Hercules

Anyone have positve comments about this ride? I'd like at least on good opinon abput it before riding. I also e-mailed Dorney. They said they're not planning on doing anything about the ride and that they're supposed to be rough.

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Movies and Coasters rock!

It's a wooden coaster...it's supposed to be rough!  I personally love the ride!  It's a massive wooden coaster with an EXCELLENT fan turn over the lake!  It may be short, it may lose some of it's speed, but it is fun!  There is a final surprise drop right at the end, a drop underneath the station, and a fan turn located very high up that makes you feel like you're gonna fall out.  For the smoothest ride, sit in the front.  If you sit in the back, though, yuo're in for a beating!  The only thing I don't liek about it is the brakes on the top of the first drop.  they aren't applied as heavily as Mean Streak's are, but it is there.  I don't care what other people say....I love Hercules!
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Bomb Squad Technician

If you see me running, try and keep up!

A wooden coaster is supposed to be rough? Give me a break! If this is your belief than you obviously haven't ridden a good, well-designed wood coaster. Spend some money and make the trip an hour or so west to Knoebels and ride Twister and Phoenix. Travel south and ride Lightning Racer at HP or Wild One and Roar at SFA. Hercules is simply a bad, rough, boring, painful coaster that needs major retracking or removal.

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Batwing-Bow Down

I can't really say anything positive about Hercules, and I am someone who enjoys pretty much all coasters, especially wooden ones.  I spent 3 hours in the back seat of the Riverside Cyclone in the pouring rain in the early nineties (when Morgan trains were running on the ride) and I found that physical abuse to be enjoyable.  Hercules is NOT enjoyable to me.

The only positive thing that can be said regarding Hercules is its potential to be good.  Keeping in mind that the coaster was never outstanding (even when it opened), it definitely did have a great beginning, with the interesting pre-lift action, fantastic first drop, and high speed turn over the lake.  The rest of the ride was always kinda boring, but could have been made much more fun by creating some true speed hills, or better yet, with a second drop down the hillside.

As it stands, Hercules is just... sad.

I've only had one lap on it, a night ride, but I thought it was OK. Knowing what I know about Mean Streak, I was careful to keep my back off of the seat. I enjoyed it, especially that dive under the station, as I wasn't expecting it! It was different.

Are there a dozen other wood coasters I'd rather ride? Sure, but I didn't think it was all that bad.

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Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com
"From the global village... in the age of communication!"
Watch the grass grow!

Except for the excessive roughness, I liked it.
The run from the station to the base of the lift hill is very fast and wild, and the way it wraps around its self and under the station was fun.

Re-track it (and perhaps reprofile that turn over the lake... I know its a neat feature, but at the speed you hit it?), and you would have a very good coaster on your hands.

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"I wasn't always this cynical, but then I started kindergarden..."

I agree that you need to ride in the front, great view and not rough at all. Somewhat bumpy, but woodies are supposed to be bumpy!! hehehe

I thought it was a nice ride, nothing terribly exciting but it was fun enough and not painful.

Though that trim on the drop is just wrong, should be outlawed.

Anyway I only rode it once, but I liked it.
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Any resemblance to living or
dead people is purely coincidental.

Geez Intamin Fan, calm the frig down!  I'll have you know that I have ridden Lightning Racer, Roar, and many other smooth wooden coasters.  It's just that smooth wooden coasters don't feel like wooden coasters.  Woodies are supposed to be rough....to give you that feeling is the signature of wooden coasters!  Lightning Racer was an excellent ride, and my #2 wooden, and Lightning Racer had it's nice rough spots to tell you that it was wooden.  Hercules is a wooden coaster, and it is therefore meant to be rough.  If a wooden coaster is Intamin or B&M smooth, it doesn't feel right to me.  Now, Intamin has created a new wooden coaster track design to give a nice, smooth ride, and it is currently in use on Collossus at Heide Park...I'm sure that it is an excellent ride, but it wouldn't feel wooden....it'd feel more like a hypercoaster, you know what I mean?
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Bomb Squad Technician

If you see me running, try and keep up!

I was at Dorney a couple weeks ago and made a point to ride at least every coaster once.  I'd have to say that ONCE was one time too many on Hercules.  This ride was nothing but rough, rough, rough, and I didn't enjoy it at all.  I know woodies are supposed to knock you around a bit, but this was one coaster I couldn't wait to get off of.  Even Mean Streak at CP was better.

Hercules is a good ride but dorney needs to give it some major improvments. such as remov the trim break off the top of the lift and redo sertan parts on which the coaster use to tear itself apart and give it new trains maybe more cushion or the type of trains that are on lighting racer at hershey park? im sure they could fix that ride up real nice.it is already a good ride it just needs to be looked at a littel closer then just sticking a trim anywhere they feel like it.oh yea and they really need to run more then 1 train!

In regards to the trim on the top of the first drop...

Was that there when Hercules made its debut in 1989... or what ever year it opened... or was that added later?

Just wondering if the trim was added to keep this coaster from tearing itself apart more than it already is doing. Even with the trim, it hits the turn over the lake at a brutal speed. Would it be better to reprofile the coaster abit over the lake? Give it a turn similar to the first turn around on Hershey's Lightning Racer? This could cut down the speed in the turn and at the same time removed the need for a trim on top of the drop.

Of course, I am no engineer, so this line of thinking could be way off base... just my mind wandering.

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"I wasn't always this cynical, but then I started kindergarden..."

I stand by my statement.Hercules is a poorly-designed coaster. Again compare the large Hercules to the small Phoneix. There's a huge difference in how they ride. Phoneix is pure fun, while Hercules is pure torture. Hercules simply proves that the idea of a large wooden coaster is a failure. If you have to add multiple trims to a ride, then you've destroyed the character and original intent of the ride.

Hercules is my fav coaster. always has been and always will. maybe because it was the first coaster that i ever rode and the fact that is it located in my hometown park. it has a special place in my heart. when the coaster first debuted in 1989 it was truly a marvel. standing at 157 feet high and reaching speeds of oevr 65 miles per hour, the coaster industry had seen nothing of the like in a woodie at the time. Building something of such great proportion and taking such a huge chance, i truly commend dorney  for that. when it first opened it was monumental. it brought in enormous crowds and hype to dorney. this is the coaster that put dorney on the map. prior to herc, all dorney had was a small woodie called thunderhawk, and a compact double looping anton creation called laser. dorney was just a small hometown park w 2 small coasters and a few flat rides. after herc was built, it truly transformed the park. let me first note that anyone that says herc was designed poorly should really listen to what i have to say because they are obvioulsy uneducated about the ride. hercules was designed as a speed terrain coaster. if u follow the tracks course one can see how the ride follows the curvatures of the land it sits on. heck, the 157 ft drop is only achieved because of the hill that the coaster sits on. i find it hard to dismiss herc as a bad coaster because i have ridden this beast when it was in its prime and i know what he is capable of. he doesnt ride like he used to that is for sure.  the ride has and always be rough, it was certainly never a smooth ride. heck, if ya dont like it dont ride it. i personally enjoy rough to smooth. if i want a smooth ride ill ride a steel coaster.  after cedar fair took over the park and after a collision of 2 trains in 94, that is where all the trims come in and simply ruin the ride.  i dont really mind the trim at the top of the hill  because the first drop and turn over the lake will always be an awesome piece of the ride, i find it simply breathtaking. the trim at the top of the 2nd hill simply ruins the end of the ride. the train used to come in up to that 2nd hill so fast then drop under the station so quik then hoist u up in the air into 2 giant turnarounds, it was so mch fun. oh yeah and all those little dips at the end too. the last part of the ride was really fun and fast and full of those moments when ur stomach drops. it was great. i hope dorney does something w this guy, some of us would die to have him back to his origonal state. oh yeah, i hear if ur a member of ace and ur at the park during a convention, they run hercules without the trims! what joy, maybe ill join ace just 4 that. also, if u wanna see awesome detailed pics of hercules' construction, go to www.howstuffworks.com.

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Jeff said:

Are there a dozen other wood coasters I'd rather ride? Sure, but I didn't think it was all that bad.

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I agree Jeff, it wasn't all that bad.  This is what they call "damning with faint praise", LOL.  Seriously, though, Summers-Dinn coasters in general have not aged particularly well.  The layout was great, but the trackwork could use a little retracking and a LOT of grease. 

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Son of Drop Zone - PKI CoasterCamp I Champions!!!

I'm not saying that every wood coaster has to ride like Lightning Racer, but Hercules shakes so bad as to have caused me pain in my chest this summer. The pacing is awful also. Amusements rides are supposed to be fun, not torture devices. I did ride Hercules in 95 when it was better. So what. Talking about how it used to be isn't going to make it better. Retrack it or tear it down.

I rode it in its opening year, and it was much better before the brakes on the first drop. Had alot more power through the whole ride. Now its just the cool first drop(really slowed down,) and the rest of it is pretty boring. It was the only coaster that I didn't reride on my last trip(see trip report) to Dorney.

:i find it hard to dismiss herc as a bad coaster
:because i  have ridden this beast when it was in its
:prime and i know what he is capable of. he doesnt
: ride like he used to that is for sure.  the ride has

So it USED to be good then.  That's very different than what it is NOW.

:a steel coaster.  after cedar fair took over the park
:and after a collision of 2 trains in 94, that is where
:all the trims come in and simply ruin the ride. 

You say it yourself, the ride's been ruined.  It's still your favorite, despite being ruined?  It's one thing to appreciate what it used to be, but kind of baffling you'd still consider it the best NOW.

That said, I didn't think Hercules was THAT bad when I rode it at CoasterCon this year.  I've been on worse, like Rolling Thunder at SFGrAdv.

*** This post was edited by Fierce Pancake on 10/12/2001. ***

Hey Intamin Fan, I agree with you. Hercules was absolutely horrible in my eyes. After riding it,it made me appreciate Raging Wolf Bobs and Mean Streak a little more.
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Dayuum, Your HOT!