TR: Hersheypark July 20, 2005

[Marko]

We decided to sleep in and didn't arrive in the city of Hershey until around 1:00. Last visit I didn't get to check out the town so we took a drive down Chocolate and Cocoa avenues looking for an interesting place to have lunch. Surprisingly there were not a lot of restaurants we could find so we went with what turned out to easily be the best restaurant of the trip - The Hershey Pantry. Located on Chocolate Ave just north of the factory this little restaurant blew us both away. Nothing fancy by any means, just amazingly tasty and creatively prepared food. They have a screened-in patio where we enjoyed lunch so much we decided to leave HP in time to get back for an 8:30 dinner in the indoor part of the restaurant. For lunch I had a turkey and cranberry sauce sandwich on of all things cinnamon bread - wow it was good! Their breakfasts are supposed to be even better. Seriously this is one of my all time favorite restaurants - definitely worth a stop if you're in the area and looking for something beyond the limited offerings at the park. There is a newer Hampton Inn next door that would provide the perfect food/lodging combination.

 

After lunch we followed the signs downtown which would take us past some of the houses directly overlooking the park. It's hard to imagine what it would be like to have Lightning Racer as a lawn ornament but these houses provide a pretty good idea. I can only hope they get free season passes and a low tax rate. It might be a good area for an enthusiast to retire, but I'm sure it could quite possibly drive a person crazy as well!

 

My goal was to be in the park by 3:00 and it was pushing just that as we climbed into the tram from stop #2 in the parking lot. No question HP is huge, seems much larger than CP and the trams are a real blessing. Using discount coupons given to us by our hotel from the previous night we were through the gates for around $30 a ticket, certainly a reasonable price. The first thing I noticed was the complete lack of any chocolate smells! I wondered how they did it last year where it seemed like a chocolate brownie had been strapped to my nose, but this year it was plain old unflavored air.

 

This was another hot day so we took it slow and headed over to Wildcat which gave a much better ride than last year. Next stop was Lightning Racer which both of us loved so much we immediately got back in line and rode again. This is the best racing coaster I have ever been on by a long shot and imho the star attraction of the park. The only issue is that the Lightning side won every lap making it seem like the race was always fixed. Still what an engineering marvel/masterpiece as well as an amazingly smooth ride with plenty of floater air time and surprising twists and turns. After LR we hit their Whip and it was ok, nowhere near as fast/fun as Kennywood's.

 

We took a look at Roller Soaker but decided to pass as it looked too darn wet! Plus the wait appeared to be close to an hour. I could see getting on first thing in the morning but to get dumped on over and over in the queue just didn't look like the best deal for us at the time. Still a very creative and fun-loving coaster, just need to be in the mood for it.

 

Instead we headed over to Storm Runner, a great coaster with one of the best queues ever. Huge mature trees means you won't be in the sun for more than a minute at a time and will spend most of the wait in the shade. The shade factor is so important to overall ride experience, wish all parks would follow suit. SR provided a great ride but for the first time I encountered a little ear-mashing against the restraints. It's still way too short but we both prefer it to Dragster just because it has so much more to offer. There was an incident in the station where the staff had to call security on a guy that refused to listen to the ride operators. They didn't boot him out but it was at least a 10 minute delay while they dealt with this park "guest" who felt he was special. The issue apparently was he didn't want to wait for a handicapped group to get in front of him, despite the fact some of them were blind! There are so many places to be a jerk, a roller coaster platform/station isn't one of them.

 

We spent our remaining time riding Great Bear and additional laps on SR and LR. Unfortunately we didn't have time for the Comet or Sooperdooperlooper both of which I loved last year. While Kennywood was the favorite park of the trip Hershey is the one I'm most anxious to return to. There is so much to do in the area, the zoo and gardens, the Chocolate World tour, great local restaurants and other interesting nearby towns (I think it was Annville that looked very cool) and of course the park itself which could easily warrant a day and a half visit.

 

Dinner as I already mentioned was back at the Hershey Pantry and it was even better than lunch. The staff there are incredibly friendly and were more than happy to give directions to I-78 which would lead us to our next stop in Allentown.

 

Mark

[Imhotep]

Great TR. Man I loved Hershey!!!!! Ill definately keep the Hershey Pantry in mind next time we make it up to HP