TR: Hersheypark, 8/13

[Jim S.]

Monday was my girlfriend's company picnic at Hersheypark, so we got in for $23 each. This was also not just our first weekday trip to Hersheypark, but our first trip on a day when the public was paying the full admission price, so we were expecting smaller crowds than at Easter and Halloween, but from the length of the lines for the coasters it didn't seem like it. We certainly got our money's worth, but we're glad we didn't pay the full price. And now, the rides.

 

Stormrunner: line down the stairs shortly after opening, later in the day a 1-hour wait for the front seat and 30-40 minutes for other seats. Both trains running, but the next-to-last row on the left side of the station was blocked off. It seemed to be running faster than during the off-season, judging by the forcefullness of the inversions. We rode the front seat for the first time and it's a whole different ride, with nothing blocking the airflow it seems twice as fast at launch time. The back seat gave more airtime than I thought possible for a ride with tight restraints. The only flaw with this ride, as always, is that it's over too fast for the amount of time you wait.

 

Sidewinder: same snake, different day. Only rode it once even though it was only a station wait and sometimes even went out with half the train empty. Evidently its reputation is spreading. I actually didn't think it was as rough as before, but maybe I'm just getting used to it.

 

Wildcat: to our surprise, the line was only slightly down the path from the station, and moved well. Dispatches seemed a little faster than last year. This was our first time with the new trains. The first thing we noticed was that they chirped terribly on the brakes. I thought that maybe they never got the whole track regauged, since they had trouble completing the course the first time they were tested, until I noticed that there seemed to be quite a number of new bolts through the track in that area. Our front seat ride in the morning was a lot smoother than last year, but also seemed a lot slower. The whole character of the coaster seemed changed, and not for the better. (We like wood coasters to feel like they're out of control, as long as they're not actually painful.) We gave it another try in the afternoon in the hopes that it had warmed up, and this time we rode the back seat. The sense of speed was better, and it was rougher than the front seat but not as intense as last year -- maybe similar to the front seat of Twister. The padding helped a lot with smoothing out the shaking. I just can't get over having to go to the back seat of a wooden twister on purpose to get a more intense ride.

 

Lightning Racer: might be my new favorite of Hershey's wood coasters. Lots of laterals and airtime without being rough, the most bizarre and fun layout anywhere around here, and the best part, the line hardly gets out of the station due to running two trains per side. I noticed here, without the weird noises from the brakes, that they automatically pumped in very short bursts to bring the trains into the station very smoothly. Have they always done this, or did GCI reprogram them? One definite change from last year: the trains seemed evenly matched.

 

Wild Mouse: consistently the best around, having a reasonable line due to no seatbelts and giving a very forceful ride due to minimal braking. I noticed more brakes firing this time than before, but it seemed as intense as ever if not more so. (Maybe I'm just getting old.) New for this year: it gives a great view of the Boardwalk to those who don't mind looking down from the hairpin turns.

 

Comet: we had passed over it at opening to get a quick ride on Stormrunner, and by the time we worked our way back to the front of the park at lunchtime the entire queue area was full and multiple people were in the line selling drinks so it probably wasn't moving very well. So we passed over it again, and even at the end of the day half the queue area was still full. No Comet ride for us today.

 

Sooperdooperlooper: This time it had the longest line we had ever seen (usually there isn't one). We took one ride. The brake before the helix didn't slam on like it sometimes does, but it was still on.

 

Coal Cracker: This was our first time on Hershey's flume. It was a nice long meandering ride before the drop, and the jump at the bottom of the drop was fun, but then we were right back at the station. Like most flumes, too short for the amount of time you have to wait on a hot day, and it broke down once while we were in line too. But if this is the last Arrow flume with a jump, I'm glad I rode it.

 

Great Bear: The Great Bear broke down just before we got to the station, and it seemed like they were emptying out the (very long) queue. We decided to wait at the entrance, and when it got running again a few minutes later, we went in and found out that not everybody had left the inner queue. It was still the shortest wait for a Great Bear ride we would have all day. Later it got to at least 40 minutes for a front seat and almost 30 minutes for other seats. We decided to go for a front seat ride at night and I'm glad we did, because the darkness and coolness added to the intensity. It had been so long since we rode Great Bear that I had ranked Talon much higher, but in the front seat I now rank them about the same. Talon has nice helixes but Great Bear seems to have better rolls, with so many apparent obstacles. Great Bear also has that stupendous roar that other parks muffle with sand in the supports.

 

Trailblazer: we didn't even bother checking to see if the line was short enough to wait in. Sooperdooperlooper is like a mine train with a loop, so there's no reason to ride this.

 

Roller Soaker: we had never seen this in operation, so we walked over that way to check it out. It was late enough in the day by the time that we did that we decided not to get soaked that day.

 

There was one thing in the park that bothered me, other than the unexpected long lines. That was the condition of the men's bathrooms. I went in one as soon as I got into the park shortly after opening and it looked and smelled like it hadn't been cleaned from the day before. Others suffered from lesser degrees of odor, one from non-flushers and one from a big sweaty guy changing out of his water park clothes (I thought I saw locker rooms for that.) I don't know what happened -- Hershey used to have about the cleanest bathrooms I had ever seen in a public place. There are signs in all of them saying that if you're unhappy with the condition you should inform security, but there never seems to be security around when you want them. I could've stopped at the office on the way out, but I figured that I get to Hershey unfrequently enough that I'd just be wasting my time.

[Groteslurf]

Great TR

[FeelTheFORCE]

Awesome TR! I was there yesterday, the day after you went! Here's my review of the coasters.

 

 

Storm Runner is good, but I still like TTD better. It has some cool unique inversions,though, which are especially fun on an Intamin rocket.

 

Wildcat is still a little rough even with the new MFs, but that's understandable, considering it's older. It's still a great coaster.

 

Lightning racer is awesome, so smooth. Lightning is the better side, not only does it always win, but it has a slightly better layout.

 

Sidewinder was the best boomerang I have ever ridden, very smooth (for a boomerang) and minimal headbanging.

 

Great Bear was good, but too many straight bits, they could have done more. An awesome ride at night, though. And I love that it has the good old B&M roar.

 

SDL was awesome, very smooth and fun.

 

Comet was cool. I tried to loosen my seatbelt to fly out of my seat, but too bad the coaster has no airtime whatsoever.

 

Trailblazer was meh.

 

Wild Mouse was great! It went so fast, went right over the pool, and seemed as if you were going to fly off the track into the pool! Had great airtime also!

[Little Coaster Girl]

Yes we had a good time even though the lines where terrible. But Lightning racer was even more awesome than i remember.

And i love Great Bear, it ranks with Talon as the best inverted coasters for me.

[Tanks4me05]

Hey, I guess I'm not the only one who noticed Wildcat's "Laughing Elephant Brakes" as I call them. Heck, I can even do a pretty good impression of them. BTW, the "laugh" has been there since I first rode it in 2003, but I can't say if it has happened since before then, because I never went close enough to the brake section until '03 because I was too scared to ride it.

[Little Coaster Girl]

BTW, the "laugh" has been there since I first rode it in 2003

 

Wow, we have been there many times and have never heard it before. Maybe it dont do it all the time.

[steel]

^^I thought it sounded more like a duck being strangled when I was there in '04.

 

Really good TR. Sounds like you had a nice time.

Roller Soaker is barely worth the credit, IMO. You don't really do much...

 

FeelTheFORCE - When I rode Comet, I was out of my seat the whole time. Just my two cents.