HersheyPark now owns me.
 

My company picnic was at HersheyPark this afternoon. If they keep sending me there every year, I plan on having a long and faithful career with this company. I hadn't been there in several years, and was pleasantly surprised (being a coaster junkie) to see a BUNCH of new coasters, including one that left me speechless just looking at it...

...that being Storm Runner, the new addition for this season. DAY-UM. When I read "zero to 72 MPH in two seconds," I figured it was some sort of free-fall drop. Nope -- it's straight horizontal acceleration, driven by hydraulics, BEFORE you hit the first hill (which goes up 18 stories and then comes straight down, but that's another story). Imagine an invisible slingshot with the coaster cars in its cup, pulled back as far as the elastic will allow, then let go suddenly and ZING! That's the effect, and it looks like it ought to defy several laws of physics (much less what it ought to do to one's anatomy). Adrenochrome in coaster form. (I didn't get to ride it myself today -- the lines were insane and my wife and I had too much ground to cover, but I'm coming back for it on a weekday.)

Wildcat is like the old Comet on heavy steroids. It's a wooden coaster in a deceivingly compact area, but it packs a major G-force wallop with a nasty array of turns, drops and banks.

Lightning Racers is a pair of slightly tamer wooden coasters with a gimmick -- they run side-by-side simultaneously, crossing over each other, and "race" to see who finishes first. Since riders have no control over the coaster (and I'd be alarmed if they did), the winner is pretty much a coin-flip or operator's whim, but it's fun to watch, and both sides pack a lot of energy into them.

Great Bear was down for repairs, which sucked, because it appeared to be the second meanest metal coaster in the park (this one inverted). A tight teardrop loop and some corkscrew inversions looked promising; it loops through and around the SooperDooperLooper and makes the SDL look like a kiddie ride.

I didn't remember a Wild Mouse being there, but there's one now; the usual whiplash turns around tight corners. The lack of railings unnerved my wife amusingly.

Roller Soaker looked like a one-trick pony (a slow inverted coaster that runs into water jets), but it rounded out the water section nicely.

Speaking of, Tidal Force is similar to rides I've seen elsewhere (log flume from hell, 20-person rectangular raft launches a wall of water onto itself and the observation bridge), and it does a superb job of drenching everybody. I had to hit the restroom to wring out my socks afterwards.

Thanks for the update. My kids bug me all the time to take them to an amusement park, but the older I've gotten, the less tolerant I am of crowds. Your positive review of Hershey (I love coasters!) may just get us out of a rut! Do you happen to know the least crowded times to attend? I'd even be willing to take them out of school in the spring or fall for a nice, line-free day.

You can go in the summer if you have a flexible schedule. Time your trip around weekdays where the previous weekend was sunny and where the rain is supposed to end mid-afternoon. Enter the park just as the rain is ending. weather.com has hourly forecasts if you really want to get precise. The rain will scare off the long-distance all-day busses, the good weekend will have satisfied the big crowds, and you'll have lines a quarter as long as they would be because the rides run at the same speed anyway.

When I lived ten minutes away, the strategy was to go on days when there were off-and-on thunderstorms predicted... the storms would chase everyone out and leave us with two-three hours of line-free nighttime riding. You might have to wait out a passing storm which was fine.

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Nice pics. To help identify for the peanut gallery:

#1 shows the red Skyline cars, which are a nice and leisurely way to get a view of the park. The purplish-blue coaster in the background is the SooperDooperLooper; the steel gray support structures around and over it are part of the Great Bear.

#2 looks like Lightning Racers.

#3 shows the Wild Mouse at its lower right, what may be the Wildcat in the distance beyond that, and those red loops sticking up at upper left? THAT's part of the Storm Runner.

#4 is most definitely Lightning Racers, taken from the ferris wheel judging by the white beams on the right.

Storm Runner. ;)

Tony, how are weekday evenings there? My wife and I are pondering the notion of trying out the Sunset Plan (5-10PM for $20.95, no discounts), which would allow us to take two hours or so off from work instead of a full day and still get 4-5 hours of rides in. If the lines are considerably shorter then than on weekends, it might be worth it.

I dunno at this point... haven't lived there for a long time.

Thanks for all the good advice -- love the rainy-day theory. I'll let you know how it works out!

Good god, I want to go! Cripes, and I was JUST up in PA little over a week ago!

And you didn't tell us?

To be honest, I wouldn't have had the time to do much other than the convention I was attending in Philly anyway. Next time I'm up PA way I'll make a mention of it :biggrin:

THREAD NECROMANCY with a purpose:

If you have the opportunity on Halloween weekend and the weather holds up, <a href="http://www.hersheypa.com/events/halloween_in_hershey/hersheypark_in_the_dark.html">Hersheypark in the Dark</a> is a heckuva deal.

Parents who just want to take kids without riding rides themselves? Admission is free.

Riders? All-day wristband for $24.00, and the lines are nonexistent. We went yesterday, went on eighteen rides, and waited no more than three or four minutes for any ride (including the big guns like Storm Runner and Great Bear).