SlickMittens Posted July 17, 2018 Report Share Posted July 17, 2018 (edited) Hi all! On Friday on my way out to Pittsburgh for a wedding, my wife and I went to Hersheypark! It was the first time either of us had been there since we were probably 7-8 coincidentally (now 31), so it was our first opportunity to really experience what the park has to offer! Overall, it was a beautiful but hot day. Lines were short, with the longest we waited for anything probably 15-20 minutes. That was a pleasant surprise as we expected larger crowds being a summer Friday. Everyone seemed to be in the waterpark because of the heat! Our gain! Below are my impressions for each ride we rode, roughly in the order we rode them! Comet: Loved it! For a ride built in the 40s, it was fairly smooth, had good airtime, and was just a fun ride. love the open feeling of not being stapled in like modern coasters Skyrush: HOLY CRAP! Speaking of being stapled in, it's a good thing that they really lock you down on this one because it was absolutely relentless. I read some previous trip reports saying how wild this ride is, but it doesn't really prep you for it. You shoot up the lift hill, slow down as you crest it, and then once you head down the 1st drop, it's pedal to the metal until you're done. The banked curves, the airtime hills, the headchopper on the track above you, all excellent. Bonus points for loosening the restraints up a little on the brake run. To quote a certain nerf herder, aside from the first drop, she may not look like much, but she's got it where it counts! SooperDooperLooper: I find it nice that HP has some rides that serve the "smaller but not kiddie" coaster collection. It is good for younger riders to have those "gateway coasters" if you will. This definitely falls into that category. Nothing special, its one trick being the loop with only a lap bar, but its a perfectly good entry level coaster! EDIT: Forgot the Coal Cracker here. Fun flume ride, I liked the little bunny hop and the end of the drop. And my wife got wetter than I did, so that's always a good laugh. Great Bear: Fun ride! I like it more than the Batman inverts as a point of comparison. The two in-line twists were great, and I liked how it starts with a helix before the first drop. I will say in general, inverts are getting a little too forceful for me. Takes a bit of time to recover from those types of coasters! We had lunch after to reset ourselves haha. Hershey drop tower: Loved this drop tower. It was awesome because it launches you up first to get that sensation, and after it bounces around a bit, it then slowly climbs to the top and sits there for what feels like an eternity before giving you a nice freefall. Really enjoyed the combination of the two in 1 ride, I know we have Zumanjaro, but I don't think an additional tower like this would be overkill in the slightest! Monorail: Nice birds-eye view of some of the park and the zoo. Storm Runner: Amazing. Rode it in the front, loved the launch, and loved the layout beyond it. Yeah, it's short, but I would trade the height of Kingda Ka for the extra layout and elements of Storm Runner in a heartbeat. Very fun, probably my 2nd favorite after Skyrush. Laff Track: Fun spinning coaster, loved the halfpipe element shortly after the initial drop. We didn't spin too much, my wife and I are very normal sized humans, but we were with two smaller teenage girls on this ride, so I think the weight distribution led to us taking most of the trip backwards. Still fun though! Lightning Racer: I rode both sides, they didn't feel different enough to warrant any separate analysis. Overall I enjoyed it, was fairly smooth, nice banked turns, and the racing element was fun. Won 1, lost 1. Wildcat: Least favorite rollercoaster of the day. The layout seemed promising, but it was ROUGH! My back was feeling it for a little bit after that ride, got bumped around like crazy, coming out of every turn was very rough and threw my body around. This would probably be a sweet coaster to get the RMC treatment as it does have a cool, twisting layout with lots of over/underpasses which could be cool barrel roll opportunities. Fahrenheit: The lift and the first drop were the highlights...after that it was just see how many times it can flip you over in 20 seconds. Mission accomplished haha Reese's Extreme Cup Challenge: Always good to have a dark ride, even better when it's one that you can shoot stuff and keep score. This one felt low budget though. It was hard to see where you were hitting as the red laser circles seemed inconsistent, and the animatronics of the two hosts were creepy haha. Felt cheesy. Rumor has it it's getting revamped though for next year? Maybe this commentary will be for naught! We ended the day with a trip to Chocolate World for a Tour and a Chocolate Peanut Butter Milkshake, which was delicious! Then into our car again for the longest ride of the day, 3 hours and change to Pittsburgh. Hersheypark was very cool in my eyes. A nice mix of coasters, the available waterpark in the same admission, the available zoo in the same admission, and more flat rides to try than we rode on Friday. Also, a lot of shade in the front part of the park, which was great on a hot day like Friday! We'll be back again soon! Edited July 17, 2018 by SlickMittens Forgot a ride! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coliwood_studios Posted July 17, 2018 Report Share Posted July 17, 2018 Hershey is great! At this point it's my favorite park, but that may change after my first ever trip to Cedar Point next week! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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