Wildcat's Revenge topped off at Hersheypark

Posted | Contributed by Jeff

The pinnacle of the 140-foot tall lift hill of Wildcat’s Revenge was topped off on Monday, April 17. This completes the lift hill structure of the new coaster, which is a steel truss painted black. Rocky Mountain Construction, the designer and manufacturer of the roller coaster, has used a similar lift hill support structure on some of its other coasters.

Read more from WHTM/Harrisburg.

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I'm getting excited. So happy to have an RMC close to home. If you look at the bottom of the lift hill(in the pic below,)you can see they started laying track. They are only a few weeks away from testing. We are waiting for the date for the first to ride with our king size season pass. I'm thinking they'll open it to the public memorial day weekend.

Brent Sullivan's avatar

This is exciting.

We will be there in mid-July... I'm hoping it's not too crowded to get a couple of rides on it.

Brent Sullivan:

We will be there in mid-July... I'm hoping it's not too crowded to get a couple of rides on it.

Good luck with that. I'm a season pass holder and after Sweet Start ends the park is flooded in minutes with hour+ lines in minutes. I heard rumors that "King Size" Season passes have been flying off the shelf like never before because of this new RMC. One site mentioned 90,000+ King Size passes have been sold. I can't verify, but it would not surprise me. There is a "Pass Holder Only" event this Friday from 5-9 pm. The turnout to that event will be a good marker as to how crowded it will be as the weather is supposed to be great, mid-80's and sunny. This is just one of the negatives when you have a great theme park. Everybody wants to be there, and trust me, they are!

Just curious- who are these passholders? Mainly people from central Pa.? Harrisburgians? And do vacation visitors pick up passes for a multi-day visit?
I just know our own Kings Island does a bang-up season pass business. When I enter the park I see so many people swiping passes and not so many with actual tickets. Anecdotal, I know, but it seems like everyone in the Cincy Metro area has a pass.
Last weekend was their season opener and they had a similar passholders day on Friday. I wasn’t able to go but I was certain it would be slammed. I’m checking the webcam it seemed I was wrong, not many were in attendance. The next day, Saturday, was oh my goodness. So busy. Reports had the wait for Racer at an hour.
So maybe your passholder day will be a good day to go.

If history is accurate, this Friday will be packed due to the great weather. Well, I live outside of Baltimore and it is about an hour and a half one way trip for me. Hershey, PA is located in a great position in the state as they draw people from all over that can make a day trip. Locals, like Harrisburg, but Baltimore/Washington, Philadelphia, New York, Pittsburgh are four monster population areas that are not that far away. It's like the perfect storm for a crowded theme park.

Another thing to note, Hershey Park has a few hotels on the property. If you book a stay at their location, you also get pass holder benefits like the "Sweet Start" deal (Enter an hour early.) I mention this because it makes a big deal during the summer months. The "Sweet Start" lines are just as packed and crazy as the general entry ticket an hour later. I would recommend going early in the summer before the summer gets into gear because even "Sweet Start" isn't that sweet.

I think I went about 10 times last year, and 9 of the 10 trips was over by 2pm because I had no desire to stand in 2+ hour lines. I made one magical trip the week before Labor Day, because PA kids went back to school and it was beyond awesome, all rides were walkons (Insider tip!). Hershey is also one of the few park in the region open on Fridays in the spring. You might think "Hey that would be a good day to go." WRONG. Every school in the tri-state area have booked fieldtrips those days. Hundreds of school buses with kids with multi-colored shirts are everywhere :)

Last edited by DoubleMeatTaco,

I’d rather die.
I’m in Columbus and I certainly take advantage of the Platinum Pass. CP is about 2.5 for me and KI is 85 miles straight down 71, so a lot faster. I guess Hershey has a lot of day-trippers, more than I thought. I mistakenly tend to see Hershey Pa as a vacation destination. No reason why they can’t be both, right?

I haven't been to Hershey since pre-COVID, but I remember when park hours were 10-10 that weekdays were very doable. I still haven't made it on Laff Track, but if you knew how to navigate the crowds you could avoid anything over a 15-20 minute wait.

Not counting 2020, everything I have read about the last few years indicates a very crowded park with lines that rival Hollywood Studios. It also looks like park hours are still not the full 10-10 during summer season, which I'm sure doesn't help. That said, I'd love to go back - but I also am in no rush to deal with the monster crowds.

^^^^^Double Meat Taco we are going to the passholder night Friday. It's been a few years since we've done a passholder night. We are curious to see how crowded it is as well.

On my two visits to the park so far this year it's been crowded. Still haven't ridden Candymonium or Storm Runner yet. Last visit showed a two hour wait for Candymonium, and Storm Runner was only running one side and showing 60 minutes. When we got in line it seemed longer than that.

Skyrush and Lightning Racer are the two coasters without long waits and even in the summer we can stop in and get a few laps in.

I really wanted to get out to Hershey this (early) spring, as I have not been to the park during summer for many years. I was hoping this ride would have been ready by at least early May for a good time to go, before peak crowds, but I guess it will have to wait until the season is in full swing. I guess there is always their express passes if it's packed if we make it.

Ride looks pretty good RMC wise, better than a lot of the other medium-sized models. Don't expect to be blown away by it, but it does indeed look fun with some better element flow in there, especially near the end.

Tommytheduck's avatar

Shirley it's just me, but I don't even see a pullout from the first drop constructed yet.

Vater's avatar

Tommytheduck:

I don't even see a pullout from the first drop constructed yet.

https://www.abc27.com/local...tid=Zxz2cZ

Wildcats revenge is finally testing. I'm waiting for the date to be the first to ride as a king-size passholder.

"King size" passholders preview days are May 29-31, 2023. It's opening to the public on Friday, June 2nd, 2023. You have to book a reservation time and each King pass holder gets ONE ride. That kind of sucks, but it was also expected as that was what they did for Candymonium a few years ago. The lines for that coaster are going to be insane this summer. 3-4 hours without Fast Pass wouldn't surprise me.

Tommytheduck's avatar

CP did this for Plat Pass holders with SV and it was great. Considering Gatekeeper and Valravn had 3-4 hr lines on their opening day, this was a great way to help prevent what could easily have been 4-5 hr lines with SV's opening day. We went, got our ride, they provided light snacks and drinks, and got to feel like we were at some sort of special event, which I guess we were, as we'd been waiting a loooong time watching SV be built the year before.

9 days from first cycle to soft open. That’s gotta be some kind of record.

We selected Monday 5/29 at 1230pm to ride. It says that the front row can't be guaranteed. I agree with Doublemeattaco that it'll be 3 to 4 hours all season long just like Candymonium.

It sounds like you guys are telling me that we should pay for the skip-the-line pass at Hershey this summer.

Even without new Wildcat I can't imagine not paying for skip the line at Hershey with the reports of the crowds from the last few years.

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