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Post by 65skylark on May 10, 2007 21:29:47 GMT -8
Last weekend my family and I were in Pennsylvania for a friends wedding. While we were there we took an extra day to visit Hersheypark. Simply put, this park was awesome! Very clean and well maintained. Extremely well rounded coaster line-up including....... Storm Runner: The only Intamin rocket coaster with inveresions. Great Bear: B&M Invert on par with Silver Bullet. Lightning Racer: GCII racing/dualling woodie that is now my second favorite woodie behind Thunderhead and bumping Tremors down to my number three spot. Wildcat: GCII woodie similar to Roar with great laterals and a fast, out of control feeling. Sooperdooperlooper: Classic Schwarzkopf running with no OTSR's just like it was designed too. Eleven coasters in all and a free with admision zoo, along with some good food (and candy of course) plus Chocolate World, a completely seperate building with its own dark ride (free of charge) and free candy when you get done with the ride! Seriously, if you want to visit Chocolate World and not Hersheypark, they don't charge you for parking, they don't charge you to get in, they don't charge you for the dark ride, and they give you free candy. Next to Disneyland, there is no park on the west coast that stacks up with Hersheypark IMO. Anyway, we had a great time. If you want to see my full photo trip report click below. And if you are ever in PA, I highly recommend a visit to Hershey. You won't be dissapointed. Photo Trip Report
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Post by skinnyguy on May 11, 2007 11:31:11 GMT -8
Really? ? You mean there is a park out there that's actually BETTER than SFMM? ? Nooooo I think you're pulling our legs here...can't possibly be true. First of all, Colossus was never designed to be a racing coaster...not sure where you got the idea that it was supposed to be. Plus, I find Colossus to be much more exciting and fun when only one of the trains is running, or when they do both of them but don't start them at the same time...and you can't honestly tell me you hate OTSR's....I mean, who doesn't like having your head beaten and smashed to death? And I personally like standing in line all day. One train per coaster is the way to go....so yeah, you can try all you want to get me to fall for your little joke here, but you aint fooling me!!!!!!
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Post by Bud Parsley on May 12, 2007 21:45:48 GMT -8
Storm Runner has always made me drool...please share more!?!?! And Lightning Racer seems like it would be incredible. Skinnyguy is that that new thing called sarcasm?
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Post by 65skylark on May 13, 2007 20:54:03 GMT -8
Bud, Storm Runner is great!
For starters this coaster has a truely great setting. You launch out of the station straight up over the Top Hat just like Xcelerator, but unlike Xcelerator you drop straight down (without turning) and into a ravine, making it longer drop than the actual height of the coaster. After droping into the ravine comes the best part of the coaster IMO. The Immelmann on Storn Runner is the single best inversion on any coaster I have ever ridden. It is disigned perfectly to give you an amazing amount of zero gravity, all the while providing an almost scary view from 135 feet off the ground. Next is the hartline roll which was just OK. The best part was exiting the roll in a dive straight for the ground. Then you cross over the rivier that runs through Hersheypark and make a few quick twists and over an airtime hill into the brakes.
Pros: Powerfull Launch. Great setting. Straight first drop off the Top Hat. (I prefer straight drops to twisting drops) Amazing first inversion.
Cons: 4 words. Over The Shoulder Restraints! Also a little awkward through the heartline roll. Not really rough, just not very gracefull like the rest of the coaster.
Overall, I still like Xcelerator a little better for two reasons. One, there are no OTSR's on Xcelerator, and two, the launch is more powerfull on Xcelerator. Storm Runner is a true winner though and I hope more parks will continue to invest in these coasters. Oh! Almost forgot Bud. You mentioned Lightning Racer. For as great as Storm Runner was, if I only had one ride I could ride at Hersheypark, It would be Lightning Racer. For one thing, it truely is two coasters intertwined together unlike most racing woodies like Clolossus or Rollong Thunder that have one large structure with just two tracks running side by side. The other thing that is great about this coaster is how perfectly timed it is. The cars leave exactly the same time, hit the lift at exactly the same time, hit the first drop at exactly the same time and then from there it is racing/dualling perfection with a near "photo finnish" on some runs. Not to mention either side (they are different one from the other) would be my second favorite woodie even if they stood alone and were not racing/dualling. That just adds to the excitement!
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Post by skinnyguy on May 14, 2007 16:01:57 GMT -8
Yes I was just kidding...sounds like you had a great trip and I like the looks of some of those coasters! I also have always liked the looks of Storm Runner.
I gotta get out more....
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