Editor’s Note: This trip report was reformatted in 2022 to match the current style, including photo galleries and ride counts. Older trip reports, however, detailed every ride of the day, whereas newer reports only touch upon a handful of rides. In order to preserve what I wrote, you will still find each ride detailed below.
For the first time since I launched this site I had the opportunity to head out to a park with Renee. The last time that we’ve been to a park together was during Busch Gardens Williamsburg’s (BGW) Howl-O-Scream event on October 27, 2019. Needless to say, we were overdue to get on some rides together.
Today’s plans took some work to finally come together. Originally I had planned to visit Lakemont Park today, but due to them not running rides at the park until Thursday, that was nixed. That’s when I decided to give Dorney Park a visit. I mentioned the idea to Renee and she was eager to go. We also decided that we’d throw Camelback Mountain Adventures (CMA) into the mix so she could experience her first mountain coaster. Well, the threat of thunderstorms in that region washed away those plans. That’s when I said, “Let’s just go to Hershey!”
Riding Some of Renee's Favorites
Hersheypark is one of Renee’s favorite parks, but oddly enough, until yesterday, we had never been together. Well, the first time was certainly memorable as we tore through rides at a rapid pace and I managed to grab a bunch more ride footage on my GoPro.
Candymonium - Straight to the Park's Newest Ride
Everything was practically a walk on, including the new for 2020, Candymonium. I don’t want to go into too much detail on the ride itself here as I want to do a more in depth review this week. Now that I have gotten in a handful of rides on the Bolliger & Mabillard (B&M) hyper coaster, I feel I can be more fair in any assessment I provide. What I will say is we waited about 10-15 minutes for our first ride, for a front row seat, upon entering the park. When we returned to the station and saw no one in line, we ran right back up and got in a walk-on ride in the back seat.
We tried for a third ride, but the ride was was shut down as we walked up the steps to the platform. Someone had gotten sick on the Reeses train, but I’m not sure if that caused the ride to go down. It was down for what seemed to be at least an hour. We waited about 15 minutes to see if things would reopen, but when they didn’t, we decided to make our way through the rest of the park.
Soap Box - Free Lockers? Other Parks, Take Note
Before I go into some of the other rides on the day, I just want to say, “Kudos Hersheypark!” I always travel without a bag during my park trips, but Renee brought a purse… I’m sorry, a “crossbody.” Am I the only one who didn’t know this term? It’s a purse! Anyhow, the employee at the entrance to the queue line told Renee she had to put her bag into a locker, then said, “They’re free.”
That right there! “They’re free.”
Other parks, please take note. Not to go off on a tangent here, but if these ride lockers are truly about safety, then make them free. I plan to tackle this subject in a future blog about some park experiences I had which show that it’s probably more focused on getting a few extra bucks out of their visitors.
Comet & Skyrush - Down in The Hallow
Once we left Candymonium, Renee raved about how awesome the ride was all the way down to The Hallow. When we saw that Comet was a walk-on, we walked into the queue and sat down on the 1946 classic. It’s my first “big” coaster and it’s always great to get in some rides on it when the line’s not totally ridiculous. That’s usually been the case during visits in recent years, limiting my rides on the amazing woodie.
We followed up Comet with back-to-back rides on Skyrush, which was also a walk-on both times. Once we took our seats, I arched my back a bit, trying not to get stapled. This ride usually earns its “thigh crush” nickname with me, so I tried to fight back. And wouldn’t you know it, it worked both times. The ride ops didn’t come over and thrust the lap bars down on me either. I had some of my best rides on Skyrush in a long time. My legs weren’t hurting at all walking off the platform, even after going twice in only a few minutes
Sky Ride - Getting Great Bear From Above
Our next ride of the day saw us take it a bit easy. We boarded the Skyview cable car ride. I was hoping to get some different views of Great Bear with my GoPro and I ended up lucking out. I really wish SooperDooperLooper had been running too, but it’s been down so far this season.
Coal Cracker - Always Up for a Log Flume
After returning to the station, we walked up the hill and got a ride on Coal Cracker, the 1973 Arrow log flume. This ride is a classic and some of my earliest memories of Hersheypark are on this ride. I’m so glad Hershey takes care of it and also keeps the area pretty well themed. I love the waterfalls at the base of the main drop.
Great Bear - We Were Inverted
After getting a little wet, it was time to ride a favorite of mine, Great Bear. During my last visit with Sam 10 days ago, I got in a back row ride, on a sweltering hot day, before eating, with the onset of a headache. It might have been my least favorite ride on this B&M invert to date. I can, and usually do, ride Great Bear over and over again. Well, today it rode amazing. It wasn’t also sweltering hot and I didn’t have the start of a headache. It’s weird how sometimes your body just gives you a bad experience on a ride that you usually love. That’s what I’ll chalk up last week’s experience to. It’s happened before, and I’m sure it will happen again.
Trailblazer - Hitting Those Helixes
Going from one black track to another, Trailblazer was up next. This is another Arrow ride I look upon fondly due to my many memories with my Aunt Cheryl and cousins, John and Bob. We walked onto the station and had a front row ride just waiting for us. We took our seat and away we went. When done, we made our way to our third coaster in a row to feature a black track, Sidewinder.
Sidewinder - Oh Sh*t, it's Good Now
I’m going to be 100 percent honest here, I have avoided this ride for years… until today. The only times I usually get on one of the various Vekoma boomerang models is if I need the credit. That was the case in August 2019 when I visited Great Escape for the first time. Long story short, that one hurt and this one did not. Those people weren’t lying!
Renee and I walked right up to the front row once again and I quickly noticed the restraints. No more headbangers! I pulled down the vest/bar and got ready to see how much better things could actually be. We went forward and then went backward and Renee and I couldn’t shut up about how much better Sidewinder is with these restraints.
Renee kept comparing it to Ocean City Maryland’s Tidal Wave at Trimper Rides. It’s been years since I had enough courage to ride that boomerang too! It’s too bad though. With the amazing view of Ocean City, it’s one of the best you’ll find on any coaster. Yup, one of the best views, in my opinion, is on a Vekoma boomerang from 1986. I’d say go find out for yourself, but unless they replace their trains/restraints with what’s on Sidewinder, I couldn’t be that mean.
Fahrenheit - I Missed This Coaster
It always seems like Fahrenheit has some of the slowest moving lines at Hershey, so it’s been a few years since I’ve rode it last due to going with people who didn’t want to wait. Renee was also questioning herself on whether she rode it before. Well, that’s all a moot point now and all I have to say is, “Fahrenheit, I missed you!”
Lightning Racer, Laff Trakk, & Wildcat
Wanting to hit Chocolate World on the way out of the park, we decided to hurry up and get in our last few remaining rides in this section of the park. We grabbed two rides on Lightning Racer (Lighting and Thunder), spun around in the dark on Laff Trakk, and then managed to get in a shaky ride on Wildcat. Wildcat was down during my visit 10 days ago. Sadly, GCI’s original coaster wasn’t running as good as it was back at the end of December for Christmas Candylane. Or maybe it didn’t hurt because it was freezing cold and my body was just numb to it?
We didn’t have much time to get to Chocolate World at this point. They are requiring guests to do timed entry booking online and we had the 6:30-6:45 p.m. time slot. We made our way back to the park entrance, but not before we got in one final ride on Candymonium.
Candymonium - 1 Last Time
Candymonium began our day and ended our day. It is an amazing airtime machine, but there are some things that don’t sit well with me. I promise I’ll be covering this ride in detail over the next couple of days. Some of you have been asking me for my thoughts since I got to ride it back on June 29, 2020. I just didn’t feel right giving too much insight on a ride I rode just once. Now I have a little more to go off of and feel I’ll do it justice.
Final Ride Counts
Candymonium (3)
Coal Cracker (1)
Comet (1)
Fahrenheit (1)
Great Bear (1)
Laff Trakk (1)
Lighting Racer: Lightning (1)
Lightning Racer: Thunder (1)
Sidewinder (1)
Sky Ride (1)
Skyrush (2)
Trailblazer (1)
Wildcat (1)
More Trips to Come
With this amazing day at Hershey in the rear view mirror, I’m hoping that we experience some more of this next week when we try to make the Dorney Park and CMA trip happen. If the weather looks like crap again, we’ll just keep pushing it back. I want to grab some footage from both locations and have been waiting to get in a better ride than my only one thus far on CMA’s Mountain Coaster. I’ll keep you posted.
Hersheypark Photo Gallery - July 13, 2020
CREW MANIFEST
The following flight crew members attended this park, & earned the respective credits below:
Patrick
CAG
New Credit(s): n/a
Renee
Lieutenant
New Credit(s): Candymonium
