Hersheypark Skyrush - Sunday, May 27th, 2012

It's funny, coming off the ride a friend of mine warned me to enjoy the ride now, as, "those trims will be cranked up to mellow out the airtime within a year".

I'm betting that will be the likelier solution by the park, rather than adding more comfort.

That's a pretty safe bet.

Way to go out on a limb there. ;)

But I don't think the problem is even remotely that Skyrush is too intense of a ride. It's that the restraints are too full of suck.

There's a difference betweena ride being intense (a good thing) and a ride causing unnecessary pain for whatever reason (a bad thing).

Well let me re-phrase that a bit. I'm rarely put off by a little bit of pain on a ride (Magnum is still my favorite coaster at CP). SOB was where I drew the line, but that's about it. ;)

Uh oh.. I recommend getting on this coaster ASAP then, because when people start complaining about forces.. we all know what happens..

Those nasty things called trims .. I wouldn't be surprised if that occurs on Skyrush

John Knotts said:

Well let me re-phrase that a bit. I'm rarely put off by a little bit of pain on a ride (Magnum is still my favorite coaster at CP).

I'll one up ya, and tell you I don't find Magnum painful to begin with. :)

In all seriosuness though, parks aren't in the business of hurting guests. Assuming the complaints are common, something will change.



Jimmy Boy said:

Uh oh.. I recommend getting on this coaster ASAP then, because when people start complaining about forces..

Funny thing is, I haven't seen a single person complain about the forces on this ride.

---

(Is the line here really that subtle?)

The ride already has trims...they don't affect the ride much but they are there.

The biggest problem with the restraints is that the forces push them down even further during the ride. So the answer isn't really trims (even though I joked about it earlier). It's a restraint setting that keeps them in place over the course. As far as padding, something along the lines of the Giovanola soft padded bars work really well.

I'm sure the park is concerned about safety, given the nature of the ride. It really does feel like you're about to die on some of those hills (in a good way). They'll have to strike a balance between safety and comfort.

Still, I recommend people do get out there and ride it for yourselves. It's friggin awesome!

Gee, I wish people would apologize to me for dumping all over me about my posts. But, it's ok. I have tough skin.

As for coaster comfort, almost every rider is going to have an opinion on the restraint system. When Maverick first opened, a lot of people hated the over the shoulder system being painful. I never had a problem with it. People also complain about Mantis, and the Raptor for head banging. Again, I never had a problem with that on either of those coasters, just a little irritation in the crotch while riding Mantis into the brakes...or Iron Wolf...yuck.

But, I will take restraint discomfort over a badly maintained coaster any day. One reason why I never ride Mean Streak at Cedar Point. They should have a complete medical center at the exit to care for the injured on that pile of crap. The only other coaster disasters were at Geauga Lake, as in Raging Wold Bob's and the Villain. (Anyone know what happened to the Villain?)

As for steel coasters, M-Force is very smooth, and has the best trains on any coaster I have been on. My other favorite is Raging Bull.

Lets face it Intamin makes awesome coasters but their restraints suck, the best ones were on the 2ooo coasters but MF is the only one left with those. They totally wrecked SROS/Bizarro at sfne with the new POS ones they installed on those.IMO Phantoms Revenge is the best steel coaster because its got plenty of air and the lapbars play no part in the rides comfort. I have'nt ridden skyrush yet but my question to those who have is, How can their be this awesome ejector air if you are stapled to your seat?

I wasn't stapled. The lap was firm against my legs though, and I was plenty thankful it was. This ride attempted to eject me into New Jersey. ;)

In chatting with a ride op I learned another little trick of the restraint, or when a person is too big for the restraint. On the seatbelt you'll see a stitched line it. Once you buckle the belt to the restraint if you or the ride op can't pull the belt down far enough that the stitched line is visible then you are too big to ride. I didn't personally see anyone get turned away while I was waiting in line.

At Bunky666, were you there yesterday with an ACE visor and Cedar point shirt on? Just curious if that was you. My wife and I weren't far behind, and we went to the front row. We figured we waited that long may as well take a front seat ride in the shortest line possible.

The airtime is really tremendous in both the front and back rows, but the back has much more force. It almost feels as though you could come out of the restraint.

My wife also had a problem with the restraint hurting her thighs. She said she didn't have any bruises, and it didn't ruin the ride for her. I am just wondering if it's something to do with a women's build as opposed to a man?

What about the size of the seats? Painfullness of the restraints (debatable as it is) aside, how accomodating are they? If you can ride the other coasters at Hershey (even if it is in the "big boy" seat of Great Bear), will you be able to ride this?

The seats themselves width wise, reminds me of the ones on Xcelerator. I didn't see anyone told they couldn't ride or struggling to fit.

Well, it's not width wise that I have issue with. Guess I've had too many Hershey bars at the park last summer and at the hockey games at GIANT Center in the winter... little problem closing the front seats on Great Bear and pretty much stapled in to Farenheit because of my belly. No problems on any other coaster (Storm Runner is just a bit more forgiving than the nearly identical Farenheit). I was wondering how the restraints might work (or not work) in that situation.

Coasterfantom, I WAs there Memorial Day, but not with my Cedar Point gear or an acer.

John knotts, is New Jersey where we would ejected to on Skyrush? Was wondering if it would be Jersey or possibly even Delaware. Lol and on those little tiny hills! I couldn't get over it! I thought they were gonna be nothing, and then we shot over that first little bump and I was shocked into semi petrified giggles. Still am raving about those airtime moments two days later.

Rode Skyrush on Tuesday, May 29th.

It did not seem as though the wait and queueing system was as bad as other people had reported; Trains were dispatching every 3 to 4 minutes.

I did however, experience the lap bar issue, and my thighs are still hurting 3 days later.

Although, it did seem as though the 2 seats in the middle of each row provided a "less-painful" experience than the ones on the outside.

The train rides up the first incline incredibly fast, and the ride itself is pretty good overall.

However, there was one awkward time when the restraints failed to hold me in my place, and the g-forces pushed my face into the lap of the guy next to me.

The other rides that I went on at Hersheypark were great and overall, it was a pretty successful trip.

I next intend to head up to rural Pennsylvania in 2 weekends to ride my favorite wooden roller coaster, Phoenix at Knoebels.

-Joe

cupajoe713 said:
Rode Skyrush on Tuesday, May 29th.

However, there was one awkward time when the restraints failed to hold me in my place, and the g-forces pushed my face into the lap of the guy next to me.

-Joe

Ahem...well...lol...*chuckle* yes, that would be quite awkward, but it gave me quite a giggle.

At least it wasn't during the pictures. Explain that one to them as they boot you out of the park. :P

You mentioned about still hurting after a few days...I had been concerned yesterday when I kept getting a weird cramping pain at the exact spot where my thighs got crushed (Thighcrush instead of Skyrush better name?). It finally has gone away now though.

thighcrush...giggle...

cupajoe713 said:

...the restraints failed to hold me in my place, and the g-forces pushed my face into the lap of the guy next to me...

Note to myself: ride Skyrush with Natalie Portman.

kpjb said:

Note to myself: ride Skyrush with Natalie Portman.

I think you have to buy the VIP option for that (he said while checking the available credit on his Visa card).

Carrie J. said:I wasn't really kidding about the idea of using the I305 restraint system for this ride. The forces are that great. The extra support around the body would do wonders to keep it in place around the fast twists and turns.

Do you think there is an issue... at a certain point where the forces become so extreme that they are too much? For example, if we could trade some of the extreme forces on Skyrush and improve the lap bars a bit, would we have a superior ride?

Another way of looking at it: reduce the forces, but have a little more play (and cushion-y padding) in the restraints. Then you have *a little* room to float around and get real air time where you actually leave the seat a bit. I think there is a sweet spot... it seems Intamin simply wants to UP the forces (El Toro, I-305, Skyrush) but then further restrict your movement. Intense? YES! Fun? No... With those extreme forces, you really can't take the chance of giving riders much space to move around. Intamin especially is in no position to take that risk.

After years of playing Roller Coaster Tycoon, I found that it really is possible to have a coaster that has super high intensity, but low excitement. I-305 is the prime example of that (in my experience). It's all intensity, zero excitement (I mean, you don't even have any good views!) Just my 2 cents.