Blog of Unintended Consequences

Ladies and Gentlemen, please remain seated until the ride has come to a complete and final stop.

…

At this time you may push down and pull up on your lapbars, unfasten your safety belts, and exit to your right. Thank you for riding, and enjoy the rest of your life!

As I walk down the exit ramp, a few loose ends to tie up. The final tally, as measured by my list at CoasterCounter:

2008 Total:56

Lifetime total: 158

As I suspected, each track of Lightning Racer counts separately, so I get a bonus!

This trip was a tremendous success, despite the disappointments caused by unfortunate closures during our visits (Leap the Dips, Flying Turns, Jerry’s Seafood, Carl’s Ice Cream, Village Candy) . There were probably as many happy accidents, and we rolled with the punches and came up smiling every time. We’re all still getting along well, too, which I expected - but I have no right to. A family that can play and travel together for that long without freaking out is a wonderful thing, and I know how fortunate I am to have one.

There are some people to thank, in no particular order:

• My wife and children, for coming with me. We all enjoy parks and rides, but it was my trip and they indulged me. Next year, we’ll do something relaxing.
• My parents, who gave me the park bug in the first place AND watched our dog throughout most of the trip.
• My Uncle-, Parents-, and sister-in-law and their families for our time at the beach house, a much-needed mid-course break.
• My brother and sister-in-law for encouraging my madness.
• ARN&R , for keeping me from becoming ‘that guy’ and publishing bits of my writing.
• Roller Coaster Database and The Flat Joint for invaluable information during the planning.
• My co-workers and friends who have endured some repetitive conversations about this trip, and will likely endure more in weeks to come.
• Chowhoun.com and the readers thereof, without whom the dining would not have been possible. See these threads: http://www.chowhound.com/topics/518425 and http://www.chowhound.com/topics/518424

And a few lessons learned from the Midways:

• Nothing which is described as “Rockin” deserves the description.
• You WILL get wet on this ride - if you are doing it properly.
• Most fudge isn’t worth eating.
• Airtime never lasts long enough, but is worth chasing anyway.
• Family owned parks are in general more fun than corporate owned - but parks owned by corporations whose primary business is not parks are better than those owned by corporations whose primary business IS parks.
• It is worth taking extra time and trouble to eat something local and interesting.

With that, we’ll head for the parking lot. Remember to get your hand stamped as you exit, like I always do - that means you’re coming back for more.

Tuscora is a city park of New Philadelphia, Ohio, and on our way home from Pittsburgh. I’d hoped to ride their one coaster ( called “Roller Coaster”) to get me closer to completing the full Ohio set, but with a 200 pound weight limit it was not to be. Our sons rode it and declared it nothing special.

The real reason for stopping in was to applaud properly a city that decided to maintain amusements in their park, even if on a very small scale. It’s clearly geared for young kids, and just think how cool it would have been for you as a 5-7 year old if you could ride a roller coaster or antique kiddie carousel for $.75 when you got tired of the swingset or the pool. Good on yer, New Philadelphia!

Lunch/Dinner at Hog Heaven in New Philadelphia, a local with three locations. Heavily into Harley-Davidson motorcycles and with some pretty good BBQ; I recommend sticking with the pulled pork and/or ribs for the entree, as the non-bbq dishes are pretty Sysco standard fare. For appetizers, try the Hog Balls (ground pork meatballs with bbq sauce) or Hog Eggs (deep-fried hard boiled eggs served with wing sauce).

New Coasters Today:0

2008 Total:55

Lifetime total: 157

A first on the trip - a park I’ve been to before. Also a last, as tomorrow’s park is very small and more or less a courtesy stop on the way home. The tour draws to a close.

Kennywood is a park seriously into its history. It started out as a picnic grove, then was converted into a ‘Trolley Park’ - an amusement destination to convince light rail passengers to ride all the way to the turnaround at the end of the line, generating revenue for the railway. There are nearly as many ‘last of its kind’ or ‘oldest operating’ here as at Knoebels - the Kangaroo, Auto Race/Ride, Turtle, Noah’s Ark, Racer and more. And even though it was purchased by a corporation this year, so far the atmosphere and prices still seem more like the family ownership I knew. I hope it keeps up that way.

Only two coasters are new to me here, but I’ll review all the ones I re-rode with the lads, who had never been:

• Exterminator. A highly themed Reverchon spinning mouse. The Kennyville power system is being overrun by huge rats, and we are they! Exterminators hunt us through this dark ride, until we spin out of control though an overheated boiler room. Loved the ride, but the themed queue featured the thrill of being underground in an echo chamber with 100 junior high kids talking over each other and the video backstory. No re-ride for me today.
• Jack Rabbit. The oldest coaster in the park, and a John Miller signature - the first drop has no lift, but takes advantage of the terrain to give us a dip and airtime return right out of the station, then back round to the lift and round again. No seat dividers, loose belt. A classic.
• Lil’ Phantom. Too-small kiddie; my sons weren’t interested, and I’m too big.
• Phantom’s Revenge. I can’t say enough good about the way D.H. Morgan rescued the brutal Steel Phantom from its original design. With the inversions removed and the most comfortable restraints I’ve ever experienced, the Phantom’s revenge is much smoother, full of surprise and airtime, and slightly faster. I never wanted to ride Steel Phantom again, but I’d ride Revenge all day.
• Racer. I have a soft spot for this ride due to its fascinating design - though it races, there is only one track. Those who depart on the right return on the left. Sometimes called a Moebius coaster, there are only 3, and only one in the U.S. Bonus - with only one track, you have to race the trains! A John Miller design, of course.
• Thunderbolt. Redesigned from Miller’s ‘Pippin’, keeping 4 drops into the ravine and adding a twisty helix and taller lift hill. Shares the classic drop-before-lift of the Jack Rabbit, and equally worthy.

I mentioned a number of unique other rides in the introductory paragraphs, but I have one more to call out - Garfield’s Nightmare. Yes, that Garfield, the cartoon cat. The boat dark ride is even more dated than Garfield, though - it’s been operating since 1901 with many changes of theme. I think, but have been unable to prove, that it is the oldest operating amusement ride in the world. Good finish, eh?

Lunch in the Park at the Potato Patch, of course - Kennywood fries with gravy! Dinner at Latina Pizza just outside the park. Pittsburgh style Sicilian with some great sauce; if you’re at the park, it’s better than the food inside, but not outstanding otherwise.

Late edit: Just went out to the car to retrieve the fudge we bought as an afterthought, and alone amongst this trips candy kitchens, it is impressive. Mark up as a must-try the Kennywood fudge.

New Coasters Today:2 (Exterminator and Phantom’s Revenge)

2008 Total:55

Lifetime total: 157

Rain today; the first we’ve been rained on all trip, which is not a bad record. Also fortunately, Idlewild is a fairly small park and some of the attractions we were interested in are sheltered. It was my Mother’s home park when she was a child, and may be the first park I ever went to… I have no memory of it, so I’ll have to sort that out with my parents at some point.

It’s also designed more for the younger set, with a few more thrill rides than Dutch Wonderland, but nothing that Junior High kids would find challenging. As such, we finished with it relatively quickly. Two coasters:

• Rollo Coaster. H.P. Schmeck again, this time it seems on a tight budget. It clings to the side of a hill, but doesn’t use the terrain for excitement so much as basic support. It features trains with neither seat dividers nor belts, just a fixed lap bar, which is certainly unusual. I don’t, however, see what makes it a classic apart from age. The drops are small and speed low, with only one jolt for airtime.
• Wild Mouse. Not operating today. A real shame, given the pedigree- this seems to be Intamin’s only mouse and once lived at both Weiner Prater in Vienna and Alton Towers in England.

Other rides:

• Caterpillar. The last one in the world operating with both the canopy and fan intact. It’s in terrific shape and was all I could hope for.
• Dizzy Lizzy’s. Guess what? The Dutch Wonder House is the last of the old haunted swings, but Dizzy Lizzy’s is the first of the new - there are at least 2 operating now, and we’ve ridden them both. Lizzy’s is larger and better decorated, but doesn’t have the shock value of seeing the house spin from the outside before riding.
• Whip. Looks like an original ride, but running with fiberglass carriages rather than the original wood and metal.
• Mister Roger’s Neighborhood of Make-Believe. I grew up watching Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood. I never liked him as a child, but I loved the Trolley and neighborhood of Make-Believe. This ride is like Star Trek: The Experience for those of us who loved those puppets. We got to ride on Trolley around the neighborhood, passing on the invitation to the party from King Friday XIII to all the characters I remember. My children, who never watched the show, we pretty well bored, but I had a great time.

Dinner tonight at Carol and Dave’s Roadhouse in Ligonier, PA. Looks like the neighborhood bar that it is, but the food is imaginative, fresh, and very high quality. Carol and Dave know how to cook! The service was prompt and friendly, too. I cannot recommend the fresh chips with blue cheese and tomatoes enough. Please treat yourself if you are anywhere near.

New Coasters Today:1

2008 Total:53

Lifetime total: 155

HersheyPark’s little sister in the heart of Pennsylvania Dutch country is primarily intended for children younger than ours, and I’ve borne that in mind for this review. It’s a small park and not intended for thrill seekers.

It is, however, beautifully kept and gardened, and all of the staff seem very much in tune with the needs of their young guests. The park’s theme is “A Kingdom for Kids”; we’re all Knights and Princesses when we’re there, as the restroom doors attest, and Brooke (the resident Princess of Dutch Wonderland) was doing a fine job meeting and greeting her adoring fellow princesses.

A brief aside here: Why is it that boys would be better off as Knights than Princes? Are we supposed to be unsatisfied if we aren’t workingmen? Don’t Princes get flash armor? If you care to suggest that Princes are a bit Nancy, I have only this to say. Prince Harry vs. Sir Elton. End aside.

Starting to wander here; a hard drive tonight, so I’d best get to the rides:

• Joust. A Chance Big Dipper steel family coaster. Not as hard on adults as many of its ilk.
• Kingdom Coaster. A custom woodie; she’ll always be the Sky Princess to me. No thrills, but this may well be the ideal first coaster for kids. It’s big enough to sound and feel ‘real’ and has full size trains, but no real first drop, roughness, or jolts. A little bit of airtime and a helix finish round it out.

Two other notable rides - the Dutch Wonder House is the last remaining example of an illusion ‘ride’ that once was very popular indeed: The haunted swing. Riders in line can see a small cottage that very clearly spins fully upside down several times in both directions, then enter the house and are seated on a bench swing with no restraints of any kind. From inside, the motion of the house around the stationary swing is visually quite convincing; you’ll swear you’re hanging upside down by magic.

The bumper cars are Lusse Skooters, a little newer and slower than Knoebels set, but still worth a ride.

And my children would like to put a word in for their favorite ride, which I also found surprisingly fun. The double-drop flume is junior even if you add both drops together, but the first rise goes over the splash trough from the second drop and the logs cruise through a dark tunnel filled with cool mist during the course. You will get only a little sprinkled on this ride, but it’s very well done nonetheless.

Dinner tonight at Shady Maple - an ungodly huge buffet (sorry, smorgasbord is preferred locally) that’s so big it may qualify as a chain in it’s own right. The food was exceptionally good for buffet - better than, say, Applebee’s or TGIFriday. We ate too much and then were a little woozy for the horrors of the downstairs gift shop - looked like a full acre of crap. Yankee Candles. Music Boxes. Christmas Decorations. Every last maker of those little porcelain figurines  - I swear, three aisles of Angles alone. I’m glad I saw it, but if I’m in the neighborhood again I think I’ll find someplace equally local and a little smaller. Our breakfast place, Bird-in-Hand restaurant and smorgasbord, would probably do nicely.

New Coasters Today:2

2008 Total:52

Lifetime total: 154

Such a day. Not, in short, our favorite. I won’t bitch about all the details, but we couldn’t get some of the best ice cream in the country last night (Carl’s in Fredericksburg VA), got stuck in traffic on the way to the park, and missed our planned best dinner of the trip at Jerry’s Seafood - I swear I checked several times, but they don’t serve dinner on Mondays.

And the park fit right in. Oh, to be fair, it has the basics ok - it’s clean and not ugly, but somewhat poorly organized. It shows all the signs of Six Flags takeover; they buy the park, shit catalog coasters all over it, install Loony Toons and D.C. Comics stuff, and jack up the price… a lot. Clearly, I’m no stranger to park rules; I expect to be screwed on the costs of things in the park. But I’m not easy. I want to be kissed, too, and Six Flags is awfully rough. How’s a $14.99 Icee strike you? It comes in a souvenir cup!

Ah well, they have some coasters. Eight operating, to be exact, and we rode some:

• Batwing. A Vekoma flying coaster, exactly like King’s Island’s Firehawk (the former Six Flags Ohio X-Flight; these things go in circles). I find them all disappointing, and this is no exception. It doesn’t feel like flying so much as like something which can fly and has no interest in your comfort has grabbed you; thus, roughly the same as a short flight on a commercial carrier.
• Great Chase. Zamperla kiddie coaster, not at all bad for it’s size. I really shouldn’t have ridden it, but credit is credit even if it did slap my fat frame pretty hard.
• Joker’s Jinx. My first “spaghetti bowl”, so called due to the maze of twisted track and inversions that follows the LIM launch. The launch and first loop are good, but the ride is way slow in the middle through a lot of the twists as it stays high to conserve kinetic energy. It does dive and helix out to a decent finish.
• Mind Eraser. The credit counting drives me onto another Vekoma Suspended Looping Coaster, which beats me about the head, shoulders, and crotch as they are wont to do. Only T2 at Kentucky Kingdom was decent enough to ride again out of all the ones I’ve ridden.
• Roar. A quite good wooden twister, heavily banked to avoid the punishing laterals that often come with a twister layout. It sustains speed well, too, and we all liked it.
• Superman - Ride of Steel. I couldn’t ride due to my size. The rest of the family said ‘good first drop, painful rest of ride’.
• Two-Face: The Flip Side. A Vekoma Invertigo, closed all day, no notice posted outside the park. Meh, I’ve ridden plenty.
• Wild One. I chose this as my 150th lifetime coaster, due to it’s ancestry. It was originally designed by John Miller and was the tallest coaster in the world in 1917. Since then it has been redesigned twice - once by H. P. Schmeck and once by John Allen, then restored to the Miller design by Charlie Dinn when it was moved to Wild World (later to become Six Flags America). Check out the Wikipedia article. Our clear favorite in the park and a great ride; plenty of airtime and some surprising turns, including the final helix.

After arriving at a closed Jerry’s Seafood, we went to our backup restaurant, Rip’s Casual Dining. As it happens, they’ve recently expanded their seafood menu, so I got a terrific Crab Imperial and cream-of-crab soup, with Granny’s Surprise “the best fudge, coconut, and pecan pie you’ll ever have” for dessert. Serving since 1947, Rip’s is an institution and I happily add my voice to those already praising it.

New Coasters Today:6

2008 Total:50

Lifetime total: 152

Ah, the most beautiful theme park in the world (18 years running, as awarded by the membership of the National Amusement Park Historical Association). They’ve got a point, too - the gardens are stunning here, and the themed buildings are both very detailed and angle proofed, so the German village doesn’t look like the flat-roof pole barn village from the Skyride.

I should say Skyrides, because there are three here that form a transport triangle for the inner park, just as steam engine trains run a loop around the outside, making this a very easy park to get around. It’s also an easy park in which to get a beer - unsurprising considering the ownership, and even though I don’t much care for the A-B beers I couldn’t resist walking about with one just because that is so unusual in parks currently.

The coaster collection is small- only 5 operating - but each is special and worth riding. I certainly rode them all, and chose as my 40th of the trip the oldest in the park. Celebrating its 30th birthday this year is:

• Loch Ness Monster. I remember when this one took the tallest coaster record in 1978, and how cool those interlocking loops looked on television - the first of their kind, and the only still operating. Sadly, there were some compromises made in order to make the loops work - the ride is slow and there’s a very harsh midcourse brake before the second lift hill. A long and very dark tunnel adds a bit of interest before the lower loop.

And the rest:

• Alpengeist. The tallest and fastest of the B&M inverted, and my new favorite. Lots of speed, inversions, and well-themed footchoppers make it a real thrill
• Apollo’s Chariot. No inversions, just high-speed dips, drops, and high banked turns. The open train design shows off the speed and allows a tightly-restrained rider to still feel tossed about without so much as a bruise. Enter your row last (ride the leftmost seat as you face front) for a close approach to the ground on a bank. My 10-year-old son Leo said it best; this is what a steel coaster designed by John Allen would be like.  I apologized for making him that kind of geek so young, but he’s absolutely right.
• Big Bad Wolf. The finest of the Arrow suspended coasters since the demise of my well-loved Bat - like that ill-fated prototype, BBW uses the terrain and the swinging cars to reproduce the motion of a crazed animal. Big Bad Wolf adds a village to terrorize as you whip through it and a great last turn over water.
• Griffin. The tallest, fastest, and only floorless Dive Machine, and my first Dive Machine. What a rush - the ride creates literal suspense by stopping the train with riders facing straight down the 90 degree drop, letting them hang for a few seconds before releasing the brake and staring the plunge. There is a second suspense drop later in the course, not quite 90 degrees but close enough, and a genuine splash track for a big finish.

Favorites were tough, but Apollo’s Chariot wins with a slight margin for roller coasters. The  favorite ride of the day, though, was the next generation dark ride Curse of DarKastle. Kate threw up her hands to ward off 3-D projections about 10 times on our first ride and screamed 4 times - and screamed once even on our second ride when she knew what was coming. More than that I shall not say lest I ruin the surprise.

Honorable mention to Escape from Pompeii, a Chute-the-Chutes themed as an expedition to the ruins of Pompeii interrupted by a new eruption of Vesuvius. The fire and earthquake effects are stellar here.

We ate two meals in the park - German samplers at the Festhaus, and some BBQ from the Trapper’s Smokehouse in New France. Both acceptable, neither as good as I would expect outside the park.

New Coasters Today:5

2008 Total:44

Lifetime total: 146

Ride on…

A placeholder in case you are following our progress. We’ve been on the beach - the outer banks of North Carolina - and will get back to riding tomorrow at Busch Gardens Europe.

For now: beauty, wonderful, having a great time, wish you were here.

A peculiar sense of disorientation seizes me at Kings Dominion - like being in a different suburban wasteland, where the Staples is on the left of the Wal-Mart instead of on the right as it is at home. Kings Dominion was the second park opened by Family Leisure Centers (later to become Kings Entertainment) and is the little sister of my home park, Kings Island. As such, there were a lot of expected similarities. One surprise - there are still a few vestiges of the Hanna-Barbera characters here, which was nicely nostalgic.

On our visit, the park was only open from 10 am until 6 pm. We thought this would be a challenge with 13 coasters to do (14 if you accept King’s Dominion’s count), but short lines, short walks, and closures let us ride 10 by 4 pm and have time for a nice dinner before travelling.

Coasters soon, but first - a rant. King’s Dominion calls Dominator their ‘14th Coaster’. They can only do that by counting each side of Rebel Yell separately. That’s fair; they could stand alone. They only opened one track today, though, and didn’t list it as closed on the warning sign outside the gates. I know that the percentage of enthusiasts who count rides in any given park is tiny, and I don’t expect special accommodations. I wasn’t going to decide to not enter if one more coaster was closed - but for the sake of logic, if you count 14 in your advertisement, and you operate such that guests cannot ride one of them, you must count that too.

I feel better now. On to the coasters:

• Anaconda. Arrow multi-looper with the first underwater tunnel in North America, right of the lift hill. We rode front seat for maximum impact; the tunnel entrance is visually intimidating as you dive toward it, but the roof of the tunnel is visible above water so there isn’t the sense of diving under that I’d hoped for. The rest of the ride is a slow (and getting clunky in it’s age) tour of inversions. Like the Vortex at King’s Island, this would be a great kids’ first looper.
• Avalanche. A Mack bobsled style; fun if you like the bobsleds, as I do. Mack’s track is closely bundled steel rod rather than fiberglass, which I think made for a faster run, though no bobsled is going to be a high-speed thrill machine.
• Back Lot Stunt Coaster. Just like King’s Island’s (and both formerly The Italian Job Stunt Coaster) it’s cute, low speed, and more theme than ride, though the LIM launch into an upward spiral is always fun. Pleasantly surprised that the local MINI dealer hadn’t sponsored this one as Cincinnati MINI does at King’s Island. I can only imagine that they believe you might want a MINI because you like a ride that has cars shaped like one…
• Dominator. The third time I’ve ridden this, and it still counts as new - I rode it at Geagua lake under both names (Batman: Knight Fight and Dominator). No, wait - I guess the park was Six Flags Worlds of Adventure when the ride was Knight Flight, or was it Six Flags Ohio? Regardless, Dominator is still a really good ride in Virginia, though I miss the theming left over from Batman. The longest of the B&M Floorless coasters, with the loop famously described as ‘very large’.
• Flight of Fear. Closed for the day; probably identical to King’s Island and thus no big loss.
• Grizzly. Modeled on the Coney Island (Cincinnati) Wildcat and designed in-house by Taft. I always like to see classics revived. Though a fun ride, nothing about it stands out - it’s like many other twisters.
• Hurler. Originally themed for ‘Wayne’s World’, with some remnants still visible and making no sense at all. Lots of airtime on this one, but a bit rough on the lateral forces for my taste.
• Rebel Yell. Near twin (if not exact duplicate; more research needed) to King’s Island’s Racer. I like it just as much here in Virginia, though I can’t say there was much surprise to be had.
• Ricochet. A large Mouse, with less lateral slam and more dips and drops than most. Our favorite mouse of the trip so far
• Scooby-Doo’s Ghoster Coaster. Same plan as King’s Island’s Fairly Odd Coaster (neé Beastie,  neé Scooby-Doo). Some of the best kiddie coasters going.
• Shockwave. A Togo stand-up, much like the late King Cobra. I couldn’t ride due to unusual body proportions (really, not just fat -torso hight would have been a problem regardless). Everyone else liked it for it’s one trick.
• Taxi Jam. Closed. Probably wouldn’t have been let on in any case, as it’s a Little Dipper.
• Volcano, The Blast Coaster. Our favorite of the park, and the first launched inverted coaster. The theming (being shot from a volcano) is excellent and supports the ride’s  actual motion very well. The course would be thrilling even without the theming, so this is a winner all around, smooth and fast and lots of inversion.

Good food today - breakfast in Fredericksburg VA at the 2400 diner - operating since 1955 with very little change. I can’t say it was an exceptional breakfast, but the food and coffee were certainly better than the hotel would have been and the atmosphere unforgettable.

Dinner at The Smokey Pig, a traditional hickory smoke BBQ. Between us we had sliced pork, chopped beef, NC style pork, ribs, hush puppies, pickled beets, collard greens and baked beans. All excellent, all made on premises. If you find yourself in the mood for food near Ashland, VA the Pig is only a mile or so off of the interstate. Make the stop.

New Coasters Today:10

2008 Total: 39

Lifetime total: 141

Efficiency! Automation! Sanitation! Consistency! The Factory, Park, Schools, Gardens, and City of Milton S. Hershey! Dating from an era when no one would think to question if the world’s largest candy factory were a good thing, HersheyPark is a monument to the man whose name it bears. If any park is the spiritual ancestor of Disney World, it is this one - the same sort of monomaniacal drive, child-focused industry, and peculiar compassion are behind both. Regardless of what you think of the company today, you must admire Mr. Hershey’s achievements.

Unlike Disney’s parks, HersheyPark is a haven for roller coaster and thrill rides, with a nice selection of kiddie rides to boot. It is exceptionally well designed as a park - lots of green space and trees and rides intertwining for some very nice visuals and efficient (there it is again) use of space. We got to ride all 11 coasters:

• Comet. The park’s oldest ride, an unusual out and back layout with a nice long course and some modest airtime, but no real standout features for us apart from longevity.
• Fahrenheit. The newest coaster in HersheyPark’s collection boasts a 90 degree lift and a 97 degree first drop - the track actually undercuts the lift hill slightly. It’s no one-trick pony, though. The Intamin square track and twisted structure make it very difficult to predict one’s next move through a smooth course with plenty of inversions and a little airtime.
• Great Bear. A B&S inverted. I liked it much better than Dorney’s Talon - at least as much and possibly more than Cedar Point’s Raptor, which is saying something.
• Lightning Racer. Should probably count as 2 coasters (Thunder and Lightning tracks are quite different rides); we’ll sort that out later. I hate to say it, due to long-time loyalty to my beloved Kings Island racers, but this is my favorite racing/dueling coaster. Genius, pure and simple, perfectly balanced between air and twists and actually a fair race.
• Roller Soaker. A setpoint swing thing suspended coaster. Riders board 4 passenger cars, 1 pair facing forward and the other reverse. Each rider has a lever which can dump a 16 gallon ‘bomb’ of water on people walking below - who can in turn fire geysers and water cannon up at riders. A mild ride that would have been a real hoot if it hadn’t been 70 degrees and windy… that’s some cold, cold water.
• Sidewinder. A Vekoma Boomerang. Nothing to see here, move along.
• Superdooperlooper. A Schwartzkopf looper, with the track passing back through the loop for a stylish headchopper effect. I think, but have not been able to confirm, that this is a custom installation for HersheyPark rather than one of the catalog items.
• StormRunner. An Intamin launched coaster, somewhere between Knott’s Berry Farms Xcelerator and Cedar Point’s Maverick,with the usual hallmarks - fast, smooth, and twisty.
• Trailblazer. Our old friend the Arrow Mine Ride. Smoother and slower than most.
• Wild Mouse. See Dorney’s Wild Mouse.
• Wildcat. The first project from Great Coasters International is a winner; everything you could ask of a twister unless you like the spine-snapping Travers style. I very much like the new Millennium Flyer trains, as they have a classic style with modern restraints that manage to be comfortable.

We ate both meals in the park, lunch at Wurstburg Grille and one at Tudor Grille. Both were acceptable, about as good as one would get from AppleBees or similar. The Hershey Desserts at the Tudor Grille were appropriately like Hershey Candy.

New Coasters Today:11

2008 Total: 29

Lifetime total: 131

P.S. At the end of Day 4 we went to Hershey’s Chocolate world to ride the eduganda dark ride (Max and Leo called it the dark chocolate ride). Kate’s outrage at the concentrated advertising and the story of chocolate that starts in the factory rather than the farm was palpable; if it wouldn’t have resulted in my needing to walk home, I’d have bought the on-ride photo. Trust me, it was very clear.