TR: Hersheypark 5/14

[frozenflames]

I was at Hersheypark yesterday for Music in the Pakrs, a competition for middle and high school bands and choirs.

 

We arrived at the park at around 9:15 in the morning, and as the park was not open yet, headed into Hershey's Chocolate World for the Chocolate Factory Tour ride, which was a walk-on. After browsing around in the gift store, we headed out into the park, getting through the gate right at opening.

 

First stop of the day was Comet. That had about a ten minute wait, so it was a good start to the day. The first half of the ride had a few good pops of airtime, but the second part was kind of dull.

 

After my group got off of Comet, we headed over to Superduperlooper, and got on after a two-train wait. The ride was a little rough, but the track might not have been fully warmed up yet.

 

Next, I rode the Coal Cracker, fairly decent flume ride, and I frustrated my mom (who was chaperoning the trip) by putting my hands up on the drop, which completely blocked out her face in the picture, as I had done the last time we rode it, last year.

 

We got in the line for Great Bear at 11:00, but it was almost an hour wait for the ride. I had considered getting out of the line, but seeing as how I had never ridden that coaster before, I decided to stick it out. The coaster was incredibly smoothe, much better than the only other inverted coaster I had ever ridden (Mind Eraser at Six Flags America- Vekoma SLC-ouch), and after getting off, I immediatly classified it as one of my top coasters.

 

We had lunch over in the Tidal Force catering area, which my group finished eating around 12:30, and then proceeded to go get on more coasters.

 

We got in line for the Wild Mouse, which had a six-car wait, not too bad. I had only been on one other Mouse before, and that was a while ago, so I had forgotten how hard the cars go around the turns. It was still fun, even though I think my legs got bruised from the restraints.

 

I went over to Lightning Racer, and got a walk-on to Lightning. My train beat the other side by about fifteen feet. After looking at my incredibly lame ride photo, my group immediately got back in line, this time for Thunder, which was also a walk-on, and once again, beat the other train by a long shot. This made my mom very excited, seeing as how every single time we've ever ridden Lightning Racer, the train we're on has always won.

 

My group decided to take a little break, so we entered the line for the Ferris Wheel, waiting about twenty minutes for our gondola. When we got off the ride, it was about 2:30 (it was a very long ride cycle), and we began to head towards the front of the park to get out souvenir shopping done and out of the way. We had passed by Storm Runner, which we couldn't get on, due to there being a two-plus-hour wait all day, since they were on one-train operation, for some reason.

 

We left the park around 2:45, and went back into Chocolate World to do shopping. After spending an hour or so inside, we headed over to the Hershey Arena for the music competition awards ceremony.

 

The ceremony began at 4:15, and ended at 5:15. My high school actually did really well in the competition, winning second place for high school women's choir, first place for high school mixed (boy and girl) choir, and, the most exciting of them all, overall best choir. We were shocked because nearly three hundred groups had competed, and out of all of them , my school's was the smallest, consisting of fourty students, for both our Treble (women's) choir, which is the one I'm in, and Chamber choir, total. What was even more surprising was that due to other circumstances, our six strongest singers could not attent the competition.

 

After the awards were all given out, we headed back into the park. My group at dinner at Crustano's Sandwiches in the Rhineland section of the park. Aorund 6:00, we began walking towards Pioneer Frontier to see if the Storm Runner lines were any better. Unfortunately, they were worse, so we headed back over to Great Bear, getting on our final ride of the night after a half-hour wait.

 

We did a little bit more shopping inside the park, filled out surveys on our park experience, and received free water bottles. We got on our bus and left for home shortly before 8:00.

 

Good things:

-Most of the rides had very short wait times.

-The staff was friendly and helpful.

-The weather, for the most part, was great.

-The food was fairly good, and moderately priced (for an amusement park).

-I upped my credit count by two, on Great Bear, and the Wild Mouse.

 

Bad things:

-Storm Runner was on one-train operation, so I still have not gotten that credit.

-The Hershey Arena is in desperate need of refurbishment.

[Coasters 4 ever]

I totally agree with you about Comet. The first half is good, the second half is dull. I didn't even come close to coming out of my seat during the bunny hills! Also, if Great Bear is one of your favorites and you have only ridden 2 inverts, you need to go on both sides of Dueling Dragons. Fire and Ice both beat Great Bear by a longshot.

[Meteornotes]

The Hershey Arena was built in the 1930's, and is in pretty sad shape. I keep hearing different stories about what they want to do with that area (like tear it down and put a water park in that spot) but I guess for now it's staying. It seems a bit redundant with the new Giant Center, but I guess that it's close to the park keeps it open for some events, like the one you were at...

 

dt