(Soon to be Photo) TR: Hershey Park

[TopThrill182]

Photos will be uploaded tomorrow.

 

Hershey Park

 

Date of Visit: July 26th - 27th

 

Weather During Visit: Sunny

 

Crowds During Visit: Light

 

Time at Park: (Day 1) 7:00pm - 10:00pm (Day 2) 10:00am - 3:30pm

 

Trip Report

 

The Park:

 

This park didn't really meet my expectations.  I wasn't expecting a ton from it, but I had heard so much hype about the park I thought it would be one of those amazing parks.  The one good thing was it wasn't as cluttered (coaster on top of coaster) as it looked in pictures, but I didn't think any of the rides were particularly amazing, and I didn't the park was as nice as Cedar Point.  Still it was a great park with some great rides, just not amazing.

 

The park itself was lightly themed.  The Boardwalk water park had the most themeing, but even that was pretty minimal.  The rest of the park had little to no themeing.  Many people complain that Cedar Fair parks don't have a ton of trees or landscaping, and wide open concrete pathways.  Well I've found that isn't all bad...  Hershey Park had quite a few trees, and most midways were broken up with trees and planters and benches and such in the middle.  This made it extremely hard to walk around.  The midways were so curvy, and that combined with a lot of people, made it annoying just to get from point A to point B.  The entrance was horrific.  It was way to small, and almost impossible to navigate.  This is the worst entrance I have seen so far.  

 

The park is very similar to Cedar Point: historic, and nice.

 

The Rides

 

Storm Runner:

 

After Top Thrill Dragster, a launch of this speed seems slow.  The ride itself also felt very slow, and if what others around me were saying is true, the ride has been slowed down from past years (at least on this day).  The ride was enjoyable, but it still felt quite short and left you wanting more.  There were a few nice elements (the flying snake dive is great) and the s-turn was also quite fun.  There was quite a bit of air-time on the top-hat.  Overall, nice launch and a few exciting elements, but still not an "amazing" coaster as I was led to believe.

 

8.5/10

 

Sidewinder:

 

This is a typical, bumpy boomerang with bad dispatches.  It was especially painful in the loop and while going backwards.  A lot of the boomerangs have just gotten bumpy and rough.

 

4.5/10

 

Wild Cat:

 

I didn't find anything wrong with the ride, but there wasn't really anything right with it either.  It wasn't rough or painful, but there was zero air-time.  The layout was also a bit dull.  Some air-time could have really helped.  The one thing it did have was some good night lighting throughout the ride.  The new trains were quite comfortable which made the ride better.

 

6/10

 

Lightning Racer:

 

This ride gets a ton of hype, so when I first rode it I had extremely high expectations.  At first I thought the ride was only mediocre, but after 5 or 6  more rides on it, I was loving it.  It was extremely smooth, you actually wanted a bit more roughness, and there was lots of air-time.  It had great night lighting, like that on Wild Cat, and the racing of the trains was always extremely close and fun to watch while on the ride.  It was just an extremely fun ride.  It went especially fast through all the hills and turns.

 

8.5/10

 

Wild Mouse:

 

This is the best wild mouse I have been on.  It has insane speed throughout the ride, especially on the turns, and there was a ton of air-time on all the hills.  It was extremely fun.

 

8/10

 

Roller Soaker:

 

While the coaster itself wasn't that great, not much more than a dull mine train, the originality of the ride made it a nice experience.  There were tons of water effects (you get completely soaked on the ride), and it was fun for riders as well as spectators.  It was just a really cool and fun experience.  Dropping water from the cars is cool, as well as launching water at people from the ground.  I did see numerous people dumping their water in the stations though which was humorous...  The lines got quite long as the dispatches were insanely slow due to the small course and small trains.

 

7.5/10

 

**Note**

 

Unfortunately due to time constraints we were unable to get on Great Bear, Superdooperlooper, Comet, and Trailblazer.  Great Bear looks fun, but the others I don't really care about.

 

Other Rides/Attractions

 

Hershey's Chocolate World:

 

It was a bit too touristy for my liking (this isn't an actual chocolate factory, but instead a movie and a dark ride type thing), but it was still cool to learn how they make the chocolate.  You could smell the chocolate all through the parking lot!  Buying huge pieces of chocolate was also nice.

 

The Boardwalk:  

 

We were able to visit the Boardwalk for a few hours.  The water play structure is amazing.  It is huge, and there is water absolutely everywhere.  You can definitely tell it is the biggest in the world.  The Boardwalk is nice overall, but extremely small which creates mammoth lines.  We didn't even attempt to wait in line for the 4 main slides as the line was probably a half mile long.  Even the slides on the water play structure had 30 minute lines.  Also, the "wave pool" is nothing more than a toddler pool with ripples.  I was amazed at how small it was.  Also there is no lazy river, big pool, etc.  If they add more attractions, it will be quite nice.  The water park is plopped down in the middle of the park though, and it all feels a bit cramped.

 

Notes/Observations

 

-Employees were extremely laid-back (puting feet up on ride gates, not always paying very much attention, etc)

 

-Midways were much too small as it was hard to walk around

 

-Nice collection of water attractions, Tidal Force ride makes a huge splash

 

-Prices were a bit steep

 

-Long lines at food places

 

 

Longest Line of the Day: Roller Soaker at 25 minutes

 

Next up: (Paramount's Great America)

 

-- TT182 --

A lot of pics to come...

[eddie200330]

WOW, I can't believe you didn't make time for The Comet, sdL, and Great Bear, but did for Roller Soaker and Sidewinder?? sdL being the classic Anton and Comet a very good, smooth and lightly airtimed woodie. As far as Storm Runner goes, I don't believe they could slow it down as it needs to maintain the same speed to get over the top hat. (correct me if I am wrong). And in my honest opinion, it is way better than the one trick pony of TTD. All in all, I find any trip to HP to be of the better times than most of the parks I have ever visited.

[TopThrill182]

Well, I visited for two days. The first day I went over to the left side of the park and did everything over there (Sidewinder, etc) assuming that I would have more than enough time to do Comet, SDL, and Great Bear, and Roller Soaker the next day. Unfortunately, lunch took nearly 45 minutes to get, and also The Boardwalk (and Roller Soaker) was much more crowded than I anticipated, so I just ran out of time. I really liked Roller Soaker though, and really wanted to get on it. I thought it was really fun and different.

 

Sounds like Comet is a good coaster, I've heard that from a few people.

[TopThrill182]

Here are the photos - enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[yankees15]

I still am amazed when people say that rides like Top Thrill Dragster are better than Storm Runner. Now assuming that Dragster is like Kingda Ka or even better I still don't see how it is better than Storm Runner. The ride has so much more than Dragster Ka. But this is just my opinion.