Since my home park of Six Flags GADV is always insanely crowded this time of year, me and my girlfriend decided to go to Hersheypark this weekend instead. I'm at school at Penn State right now, so the drive wasn't bad at all (right around 2 hours). We left at about 1:00 and got to the park at 3pm. I was suprised to see the park was very crowded already considering it only opened an hour ago (their hours are 2-11pm).
We walked right into the park, since admission is free this time of year. We then waited for about 10 minutes in line to get our wristbands (unlimited rides) for only $24 each. Not bad considering a regular admission during the summer is almost $50. We headed right to Storm Runner first, and we were pleasantly suprised that the line was only about 20 minutes long. I've been to Hershey 3 times in the past 2 years and have never gotten to ride Storm Runner, mainly because I was always there with a school function and couldn't wait in line for 2 hours due to meeting times, etc. We boarded the right-hand station, and we were off. Let me tell you, the ride was amazing. The launch was definately the most incredible part, and it was noticeably smoother than an LIM launch. I love the design of the shoulder restraints, as it doesn't interfere with putting your arms up at all. Also, the cars had the stadium-seating layout just like TTD and MF, where the rear seats are slightly raised to give a much better view. I got some great airtime over the tophat, and the rest of the ride never let up. Definately one of my favorite rides of all time, although it is a bit short. I know the ride is relatively new, but I must give props to Hershey for keeping it in EXCELLENT condition. Everything was spotless, the paint was perfect, and the capacity was top-notch as well. The ride was definatly a work horse the entire day, as it appeared to be running flawlessly. Trains were launching every 1-2 minutes, which helped keep the wait times down. Overall, a great ride.

Next we headed to Sidewinder, since it is literally right next to SR. We waited about 15 minutes, which was great considering the relatively low capacity of the boomerang design. This is a pretty old ride, but again, Hershey has kept it in great condition. The trains were all freshly painted, the track looked great, etc. Definately a big difference from the older rides at GADV which seem to be neglected. Overall, a classic boomerang in great shape.

By this time it was about 4pm, and we headed for the Wildcat. We waited about 15 minutes and rode this classic woody. It has become a bit rough in recent years, but nothing too extreme. I rode Psyclone in SFMM and this is no where near as rough as that. Overall I still enjoyed the ride.

Next we went over to Lightning Racer, and got in line for Lighting. We waited about 25 minutes because when we were on line they added the second trains to each side, which took a couple of minutes. After that, the ride capacity was great. The line was pretty long but moved very fast. We boarded Lighting and we were off. I remember this ride being good, but I don't remember it being great. Well, this time I changed my mind. This is definatly my favorite wooden coaster as of now, and I think the racing aspect adds to the fun tenfold. The ride is designed so well; you constantly cross paths with the other train, and they are always neck and neck. The ride is also amazingly smooth, and this just adds to the fun. We wound up losing but only by about 3 feet. The crossing paths of the two trains was definately the best part about the ride, and overall I had a blast. A great, well-designed coaster.

After LR we headed out of the park to Chocolate World. We did some shopping and were gonna go for the tour but the line was pretty long. We dropped the stuff off at the car and headed back in the park. It was getting dark now and the park was starting to light up. We went over to Wok & Roll to grab some dinner, which was good but pretty costly(for what you get anyway). For the two of us dinner came to $25, which I guess can be expected since we are in an amusement park (Gadv is definately not any better).

After dinner we wanted to digest for a little bit so we rode the kissing tower which had about a 10 minute wait, and then played a few games of ring-on-the-bottle. My girlfriend really wanted one of those huge stuffed animals but we had no such luck. Normally I would play one bucket and leave but the guy next to us won, so I figured we could give it another try. We weren't so lucky, so we decided to head over to Great Bear.

I've been on this ride plenty of times, but never at night before. We waited about 20 minutes and boarded the second-to-last row. The helix after the lift is a great touch, and the ride was great as usual. The fact that it was dark also made the ride much better because it really gave that out-of-control feeling, like we were hurdling through the dark. We couldn't see the track ahead so this kind of added to the excitement factor. Overall this is a great B&M and one of my favorite inverts.

After Great Bear it was getting really cold out so we decided to get some funnel cake and go inside for a little bit. We looked at some of the chocolate shops, and finally got in line for Tilt-O-Whirl because my gf really wanted to ride it. After that we were getting really cold so we decided to head back to the car. There were a good amount of people leaving by now (around 9:00), but there wasn't any major traffic leaving the parking lot.

Overall we had a great day at Hersheypark. The park was crowded, but there were a LOT of young kids so the lines for the bigger rides were not bad by any means. My biggest suprise was how well-kept the park was. All of the rides were open and operating at full capacity. The staff was very friendly, and also very efficient. They weren't stacking trains or anything which seems to be a big problem at some other parks. The park itself was spotless and everything was top-notch. This was a great time of year to go and was definately one of my best visits. Next year I plan on doing the same thing for Halloween