================================
The Big Trip 2001 :
Eastern PA Tour
Hershey / Knoebels / Dorney
June 11-13, 2001
================================
Day 1 :
Hersheypark
Hershey, PA
June 11, 2001
================================
After months of anticipation and planning, the day finally came. Four young, ready-to-ride coaster enthusiasts consisting of myself (Matt Lynch), Joe Cernelli, Jeff Gaddis, and Jason Rollison piled into a car, luggage in tow, and set sail from Uniontown, Pennsylvania en route to Hersheypark, Knoebel's Grove, and Dorney Park in Eastern Pennsylvania. Reservations had been made, money previously set aside was now in our pockets, and our minds were set for some hardcore coaster riding at some of PA's bests.
The trip from Uniontown to Hershey, the first stop on the trip, is about three-and-a-half hours long. For those of you who love details, you'll note that our CD player was blasting everything from Steely Dan to Led Zeppelin to Electric Light Orchestra to Weezer to Eve 6, even a little Garth Brooks. (No Tom Waits or Dylan, Dave. ;))
Since I wasn't the driver and had no hand in the directions, I didn't know we'd be traveling past Harrisburg. I was really caught off-guard when I looked to my left and saw the Capital building. I like that kind of stuff.
A bit later, I saw something else on my left I didn't expect: Great Bear. We had arrived in Hershey and were on our way to the Cocoa Nights Motel, which would be our home later that evening. After checking in, we headed for the park.
We paid a fairly reasonable $6 for parking and took the tram to the park entrance. The operator delivering the spiel was pretty clever, and actually convinced us to check out Chocolate World, which we hit later in the day. "Please look at my roof. It does not move, and it *will* hurt when you hit it."
On our way down to the main gate, a woman in front of us handed us some coupons for $7 off, which lowered the all-day-ride price to $27. As some had suggested to us, we headed right for Midway America, more specifically, Wildcat and Lightning Racer. LR hadn't been running at all from what we saw, so we headed to Wildcat first, which ended up being a walk-on.
Rollison, standing 6'6" and weighing in around 270 lbs. or so, wasn't so sure about whether or not he'd fit. After sitting in the train and trying to buckle the belt, he realized he couldn't. A tad embarrassed, he walked away from the train and waited for the exit.
I was pretty excited about my first GCI coaster, but other than that, I wasn't all that interested. Wildcat's a great coaster, sure, but nothing that really hit home with me.
While on Wildcat, we saw Lightning Racer was operating, and we immediately headed to it when our ride was over. *This* was the ride I was excited about at Hershey. Roll was hesitant about attempting to get on this ride after the incident on Wildcat, but he decided to try it.
The wait was about 4 trains or so. Joe and I lined up for Thunder while Roll and Gaddis were in Lightning's queue. We eyed up the lovely, freaky trains and sat down in. I saw Roll sit down, but after I sat, I couldn't see him anymore. "Prepare to DUEL!" The ride started.
The drop's a lot like Wildcat's, but somehow (probably due to the Millennium Flyer trains) better. I'm really not a laterals fan at all, so I was a little weary about getting knocked around... but dear God, can these things track! It almost felt wrong how smooth this thing was, but man, I loved it.
Naturally, I was looking for Roll and Gaddis in the opposite train on the "near-misses," but I only saw Gaddy. While sitting on the brake run after (winning) the ride, I screamed to Jeff and asked what was up. "No go!" he said.
Roll was waiting for us at the exit where he informed us that the lap bar wouldn't come down far enough to lock. Two coasters attempted, zero ridden. Discontent fell upon the group.
We left Midway America, which I might add is a very nicely kept area, but I'm a huge proponent of shade (which it lacks), and headed towards Sidewinder. Roll decided not to ride, but because he's not a loop fan, not because of the previous incidents.
I'd only been on one boomerang before, Six Flag Geauga Lake's Mind Eraser, and didn't like it, especially the backwards run, but I thought I'd give this one a try. We only had to wait one train, but that was enough to see that Hershians aren't really big fans of the ride. (Both the lack of line and the moans and groans of the exiting riders brought me to that conclusion.) This one seemed a little smoother than SFWoA's, but still extremely uninteresting.
The temperature and humidity was getting up there. That, combined with my black "The Moose is Loose" (hey, I'm a Pittsburgh Penguins fan) t-shirt sent me right to the Ben & Jerry's stand near Sidewinder for a drink. I specifically went there because the line was about 1/4 the size of Taco Bell's...
About ten minutes later, I had my drink. There were 7 people walking around in the small stand, and only one was "serving" the customers. (I use quotes because it was more like giving the customers what they paid for while griping to the other workers about how "swamped" she was with customers.) The discontent grew.
After I had finished my drink and Gaddis had finished his Boardwalk Fries, we started for Trailblazer. I didn't know the layout of the ride, but from what I saw, it looked like it could be really fun. We walked into the station to find another walk-on. Joe, Gaddis, and I all sat down and secured ourselves with no problem, but the lapbar wouldn't fit around Rollison's legs. He left the ride.
The ride was extremely uneventful. From what I remember from my one ride, it's only one helix, a mid-course brake, and a 540-degree helix. I expected it to be a big longer, but what can you do. We met up with Roll at the bottom of the exit ramp.
Four coaster rides for us, zero for Rollison. He was extremely upset over the day's events and said he was contemplating trying to get a refund, which we all agreed was in order.
Since we figured he'd have a better shot at riding Great Bear than anything else in the park, that's where we went. We were all happy to see a test seat waiting at the entrance, but that joy quickly disappeared when we found the seat belt wouldn't reach the buckle on the over-the-shoulder restraint. Ride number 4 he couldn't fit on.
We continued through the queue, but after seeing a long line and one-train operation, we decided to skip it until later. We met up with Roll again and moved to sooperdooperLooper.
At first, I was excited about this little ride. I had never been on a coaster with loops (well, a loop) that didn't have OTSR's before, so this was a new experience. Roll tried this coaster, but the lap bar was nowhere near fitting. He left, disappointed again.
Like I say, I was excited about this new experience. That is, *until* I saw how minimal the restraints were. As we headed up the lift, I started really freaking out, screaming whatever obscenity came to mind. Luckily, the loop was fine and actually quite thrilling. The other two guys didn't really like the ride, but I got a kick out of it. (If the ride DID have OTSR's, it'd be a severe dud.)
At this point, we were tired of the old runaround with Roll and these coasters, and since he was on the tightest budget of all of us on this trip, he decided to go ask for a refund. We headed to Guest Services.
We were cordial with them, and they were more than gracious with us. The girl at the desk said she had to ask a ride supervisor if refunds can be given for the situation, and after a moment on the phone, roll had his $27 back in pocket.
Knowing he wouldn't fit, Rollison decided to skip Comet while we all took a ride. I wasn't expecting this ride to be as rough as it was. I had a sharp pain in my back after the first drop, which wasn't helped by the rest of the ride. It has a nice, decently sized layout, but I didn't feel much air the whole ride.
A lot of people had mentioned in response to my suggestion post that Mamma Ilardo's pizza is some of the best pizza around, and I'd have to agree. We stopped in the building above the concert hall near Great Bear and had a few slices. Good stuff!
From there, we headed back to Midway America to hit Herhsey's last coaster, Wild Mouse. We got Roll to come with us. It was a tight fit (hell, it was tight fit for me, too), but he did fit. I'm not a huge fan of wild mice, and this one was on par with that.
After that, we went for a few re-rides on Wildcat, sooperdooperLooper, and, of course, Lightning Racer.
I had only been on Thunder, so I thought I'd give Lightning a whirl. The wait was minimal, about two or three trains. (The ride only ran one train per side all day.) Thunder was good, but Lightning was GREAT! I don't know how much different each side is if they are at all, but there's something about Lightning that just, in my opinion, makes that ride something to write home about. I rode that side three more times before we decided to head on out. I picked up a Lightning Racer pin, as they didn't have my size (XXL) in the shirt I wanted.
We looked around a few more shops before we left the park for the day. We took the little tour/ride in Chocolate World and got our free sample just before the place closed.
Hersheypark is not a place I plan on going back any time soon. Rollison not fitting on the coasters was, obviously, a huge letdown, but even without that, I just didn't have that much fun at the park. The coasters are great, but the flat rides are less-than-stellar...
Plus, the park is horribly laid out, I think. It's so long from end to end and seems to take years to get from place to place. Maybe it's just big (which it is), but it seems like an awful layout to me.
I asked the guys numerous times, "How can a park this big NOT have some sort of mass transport system to take you from at least one end of the park to another. Well, we figured it out. The place is just LINED with shops and souvenir stalls. Rollison hit the nail on the head when he made the comment that the park seems to be more concerned about selling you chocolate and t-shirts than they are providing you with a good time of riding.
We headed back to the also-much-less-than-stellar Cocoa Nights Motel after seeing what the town of Hershey had to offer (not much, from what we saw.)
Hershey's got some great coasters, but I just didn't like the park.
================================
Coming up next :
Day 2
Knoebel's Grove
================================
-------------
Matt Lynch
Co-Webmaster, Kennywood Boulevard
http://kennywood.coasterbuzz.com
