Hershey, Pennsylvania – Thursday, July 19th, 2012
Ambling through the rest of Midway America.
I suppose this counts as more authentic "carnival" theming than anything you can find at Disney's Animal Kingdom?
Music Express, because why theme a ride when you can just claim that the theme is carnival rides?
Finally, at the far end of the park in an awkward cul-de-sac (because Boardwalk and reasons) is Lightning Racer.
Lightning Racer, as a dual track racing coaster, normally has a pretty short line. Today it did not, thanks to one side operation.
So normally I really enjoy Lightning Racer. Yes it's quite gentle as far as GCI rides go, but there's an inspired elegance to its racing/dueling choreography that virtually no other ride has surpassed.
Lightning Racer is still one of GCI's greatest achievements in my opinion.
Unfortunately, for that opinion to remain intact, I had to exclude my single ride in 2012 as an outlier. Not only was the dueling component missing, but the ride was all around slow and rough. Really hope that's no longer the case.
Green side stuck on the lift.
One more shot of my favorite element sequence on Storm Runner in the pale dusk.
Comet beckons me with a twilight ride racing its tracer lights. Yet... it looks surprisingly empty.
Indeed, all the rides were down for a weather advisory, although the skies seemed quite fair. I decided to call my dad (whose car I was able to borrow for this trip) and give him an update on my day. While I was waiting for things to maybe reopen, he offered to look up the weather radar map for Harrisburg... and informed me that a massive dark green patch was barreling right towards my path.
I decided that would be a good time to call it a night, even though there was more I'd have liked to do. Walking to the front gate, I started to get pelted with a few drizzling raindrops. By the time I made it to the car, I was soaked from head to toe as if I had just stepped out of the water park. An unexpected end to an altogether worthwhile trip.
Sure I was broke, unemployed, with lots of student loan debt would have to begin to pay off in the upcoming months. But the FREDxGCI experience proved worthwhile in the long run, initiating conversations that would indirectly lead me over the course of the next 16 months to a job as a creative associate at one of the largest themed entertainment design firms in the world (which this website helped me to land).
And to think that if I had been more sensible about my career path and not ridden coasters at every opportunity (and then write about them), I could be doing... something else... somewhere?
Nah, I'd rather be riding roller coasters.
I really like this writeup for Hershey… Had the opportunity to visit two years ago and found it to be a really enjoyable park, and Lightning Racer turned out to be a family favorite.
However, the reason why I’m commenting here is not because of Hesheypark, its because your main post on the main page offers no place to respond hahaha. A couple of thoughts here. Glad to hear that you totally haven’t abandoned the site, as I find it fascinating. If I could put in my 2 cents, I’d greatly enjoy writeups for Maverick and Magnum XL-200.
When I visited Cedar Point last year (my second trip), obviously Maverick was on of my favorites, and most roller coaster enthusiasts agree. And the ride holds consistently to your concepts of roller coaster “story progression” in intensity. However, from my previous visit I wanted to avoid Magnum because I remembered it being very painful. My friend dragged me on it and after a couple laps I found that it wasn’t as painful as I imagined, but nonetheless it was still fairly lackluster for me. Would love to hear your thoughts on the matter.
Also, as kind of a tandem, I think it would be unique if you did a writeup for Rocky Mountain Constuction as a company. They, all by themselves, I think have changed the roller coaster industry more than any other company in a very long time. I know you appreciate Alan Shilke’s designs (X2 is just awesome), and it’s clear to me that he cares more than most about element pacing, progression, and finales (the double barrel-roll on Outlaw Run, the mini airtime hops on Wicked Cyclone, and the twisty switchback section on Wildfire, just to name a few stand-out finales). I’m not sure of how many RMC coasters you’ve ridden, but if its more than a few, I’d be interested in hearing what you have to say about them.
Anyways, sorry that was kinda long-winded, I’ve been meaning to comment for a while now. Keep it up and I’ll look forward to hearing from you!
As per JetstreamCoasters, commenting here because I can’t comment elsewhere.
Just wanted to say thank you for your years of intelligent commentary on rides & parks. Your words became a bit of a narrative to my first experiences of parks all over the world after I conquered my fear of coasters back in 2011 at the not-so-tender age of 36! The next three years were spent in whatever parks I could find on RCDB and reading your commentary for your unique insight prior to my visits.
Oh, and thanks to your site, I can no longer ride the Universal Studio’s Rip Ride Rocket without activating the secret track #112 – Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Freebird – this must be the best coaster soundtrack ever!
Like you, life has since moved on. I have a 2 year old boy now, and visits to parks are few and far between. But I’m encouraging him to eat all his food so he can grow to reach the magic 0.9 & 1.4m heights so I can go venturing the world of coasters with him too. And whatever you decide to do with this site, I look forward to seeing more of your writing, in whatever form into the future.
PS. I rode Sky Rush (also known non-affectionally as ‘Thigh Crush’) back in 2013. I rate it as one of the most terrifying coasters I’ve ever been on, mainly because if those damn restraints break my femurs, I’m toast! Did you notice the ever-so-slight release of the restraints on the holding brake at the end? So Intamin/Hershey know about the problem then!
Thanks for the kind words, Ty. As I said in my last update (already more than half a year ago) there will be more updates coming, and hopefully one fairly soon which I’ve made some progress on recently.
It makes me realize just how long I’ve been putting this on hold; 2011 was when things first started slowing down for me, and in that time you’ve had your entire coaster riding career begin and end! (But hopefully will begin again soon!) Time really does get away from us…