Hershey's Hundredth

I went to Christmas Candylane this year for the first time and I must say there is a reason to go without the coasters. It's for the atmosphere of the park. The lights, the sounds, the rides that are open, and the shows are still worth the price of admission. Also on the day I was there I wasn't riding much as it was down right COLD but I still enjoyed a few hours in the park before heading over to SweetLights. I even may dare to say my family has a new yearly tradition after this past Christmas Candylane trip.

And yes Gator... SR is SWEEEEEEEEEEEEEET.;) *** Edited 2/5/2007 2:55:12 PM UTC by dragonoffrost***

I have to agree with "dragonoffrost". We took are 2 year old this year and she had a great time. They have really expanded what they offer at Candylane over the last couple of years. The coasters would be a welcome addition to Candylane, but not a necessity. The crowd for that is plenty big enough, they don't need that much more to draw people in.

This park really just gets better and better every year. It was the first park that I went to back in the early 80's and is still one of my favorites.

How is it that part of the track is gauged correctly, but then the train can't go any further and has to be re-gauged? Can someone explain this to me?

It might just be a matter of the trains themselves needing to be broken in and "getting used" to the articulation needed for coasting.

Kinda like a brand new balloon - try blowing it up and you gotta blow pretty hard. Stretch it out a couple times first and it becomes considerably easier.

(just a guess)

Kennywood? They've got the perfect trains on JR and T-Bolt as is....

If anyone should buy Wildcat's PTCs, it should be WA...Cheetah is in need, bigtime!

^As nostalgic and great as it is, I wouldn't be surprised that, in today's litigation and insurrance happy society, the old NAD trains on Thunderbolt days are numbered.

Maybe they're going to retrofit the PTCs for Phantom's Revenge! (umm.. or not..)

Or maybe they're just jumping at the chance for the trains now for a new woodie in the next year or 2... save money by going with "certified pre-owned" instead of outright brand new from the dealer. :)

Thanks for the updates. Hope the Cat speeds up.

^ROFL @ as "ballast".... :)

I'm sure Hershey is also pretty sure it'll save on maintenance...maybe certain... ;)

Why did SLFAKE's post make me suddenly sad... :(

Do they normally do a pull through on woodies? Did they for the new trains?

I see yoshifan is going, but anyone else going to springtime in the park? I'm going to try to get there tomorrow. I thought there was a topic about springtime in the park, but I couldn't find it hence I just added it here. I just want to ride Storm Runner and Great Bear, and wondering who else will be there. Chances are I'll be solo, my first long solo drive to my first solo park visit haha. Just in case, my attire will probably be:
-Knoebels Haunted Mansion shirt
-Wrist band on either wrist (of the slipknot and machine head variety)
-Camo jean shorts
-black boots
-Slipknot cap. lol.
-also an army jacket depending on how I feel. *** Edited 4/5/2007 4:14:17 PM UTC by P18***

^

"army jacket depending how [you] feel"....

If tomorrow is anything like today in sunny central PA, you will probably be wearing it because you will feel COLD! Snow flurries all day long today.

They updated the page for Springtime In the Park:

"Weather permitting. Rides, particularly the roller coasters, may be subject to late openings and/or early closures in the event of unseasonably cold temperatures."

I guess that is good and bad. Bad of course they may not run all day but good that it sounds like they will run the coasters since I was concerned they might not run the coasters at all or even open.

I e-mailed them earlier today before the page was updated and hope that if they do plan to close the coasters they will mention it since it will be disapointing to go up there and not be able to ride any coasters.

I'm still planning on going Sunday if the weather is ok. *** Edited 4/6/2007 4:30:42 AM UTC by YoshiFan***

Plans changed for me, trying for sunday as well!

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YoshiFan said:
They updated the page for Springtime In the Park:

"Weather permitting. Rides, particularly the roller coasters, may be subject to late openings and/or early closures in the event of unseasonably cold temperatures."

I guess that is good and bad. Bad of course they may not run all day but good that it sounds like they will run the coasters since I was concerned they might not run the coasters at all or even open.

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That's the same notice they had up at Halloween, and I emailed them then because I was concerned about it. They said at the time that they expected all the coasters to be open. When I went, Great Bear had a late opening and an early closing. I'm not sure about the rest because it took a while to work my way back to the deeper sections of the park. If I remember rightly I saw Stormrunner at least testing while standing in the initial Great Bear line.

Today, according to Accuweather, it's not expected to reach 40 til around noon due to morning clouds, but then it's supposed to stay well in the 40s until dark. It's supposed to be windy so it'll feel a lot colder than that.

I just want to say Hershey has great customer service, I got this reply back:

"Hello,
Thank you for writing. Based on current weather forecasts we are anticipating that the Great Bear, Flying Falcon, Lightning Racer, and Wildcat are going to be unavailable for parts if not all of the upcoming weekend. Additionally, Comet, sooperdooperLooper, Sidewinder, Storm Runner, Trailblazer, Wild Mouse, Rodeo may also open late and/or close early. To make up for these closures we are going to open the following attractions:

Rolling Rovers
Music Express
Whip
Ferris Wheel
Pony Parade
Granny Bugs
Miniature Train (Availability TBD)
Merry Derry Dip

Hershey Entertainment and Resorts"

Interesting that they anticipated to have Midway America open even though it was not listed. I was looking forward to Great Bear but it's not a big deal though they just changed the forecast to 19 mph winds on Sunday so it could be too cold to even go (at least for me).

I just dropped my own trip report / rant, written offline before I read your message, in the TR forum.

I really don't see what the weather issue with Lightning Racer and Wildcat is supposed to be. Wet track? First, all we had was a few flurries, why not fire it up with one train and shut it down if a problem actually manifested? Cold? Knoebels ran Phoenix in the cold night at Halloween time, *after* PPP, as a charity fundraiser, and it ran fine. It's quite a bit older than those two, in terms of both technology and physical structure.

And oh, Accuweather? They blew it this time. I saw more sun in the morning than the afternoon, and every time the sun would come out it would cloud up 5 minutes later and start snowing. I don't know what the temperature was but it couldn't possibly have been 48.

*** Edited 4/7/2007 2:47:50 PM UTC by Jim S.***

Maybe it's not so much anything to do with the track or trains or brakes as it is that a lot of people are going to avoid riding coasters if the temps are only in the 30's and it's windy. Why bother opening or keeping open a ride all day that might only get a handful of riders here and there?