The Edge of the Millennium Tour 6/21-6/24 (Hershey/Dorney)

[MDMC01]

Hey all, MDMC01 here. I just got back from an amazing trip that I'd love to share with you all. I recently took my first major coaster trip that I titled "The Edge of the Millennium Tour". The title was apt for a number of reasons, one of which being that at least one ride in both of the parks we visited originally opened in the year 2000 (these rides were known as our "icon" rides). My cousin Ryan and I left on Sunday for our hotel and came back today (Wednesday). During our stay in PA, we visited Hersheypark and Dorney Park and had a great time! Below is the trip report for Hersheypark:

 

Hersheypark:

 

We got there close to opening, and after getting into the park, getting our photo taken and putting our stuff in our locker, we made Fahrenheit our first ride of the day. Although I was really pumped to ride Storm Runner, I chose Fahrenheit because I was just so excited and wanted to ride something right away. The line wasn’t too bad and the ride op even asked us if we wanted front seat. Of course I said yes and we had a great time. It wasn’t as fast as I thought it would be, but it was still fun. After this, we headed to Storm Runner. This is one ride that I’ve been wanting to go on since it came out (in 2004) and it was awesome! Just like Fahrenheit, we got front seat and it was incredible. The launch was really fast and the inversions were crazy. One thing I love about this ride is the auto-spiels because the guy’s voice reminds me of the Powerthirst Youtube videos. I almost feel that if Powerthirst was a real energy drink, Storm Runner would be sponsored by Powerthirst. In addition to the manly Powerthirst voice, there was also this woman’s voice that sounded like someone I heard on a roller coaster video made in the 90’s. After that awesomeness, we decided to ride Sidewinder because it was close. This was Ryan’s first boomerang and my first standard (as in, not inverted) boomerang. I noticed the new restraints and it was a good ride, but not worth riding again. Not surprisingly, it did remind me a lot of Invertigo and I imagined what the ride would have been like with the older, more confining restraints.

     

Next, it was Ryan’s turn to pick 3 rides, so he chose Skyrush. The lines at the front of the park were longer than the back, but we waited it out. I compared the line length and speed to Banshee on a good day. I got a wing seat, and while the ride looked fun, it killed my thighs too much to fully enjoy it. After that, we decided to tackle Wildcat since we knew lines were short towards the back of the park. We sat towards the front and it was a pretty good ride. Next was Lightning Racer, which is something both of us had wanted to ride and it was our “icon” ride since it debuted in the year 2000 (it was also my first dueling coaster). Since lines were relatively short, we decided to duel; he chose Lightning, I chose Thunder. I really like this ride, but I was surprised it only dueled twice. We then switched sides and I had a blast riding Lightning in the back. After that, it was back to me and we both chose Laff Track only because the line was somewhat shorter that the last time we passed. It was our first real wait, but it ended up being a fun ride. There were a lot of brakes throughout the ride and I thought it would spin more, but it was still enjoyable. After this, we took a break for lunch at Subway, which was really good. They serve UTZ products with their meals and the cheese curls were amazing; they tasted just like the cheese balls I get at Walmart sometimes. While letting our food settle, I decided to take some pictures of Lightning Racer.

 

After lunch, we decided to tackle Wild Mouse. It was a pretty good ride and some had interesting forces to get used to as I hadn’t been on a Wild Mouse coaster in a while. My last pick was Lightning Racer again. I wanted to try Thunder in the back since Lightning was so incredible in the back. It was pretty good, but not as good as Lightning. I then rode Lightning again because it was awesome. After that, I decided I was done with dueling for now and since it was Ryan’s turn to pick, we decided to do the waterpark. Before we got our swimsuits on, he wanted to do Tidal Force. This thing may remind you of Congo Falls at KI, but it’s not. It lives up to its name as you get rained on after the large drop. No seriously, we were soaked! When the water was coming down, I was like, “Is it going to stop, is it gonna stop…”. So, yeah. After that, we changed and we both wanted to do this purple waterslide at East Coast Waterworks, a water play area for all ages. I didn’t appreciated getting wet on the way up (there were water toys to play with along the way),but the slide was good and it wasn’t as fast as I thought it would be because it looked really intense. After that, we tried one of the tube slides called Vortex. It was what you’d call a “toilet bowl” slide and it was fun. After that, we decided to split off because he wanted to do more waterpark stuff and I was done with the waterpark. So, while he stayed in the waterpark, I made my way to The Claw. It’s similar to Delirium at KI, but the seats face inward and there are “cars” that seat 4 at a time. I got an end seat on one of the cars and it was pretty fun. After this, I decided to take another ride on Storm Runner. I wanted to try it in the back (they had just opened the back seat up as I guess it got more crowded; there were only 4 rows open when we rode that morning) and it was amazing. I got some sweet airtime and one of the spirals felt like sitting in the back of Top Thrill Dragster. After this, I found him and we regrouped.

 

After finishing his gelati/custard mix from Rita's, we decided to ride Trailblazer as I still had four more coasters to tackle before the day ended. It was OK, but Adventure Express is better. After this, we walked a ways and decided to take a spin on Flying Falcon. For those who don’t know, this ride looks like a scrambler in mid-air. I had never been on one before this trip, and it was pretty cool; it reminded me of Shake Rattle and Roll (at least the beginning of SRR). After that, we decided to check out ZooAmerica. It was a really cool walkthrough and a break from all the rides. We saw foxes, elk, a bear and lots of snakes. I also saw a Pronghorn antelope, which I had previously only seen in animal books when I was a kid. After that amazing adventure, we decided to tackle Great Bear. Apparently, it was Ryan’s first inverted coaster, and he really liked it, as did I. We sat in the third row and I liked how it was a mix between chill and thrill. I had so much fun, I rode again, this time in the front. Surprisingly, it was more intense in the front, but it was still a fun ride. After this, I rode sooperdooperlooper as it was close to Great Bear. I rode with a local and it turned out to be really fun. After that, I wanted to try Skyrush again only because I thought the theigh-crushing was because I was sitting in a wing seat. Per the local’s suggestion, I got the front and got a non-wing seat on the right. It was better, but still very theih-crushing  on the airtime hills. Another little surprise is that some bugs flew in my face during the ride as it was dusk, but that just made the ride more interesting. So, to summarize, I don’t think SkyRush lives up to the hype that I’ve heard. Though the ride itself is tolerable at best, I do love the enthusiastic autospiel lady you hear as you board. I forgot to mention this earlier, but although Skyrush has wing seats like Diamondback, all seats are loaded together instead of having separate rows for the wing seats. What I mean is that riders are loaded four across instead of two by two.

 

After this, Ryan rejoined me (he sat out for my 2^nd round of GB, SDL and Skyrush because he was starting to get a headache) for the last new coaster of the day, Comet. When we visited Skyrush earlier, Comet had an insanely long line, but the line wasn’t too bad now. We had a good night ride and were surprised how long the ride is as you can only see some of the course from the midway. I commented that it just kept going and going and going. We were starting to get tired, but I wanted to take one last spin on Great Bear before our time at Hershey ended. I sat in the second row and had a great ride. We then went to retrieve our stuff from our lockers before buying souvenirs and leaving for the night. I got a Storm Runner and a Great Bear t-shirt and he got some kettle corn. All in all, it was a great day, and the weather was perfect.

-MDMC01

Favorite Rides: Lightning Racer (Lightning, then Thunder), Storm Runner, Great Bear

 

Ride/Attraction Count:

The Claw- 1

Comet- 1

East Coast Waterworks Purple Slide- 1

Fahrenheit- 1

Flying Falcon- 1

Great Bear- 3

Laff Track- 1

Lightning Racer: Thunder- 2, Lightning- 2

Sidewinder- 1

Skyrush- 2

Sooperdooperlooper- 1

Storm Runner- 2

Tidal Force- 1

Trailblazer- 1

Vortex (water slide)- 1

Wildcat- 1

Wild Mouse- 1

ZooAmerica- 1

 

Stay tuned for my Dorney Park trip report!

EDIT: I did take pictures during the trip, but it will take a while for me to upload them due to some technical difficulties on my end...

[malem]

Thanks for the report; glad you had a great time!

[jcgoble3]

Looks interesting at a glance, but can you please add paragraph breaks? My eyes can't follow a giant wall of text like that. Thanks!

[MDMC01]

Sorry about that; you got it!

[jcgoble3]

Sounds like a fun day! I want to get to Hersheypark someday, but there are a lot of other parks that I've never been to ahead of it on my to-do list (Carowinds, Dollywood, BGW, and Indiana Beach all come to mind, in no particular order).

[electricsun]

It's neat to read your report as I had some similar and different thoughts. I was at Dorney on Saturday and Hershey on Sunday (and a bit of Monday late morning). Skyrush was intense and yeah...the pain of the restraint on the thighs was not fun. I realized that it tightened as the ride went along so if I started with it not as snug as any other coaster, it didn't hurt so much.

Looking forward to reading your thoughts about Dorney!

[MDMC01]

Thanks for all the comments. I should be posting my Dorney TR sometime this afternoon!

[VekomaRulz]

Great report.

I agree about Skyrush's restraints. They really effected how much I liked the coaster and prefer B&M hyper restrains or the Intamin t-bar.

Comet almost always had a bad line earlier in the day I guess because it's the first coaster people see when they walk in and with the low height requirement, it makes a good first stop for families with kids.

[MDMC01]

Hey all, as promised, here is my Dorney Park trip report from The Edge of the Millennium Tour. I have a ton of pictures from the trip, but unfortunately, I can't access my Flikr account as I'm using a different computer than normal and my Flikr account is tied to Facebook and a non-working(?) e-mail address. I'll try to get this fixed soon (or just get a new Flikr account) so that you all can see the pics.

 

Dorney Park:

 

My cousin Ryan and I got to the park around 10:45 and after finding a locker, we decided to make Talon our first ride of the day. It was fun and reminded me a bit of Banshee. After that, I wanted to ride Hydra  as I’d never been on a floorless coaster before. We sat front row and it was pretty fun with lots of twists and turns. Surprisingly, the dangling of your legs wasn’t as scary as I thought it would be. After that, we decided to ride Meteor since it was nearby. Although this was one of the two non-coaster rides I really wanted to ride at Dorney, it was legitimately terrifying. From the moment we got strapped in, I was thinking what did I get myself into? The ride itself was “nuts”! It’s basically like a “salt and pepper shaker” ride, but your legs are dangling. Like I said, it was pretty crazy. After that, I really wanted to ride Possessed, our other “icon” ride of the trip. We rode front and it was pretty fun. It was Ryan’s first inverted impulse coaster, and he was pretty blown away. Afterwards, we rode Steel Force. This was an interesting ride since I’d never been on a Morgan hypercoaster before. It was sort-of fun, but I guess I was expecting more airtime. After that ride, I rode it again in the back to see how much airtime it had. Again, not as much as I expected, but it was still really fast. After that, we decided to ride the park’s single wooden coaster, Thunderhawk. Getting to the ride was weird, but we had the ride all to ourselves as we sat in the front. It was really fun with some unexpected ejector air. Up to that point, that was probably my favorite coaster at the park.

 

We then decided to tackle Dominator, the other non-coaster ride I really wanted to ride. We started with the up side, which was pretty fun, but short. I then rode again and picked the down side, which was a bit more enjoyable. After this, we decided to head to the Whip as we had missed riding the Whip at Hershey. I’d never been on an adult whip before and I don’t think Ryan had ever been on one before, but it was pretty fun and unique. After getting whipped around, we were super hungry, so we got our stuff from the locker and stopped by Chickie and Pete’s for a break from all the rides. I ordered mottzeralla sticks while Ryan ordered chicken tenders and we both split crabfries. Like everyone says, those crabfries are amazing! The mottzerella sticks were pretty good too and the both the pizza sauce and special sauce for the crabfries (I’ll keep that a secret…) were also good. After filling our stomachs, we decided to extend the break from the rides and walk through Dinosaurs Alive. It was towards the back of the park and was pretty cool. I noticed some differences between their display and Kings Island’s such as jokes along the way, an object showing layers of rock/earth, and a map at the entrance detailing the areas. It was pretty cool and I took a ton of pictures.

 

After this, I really wanted to ride Possessed again since we were close. I rode in Row 12 (towards the back) and it was amazing. Before I boarded, the crew rotated, so there was a different person at each “station” (greeter, driver, etc.). Before the launch, they do a countdown: “You will be possessed in 3, 2, 1!”. Well, the cool (or scary thing, depending on how you look at it), was the new driver launched us after “3”, so it was like “You will be possessed in 3, [pause], launch”, which added to the thrill. That ride made it one of my favorites, so I decided to go again. This time, I rode in the back and it was still pretty fun, but I liked row 12 a bit more because you get some of the spin. After those amazing rides, we decided to ride the last new coaster left to ride (because Stinger was being really fickle and was either down or testing the whole day…), Wild Mouse. Unlike the Wild Mouse at Dorney, this thing goes hard and makes the turns super forceful. I only rode again to test the theory if it was just because I sat with Ryan that I got whipped around so badly. Nope. So, that zen ride led to the conclusion that this wild mouse really was pretty wild. After this, we decided to give Talon another spin. I rode in the very back on the right (my favorite seat on Banshee) to see how intense this ride got. It was really good in the back and I got some surprising amounts of airtime.

 

After this, we changed lockers (as ours was an hourly rental) headed for the waterpark. After getting changed, we decided to start off with Patriot’s Plunge, a tube slide. I chose the red slide while Ryan chose the enclosed blue slide and we both had a good time. After this, we did the Python Plummet side of Snake Pit. These were body slides that had a drop capsule like Deep Water Dive at Kentucky Kingdom. This was Ryan’s first drop slide and he really liked it. He chose the yellow slide on the right while I chose Red as it looked very twisty. It was a fun ride and interesting to ride on a drop slide that provides more than just the drop. After that, we decided to do Jumpin’ Jack Splash, which is another body slide complex. I chose blue (on the right) and he chose the left most slide. It was also pretty fun. After the body slides, we did Aqua Racer, which is a mat racing slide. I had trouble getting staretd, but I ended up beating him. After this, I tried to do the Speed Slides, but a lifeguard had just closed the slide due to weather. Surpringly, the Wildwater River lazy river was still open, so we did that. I got stuck a few times due to empty tubes, which was frustrating, but I was still a good ride. After we got off, we were told that the waterpark was officially closed due to the thunderstorm that was moving in. We then changed and decided to wait out the storm a bit just to see if rides would start running again. There were only a few smaller rides running, so Ryan got a t-shirt and some Rita’s (Italian ice mix of gelati and custard) and we tried to ride it out. After deciding that Possessed (or anything else) probably wouldn’t open back up, we started to make our way to the lockers. It was then that I saw the Tilt-a-Whirl running and I wanted to go ride that. It was pretty fun and I got a lot of spins. After that last ride of the day, we went to go get our stuff and I took some pictures. When we got to the parking lot, it looked like the storm had cleared and some of the big rides (even Stinger!) were testing. Though I wished we could have waited it out some more, it was probably best that we left when we did as we had about an hour drive back to our hotel and there looked to be another big storm behind us. All in all, it was a pretty good day.

-MDMC01

Favorites/Highlights: Possessed, Meteor, Thunderhawk, Hydra, Talon, Chickie and Pete’s

 

Ride/Attraction Count:

Aqua Racer: 1

Dominator: Up- 1, Down-1

Dinosaurs Alive: 1

Hydra: 1

Jumpin’ Jack Splash- Blue: 1

Patriot’s Plunge- Red: 1

Possessed: 3

Snake Pit: Python’s Plunge- Red: 1

Steel Force: 2

Talon: 2

Thunderhawk: 1

Tilt-a-Whirl: 1

Wild Mouse: 2    

Wildwater River: 1

Whip: 1

 

PS: Before I end this trip report, I’d like the comment on the fact that I noticed both parks had different methods of starting the rides. While KI uses “All Clear” with a thumbs up, Hershey says “Dispatch” with the “OK” symbol while Dorney says “All Clear for Dispatch” with a thumbs up.

[jcgoble3]

I wish I could afford trips like this this summer. But I will have to live vicariously through other people's trip reports, and this was a good one for that.

[electricsun]

The Whip ride at Hershey was not nearly as fun as the one at Dorney. I mean, I rode it twice in a row just to verify and compare. It is fun...but not AS fun. It seemed to me that Dorney's whipped me around the ends with a bit more force than Hershey's.

And to add to the comparisons for dispatch, at Busch Gardens they don't do anything visual. They have wireless mic and earpiece systems and they have each have some sort of button or foot pedal to hit before the train can go. It's interesting to see the different ways to dispatch.

[jcgoble3]

At Holiday World, they just do thumbs up, with no audible signal.

 

Or at least that's how it's been for several years. I don't know if they're doing anything different with Thunderbird.

[DontWantToWait42mar0]

Storm Runner > Maverick

[MDMC01]

Hmmm, not quite in my book, but Storm Runner is still a fantastic ride. I'm considering a Cedar Point trip for August, so hopefully I'll be able to compare the two. Right now, I think Maverick is a bit better as it's longer and provides two launches instead of just one.

[kblanken]

Hey all, MDMC01 here.

Hersheypark: (6/21-6/24(

(electricsun)

..I was at...Hershey on Sunday

Add me to the list of KIC members there then. (evening Sunday and 6/22).

There's so much that we share, that it's time we're aware;

It's a small world after all.