hershey park

Was at hershey for the last day of the coaster season today :( On the way to the parking lot the tram guy letf me welcome the tram to tram stop one and wish everybody a safe trip home from the sweetest place on earth.

I was kinda upset in the park. I can't figure them out. They will run 2 trains on coasters when it is dead, but today their were some line(not very big) but only one train. Heck Storm runner had six employees on scene, a line up the stairs and over the bridge, and they only ran one side whil 4 of the employees just sat around.

They also closed the Great Bear 1/2 hour early. I was hoping to make that coaster the last ride of the season.

I'm sure if they ran both sides of SR, the line wouldn't have reached the top of the stairs that lead onto the platform. I can't imagine the wait was that long.

GB closed over an hour early. I got the next-to-last ride. They were offering people re-rides, if there were openings in your row, or you could score an empty seat somewhere else. I didn't want to be involved in that scramble. Then just as I reached the edge of the platform, I heard them say it was the last ride of the year. :(

I was thinking of heading back to Midway America again for the last ride on LR, but I wasn't looking forward to the long walk, plus the longer walk back to the park entrance.

I was at Hershey on the 21st and I ran into much the same thing. Storm Runner had 1 train running and Great Bear closed half an hour early. (What's up with that?) Everything else had 2 trains running except Sidewinder (duh) and Trailblazer. For some reason the line for Trailblazer even in the middle of the event was absurdly long, rivalling the early lines for Comet and Wildcat (later the Wildcat line became short) -- was it a bunch of coaster-phobics or what? Actually I don't remember if Sooperdooperlooper had more than one train running, heck I don't remember if it even has more than one train, but the line was really short there.

Other puzzlers from that night:

On Lightning Racer, Lightning won every time I saw. I've seen trip reports that said that one was winning much more than the other, and one old TR that even said that Thunder won every time. What's the deal with LR, does one side get sticky or the brakes get fired too much or something? (I *think* I remember a trim brake in there somewhere, but it was really too dark and too fast to look.)

The line for Comet was absurdly long early -- like, immediately after opening! -- and even later in the night when it was shorter it was much, much too slow. (Before I found out how slow it was I had assumed the length was just due to Comet being visually impressive and in a prominent position near the entrance.) I'm know I'm spoiled by Knoebels woody ops, but in my opinion the speed of the Comet crew that night was bordering on incompetent. This was my first time at HP, is it always like that? And the biggie: have they ever said what posessed them to kill the speed for the second half of the ride?

Jim, here are my impressions/opinions, meaning there's nothing scientific about it. Comet is a slow loader because of 1) the seat belts 2) the seat divider 3) the fact that people's asses are fatter now than they were in the 40s when the ride opened.

Put them all together and it takes time to retrieve both sides of the belt, plus at least one person per train fails to latch the belt so they have to open the buzz bars again, and we fatties have to do all that and squeeze into one side of the seat. Personally, I think they can get rid of individual seat belts or the divider without worrying about losing anyone on the ride.

Trailblazer gets a lot of little kids who take time to get settled on the train, and their parents who have a hard time squeezing in, especially if they have long legs. It's probably the first coaster many kids ever rode.

I posted a thread last year about LR, because I observed a big disparity in favor of Lightning. Two weeks ago, I had 6 rides and Lightning won every time, plus each ride I saw waiting in line. Twice it won by a whole train length. Last night when I rode it was Lightning 2, Thunder 1. One time, Thunder was ahead by several seats going into the tunnel, but Lightning still came back to win. Others have noticed it more even, or in favor of Thunder, but I don't know why it seems so different.

The day after PPP, LR was running *perfectly*, meaning that each side was winning about 50% (saw prob 8-10 laps, ride two)....and every race seemed to be near dead-even.

Considering how even the smallest of changes can affect the speed, I'm not surprised that it can be "off-timed" with just a few turns of a wrench (smacks from a hammer) here or there...or wheel replacements, etc.

Actually Hershey is usually much better run than that. Last year I admired the multi-train ops at Halloween time. This year, they cut every chance possible. The line for Comet was down the ramp, back the first que and to the entrance, with only one train running. Great Bear (one train running) CLOSED EARLY!!! (WTF right?) Storm Runner with the line up and over the bridge, and down the steps with only one side going, I was VERY disapointed Sunday.

Here is a thought...

I have not been to HP in the dark since the entire park was open for the event. Last time I was there, Midway America was closed (as it used to be for Springtime in the Park and HP in the Dark). Also, the last time I was there you had the ticket or Wrist Band option.

Now my question is... with the ENTIRE Park open for HP in the Dark, could they be running with the same staff numbers they were running with before (with Midway America Closed) and just stretching that staff a little thin?

OR

Since it is all POP at the front gate, could it be that there is no longer an incentive to have things run efficiently? With the ticket options, they had an incentive to move people through fast to get them to ride more and thus take in more money. Now they have your money up front, and if you are not going to spend any more money if you ride 30 rides than if you ride one ride.

Again, just my mind wandering / wondering.

Gary:

When I was there, they had two trains on Comet but the loading was so slow that the first train would be back and parked on the brake run before the second one got off, every time. The only good thing was that the line for the front was no longer than the line for any other seat, but that was no consolation because I really wanted to try different seats to see if any of them managed to give a decent amount of airtime in spite of the trim brake.

As for Great Bear, I wonder if the closing was due to temperature. There's a note on their website that the coasters may not run below 50 degrees, so we called before we left and they told us that all the coasters were running the weekend before and they expected that all of them would be running that weekend, despite forecasts for low 40s. But I would have thought that the hardware would have warmed up enough from all the running earlier in the night.

SLFAKE:

Their incentive to run sensibly should be the prospect of people visiting more frequently and/or not dumping on them on the Internet :)

GoodBear:

Comet could definitely lose the seatbelts. Phoenix has never ejected anybody and Comet is no Phoenix.

Not even the famed "Schmeck seat" makes Comet run any better...losing that incredibly-bad braking action, THAT would being back some of the yummy Schmeckness...

Word-of-the-day (eyes looking toward Lake Compounce): "Re-Schmeckification"... ;)

I only made it to Hershey once this year. That was back in May. When I rode Comet, IF that break on the 2nd turn was on, it was on very light and the 2nd half of the ride was faster than it has been in years.

Did they start using that break again?

^It was on full power the three times I was there this summer (mid May, late June, mid July.)

we went in Sept. On sat the park was very crowded. The line for lightning racer reached to the entrance. They were running 4 trains on it when we got in line, and just as we were about to get on they pulled 2 of them off. Even though it was getting busier at that point of the day and line was getting even longer...........

Don't get me wrong. I'm not here to bash Hershey Park, just a little constructive criticsm is all. I love Hershey! I am a 2006 and 2007 season pass holder, and usually make it there at least once a week. I just am frustrated cause I dont see the logic of not running the rides to their max if there are people to fill the seats. It's not like I'm arguing for a second train on SooperDooper Looper, I'm not being Rediculous am I?

And they didn't shut down Great Bear because of the Temp. When I was there Oct 15, my last ride at 10:00pm was GB and when I left the park it was 43 degrees F. When I let the park on the 28th it was 47 degrees F and they closed it an hour early???????

I am just disgusted because the HP I came to know and love would never act like this!

Unless things changed later in the season, the reason why Comet was probably full, first thing in the morning, is that it opens early for the Hotel Hershey and Hershey Lodge guests (so even as the day guests trickle in, there is already a line there and some folks just jump right in falsely assuming it's going to get worse later in the day).

I was also dissapointed with the number of trains during the Halloween event this year. I went on the 14th and LR was only running 1 train on each side yet the wait was about 30 minutes. Trailblazer was also only running 1 train and the line was out of the station and slightly down the stairs.

Last year I went on the last day of Hersheypark in the Dark and lines weren't as bad but they were also running 1 train on each side of LR and on Wildcat they had the middle section of the train chained off (but were running 2 trains).

Both of those times SDL was running 2 trains and there were 2 - 10 people waiting in the station at each time. It was nice that it was running 2 trains because I was able to stay on for a few rides in a row but I would have rather seen LR run 2 trains on each side instead.

Unless the park is completely dead I don't see how Great Bear can ever get away with running 1 train. Even last year when the park was mostly empty, with 2 trains running there wasn't more than a 1 - 2 train wait (except for the front) and the trains were being sent out with every row full and even 1 train running that day would have probably made it a 10 minute wait. *** Edited 10/31/2006 8:57:59 PM UTC by YoshiFan***

The ksick in the but on the 28th was that Storm Runner was staffed with more than enought people for both sides to operate. 6 people were there...goofin off while I waited in line!

^Perhaps there was another reason they couldnt run that side (train wasnt functioning properely, something was off with the transfer track, etc.

maybe, but the week before that side was the side they were using, and the other side was closed

Storm Runner also has a tendency to overheat, from what I know, though given the temperatures, that's probably not an issue.

Gary, how long did you actually have to wait for Storm Runner? (I decided against it because the 5 layers of clothing I had on made closing the lapbar on LR an adventure-- I figured SR was surely a no close). I generally waited 35-45 minutes whenever I was there over the summer. I think if they had two trains going, they would eventually have to wait to make sure they kept sending out full trains.