In the middle of September, Lexie and I decided to make a quick trip out to the “Sweetest Place on Earth”, home to one of the premier parks in the Northeast: Hersheypark.
While walking up to the entrance of the park, there are creative height markers that show what your child can and cannot ride. Personally, my first of many visits to Hershey was in the late 90’s and I can remember being genuinely pumped when I graduated from a Hershey bar to a Jolly Rancher in height.
Psh… a meager Hershey bar, I remember those days. In case you were wondering, I am a full grown Jolly Rancher at this point.
To our surprise, the park was crowded on our weekend visit. I tend to see lighter crowds at parks in September because school is starting up for kids and everyone is holding off until Halloween celebrations, but Hersheypark was as crowded as I have ever seen it.
The man, the myth, the legend: Milton Hershey. Hershey originally bought the land for his chocolate factory in 1903 and he decided to also create a town around it. In 1904, he offered a cash prize to whoever thought of the best name for his new town. The winner chosen suggested the town name to be “Hersheykoko”. Even though she won, the “koko” part obviously was dropped and the town of Hershey, Pennsylvania was born. I can’t really understand why Milton hosted a contest if he just ended up naming the town after himself, but who am I to judge? In 1904, Hershey decided that he wanted to build a park for his employees. At that time, the park consisted of walking trails and scenic beauty. It wasn’t until May of 1906, where the park formally was opened as Hershey Park. As they say, the rest is history.
The first section of the park that we decided to hit is “The Hollow”, home to four roller coasters and a collection of flat rides.
Sooper Dooper Looper is a classic Schwarzkopf looper built in 1977. I am sure I am one of many people out there who experienced their first ever coaster loop right here on this ride.
It really is a great ride when you consider that it is 37-years old, but that is one of the many reasons enthusiasts love Schwarzkopf and his seemingly ageless creations.
Sooper Dooper Looper and the park’s B&M Invert, Great Bear, intertwine quite nicely. The Hollow as a whole is just a big maze of roller coaster track.
Here is the beautiful loop structure that Schwarzkopf rides were known for, which still delivers one of the smoothest loops you could imagine.
Great Bear is Hersheypark’s B&M Invert that opened in 1998. One of the more unique features that Great Bear offers is this helix before the first drop.
Great Bear dominates The Hollow and can be seen from pretty much every part of it. This picture shows the ride’s loop, immelmann, and zero-G roll.
Here is the same part of the ride from a different angle.
I wish I could have gotten a better picture, but the best part of Great Bear is the zero-G roll. It is taken at a much faster speed than the newer B&M Inverts.
Great Bear hitting it’s top speed of 58mph at the bottom of the first drop.
Another classic ride in The Hollow is Comet, a 1946 Herbert Schmeck wooden coaster. Fun fact: Comet was Lexie’s first “Big Girl” coaster!
It still rides great and I absolutely the love the light package it features at night.
Comet is a Hershey staple. It is the oldest roller coaster in the park by 28 years (anyone know what ride was made in 1974?).
There is a final coaster in The Hollow section of the park, but we will be back later for it. Lex and I decided we wanted to make our way to Zoo America, yet another awesome feature that Hershey offers.
Zoo America is a small wildlife park that showcases animals from, well… America. I didn’t take any pictures inside the zoo because it was absolutely packed. Guests of Hersheypark get free admission to Zoo America and I would say it is worth about an hour of entertainment. It is a great way to break up the day and I highly suggest it to anyone who visits.
The bridge leading into the zoo offers a nice view of the park’s Intamin Accelerator coaster, too. We’ll work our way over there soon.
Fahrenheit is one of Hersheypark’s 3 Intamin creations. When it opened in 2008, it was marketed as having the steepest drop in the USA at 97-degrees.
That record was held by Fahrenheit for a whopping month and a half before Steel Hawg took the crown, but it still is an impressive drop at 121 feet tall.
Fahrenheit does have one of the three existing Norwegian Loops in the world, though. It is a fantastic element that I really wish more coasters would feature.
The Norwegian Loop immediately follows the the first drop.
After that, Fahrenheit’s 2700 feet of track takes you through a cobra loop and two corkscrews.
I’m also a pretty big fan of the color scheme.
Fahrenheit’s 6 inversions are the most of any full-circuit coaster at Hersheypark.
The glare is bad in this picture but it would be a travesty for me not to mention that Fahrenheit has an airhill right before the brakes. It offers some great airtime.
One more shot of Fahrenheit, just for good measure. It is a very solid ride and it is very popular among the general public. I think it is safe to say that Fahrenheit usually has the longest line at Hersheypark.
Up next we took a few pictures of Hershey’s newest project, Laff Trakk.
Laff Trakk is set to open in 2015 as the parks 13th coaster.
It will be all indoors and feature a lot of fun-house effects which will be sure to please the whole family.
Even though Laff Trakk won’t be the most thrilling coaster at Hersheypark, it looks like a phenomenal addition to an already amazing park. It will also bring a lot of traffic to the back of the park.
I can’t wait to see the finished product. If you want to see additional construction pictures and information, check out All-American Thrills or simply Hersheypark.com/2015.
Up next, Lex and I went on one of our favorite rides in the park: Lightning Racer.
Lightning Racer was built by Great Coaster International back in 2000, but it still runs amazingly to this day.
It is definitely my favorite racing coaster that I have ever been on. The interaction between the two trains is unparalleled to anything I have been on.
Lightning Racer also happens to be very twisty, which is something we here at Life Is A Roller Coaster tend to enjoy.
It’s almost impossible to capture all of Lightning Racer in a single picture. It has a pretty large footprint.
More twisty awesomeness. You can also see the lights that hang on the rails on both tracks. Lightning Racer is one of the best looking night rides that I have ever seen.
Lightning Racer is, believe it or not, a racing coaster, so at the end a winner is declared. Unfortunately, there is a side that seems to win more often, but this is a great way to have some bragging rights throughout the rest of the day. Lexie seems to be enjoying herself at the bottom of that picture, too.
During the summer months, Hersheypark also features their relatively new water park: The Boardwalk.
Unfortunately it wasn’t open when we went. I say unfortunately not because I am the biggest fan of water parks, but because everyone else seemingly is. This place gets packed in the heat of the summer and it really helps the rest of the park’s lines.
Hershey really is a beautiful park. Right here is a good shot of what the crowds looked like. Maybe I just got lucky on my other trips, but usually the back of the park has light crowds.
Sidewinder is the park’s Vekoma Boomerang, but we skipped it this trip since we were busy trying to get pictures.
Now this is more like it. Storm Runner is Hersheypark’s Intamin Accelerator coaster. It launches it’s riders from 0-72mph in 2.0 seconds, which means it has roughly the same acceleration as Kingda Ka (0-128mph in 3.5 seconds).
Storm Runner features over-the-shoulder restraints (OTSR’s), which is always a hot topic among enthusiasts who prefer a more “open” experience.
Storm Runner launches you immediately into a 150-foot tall top hat that features some nice airtime as you crest it.
The top hat is then followed by a really funky looking immelmann. It rides well, so I can’t really make fun of it.
Doesn’t it just a look a bit “off”?
Storm Runner then sends you through it’s most famous element, the flying snake dive. The element consists of a half of a heart-line roll that then sends you into a drop while turning. Storm Runner is the only roller coaster in the world to have this element.
Here is the train going through the heart-line roll before the flying snake dive. If anyone here knows where the name of the element came from, I would love to know.
Storm Runner through the trees. It is a very unique coaster, but is it the best coaster at Hershey? Surprisingly, a lot of big Hershey fans claim it is even after the installation of their latest magnificent Intamin creation. I am going to have to be a firm “no” to the previous question though. In fact, I prefer Fahrenheit to Storm Runner. Storm Runner is a truly great ride, but to me it is only a great ride in the front. Lex and I took a backseat ride and it was not comfortable at all. There are a lot of neck jabs from the restraints that make for an unpleasant experience. Is it a bad ride? Not at all, but I would not consider it the best ride in the park.
As we walk back to the front of the park, we took a spin on Trailblazer which is your typical Arrow Mine Train. It is a great way of scoping out the line for Storm Runner.
Trailblazer also has a tunnel, and who doesn’t love a tunnel on a roller coaster?
Before Lex and I make our way to what we consider the best roller coaster in the park, it is worth mentioning that Hersheypark has a nice collection of flat rides, too. The Claw is your typical spinning frisbee.
Hershey also has a shooter ride, Reeses Xtreme Cup Challenge. This is one of the better shooter rides I have been on since all of the targets and guns are very responsive. For the record, I beat Lexie comfortably (by that I mean I barely beat her at the end and had worked myself up to a light sweat).
Anyone have any guesses on our favorite ride in the park? Hint: It is yellow.
Skyrush is was added to the Hersheypark coaster lineup in May 2012. I remember watching the live announcement for it a few months prior to that and thinking how awesome of a ride it was going to be, but even with that expectation Skyrush absolutely rocks.
Skyrush is a 200 foot monster that topples over Comet. The first drop of Skyrush is not quite as steep as Fahrenheit, but 85-degrees is not for the faint of heart. The drop offers extreme ejector airtime.
Skyrush then acts as if it is not going 75mph and crests a relatively small airhill. This relatively small airhill offers the most extreme ejector airtime of any coaster I have ever been on, period. Yes, that even means it has more ejector airtime than El Toro.
Skyrush then takes it’s riders through a terrain-hugging flat turn and into an equally as extreme second airhill that offers just as much airtime as the first. Skyrush also showcases Intamin’s first attempt at winged seats and although they look great, I highly suggest the inner seats for a much smoother ride. The wing seats are prone to some nasty vibrations around the turns.
Here is another view of Skyrush’s layout. Much like Fahrenheit, I am a big fan of the color scheme that Skyrush offers. After the second airhill there is another flat turn into a 90-degree banked hill, which you can see on the right side of this photo.
Here is the best shot I could get of Skyrush at 90-degrees.
Quick note: The pullout of Skyrush’s drop is relatively tight and this is where most of the complaints of the restraints being uncomfortable derive from. I really hope Skyrush doesn’t get trimmed in the future, but I’m afraid it might to reduce the overall intensity.
Skyrush has it’s fair share of twisty awesomeness, too. Plus, the fountains make everything look better.
After Skyrush sends you through the most intense airtime-filled elements of your life, it hits you with a buckle just to make sure you are still paying attention. The buckle is followed by yet another insane airhill before you twist and turn your way into the final brakes.
The double spine on Skyrush is the same style used on Intimidator 305 at Kings Dominion. It is definitely a style used on rides that experience high forces.
Skyrush is an absolutely insane roller coaster. It is by far the best attraction at Hersheypark, and we both agree that Skyrush deserves a spot in the “elite” category of coasters. The ejector airtime is unmatched by any ride that I have personally ridden. The only downside to Skyrush is its minimal re-rideability. There is no way you can go on Skyrush consecutively without hurting your thighs. Every ride, no matter what seat, delivers such a strong force at the bottom of the first drop that your restraint will be squeezed against your legs. Hershey has addressed this issue by releasing the restraints a little bit on the brake run, which does help. Regardless, Skyrush remains an absolute must-ride attraction if you are in the Northeast, never mind Hersheypark.
Finally, we have the obligatory sign picture of Lex and I at the front of the entrance.
Our trip to Hershey, Pennsylvania lasted a mere 24 hours, but we were still able to have a great time. Hersheypark is an exceptional amusement park that offers a little bit of something for everyone. Whether it is taking a ride on Skyrush or relaxing at Zoo America for an hour or two, every member of the family will leave the park with a smile on their face. With the addition of Laff Trakk coming in 2015, the park will become even more family friendly and I can almost guarantee that Lex and I will be returning to take a ride on it.
Start planning your trip to Hersheypark today by visiting their website at www.Hersheypark.com. Just because the summer has ended doesn’t mean the park is closed! Hershey has some incredible Fall and Winter events that are sure to please everyone.
Visit Life is a Roller Coaster to read Kevin and Lexie’s adventures across North America visiting theme parks, riding roller coasters, eating great food and more.
Recent Discussion