CNYCoasterguy11

If these awards really meant anything wouldn't Walt Disney World be able to win every single award theoretically? I mean aside from say best sea life park lol. But seriously almost every catergory you could slide in a Disney ride or park. I think Busch Gardens is a well landscaped park but come on, Animal Kingdom could easily take that claim too.

Actually Sesame Place is part of the SeaWorld/Busch Gardens chain. And the Honker Dinner Derby ride is the old Sandstorm ride from Busch Tampa.

This is awesome, I always wished they had a better coaster. This will be a great addition, and now I might have to go back next summer.

Storyland was great for my daughter (she's 3), she was able to do everything except Roar-o-saurus, but I was able to get on it again and it's still great with tons of little airtime pops. Storyland was the best of the week other than being somewhat crowded for a Wednesday. Funtown wasn't bad either other than still seeming a little rundown and really lacking in bathrooms especially once you get past the Car Ride. Excalibur was running pretty good even for being almost 20 years old, it was actually rougher towards the front but I love it in the back especially with that great first drop that really launches you from the back rows.

Unfortunately the park closed at 5 today. Did you end up going in the morning? No unfortunately we didn't try because it was looking so bad and turned out that was the right decision. Hopefully in the future I will get my chance to go but it won't be this year. I was able to get to Funtown USA, Palace Playland and Stoyland on my trip, so not a complete loss.

Hi I'm trying to visit the park on Friday but the forecast doesn't look too promising. Can anyone tell me if the park is worth visiting in rainy weather? And does anyone know the policy on what rides stay open and close? The park site wasn't real specific.

So has anyone else seen the post made on Screamscape relating to Carowinds and some new North Carolina law? http://www.screamscape.com/html/carowinds.htm They are speculating that they may have too close some rides on Monday due to a new inspection law relating to the Ohio fair accident. Not sure how credible it is but it would really be crazy thinking a major theme park having to shut down a majority of rides.

I'm happy that they are adding more slides since they never really thought things thru with their water park idea. The water park has always suffered from horrendous lines, even worse than typical water park lines it seemed. I love water park rides but I hate their low ride capacity and waiting in line more than riding. One good thing is it will draw even more people into the water park from the coasters and rides meaning less waiting for them. It's too bad Hershey just didn't build a separate gate water park since it's so popular people would most likely have paid for it. Now all they really lack in the water park is a big family raft slide, and probably some speed slides too.

One of the biggest rumors I had heard before D23 that I thought could have been announced but wasn't was the redevelopment of the Imagination Pavilion. There was a lot of speculation that it would be redone with an Inside Out theme which would have been perfect. But maybe they are saving that for down the road. In my opinion it's the pavilion that needs the most attention right now (unless you count the old Wonders of Life). But still love all of the new changes coming, it should give the Resort a little new life, not that it isn't great now.

Not sure where they could re-locate it, as much as I hate to see coasters leave, it may be time to retire the Wild Mouse. And I agree about the bad placement of the water park. Hershey should have really just built a stand alone water park as a second gate type park. It is so popular now that it could easily have supported one. It also would have given them more room for expansion in both parks.

If they are adding on to the waterpark which seems like a definite based on the hints they are dropping, then they should really consider a large family raft ride as well as some body slides. They theoretically could add all sorts of slides that they don't currently have. They are for the most part covered when it comes to tube slides. But they could add a racing slide or a speed slide/body slides, but the raft slide would be a good fit since it is a family first type park and there are not many slides that smaller kids can ride outside of some in the big play structure. Unfortunately it also means they will probably remove Tidal Force unless they are expanding behind the wave pool area.

NY State inspectors looked over the ride and found nothing wrong with it and cleared them to operate it as normal, Six Flags is now doing their own internal investigation, of course in the end it will be rider error and their own fault, you don't just fall out of a sky ride seat unless your doing something your not supposed to be doing. Its like how some Ferris Wheels require two or more people in each gondola or car (The one at Great Escape Does) because of people jumping out of them for whatever reason they have. People will do stupid things that is no fault of the park or chain or anyone else other than the rider themselves. We cant put a protective bubble wrap on everything for everyone, common sense is sometimes all that should be needed, however that is not always the case. This was just a teen girl being stupid and doing something she shouldn't have and fell out because of it, in no way is the park at fault for that. Besides how long has the sky ride been at the park and this has never happened before?

Go to either Hollywood Studios or Epcot on the 4th because they both have less newer things and are not called Magic Kingdom. Crowds will still be bad but not as bad. As for fast passes, get them now and as many for major rides you can before they are gone. For Animal Kingdom get anything in Pandora if available, Everest, or Dinosaur For Hollywood Studios get Toy Story, Rock n Roller Coaster or Tower of Terror For Epcot obviously Soarin', Test Track or Frozen For Magic Kingdom get Seven Dwarfs, Space Mountain, BIg Thunder Mountain and Splash Mountain Most of those rides are either already popular or have lower capacities per hour. Most other rides are designed to handle lots of people at once so you wont have to really use fast passes for them unless there's nothing else available. As for meals try the Whispering Canyon in the Wilderness Lodge, the servers are hilarious and the foods not bad. Also Raglan Road is great in Disney Springs, the authentic Irish atmosphere is great and they periodically have dancers and live Irish Bands.

They would be better off removing the old Nightmare Building or even repurposing it for a new compact coaster or even a ride, its also a shame when I ride the log Flume and just see it sitting there unused and it still has all of its theming. Its also too bad they can't expand more back near Comet, that area is somewhat dead even with two of the bigger rides the park has, but being way in the back people just don't travel back there as much except maybe once a day for one ride on the Comet and then go to the rest of the park.

Went to Great Escape today for a little road trip, and the weather couldn't have been any better. I just wish that the Great Escape maintenance crew was able to keep up better. While overall it was a good day and we rode most of everything major we wanted some big rides were plagued with downtime or never ran. Now in my opinion over $50 is a lot for most parks but here it is quite a bit for the older crowd but I get it, it's designed for the younger generation who can ride both the adult and kid rides with nothing requiring more than 48". However when you also pay that and a majority of rides are down it kind of sucks. I went here over Darien Lake because I thought Darien Lake was having more issues based on what I've read and I personally like Great Escape for its atmosphere and charm it still has over Darien Lake. ---We were able to get a ride in on the bobsled before the line got to long, they were only allowing the first three rows to be filled which reduced its already low capacity, but it was still a good ride and a unique one too. Always been a fan of the ride itself. ---After we were able to hop on other Supernova which was neat and our favorite The Comet, which also as usual was a people eater. However after the first ride about an hour and a half from opening it went down, now this wouldn't be the first time which was surprising to me. They were able to get it up and running later and we ride it a couple more times with no issues. ---We got some rides in on the parks other flats as well: Greezed' Lightning, Screamin' Eagles, Both Sasquatch towers, Bumper Cars and the two main water rides. ---We also took the obligatory ride on Steamin Demon which is worse than I remember, head bang city after the loop. Now overall it was a good day, operations were smooth on what we rode, lines were minimal and food service was even good. However the fact that most rides were down most of all day stunk. Rides closed included Balloon Flight for the first few hours, Comet and Sasquatch at times, Blizzard, Flashback and Canyon Blaster were down all day and even the water park had its share with Twister Falls and Black Cobra down. When two of your five coasters are down all day it kind of hurts. All in all it was a good day with the exception of all the down rides, being close to me it wasn't a big deal and I have all the credits but it still felt like I lost out on my ticket, if it had paid maybe $40 I could have said that's no big deal, but over $50 is a bit of a letdown.

When I used to work at Sylvan Beach Amusement Park our little Galaxi Coaster had airbrakes and a hand brake that was used to slow the train down, so if the operator was good it was smooth, but when it rained and you had a full train of adults it would fly thru all of the brakes even if they were closed ahead and we would have to send them around a second time. It would often go thru even the Emergency brake in the station.

Just out of curiosity. Where are you getting this information about Thunder Rapids from? It seems like everyone is flipping out over a ride not being open when we haven't even reached daily operations yet. And if anything that's just adding fuel to the fire. Yes I too would like to know the source of this information? I can see them removing Thunder Rapids especially if it is truly showing it's age (look at La Ronde), however I cannot really see them taking out Shipwreck Falls as well. Otherwise we probably shouldn't speculate too much unless we have an actual reliable source saying what will happen. It very well could just be a lack of staff to operate it, and the weather hasn't exactly been Log Flume type weather either so far, so why open it if no one would ride yet.

I just watched a POV of the Sub ride thinking it would be neat, boy was I wrong. Everyone is right this thing looks lame. The fact that it has one small section inside and the rest is basically "pretending" to be underwater. they could have at least made it all inside. Just seems like they weren't even trying on this one. Even if it is geared towards families or kids, it is still pretty dull even for them.

Well, that's your call. The littlest one, who's now 28 months, has been on three kiddie coasters and a larger number of flat rides once she started walking, and aside from one ill-fated Scrambler run at Knoebels last year, has loved just about everything she's been on. Her second trip to Hershey was much more well received than the initial one, and she'll be coming back later this year, since we're spending two days at the park for my son's sixth birthday.quote] We took our Daughter to Hershey for her first real park when she was 18 months old, she loved the rides, and later that same year we went to Story Land in NH which was perfect, all but a couple allowed her to ride. My daughter now loves rides and roller coasters and I hope to get her on even more this summer, Shes on the smaller side so its tough to find parks that allow kids under 42" and be worth it for her. But the few I find she cant wait to visit, she loves watching videos of them too. Its never too soon to get them on and loving them.

Some parks don't open all of their water rides right away, especially the further North you are so most likely they are waiting for either more staff and/or better weather as it has been somewhat on the cooler/wetter side this season for NY. As far as the rides being down and not running like they used too, just like any other mechanical machine things wear out over time. It may be time to retire rides like Silver Bullet and even Twister. Many of the rides the park added in the 80's were prototypes and early versions. Replacing them is a good idea as they did with UFO and Raging Seas. Hopefully the park bounces back and can do well. I remember the days of Six Flags and while it wasn't always perfect the park seemed to do better and attract more people. I think Darien Lake needs a national Chain to take them over and run them if they are going to survive in the long run. A real lack of competition is probably the only reason they have been able to remain around this long.

I can't wait to go back to the park this summer, the new ride looks great and its a good addition. A somewhat thrilling family ride and its perfect for them since it has a smaller foot print so they didn't have to remove an old ride. The one thing the park is truly missing in my opinion would be a good Family Raft waterslide for the water park. They have good slides and pools but lack a good slide for the under 42" crowd. I also wish they would get a new train for the Jackrabbit and ditch the Morgan train but beggars can't be choosers I guess

2000 Lightning Racer-Hersheypark 2002 Batman-The Dark Knight-SFNE 2003 Canyon Blaster-Great Escape 2004 Whirlwind-Seabreeze 2005 Frankie's Mine Train-Great Escape 2008 Fahrenheit-Hersheypark 2010 Intimidator 305- Kings Dominion 2011 Black Diamond-Knoebels

I have to say Goliath at SFNE is pretty bad, it's one of the few coasters I have ridden and said that I really wouldn't ever ride again. It rattled so much and was so rough especially on my head. The initial drop was fine but after that it was terrible. Anaconda for me was pretty bad too, just rough the whole time. The Wildcat at Hershey used to be really bad with the original trains by with the newer flyer trains its a lot better.

I used to work at Sylvan Beach Amusement Park and we used to do wristbands on Friday nights to ride all you want. A group of teenagers were riding the bumper cars and being disruptive. I actually caught them spitting on the ride at each other and on the floor of the ride. After warning them once they continued to do so, so myself and another worker shut the ride down and we kicked them out for the night. So of course the patent that was with them who was watching all this starts yelling at us and saying that we were trying to get them kicked out and had it out for them. Some people are just plain stupid, it's sad that people act that way and even the supposed adult was a problem and thought for some reason their actions were ok.