IOn Monday, June 29, 2020 I was lucky enough to experience Hersheypark’s King-Sized Members Preview Day and get in a single ride on the park’s all-new Bolliger & Mabillard (B&M) hyper coaster. If you read my First Rider Thoughts blog, I made mention of some initial thoughts, but didn’t go into too much detail about the overall ride experience. I felt that I needed more rides to give an in depth review. Although I wasn’t able to nab any more rides on my Friday, July 3 visit with Sam, I was earlier this week when Renee and I visited on Monday, July 13. Now it’s time to break down this ride into some detail and explain to you why I like Candymonium, but I don’t think that I love it.
The Ride Experience
Let’s begin this review with what you all want to know about the most – the ride experience. I have a few other items I will cover as part of this review, but I know you’re all itching to know where this ride excels and where it does not while it’s traversing its 4,636 feet of chocolate brown track.
First Drop to Turn Around
Right out of the station you ascend the 210 foot tall chain lift. I feel like Candymonium’s ascent to the top is a bit faster than some of the manufacturer’s previous hypers. I could be totally wrong about this, but it just “feels” that way to me. By no means does it compare to its Intamin neighbor, Skyrush, with its cable lift, however.
Once you crest the top, you experience a good amount of floater airtime during the first drop. The sensation felt a little stronger in the front seat than it did sitting in the middle or the back rows. The back, however, does give that little bit of extra whip being dragged over the top.
Shooting right back up the first airtime hill, the floater is again pretty strong, both when cresting the top and the drop immediately afterward. To me, the sensations felt mostly the same in the front, middle, and back for this element. This feels like your typical B&M airtime hill.
Turn Around to Helix
Now it’s time for that turn around. This element looked wicked to me during its construction. It seemed tight and almost bordering an inversion to me. I thought this would be forceful, which is something you don’t really say about most B&M rides, minus the Batman clones. Now that I’ve experienced it, however, the intensity isn’t what I thought. You definitely feel it more in the back, getting pulled around at decent speeds.
And speaking of speed, this is where the ride disappoints me. The first airtime hill on the return trip features a trim brake. This is the one that I experienced during the preview day. Other people in attendance who rode other trains told me they didn’t notice any brakes, or slow down. I sure did. My train was mostly empty, however, so I thought that maybe it doesn’t always hit. Well, I noticed it on two of the three rides this week and it hinders the ride’s momentum. It’s not Alpengeist mid-course brake run levels of bad, but you will certainly notice.
Even with the reduced speed, the strongest sensation of floater airtime follows this trimmed airtime hill. In both the back and front seats, I felt like I was floating forever, as my thighs were pressed firmly to the clam shell restraint above. My butt was off the seat for what seemed like forever. A big thanks to the ride ops for not stapling me on any of the rides.
Helix to Brake Run
Moving into the helix, I slightly grayed out on my back row ride, which has also happened to me a couple of times on Nitro’s helix. With Nitro, I find it’s usually on the days that I’m tired, hot, and/or hungry. That wasn’t the case on these rides, however, as we had just arrived at the park and walked right onto the ride. The graying out isn’t to the level of Intimidator 305 though, so don’t be “intimidated.” Pun totally intended!
The next element is one that I think B&M needs to incorporate into their rides a little more often – the banked turn. Coming out of the helix, the track banks to the left, right next to a large support column, as it pulls you down immediately. It’s quick and over before you know it, but that quick transition from left to down was a welcome element. Please B&M, do more of these on your new rides moving forward. That or more chopper elements into your floater airtime hills would be great too. I think doing so would add a little spice to your layouts! Or would it be sweetness in this case? Okay, no more puns!
It’s after this point that I feel Candymonium begins to melt. I guess I wasn’t done, huh? The next airtime hill also features a trim brake that hit all three times on me this week. I didn’t notice it on preview day, so I just don’t know if everyone is experiencing these trims. If you’ve ridden Candymonium, tell me if you’ve experienced them or not. I seriously think this ride would rank higher to me without them.
After cresting this hill, you dive into a long, drawn out helix that will circle the upcoming Hershey Kiss Fountain. It’s not finished just yet with all the setbacks from Covid-19. I’m sure visually, things will be much better once that is done. As for the helix though, it’s wide layout lacks any real intensity. It’s sure going to be photogenic once all the construction is complete though.
As you make your way out of the fountain helix, there is one mini-airtime hill left before the brake run. I wish this gave you a little jolt of airtime, but sadly, it’s very weak and the train has slowed down immensely at this point. I didn’t really notice much airtime cresting this final hill.
From here, it’s into a brake run and a slow turn around into the waiting brake before the station. And with that, your ride is complete. Now, onto some other items I’d like to discuss as part of this review.
The Trains
You can’t go wrong with B&M clam shell restraints. These are by far, my favorite restraint system on any coaster. The freedom they provide is unmatched and the seats are just so comfortable. I’m also weird in that I prefer the straight, four row seats over the staggered seating found on other hypers like Diamondback at Kings Island.
Now if you’re wondering about those seat belts, they in no way shape or form hinder the airtime experienced on this ride. They’re probably not even needed, but you’re not going to notice them other than having to put them on and take them off in the ride station. And speaking of the ride station…
The Station & Queue Line
I have to give it to Hersheypark here. Bags are not allowed on the loading station. There are some cubicles along the exit portion of the station, but they seemed to be reserved for loose fitting shoes, glasses, and an occasional phone and such. Lockers are located immediately to the left of where you enter the queue. And they’re FREE! Yes, FREE! Please take note Six Flags and Cedar Fair. If you don’t want to clog up the queue line, or claim that lockers are mandatory for rider safety, then just make them free. Hersheypark, thank you!
As for your wait for the ride, the entirety of Candymonium’s queue line is located inside the brick building we’ve all seen on the countless preview animations and construction videos leading up to this coaster’s opening. It’s rather cool inside, even on days that sees temperatures in the 90’s. There seems to be a good airflow on the ground level, with some fans helping to circulate the air. I’m not sure if there is air conditioning or not as it seems too cool for just fans. There are opening to the outside, however, so I can’t quite say.
Walking into the building you might be surprised just how many bullpen stalls exist inside. On preview day, I walked about 75 percent of them, as its broken into several sections. Then I realized that I could have slid under one of the dividers much earlier, before rounding a corner, and not had to have walked as far. During my most recent visit with Renee, however, the ride was a walk on all day, so park employees adjusted the chains and you went right into the stairwell and up to the loading platform.
The stairwell is where you’ll see some of the more intricate theming for the queue line. There’s some minor bits in the bullpen area below, but there are all kinds of overhead graphics of different Hershey’s candy to be found climbing the stairs. Some odd lighting choices also give the area a weird glow. I’m not sure how I feel about the lighting, but I guess it’s better than your standard white lights.
Once you’ve made your way onto the platform, there isn’t a ton of room for those waiting to ride. With things a little crammed, those waiting for the front row really don’t have too much extra space to line up without congesting the area. I’m not sure if on busy days they assign seats or not as I haven’t ridden this on a busy day yet.
After you ride, you exit through none other than a ride photo room. Shocker, I know! Candymonium’s ride photo room is a rather large one with only one set of doors to exit. The other wall features several windows that probably would have served better to feature at least one more set of doors. People were trying to walk in as our train was trying to leave. It log jams the flow of traffic and that was on a very slow day. I can imagine it’ll be much worse once Covid comes to an end and the park can go back to capacity.
If I can be even more picky, ride photo room just seems rather bare aside from showing off some merchandise that you can’t even buy inside the building. You have to leave and then go down the path and across from Starbucks to the HP Collections store to purchase any of it. That store is also kind of bare right now too, which I’m just going to attribute to the unforeseen circumstances the Coronavirus handed the world. I do, however, think Hershey missed the boat selling ride merch in all of its stores. This is a whole other tangent I’m going to do a blog on soon, however, so I’ll let it go for now.
Ride Name & Logo
I get it. Hersheypark sells candy. They wanted to theme their new star attraction of the Chocolatetown expansion to what their company is known for. So they picked, Candymonium…
I’m not going to lie, I don’t care for it. I haven’t since it was announced. Nothing about the name even remotely hints at “roller coaster” to me. If I say “Hershey’s Cup Fusion” and “Candymonium” to the average person, do you think they could pick out which ride is a coaster? They honestly both sound like kids rides. The rest of their coaster lineup feature names that sound more along the lines of what I expect a coaster name to be. Compare Candymonium to the likes of: SooperDooperLooper, Skyrush, Storm Runner, Trailblazer, Lightning Racer, Wildcat, Wild Mouse, Laff Trakk, Great Bear, Comet, or Fahrenheit. Even Cocoa Cruiser sounds like it hauls in comparison.
Now onto the logo. As someone with a fine and graphic arts background, this logo is beautiful. The color scheme is great and its very easy to read. But I have one problem with it. It needs a coaster track somewhere. Imagine a piece of B&M track splashing down along the top. You already have the chocolate syrup spilling out over the edges. It would show this ride is a coaster on any merch, such as the pin I purchased on preview day. Am I being too harsh here?
And this completes my thoughts on Candymonium. Next time you’re headed to Hersheypark, let me know. I’d love to grab some rides on it, as well as all their other great coasters with you.
