The whole area is quite a big complex as there are different
buildings etc as well as the park itself. There is for example: Hershey’s
Chocolate World and the Hershey Hotel in the same locale. We opted to just do
the park though as, for one thing, it looked pretty big and we only had this
one day to do it. Another reason we decided to avoid the Chocolate World, apart
from our current dislike of all unhealthy foods, is the fact that we’ve been to
the Cadbury World in Dunedin, NZ and this was a great chocolate factory tour.
We heard from others that the Hershey one doesn’t really offer much apart from
a video and a sample at the end. Besides, we don’t like the Hershey Chocolate!
We picked up a map and immediately noticed we were right in
thinking the park looked big, it is huge. We decided to use the tried and
tested method from Florida and knock out all of the big rides to ensure we got
our money’s worth. To accomplish this we made a beeline for the newest ride in
the park – Skyrush. Something to note is that the park has graded all its 60+
rides on a scale from 1-5 with 5 being classed as “Aggressive Thrill Ride.”
Most of the ones we went on today were 5s. The queue was, understandably, long
but still was only a fraction of what you’d get at Alton Towers and so after
about 50 minutes we were on.
The first thing you notice about this ride is that nothing
goes over your shoulders and you are held in by a restraint that clamps down
onto your thighs. Danny assured Corrie this would be fine as the centrifugal
force would keep them in their seats anyway for any loops along the track.
Also, each row has 4 seats with 2 of them being edge seats where the rider is
hanging over the edge of the track. Corrie was in an edge seat whilst Danny was
in the middle; the rides slogan is “Ride the edge.” The ride starts by taking
you up to about 65 metres before you speed off downhill at about 75 mph. This
bit was fun but it was what followed that changed our whole riding experiences.
After the dip the ride rockets back up a hill and when you reach the peak the
force lifts you from your seat. Both our mental states at this time were along
the lines of: “Oh my God I’m going to die; on the next hill I’m going to come
out of this useless leg clamp thing and fall to my death.” There were no loops
on the track and so the force simply attempted to pull us from our seats at
every hill’s peak. When the ride finally completed its minute long lap we both
wiped away the tears from our eyes – whether from crying or the speed we are
unsure.
After vowing not to go on that ride ever again we made our
way to get in line for one of the old wooden rollercoasters – Comet. This one
was fun and was, as all the old wood coasters are, very unforgiving and simply
battered you around the track until the ride was over.
Then we went on: Superdooperlooper, a log flume, Great Bear,
and Fahrenheit before making our way over to try and cool down once more on a
wet ride. One thing you can almost be guaranteed of in America is that if you
go on a water ride you are going to get absolutely soaked, not wet or splashed
but drenched entirely.
 |
| Fahrenheit's vertical lift then drop |
The weather was over 100 again today and we were
struggling once more in the heat; the last log flume was more of a kid’s ride
really and so we didn’t get that wet.
Here we were standing in the queue for the Roller Soaker,
moving incredibly slowly we might add. This coaster is a suspended 4-seater
that you sit in with your legs dangling down over a water park/ play area. Whoever
designed this ride was either a child or the devil. It is the kids who are
running loose in this area and have full control over the powerful water
blasters that shoot huge jets of water vertically at the passing coaster cars.
It is also they who can man the strategically placed water guns and blast water
wherever they desire. Come on designer, these are kids we’re talking about so
when you put a very long line of fully clothed, dry people in range of such
things what do you expect to happen. We still remember the maniacal grins on
the faces of the kids as they constantly fired gallons of jets of water at the
queue of riders. It was funny to watch, especially when there were some people
in line who clearly wanted to avoid getting wet. Number 1: they’d picked the
wrong ride and number 2: kids aren’t that stupid and covering yourself with a
towel and trying to hide behind your friend will not help you in this
situation. Eventually though we clicked onto the fact that this huge line was
moving so slowly because they only had one of the 4 seat cars going around the
track and so we gave up queuing and went to complete our thrill riding day.
Besides, we were now amply wet from head to toe and so were cooled down a
little.
 |
| Little... angel! |
Next was another wooden classic called Lightening Racer,
then another called Wildcat (extremely rough and rickety! ) We then went on a
shuttle coaster called Sidewinder which pulled you back up a hill then fired
you around the short track with a corkscrew and a loop before pulling you up
another hill to fire you back around the track in reverse. We only had two more
big coasters to do, though we opted to pass on the Trailblazer coaster and just
do Storm Runner. As we were nearing the front of the queue the clouds rolled
over and thunder could be heard nearing the park. Ironically, the ride then
closed due to the incoming storm and so we had to give that one a miss too! All
the coasters in the park now stopped running and so we decided this would be a
good time to leave; we still had a couple of hours of driving to do and time
was getting on.
It was a good day in the park though you’d probably need a
couple of days to do it properly, especially if you went with children. We’re
glad we did all/ almost all of the rides we wanted to though and are glad we
got away just before the heavens opened, hopefully to cool down the climate a
little.
We made it to the Philadelphia motel by the airport and went
straight to bed as tomorrow is sure to be a long day.
No comments:
Post a Comment