Hersheypark 9/3/07 Labor Day

Associated parks:
None

After visitng Hershey on Labor Day in 2004, I thought crowds would be light today. While I'm sure they were light compared to a normal day, they were still more crowded then I expected.

Parking was $8, which seems reasonable compared to $10 at Dorney and $15 at GADV.

The first ride we went to was Resse's Extreme Cup Challenge. A great ride and one of my favorite non coaster rides. Maybe I haven't been on enough interactive dark rides to see why most people don't like it but I thought it was an excellent addition to the park. It's too bad they don't give out free candy like they did last year though.

We went to the Western Chute Out next. It was closed which was disapointing because with it likely leaving this year, I would have liked to have tried the twisting slides.

I have never been on Rollersoaker before because it never looked like it was worth the wait but we decided to wait for it today. It was an hour wait. Overall I don't think it is worth it. The line moves slow because of the slow dispatches with 3 trains dispatching at once and even with 6 trains, I'd hate to see the line on a summer weekend. I was also surprised about the restraints. One side of each row has a larger seat but it's nothing like the larger seat on B&M's. The belt on the larger seat was much shorter and more restrctive that a regular B&M seat (both hyper and invert/floorless). I got it to buckle but saw others turned away. The first drop is very short and you get soaked especially if someone hits the button to blast you with water on the ground. You also go directly under some water fountains. It was a fun ride but it's too low capacity for a park like Hershey.

Since we were already soaked, we went to the Boardwalk next. As soon as I heard the announcement last year I wasn't happy about it and everything I was worried about was true. First the area is way too cramped and even on a lighter crowd day, there were too many people. The wavepool if you can call it that is more like a wading pool. The Tornado and other big slides had an hour wait so we skipped them and East Coast Waterworks is poorly run. First, the top 2 slides were closed then since there are no propoer queues for the other slides, you wait in the structure and this causes people to push and shove to get through and lots of line cutting since there is no formal line. After 1 slide, we left and went back to the rides. Overall I would not go to the Boardwalk again and will stick with Wildwater Kingdom at Dorney.

I was looking forward to trying Wildcat with the new Millenium Flyers. It was a 20 minute wait and not as rough with the PTC's but still a little rougher than I was expecting. I think it's a slightly better ride then it was before but it's still my least favorite wooden coaster in the park.

We skipped Lightning Racers since it had a line past the ramp and at the time, the green side was closed. The Whip although fun, doesn't even compare to the one at Dorney. Still, it's nice to see a park add a Whip with parks removing them.

For some reason I wanted to ride Sidewinder which was a mistake. It was about a 10 minute wait, and the backwards portion was horrible with my head hitting the back of the seat almost constantly and almost gave me a headache.

Next was the ride I have avoided in my past trips but decided after Rock N Rollercoaster I was ready for it. I tried the test seat because I heard although the new restraints on the rockets are more accomodating then the T-Bars, they still turn a lot of people away. I also saw you had to pull 1 inch of slack on the belt. Is that a rule with all the rocket coasters? I got it buckled and pulled about 2 inches of slack so I was able to ride. It was about a 45 minute wait.


We pulled onto the launch track and the launch felt a lot more forceful compared to Rock N Rollercoaster. Each element came so fast it was hard to process it all. I knew the order of the elements from watching POV's and RCT 3 but before I knew it we were hitting the brake run. I liked the ride but I didn't get that "blown away feeling" I got after riding Great Bear or Nitro for the first time. I would have liked to have ridden more than once but couldn't because of the line.

Minetown was next, Coal Cracker was closed and I went to Great Bear while everyone else went to the antique cars. It was a 15 minute wait. I love the helix before the drop and the loop to the immelman was great. It's too bad the ending is so bad and the ride is short but it's still my 2nd favorite steel coaster at the park.

I met up with everyone else and went on the Kissing Tower to get some great views of the park. We walked back to Music Box Way and went on Fender Bender and the monorail. The monorail was only running 1 train which caused the line to be 20 minutes.

Finally, we went into Comet Hollow. Sooperdooperlooper had a 2 train wait. This is my favorite steel coaster at the park because it's just a fun ride. The loop is forceful and I really like the layout of the ride. It's a coaster I could stay on all day. I'm sure Revolution was an awesome ride with just the lap bars since it appears to be a bigger version of Sooperdooperlooper. For the last coaster, we went to Comet. It was about a 20 minute wait (which anyone who goes to Hershey knows is very short for Comet). I chose the last row. From after the first drop, I was out of my seat almost the entire ride. I never got so much air time on a coaster before and my legs hurt after the ride from hitting the buzz bar so much. Still my #1 wooden coaster.

It was 7:45 around this point and with the park and Chocolate World closing in 15 minutes we went to Chocolate World to take the factory tour dark ride. It was a 5 minute wait. I still don't like the new version and prefer the older version without those annoying singing cows.

Overall it was a fun trip and I now have all my credits at Hersheypark.

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