TR / Rant: Hersheypark April 6th 2007

[Jim S.]

Since I had to do a lot of wandering around waiting for things to

open, instead of narrating my day in chronological order I'll just

list the coasters in rough geographical order and note their high and

low points...

 

Comet: I managed to get to it shortly after opening before the line

got past one switchback, which was good because it was running only

one train with their usual inexplicably slow checking and

double-checking of lap bars and then for some reason waiting around

before dispatching the train. Later while I was trying to kill time

waiting for repairs to Stormrunner, I got in line when it was past

three switchbacks and there was still only one train running. I don't

know why, because we weren't getting enough snow flurries to wet the

ground, it has a long covered brake run, and with the trim brake in

the middle of the course it doesn't exactly fly into the brakes

anyway. Also there were a lot of staff in the station seemingly doing

nothing. Someone needs to go to Knoebels and learn how to run a

coaster, except I expect they'd die of shock. As for the ride itself,

it was no more nor less than I expected. Average roughness for an

antique woody, decent speed, considering the track condition, on the

large hills but not a lot of action on the bunny hops due to the trim

brake. I rode the front seat the first time and the back seat the

second time, and the airtime did seem slightly better in the back but

was still nothing special. Was rougher in the back, as expected.

 

Sooperdooperlooper: Reasonable lines all day, one train running,

seemed to move at a good pace and had a reasonable amount of force in

the helix, as opposed to my last visit during their Halloween event

when on an early ride it seemed to barely be going fast enough to do

the loop and the helix was little more exciting than Trailblazer. As

I left the area after one ride, I saw the train come out of the

station and then stop with the first car or two on the lift hill. I

could barely make out someone yelling about someone's lap bar not

being down. I didn't stick around long enough to see how the

situation played out.

 

Great Bear: There was a tiny, hand-written note in the ticket booth I

went through saying that the Great Bear, the Falcons, and the Kissing

Tower were down. I kept watching Great Bear to see if it opened since

I've heard many times that it doesn't run under 40 degrees, but it

never did. Apparently either there wasn't a note in all the ticket

booths or nobody was paying attention, because while eating at the

restaurant across from the station (was Wok And Roll, now Gourmet

Grille with an assortment of ethnicities on the menu) I saw quite a

few people walk up to the station and look surprised. I suspect the

not-paying-attention part, because you can see the track from the

entire park.

 

Sidewinder: Went down while I was in line. The train was towed up

the first spike and then hung there. Meanwhile there was a loud

continuous sound of air being released from somewhere under the

station. I left the area to investigate a rumor of the Wild Mouse

being open so I don't know how long it was down or if there was a lift

evacuation or the train returned to the station. Later I rode the

front and back. The back seemed to have more headbanging.

 

Stormrunner: Seemed to be running slower than last time. It looked

like it hung on top of the top hat and in the top of the Immelman for

quite a while, but I told myself it was just because I was on the

ground, it would probably seem faster when I was riding it. Then...

it went down while I was in line. Rolled out, brakes dropped, message

played, brakes raised. After waiting a while I left the line, and

checking back later I saw that the train had been emptied but was

still sitting on the launch track. Some people waited in the station

for quite a while but the ride was down most of the afternoon as far

as I know. It opened around suppertime and the line was a lot shorter

than it was earlier. Usually the park is busiest around that time,

but this time it seemed to be emptying out early because of the cold.

It was indeed slower! The airtime and the hangtime were superb, and

the roll not so nerve-wracking. On one wait in the station, the

operator was exhorting riders to have their loose objects ready to

stow as soon as the gates open because he was afraid if they didn't

keep dispatching trains often enough it wouldn't stay warm enough to

make it over the top hat. When it got to the top he would start

gesturing for it to keep going, and one of the riders got into the act

too. After that the line became very short, but twice we had to wait

for the restraints to be unlocked for someone to surrender her purse.

The second offender apparently didn't want to leave it behind because

she left the ride. I didn't see any rollbacks, but another enthusiast

told me that at one point during the day it very nearly did so and

they shut it down for a while afterward.

 

Trailblazer: Didn't ride it. Looked like a sizeable crowd in the

station, and it's not that good compared to everything else in the

park. Hershey's literature ranks this as a higher thrill than

Sooperdooperlooper. Either this is a typo or SDL was braked to death

at some point in history.

 

Roller Soaker: Wasn't open, nor was it expected to be, obviously.

 

Wild Mouse: Nothing in Midway America was supposed to be open, but

while in Sidewinder's station I saw the Ferris wheel running and heard

that Wild Mouse was seen running. I walked back there around the

Boardwalk, which looks much closer to completion than I was led to

believe it would be and can be seen in its entirety because the wooden

fence present last year was removed. The Merry Derry Dip slides were

also open. Unfortunately Wild Mouse was only warming up. Much later

I saw that there were finally people on it so I went back again. I thought I heard a wooden coaster running but it turned out to only be the Whip. Wild Mouse was its usual insane self with scary laterals everywhere and airtime on the big dip. The line wasn't too bad most of the time, probably

due to the out-of-the-way location. This also gave an excellent

overhead view of the new water area.

 

Wildcat: Wasn't scheduled to open, and didn't. I was hoping they

would open it to show off the new trains, and had heard that it was on

a standby list to open if there were big crowds.

 

Lightning Racer: Also wasn't scheduled to open, and didn't. With all

the troubles with the steel coasters today, it was ironic that they

didn't run the two other wood coasters. It also seemed absurd to have

people walk all the way back through the Boardwalk perimeter and

Midway America just for the wheel and the slides, and people who

obviously hadn't looked at the ride list seemed disappointed at the

lack of rides open in this section. Plus, LR has a huge capacity.

Considering that the Boardwalk construction wasn't impeding traffic as

I had heard it would, they should've scheduled these two to open.

[alpengeist04]

Sounds to me like Storm Runner shouldn't have been running due to the temperature.

[Jim S.]

But I was glad that it was, and it was a lot of fun. It was also nice to see an enthusiastic operator who tried to keep dispatches going as fast as possible, unlike Comet which I'll never understand.

[alpengeist04]

^Very true, even a slightly slower Storm Runner is better than 98 percent of the coasters in the country.

 

...and I can't wait to get back up there to ride Wildcat with the new coaster trains. I have a feeling it will move up on my wooden coaster list from #9.

[YoshiFan]

That's too bad that they were running 1 train on so many coasters and all those breakdowns. The cold weather really messed everything up I was planning on going tomorrow but with the forecast saying it will feel like it is in the upper 20's and lower 30's, I don't think that's going to happen especially since they might decide to not run any coasters.

[SharkTums]

I guess I give them credit for doing as much as they did with the weather. Comet always seems to suck and only run one train lately.

[Eric_Smith]

I would not have the patience to type that much.

 

Also it was a good TR.