Hershey 5-15-03

An actual TR from me rather than a bunch of random updates! Hershey 5/15/03 It’s been a while since I’ve been to Hershey (3 years or so).Never rode Comet or the Mouse, and LR and RS had been built between the last time I had been and today. I also couldn’t for the life of me remember whether I rode trailblazer. I was pretty sure I had, and put it on my track record, but I wanted to get in a lap just to be sure. Later in the day I also had sudden amnesia about whether I had ridden Sidewinder (which I had) but I also starting doubting that I had for some reason. I was also up to 147, so I was looking to make LR #150. Not a huge milestone, but pretty cool anyway.

Left Princeton at 7:30 headed to Hershey by myself. Classes have been over for a while and this is the first park that isn’t GAdv. in striking distance to open this week. So after getting lost and being stupid, I arrive at the park around 11:00 (was shooting for a 10:00 arrival). I parked next to a Milton Hershey School van so I thought, “I’ll just remember that I parked next to this van.” Oops. Turns out it was physics day and community day (or something) and “bring all your whiny kids to Hershey” day. I guess I’ve just been a little spoiled by the walk-ons at GAdv. all season so far. There were countless countless countless Milton Hershey School vans all over the parking lot. Took me a little time to find my car at the end of the day.

So got into the park for $10 off with my “Methodist church days” coupons. I have no idea what these are, but my friend picked them up from his church and they’re $10 weekday, $8 off weekend, so I used one. You’d think that a Thurs. in May would be pretty barren, but with all the schools there, lines were substantial but still pretty tolerable (again, spoiled by walk-ons all season). So entered the park and was catching the end of the early morning lull. Comet had a full queue -> pass. Great Bear had a pretty full queue -> pass. Went around to Trailblazer and got my confirmation of credit on it. It runs with really small clearances. You can definitely touch grass at the bottom of a lot of the helices. It was actually a pretty fun ride, although some of the middle school girls were screaming their lungs out for no real reason the whole time. Ugh.

Headed towards the back of the park and got a trip on the mouse. I actually really really like this mouse (as far as mice go). It’s pretty fast, has good laterals in a lot of different places and some nice drops. #148.

Headed back to Roller Soaker. My first Setpoint. I actually liked this ride a lot also. Not many (really any) of the water effects were running because it was a bit chilly and there was no one on the ride (literally. I was probably the only person in 5 minutes in either direction to get on). I decided to face backwards to avoid getting sprayed too much. Only two or three people were spraying the guns (which I thought was a really neat touch. A+ to Setpoint for that). I got a little wet, but they weren’t filling my water bucket so I couldn’t retaliate. #149

So it was on to the main course. LR. Never ridden a GCI with Millennium Flyers, so I was pretty impressed with the trains. They were comfy, they ran very smoothly and were overall quite good. Started with the back of Thunder and I must say this ride is awesome! The first two twisting drops are really quite scary and some of the air is quite nice. The duels leave a little to be desired (compared to, say, DD’s) but the racing aspect combined with the dueling was really cool. They were only running single train on each side early (went to double later). #150. Woohoo.

Went and rode Lightning near the front (3 I think). The ride is an entirely different beast! There’s great air over a lot of the hills and I felt like the racing aspect was greatly enhanced being closer to the front of the train. I still haven’t decided whether to count LR as two or as one. They’re individually named tracks, but they’re virtually identical. Eventually got 5 laps total, but I’ll spare the boring details.

Swung by Wildcat. While we were in the station, *someone else* suggested that a cute chick in another row (who had a massive engagement ring on L) join me in the back to save capacity. I wasn’t about to stop her. Had a little conversation on the way up the lift. She was one of the teachers for physics day. The ride was pretty solid. There was one MASSIVE pop of air near the ground towards the end of the ride which had me busting a gut. It was a great ride overall, but it really just made my airtime whore scream for Dash or Phoenix.

Hrm. Also rode Comet, Sidewinder, and Looper uneventfully. Not much interesting to comment on, although the folks at the park were still enthralled by Sidewinder which is weird because it’s got to be pushing 10 years old. Bear was pretty good as well and I totally forgot how weird the layout was coming around over the water. There are some goofy supports back there. I rode in front by hanging out in 2 and waiting for a single to open up in front (actually, I moved up into a threesome in 2 and skipped out of it to join a threesome in 1). There’s also a pretty decent pop of air after the zero-g going into the turn. Not my favorite invert, but very unique and with good intensity.

Didn’t ride claw. The line was pretty long and I just wasn’t interested. I did take a few spins on the new flyers. On a scale of crap to Knoebel’s, these flyers get a D+. They are a Larson? model and run a bit on the fast side preventing pretty much any snapping. I’m no expert but I can definitely snap on Knoebel’s and I wasn’t getting anything on Hershey’s. A little loose tension on the back cable, but never a snap, not even a tiny one.

Left the park around 4:00. I was pretty tired and just wasn’t all that enthralled by anything and since the park closed at 6:00 I wasn’t going to get any night rides on the woodies anyway.

Overall, the staff was nice, the rides were in great shape and the park was very pleasant. I found that I didn’t want to poach rides, not because I was afraid, but because I just didn’t have that “Must ride, must ride” thing going on that I have at six flags. I guess that’s the difference between a family and a corporate park.

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Be polite and ignore the idiots. - rollergator
"It's not a Toomer" - Arnold Schwartzenkoph
*** This post was edited by ApolloAndy 5/17/2003 5:57:04 PM ***

Could you put it into a few paragraphs?

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-Sean Newman

Sorry. Didn't even realize (cut and pasted from word.)

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Be polite and ignore the idiots. - rollergator
"It's not a Toomer" - Arnold Schwartzenkoph

I also noticed how enthralled people were with Sidewinder. The GP digs it. I'd also have to agree with you about the flyers - I wasn't to impressed them.

Did you notice the marks and flag littered around the Trailblazer/Pioneer Frontier area? Something bigs definately coming to HP in '04. ;)

Glad to see you liked mouse. I was working that ride on the day you were there, so i'm glad you enjoyed it as much as you could.

Nice TR. Using my same story when I was kid....

When I was younger, I went to Hersey with my parents. Of course, I was small and couldn't ride anything. But there was one ride I loved, it was the Whip. I rode that bad boy over and over again. Eventually the lady told me I had to get off. I wasn't happy and I complained to my mom. My mom trusted me to ride it, so I did. I don't remember if there was a line or not, but the lady let me ride like eight times before telling me I had to get off. Hey, I was a kid, and it hurts! ;)

Oh, whenever I copy and paste from word, it also puts it in one big paragraph. Annoying. Anywho, nice TR!
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Free Falls on Drop Zone: 5!
Batwing Flights: 7!
Superman: Ride of Steel Airtime-age: 10!

Thanks. Hershey sounds pretty good. I haven't been there for two years so RS is still new to me. I will hopefully get there this season.

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-Sean Newman

Great report Andy. I think the whole thing with Sidewinder has to do with placement, it just is very well done, and very appealing looking, even if not appealing to ride.

My question is, when will parks learn how to run flyers right? KG and PKI have it down, everyone else is lagging.

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"If you make it too smooth, it'll be like sitting in your living room."
-Bill Cobb - Designer, Texas Cyclone