Hersheypark 4/22/07 - Short

This past Sunday, my girlfriend's company had their annual picnic at Hershey from 10am-6pm. I expected there to be limited operation due to the park not being open to the public, but I was pleasantly surprised. All coasters were running two trains most of the day, with the exception of Lightning Racer (one each side) early in the morning, and Storm Runner (just the left side) about an hour before closing.

The main thing I wanted to report on is Wildcat's new trains. What a difference! In my opinion, the ride has been improved immensely from the past few seasons. The trains deliver a smoother, more comfortable ride without taking away from the speed or air time. I highly suggest that anyone who was put off by this ride give it a second chance. You won't be disappointed.

I shouldn't really complain about the lines because we didn't really wait more than 20 minutes for anything. The longest wait we had was probably for the Claw, only because people don't understand what a larger seat is. I'm 6'3" and always head right for an end and fit easily. The only other thing that bothered me a bit was the train stacking on Great Bear. It seems like it takes forever for the gates to open once a train arrives, and then each harness is checked twice before dispatch. The stacking was especially evident when waiting for the front, but still wasn't as bad as it could have been because of the lack of people.

Everything else was running great all day. Hersheypark has gone from being one of my favorite local parks to being one of my favorite parks anywhere in the past few years. The day was a great start to my season.

Good to hear about Wildcat. I'm looking forward to riding it again with the new trains. It's already one of my favorite coasters, and the new trains should only make it better.

Hershey is one of the best parks that I've been to. I've been going since I was 4, and it's one of my favorite parks, period. As far as the theme park choices for the Baltimore/DC area, HP & BGE have the market cornered in the quality department.

^Agree thoroughly enjoyed my year in Washington and my one year of BGE and HP SPs (didnt even bother with KD or SFA.) Glad to see Wildcat has been smoothed out, I still say that the cat is better then its neighbor across the midway, because it has more air and lat Gs. With the roughness diminished I suspect more will begin to agree with me :).