Hersheypark & SFGA'd PTR

[TOPGUN1993]

Our family hadn't been on a real vacation for years until now- I just got back from a six-day trip to the east coast. We visited Hersheypark July 13, Six Flags Great Adventure July 15, and Atlantic City July 16. We left last Sunday morning and arrived in Hershey, Pennsylvania 8 hours later. We purchased Hersheypark tickets at the "Giant" grocery store for a discount.

The next day would start off at 9am at Hershey's Chocolate World, adjacent to the park.

We took a ride on the Chocolate tour ride while we had time.

As of 9am these numbers where high.

Mmm Chocolate

We get inline for opening 5min before the gates open, and find a massive crowd wrapped all the way down the old town street.

Once we get inside the park the first ride we pass is this old looking Jet ride. I however didn't get a chance to ride it.

Our goal was to make it over to Storm Runner as we felt most of the crowd would go to Fahrenheit first. But we had to pass this sign on the way, lol

We rode Storm Runner twice before heading back over to Fahrenheit.

I was impressed with Stormrunner, you get the pit in your stomach much like you do on Dragster but diffidently not as long as dragster. I would consider Stormrunner much like Mysterymine, Maverick, and Dragster combined. I guess....

Next was Fahrenheit, we waited nearly 30min and were almost to the staircase when a train stop at the bottom of the lift. And my dad wanted to get out of line, so not putting up a fight we left the line and not even before we get fully out of the que it reopens...... what luck.

We went and rode the Wildmouse. I really enjoyed it.

Wildcat was next door so the family took a ride on it. It was surly a good ride but nothing "wow" about it really.

Heading down the midway we had to stop and take a ride on a classic flat ride "The Whip"

Lighting Racer is next to the whip and it was currently closed as it was closed all day the day before. There were maintenance workers on the tops of both lift hills. I hoped it would be up and running before the day was over. In the mean time we rode "Merry Derry Dip"........ yeahhh

Then we rode Trailblazer

The sealion show started in 5 min so we watched that.

After the show me and my sister rode Great Bear.

After a 15 or some wait we boarded row #2 and rode.

Rode Kissing Tower to get a nice view of the park and factory. I noticed from atop here that Lighting Racer was open so we tried to head that way.

By now we were all hungry we so we ate at this Texas BBQ place near Trailblazer. We got Ribs and they were by far the worst amusement park food I've ever had. And I love Ribs/BBQ. They were absolutely nasty along with the stale bread and potato's. I had to stop eating and picked up a pulled pork sandwich at another nearby food stand. It too was also not very good. I'm very thankful Kings Island isn't this cheap.... yet

I wasn't looking forward to riding Sidewinder the Vekoma Boomerang. But to much of my surprise I loved it. I couldn't believe it.

Next was Fahrenheit again... We waited 30min and I rode in the front of the 3rd car. Great ride.

[TOPGUN1993]

I noticed there was a Single Rider line and took a quick ride before moving on. (Front of car 2)

We finally made it back to Lighting Racer again and rode Thunder Row 8 and Lighting Row 2. Same with Wildcat it didn't live up to its hype.

My family was getting somewhat tired so we all rode the mini train "Dry Gulch Railroad" This train is themed better than Kings Island's..... (well almost anything is)

From the train you can see how close Trailblazer comes to the ground. If your in the right side of the train you can touch the grass.

Rode "The Claw". Something strange happened while getting off of this ride. The opt released the bars before it stopped spinning.

I've always been a fan of the classic Kings Island Flying Eagles and Hershey had a new model and they were rather suckish.

Reece Cup Extreme Sport challenge was nearby so we rode it. It was different in the fact it had mini hills but so short and very lame.

Skyride was next and had no line.

I got some great angles/photos from this ride.

Great Bear

Took a ride on Comet in the last car. Gotta love the classic buzz bars.

Heading on me and my sister rode Sooperdooperlooper.

For a ride of it's age its still a great deal of fun.

Up the hill and to the right was one of the rides I was most looking forward to "Coal Cracker" the arrow hydroflume. This ride is very similar to Kenton Coves Keelboat Canal at Kings Island before Tomb Raider. And White Water Landing that use to be at Cedar Point before Maverick.

A cool feature on this ride is that there is a small bunny hill at the bottom of the drop, inwhich you get airtime.

You can see the hill here.

The location of this ride is great because you come so close to the near by Looper and Great Bear along with its location atop a hill. We rode twice.

Flying Falcon a "Condor" type ride was near so we rode that. Its a great and really different type of attraction. Its like a 50ft scrambler/troika combo.

One of my Favorite flats.

One more ride on Great Bear would end our wonderful trip to Hersheypark.

 

Check back for day two at Six Flags Great Adventure!!!

[TOPGUN1993]

My Dad and I drove to Jacksonville, New Jersey from Atlantic City on July 15. First after Hersheypark we headed straight east stopping nearby Six Flags Great Adventure to have lunch. We spoke to a friendly security officer in the SFGA'd parking lot and she suggested we go to this little off-the-road location that over-looks the pond to have lunch.

After relaxing for a while along the shore we headed south to Atlantic City.

We arrived at our hotel, "Caesars Palace", soon after. Our hotel was REALLY nice and absolutely huge, it felt like it's (and I'm sure it is) just like the ones in Vegas. We headed to the boardwalk directly next to the hotel and strolled it.

We went out on the Caesars mall pier.

I really like this photo of this seagull for some reason.

Looking across you could see "Steel Pier", another pier along the shore. We would walk over there in a couple of days.

We ate at the Rainforest Cafe, always a fun place to eat.

Although its tough to eat a meal with a huge elephant right next to you.

Finally it's Wednesday and we're ready to travel from Atlantic City to Six Flags. But why go to Six Flags when next door is TOPGUN paintball?

Six Flags Great Adventure is more off the beaten path than I imagined it would of been.

And "You's All" thought Cedar Fair was bad!

First thing we see as we walk up to the admission stations was this sign... Although it's quite a bummer I wasn't at all surprised from what I've read. The entire Hydrolic machine that powers Kingda Ka has to be replaced.

At this park if you bring in "ANY" empty coke can you can get "Buy one admission get one free" on any weekday. So that came down to $25 each for myself and my dad. Not a bad deal at all. While waiting maintenance was checking their skyflyer ride.

We got inside the park at about 11:30 and we decided to head to Nitro first. In order to get there you must first pass by the huge Ferris Wheel which we sadly we didn't have enough time to ride.

Time for Nitro, I was anxious to see how it compare to Diamondback.

With only a staircase wait we quickly took a seat in row #2. The 4 across seating is weird after riding Diamondback 75 times. I'm glad KI went with the "V" shaped seating. As for the ride itself, I was rather let down. The 2nd hill you turn left suddenly and you don't get the airtime feel on that hill and my dad and I both blacked out on the helix before the MCBR. But I must say the bunny drops on Nitro are great compare to Diamondback. That being said, Diamondback is better IMO. Nitro 9.5/10

I went to the nearby Batman the Ride next, but people were leaving the entry plaza saying it was over a hour. So I went to the neighboring Dark Knight indoor coaster.

I really liked the Wild Mouse at Hershey and that is exactly what Dark Knight is with themeing. So I also liked this coaster. I waited only about 15min. The finally brake run makes you jump more than the actual ride! (If you have rode it you will understand) Dark Knight 7.5/10 Skull Mountain was next.

Skull Mountain was a weird ride I must say. The queue is very nice yet very long. However the ride seems smaller than a wild mouse and awfully twisty. Something I noticed on this was when you slow down on the brakes strobes flash and you get a chance to look at the ride structure. But why the heck is a Giant pumpkin doing in the middle of the ride? and scary faces to the right of brake run? (You have only like 3 sec to look at these if you know where to look) Skull Mountain 6/10

After my two laps on Skull Mountain we ate lunch at "Grannys" a indoor chicken eatery.

Black Beard's Mine train was near so we took a lap on it. This ride was much better than the beaverland ride that was at Geauga Lake. Blackbeard 6/10

A quick hello to marvin martian before getting line for the Log Flume.

We ended up waiting 45min to ride.

One of my favorite photos from the trip. The Log flume was better than expected. It was very long and had 3 good drops. The double dip out on the island was surprise, indeed.

Really?! 8 people in a boat. At Kings island the max. is 5

[TOPGUN1993]

Runaway mine train was next. It had only a station wait.

Another cool photo imo. Mine Ride was also a surprise during my visit. I understand why people call it "Mini Magnum" with the airtime it has. Runaway Mine Train 7.5/10

Time for Bizarro!

We waited upward of 1hour to ride Bizarro, the entire que line was full and they only had two trains operating.

MJ video played in the que along with Six Flags commercials. They were fixing the sound speakers while we waited inline so out of know ware the sound would go off and on. In line I bought a $4 lemonade, but it tasted more like water than lemonade.

As for the ride, it was excellent! I realllllly liked it. The fire effects are actually really neat and the ride just is fun to watch. Although I was bummed the onride audio wasn't on. But I only noticed it was off when we returned to the station after our ride. Bizarro 10/10

El Toro was NEXT, I've been really looking forward to this ride from claims its just as good as Voyage.

One hour line, with less shade than Firehawk was uncomfortable.

Although it did proof to be a great spot to get photos.

You come over the TOP of this hill and pretty much ever other one at at least 35 mph.

This ride deserves many photos of it, in this PTR.

Alright, as for the ride.......... It's INSANE!! you get yanked out of your seat over the top of each drop so forcefully than any ride I've rode. A very cool thing happened when we returned after our first ride in the last car (6-2) The row infront of us had no one waiting in the airgate so we rerode, with a 1 hour line! I must say this ride is slightly better than Voyage. I could go on and on how great El Toro is. El Toro 11/10

Rode Rolling Thunder both sides and it was just a average ride. Nothing wow, but you have to remember 15min ago I rode El Toro. I must say it wasn't as bad as people say it is. (Buzz bars make rides cooler) Rolling Thunder 6.5/10

Kinda cool image from Rolling Thunder's station I think.

Heading over to Great American Scream Machine I passed this pressed penny machine... OLD

Thanks for reminding me Six Flags..... El Toro def. made up for Ka being closed, but it would of been neat to compare it to Dragster.

Rode the Parachute ride next to GASM, this ride is very lame from todays standards but back in the day it was big.

As soon as we got off the Parachute ride GASM we spot stuck on the main lift.

At this time the only coasters that I wanted to ride and haven't were Superman, GASM, and Batman-The Ride. So I figured If I rode Superman by the time I got off GASM would be open.

Got some cool photos from superman, I wasn't expecting much from this ride from all the poor reviews I've heard. And it wasn't "wow" like the 2 previous coaster I recently rode. Superman Ultimate Flight 7/10

I waited 45min for Superman and by the the time I got off GASM was still closed. I shot this video of the the train stopped at the MCBR and being released while inline.

By now my dad only wanted to say 45min longer so we could be on the road before night. So we left the boardwalk area near GASM and went to Batman The Ride. On the way these cool stature lady posed.

The line for batman was about 45min so it would be the last ride of the trip. I really liked it, mostly because of the zero G roll and corkscrew. But the que stairs are very annoying to be in. I liked Great Bear just a tad more. While on batman I noticed the kiddie coaster in the loonytoon area of the park vallyed.Batman The Ride 9/10

We headed for the exit but first stopped in a few gift shop on mainstreet and some of you know I "do" like amusement park merch. But even I wouldn't buy the crap Six Flags was selling. They had no variety of anything and all the shirts were rather ugly. I was mainly searching for enamel pins and postcards but couldn't find either. So I decided I would ask the cashier for a plastic bag so I could put some maps in it to carry out of the car. But lone to behold you have to "Buy" something inorder to get a bag. The cashier was being very rude about it. So I just carried my maps and we headed for our hotel.

But lookie hear as we were in the parking lot Great American Scream Machine was open..... Ah well maybe next time, I'm just very thankful I had the chance to visit this park.

 

Thanks for Reading

[DarkKnight]

i like the pics... nice job!

[29yrswithaGApass]

Wow, terrific trip report with some really nice photos! You grabbed a couple of the shots from angles I have never seen before. It looks like you had some great weather.

 

This was surprising to see... that log is so packed!

[Yoshi]

I can't believe how long some of those lines look, especially Bizarro's line and it was a weekday too. I wonder how much worse the lines are on a weekend. It's good for the park of course but seeing those pictures makes me hesistant to visit the park again until after Labor Day.

[nbadude44]

Awesome pictures indeed! Nice to see some actual TR's around here.

[The Master]

Nice trip report, the bbq beef subs at the Texas BBQ place at Hershey are very good but I never had tried the ribs there.