Photo TR - A.J. Does Things at Hersheypark

[A.J.]

Let's get one thing straight - it's a bad idea to try and go to a park Memorial Day weekend. Or, at least, that's what I think. I have planned to take a trip down to Hersheypark for the opening of Skyrush since my student group took a construction tour earlier in the year.

 

Fortunately for me, my family decided to come with me. We stayed at the Hershey Lodge on Friday night, which let me get a ride on Sooperdooperlooper, and three on Lightning Racer!

 

Now, without any sort of "Memorial Day crowd apprehension" -

 

A.J. Does Things at Hersheypark

But what did he do?

 

Being a guest at the Hershey Lodge (or any of the resorts) and purchasing park tickets lets you take advantage of what they call "Sweet Start", which is essentially early admission.

 

They also have free shuttles!

 

Of course, since shuttle buses are vehicles with seats that go pretty fast, you can also get awesome SHUTTLE BUS POV photos!

 

 

After a short trip to the park, I saw an advertisement for the reason I was there...

 

That's right! The single most hyped-up and subsequently backlashed roller coaster of 2012...Skyrush!

 

Look at it - so innocent-looking behind that lovely scenery. However, this roller coaster had taunted me for too long! The Penn State University Choir took a performance trip to Mechanicsburg in March and stopped at Chocolate World for lunch. The coaster was there, layout completed, and I couldn't ride it! Why did the world hate me so much?!?

 

Thankfully, the world was nice to me! When myself and the other resort guests were admitted into the park at 9:00, we pretty much all "rushed" to Skyrush. The ride didn't open until 10:00, but an hour wait would totally be worth it!

 

I know I'm going to hate myself for this, but...doesn't it look INTIMIDATING?!?

 

Naturally, I stayed to the left.

 

Though I did not achieve the coveted title of "first rider on public opening day", I was willing to wait. I ended up waiting for three loads before boarding in the front seat with a group of three that I talked with in the queue line.

 

Of course, at this time, you might expect that I go into excruciating detail about how amazing Skyrush was, like others before me.

 

...

 

OKAY, I WILL! Skyrush completely lives up to all the hype! It is an utterly fantastic roller coaster.

 

Many people compare Skyrush to Intimidator 305 (like my pun). Let me tell you what - Skyrush should not be compared to Intimidator 305 in my opinion. The coaster it should be compared with? El Toro. I believe that Skyrush is essentially the "El Toro" of steel roller coasters.

 

• Reason one? The airtime. Skyrush has the most insane airtime of any roller coaster I have ever ridden, including El Toro. I was essentially shot out of a cannon into the lap restraint on every single airtime hill.
  
• Reason two? The pacing. Much like El Toro, Skyrush holds most of its speed throughout the entire course. A lot of us enthusiasts cried fowl when we saw photos of three small trim brakes placed on the course. To be honest, I did not feel any sort of braking when going over them. It could be that I was having too much fun on Skyrush, but I didn't feel them at all.
  
• Reason three, and the most important? The relentlessness. Much like El Toro, there is very little "middle ground" in the distribution of the forces. You're either plastered into your seat, or you're thrown into the lap restraint.

 

Another thing, Skyrush is the first roller coaster that I've experienced that has a twisting airtime hill. It's a crap-ton of fun. Especially riding in an inside seat!

 

I only have one complaint. Due to the nature of the ride (THE OMFGAIRTIME), the ride operators pretty much staple you to your seat. My body is essentially bones and paper skin (there's some muscle somewhere, I promise), and a stapled restraint means thigh pain. It wasn't much of an issue during the ride - it was in the waiting on the brake run. There were some problems with the second train, so the first train would be waiting on the brake for a while. The stapled restraint was pretty painful after waiting on the brake.

 

But, that's a small complaint! This redhead thinks that Skyrush is the best steel roller coaster in the world!

 

After the ride, I decided to take advantage of that spiffy new path that goes directly from the entrance to the Hollow! Enjoy!

 

 

I also ran into Chris from Keystone Thrills!

 

This is a particularly interesting photo -

 

Classic Comet, restored Sooperdooperlooper, and new Skyrush! A sign of roller coaster progress?

 

Speaking of Sooperdooperlooper, it's running great! I got a ride on it Friday night, and again this morning. I love the new color scheme!

 

 

Now, I'm what you could call a "smart" individual. As much as I love Skyrush, I wasn't willing to wait in the queue again. So, I decided to head to the roller coaster(s) I knew would have the least amount of wait during a busy Memorial Day weekend - Lightning Racer!

 

Of course, being the "moron" that I am, I made a detour -

 

 

Fahrenheit, as usual, was a lot of fun. The wait was a lot shorter for Fahrenheit than a typical summer day, probably because half the park was queueing for Skyrush! I understand the capacity issues that Fahrenheit has. I will totally respect that people dislike Fahrenheit because of its capacity. But, PLEASE, if you think Fahrenheit is NOT a fun ride, I would kindly ask you to re-consider your coaster enthusiasm! It's my favorite roller coaster with inversions, because it's so fun and twisty and wacky!

 

Slowly making my way to Lightning Racer, I made another detour, this time to Wildcat.

 

Look, ma, no queue!

 

Wildcat was a walk-on (Is this typical?). There was a wait for the front, and I was in sort of a hurry, so I went straight to the other end of the train. I had never ridden Wildcat in the back before, so it was a whole new experience!

 

 

Wildcat is another one of those rides that I think is really under-rated. It's a rough-and-tumble wooden coaster, what do you expect? As wooden coasters get more and more smooth with the advent of Intamin plug-and-plays and the new stuff from Rocky Mountain, the rough-and-tumble woodie is getting more and more of a bad reputation. I really like Wildcat!

 

I rode Wildcat once (much like I rode Fahrenheit once), and continued on to my goal.

 

Super-awesome-electric-racing-roller-coaster-of-super-coolness!

 

You're probably going to guess what I'm going to say next -

 

That's right! Walk-on!

 

Between my 45-minute preview on Friday night and a small amount of time today, I rode Lightning Racer a total of eight times - five on Thunder (my preference) and three on Lightning. I got the front row on each once, and the rest of the rides I was in the very back row, much like Wildcat. Lightning Racer actually has some legitimate airtime in the back row on either side! It's great! I still prefer the front seat, though, and I think I always will.

 

Once again, thanks to the the mass of people in the queue for Skyrush, there was another area that was -almost- free of guests - the Boardwalk!

 

If you don't know, the Boardwalk is Hersheypark's park-within-a-park filled with water slides and attractions. It's located smack dab in the middle of the Midway America area. Guests are instructed that swim suits are/aren't permitted in areas around the Boardwalk using clear signage.

 

Obviously, it's themed to, well, a boardwalk.

 

The Boardwalk is home to what is (or not, I'm not sure) the largest water-play structure in the United States, East Coast Waterworks. It's absolutely massive!

 

I love East Coast Waterworks. It may be the kind of person I am (I like to run and jump and play like a child all the time), but there's something about shooting people with water, dumping buckets of water on onlookers, and sliding down body slides. It was even better today because I didn't have to wait an outrageous length of time to go down my favorite slide of the bunch, the purple one.

 

Speaking of buckets -

 

Yeah...

 

Another set of great attractions at the Boardwalk are the Coastline Plunge slides.

 

 

You essentially have a standard modern Proslide tower complex here. There's Vortex, a single- or double-tube bowl; Riptide, a serpentine tube slide; Surge, a serpentine slide that uses the face-to-face WhirlyWheel tubes; and Whirlwind, a Tornado that also uses the WhirlyWheels.

 

Whirlwind is my favorite. It's really short, but it's so much fun going back and forth inside the huge funnel.

 

The queues for the tower slides were typical summer day queues. I was really surprised that there were no queues for tubes! There just weren't that many people there! The last time I was at the Boardwalk (East Coast Bash 2011), my friend and I waited a pretty long time just to get a tube for Whirlwind, and THEN we waited to slide down the slide. Today, the waits for all four slides were not terrible!

 

Unfortunately (?), all at the Boardwalk was not well...

 

Roller Soaker was down! Completely empty, except for one lonely guy sitting on a stool.

 

It was down all day, but they were cycling cars. Thankfully, all the external water effects (cannons, etc) were working, so guests could still come over and get a nice, refreshing blast of cold water on this really hot day.

 

Because of the Friday night preview and getting an early ride on Skyrush, I had done pretty much everything that I had wanted to do by 3PM. I changed back into my normal attire and headed toward the park exit, hoping to possibly sneak in one more attraction before I got tired.

 

No thanks, I didn't want to drive home soaking wet.

 

Eh, Sidewinder is cool with its new trains, but it was also down.

 

Storm Runner is a great ride, but IMO a long wait wasn't worth forty-five seconds.

 

Bingo! Great Bear was down earlier in the day. I was going to come back and give it a go an hour or so later, but I completely forgot! Great Bear was running smooth and loud as usual. I have always liked the hodgepodge of track and color that is Minetown and the Hollow. Skyrush just makes it even better!

 

 

 

So, anyway, to sum up -

• Skyrush should be on every roller coaster enthusiast's bucket list, especially if you live within a day's drive of the park. It really is that good.
  
• However, it can be a bit painful. Perhaps a lap pad redesign?
  
• Lots of rides were down today! Great Bear for a bit, Pirate all day, Roller Soaker all day, Sidewinder all day.
  
• The preview night (3 hours before park closing the day before you use your regular park ticket) is amazing! I highly suggest staying at an area hotel and taking advantage of it!
  
• I really hope the crowds are light at the Boardwalk every day during the summer. It would really encourage new guests to go there and cool off!

 

All in all, going on Memorial Day weekend was NOT as bad of an idea as I thought it would be!

 

Hersheypark certainly has a masterpiece on their hands with Skyrush, and I can't wait to go down to Hersheypark in July and ride it again! If you were even CONSIDERING going to Hersheypark this summer to ride Skyrush, stop considering and go ride it!

 

Thanks for reading!

[australianalex]

Great TR! Its no surprise Skyrush is one of the top steel coasters in the world, I wonder how it'll do in the next poll?

[xVicesAndVirtues]

I'm not going to post my own report since I'm sure everyone in the whole world will post theirs, but I could not agree more.

 

Me and my friends just got to our hotel after a VERY busy day at Hersheypark today, and Skyrush does indeed live up to everything we crossed our fingers for. I absolutely agree on every point you made about it. It's like El Toro's over-Rolling-Thunder hill on steroids on EVERY single hill. Scratch hill, every single time you go up and then come back down, no matter how, you get that INSANE airtime. The drop, too, was incredible. Sitting in the back row, you really get ripped over the edge.

 

Awesome report!

[Fooz]

Wow, the skyrush area looks gorgeous, Great TR!

[ambe_bambe]

I'm really excited to get the chance to visit in August on New Hotness.... Looks like a great park!

[simon8899]

Lots of rides were down today!

 

This fact always amazes me in US parks....

 

Except for parks in Florida and south California: Cant they do their maintenance off-season???

[molemaster43]

My sister was also there Saturday and she didn't like Skyrush. She was mad because she thought it was rough and she greyed out. Of course, I don't believe and if I do go, I'm still hitting it. I was kind of shocked at how many rides were closed, I think it is kind of ridiculous.

[amy_mel]

Wildcat does get a line but not more than down the ramp to the station. They haven't really needed that crazy long queue line since a few seasons after it opened. I'm all for a rough and tumble woodie but Wildcat is one that I just can't come around to. I always end up with a nasty headache. It's good to hear all of the good reports about Skyrush! Wish I could ride this summer but being prego, it's just not happening.

[gisco]

Nice report. Can't wait to check out Skyrush later this Summer.

[BDD27]

Wildcat does get a line but not more than down the ramp to the station. They haven't really needed that crazy long queue line since a few seasons after it opened. I'm all for a rough and tumble woodie but Wildcat is one that I just can't come around to. I always end up with a nasty headache. It's good to hear all of the good reports about Skyrush! Wish I could ride this summer but being prego, it's just not happening.

Actually I was there last week and the line completely filled up the switchbacks, but then again lightning racer had a line to the enterance.