My 10 Favorite Hersheypark Attractions



The WWoB Staff

A few weeks ago I took my boys to Hersheypark in nearby Hershey, PA. We spent the whole day there, arriving just as the gates opened at 10:00am and returning to the parking lot after the park closed at 10:30pm. There's a lot of great stuff at Hersheypark, even though the majority of the rides are typical carnival style rides you can find at dozens of other parks - Hersheypark does have plenty of charms that are all their own. I'm a fan of old school and more traditional theme park attractions as well as goofy things in parks too. Here's my list of 10 favorite attractions at The Sweetest Place on Earth!

Capital BlueCross Monorail First of all, the fact that Hersheypark has sold the naming rights to a handful of their rides is just a delight. Second, I love monorails. From Disney's world class transportation system down to ever the shuttle at an airport - monorails are good times in my book. Hershey's monorail serves strictly as entertainment purposes, with open air cars that travel not just around the treetops of the amusement park but also beyond the park fence and into the city of Hershey itself. The monorail makes a loop outside the park, offering riders a view of the town's famed Hershey Kiss street lights and the former Hershey Chocolate factory that Milton Hershey built over 100 years ago. Another highlight for an amusement park nerd (such as myself) is the ride past the mysterious unused Monorail station that sits outside of Hersheypark about half way through the ride. The station is almost a carbon copy of the one used inside the park - I assume at one time the monorail was used as a preview of Hersheypark for those not yet inside the park. Who knows!? (Nearby Dutch Wonderland once employed the same method with their monorail.) The monorail also glides over ZooAmerica, Hersheypark's separate but connected North American Zoo. The entire trip is accompanied by a delightful recording that not only tells the history of Hersheypark and the surrounding area, but also extols the virtues of Capital BlueCross health insurance.

Carrousel Hersheypark's carrousel is the real deal - a beautiful antique merry machine made up of all wooden hand carved horses and chariots. The ride was installed in 1944, it was bought used and actually dates back to 1919! The music is provided by a 1926 Wurlitzer Band Organ, which is a real treat. As someone who pays attention to such things - most parks not use prerecorded carrousel music, but there is nothing like the sound of one of these actual machines in action. The carrousel is not only beautiful but large and fast. It's a great ride, and the first one you'll encounter when entering Hersheypark!

Chevrolet Music Box Theatre  Hersheypark puts on some top notch live entertainment in their huge indoor theater. This season they offer two different shows; during the day is a rock oriented song and dance revue and in the evening hours three pianist duel it out. In addition to seeing a good show, it's also a nice opportunity to take a load off your feet in the air conditioning.

 

Comet  The Comet is Hersheypark's oldest roller coaster. Commissioned by Mr. Hershey himself, the classic out-and-back style coaster was built in 1946. It's amazing that a ride built that long ago can still hold up against any ride built today, but it does! The first drop and it's subsequent climbs and dips provide just as many thrills as any of the parks other coasters. This old timer won't make you sick or leave you hanging on for dear life, but it will make you scream and it will put a smile on your face. The layout of the track provides a nice long ride. This is a great coaster!

Dry Gulch Railroad  Bob Howdy, I do enjoy me some amusement park trains. Hershey's is a cute little miniature railroad which doesn't circle the park, like most theme park trains, but instead travels over it's own terrain. There's a miniature recreation of a classic train bridge and a little western town which you travel through. The town even has a few gags and animations that are still performing after all these years. You also get to ride past the engine yard where the train is stored and cared for. This is an above average amusement park train experience.

Hershey's Great American Chocolate Tour  Perhaps the most unique ride at Hersheypark, isn't actually inside Hersheypark. This elaborate and massive ride through of a simulated Hershey Chocolate factory is technically inside Chocolate World, just outside of Hersheypark's admission gates. Chocolate World is the largest corporate welcome center in the county, consisting of shops, eateries, shows and this great ride. The ride takes you on an Omni-mover tour of the chocolate making process from cocoa bean to the wrapped and ready to eat delicious final product. After the tour, everyone gets a free piece of chocolate! Any ride that gives you free candy is just begging to be put on a Top 10 List. Chocolate World is an attraction unto itself and is open year 'round, but you'll also pass it on your way in and out of Hersheypark. (It's usually open an hour later than the theme park so you can visit on your way out.)

Kissing Tower   Named for it's windows in the shape of the famous Hershey candy, and not for randy teenagers making out high above the park - this observation tower/ride takes visitors to the top of the 250 ft. tower for a rotating panoramic view of Hersheypark, ZooAmerica and downtown Hershey, PA. The view is spectacular and the height is just enough to be considered a mild thrill ride. There used to be a recording that played during the trip that featured the classic "Hersheypark Happy" theme song but sadly it was not in use on our recent visit.

Lightning Racer  Here's a fantastic roller coaster, built in 2000 that features two identical tracks with trains racing to a finish line. What stands between the station and the finish line is a 90 ft. drop and over 3,000 ft of twisting and turning roller coaster track. The ride seems like it's never going to end as the track cross over itself and back and forth several times before speeding through a tunnel and lining right up with the opposing train before crossing the finish line. This fantastic wooden roller coaster is a blast and has been ranked in or near the top 10 wooden coasters in the country every year since it's opening.

Reeses' Xtreme Cup Challenge Currently the only dark ride inside Hersheypark, Xtreme Cup Challenge has riders using backwards laser guns to zap various targets as you ride through scenes of extreme sports.  What's great about this ride is that it makes very little sense. Sure, you're just ridding through a shooting gallery but why are we shooting at defenseless, innocent extreme athletes? And why are there so many different types of Reeses' Peanut Butter Cups all over the sporting arenas? Most of the characters in the ride are flat two dimensional drawings except for two creepy sports anchors who are complete audio animatronics. They look like department store dummies who were brought to life by an evil curse. I don't know, this ride is a mess of things going on but in the end it's fun and completely different than anything else offered in the park.

Twin Turnpike - Sunoco Classic Cars - Twin Turnpike gives you the option of driving a classic Model T style car or a fancy little sports car. Whenever given the option, I always go for the classic car mostly because the sports car always means tiny and uncomfortable. The Twin Turnpike tracks follow the same pattern around a cute little area landscaped and decorated with faux highway signs. Fake highway signs make or break an amusement park drive-your-own car ride.

 

If you've been the Hersheypark, comment with your favorite ride, show or attraction...

Busch Gardens Willamsburg Trip Report

My wife and I both figured that neither of us had been to Williamsburg, VA since we were about 12 years old so we figured that it would be a good spot to vacation for a few days. Of course, Busch Gardens played a key role in our plans for the trip. We were originally going to visit the theme park on a Monday but both the Monday and Tuesday were promising for heavy rains. We waited until Tuesday and had a beautiful day with not a cloud in site. The threat of rain also helped keep the crowds down, which is always nice.

Busch Gardens Williamsburg is a world class theme park with beautiful landscaping, excellent theming and million dollar attractions! Since we stayed at a hotel near the park, I was actually able to get the five of us through the park's gates before the official opening time of 10:00am.

My only real disappointment with the park came a few days before we arrived. I was looking forward to finally seeing the 4D Sesame Street film that plays at several of the Sea World/ Busch Gardens parks (as well as overseas Universal properties) but the film had been retired at the older Pirates 4D Adventure had returned in it's place. That movie was something I honestly wanted to experience the most but I got over it.

We did, however, start our day off in the park's newest section: Sesame Street Forest of Fun which is a kiddie section themed after the popular children's show. For the longest time, Sesame Place outside Philadelphia was the only park you could see the Sesame Street gang so it was neat to see this extension of the brand in another park.  They have a great little kiddie coaster called Grover's Alpine Express, similar to Sesame Place's Vapor Trail coaster. This was the first ride of the day, the kids dismissed it in line as a baby ride but then they loved it and ended up riding it an additional time. We didn't do any of the other rides in Sesame Street - they have a cute little boat ride, a drop tower and a rocking tug-style ride that looks like Oscar's friend Slimy the worm. There's also a Sesame Street gift shop...and believe it or not, this Muppet loving Dad didn't spend a single cent in the gift shop!

Escape From Pompeii

From there we made our way over to Italy where another star attraction on my list waited; Escape From Pompeii. I love dark rides and I love when a park has the means to provide a unique experience. Pompeii is a simple chute/flume ride with an elaborate lead-up to the drop. Guests ride through the ancient city of Pompeii as an earthquake hits causing fires and destruction along the way. After a giant statue comes crashing inches from your boat, you plummet down a huge hill into a gigantic splash. My 7 year old, Tanner, and I were drenched and he loved the ride - eventually awarding it his favorite ride of the day.

Next, I grabbed a solo ride on one of the park's signature coasters - Apollo's Chariot. This is the kind of coaster that I have come to love in my older years...tall, fast and not alot of twisting and turning that makes me sick. With an initial drop of 210 ft and speeds up to 72 MPH, this is an awesome ride! The same can't be said for Roman Rapids, the park's white water rafting ride. I have yet to see a park that can pull off this ride the way Kings Dominion does. Roman Rapids is brief, unimaginative and on this particular day they were running it very inefficiently making the load times almost unbearable.

In the area are some standard carnival type rides which are all nicely presented and preserved. The kids and my wife rode a handful of them while I sat out on baby duty, which was fine because I hate spinning rides.

We ate lunch at Das Festhaus, which is one of the few things I remember from my earlier childhood visits. It's a large German style pavilion with a live show throughout the day. The cafeteria style set-up of the food service was a little tricky to navigate with three kids and a stroller but we made it through and sat down to a hearty lunch of
German goodies including a huge slice of multi-layed cake that we all shared. We were also in time for the festive show which included a polka band and dancers.

Next up, I again left my wife sitting on a bench with all the kids and grabbed a quick ride on the park's newest roller coaster, Verbolten. Here, Busch Gardens tries to take a page out of the Disney playbook with a highly themed storytelling ride. This is a little more than a coaster. Riders board a German automobile for a trip into the Black Forest. While swerving through trees in the forest, the car suddenly blasts into a tunnel where the forest becomes very dark and there are a few major surprises along the way. It's a really well done ride, and certainly a big kick for someone who's never experienced the thrills of an Orlando attraction.



Elias' favorite ride

Another signature attraction I wanted to make sure I rode was Curse of DarKastle, which is located just up the hill from Verbolten. This is another very elaborate, highly themed ride that takes visitors into a haunted castle. It's a cool adventure that incorporates elements from dark rides, 3D movies and motion simulators. The only other ride I've seen like this is The Amazing Spider-Man ride at Islands of Adventure. My son Elias loved this ride and ended up going on it three times, while my younger son chickened out. My wife got to experience it with the help of a Parent Swap...

Busch Gardens makes no advertisements about a Parent Swap feature, but having used the ability at other parks we asked at the front of the DarKastle attraction, and the ride was built to allow some of a party to wait while the other half rides and then flip flop without having to wait in line a second time. While Elias and I rode, my wife and two other kids waited in a small room by the exit. When we got off, we were led to them and then Jen rode with Elias while I sat with Tanner and the baby. It's the only ride we needed to use Parent Swap on, but it's worth asking about at the front of any attraction if you need such a service.

At this point in our day, we wanted to make sure we made it to the other side of the park to catch some animal attractions that the kids were excited about seeing. We briskly moved through the park making our way through the various winding pathways and villages of German and France. In Germany there is a nice playground area called Land of the Dragons with the ol' netclimb attractions. The kids tore off into that...usually I enjoy doing those with them but I learned last year at another park that they don't work too well with adults in flip flops...so I sat out while they played and blew off some steam.



More Animal Shenanigans!

My kids LOVE animals - it's probably the only thing that ranks as high as video games on their interest scale. Busch Gardens has a handful of small animals  in cages in a section called Lorikeet Glen. As we were visiting, some of the animal handlers had a huge snake out in the grass for the kids to pet. That was pretty neat. And our timing was just perfect to catch a 3:30 performance of More Pet Shenanigans - a trained animal show that was high on our list of Must Do's.

The kids smiled and giggled through the entire More Pet Shenanigans show. A team of trained dogs, cats, mice, ducks and even a pig perform very simple tasks in a cute little show. Afterwards, the boys got to meet some of the four legged stars up close...and they were in heaven.

Wolves are currently near the top of the boys list of animal favorites so they were very excited to see Busch's pack of wolves up close in Wolf Valley. They also oohed-and ahhed their way through the show The Secret Life of Predators which featured wolves, foxes, rats, birds and owls. I hate owls! If you stand all the way down in front during the show, you'll come within inches of some giant (but actually cute) rats. If you stay in the back of the performance area...let's just say an owl might swoop by just as close. Luckily, we were in the front.

We spent alot of time with the animals of the park. Around the corner from all the wildlife is the Ireland section of the park, home to a Sesame Street character meal which I would have loved to attended but I was outvoted on. We all did ride, however, Europe In The Air - a flight simulator that gives you the sensation of flying over some of Europe's most beautiful landmarks. I was setting myself up for an experience similar to Disney's Soarin' Over California...but it didn't quite live up to the Disney attraction.

I had hoped to ride Loch Ness Monster, the park's signature double looping roller coaster. The coaster is celebrating it's 35th Anniversary this year. When I was a kid, it looked like just about the most terrifying thing in the world - I wanted to conquer it finally after all these years but the ride broke down when I was in line...about three trains away from riding. I decided not to spend the last hour of our day waiting for a ride that may or may not reopen so I exited the attraction...leaving Nessie for perhaps another trip.

Having made the full loop of the park, we slowed down to do some shopping and check out the stables of the park's Clydesdales. They aren't "The" Annheiser-Busch World Famous Clydesdales anymore...because the beer company does not own the park now - but it's nice that the current park owners (SeaWorld Parks a.k.a The Blackstone Group) decided to keep the large horses as an attraction like they've been since the park's opening.

The last half hour of our day found Elias and I taking the Skyride system to the back of the park to grab one more ride on DarKastle and getting back up front with just enough time to snap a picture with Elmo in Sesame Street.

Elias & Elmo
 

Even though the park closed at 7:00 on this day (I could have easily used at least another hour) we had a great time at Busch Gardens. The park is beautiful and well laid out. I appreciate atmospheric music from the different countries being played throughout and not just Bruno Mars or whatever is on the radio like so many other parks do. The park's refillable drink bottle is a good deal too...giving us plenty of 99 cents beverage refills through the day with an initial output of $8.

Also, Busch Gardens truly makes shopping an attraction. While so many other parks, including Disney, streamline all their gift shops to sell the exact same merchandise - Busch Gardens offered all sorts of different stores throughout the entire park. It's always nice to slow down and get out of the sun for a while and browse around a good gift shop...even if you're not in the market for a $500 German made Cukoo-Cukoo Clock.

My only complaint of the day was the park seemed a bit understaffed and not running some rides to their maximum capacity potential. I suppose this has to do with visiting so early in the season and not having all the college kids home and working quite yet. Oh, and also they don't have the Sesame Street 4D movie anymore and I didn't get to meet Cookie Monster.

King Cobra Beyond KD

The looping coaster in the background is the infamous King Cobra which resided at Kings Dominion from 1977 to 1986. However, this picture shows the Schwarzkopf steel shuttle loop at Jolly Rogers Amusement Park in Ocean City, MD where it ran from 1987 to 1989. King Cobra then moved overseas to England where it became Thunderlooper at Alton Towers from 1990 - 1996.

Here's the coaster in it's current state as Hopi Hari at a park in Brazil...

 

Six Flags Great Adventure Trip Report

After a summer full of kiddie parks and beach boardwalks, it was nice to finally be able to hit up a genuine, full-fledged grown-up amusement park. So Monday, my previously mentioned good buddy Joey Carwash and I made the three hour journey into the wilds of New Jersey to visit Six Flags Great Adventure, one of the earlier Six Flags parks. Joey and I had actually both been to the park together back in 1994 on a college trip but either of us had much memory of the park. The park is pretty big, filled with first class rides and some standard carnival style rides. There are some kiddie rides sprinkled throughout.

The themeing in nice although a little random. There are nine sections (or lands) at Great Adventure which is actually three more than the Six Flags template necessitates. Some of the sections are rich in detail such as a Spanish/Mexican theme region called Plaza Del Carnaval and the standard wild, wild west territory called Frontier Adventures. Movietown is supposed to be a tribute to New Jersey's film making roots - but at this point is mostly just a tribute to Batman. Other sections of the park like Fantasy Forest and Boardwalk just blend in with the rest of the park.

Great Adventure is spacious and clean. However, there are large sections throughout the park where abandoned or repurposed structures take up space physically and visually. Near the front of the park sits many unused hanger style buildings that once supported the ride and theme of an airplane based flight simulator. Now the buildings sit there looking like exposed backstage areas of the park. The airfield theme is gone and the buildings look tacky and out of place. The same can be said for several large theatrical venues around the park that are still clearly visible but yet completely unused.

But let's talk about fun! The day we visited the forecast called for rain and thunderstorms throughout the day. When we arrived at the park around 10:30, it was raining pretty heavily. After a great breakfast at nearby Java Moon Cafe, the rain had downgraded to a light sprinkle. We figured the crowds would stay away and at the least we could hit all the big rides pretty quick. So, we paid the insane TWENTY BUCKS for parking (Six Flags should honestly be ashamed of themselves) and got a great parking spot in Daffy Duck section 2. As we entered the park, everything was running except for two of the bigger coasters (which later opened.) As expected, the park was near empty and we didn't wait at all for a single ride all day. Most of the rides were sitting in the station waiting for us. Score!

The main reason for making the trek up to New Jersey instead of just visiting the closer Six Flags park in Maryland was Great Adventure's newest ride: Green Lantern. Joey Carwash is a HUGE Green Lantern fan going back long before the movie ever came out. I was all for making a road trip just to go pay homage to one of my buddy's favorite childhood icons. After all, I just spent a week camping with Yogi Bear. Joey was super excited with all the little touches added to the ride area. There's a giant lantern in the plaza entrance before the ride. The queue area is lined with over sized comic strips telling the origin story of Green Lantern. You'd like to think the ride creators really were passionate about the Green Lantern character but it was more probably based on pushing the new movie.

The Green Lantern coaster is an awesome ride! Standing 15 stories high, the rides drops it's standing passengers 144 ft. at 63 MPH. There are 5 inversions along the track, although to me it felt like there were about 11. I've never been on a stand-up coaster before. As the train left the station I thought to myself, "This isn't any different than sitting down." Once we got to the top of the ride and I was standing 15 stories in the air...yeah, I could tell the difference. The first drop is super awesome followed by a very long ride of very intense twists and turns. When the ride was over I was filled with adrenaline. That was easily the biggest, baddest coaster I'd ever conquered. It felt great. Joey, of course, was an immediate fan and couldn't wait to ride again.

We next took on Rolling Thunder, the parks classic out-and-back woodie. This is a great ride, filled with ups and downs and not much else. A classic roller coaster experience from start to finish. Next to Rolling Thunder is El Toro, a beautiful looking dark wood coaster with a 176 ft. drop at 76 degrees, sending you into speeds of up to 70 MPH. This ride looked awesome but unfortunately I was unable to ride. The safety restraint was a single person lap bar that needed to come back very far. I had no problem getting the bar to click into lock, but they needed to have the bar go back fairly far and I wasn't able to quite make it. Joey felt uncomfortable in his seat, but he said it was one hell of a ride! I'm not sure why I'm able to stand 15 stories in the air, but I can't sit in a car for a wooden coaster. Oh well!

However, I was able to hop right onto Bizarro, a huge twisting mess of track with seven inversions. This was my first time on a floorless coaster, which isn't really scary as much as just an extra element of fun. It was another intense ride, filled with just about every surprise a roller coaster can throw at you. Good times! I had seen this ride's sister model at Six Flags New England on Bert The Conqueror a while ago and I had been eager to ride it ever since. Well worth the wait!

In the Movietown section of the park there are two Batman coasters. Batman The Ride is a suspended looping coaster. It's nice that Six Flags offers a test seat in front of their coasters for larger rides to see if the restraining system will work for them. At Batman there is also a sign to let riders know that people with a 52' or greater chest may not be able to ride. I take a 52' sports coat and darned if the little seat belt was only a fraction of an inch from being able to click into the shoulder harness. No big loss - I was already starting to feel a little queasy from all the tossing and turning of the day so I checked out a gift shop while Joey hopped on the ride. His report afterward was that the ride is way too brief.

Batman The Ride was built between the second and third Batman movie in the 90's. Across from it is the newer Dark Knight Coaster based on the current string of Batmam films. With The Dark Knight, Six Flags really makes a stab at trying to create a story-driven experience similar to a Disney Parks attraction. Guests enter a Gotham City subway station where TV's air the news while people wait for their train. While D.A. Harvey Dent is giving a press conference on the news, The Joker breaks in and causes havoc. Suddenly everyone is hurried out of the room into some dark corridors beneath Gotham where you board a Gotham City Subway Car. What follows is a Wild Mouse Coaster in the dark with several animated scenes and special effects set out along the track. Again, this was a short ride and the overall effect doesn't make much sense, but it was still a neat attempt to do something a little different. I'm sure it would have been a big hit with my kids!

My favorite ride in the park had to be Nitro...

Nitro has no gimmicks. You sit in a seat, in a train on a track, there are no loops. There is just one big awesome 215 ft. drop followed by 2 minutes of continually breathtaking drops. Nitro is just pure exhilarating fun without all the bumps, twists and stomach turning elements of many other coasters. Loved it! We rode it twice throughout the day and they were both awesome rides!

In addition to a Road Runner kiddie coaster, the park has three other smaller coasters. Runaway Mine Train is a classic Six Flags staple, Blackbeard's Lost Treasure Train is an odd family-style steel coaster with the longest ride train I've even seen. It's kinda fast and curvy and very low to the ground. Skull Mountain is a dark twisty steel coaster in a dark skull shaped mountain. The ride is anti-climatic considering the themeing and build up before the ride.

There's a unique attraction called Houdini's Great Escape which consists of two parts. The first part, which is basically a preshow, is styled after the preshow of Disney's Haunted Mansion. Guests stand in a dark room while some bells and whistles go off trying to build up your anticipation for something scary that never really happens. The effect may have worked better had the volume been turned up. Next guests are moved into a second room where they have a seat and eventually the room starts to spin around you while you stay perfectly seated. It's a modern update on the classic Haunted Swing style ride...still enjoyed at Dutch Wonderland's Wonder House. We also rode their very old Saw Mill Log Flume and Congo Rapids white water ride.

The rain held off for most of the day, and we only had a brief little downpour which didn't bother us as we were already under cover enjoying a hamburger and fries. By the end of the night, the remaining two coasters had finally opened.

Superman - Ultimate Flight is possibly the coolest of all the superhero themed rides at any of these Six Flags parks. For this ride gives you the sensation of flying like Superman. It's a roller coaster...a big roller coaster at that. The seats are suspended from the track without a floor underneath your feet. The real kicker is right before the ride starts the seats raise up at an angle so that you are facing the ground. You then leave the station and proceed up the chain lift looking straight down at the Earth you are no longer standing on. I have to admit when the seats first locked into their ride position - I freaked. I would have gotten off if given the chance but I wasn't given that opportunity and I'm glad I wasn't. When the train lets go of the chain you are treated to a 100 ft. drop - head first, you then zoom up from the ground and travel through over a track that takes you on an experience very similar to what Clark Kent must feel like flying through the skyscrapers of Metropolis. It is a truly awesome experience! I love when theme park attractions can really tap into the property they are based on. The red, white and yellow color scheme of the coaster is nice. The comic book graphics all over the queue and loading station are also a nice touch. But experiencing the feeling of flying like Superman - something everyone has dreamed about is a really cool feat to pull off. My only complaint with the presentation of the ride was the generic FM radio music blaring over the speakers throughout the attraction. The familiar orchestration of John Williams' Superman The Movie theme would have been the ultimate touch to top off this attraction.

We rode Superman late in the evening. After a day of nothing but pretty big coasters, I was feeling a bit beat up and woozy. I didn't want to be a party pooper so we took Green Lantern for another spin almost immediately after Superman. (We spent at least a good 20 minutes in the Superman gift shop.) That second ride on GL did it for me. I felt like crap after re-riding that super intense roller coaster. I could have easily thrown up if years of drinking hadn't conditioned me to better control such an urge.

After much deliberation, I decided to sit out the evening's final roller coaster, Kingda Ka. As the tallest coaster in the world and fastest in North America I really wanted to conquer this ride but my stomach and my heart were telling me it wasn't a good idea. I decided to finally play my "recently had a heart attack" card and grab a seat on a nearby bench and let Joey hit this one up alone. I really wanted to ride it...honestly! But I think I made the right decision. I was not feeling well at all. I even passed up the opportunity to drink a few beers earlier in the day! Joey said the ride was just about the most awesome he's ever been on and at 456 feet high and 128 MPH I'm sure it was. Next time I'm at a park I'm going to try and get on their big one first and work my way backwards.Six Flags Great Adventure is a good park with an impressive collection of first rate roller coasters. Nice touches: Six Flags licences the Warner Bros. stable of characters which include the Looney Tunes and DC Comic Book characters. The park put these cartoons to good use as park mascots. The Super Hero attractions are full of nerdy detail for fans of the properties. We even found a fake phone booth waiting for Clark Kent near a Super Hero merchandise store. The Looney Tunes are well represented with two sections of the park devoted to kiddie rides featuring Bugs and the gang. There's plenty of stuff to buy all over the park with Superman, Batman, Bugs and Daffy all over them. Neither of these sets of toons are high on my list of interests but Joey Carwash dropped over $100 on Green Lantern and Batman paraphernalia.

The park was clean, spacious and well maintained. Some of the non-Superhero roller coasters had their own theme music playing in the station which was nice. You can even tell that employees are told to interact nicely with guests, except for the security guard in the parking lot who told us, "You picked a crappy day to come to the park!" "Thank you sir!"

My complaints: 1) $20 bucks for parking is legally considered rape in most states. Not a pleasant way to start off a day. 2) Too much crappy FM music blasting throughout the park. If you're going to go to the trouble of visually themeing areas of the park, the music should support your theme. Hearing Breakaway by Kelly Clarkson doesn't drive home the illusion that I'm in Adventure Seaport. 3) Why is there a therapeutic massage parlor smack in the middle of the park? It looks like the kind of place you go for "special services" I'm not sure why that would be in a theme park next to a store that sells Bugs Bunny t-shirts. 4) Not a single XXXL shirt sold anywhere in the park. It's New Jersey, I've heard they do have fat people there! 5) Mr. Six (the dancing old guy from their commercials) is creepy and nobody really likes him. Be gone with him!

Can't wait to go back.

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This one is dedicated to my brother-in-law & sister-in-law who are off on a whirlwind tour of Ohio's theme parks...jealous!!!

Trip Report: Kings Dominion 2010

We made it out to Kings Dominion this past week. Anybody who reads this blog with any regularity knows that it's one of my favorite amusement parks. It's the park I grew up going to and so many things that I love about the amusement park industry I first got a taste of at Kings Dominion. Nowadays, I live much closer to Hersheypark but every couple of years or so, we made the 3 1/2 hour journey out to Doswell, VA to visit KD. Every visit brings a different set of mixed emotions.


The most exciting news...for me, at least, on this trip was I was able to go on rides that I haven't been able to for many years. Around the mid-90's, my careless lifestyle had caught up with me as far as amusement park rides were concerned and my size prohibited me from fitting into the safety restraints on most thrill rides. After a few trips to various parks where I wasn't able to ride roller coasters I pretty much closed the roller coaster riding chapter of my life and settled for the merry-go-round instead.


After having a heart-attack in November, I severely curbed my eating habits and added exercise into my life for the first time. I've been able to drop 70 pounds in the past 8 months and one of the most exciting benefits is that I had no problem fitting into any of the rides at Kings Dominion. I was able to revisit old friends like the Rebel Yell and the Grizzly. (I estimate I haven't been on any of Kings Dominion's coasters since 1993.) In addition to the Anaconda and the Hurler I also got on the Backlot Stunt Coaster and the Ricochet. All of them - GREAT RIDES! But I have to say that in my older age, the twisting and looping of Anaconda left me a little queasy.


Of course, being the cartoon loving kid that I am/was, one of my favorite rides in the park had always been the kiddie coaster Scooby-Doo. It's now called Ghoster Coaster, but no matter what you call it - I was elated to be able to fit into the ride's smaller cars and ride it with both of my children. (It was Tanner's first "big" coaster and he absolutely loved it!)


Elias also added a few more "big boy" rides under his belt. He loved the Avalanche bobsled ride and the Backlot Stunt Coaster, which is a bit intense but he conquered it twice! I also really enjoyed the ride. It's a roller coater with a little story and show attached to it, something Kings Dominion doesn't typically do. The cars of the coaster actually look like little sports cars (They were originally designed to resemble the getaway vehicles from the movie The Italian Job.) The train of cars blasts off from the station and swirl around three levels of a parking garage before dodging through traffic and several police cars. The train then comes to a stop in some sort of warehouse setting, where a helicopter starts to shoot at you. You then blast off again, into a tunnel for some fairly extreme twists and turns in the dark before crashing through a billboard and landing in a drainage ditch. Pretty fun little ride!


They still have the crazy upside down ship ride at the front of the park called The Berserker, and they still have their stand-up roller coater Shockwave. Both - rides I've never been on and will probably never get on! There's two newer steel coasters that I also opted out of: Dominator and Intimidator 305 which is tall. I mean, really, really tall!


Kings Dominion is still home to one of the best white water rapids rides White Water Canyon. And they still have their original log flume ride, Shenandoah Lumber Company, which has not been altered since it debuted in the 1970's. Nice touch!

Unfortunately, there is alot of the park that has been changed too much over the years. When Paramount Pictures took control of the park in the early 90's, they started to make sweeping changes throughout the park. Most of the changes were to brand the park with Paramount owned franchises and also to promote new movies and TV shows. This is the time in the park's history when the Wayne's World section of the park was introduced. A well executed addition, but a ridiculous idea for something that is so permanent like an entire themed area of the park.

Some of the natural beauty of the park has been lost over time as well. In some spots of the park there are too many things shoehorned into a small amount of land. Rides are squeezed in between other rides and there are way too many Games of Chance and Dippin' Dots stands. (Really, how many Dippin' Dots stands does one park need. Is it really that popular!?!) The Grizzly is a great wooden coaster that was originally designed out in the woods. The queue for the ride took you way back into the woods and you couldn't really get a good look at the ride until you were on it. That is a major design element of the coaster. That illusion is lost today, as the wooded area around the ride was torn down to make way for a go-cart track, an arcade and a Dippin' Dots stand!

A go-cart track in a world class theme park like Kings Dominion is a horrible idea! It was added under the reign of Paramount and I would hope the parks new owners, Cedar Fair, are considering removing it. First of all, it just cheapens up the park. Anybody can go 10 miles in any direction from their home and find a go-cart track. Second, the track just sits there unused because why would anybody shell over another $8.00 to go on a ride when they just spent $50.00 to get into your park and go on rides all day! I would really like to see Kings Dominion remove the go-cart track and add another ride or just plant some trees and leave the Grizzly back in the woods where it belongs.

This year also marks the first time in the park's history that the association with Hanna-Barbera cartoon characters has been completely eliminated. Paramount took over the park at a time when Hanna-Barbera was fading in popularity and Nickelodeon (a division of Paramount) was looking to further brand itself. Slowly the park lost the original Hanna-Barbera Land to Nickelodeon Central. Out went Scooby-Doo and Yogi Bear and in came Spongebob and the Rugrats. This year Kings Dominion removed the final elements of Hanna-Barbera and all the Nickelodeon and began to bring in Charlie Brown, Snoopy and the Peanuts characters to Planet Snoopy. For me, the Hanna-Barbera characters have always been as important to KD as Mickey and Co. are to Walt Disney World. If I had to choose another group of characters to move in and take over hosting duties from Yogi and the gang I can't think of a better property than Peanuts. It's timeless and has a universal appeal to children and adults. I'm going to save further discussion of Kings Dominion's new Planet Snoopy section for the next post...

Here's a few more things I'd like to see Kings Dominion take care of to spruce up the park: #1 Work on the outside of the park. The drive up to the parking lot booth is nothing - there is no show quality what-so-ever. Some flags, some landscaping and some repaving would go a long way. Currently the parking lot rows are numbered in colorless A1, B7, C13 signs. The original KD had all the parking lot sections named after Hanna-Barbera characters. Let's break out some new colorful signs so the next time I visit I can park in Pig Pen 4, Peppermint Patty 16 or even just Snoopy 1.

#2 - Get rid of all the chain restaurants. This actually goes for alot of parks because I know Hersheypark does the same thing. Who goes to an amusement park and gets Subway or Chick-Fil-A or Panda Express!? Why is there a Cinabon and a Starbucks on King Dominion's International Street. Same thing like the go-carts, it looks cheap and it's not out of the ordinary. I can toss a pebble of my porch and hit 3 Starbucks, they don't belong behind a $50 admission gate.

#3 - Bring Back Entertainment. Kings Dominion now has three shows, one of which is just people singing in the street. Little ol' Dutch Wonderland is a fraction the size of KD and they have 5 times the entertainment options. Where's the country music show? Every park should have a country music show!

#4 - Don't add another bazillion dollar roller coaster until you fix up some neglected areas of the park. The former Wayne's World section is just kind of there. It's a bit empty and needs alot of attention. Also, the kids area needs alot of work - mostly in themeing, but there is some awkward space where stuff used to be that they need to fix up.

#5 - Don't rush everybody out at closing time. They were directing foot traffic through the front gates at closing time quicker than a Zu-Zu Pet fueled stampede on Black Friday. We were not allowed the luxury to shop International Street (their Main Street) at our own leisure. They seriously wouldn't let me cross the street to shop the other side! Hey Kings Dominion, the only attraction on International Street is "spending money!" You really should let people stick around and spend as much as they want. Disney World wouldn't dream of even hinting at kicking a single soul out the front gate until every wallet has been sufficiently drained!

Those are just a few of my suggestions. Kings Dominion: still a great park, filled with many memories and still able to make new ones! Check back tomorrow for a look at Planet Snoopy...