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Hersheypark (HP) Discussion Thread


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We walked through Zoo America, because it would have been kind of dumb not to with our two day visit. We're not really zoo people, but it was neat. On the rare occasion we do go to the zoo we're pretty pampered with the St. Louis Zoo.

 

We went to Chocolate World on our second day. Our only goals were to do the ride/tour thing and the make your own chocolate bar. Unfortunately, the machine for the make your own chocolate bar attraction was down. We did get a chance to do the ride, which was fun. I was looking forward to that kind of cheesiness! We got lucky and only had to wait about five minutes to ride. I couldn't imagine waiting in a full queue, which seemed about a mile long. After the ride we browsed around and purchased some chocolate for my mother-in-law.

 

I can't be the only one who thinks that the fresh chocolate from Hershey tastes better than other Hershey products you get elsewhere. It's just seems like it's got more of that smooth melt in your mouth experience than outside of Hershey. Maybe it's all mental.

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Yeah, Skyrush is VERY different between wing and non-wing seats. In the middle it's a pleasant hyper. In the wing seats it's a murderous villain with laser eyes and a battle axe.

Seems like middle of the train in a middle seat was the only way to go for us. Even so, the need for defensive riding combined with a coaster that wasn't all that spectacular to us just wasn't worth trying again. We quit while we were ahead, leaving with our two good rides compared to one bad one. To us, it's one of those rides that we'd ride once or twice during a two day visit and just enjoy the park's other great offerings.

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The front of Skyrush is the best row for me, wing or not. The ride is just perfection up there, the way the train just plows you into the air. But there is absolutely a reason we refer to that back left wing as the death seat.

 

Glad you enjoyed the park, its the best.

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Even so, the need for defensive riding combined with a coaster that wasn't all that spectacular to us just wasn't worth trying again.
Although I did re-ride it a bunch of times when I visited since the place was completely empty (I sat in pretty much all sections of the train), this was my opinion of it too. A good coaster, to me, mixes thrills with fun, and the balance on this one was totally off. It's like 60 seconds of non-stop clenching while getting flung into the restraints. Having said that, I loved the park — especially Lightning Racer, Fahrenheit, and Comet.
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And they're closed again (as is Knoebels again).

 

It's pretty bad up this way. We get a couple hours with no rain then Mother Nature just lets loose with like 2 inches in an hour. The park just can't catch enough of a break to let the water recede. And as usual the people on their social are a-holes about it.

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Hate to see Hershey and Knoebels flooded like this...Hopefully there won't be a lot of damage from this, but who knows until the water goes down. Hopefully, mother nature will calm her tits and Hershey can recover. Also, I love seeing Skyrush from that angle in those pics...It's always been a top 5 coaster for me.

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Those shots of Skyrush don't do the flooding justice. I saw pics on our local news where the path on the left is completely flooded and there was mud covering the ground around the kiddie rides and Tilt-a-Whirl to the left of Comet.

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Actually SR was 2004, Fahrenheit 2008, Skyrush 2012, Laff Trakk 2015. They are overdue for a major coaster addition already (would have been this year based on the 3 Intamins).

But they got a coaster this year . . .

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With the new area, is there anything they can do regarding Spring Creek to mitigate future floods? For instance, if they widen the creek in the new area to match the width it reaches in the park, would that help at all? I'm guessing it doesn't help that Spring Creek narrows suddenly over by the catering area/Skyrush turnaround. Would that just be a waste of money?

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With the new area, is there anything they can do regarding Spring Creek to mitigate future floods? For instance, if they widen the creek in the new area to match the width it reaches in the park, would that help at all? I'm guessing it doesn't help that Spring Creek narrows suddenly over by the catering area/Skyrush turnaround. Would that just be a waste of money?

 

They could potentially build one or two large 'dry' retention lakes that only fill up for these type of events. I am not sure what the flow rates are for Spring Creek and how big these retention facilities would need to be. So it might or might not be feasible. Building something up stream would probably be their best bet. But that would require land and lots of permits.

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The last time the park had a significant flood was 2011 right (and they recovered within days and have probably since revised their flood protocol at Zoo America)?

 

I mean, is it really that big of an issue? If they were all that worried about it I feel like they would have done something by now.

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The last time the park had a significant flood was 2011 right (and they recovered within days and have probably since revised their flood protocol at Zoo America)?

 

I mean, is it really that big of an issue? If they were all that worried about it I feel like they would have done something by now.

 

That is correct. This isn't a yearly thing in our area. The problem is that when it happens it is always bad. I believe I read somewhere that the plans for the expansion do address flood mitigation but I don't know the specifics.

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I remember going to a TPR event at the park the year before skyrush was built, and the day before the event the park had a flood. The pavilion we were scheduled to be in was completely submerged. But to our amazement, overnight Hershey was able to clean the whole area out to where it did not look like anything ever happened.

 

Needless to say, we were amazed how fast they were able to recover after a flood.

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I guess living my life in an area where our local down-town night life/bar district, including some small businesses, not to mention our entire riverfront amphitheater, gets flooded once every 3-5 years this doesn't seem like a big deal to me. The Mississipi can be brutal, just google the flood of 93. If some of our structures from a decade ago can survive multiple floods I'm sure the snack shack will be just fine.

 

I would guess that most things built in the area at risk for flooding at Hershey are probably engineered to withstand floods and are designed for quick cleanup. A lot of the structures that are not this way are probably cheap and easy to rebuild. Clean up, minor repairs, and power washing seems a lot more cost effective than bringing in engineers and spending a lot of money to prevent minor flooding. Changing the river might also effect a lot more areas outside of Hershey, up and downstream, so there would have to be a lot to consider and a lot for Hershey and the surrounding areas to factor in.

 

This is from complete vague memory, but didn't the surrounding area have a play in denying approval for support structures to be constructed into the river when Great Bear was built? In order to change anything in reference to the river I would think we're talking State Approval in addition to Corps of Engineering and Conservation involvement for these things to take place. Lots of red tape. I wouldn't 'guess' anything will change that doesn't need to as far as the river goes.

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My son and I decided to head over to the park this afternoon to see how the clean up went. My first observation was that I had made a huge mistake in forgetting that Lynyrd Skynyrd was in concert at the stadium tonight. Holy crowded! Once we made it into the park, we took the small path that runs along the creek under Skyrush. The only indication that anything had happened earlier this week was brand new mulch. The level of the creek was suspiciously low - the mechanics of the fountains under Skyrush were exposed. The only things that remained closed were the pizza place and creamery in the Hollow. The stone walls lining the creek running through that area also showed that the water level was very low. You could see about a foot and a half of darker stove that had obviously been submerged on a normal basis. All in all they did a fabulous job (as usual) of repairing any damage and making the park look amazing.

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