looks like Canyon River Rapids @ Hershey will be gone

Looks like the rumors are true... Canyon River Rapids at Hershey will be no more.

The artwork for their new wave pool and lazy river is now up on their site... and it appears to be in the location of the old River Rapids ride. While they are anouncing this addition with great fan fare, they do not specify which existing attractions of the AMUSEMENT park will have to be ripped out for this expansion of their poorly planned WATER park. Can't really tell from the drawing... but not even too sure about Sidewinder's fate after seeing this expansions artwork.

Also... according to a video on their site, Tidal Force will now be officially part of The Boardwalk... yet isolating Midway America (and Wildcat, Wild Mouse, and Lightning Racer) even more.

And the destruction of the AMUSEMENT park at Hershey continues in favor of the (ill conceived) WATER park.

*** Edited 7/1/2008 4:37:30 PM UTC by SLFAKE***

I too wish the water park area was more on the

fringes of the park, but after visiting the Boardwalk I

have accepted it. I like it and I can't wait until the

lazy river opens. I am sad to see the rapids ride go.

It was/is execellent! GRADV's is a turkey.

Actually, in the podcast video, they clearly say that Tidal Force and Roller Soaker will be officially included in the Boardwalk attractions, bringing the total number of attractions in the Boardwalk to 9.

While I'm not sure I would have put the Boardwalk in that location, it was a successful addition, and pahse two will probably equally as successful.

Oops, my mistake... meant to say "Tidal Force will NOW be officially part..." (not "not be officially part").

My little paranoid mind is working overtime I suppose. However, this past sunday at Hershey Wildcat and Lightning Racer were walkons with the middle of the trains blocked off. Ridership is falling on these two it seems. My consparicy theory brain keeps wondering... how long do these two coasters have before they are sacraficed for yet another expasion of the Boardwalk? (Yeah... I know... "unlikely"... but you never know. Water attractions are popular, and they are cheaper to maintain and run than wooden coasters who's ridership is not what they once were).

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A wave pool and a "lazy river" will replace the Canyon River Rapids in 2009 at Hersheypark in Derry Township.

General Manager Frank O'Connell said at a news conference this morning that the wave pool will have 378,000 gallons of water and a zero-depth entry. The lazy river, called the Intercoastal Waterway, will cover 24,000 square feet.

But it comes at the expense of the popular Canyon River Rapids. O'Connell said park officials know it's a popular ride, but he said, "We feel confident our guests will find the sequel even cooler than the rapids."

It had long been custom to follow a major attraction with a smaller attraction the following year, but this is the third straight year Hersheypark has gone with a big announcement.

2007 brought the Boardwalk water attraction, which park officials have said was largely responsible for a record year of 2.7 million visitors.

This year's new ride is the nearby Fahrenheit, a roller coaster that boasts the steepest drop of any coaster in the United States. Creating it was a two-year process.

For more on this story, see Wednesday's editions of The Patriot-News.

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I think the placement of Lighting Racer was the ill conceived part of all this.

I wouldn't say that... considering that Lightning Racer predates Boardwalk by a few years.

It seems like in their haste to get a waterpark up and running quickly, they abandoned the entire concept of Midway America, of which Wildcat and Lightning Racer were the anchors. If anything, the addition of Roller Soaker was the first bad move. Granted, the Rapids and Tidal Force were there, as was the infrastructure for water attractions, but they should have waited until land for a REAL water park was available. And the proximity to Tidal Force and the Rapids should have nothing to do with it... other parks with major water parks have rapids and shoot-the-Chute type of rides separated from their water parks (Dorney for example).

Said it before, will say it again... Should have waited a year or two for Boardwalk. They added extra parking with the addition of the old golf course... should have moved some of the employee lots adjacent to wildcat and the service entrance to the newly acquired parking and then put a PROPER waterpark where the old lots used to be... with a separate gate so that people do not have to trek the entire length of the park to get to the water attractions, and where they didn't have to tear out already popular attractions to expand.

How many years until what is left of Midway America (including Wildcat and Lightning Racer) is "Geauga-ed" to make way for another waterpark expansion?

I don't think the coasters will go anywhere, but the rides and food carts in between them will. That whole midway seemed temporary to me anyway, no big loss IMO.

It sucks that CRR will be gone.

And those cabanas? Make a few available to people NOT staying at Hershey Resorts, please...

I think everyone saw this comming, another bad move by Hershey with the poorly planned waterpark.

Is Rodeo gone next year too? No mention of it, but I thought this was it's last year as well.

I love the Frontier area, best atmosphere in the park, and Midway America would have been great if they would have added more vintage rides and themed it more like old Hershey Park and less like a state fair.

I hate to think of what else the Boardwalk will absorb. And the fact that it's included with general admission makes it less diserable to me. A small waterpark in the middle of a huge amusement park makes for severe over crowding. I really like seperate addmission waterparks like Water Country USA and Soak City because they don't get overcrowded and are thus more enjoyable.

Another vote that it is a poorly planned water park. It is a shame that amusement parks have been taken over by water parks and upcharge attractions.

The only nice thing about Hershey's crammed in water park is that the VERY wet rides were in the same area and that you could wear your bathing suits on them, including the rapids ride. This is a move of pure cost cutting, as the canyon rapids are still very popular.

This water park should have been built in the parking lot behind wildcat. It would have still been adjacent to the water rides, but also could have had its own entrance and room to grow.

If anything was going to be removed, they should have chosed Tidal Force instead. It is not as family friendly, as popular and already had an incident. *** Edited 7/1/2008 11:43:04 PM UTC by super7****

This move was inevitable. It’s less a "seaquel" and more a correction. And an underwhelming correction at that. The Shore will be only a bit bigger than Dorney’s smaller wave pool… Despite some of the griping over the Boardwalk, the GP seems to be eating what HP is serving up and asking for more. I also wonder what’s next. Midway America, sans the coasters, does seem so temporary.

That is the odd thing, why build a giant wooden coaster in the back corner of the park if your not going to build around it. I would love to hear the story behind this and why they would expand the parking lot and not build into it.

I don't mind the waterpark expansion so much, I think the farthest it will go is to the Boomerang coaster.

Pre-Boardwalk, they obviously had room to play with between Lightning Racer and Roller Soaker. Still, I’d love to have peeked at HP’s master plan, circa 2003-4. I wonder if HERCO wanted to make a big splash for the park’s 100th, and made a quick decision to do Boardwalk. Why not a separate gate indoor/outdoor waterpark resort? Hospitality is HERCO’s sweet spot. Why they didn’t/don’t develop a property to generate 365 days of revenue a year is beyond me.

I believe that they seriously wanted to do a separate gate water park across the street but did land trades with the school to get the golf course, etc. (can't remember details) and lost the land for the water park. Presto, the odd feeling, cramped, and poorly placed Boardwalk is built.

Honestly, I think that's why Lightning Racer is now a weird 'end piece' to Midway America - I don't believe a water park was ever intended for where it is now.

As for the details of this new section, I put this together using an aerial of that part of the park:

http://newsplusnotes.blogspot.com/2008/07/more-on-boardwalk-2.html

Mike

Before Boardwalk was announced I always wished that Zoo America would be moved off-site and let its land be used for a well landscaped and isolated water park.

I wouldn't want to see them mess with Zoo America either, it's a nice compliment to the park, nicer than the waterpark I think. And it's the site of the original HP zoo so it would be a major loss of history if it left or moved.

Ahhh...Zoo America. My guess is it's sacred due to zoning or historical obligation or both. Otherwise, the run of the mill collection of North American wildlife would have given way to something else long ago. Can't be cheap to operate, and it's not that much of a people eater during park operating hours, I don't think. They may do a good school field trip trade in the park's off season, though.

I don't like the idea of the lazy river or wave pool at ALL because I don't WANT to wear a bathing suit. I don't go to water parks, I don't like water slides, and the idea of being forced to wear a bathing suit to get a mid-morning drenching stinks! And I can guarantee NO ONE ELSE wants to see me wear one either! So now my water ride options are: ride Tidal Force which I hate because I had a rib crack on a very similar ride at another park--no, I didn't sue--and don't think I'll ever get on another similar ride, or I can ride Roller Soaker and wait in line for an hour right at the station due to its poor capacity. Sour grapes, I know, but this really does detract from the park at this point. They should continue to get COASTERS, or even more flat rides. That would be the cool thing to do. *sigh*

$16.1 million dollar improvement

http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2008/07/hersheypark_to_close_ride_open.html *** Edited 7/2/2008 11:30:30 AM UTC by NitroFan*** *** Edited 7/2/2008 11:57:42 AM UTC by NitroFan***