm not too shocked to see it. It did always seem to get the hand me down coasters and what not.. too bad though. I never liked the park but it did have some decent coasters.. I would ride the Texas Cyclone over any other wood in TX and Greezed Lightning.. classic! Hopefully a few of the coasters will be saved like you all said. Eric

Well, it's that time of year again when everyone in the area goes CRAZY for the York Fair. Which is the longest running fair in the country by the way! York, PA was also the first true capitol of the US.. of course that was during the Articles of Federation days. Anyways, now that you have the history of York.. we'll get right down to the fair! I wont say much... I'll let the pictures do the talking.. The First thing we all love about the Fair is.. And we'll end with the 670 lb'ish pumpkin! wowww.. Does anyone else find this wrong? Dont get me wrong, I love my pig.. but c'mon now! They dont have to know that! The moment you've been searching for.. the PIG RACES! Our sections pig was number 3.. who I think was injured before each race. Better than WDW! Kidding. The Rides area from the Midway. I was thinking about riding the coaster. That isnt a true credit though right? Freak shows! I think thats a fire breathing midget? We didnt check out the 10 foot tall woman or hairy people.. you could see them walking around the midways. Mom looks fine... she apparently hasnt seen all the old Rescue 911 shows. Steve looks scared to death of the Ferris Wheel.. even though he works construction on scaffolding.. Hersheypark.. or the York Fair?? This is Hersheypark.. obviously. A more lower income Hersheypark looking picture right here.. X-Flight The Power Tower! Actually this was a Double Shot.. but after slowly launching you up it took like 3 minutes to slowly climb to the top. Speaking of Flatts.. HA!.. Here is the ride area. Here you have the Claw on a trailer. Ohh.. Ahh.. The York Fair sigh. Rascal Flatts was supposed to be playing tonite, but they were rescheduled to Sunday. Food! This is Steves first stop of like.. 10 food stops.

Vroooom.. a lot of people dont like Celicas for some reason.

I went to York College of PA for 3 years for Travel/Tourism Admin, but I'm letting that go for now (probably get a BA in a few years) and am going to the Art Institute of Pittsburgh for Video Production in Jan. Eric

I do. Let me scare you all quick and tell you that I grew up in a funeral home. But, I never had any weird ghostly experiences there. I think if a spirit is so unsettled about something or has been so obsessed about something like a task they cant complete or something that they can get trapped and not even realize they are dead.. It could also be people who resist dying so much that their spirits stay on earth until they are ready. A little off topic, but I have tons of Near Death Experiences that I've heard from people.. my grandmother and friends, even families at funerals (my dad is a funeral director and I help out occasionally). I also read a lot of books on them and I think they are some of the most amazing and comforting stories. I was just wondering if anyone reading this has ever had one personally?And is willing to talk about it anyways Eric

Haha.. I feel dumb right now for not seeing this.. We used to do that when we were down for weather at IOA.. people didnt appreciate it too much.

Wow.. I had no idea you worked there back then! That must have been a crazy time to be working there with the SooperDooperLooper opening up and what not. That's really cool! I'll have to think of some Hershey questions i have somewhere in my brain and I'll get back to you. Speaking of old Hersheypark, has anyone ever come across a layout or old pictures of the original Wildcat/Joyride wooden coaster at Hersheypark? I've always wondered how that was set up.. and its a Schmeck so they need to rebuild it Not sure if anyone saw this link on Screamscape a few weeks ago.. I know you'll appreciate it Meteor.. http://www.buzzneon.com/coasters/hersheypark_1978/ Eric

So true.. One night when I was there in August, the park didnt close until 10. Dragster was down pretty much all day. Then at like.. 8:45-9PM they got it running and were letting a lot of people in line. So I doubt Cedar Point is not using weekend only opearation as an excuse to forget about Dragster just so they dont have to worry about getting it running. That's not how you treat an investment of THAT size. I'm sure something decently major happened. Eric

Interesting.. I always knew there was another skyride that connected down past the Carousel but I always just assumed it connected with the current one for some weird reason. I wonder why they took that one out for the newer, roundtrip, sort of pointless one . It was taken out way before the Great Bear though.. I dont think I ever remember it. I'll have to drive up that way towards the old tech. school and see if anything is going on next time I'm in the area.. hopefully Sat night or Sunday. There's really nothing going on at the park marking wise. There are strange marks throughout the entire park that seem to be way too spread out for anything really.. except a pipe Even if they were going to be building a waterpark or something off site, you think there would be some type of land clearing or some construction going on already. You're right though, there is the existing monorail station that is unused sitting there already. Was that ever used after the park moved away from using ride tickets? Also, I bet aside from the Trolley Tour, 99% of people never go away from the parking lot/Chocolate World/Hersheypark area. I'd be interesting to see how many people would leave the park for awhile for dinner or whatever else they could do with Downtown Hershey. Eric

As I sit here scared that Hersheypark is going to be doing very little for a second year in a row I came up with a plan that could make Hersheypark a Universal/Disney/Cedar Point caliber resort area. Here's what I'd do. 1. They are revitalizing downtown Hershey.. which is an amazing town if you have ever been down there you'd know. They have a huge theater, the Hershey kiss shaped street lights, big old big buildings, tree lined streets.. My idea would be to add Downtown Disney'esque shopping and restaurants in the downtown area. 2. A pair of new resorts. The Hershey Lodge and the Hotel Hershey are nice, but they cater to business travelers and convention guests, and honeymooners (Hotel Hershey) mainly. They arent really too family oriented. They should get a value/moderate type resort (using Disney lingo) and a Castaway Bay type water park/resort... families would probably flock to that even in the winter where they could turn a weekend into Christmas Candylane, Hershey Bears, Castaway Bay waterpark weekend vacation with the kids. These resorts could go across Hersheypark Drive. 3. Waterpark. I remember seeing something for a "Cocoa Beach" waterpark up there with three really cool themed areas. I guess someone drew that up randomly but a waterpark on the scale of a Blizzard Beach/Typhoon Lagoon would bring in tons of cash... as it does for any park with a water park. 4. Monorail. Either extend the current one or make a new one that ties all these together. It'd be a Disneyland Resort type deal where it goes from Downtown Disney, to the park, and this one could also tie in the new resorts and if the waterpark is built close.. that too. It wouldnt even really have to be longer than the existing monorail if you think about it. 5. An "Ikon" coaster. (sorry Thorpe.. ). Something along the lines of a huge marketable coaster like a Millenium Force or something that will turn heads. The Hulk at IOA is a prime example of the huge impact a coaster can make for a park.. So that's my plan.. it'd cost a decent amount, and might take a few years to get it up and running! Aside from the problems of it being really cold in the winter and the park having really nothing going on from Jan-April it could possibly work. What do you think? Eric

When I used to work at Dragons when the train would come into unload we'd not advance it right away so that all the water on top would come pouring down over everyone . Eric

You know what is even BETTER?? Go up on a tall building and throw yourself off the roof! its like a freefall ride!

2500 miles for years?? Man.. I did FL to PA for a few months, and then just recently Eastern PA to Western PA and I couldnt stand that either. I'm tireddd of distance But I guess its unavoidable when ure all over the place for a few years. Eric

LOL.. Derek, I agree with you completely with Storm Runners "RCT Autocomplete back to station ending" that definately describes it... so much bunny hop potential if they were willing to make it longer. Missed one-- For good, whoever said SFDL's S:ROS is right. I've been on the SFA Superman and the bunny hop s curve thing and final two are amazing into the brakes. Plus hoping the brakes stop you is fun too. Eric

I wish I lived in Scotland Here in good ol' Pennsylvania at the local park we used to have a cool merry go round type thing made out of like.. pure rusted steel.. and they took it away last year for some new plastic crap. Eric

I hate when people in the background just blankly stare at the camera as you try to take ure picture..

Best and Worst Coaster Endings.. I always thought Big Thunder Mountain Railroad had a really anticlimatic ending.. so does the Mummy at USF. A great coaster but the end they could have done a way better effect than the mummy blowing mist on you only to go into Brenden Frasier... guess thats more anticlimatic for the guys though. As far as best ending.. The Beast with its completely insane double helix of doom is definately one of my favorites. Adventure Express at PKI.. WTF is with THAT ending.. lets go up the lift hill to our doom and just end up in a station Raptor is like being involved in a car crash for its ending into the brake run, but before that Its all good! Eric

I always thought Hersheys tasted better than all the more expensive designer chocolate We used always go to Ghiradelli (Sp?) at Downtown Disney and bleh.. made me miss Hershey. Especially Chocolate World free sample chocolate that ALWAYS tastes way better than anything.. I guess because they tease you the whole time on the tour with the smell. Eric

Yeah.. it looks like Talon only with a shorter, less intense ending... which isnt a bad thing really. Anything close to Talon should be a great ride. I think even the zero G on Talon goes up really high like that and is drawn out, but its still packs a good punch. Hopefully this wont be too neutered. Eric