The Master

Some good news for the Skyride, I saw it test running yesterday. Hopefully that means it will reopen soon.

With cashless payment, companies, financial institutions, and even the government and law enforcement can collect more data and personal infomation about customers which is not an entirely good thing.

I haven't bought a SP for Hershey for a couple of years because their operations have really declined. Many SBNO rides, poor food service, reduced ride capacity, slow dispatches, long lines for even low tier flat rides, overcrowded restrooms, and a woefully undersized waterpark.

More mass means more momentum to overcome.

The ramada that used to be at Houdini looked similar to this one. Most are usually flat but some are peaked like Houdini's. All are open roofs, basically exposed rafters that are not decked and shingled. This year the park changed the ramada to a solid roof with shingles for the VIP conversion. Overall its a strange change.

Houdini's queue used to have a ramada, a sun shade structure over it's rarely used overflow queue. This year the park has converted that ramada to a solid roof structure and turned the former overflow queue into a VIP garden lounge along with rerouting Houdini's queue.

The Houdini fountain is still in place and is running water, just the walkway has been rerouted away from it and a hedge blocks guest access to it. This is why I am thinking the Houdini walkway rerouting away from its fountain and the Batman fountain removal are connected. Since they are keeping the Houdini fountain I don't its a cost cutting move but maybe a safety move to prevent drownings? Both are/were located in more secluded spots of the park. Either way its still sad to see decorative features like fountains be removed or walkways rerouted in more boring paths.

The smoke really kept crowds low today at the park. Many of the school trips were cancelled which caused the low attendance today. Moreover, I saw they are doing strange changes to Houdini's queue. They have converted the old overflow queue under the ramada into a VIP lounge and took ouf the old pathway by the fountain which is still operating. Between that and removing the fountain in Batman's queue, I wonder if this is some new safety move?

Riding the Wildwood tram cars is fun.

Its classic doublespeak.

Sadly I am not surprised by this move. I am kind of surprised they didn't announced thevskyride is closed for good along with the parachutes, but it may be coming. Hate to say it but this has been a poor year so far.

Besides the skyride seemingly to remain closed for awhile, the park has several other issues going on. Nitro is frequently breaking down and line cutting is getting bad. Last trip I had 3 incidences of line cutting at Nitro, Skyscreamer, and Kingda Ka. In Kingda Ka's case, people were line cutting by pushing people in front of them out of the way in the station in front of employees who did nothing about it. Sadly marijuana use is becoming increasingly common in the parking lot, although this problem is partly NJ's fault. Still its upsetting to see a pot tailgate party in the parking lot. Two trips ago saw a group of people in a large pickup bed and in a hatchback parked next to it getting high. The truck may not have even been their's.

I would not be surprised if the skyride is quietly being mothballed.

The sign in front of the skyride has been changed. The new sign says nothing about the skyride opening Memorial weekend now.

Last couple of years HH has dangerously overinflated their single person inner tubes for their water slides. They are so overinflated that they drag on the sides of the slides causing sudden violent spins and stoppages in the slides which is quite dangerous. Why would any park overinflate their tubes to such an insane level? Even more bizarre is that the park infllates its lazy river tubes to a normal level. At any rate, be very careful on HH's single person tube slides and try to get lessor inflated tubes to reduce drag. Overinflated tubes can be just as bad as underinfllated tubes.

I was referring to the build a bear workshop. I don't know if build a bear is faster with plush toy purchasing than regular toy stores or park gift shops as I never been in one. I assumed it would be slower as customers must choose parts and assemble their plush toy for purchase as opposed to just buying a preassembled plush toy off the shelf. Its similar to going to a theme park just to play video games in a arcade which again can be done at most malls for cheaper.

Why pay parking and admission fees for something you can do at a mall? Especially eince it takes time away from rides, the main point to be at a amusment park instead of someplace else like a mall.

GADV has removed the fountain from the city park section of the queue. The park loves deleting theming from this coaster.

The park is also adding a Build a Bear workshop near the park exit which is weird.

Eww, bugman tech.

Here is a picture from 1999 showing the main ride room lacking the table with the cystal ball on the exit side of the platform. The ride always did have the gargoyes over the doorways, but the posters and furniture behind the pews are not original from 1999, they were added in 2000. In fact the one Houdini poster on a stand in the backcorner is not installed in this 1999 picture.

The first version was more simple and less sensical. Why would Houdini turn bad? However, I do miss the giant Houdini image appearing in the skylight and the old time music for the preshow film. The skylight image of Houdini was the same as the fireplace image that is still in the preshow. There are probably mors details I am not remembering. I have not been to SFNE but it sounds like their version is similar to the early version at GADV's.

For its first season of operation, Houdini had a different theme than it currently does. Its was changed to its current them in the attraction's second season. I wonder why it was changed? The first theme was still about Houdini but darker and more sinister. Perhaps his estate complained about it? The early version lacked Margery in the preshow, instead it played old time piano music thst was in sync with the actions of the characters in the preshow film. After the film breaks, all the spooky gags started up after the film breaks as in the curent version. The main ride room back then lacked the prop furniture behind the pews by the windows, the Houdini posters, and the table stand with the ball containing Houdini's head. There was also no narration from Houdini during the ride. However, a giant image of Houdini, the same one that appears over the preshow fireplace would appear in the skylight over the riders. It would then change into a negative image of Houdini with glowing green eyes and gave out a sinister laugh. When the ride ended as you exited you could hear Houdini faintly yell no, noo.

People these days seem so wimpy about these kind of incidents. Its just a machine that burned down.

Nitro was closed down again today, 04,23,23.