Hersheypark 10/25/09

I haven't seen any TRs from Hersheypark in the Dark yet. This could possibly be because it's been cold and rainy every night it's been scheduled this year! Since yesterday was the first good day, I went for part of the day. It was after 3 til I got in, partly due to endless road work.

I had checked the closed-rides list on http://mobile.hersheypark.com as late as noon and they had everything listed as open. But when I got to the park, I saw that they had Stormrunner posted as closed. So instead of making that my first stop, I went to Great Bear. The line wasn't even out to the switchbacks in front of the station, and proved to be only about 15 minutes long for anything but the front seat. (The front seat queue, as usual, had about 10 cycles worth of people in it.) They weren't stacking trains as bad as usual, so the line stayed the same size and I took a second ride. I just don't get why people say this ride is boring. It's not tightly-wound like other B&Ms, but the openness works so well with the terrain.

Since Stormrunner was closed, the next stop, after a quick bumper-car ride (wait time 1 cycle) was Fahrenheit, which I had planned on skipping because it always has a huge line. This time the front switchbacks were only about half filled. I didn't time it, but I heard someone say they thought it was about 45 minutes. It didn't seem quite that bad, but maybe it was because it was the first time I've been in Fahrenheit's line when it wasn't unbearably hot and humid. Someone was smoking in line though, and nobody said anything. It was also the first time that I didn't notice any long pauses between dispatches. They were only running two trains though, in fact the third train wasn't even in the station. Is it out for maintenance already? The ride itself was typical. It still rattles like crazy, but since for once my brain wasn't dehydrated I didn't mind the rattling this time.

Next was Wildcat. The line was only down the final ramp into the station, so the wait wasn't too bad. The track had obviously just been greased, and the ride was the fastest I've had in a long time. Even the roll-around into the lift was flying, and took the train a long way up before it caught the chain in a way I normally only see on Twister. The shaking was tolerable for a wood fan, so I had to take a second ride.

While I was in the station waiting for my first ride, someone shot a front-seat video in full view of the operators. They weren't really paying attention, but I don't know how they could've missed it.

On to the mouse next. Again a shorter line than normal. A little more braking than normal too though.

From the mouse I went to Lightning Racer. The line was down about two ramps because they were only using one train per side, but it still moved decently. At first Lightning was winning as usual, but then Thunder got into a winning streak the likes of which I've never seen before.

After a few rides on LR, it was time to decide how to close out not just the night, but my year. Stormrunner never opened, so maybe Great Bear? But I didn't really want to walk up the hill. But what's this? There's half an hour left, but people are leaving in droves. Hmmm, maybe check Fahrenheit's line?

It turned out to be only through the tapered switchbacks at the bottom of the stairs. So not only was it my shortest Fahrenheit wait ever, but also my first night ride. Going up the lift into a starry sky was a very cool experience!

I can't believe how long the front seat line always is for Great Bear. At Dorney and Great Adventure the front seat line for their inverts are usually an extra 2 - 3 trains. I guess maybe because they built such a long front seat line for Great Bear people fill in unlike other stations where the front seat row line isn't that much longer than the length of the spaces for the other rows.

Lightning Racers with only 1 train running is horrible. If the line was down the 2nd ramp that had to been at least a 30 minute wait right?

Were they at least running full trains on LR and Wildcat? I've noticed in previous years, that even if LR is running only one train per side, it's still 48 people per dispatch, so the waits aren't that long.

Yikes, sorry about the run-on lines, I had pasted the text in. I think I fixed them all.

Yoshi, LR was nowhere near 30 minutes, maybe I'm remembering where the line was wrong, maybe it was only one ramp, or maybe we're counting the ramp sections differently. Also they were maybe a little more efficient on dispatches than is normal for Hershey.

RGB, they had two trains on Wildcat, and they were using all the rows on both it and LR. As slow as things got as the night went on (the reverse of a normal night) they probably wouldn't have had a full train on LR if they were using both trains, but it still just doesn't seem right to see that ride with a line, no matter how long the queue structure is. (I wonder why they don't knock down the cattle pen to the left of the entrance and put something else there.)

(I wonder why they don't knock down the cattle pen to the left of the entrance and put something else there.)

[sarcasm][sarcasm]

They will probably remove it and use it for yet another cramped attraction for their ill conceived and poorly excucted Boardwalk [/sarcasm]

I said that here several times. A "classic" flat ride would be a good fit for that area. Even better, the station for some kind of people moving ride. It's a long walk from Lightning Racer to the Music Box Theatre!

^Oompa-Loompa powered boat ride... ;) :)

^ Wrong chocolate company, but wouldn't it be cool if you would tour Chocolate World by an Oompa-Loompa powered boat?

OR a new water based dark ride... you board an Oompa Loompa powered boat (or, so HERCO won't have to worry about licensing agreements, any type of boat), and go into a dark jungle themed type of ride named "In Search of The Lost Krakel" (aside from the little ones in the bags of Minatures, what the heck ever happened to Krakel bars?)

Hmmm a chocolate themed dark ride.... Lets add in 3 animatronic cows while we are at it. Even better lets put it outside the park so you can go through even without admission to the park.

Sounds like a great idea. Someone should tell Hershey.

Dave, would that be Hershey Foods Co. or Hershey Entertainment and Recreation Co. you'd be telling? That's part of the confusion about the whole park comples. Chocolate World is operated by Hershey Foods, the publicly owned candy maker. The park, stadium and arena -- and the hockey team too-- are owned by HERCO, which is a private company. (Fake, feel free to correct me on any of this.)

Yet, the life-sized Reesie Cup and Hershey's Kiss roam the park freely. And Chocolate World sells park merchandise. The humorous part is when Hershey Foods announces they're opening a new plant somewhere in the world or laying off workers here, someone will call for a boycott of the park to drive "them" out of business.

Or maybe I wasted a lot of typing here, and Dave meant holding a seance to channel Milton himself.