TR Hersheypark In The Dark 10/30

[YoshiFan]

Deciding to take one last trip to a park this season, it was between Dorney, Hershey and Great Adventure. I was just at Dorney 6 weeks ago, I thought Great Adventure would be way too crowded so I decided to go to Hershey.

 

I got to the park a little bit after 2, when the park opened. I went to a ticket booth in Music Box Way (free admission, it was either pay as you go or buy a wristband for unlimited rides for $24, I chose the wristband).

 

I then went to Pioneer Frontier to try to get on Sidewinder. It was closed so I headed to the Trailblazer. 1 train running but the station had about 10 people in it so it really didn't matter. Same ride as always, tame but still fun.

 

Next I headed to Great Bear. Other than the front row, basically every row was a 1 train wait thanks to 2 trains running. I chose row 7. I love that helix after the lift hill but for some reason I didn't enjoy the ride as much as I did last time (my first time riding was in the summer). I think it's because the ride seems so short compared to Talon which I think is now my #1 invert. I still liked the ride a lot and without a wait I got back in line again for another 1 train wait in row 5. After that we did both the antique cars and sports cars. Every time I am at Hershey, the queues for these are full but today for the antique cars no one was in line and for the sports cars only 2 people were in line. Next up was the Kissing Tower which was closed last visit. It was running better than the last time I was on it because it rotated (last time I was on it was 2004 and there was a sign up saying it wasn't able to rotate anymore due to a new program).

 

Some others wanted to play skill games in Minetown, so I took the opportunity to get another Great Bear ride, this time I only waited about 20 seconds!

 

Seeing as we only had a limited time in the park (had to leave by 6:30 p.m.) we decided to go to another section of the box. We then went to Fender Bender in Music Box Way. Like the cars in Minetown, it always seems like these bumper cars have a long wait. We go to the line and there is no one in line at all! It took a while for the ride to start because they needed to get more people on the ride but it wasn't too bad. The cars were really slow though which was kind of dissapointing.

 

Next we went back into Midway America. I saw Wild Mouse had about a 15 minute wait which I didn't feel like waiting in so I skipped it. Wildcat appeared to be running with trains 2/3 full so I figured it was a walk on. It turns out they had the middle 1/3 of each train chained off which turned what would have been a 1 or 2 train wait into a close to 10 minute wait. While in line I heard comments such as "Oh, that section must be closed to balance the train or else the train would tip over." The worst part was other people believed it and got scared. I think it was because they had a limited staff and it was easier for them to not load the full train.

 

Went to the Merry Dip Fun Slides quickly with a 5 minute wait. Not much to say about it other than it's not as fun as the giant slide at Dutch Wonderland or Morey's Piers in Wildwood.

 

Next up was the Whip which was just a wait for the next cycle. Still my favorite flat and a great ride (not sure if I like Hershey's or Dorney's more).

 

Since I was right there, Lightning Racers were next. I chose Lightning because last trip I was on Thunder (and lost). There was only 1 train running on each side which I wasn't expecting but there was only a 2 train wait so it wasn't a big deal. Last time I sat in the front seat but I sat in the middle of the train this time and actually think it's better not to sit in the front. I think you get a better view of the racing if you don't sit in the front and the ride seemed more fun becing able to see the dueling and racing between the 2 trains. My train won, but barely.

 

We then went back into Pioneer Frontier and did the train ride which had a few props for Halloween with ghosts in some of the buildings and a headless horseman on some grass near the tracks. No wait for the ride.

 

We then went to the monorail which was about a 10 minute wait due to them only running 1 train. It was neat to take a night ride on the monorail since I usually don't go on the ride at night.

 

It was almost 6:00 at this point and I still had to get to Comet and Sooperdooperlooper. Comet's line was to the ramp (1/2 full) out of the station. The sign said 30 minutes when queue is full and since there are 5 switchbacks and the ramp, I figured it would be a 5 minute wait. It was really a 10 minute wait, not too bad but I was surprised that since other coasters had such short waits. But I guess it's because Comet is the 1st coaster you see once you walk in Founder's Circle so everyone goes to it first if they don't run to Storm Runner. 2 trains were running thankfully. Unfortunately, the trims were on more than they were during my visit in the summer which slowed down the train during the 2nd half of the ride but I still really like the ride and I still consider it my #1 wooden coaster.

 

I had about 10 minutes to get to Sooperdooperlooper, ride it and meet up in Founder's Circle so luckily Sooperdooperlooper had an empty station except at the front of the train as usual (unless they are running 1 train) and I walked right to the back row for a ride. This was my 1st looping coaster and I still think it's a great ride. I forgot how forcefull the loop was especially after going on Great Bear earlier. I definetly prefer the loop on Sooperdooperlooper.

 

At that point it was time to leave with a quick stop at Chocolate World for the dark ride tour.

 

Overall, I have never seen the park so empty before and I was kind of surprised crowds didn't pick up while I was there considering it's the last day of coasters opearting at the park this year and since it was Halloween weekend, I thought it would be a lot more crowded. I guess people either went to haunted houses/attractions or wanted to go to a park like Dorney or Great Adventure where they actually have Halloween walk throughs or mazes unlike Hershey who just has some minimal Halloween decorations and themeing up.

 

It was a great trip to the park and a great way to finish my coaster season.

[ahecht]

How could you have skipped Storm Runner?

[Hercules]

Exactly what I was thinking. When I went to the park a couple of weeks ago I waited about 20 minutes for it and that was the longest line that I had to get through. Everything else was a walk-on and I didn't think that 20 minutes was bad at all considering I waited 2 hours for it last year.

 

I think that this is an excellent value considering the wristband is less expensive than normal park admission and there are rarely any crowds.

[YoshiFan]

How could you have skipped Storm Runner?

 

I'm still intimidated by the ride. I not sure about the launch and the overall layout looks like a lot. In the past few months I just started to go on more intense rides so I am working my way up to the bigger rides like inverts. Maybe next year I'll be ready for it.

 

 

I think that this is an excellent value considering the wristband is less expensive than normal park admission and there are rarely any crowds.

 

I agree. I'm considering not going at all during the summer next year and maybe just doing Springtime in the Park and going back in October. Even on a weekday in the summer the lines were longer than I expected (45 for Great Bear, 30 for Comet, 20 for Sooperdooperlooper!), so these off season events seem like a great time to go.