Hersheypark - 6/22/23

Day 2 of our road trip had us stopping at Hersheypark. The forecast called for rain most of the day but our plans weren’t very flexible, so we were all in. We arrived right before opening and breezed on in.

A few observations:

• Parking feels like a mile from the park.
• We broke Theme Park 101 rules and hopped on the first ride of Candymonium during a light rain. Great ride but not the best B&M hyper.
• We skipped Fahrenheit as I wasn’t up for the vertical lift and inversions.
• Wildcat’s Revenge was great but as stated by others seemed to be missing something. Still, very much worth the 10 minute wait.
• Laff Track was a fairly decent spinner, which I usually can’t stand. The theming added to the experience. This was tied for our longest wait at 40 minutes.
• The Wild Mouse is exactly as advertised. But again, 5-10 minute wait.
• Lightning Run was out of control fun and not too terribly rough after the first drop. Even better, a walk-on.
• At this point we were getting hungry. The wife and kids grabbed some food from the 1906 Grille. I grabbed a beef brisket meal from the smokehouse. I got the better end of the deal.
• Reese’s Cupfusion was alright but not near the top of my favorite dark ride shooters. It probably didn’t help that either our blasters or the screens weren’t working for a quarter of the ride. With a 40 minute wait we left a bit disappointed.
• Comet was a fun out and back woodie with friction brakes. My daughter even requested to ride again. We waited less than 10 minutes.
• At this point Skyrush opened as the skies cleared. My wife and I hopped in line while the kids rode Comet again. On the surface this looks like a great ride. It turned out to be terrible. During every hill and turn my legs dug into the restraint. I haven’t wanted off a ride that much in a long time. Oh, and that was my 200th coaster.
• Coal Cracker was a nice change of pace from Skyrush. A walk-on to boot.
• The zoo is nothing to write home about but a good break from the rides. The kids enjoyed it. Well, my son at least.
• Trailblazer would have been more enjoyable if I wasn’t stapled in. Walk-on again.
• We had planned on purchasing the Fast Track but held off with the weather forecast. Turns out to have been a great way to save $400!
• Chocolate World was a bit of a let down. I’m not sure exactly what I was expecting but I didn’t find anything I was interested in buying.

It turned out to be a great day with minimal waits. It looked like rain most of the day but only rained for a very short period of time and lightly. We didn’t end up riding Great Bear (long wait), Jolly Rancher Remix (boomerangs suck), Sooperdooperlooper (didn’t open), or Storm Runner (ridden out for the day). Excellent day buoyed by great timing!

We were there on the 15th. Operations seem good from an operator perspective, but terrible from a policy perspective. So many rides just randomly run one train, or are super low capacity (Fahrenheit, Laff Track) and/or have row roped off for VQ (Storm Runner, Fahrenheit). Then you have Lightning Racer which run 4 trains and is way in the back of the park, so I’ve never waited more than a few minutes.

The restraints on Skyrush didn’t feel catastrophic to me. I rode it in its opening season (2012?) and I could not enjoy it at all. This year I got some great rides and would have loved to get a few more laps if I could.

I also thought Wildcats’s Revenge was the 4th best coaster in the park. (Storm Runner, Skyrush, Candymonium). It seemed like it should be a great RMC, but was just kind of…there. Too many inversions, not enough air?

Thanks for the TR. I always enjoy hearing other people’s experiences.

Maybe I had such a bad ride on Skyrush since I was stapled in.

I didn’t see any rides running one train. The only two rides that felt like a drag in operations were Laff Track and Cupfusion. Cupfusion has the slowest dark ride vehicles I have ever seen. It really made me appreciate what Disney and Universal are able to do with design and execution.

Cupfusion would be fun if the lines weren't so long, but due to the very low capacity that's never a thing. I've gone when coasters were a walk-on and Cupfusion was still 60 minutes. The thing is, it replaced another shooter dark ride so they knew what they were getting in to. Don't know why they didn't do something for capacity when they replaced it.

We rarely ride Cupfusion and Laff Trakk because of their capacity, but when we get a chance to ride either without a wait we will. Pre Fast track it wasn't as bad, but now it's terrible.

On Laff Trakk the Fast Track effect wasn’t as noticeable as it was on Cupfusion. It could be that the merge point is better hidden, but the line seemed equally slow in the hall of mirrors as it was outside.

The merge point is just outside right before the hall of mirrors. You're right that line doesn't move that fast. We preferred the outdoor version of that coaster at Waldameer. I'd say I've only ridden that about 5 or 6 times.

Defensive riding(holding onto sidebars of the restraint right at your hips,) prevent the "Thighcrush," on Skyrush. It's a great coaster.

The waits haven't been long for Wildcats Revenge. We were expecting the 180 to 240 minute posted wait time, and so far this season haven't seen it longer than 120 minutes. I've gotten 6 laps so far and 50 minutes was my longest wait so far.

I've been on eight RMCs. I put Wildcats Revenge right on the middle of my list, but there are a few I want to ride again to refresh my memory. 1) Steel Vengeance, 2) Iron Gwazi, 3) Lightning Rod, 4) Storm Chaser, 5)Wildcats Revenge, 6)Outlaw Run 7) Twisted Timbers, 8) Wicked Cyclone.

I love the pacing of Wildcats Revenge. As much as I love Storm Runner and Skyrush after the first lap the Wildcat's Revenge won me over.

Weird. I have:

1) Twisted Timbers, 2) Wicked Cyclone, 3) Twisted Colossus, 4) Outlaw Run, 5) NTG,, 6) Wildcat’s Revenge, 7) Iron Rattler, 8) Railblazer, 9) Joker

We’re pretty opposite…

I've only ridden two--Lightning Rod and Twisted Timbers--but they're both in my top 10 (1st and 9th, respectively). In a list of 165 steel coasters, trying to rank them at all feels like nitpicking when they're that close together. I just remember being blown away by Lightning Rod...maybe a smidgen more than I was blown away by Twisted Timbers.

I have Steel Vengeance>Twisted Colossus>Lightning Rod. But they were all really good.

Every time I read one of these it makes me more and more excited for our first visit in mid-July.

Still trying to decide on Fast Track since we only have one day and I can't count on a rainy forecast to subdue the crowds. :)

Budget for it but don’t buy it until you see what the crowds are like that day. If you don’t spend it then you have more for chocolate!

If you can swing preview night, you can get a lot done and with appropriate planning, do fine without Fast Track.

The things to look out for are Fahrenheit and Laff Trak which both have atrocious capacity and random single train operations on Comet or Skyrush or some other ride.