Hersheypark - July 19 - 21, 2024

After a rough visit to Six Flags America, we left early to head to Hersheypark and enjoy the last few hours of the day before spending the rest of the weekend there. Hersheypark is both my "chosen" home park (it's farther from me than SFGAdv, but not that far) and one of my personal favorites. I probably visited this park over a dozen times last year, and I've been here countless times since I was a little kid. It holds a lot of memories and sentimentality for me, but it sure has changed from my childhood, both for good and bad.

I'll talk rides first, and get to the rest afterwards.

Candymonium - My #1 B&M hyper. This coaster gets absolutely slammed with 1.5 - 2 hour waits at the beginning of the day, but it only was about a 15 minute wait upon our early evening arrival. We rode in the back row, which is the best on this ride. It's beyond glass smooth, and the airtime is fantastic. Not only is it my favorite B&M hyper, it's actually the first I ever rode, a little under two years ago. Yeah, I was a late bloomer.
Fahrenheit - This ride also often sports an awful wait, but the line was uncharacteristically short, so we hopped on and only waited about 20 minutes. This is Hershey's most underrated coaster, a unique Intamin vertical lift that is very similar to a Gerstlauer Euro-Fighter. It features a beyond-vertical drop ("97 degrees and falling fast), some fantastic inversions including a rare Norwegian loop, and a surprise airtime hill just before the brakes. There is a mild rattle to it these days that I don't recall it having two years ago, but it's nothing that ruins the ride or causes any pain. Get the front row on this if you can.
Wildcat's Revenge - I can't tell you how pumped I was to ride this last summer the week it opened. It instantly took this park's #1 spot for me. It is an absolute masterpiece of an RMC conversion. Relentless pacing, wild airtime and laterals, excellent speed, and of course the World's Largest Underflip™. To take nothing away from the genius of Alan Schilke, Joe Draves has put a brand-new spin on RMCs, which were starting to become formulaic. One observation: the restraints here used to have a rope loop that you could grab onto, almost like reins on a horse. Those ropes have now been removed, leaving you with either the standard lapbar or the two grab bars on either side. This is one of the quickest-moving lines in the park, so don't be intimidated by what looks like a long wait.
Great Bear - I figured it would be wise to knock out the worst waits in the park on day one, to make sure we didn't get bogged down on day two. Great Bear is the second-worst wait in the park behind Fahrenheit, but it also sported an unusually short line on Friday night, about 20 minutes. This ride is best enjoyed in the front row, but the line for the front was very long, so we went with the second row instead. Not the most intense B&M, but again glass smooth, and beautifully scenic. You get a great view of the Hollow and Spring Creek, which is really a sight to see at night with all the lights on. This was almost our very last ride of the night on the last day, but we ended up jumping on Coal Cracker with minutes to spare afterwards.
Lightning Racer - Rumors have been circulating for years about this ride's demise, as Hershey has made their desire to expand the Boardwalk (water park) pretty obvious. Lightning Racer, the Wild Mouse, and Tidal Force would be notable casualties if they were to swallow up the Midway America section for more water park land. It has pretty low ridership, and the longest wait I've had for this ride is under five minutes. That being said, the lighting package was upgraded only a few years ago, and Hershey has maintained it relatively well. It's a little bit rough, but I feel like it's running faster and more forcefully than in years past. In the front of both the Lightning and Thunder sides, I was experiencing some great laterals, floater, and a mild ejector pop here and there. They've also done a good job adjusting this ride to truly race again after a long period of the Thunder side winning every time. The lights on this are absolutely gorgeous, flipping between solid colors, rainbow, and incandescent off-white. It's one of the best sights in the park.
Comet - After riding Lightning Racer, I booked it over to Comet for what I feel is one of the best night rides in the park. It has everything to do with the ride's setting. From the ride, you get great views of the park's more traditional flats, giving a real old-school park/carnival feel. The lights themselves are old-fashioned chaser lights, and between that and the ride's overall old-fashioned aesthetic with its white paintjob, just gives me warm and fuzzies. The old buzz bar trains were replaced this year with fresh and new PTC lapbar trains, with a nice glittery paintjob and luxuriously cushioned seats. Unfortunately, these new trains do not track very well, and the ride is rougher and bouncier than ever. Again not to the point of pain, but the old trains offered a noticeably smoother ride. I've said it before: this ride could very well rival something like Phoenix at Knoebels if the buzz bars were restored and the trims removed, but I'm sure it's much easier to maintain in its current configuration. Last ride of the night on night 1. Comet also tends to get a long line at the beginning of the day, but by midday is a lot more manageable.
SooperDooperLooper - First ride of the day on day 2. A nice Schwarzkopf looper with one good loop and essentially a mine train following it. Not the most intense ride in the world, but Hershey lovingly maintains it, and it's historically significant as a great example of a vintage Schwarzkopf looper. Look around when you ride and you'll almost certainly find a kid going upside-down for the first time (or a grown man nearing 30 doing it for the first time, like I was two years ago).
Skyrush - Skyrush's old trains were, at best, polarizing. The new trains are certainly more popular with most riders, but the most devoted thrill seekers complain that they have muted the coaster's laterals. I agree, but I don't find the ride any less great than I did before. I will say that while the old restraints pressed down on my legs, the new restraints press more against my groin and lower stomach. I'm not all that chubby (5'6" 175 lbs), so it's a pretty uncomfortable sensation. The new restraints are certainly more ergonomic and fit the contour of your legs a bit more nicely. Win some, lose some. Still feels plenty wild from the magic back row left wing seat.
Trailblazer - I always have a soft spot for these old Arrow mine trains. This is a solid and straightforward layout, and runs nice and smooth. A very popular family ride, but with two long trains running, the wait is never that long.
Wild Mouse - A Wild Mouse that's been here for over 25 years at this point. To me, it has become a staple of the Hersheypark lineup, and it's one of my favorite Wild Mice I've been on. It seems to have been lightly worked on recently, as it felt smoother than usual, and the lapbar foam looks very fresh.
Storm Runner - Closed for much of our visit, we double-timed it over when we saw it go over the top hat only for it to be temporarily delayed again. I could see maintenance onsite looking at the ride, so I figured we'd wait around to see how long it'd take to come back up. The op at the queue entrance was not confident, but after 10 minutes, it reopened and stayed open for the duration of the day. This is my favorite launch on any coaster. Super punchy launch, and great airtime over the top hat from the front row. The flying snake dive of course is one of the best elements on any coaster, even after 20 years of operation. The only real criticism of this ride is how short it is. If it were another 20 or 30 seconds, this would easily be in the conversation as the best ride in the park or even one of the best rides overall.
Jolly Rancher Remix - While this is a solid renovated Boomerang with vest restraints and a cool theme, I skipped this one as the line stayed slammed for our entire visit. I'd rather reride Wildcat.
Laff Trakk - An indoor Maurer spinner with a funhouse theme that, while decent and air-conditioned, is just not worth the typical 1+ hour wait. Very very popular with families.

Hershey also has a bunch of good flats as well:

Coal Cracker - I've always liked this Arrow log flume, but this past visit felt like it was running extra wild. As if there was more water in there, and the water was moving faster. I've never felt the drop like this before. We got last-ride-of-the-night on this, and it was pretty funny. Like night swimming, but it's a log flume.
Kissing Tower - Real nice observation tower.
Carrousel - The park's oddly-spelled vintage carousel, with functioning band organ! Was closed on our first day, oddly. I preferred this in its old location in Founder's Circle.
Tilt-a-Whirl - Nice 1980s revival Tilt-a-Whirl.
Ferris Wheel - Now-iconic Ferris Wheel with excellent lights. I could see this getting relocated if they ever expand the water park.
Hershey Triple Tower - Three drop towers, small/medium/large, side-by-side. Quite a sight to see when they're all running at the same time.
Mix'd - Another damn Zamperla NebulaZ.

It's hard to be impartial when making a trip report for a place that I already love so much. This park has so much to love about it, honestly. The coaster lineup is as good and deep as any park outside of CP and SFMM. The park is well-manicured and maintenance does such a great job keeping the rides smooth and the park beautiful. There are very few places here to see chipped paint, faded colors, broken signs, or anything of the like.

In spite of high crowds, I always find myself able to ride the coasters at least once over the course of a single day. In the case of this last visit, I prioritized rerides on Wildcat and Great Bear over riding Jolly Rancher and Laff Trakk. But if you start from the back of the park at park opening and work your way back to the front, you'll almost certainly finish the coasters with time left in the day for a few rerides. Taking advantage of the generous night-before park preview, where you can get into the park for 2 hours the day before your first visit, helps a great deal.

This park is one of the prettiest-ever at night. Most of the rides feature gorgeous lights as I mentioned in my coaster reviews, and I particularly love the lights on Comet, Lightning Racer, and the Ferris Wheel. There are also cool-looking lights on SooperDooperLooper and Wildcat's Revenge. Additionally, the park does a great job of decorating during the Halloween and Christmas seasons, though many of the rides don't run for Christmas (unlike SFGAdv which runs almost its full lineup during that time).

Ops are often maligned at this park for being slow and stacking trains, but I didn't find them any worse than any other park we had experienced on this trip. I usually think people are being pretty unfair to this park, honestly. Hershey's slow ops are like a meme, and people who come in expecting it will inevitably see it at some point. I have found it quite the contrary, where Hershey ops seem to be doing a solid job and are friendlier than at other parks. All coasters were on two or three-train ops except for Great Bear on our first night. It added the second train for the rest of the weekend. Other than that first night on Great Bear, every ride was running at full blast. You love to see it!

Hersheypark is mostly very well shaded and has a lot of room to sit down if you need, but some areas could use a little help, specifically the front Chocolatetown region and the queue for Wildcat's Revenge. Chocolatetown will need trees or something very soon. Wildcat's Revenge will eventually grow into itself.

What the park does not offer is strong theming. There is little in the way of theming in any part of Hersheypark. There was at one point a stronger Old West theme in the Pioneer Frontier area, but that's more or less gone, with only a few buildings remaining that would suggest the theme. Otherwise the park's theme is best described as "amusement park."

Hersheypark has grown a great deal since my childhood. Essentially all of its big coasters were built after my first childhood visit. Between 1998 and now, Great Bear, Wildcat, Lightning Racer, Storm Runner, Fahrenheit, Skyrush, Laff Trakk, and Candymonium were all built. Before that, the park's biggest rides were Comet and SooperDooperLooper. By making itself an elite park, it has necessarily lost much of its quaint small-park feeling, culminating in the demolition of its old Tudor Village/Rhineland entrance to make way for the more modern, more practical Chocolatetown.

I also think at one point that its flat collection was a bit better. It sucks to lose the Whip, the Huss Condor, Chance Trabant, Chance Chaos, giant Intamin double Ferris Wheel, and Huss Rainbow all in that time. Water rides have taken a hit too: Canyon River Rapids was lost in favor of the Boardwalk, and they removed the Paddleboats from Spring Creek. Some of the flats that remain, such as Dry Gulch Railroad, have been stripped of much of their theming and seem to be on their last legs.

I also lament that their kiddie ride selection has gotten less robust in that time. I remember as a child there being a lot of really good, actually relatively fun kiddie rides, but now they're kind of half-assed and shoved into whatever corner is available. Many of these kiddie rides were relocated to Dutch Wonderland. I'm glad they didn't just get scrapped, but eschewing family/kiddie rides in favor of huge thrill rides changes the entire atmosphere here, and its clientele.

Hersheypark is infamous for being super crowded, especially on peak summer weekends, but as mentioned before, it's not an obstacle to enjoying everything the park has to offer. I've been here on multiple summer weekends and holiday weekends, and never found it unbearably crowded at any point. Maybe I'm just lucky. The park clears out significantly after sunset, with many rides as walk-ons, so I recommend staying all the way to park close if you can.

The food here ranges from mediocre to very good, with the highlights being the pretzel stand next to the Sky Way, Tower Fries near Great Bear, the excellent lemonade sold at many different stands and by traveling vendors throughout the park, and the kettle corn. Don't be one of those nincompoops standing in line for an hour to eat Chick-fil-A or Moe's. The BBQ smokehouse always smells really nice, but it's decidedly bad, speaking as someone who loves good BBQ. Dry meats and pasty side dishes.

The Chocolatier restaurant located above the gift shop at the park entrance is okay, but it's a bit expensive, and the chocolate-infused dishes are not really all that interesting. Milton's Ice Cream downstairs is good, and the milkshakes available at Chocolate World are really good too. Of course, you're morally obligated to stop at Chocolate World to take the free chocolate tour ride and get some free candy at the end.

Some non-park travel details for those possibly interested - Hershey, PA has become a major vacation destination, and as such, it can be very expensive to stay within the actual town of Hershey. This goes especially for trying to stay in a Hershey property such as the Hershey Lodge or Hotel Hershey, which respectively can run you $500+ or $800+ per night during peak times. That's beyond Disney prices for a hotel and shuttle service to the park! It's much more cost-effective to stay 20-30 minutes away from the park. In our case we ended up at the Holiday Inn Express in Mechanicsburg, which is easily the nicest and quietest hotel I've stayed in during a trip to Hershey. There's plenty of good restaurants around. Primanti Bros always hits hard, the nearby Cocoa Diner is open late and is decent, and there's plenty of chains and fast food to pick from otherwise. We ended up getting a late night dinner at PJ Whelihan's (just a couple of salads), and we were so impressed with it the first time that we came back the next night and it was horrible. So I probably won't go back there again. Hershey is also near other popular vacation areas like Amish country, and a little over an hour south of Knoebels.

So that puts a wrap on Coaster Trip 2024. 5 parks, 34 new credits, 41 coasters in all, and an absolutely wonderful 10 days with my wife, doing something I love. What's better than this?

TL;DR:

Hersheypark is an elite thrill park with an amazing and deep lineup
A true destination park, one worth going out of the way for

My personal ranking of the coasters at Hersheypark:

Wildcat's Revenge
Storm Runner
Skyrush (once effectively tied for #2 with Storm Runner, I feel the new restraints make it a more firm #3)
Fahrenheit
Great Bear
Candymonium
SooperDooperLooper
Comet (this one fell slightly in the rankings due to the new trains)
Lightning Racer
Jolly Rancher Remix
Trailblazer
Wild Mouse
Laff Trakk