rcjp Posted December 3, 2013 Share Posted December 3, 2013 ^Yeah, you're probably right. But we don't know exactly how it affects the park itself and if they would think the best to do really would be having new ones. Well, the fact is I have no idea how much replacing the restraints would cost. Also, does anyone know how the process of designing them is? Shouldn't they know how comfortable restraints will be before putting them in a ride? They must be tested in some way, right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrlittle Posted December 3, 2013 Share Posted December 3, 2013 I didn't realize the skyrush restraint was still an issue. Last time I rode skyrush after they added the padding, I actually thought it didn't hurt at all. But then again even before that I had no real problem with it. It's just an aggressive ride that you just have to ride aggressive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hercules Posted December 3, 2013 Share Posted December 3, 2013 It's almost 2014 and we are still talking about the restraints on this ride??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alilstronger Posted December 3, 2013 Share Posted December 3, 2013 ^ I know. Very sad. People need to get over it. Anyway... I can not wait to go to the park for the holiday festivities. I have never went through the drive through lights display, is it worth the extra money? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hercules Posted December 3, 2013 Share Posted December 3, 2013 ^ I know. Very sad. People need to get over it. Anyway... I can not wait to go to the park for the holiday festivities. I have never went through the drive through lights display, is it worth the extra money? You will really like it. It is very well done. I think it is worth it to do it once. I have done other Christmas drive through / sleigh ride type things, and Hershey does a nice job. Not the best I have ever seen, but I think it is worth it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoppy Posted December 3, 2013 Share Posted December 3, 2013 ^^^ Just like people are still saying the same about Maverick - perhaps figure out how to enjoy yourself if you keep getting beat up versus complain and moan. I think the only time I actually thought the restraints on Maverick may have been a slight nuisance was when I rode it for the very first time... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YoshiFan Posted December 3, 2013 Share Posted December 3, 2013 Based on what I've heard, They need to add a single rider line to the coaster. I don't know if they would use a single rider line well. When I rode Skyrush, I was a single rider and there were 3 people waiting for row 2 so I thought I would be put in their row when I got to the ride op assigning rows. Instead I was told to go to row 7 and no one else was sent there so I had the whole row to myself. If there had been a long line, I could see that being annoying to see all those empty seats going out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coasterfreak101 Posted December 3, 2013 Share Posted December 3, 2013 ^It annoys me even if there is a short line, especially with Skyrush because you've already killed its ability to pump people through like it should by giving it that one-sided station! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
netdvn Posted December 3, 2013 Share Posted December 3, 2013 I feel like I caught the park on a really good day last summer. Only the water park rides and Fahrenheit had any sort of line over 30 mins. All the Comet Hollow/Minetown rides had hour waits early in the day, but by the time Great Bear shut down, the lines started filling out the back of the park. Even with Skyrush's posted hour wait, it really only ended up being 20 minutes. Station configuration wasn't too bad either. Just tell the attendant where you wanna sit and they send you to that row. I loved how it was really open too. I can imagine it was a lot worse last year since everyone exits on the same side. Skyrush's harnesses weren't bad either despite the stapling. I found Cheetah Hunt's harnesses to be much more uncomfortable. - My only real disappointment was finding Sooperdooperlooper closed for the day and not being able to do rerides on anything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Philrad71 Posted December 3, 2013 Share Posted December 3, 2013 ^ I know. Very sad. People need to get over it. Anyway... I can not wait to go to the park for the holiday festivities. I have never went through the drive through lights display, is it worth the extra money? You will really like it. It is very well done. I think it is worth it to do it once. I have done other Christmas drive through / sleigh ride type things, and Hershey does a nice job. Not the best I have ever seen, but I think it is worth it. I agree. We had to wait for what seemed like an eternity to enter because of high crowds, but they had many nice displays and it was quite lengthy once you got through the gate. Here's a small sampling from when we went two years ago... The line was long, but it was well worth it...especially if you are taking your family or significant other! Yay for props to Storm Runner! Cool little amusement park themes. Love this one, but wondered where the rainbow was! Ferris Wheel Like this one too! They also gave out glasses that made the lights look like snowflakes. Of course I had to try and get a photo looking through them! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gerstlaueringvar Posted December 3, 2013 Share Posted December 3, 2013 ^^ So now the exit is at the other side of the station? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coasterfreak101 Posted December 3, 2013 Share Posted December 3, 2013 ^No, but they did open up the station a bit by moving the air gates back so that there's more room for guests to board while the last set is gathering their belongings and exiting. It's helped a bit for sure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gerstlaueringvar Posted December 4, 2013 Share Posted December 4, 2013 ^No, but they did open up the station a bit by moving the air gates back so that there's more room for guests to board while the last set is gathering their belongings and exiting. It's helped a bit for sure. So the real problem wasn't load and exit at the same side but it was the space between the train and the air gates Doesn't seem like the kind of mistake that Intamin would make... Did Hershey designed the station instead? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A.J. Posted December 4, 2013 Share Posted December 4, 2013 Whoever designed it did it with absurdly tight space constraints. You really couldn't add an exit to the opposite side of the station because the storage area is kind of in the way. The storage area is pretty small itself, and the outermost wall is pretty much as close to Comet as it can get. Sometimes you feel like your head is going to hit the roof of Skyrush's station building when you go over one of the hills on Comet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coasterfreak101 Posted December 4, 2013 Share Posted December 4, 2013 ^Even as an enthusiast I get concerned whenever I'm sitting on the right side of Comet coming over that airtime hill - always makes me wonder if they did any sort of envelope test for Comet when they threw that station down right next to it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aceattack52 Posted December 4, 2013 Share Posted December 4, 2013 After seeing those Christmas light pictures, I really wish my home park had a Christmas thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. M Posted December 4, 2013 Share Posted December 4, 2013 It's almost 2014 and we are still talking about the restraints on this ride??? As much as I love the ride, the restraints will continue to be an issue that gets raised until, well, it's no longer an issue. You can assume every other new trip report will include somewhere in it "Awesome coaster but holy crap, my thighs" and here we'll go all over again. It's because they're terribly designed. Or because everybody is a snively whiner, take your pick. I still hold out hope that Hershey will get new restraints for it at some point. Here's what you do Intamin: Step 1) Take the restraint from Fahrenheit and Stormrunner, Step 2) remove the OTSR, Step 3) stick them on Skyrush, Step 4) there is no step 4. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rcjp Posted December 4, 2013 Share Posted December 4, 2013 ^It wouldn't be perfect but still much better. However, for some reason, I found the restraints on SR a lot more comfortable than the ones on Fahrenheit which is odd because they're the same. They were a bit uncomfortable through the first seconds of the ride while on Storm Runner I never had any complaints whatsoever, maybe it has to do with the way your feet and legs are placed as the cars are different. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coasterbill Posted December 4, 2013 Share Posted December 4, 2013 ^^^ Just like people are still saying the same about Maverick - perhaps figure out how to enjoy yourself if you keep getting beat up versus complain and moan. I think the only time I actually thought the restraints on Maverick may have been a slight nuisance was when I rode it for the very first time... I don't find Maverick rough in any way shape or form, but I find the restraints on Skyrush to be pretty painful. I think in both cases it depends a lot on your height, body type and where you sit on the train. That being said the complaints about Maverick seem to be few and far between whereas on Skyrush it seems like it's about a 50/50 split between people that think the restraints take away from the ride experience and people that think Skyrush is perfect the way it is. I look forward to riding Skyrush again in a different, non-wing seat and see if I like it any better... but when I rode it this year I really didn't enjoy it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. M Posted December 4, 2013 Share Posted December 4, 2013 Winged seat versus non-winged seat makes a BIG difference, me and my brother have pretty much sworn off the winged seats (though that'll probably only last until my second ride next year and I'll regret it). I also hated the ride when I first rode it, but now it's in my top 3, so go figure. The ride will never be PERFECTLY comfortable, no, but it could be much better. When I ride El Toro, I don't feel the intensity of the airtime at the place where the restraint meets my body, I feel it as pressure in my face, as the blood rushes to my head. That's how it's supposed to feel. The lap bar is stapling me hard, but it's just a dull pressure that I know is keeping me secure. Yes it's tight, but it doesn't hurt. On Skyrush, all of the intensity of the airtime is translated as pain at my thighs. I ignore it and enjoy the ride anyway, but it's a physical conflict between my body and my brain that keeps the ride from being as purely, joyously pleasurable as El Toro is. It also makes the ride that much more intense and frightening, so yes something might be "lost" if they fix the restraints, but I believe it would be worth the trade-off, and I also believe it would get Hershey that Golden Ticket award they were clearly going for with the ride. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A.J. Posted December 4, 2013 Share Posted December 4, 2013 Here's what you do Intamin: Step 1) Take the restraint from Fahrenheit and Stormrunner, Step 2) remove the OTSR, Step 3) stick them on Skyrush, Step 4) there is no step 4. Honestly, if you think it's so easy, do it yourself. The five-point harnesses used on recent Intamin coasters would absolutely not safely fit on Skyrush's trains. The seats are completely different in size and shape, and I'm pretty sure the mechanisms that operate the restraints are completely different as well. They would have to redesign the five-point harness to fit on the seat, which, like I said before, would probably take several years to implement. "But wait, A.J.! What about those new looping coasters in China and Brazil? Those restraints look exactly like the ones on Skyrush! Surely they just took Skyrush's restraint and stuck them on those coasters, right?" They most certainly look like the ones on Skyrush, but upon closer inspection they are shaped differently and therefore were designed specifically with the narrower trains in mind. Like the five-point harnesses, those would not be able to be just "stuck" onto Skyrush either. I don't think that roller coaster design has completely reached the level of "plug-and-play" modular design that we want as of yet. I know that it seems like an easy fix but ask yourself this - why haven't we seen B&M put the new vest harnesses on all of its coasters? Or...why can't every Euro Fighter have lap bars like Dare Devil Dive? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. M Posted December 4, 2013 Share Posted December 4, 2013 ^I was making it sound easy for humorous effect, but I know it's not as simple as just copying the restraints wholesale. My main point was that those restraints come over your shoulders and meet you at your waist where they're supposed to, proving that it's possible to do. I know it would take time and money to implement, especially considering SkyRush's trains are one of a kind, but I think it would be nothing compared to the total cost of the ride, plus the cost of all the space it's taking up. From the visits I've had it's hard for me to believe it's seeing the kind of ridership Hershey was expecting. The lines for that should not be consistently as long as for their B&M invert from 1998 (at any point after 1 in the afternoon). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3Mutts Posted December 4, 2013 Share Posted December 4, 2013 ^ Remember lines are influenced by many things such as the length of the ride (Skyrush is very short for a hyper coaster), speed the trains are dispatched, number of trains, number of rows, number of seats per row, number of guests in the park, number of break downs, ect. Also what days have you been visiting? Enthusiasts tend to not go on busy days (concert days, Saturdays, major park events, ect) so you usually don't see the long lines. I once visited on a Saturday in the summer and the line for Skyrush filled all the switch backs and extended down the midway for a bit (to the first cover under Skyrushs track). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GwaziBSRider1 Posted December 4, 2013 Share Posted December 4, 2013 The last time I was at Hersheypark was the debut season for Fahrenheit. I was tempted to go back last year because of Skyrush, but all of the reports about painful restraints kept me away. Looks like I'll be heading up there next October for Hersheypark in the Dark. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meteornotes Posted December 4, 2013 Share Posted December 4, 2013 I really have to try to get to the park next year and ride Skyrush. Haven't been able to make it there the last two years. dt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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