TR - Hersheypark - 07/27/06

[ACEfanatic02]

My mother had a quilt show in Hershey she wanted to go to, so we went on an impromtu trip up to PA on Thursday. We got up and out around 7, drove up and got there around noon. Quickly getting lost, we wandered a bit before finding the Lodge and dropping my mother off at her show at 12:30. My father and I went to Hersheypark from there.

 

So, once at the park, we paid our way in (really cheap prices, actually. For an amusement park.) Crowds were light, as it was a weekday. None of the lines I saw early on looked to be more than a half hour long.

 

Having only a slight idea of what Hersheypark actually HAD - I hadn't bothered to check rcdb.com before we left - we went a little way down the midway towards Storm Runner's tophat, then got turned around and ended up back in the Carousel plaza on the other side of the park. Time for a rant - Hersheypark is really badly laid out. Much too confusing - none of the major path interactions come off of plazas (instead, they're hidden down discrete side paths.) Moreover, the park map isn't too helpful, as the reference points visible over the treeline don't quite match up to the map.

 

Nonetheless, we both like to explore, so it wasn't a major problem.

 

After checking the map, deciding that was the best way to find out what was there, I saw they had a Wild Mouse. Jackpot. If you've read my BGE trip report, you'll know I do NOT like zero-g. Falling and me do not mix. But I decided to give it another shot.

 

So, I convinced my father to ride with me - who, incidentally, had sworn earlier that I wouldn't get him on a coaster. I am, apparently, very good at persuasion.

 

It was at most a 3-5 minute wait to get on, thanks to amazingly efficient ride ops. The only time the cars stopped was when someone overly fat tried to squeeze in and had to leave.

 

As for the ride itself - holy s**t! (Yes, I know it's just a Wild Mouse. Screw it - it's still a credit!) Lift hill sucked - had a kick in the ass as it engaged, but the hairpin turns gave really nice lateral g's. And then we got to the drops, went through... and OMG I loved it!

 

I've read a lot of debate about the difference between wood and steel, and as this was my first steel credit, I don't know how much of it was that, and how much was just the height of the drop, but the drops are a whole hell of a lot more fun when you aren't bouncing side-to-side whilst you fall.

 

And now I have a grand total of three credits! w00t!

 

From there, we went and got frozen lemonade, sat down, and started eating. My father wanted to go ride the ferris wheel, so we started heading that way, but then - of course - the sky opened up and it started rainning.

 

I'm beginning to sense a pattern.

 

So, no more rides for us. We went wandering around anyway, walked past the construction site (lots of supports and/or 'stuff' going up. I don't know what the hell it is.) Then we found out that that was yet another dead end and turned around.

 

To cut a long story short, we did a quick circle through the back half of the park, came via the bridge under Great Bear (those supports are the coolest thing I've ever seen) and back up to the Carousel plaza.

 

We left Hersheypark - none of the rides were open, and though the current storm had made it's run, there were a bunch on the way. Interesting question, though: when we left, we got our hands stamped, but we couldn't see any ink. Do they stamp your hand with invisible ink, or was it just the rain? We stopped by Chocolate World and took a run on the tour/ghost train thing. Fun. But that's about it.

 

More storms kept rolling through all day, including a fierce one right before we left - came up so quick I felt sorry for the last trains dispatched. The end result being that we ate (Red Robin owns) and left.

 

Overall - great 3 hours. Credit +1.

 

Pics coming soon... still need to scan my on-ride photo and upload 'em to my webspace.

 

-ACE

[jamesdillaman]

The ink is visible under a blacklight. Many parks do this. The construction you saw is for a new waterpark. Sorry it stormed before you got to ride any of the other coasters.

-James Dillaman

[ACEfanatic02]

Pictures uploaded at my site, for sake of convenience.

http://acefanatic02.googlepages.com/ptr-hersheypark

 

Enjoy.

 

-ACE

[robbalvey]

^ Is it really THAT inconvenient to post them here? You know that far fewer people will probably click on the link than look at the photos if you had uploaded them to the site.

 

And also, remember, if you create a Photo TR, and the photos are NOT uploaded to TPR's servers, I won't be able to include them in the archive or link to them on our park index pages (use this as en example: http://www.themeparkreview.com/photos/kennywood/kennywood.htm)

 

The reason is that if the content isn't uploaded to TPR, then we have no way of controlling if the photos get deleted or the link goes dead. And there's nothing worse than clicking on a dead link or seeing a page full of red X's where pictures are supposed to be.

 

--Robb "Just trying to get everyone the most exposure possible for the work they put into writing TR's" Alvey