Kudos to Hershey Park

Made my first visit Hershey Park on 6/4/05 and 6/5/05. Took advantage of the preview deal on the 4th and entered the park at 7:30 PM for free. Thanks to very detailed directions for navigating the park from Impulse-sive, headed straight for Storm Runner. The wait was about an hour because for some reason they were only running one train that day. It was well worth the wait. I'm glad I didn't know much about the ride because I was simply blown away. I think this is the direction Intamin should go and forget the 400 feet monsters.

Next headed to Wildcat. I think this is a very underated woodie. Although it gets a bad rap sometimes for being rough, my rides were fantastic and this coaster probably jumps into my top 3 woodies. The only funny thing about it is I think it gets the award for the worst ride announcement which sound like some senior citizen DJ wannabe. The one thing I couldn't figure out about this ride was the purpose of the small bunny hill coming out of the station--didn't really give a pop--is this just trying to create an illusion with the overhead support at that location?

Next and final ride for the night was multiple rides on Lightning Racer. I loved this coaster, especially the look and feel of the trains. I wish Cedar Fair had trains like these.

Day 2 I was able to get into the park an hour early since I was staying at the Hershey lodge. I was literally the first parton into the park! The staff at Hershey is top notched. I was really surprised by one of the greaters that told us to be sure and drink a lot of fluids since it was going to be very hot that day and told us that we could get free water at any food stand. What a refreshing change from other parks that purposely don't have water fountains and force you to pay $3 and up for a glass of ice with a drop of soft drink.

Although we were able to get into the park early, only the front part of the park was open, so I was able to get multiple rides in on SDL and Comet.

At 9:55 I was lined up at the roped off portion of the park and when they gave the ok, several of us sprinted to Storm Runner. We had to wait until about 10:15 before they openened the queue because they were training new staff. Two trains running this day. The ride was just as great as the day before. I love how Hershey integrated this ride with the rest of the park without disturbing anything!

The rest of the day I rounded out the majority of the remaining rides except I did not get on Roller Soaker because it was temporarily down when I was in that part of the park.

To me, Hershey is the best of all worlds--great rides, good theming, and affordable prices. I enjoyed playing the games (won a Homer and small horse), really liked the dolphin show, and of course, came home with a lot of chocolate. Those new Reese Big Peanut Butter Cups are awesome!

Hershey really is an awesome park. Storm Runner continues to be on of the best and, more importantly, thrilling coasters on the planet. The atmosphere of Hershey is also unlike any other park I've ever been to.

They did have to disturb one ride to put in Storm Runner-the Baloon Race ride-which is now up in Founders Circle. There was a recent article talking about how hard it was to design Storm Runner due to all the measurements having to be exactly on, and the clearance problems. Since you love the park, just remember that it's Hersheypark-all one word. I love the park so much that I actually only stayed for 2 hours recently since I was passing through the area and managed to fit in 13 rides.

I was just there yesterday for about 2 hours, and got to ride everything that I wanted to without much of a wait. I love it when the park is dead like that. I am happy to have Hersheypark as my homepark.

Good to hear some great stuff about the park hope to see you there for my first time in mid July.

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SpecialEd said:

The rest of the day I rounded out the majority of the remaining rides except I did not get on Roller Soaker because it was temporarily down when I was in that part of the park.

To me, Hershey is the best of all worlds--great rides, good theming, and affordable prices. I enjoyed playing the games (won a Homer and small horse), really liked the dolphin show, and of course, came home with a lot of chocolate.

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After CBCon, we headed to Hersheypark the next day, Roller Soaker was down for a bit then it opened, kind of a weird coaster but fun. I don't think the water cannons on the ride were working though so I couldn't see if I was soaking people below.

Came home with a lot of chocolate, that is what it is all about, my buddy bought his wife that 5 lb bar and my goodness it almost didn't fit our his carryon bag flying home, well not to mention we had 3 dozen Dunkin Donuts as well (long story about all the donuts though).

Riding solo, I got to dispatch both buckets of water on Roller Soaker on the same day you were there cfc, and I can say that they were quite operational, as I took out a large group going down the exit ramp and got a runner coming in towards the end of the ride. <VBEG> For a ride I was determined not to enjoy, I sure had a lot of fun on it.

Did you smell chocolate from Sooperdooperlooper and Great Bear?

No. I seem to remember however picking up the scent over in the zoo.

I love Wildcat too! It is near the top of my list also. I am always surprised to hear anyone give Wildcat any attention.

SR is wild. I am impressed by how they fit it in between everything so perfectly, and by how much of a thrill it packs. It's such a great addition to Hersheypark. All over the park last year, people were just standing looking at it.

I hope other parks consider a SR sized coaster when looking at Intimin for a launcher. Enough with these Launch-Tophat-Brakes rides, already. I lost intrest in them this year with my first ride on TTD, but that's another topic.

Hersheypark is all about Chocolate. It's so unique. If M&M Mars had a park, I would buy more of their candy too.

Nice TR.

I'll agree Hershey is a nice park with great landscaping, but I have to disagree with one thing.
The prices. Sure you mean in general, talking about games, food etc.
I'd like to talk about season passes. They are $99.99. Thats more then SF great Adventure. Thats crazy.
Here in Canada we charge 64.99 to get into Canada's Wonderland all season long. Thats Canadian Money, which is worth less then American. PCW hosts 14 coasters as well as lots of flat rides. AND you get into other Paramount parks for free!

Also I was very disapointed in storm runner and would take kingda ka in a second over it

I am disappointed that I missed Storm Runner when I was at HersheyPark two days ago. I was at the park with my partner and her parents, so she and I were on a limited time budget because we knew her parents wouldn't want to stay long. Storm Runner was broken down when we got up to it - I think I heard there was a full train stuck on the track somewhere - and we didn't have time to go back to see if it had been reopened. My home park is SFA so I can go to HP pretty easily, but I am disappointed that we missed it on Friday. I didn't smell chocolate on SooperDooperLooper or Great Bear (I did smell it while driving through the town of Hershey though) but I did finally pick up an "I survived SooperDooperLooper" shirt which I've wanted since I was a kid!

We went to Canada's Wonderland on this trip too. Loved it, but missed Italian Job due to the huge line not being protected from the sun. *** Edited 6/12/2005 11:07:05 PM UTC by Etoile***

^^ But Hersheypark's season pass includes free parking (not like other places where they'll sell you a separate parking pass). It also includes discounts off of merchandise and refreshments purchased in the park. And you get a coupon book with discounts and special offers at other places. I don't think it's such a bad deal.