Hershey Park Candy Lane Sat Nov 28th

[Mrpq]

So just got back from my weekend get away with my girlfriend. Left Friday morning, first stop was the Strausburg Railroad. Always a must on my trip planning when headed to that area. Fun fact, we took their shop tour to see where and how they restore and repair all the steam trains and they had parts from one od Dollywoods steam trains in the shop they where rebuilding.

 

Moving on....

 

Sat morning was spent shopping at the outlets and then we headed over to Hershey. Got there around 430pm, weather was iffy with a chance of rain all day. When we got there it was fine. I didn't really know what to expect heading in as this was my first trip to the park during this event. My gf and I both loved it. The light, the atmosphere was amazing. Well put together in my opinion. Park didn't seem to crowded in my opinion but the lines for the coasters where all over an hour long. They only had one train on the Wild Cat and Super Dooper Looper.

 

Super Dooper Looper.- Line was at most an hour. Team in the station did a great job getting the trains in and out. Not once while I was on line did the train sit there with any kind of dispatch issues. I haven't been on this coaster since they put the new trains on but boy was it smooth. I was extremely impressed.

 

Wild Cat- This end of the park appeared to be dead but the line was just a little past the "30 mins from this point" sign which in turn was actually about an hour and 20 min line (with waiting for the front). Again, team in the station did a great job getting the train in, loaded and back out with no dispatching issues. While waiting in line for the front row and a quick little chat with one of the ride opps. I asked him at what temp will they give the call to close the coasters and he said they decided on 34 degrees and the reason was because the air brakes might start to freeze. Totally understandable but at the same time I know they make an air system anti freeze for semi trucks so I am not sure if they is or isn't already added to the systems as a kind of preventative measure. Also he said this was the first year for coasters being open and that next year they are planning on having more open. I asked him if having the coasters open was in response to Great Adventure and he said he knew of their event but said they had compared Hershey to Dollywood, not really sure how true.

 

Laff Trax- Now this line was long. Had to be in line well over and hour and half. This was my first time riding so I opted to wait it out. This coaster in my opinion had the most "issues" as far as getting trains in and out. It wasn't until you were ready to board that you saw why the line was taking so long. Ride opps seemed to have a real issue with getting people to "fit" in the seat to the point they could dispatch the train. Almost every car that went out had someone that had to be triple checked. Add to that, one of the ride opps dropped the lap bar stick handle from the platform down under the track so they had to use one stick for both unlocking the returning car and check the car that was ready to go out. Now at this point I said to myself are people really getting that big?!? I spoke too soon. AS I myself got in and went to sit down and pull the lap bar down I found the seats to VERY TIGHT. Now I a normal build 28 year old guy and I found it to be a tight squeeze Other then that I thought the ride itself was really fun. Better than expected.

 

Started to rain as we headed out to the factory tour around 930. Besides coaster we went on the sky ride, the whip (always a fav) and the Music Express. Great touch with the holiday music on that ride. I wanted to get rides in on the coasters which I did. Wasn't trying to get on every ride in the park. Overall I thought it was great and deff plan on doing it again. I am interested to see what coasters they have next year.

 

 

[The Master]

I can see trailbrazer and wildmouse being open.

[Yoshi]

Nice report, I hope they have more coasters open next year since it sounds like the few they have open can't handle the crowds.

 

With Laff Trakk, it could be that Maurer made the seats more restrictive than older models of the coaster type after someone was ejected and later died from a coaster that is the exact same design as Laff Trakk in 2010 in Louisiana.

[Mrpq]

Id like to see lightning racers open and maybe gret bear. But i can deff see them adding wild mouse and trailblazer. That or id even be ok with the current coaster but running two trains. Would it really be that bad as far as maintence over the winter to have the e tra trains out longer in the season? The coaster that where closed, their trains where no were to be seen. Only thing i noticed was while on super dooper looper, coming nto the brake run you can see skyrushes cars all apart on the floor behind the fence

[Pineracer]

If both parks have a similar coaster (ex Batman and Great Bear) and one operates this year at GA then Hershey might decide to operate its equivalent next year; oh and I didn't know they haden't operated the coasters in Candy Lane before [maybe because I've been during Regular season when I was about 10 and the weekend prior to the Boardwalk's opening this year]

[Mrpq]

I know great bear had lights and props right smack in what would be the coaster trains path so maybe if they decided to open that next year they would need to rework their lighting displays around that area.