Hersheypark

Okay I have a lot to say and not a lot of room to say it. First, the park: The park is beautiful. Trees everywhere, flowers everywhere, and ways to get from one attraction to another everywhere. The park was compact enough where you don’t have to walk a mile to get to the next coaster, but spread out enough so it wasn’t overcrowded. I loved all the random paths going everywhere, and the water park was just kinda in the middle of the park so that was weird. But appearance wise it’s an A+ for me. Even the entrance, which is completely under construction for next year’s expansion, looked nice. They put some planters inside the construction walls and some nice signs explaining everything that was happening. Really clean for a construction site.

Anyhow, y’all are here for the rides, so I’ll cut to the chase (listed favorite to least favorite):

15x Skyrush

We went on a day where it downpoured, so I had 3 mini marathons of 5 rides on this beast, and the last one was at night and included the last train of the night. The layout was fantastic, zooming over the water, with so much airtime, it’s amazing, but you can’t talk about Thighcrush without talking about the restraints. Yes they come down and crush your legs and yes they are uncomfortable. However, if you sit with your legs pushed forward a bit during the ride, the restraint doesn’t come down as far, and you can slide back your legs on the brake run so you don’t lose circulation in your legs. The other thing I haven’t heard about is the lack of lateral support for your body in these seats. Most restraints have bucket style seating, or even just walls, so when the coaster twists, you twist. Skyrush ain’t have none of that. You are free to move your body side to side, and there are a couple times, especially on the Stengel dive, this works to the rides favor. All in all, it’s not the smoothest thing, but the kink in the drop is amazing, the airtime is amazing, the setting is amazing, and the restraints are great if you sit in them properly. This is a must ride, along with my new #2.

4x Storm Runner Easily my second favorite in the park, and I would have gotten more rides if they were running both trains, but they couldn’t because of understaffing. Front row on this, just woah. The launch was forceful, the tophat full of airtime, sweet airtime into the snake dive, the inversions were fun and it was nice and smooth. If Maxx Force at my home park is half as good as this, I’ll be so happy. Must ride.

8x Great Bear I’m a fan of B&M inverts. I love their positive gs, whippy elements and relentless pacing. Great Bear really surprised me on this one. The helix before the drop was surprisingly forceful, and I got airtime on that drop in the back left seat, which was sweet. The loop and immleman were fun but not outstanding, but that zero g is very whippy and very fun. It rotates in the opposite way from what I was expecting, but that made it even more fun. The dive over the river was snappy, and I got some floater too. After a little break flying through those amazingly awkward-looking supports, the whippy corkscrew was a great last element. The little jog back to the break run was lame, but that’s ok, because of where this ride is. It interacted and was built over the river, sooperdooperlooper and the log flume, which made for a fun visual spectical. It’s a bit short, but I’m amazed they fit such a good layout on the area of land that they did. Must ride.

3x Fahrenheit Not gonna lie, little disappointed with this one. The lift was cool, but the drop was not as good as Mavericks, and the layout as a whole was taken slower than I was expecting, minus the corkscrews which were surprisingly whippy. Other than that I was just ok. Ride it, but not top priority.

4x Comet This one surprised me. A back row rain ride, with the holy buzz bars meant we were flying out of our seat on every hill, and it was pretty darn smooth. Favorite wood coaster at the park, must ride

3x Lightning Racer Another slightly disappointing coaster. The racing was fun, but the races weren’t close, and lightning almost nearly won. They were smooth, but I got absolutely no airtime, and idk, I was expecting more. Ride, not top priority.

1x Laff Trakk Fun, smooth, and a wack theme. Great for a rainy day. Pretty unique concept too, Ride, not top priority

2x Sooperdooperlooper First loop on the east coast! After the weird forces in the loop, it just kinda meandered around for a bit. Could touch the ground at some points too. Ride, not top priority

1x Sidewinder Boomerang with vests and magnetic brakes. Less bad than other boomerangs. Like a Big Mac with real lettuce, same as the rest but a little better. For the credit

2x Trailblazer Short (height and length) mine train. At least it was smooth, it even has magnetic brakes! For the credit

2x Wild Mouse Just a standard wild mouse. Restraints were fine, turns were fine, drops not as fun as other Mack wild mouses I’ve been on. For the credit

1x Wildcat Shaky? Yes. Painful? No. Boring? Yes. RMC? Please. For the credit

1x Cocoa Cruiser They let you film on the ride and you don’t need a kid! For the credit.

Tl;dr Must: Skyrush, Storm Runner, Great Bear, Comet Medium priority: Fahrenheit, Lightning Racer, Laff Trakk, Sooperdooperlooper For the Credit: Sidewinder, Trailblazer, Wild Mouse, Wildcat, Cocoa Cruiser

Hersheypark is amazing, clean, and definitely worth the stop, even with a B&M hyper and an expansion on the horizon.

There was a lot of other stuff about the park that I didn’t mention, so feel free to ask questions down below