Day 4 – Hersey Park
Expected Highlights
Difficult one this one to say what the expected highlights were. I’ve seen most of the rides at Hershey mentioned over time, but it’s rare you see the park actually mentioned holistically. Storm Runner is often brought out as a great example of Intamin Accelerators. Great Bear is touted as a very good B&M Invert. Roller Soaker is a quirky interactive coaster mentioned from time to time. Lightning Racer is an exceptionally photogenic coaster I’ve had a keen eye on for many years. There’s also the memorably named Sooper Dooper Looper and GCI’s first ever coaster. So all in all, lots of good stuff – but I never knew beforehand that they all sat in the same park!!!
So looking at that, I guess they’re all highlights, but the biggest is the fact that it’s being claimed as probably the second best park I’ll visit while there. I had my doubts and thought that it would be a saccharine, sweet kids park based on the chocolate bar – fortunately, I was wrong.
The day itself
We arrived early, and the day was long, so forgive me for not getting it 100% right. The park had barely opened when we turned up, and headed in a calm manner to Fahrenheit. The queue wasn’t as bad as Jerry was expecting, so we jumped in just in case it got rammed later on. It was about 20 minutes in the heat (not the best queue line to be honest) and then on and front row.
Fahrenheit running through a corkscrew.
We headed out then through the park towards Storm Runner, taking in the Boomerang on the way. We’d not seen Storm Runner launch yet, and hoped it was just having some work done before testing. It became clear very quickly this was not the case. A quick ask around and Jerry found out it was down (and had been all season) waiting for a new part. This was a bit of a pain, as I’ve done a fair number of “interesting” accelerators and wanted another for my collection (in the vain hope of finding one I like
). So it’s a shame, but not a massive blow for me really.
Dead Storm Runner
Trailblazer, Arrow mine train – yawn.
Down then to Great Bear. I was excited by this, as I wanted another B&M invert to add to my list of two. I need to put Nemesis into perspective and find out if there is better, and if not, why not. I love Nemesis and really enjoy Inferno, and until this trip would have said the B&M inverts were my favourite ride type.
Great Berr!
I enjoyed Great Bear (back row, much to Jerry’s chagrin) and liked the way it interacted with the other rides. The log flume looked really nice too from the Great Bear queue, so we rode that as it was next door. Oddly dry flume, but loved the little launch before the splash – airtime from a flume!!!
This is the water splash on the flume – loved the water falls.
Arrow pain next, Sooper Dooper Looper and then the classic out and back – Comet. Nothing is really making my heart flutter yet at the park – other than the park itself. I loved the place. It’s such a superb looking park, so relaxed and picturesque. For those who know of my love of Alton will understand why I enjoyed the park with all the hills, shortcut paths through trees and shades and the number of water features littered around. We had lunch at the BBQ grill – was very yum indeed!
What are you looking at down there kids?
Ahhh! Feeding the Goslings!
Heading off then for what Jerry classed as a bit of British madness – Roller Soaker without swimming costumes (No! NOT naked – in our clothes like we’d ride a wet ride over here). Jerry and the Kid practiced with the water bombs to make sure they could soak us, and Minor_Furie and I just failed to have a clue on how to use the water drop from the coaster. Fortunately, The Kid was distracted so we only got a mild soaking, rather than getting wet through to the skin! Good fun, but not on a coaster front – great way to cool off in the heat of the day.
THIS looks like the way to cool down. Muhassive water section by Lightning Racer.
Finally though, we’re heading to what I’ve longingly looked at for years – Lightning Racer. I’m not expecting a great ride, but just one which is fun enough but looks superb. Review later, but we rode it a fair few times before moving on if it helps
Wildcat I think next (GCI twister), then the Wild Mouse (typical MS mouse). Back then to see the rest of the park I seem to remember. We rode Fahrenheit again and Great Bear a couple more times (I had to ride it a few times, things were dawning).
A quick break for a while on the Condor ride and a trip to the zoo. Nice relaxed pace, no real rush, just soaking up the glorious weather and the gorgeous park.
Bald porcupine! Very bizarre.
We rounded the day off with about an hour of continuous riding on Lightning Racer. I think we managed 12 times without actually leaving our seat. Again, says something about the quality of the coaster
Reviews
Fahrenheit
Mixed bag this one. The vertical lift hill is pretty much the same as a Eurofighter, as is the drop – only with the longer trains it’s a little different. So nothing I haven’t done a lot and it didn’t do much for me still – they’re okay.
The rest of the ride is a mix of Speed Monster, Colossus (Thorpe) and Rita a bit really. It’s obviously smoother and nicer than Colossus and Rita, but I don’t think it will be in five years time. So it was all a mix of something I’ve already done before. As such, I didn’t find the ride remarkable, but it IS quite good fun, and the Norwegian Loop is still a great element. 8/10
The Kid does the Fahrenheit jig!
Sidewinder
Boomerang – not as bad as it could have been. 6/10 (because I do still love the station pass through on the drop).
Storm Runner
Shut – it would have sucked anyway
0/10
Trailblazer
Pretty dull Arrow minetrain, really not a lot to write home about other than it went through some nice scenery. 5/10
Great Bear
Things get interesting here. I really liked Great Bear. It had a few really bad dead spots on it where it just kind of meandered. However, the good bits were really good. Forceful, fast and really great fun. I had to ride it a few times to really get a good feel for it, but to be honest, I found it hard to put up a case to put it above either Nemesis OR Inferno. In fact, it kind of made me think deeper about the whole B&M invert thing… More later.
Sooper Dooper Looper
I expected pain and… Was disappointed! Smooth enough and a bit lame really – not even a back breaker or neck bash to make it interesting. 5/10.
Comet
Fun enough classic out and back. A few woodies reminded me a bit of Big Dipper at Blackpool, and this was one of them. Some good fun, some airtime, nothing outstanding. 7/10
Wildcat
I really enjoyed this, but it was a bit bouncy at times. Good effort, but not great. I liked the speed and the twisting – it appeals to me, but it was just nothing outstanding again. 7/10.
Wildmouse thing
Best one I’ve been on, so 7/10 instead of 6. Better than Flamingoland’s or Chessie’s mouse due to being very fast and smooth.
Roller Soaker
Fun, but utterly bland as far as a coaster goes. Very wet indeed! You have been warned!!! 5/10
Lightning Racer
Best until last? I have no idea how to rate this. The ride offers just a few little bits of airtime. It’s not massively fast and loses pace in a few points.
However, the places pace is lost are where it’s doing runs against the other train, so you interact with the other train. With the two tracks leaving and joining and passing by so often, you get a lot of opportunity to goad the other train and yell at them. This just makes the ride superb fun. The fact the ride actually IS good, and smooth – means you can just keep on riding and keep on enjoying.
As far as pure ride quality goes (airtime, speed, and all the other things we look for in a coaster as enthusiasts) it’s not too hot. It’s just superb fun though – it’s hard to quantify where the fun comes from, but it is. It’s the train interaction and the fact the ride is just good enough to pull it through – while retaining an incredible re-rideability. One of the highlights of the trip so far, but I just can’t give it a rating above 8/10 really – as a pure coaster, it doesn’t really do anything. So hard to explain. Minor_Furie put it right to his number one coaster spot though. Maybe the kids have the right idea.
The Lightning Racer face!
Conclusions
Hershey Park is excellent. It’s a superb park to visit and one of the best park days I’ve had in a very long time. It had the atmosphere of Oakwood, with the quality of “good” Tussauds (i.e. early 90’s when everything was new) and the rides of the best big parks out there. Just pure and simple enjoyment at the park.
They also had a mini tumble bug I thought I’d best photograph!
The day got me thinking about things though. Lightning Racer was great fun, but not an outstanding coaster. Great Bear was excellent, but not really a great enough to really stand out from Nemesis or Inferno. It had bits that were much better, but the overall experience felt pretty much of a muchness. It’s hard to explain, but the wider experience hadn’t really changed my expectations in the way I expected. I thought I’d start to see some real differences, instead, I just saw mediocrity in the Inverts I’d been on. Still, Talon tomorrow and what Ben and a few others say is THE BEST B&M Invert. So maybe it’s just Great Bear’s dead spots killing the ride for me, but I was disappointed I only enjoyed the ride, rather than be blown away by something very different.
I do think the kids have the right idea though (slowly dawning on me) – look for fun, not stats (that you try to feel as you ride). Just enjoy the coaster and stop looking too deep. I’ll give that a go…
Weather dependent, it’s Knoebels and Dorney tomorrow, or maybe Six Flags Great Adventure. Either way, it’s going to be great if the weather is good – but very bad if the weather turns as it’s supposed to…