Hershey Park (6/23/24)
Associated parks:
Hersheypark, Hershey, Pennsylvania, USA
Yesterday I went solo to Hershey Park despite the ridiculous heat. I arrived around 4 and luckily partly cloudy skies shieled away the sun and a bit of a breeze kept blowing. I hoped to ride Candymonium, try the new trains on Comet (RIP buzz bars), see if I could understand Gen Z thoosies and their love of Skyrush by hoping the new restraints made the ride better, and hop on Wildcat to see what RMC did with it.
As the breeze blew me in, well a breeze that felt as warm as a Dyson hand dryer...., I walked towards Candymonium only to find a 5 minute wait. My hypothesis proved correct as the lines were non-existent in this heat! This would allow for a ton of time for photos.
Woah! I think Candymonium knocked Nitro out of my top 10. The amount of strong sustained floater on the crest down to the valley of each hills blew me away! I love that free fall out of your seat feeling a good B&M hyper provides.
We did sit outside the station for at least five minutes, yet the line was short and the temps were sweltering. Hats off to the ops for working in the heat for so many days. Would've liked less stacking, but I'll give them a break considering the conditions outside.
After the airtime machine of Candymonium, I headed over to The Hollow for Comet and Skyrush. I remember Comet lacks air so I wondered if the trains would improve this despite no more buzz bars. After riding Comet, I still felt the same about it that I did before. Fun old woodie with good lats, yet it lacks airtime pops. I hope they continue to keep the track work just as good, and the new trains are super sharp.
So here came the moment of truth, Skyrush. AirTimeThrills and I shared similar opinions on Skyrush. I never understood the love for it. Sure, there's a couple of moments of stupid ejector, yet the poorly engineered valleys that spam 4Gs+ each and every single time got old. Plus those old restraints truly sucked. As I waited, I wondered why floorless hypers never really caught on. I love the concept as it makes you feel quite free!
Hopping into the train and pulling down the new restraint, my excitement increased. No longer did the restraint rest on your legs yet rather purely against the abdomen. At that point I realized the day of thigh crush was over. I just hoped the constant tightening of the restraints due to poorly engineered valleys wouldn't show up.
Unfortunately, the poorly engineered valleys still mess with the restraints. At least now it gets tighter on the abdomen rather than try to amputate your thighs. Sorry Gen Z, I've tried my best to adore it, but Skyrush is definitely somewhere close to the bottom of the 200+ coasters I've been on. Love what you like and I won't knock you for loving the ride, yet it's truly not for me. Candymonium keeps its crown as the best hyper at Hershey Park.
I grabbed some water after this. Kudos to Hershey Park for rolling out TONS of free water fill stations as well as giving free LARGE cups full of ice and water during this heat, and made the trek towards Wildcat. I saw the line for Farenheit and Storm Runner were short, yet with the heat I'd rather get a new credit rather than wipe myself out for the rest of the evening.
The area and facade for Wildcat's Revenge looked quite good for anything that's not Disney or Universal. Not saying there's amazing theming, yet it's quite dynamic and fun to look at.
Of the RMCs I've been on (NTG, SV, SC, LR, and TC), I tend to like the midsize ones better. Stormchaser sits as my number 1 RMC out of the five I've been on, and Wildcat seemed to have a fun mix of elements.
Entered the line, used the locker, all rides should have these style of lockers!, and walked up into the station. I went for the back and waited with what I assumed were fellow coaster rides as I heard talk of Diamondback and other rides. I chatted with the one sharing I was on Lightning Rod earlier in the month, and that I was extremely excited for Wildcat. He assured me that I would love this due to the variety on this one. I hopped in, pulled down the restraint, and off we went.
The YouTube POV fails to show what this ride truly does. The prelift section rocked and up the lift we went. Not many rides give that El Toro type of feeling of "uh...we're going too fast over the crest of this drop", yet Wildcat does just that. The next minute or so felt absolutely incredible. The barrell rolls felt great, the stall was sweet, but the biggest takeaway comes from THAT wave turn. I'm gonna name it the YEET Wave and I felt the ride tried yeeting me out at 90 degrees! Wildcat's Revenge definitely ranks atop all of the RMCs that I've been on. I wonder how Twisted Timbers will influence that in a couple of weeks?
The rest of the evening was spent getting a stupid big shake at The Choclatier (they're okay...not worth the hype), chowing down on some build your own mac n cheese for dinner at Chocolate World (lots of food for a great value!), and the shooting pictures. It was a fun visit.
Some other notes:
- What flat are they putting in on The Hollow Hillside? Perhaps Hershey is getting a techno bounce!?
- I'm at that point where I don't need to ride everything, especially on a hot day. Sometimes it's just as relaxing and fun to walk around and shoot pictures on my DSLR. My wife and little one didn't come, so no kid credits this trip.
- I wish Hershey's kid areas were more central and/or hand more rides to them. The kid areas are spread apart at the moment, and they feel so sprase.
- Wished I would've stayed a little bit longer as the rainbow lights on Lightning Racer would've made for some great photos.
Here's some additional photos:
I was there 3 years ago and will be there again this Thursday. Looking forward to Wildcat's Revenge, as my last ride on its predecessor was terrible. Also looking forward to the new restraints on Skyrush, although I never really had an issue with the old ones. For what it's worth, I'm Gen X and Skyrush is in my top 5 out of 200+. Comet is a nostalgic favorite for me, although I wish they'd ditch the trims as it would actually have air. It's such a great layout.
Great photos, especially the one of Candymonium showing off all three trains.
Thanks all for the compliments on my photos. I have a couple of albums of Hershey with normal photos, so I figured this time I'd spend time with merging panoramas with block violations.
I tried to get a nice shot of SooperDooperLooper much like my Great Bear loop photo, but the merging of the shots didn't work as well. Maybe next time!
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