Hersheypark In The Dark, 10/25/19

[Yoshi]

I went to Hersheypark last night for their Halloween event. Unlike Dorney and Great Adventure, there are no scare zones, trails or mazes so there are a lot more families with kids compared to other parks and less of a demand for the coasters (at least on a Friday night).

 

It only takes a few minutes for Reese's Cupfusion to build up a line. I went right to the ride at opening and had no wait. By the time I exited the ride, it was a 30 - 45 minute wait. Cupfusion is a big improvement over the original Reese's Extreme Cup Challenge. There is a good mix of both physical targets and screens and like Justice League, it takes multiple rides to figure out which targets give the most points.

 

Last week I saw a lot of complaints about rides being closed. There were 33 rides closed. Fahrenheit, Ferris Wheel, Frontier Flyers, Kisses and Reese's Triple Towers, Pirate, Sidewinder, Skyview, The Claw, The Howler, Tilt A Whirl, Wave Swinger, Whip, Twin Turnpike Speedway, Scrambler, Wild Mouse and the Thunder side of Lightning Racer were all closed the entire night. The rest of the rides closed were kiddie rides and I saw in some sections of the park that 1 ride operator would operate 2 of the kiddie rides going back and forth between the rides. Storm Runner and Trailblazer were also only running 1 train.

 

In past years, almost every non kiddie ride was open even on a Friday night and it will be interesting to see how many rides are closed during Christmas Candylane especially on a weeknight when school is still in session.

 

Dispatches were fast for the coasters which was nice to see and kept lines short except for Comet around opening and Laff Trakk. I did go to Laff Trakk early in the night before there was much of a line.

 

Ride Count:

Comet, 1

sooperdooperLooper, 1

Great Bear, 2

Hershey Triple Tower, 1

Reese's Cupfusion, 1

Lightning Racer (Lightning), 2

Trailblazer, 1

Laff Trakk, 1

Storm Runner, 2

Skyrush, 1

 

 

 

 

The Triple Towers had seat belts added within the last 6 weeks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[The Master]

Supposedly all the ride ops there are volunteers outside of the Summer season. 

[Yoshi]

If they had trouble getting more volunteers this year, I guess that would explain the amount of rides closed. I noticed most of the flat rides closed Saturday and Sunday as well but Wild Mouse and Sidewinder opened. Maybe with only 6 coasters running during Christmas Candylane, more flats will be open.