I worked at the park over the summer. Management never actually talks to ride ops or encourages employees to go faster so ride ops just slowly get slower throughout the summer. Also on certain rides like candymonium or wildcats revenge you have to check seatbelts visually then check restraints and with slow ops it’s just so inefficient It’s also partially Hershey tries harder to be safer with ops so there’s a lot more ride ops have to do than other parks like on skyrush going in a circle with our visual checks and stuff
This is a very fair review. I've been a season passholder for the past 3 years and I keep renewing it because I previously would spend the money on daily tickets and visit a few times a year. So I decided to buy a season pass and save money and the King size pass which I upgraded to last year, is an excellent package. I actually live closer to Dorney and SF Great Adventure than Hershey but IMO, Hershey is the top tier of those 3. I only got over there one time on a very busy Saturday in June this year so I really hope to visit again in October because I visited 4-5 times a year in both 2022 and 2023. You are correct about the operations but they can be very crowd dependent. I'm going to get hate for saying this, but Hershey really needs to start turning away bigger guests that obviously won't fit into the rides before they even get in line. They try to be accommodating and I've noticed their operations, which used to be better, have really suffered over the past 10 years as a result. They also need to find a way to force people waiting in line to pay more attention so they know what to do when they get on a ride. This is especially an issue on some of their coasters.
@@mhtube01 it’s something I’ve noticed at a lot of parks. However other parks seem to get the guest off pretty quickly. It sucks and I don’t envy anyone who has that happen.
In 2020 I legit watched a candymonium ride op stand on top of the restraint to get a very obese person in. I actually was amazed this person was able to ride
@@xMcLite That's insane. I've seen them do similar things at other rides like Great Bear and the amount of time they've spent trying to get the restraints closed is ridiculous. As someone who grew up going to Knoebels (which is absolutely a top tier park just in their own unique way) you don't see that kind of stuff happen at smaller parks. They know how to move people and they will turn people away before they even try to do something that ridiculous because they're being realistic. People can say that's mean but the fact is, the obesity rate in American has gotten out of control and it's almost promoted nowadays. So if larger parks aren't accommodating then they're called discriminating and the people in line have to wait while several ride operators struggle to make someone barely fit into rides.
As someone who was a ride op at Hershey this last summer, our operations were pretty sad. I mostly worked at Storm Runner, Trailblazer, Remix, and the rides around there. One problem is that we train people from all over the world, and that causes slow operations with a lot of new people each week as well as a sometimes hefty language barrier. Furthermore, I would sometimes have to encourage other attendants and employees with whom I had worked to speed things up and pay attention to what was going on in the station. I loved the job and those with whom I worked, but efficiency was hindered by poor communication at times and occasional lack of attentiveness. With that being said, Hershey is amazing! The ride lineup is insane, and I still encourage many of you to keep coming to the park at all times of year.
@@papaschilke I’m surprised language barrier would be a factor since Cedar Point and Kings Island also hire internationally and their ops are awesome. Regardless Hershey is an amazing park and if they fix the ops issue I would rank this park easily in my top 10, probably getting close to top 5. I hope one day it does happen.
@@Parkproductions1991 oh I totally agree. It’s less because of the international program but how park leadership communicates. Let’s just say it’s been slacking HORRIBLY. Kings Island And Cedar Point communicate well so that no matter who you are, everyone is on the same page
@@papaschilke I figured it was more of a lack of push from upper management. I really hope the continuation of poor feedback on operations will eventually persuade them to fix the issue.
I worked there over the summer as well. I had multiple times in the north where I tried to be efficient and move faster and my supervisors got mad and told me that to the guests it looked like I was being unsafe, then on wildcat or Fahrenheit we’d be told we were too slow and need to run more. Then you go to central and everything is as slow as possible
@@galliumg8483 I heard central was the worst, especially from a few friends of mine. IDK if you worked with other good ops in the north, but I've heard mixed things there. East, the only part I worked besides one day in Boardwalk, was an excellent team; the only ride that was impossible to be efficient at was Mix'd. Unfortunately, there was a time a lead warned me not to dispatch one of the Storm Runner trains until after the other train came back in the station. I'm sorry, old lead, but me and my supervisors know the safest and soonest time to dispatch a train on Runner. That stuff was so annoying. I hope you enjoyed it, too, though.
I went last year, I will have to say the ride ops on SkyRush were amazing and funny “yes we rode the teacups” cleanliness and friendliness of the park and staff were good. While riding super duper looper, a ride op was yelling for throughput. For a regional park I really enjoyed it. Biggest qualm for our visit was breakdowns, we seen too many mechanics over 2 days
@@Professa2210 Skyrush was pretty good when I was there. That and Wildcat’s Revenge is what saved the score from being even worse. For me not much went down while I was there. It’s all luck sometimes.
As a season pass holder and current grown ass man that has his own 7 year old and someone who spent their entire childhood going to hershey park you're pretty close on the current climate at the park. Parking and food prices are just insane now. Just bring a cooler with ham and cheese sandwiches and keep it in the car. The wait times are unreal compared to when I was a kid. That's what happens when u let teenagers run your rides I guess. Not the same work ethic as "back in my day" lol. If anyone from out of state reads this and wants to do a day trip I'd say go for it because it is a great park with tons of stuff for the younglings the whole way up to adrenaline junkies. My advice is go in early spring or late fall when school is in. My boy and I went 2 weeks ago (early October) and rode whatever we wanted front row with the longest wait being 30 minutes. If u go during june or july forget it. Either be ready to drop 400 bucks on fast track passes (which by the way dont really save that much time anymore) or you're only doing half of what the park has to offer. If u like coasters stick to wildcat....great bear....sky rush...and candymonium. My only issues with your review of storm runner is the ride time. Tou wait 2 hours for a 20 second ride.....yes the launch is cool but I'm 6 foot 6 and those restraints are painful. I'd rather do wildcat 3 times than storm runner once.
@@brianburke191 For me Storm Runner was a short wait. Not sure if I got lucky only waiting about 15 minutes or so. Still love those Intamin Hydraulic Launches which is a dying breed. I can see those restraints not being the best for someone as tall as you. I’m very average height myself so they don’t bother me.
@@Parkproductions1991 yes u got very lucky with that wait time. During the summer its 2 hours minimum. Even the fast track only puts you like 25 minutes from getting on. If they're running both trains it's a little better but still not great. All I know is I break multiple butt cheeks everytime I ride it haha. They need to do what sky rush did and redo the harnesses. Sky rush is so much better this year than in years past. If storm runner would do the same I'd tolerate the wait a little more
If laugh track is less than 1.5hr wait, its WORTH. I remember having to wait 4 hours on the debut day, but it was such an enjoyable ride, my teenager self almost thought it was worth the wait
sky rush has had the nickname Thigh crush becuase at the end of the ride when you wait for the second car to go the lap bar would crush you, but i remember hearing they re- did the lap bars in 2023
Hersheypark is 1.5 hours away from me. It's my home park pretty much. I've gone a few dozen times since the addition of Candymonium. It's always stacked. Going slow or fast, it will stack. It's too short with all the block zones, except for the lift, being at the end of the ride. If it doesn't stack the third train, it is close to being stacked anyhow.
I think with a good crew you can run 3 trains on Candymonium. Its prime ride time is almost identical to Orion and KI is able to crank out 3 trains easily on that thing. Usually only one train stacks behind the station.
@@Parkproductions1991 in my visits Candymonium rarely runs less than all 3 trains. Weekdays during Christmas Candylane is really the only times I saw them going with 2.
I adore Hershey Park and think this is a very accurate review. My biggest issue has been their awful operations on their B&M coasters (Candymonium & Great Bear). There is absolutely no excuse for this, considering these rides should be the highest capacity in the park. Wildcat's Revenge is incredible and the addition of the unloading station + the free lockers make this arguably the most efficent rollercoaster at Hershey. Despite some minor operational issues, this is easily one of the best theme parks in the United States. Oh, and i totally agree if you only have one day, the Fast Track is essential, although Laff Trak will still be at least a 25 to 30 minute wait regardless due to where they let you in to the queue.
My thoughts exactly. I love Hershey (and skyrush is my number 1!) but they are not good at dealing with crowds. I was there on the 14th of September (I had fast track so whatever) and trailblazer, comet, and great bear had absolutely abysmal ops. The ops for storm runner were fine but the park was running 1 train on 1 side. On opening Saturday to dark nights. Again I love Hershey but it would be an s tier park if they could handle crowds better
I find this really intresting given that when I went in Early June I found the operations to be quite good. 40 second dispatches on WCR and sub one minute on Fahrenheit. Storm Runner and lightning racer were both around 90 seconds but yeah Candy was at 2 minute or more. I wonder if they get worse as the season goes on?
@@BoulderDashBoy That seems to be the consensus. I visited in mid August. So I guess go in early season if you don’t want to be driven crazy by the ops.
Yeah I mean the operations aren't great but the coasters and great appearance/food should really counteract all of that. The top 7 is as elite as it gets
@@chasebingaman While attractions are very important, which is why it makes up 40% of the roller coaster rundown score and the biggest contribution, operations are very important where if the operations are so poor it’s hard to ride the rides, it doesn’t matter how good the rides are.
As an ex supervisor for the attractions department of the park I can say that the operations don't just fall on the operators it is also guest taking their time loading and unload and not listening to pre recorded safety speeches which slow things down a lot you cannot sacrifice safety
This has been my family's "home park" since moving here over ten years ago. It has undergone a fair amount of change. Until they redid the restraints in 2024 I had been skipping SkyRush. Overall I agreed with just about everything you said. One thing you weren't able to do is review the Boardwalk. We tend to treat Hershey as two parks in one. We'll either go for the water park section or the rest. We usually don't mix them, but many people do. I have to agree that food operations is a mess. It can be very slow, and if it is crowded, you might see food lines stretch to be absolutely unbearable. They've done work to address this at a few locations. Overlook isn't exactly the most appetizing place but they improved the efficiency in handling the crowd from what I can tell. Fahrenheit is almost unrideable on a busy day because the stream of Fast Track guests overwhelm the small train and take up 50-80% of each ride, leaving the hundreds of people waiting at a standstill. Ride operations is definitely not the most efficient ever, but I have to say I respect the value for safety. Some of the checks and double checks I see them doing are really not the worst for safety. But yes, there's no doubt that efficiency in loading and dispatching isn't the best. Thankfully Wildcat Revenge really does lead the way here with how little things like a pre-ride locker area and separate unloading keeps the loading times down. Many of the other rides are stuck with guests stepping over top of each other to retrieve their waiting items while others are trying to set theirs down. Overall, as someone whose childhood home was Anaheim CA and Disneyland, I'm grateful for a reasonably good park to visit now and then. Thanks for your great review.
@@spaceshot485 I personally don’t spend too much time in waterparks myself which is why didn’t talk about it. I could considering mentioning it in future reviews however. I will never count ride operations due to safety against them. One of my WCR rides they unlocked the restraint and checked one riders height even though they were on the ride. Every other case of slow ops wasn’t die ti safety however. Thanks for the feedback!
Comet is an EXTREMELY bumpy ride. I cannot recommend it for children due to it. My son hated how much it shook and, thanks to its smoothness, Trailblazer brought him back to roller coasters.
The chocolate company does NOT own hersheypark. Hersheypark is owned by hershey entertainment and resorts. Chocolate world is owned directly by the hershey company. Hersheypark has nothing to do with the hershey company.
@@colleenwins The theming seems hit or miss on what attractions have it. But regardless HP is an amusement park so it doesn’t need elaborate theming. Nice when they go the extra mile.
I’d agree with the food for sure as I’m very much not a fan of theme park food. But their new sit down restaurant is a 10/10 for me at just that spot. I only ate 1 meal a day there when I went with the family saving up my appetite for the filet mignion which so delivered! Ops were pretty bad though. Meant I missed a lot of coasters because I didn’t want to leave my wife and 2 kids for extended periods of time. 2 days there and I still missed 6 coasters. Terrible.
@@EnoughRhetoric The food at the sit down restaurant looks great. I really wanted to eat there, but we just didn’t have time with one day in the park. Next time for sure.
@@Parkproductions1991 There are two. One is not far into the park, a little past Candymonium and one is near Tidal Force. I usually go to the one near the front of the park.
my least favorite part of hershey was the food. pretty horrendous even for an amusement park. They should try to move in the direction of cedar fair parks
I don't think a lot of people realize that being a ride op isn't always easy. Most of us are doing our best and trying to get trains out as safely and quickly as possible. But sometimes being at Skyrush for the better part of 8 hours and having to lift the restraints up and down constantly is hard
It’s true, being a ride op is not easy. I used to be an attractions host at Walt Disney World. However I still think there should be a little more pep in the step and get a high throughput. There is of course safety be considered, especially for the ops to make sure they do not strain themselves. But with proper tools, stretches, and support from management it can be done.
@Parkproductions1991 Surprisingly, all the stuff on top tastes like great value quality ice cream. Just to test to see if it would melt, the chocolate bar like ice cream, I left out for about 30 minutes in the cup on a 95 degree day. It never melted like the ice cream in Milton's did. Honestly, the food is the biggest letdown for my family and I. We went about 8 times over the summer and only found about 3 places that we all would eat at that weren't fast food like subway, or chicken fil a. Also, did you notice that the only place you can buy chocolate is from the vending machines inside the park? And they're about 4 bucks for a king size. You're better off buying it at a store and bringing a cooler in.
As a ride operator at Hersheypark, I can attest our operations are terrible. However, it's not entirely our fault. The park enforces a bunch of unnecessary safety measures, so even when we're fast, we can't operate fast.
@@appalachiancoasters2242 That would make sense why it’s universally poor. Safety is of course important, and I’ve seen a few employees defend the ops due to that. However many other park seems to have figured it out to have good operations while also being safe.
I only go in the evenings. I live pretty close and just spending 3 hours at night I can ride pretty much anything with a minimum wait. Saturdays are a complete bust and I’ll ride the same number of rides in a longer period.
I agree with you completely. I love Hershey. In my experience the only attractions that had good operations were Wildcats revenge and Candymonium. All the other coasters ops were abysmal. I feel like it gets worse every year. I’m an enthusiast myself so I’ve been to A LOT of parks. It’s truly elite but their operations are not. And PS. I doubt it will improve by your next visit lol. I’ve been going every year for years and it hasn’t changed. By the way. On a side I think wildcats revenge is a top 4 RMC. I was able to go to Cedar Point and Hershey within a span of 5 days. I got 3 rides on Steve and Several on WCR. At points it felt like WCR was more aggressive. To each their own. Liked your review
@@Parkproductions1991 perhaps. Great bears dispatch times are a hot mess. The last few times I’ve been to Hershey they were 3 train ops with dispatches less than a minute. That was after July 4th
@@shaneh3109 The restrains did change this season. It really bothered people until 2024. Now they use the next gen Intamin restrains like Velocicoaster and Pantheon has.
All the respect I was not very impressed with Hershey Park when I was there roughly around 8 years ago. I had high expectations concerning the park. I have never gotten airtime off of skyrush. Fahrenheit was just okay. The rest weren't that memorable. I remember instead going to Kennywood on the same trip having a low expectations that in contrast for far exceeded by comparison. For Hershey to be elite, They need more variety.
@@colinschmitz8297 granted they have added a good bit in 8 years. Its coaster line up is just now recently getting very good. The rest of the park needs to catch up.
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I worked at the park over the summer. Management never actually talks to ride ops or encourages employees to go faster so ride ops just slowly get slower throughout the summer. Also on certain rides like candymonium or wildcats revenge you have to check seatbelts visually then check restraints and with slow ops it’s just so inefficient
It’s also partially Hershey tries harder to be safer with ops so there’s a lot more ride ops have to do than other parks like on skyrush going in a circle with our visual checks and stuff
This is a very fair review. I've been a season passholder for the past 3 years and I keep renewing it because I previously would spend the money on daily tickets and visit a few times a year. So I decided to buy a season pass and save money and the King size pass which I upgraded to last year, is an excellent package. I actually live closer to Dorney and SF Great Adventure than Hershey but IMO, Hershey is the top tier of those 3. I only got over there one time on a very busy Saturday in June this year so I really hope to visit again in October because I visited 4-5 times a year in both 2022 and 2023.
You are correct about the operations but they can be very crowd dependent. I'm going to get hate for saying this, but Hershey really needs to start turning away bigger guests that obviously won't fit into the rides before they even get in line. They try to be accommodating and I've noticed their operations, which used to be better, have really suffered over the past 10 years as a result. They also need to find a way to force people waiting in line to pay more attention so they know what to do when they get on a ride. This is especially an issue on some of their coasters.
@@mhtube01 it’s something I’ve noticed at a lot of parks. However other parks seem to get the guest off pretty quickly. It sucks and I don’t envy anyone who has that happen.
In 2020 I legit watched a candymonium ride op stand on top of the restraint to get a very obese person in. I actually was amazed this person was able to ride
@@xMcLite That's insane. I've seen them do similar things at other rides like Great Bear and the amount of time they've spent trying to get the restraints closed is ridiculous. As someone who grew up going to Knoebels (which is absolutely a top tier park just in their own unique way) you don't see that kind of stuff happen at smaller parks. They know how to move people and they will turn people away before they even try to do something that ridiculous because they're being realistic. People can say that's mean but the fact is, the obesity rate in American has gotten out of control and it's almost promoted nowadays. So if larger parks aren't accommodating then they're called discriminating and the people in line have to wait while several ride operators struggle to make someone barely fit into rides.
@@xMcLite That’s dedication…and probably an OSEA violation.
As someone who was a ride op at Hershey this last summer, our operations were pretty sad. I mostly worked at Storm Runner, Trailblazer, Remix, and the rides around there. One problem is that we train people from all over the world, and that causes slow operations with a lot of new people each week as well as a sometimes hefty language barrier. Furthermore, I would sometimes have to encourage other attendants and employees with whom I had worked to speed things up and pay attention to what was going on in the station. I loved the job and those with whom I worked, but efficiency was hindered by poor communication at times and occasional lack of attentiveness. With that being said, Hershey is amazing! The ride lineup is insane, and I still encourage many of you to keep coming to the park at all times of year.
@@papaschilke I’m surprised language barrier would be a factor since Cedar Point and Kings Island also hire internationally and their ops are awesome.
Regardless Hershey is an amazing park and if they fix the ops issue I would rank this park easily in my top 10, probably getting close to top 5. I hope one day it does happen.
@@Parkproductions1991 oh I totally agree. It’s less because of the international program but how park leadership communicates. Let’s just say it’s been slacking HORRIBLY. Kings Island And Cedar Point communicate well so that no matter who you are, everyone is on the same page
@@papaschilke I figured it was more of a lack of push from upper management. I really hope the continuation of poor feedback on operations will eventually persuade them to fix the issue.
I worked there over the summer as well. I had multiple times in the north where I tried to be efficient and move faster and my supervisors got mad and told me that to the guests it looked like I was being unsafe, then on wildcat or Fahrenheit we’d be told we were too slow and need to run more.
Then you go to central and everything is as slow as possible
@@galliumg8483 I heard central was the worst, especially from a few friends of mine. IDK if you worked with other good ops in the north, but I've heard mixed things there. East, the only part I worked besides one day in Boardwalk, was an excellent team; the only ride that was impossible to be efficient at was Mix'd. Unfortunately, there was a time a lead warned me not to dispatch one of the Storm Runner trains until after the other train came back in the station. I'm sorry, old lead, but me and my supervisors know the safest and soonest time to dispatch a train on Runner. That stuff was so annoying. I hope you enjoyed it, too, though.
I went last year, I will have to say the ride ops on SkyRush were amazing and funny “yes we rode the teacups” cleanliness and friendliness of the park and staff were good. While riding super duper looper, a ride op was yelling for throughput. For a regional park I really enjoyed it. Biggest qualm for our visit was breakdowns, we seen too many mechanics over 2 days
@@Professa2210 Skyrush was pretty good when I was there. That and Wildcat’s Revenge is what saved the score from being even worse. For me not much went down while I was there. It’s all luck sometimes.
As a season pass holder and current grown ass man that has his own 7 year old and someone who spent their entire childhood going to hershey park you're pretty close on the current climate at the park. Parking and food prices are just insane now. Just bring a cooler with ham and cheese sandwiches and keep it in the car. The wait times are unreal compared to when I was a kid. That's what happens when u let teenagers run your rides I guess. Not the same work ethic as "back in my day" lol. If anyone from out of state reads this and wants to do a day trip I'd say go for it because it is a great park with tons of stuff for the younglings the whole way up to adrenaline junkies. My advice is go in early spring or late fall when school is in. My boy and I went 2 weeks ago (early October) and rode whatever we wanted front row with the longest wait being 30 minutes. If u go during june or july forget it. Either be ready to drop 400 bucks on fast track passes (which by the way dont really save that much time anymore) or you're only doing half of what the park has to offer. If u like coasters stick to wildcat....great bear....sky rush...and candymonium. My only issues with your review of storm runner is the ride time. Tou wait 2 hours for a 20 second ride.....yes the launch is cool but I'm 6 foot 6 and those restraints are painful. I'd rather do wildcat 3 times than storm runner once.
@@brianburke191 For me Storm Runner was a short wait. Not sure if I got lucky only waiting about 15 minutes or so. Still love those Intamin Hydraulic Launches which is a dying breed.
I can see those restraints not being the best for someone as tall as you. I’m very average height myself so they don’t bother me.
@@Parkproductions1991 yes u got very lucky with that wait time. During the summer its 2 hours minimum. Even the fast track only puts you like 25 minutes from getting on. If they're running both trains it's a little better but still not great. All I know is I break multiple butt cheeks everytime I ride it haha. They need to do what sky rush did and redo the harnesses. Sky rush is so much better this year than in years past. If storm runner would do the same I'd tolerate the wait a little more
@ Gross one train wait. I could image that line is horrendous if it’s only running one train.
If laugh track is less than 1.5hr wait, its WORTH. I remember having to wait 4 hours on the debut day, but it was such an enjoyable ride, my teenager self almost thought it was worth the wait
@@CelestialOrion811 I will for sure rope drop that one whenever my next visit is.
Hell no😭 I’m way too impatient. I love that ride but I go to Hershey a lot so every time I go I just say I’ll go on my next visit and I don’t. 😭😭😭😭
sky rush has had the nickname Thigh crush becuase at the end of the ride when you wait for the second car to go the lap bar would crush you, but i remember hearing they re- did the lap bars in 2023
@@TheMrBob2 Yes the lap bars were redone this season, so the thigh crush is gone. It’s the same restraints as Velocicoaster now.
@@TheMrBob2 still crushes thighs...be warned
The middle seats still crush my legs but the wings are great
@@johngotti4286 My two rides I only got on the wing seats. Back left on that first drop was incredible.
Great Park season pass holder live 90 minutes away but the park is always crowed and yes operations are slow.
Hersheypark is 1.5 hours away from me. It's my home park pretty much. I've gone a few dozen times since the addition of Candymonium. It's always stacked. Going slow or fast, it will stack. It's too short with all the block zones, except for the lift, being at the end of the ride. If it doesn't stack the third train, it is close to being stacked anyhow.
I think with a good crew you can run 3 trains on Candymonium. Its prime ride time is almost identical to Orion and KI is able to crank out 3 trains easily on that thing. Usually only one train stacks behind the station.
@@Parkproductions1991 in my visits Candymonium rarely runs less than all 3 trains. Weekdays during Christmas Candylane is really the only times I saw them going with 2.
I adore Hershey Park and think this is a very accurate review. My biggest issue has been their awful operations on their B&M coasters (Candymonium & Great Bear). There is absolutely no excuse for this, considering these rides should be the highest capacity in the park. Wildcat's Revenge is incredible and the addition of the unloading station + the free lockers make this arguably the most efficent rollercoaster at Hershey. Despite some minor operational issues, this is easily one of the best theme parks in the United States. Oh, and i totally agree if you only have one day, the Fast Track is essential, although Laff Trak will still be at least a 25 to 30 minute wait regardless due to where they let you in to the queue.
@@greghaus it’s crazy how their B&M’s have awful operations. Like you said, there is no excuse.
My thoughts exactly. I love Hershey (and skyrush is my number 1!) but they are not good at dealing with crowds. I was there on the 14th of September (I had fast track so whatever) and trailblazer, comet, and great bear had absolutely abysmal ops. The ops for storm runner were fine but the park was running 1 train on 1 side. On opening Saturday to dark nights. Again I love Hershey but it would be an s tier park if they could handle crowds better
Good review. Good video. I've never been to Hershey Park but the wife and I both very keen to go.
@@soylentbob6725 hopefully you found some good tips to help you on your first visit. This review is based on my first visit last month.
I find this really intresting given that when I went in Early June I found the operations to be quite good. 40 second dispatches on WCR and sub one minute on Fahrenheit. Storm Runner and lightning racer were both around 90 seconds but yeah Candy was at 2 minute or more. I wonder if they get worse as the season goes on?
@@BoulderDashBoy That seems to be the consensus. I visited in mid August. So I guess go in early season if you don’t want to be driven crazy by the ops.
Yeah I mean the operations aren't great but the coasters and great appearance/food should really counteract all of that. The top 7 is as elite as it gets
@@chasebingaman While attractions are very important, which is why it makes up 40% of the roller coaster rundown score and the biggest contribution, operations are very important where if the operations are so poor it’s hard to ride the rides, it doesn’t matter how good the rides are.
I love this park my only issue is that the operations aren’t great for a park this big
I forgot to add that I wish they had more flat rides
They could use more. Thankfully they are adding an S&S Screamin Swing next year. They are so much fun!
As an ex supervisor for the attractions department of the park I can say that the operations don't just fall on the operators it is also guest taking their time loading and unload and not listening to pre recorded safety speeches which slow things down a lot you cannot sacrifice safety
Im going to hershy next year, so this video definitely helped prepare me for that. Thank you!
This has been my family's "home park" since moving here over ten years ago. It has undergone a fair amount of change. Until they redid the restraints in 2024 I had been skipping SkyRush. Overall I agreed with just about everything you said. One thing you weren't able to do is review the Boardwalk. We tend to treat Hershey as two parks in one. We'll either go for the water park section or the rest. We usually don't mix them, but many people do.
I have to agree that food operations is a mess. It can be very slow, and if it is crowded, you might see food lines stretch to be absolutely unbearable. They've done work to address this at a few locations. Overlook isn't exactly the most appetizing place but they improved the efficiency in handling the crowd from what I can tell.
Fahrenheit is almost unrideable on a busy day because the stream of Fast Track guests overwhelm the small train and take up 50-80% of each ride, leaving the hundreds of people waiting at a standstill.
Ride operations is definitely not the most efficient ever, but I have to say I respect the value for safety. Some of the checks and double checks I see them doing are really not the worst for safety. But yes, there's no doubt that efficiency in loading and dispatching isn't the best. Thankfully Wildcat Revenge really does lead the way here with how little things like a pre-ride locker area and separate unloading keeps the loading times down. Many of the other rides are stuck with guests stepping over top of each other to retrieve their waiting items while others are trying to set theirs down.
Overall, as someone whose childhood home was Anaheim CA and Disneyland, I'm grateful for a reasonably good park to visit now and then. Thanks for your great review.
@@spaceshot485 I personally don’t spend too much time in waterparks myself which is why didn’t talk about it. I could considering mentioning it in future reviews however.
I will never count ride operations due to safety against them. One of my WCR rides they unlocked the restraint and checked one riders height even though they were on the ride. Every other case of slow ops wasn’t die ti safety however. Thanks for the feedback!
Comet is an EXTREMELY bumpy ride. I cannot recommend it for children due to it. My son hated how much it shook and, thanks to its smoothness, Trailblazer brought him back to roller coasters.
Ride in a non wheel seat (rows 2, 5, 8, and 11) and it’s smooth
It’s actually not owned by the chocolate company
The chocolate company does NOT own hersheypark. Hersheypark is owned by hershey entertainment and resorts. Chocolate world is owned directly by the hershey company. Hersheypark has nothing to do with the hershey company.
🤓🤓🤓
I think theming and entertainment are things that have been lost there in recent years and that bums me out. But I still love HP!
@@colleenwins The theming seems hit or miss on what attractions have it. But regardless HP is an amusement park so it doesn’t need elaborate theming. Nice when they go the extra mile.
I’d agree with the food for sure as I’m very much not a fan of theme park food. But their new sit down restaurant is a 10/10 for me at just that spot. I only ate 1 meal a day there when I went with the family saving up my appetite for the filet mignion which so delivered!
Ops were pretty bad though. Meant I missed a lot of coasters because I didn’t want to leave my wife and 2 kids for extended periods of time. 2 days there and I still missed 6 coasters. Terrible.
@@EnoughRhetoric The food at the sit down restaurant looks great. I really wanted to eat there, but we just didn’t have time with one day in the park. Next time for sure.
Next time you go get the kettle corn
@@Wolky324 Any particular location or is there multiple places in the park?
@@Parkproductions1991 There are two. One is not far into the park, a little past Candymonium and one is near Tidal Force. I usually go to the one near the front of the park.
my least favorite part of hershey was the food. pretty horrendous even for an amusement park. They should try to move in the direction of cedar fair parks
I don't think a lot of people realize that being a ride op isn't always easy. Most of us are doing our best and trying to get trains out as safely and quickly as possible. But sometimes being at Skyrush for the better part of 8 hours and having to lift the restraints up and down constantly is hard
It’s true, being a ride op is not easy. I used to be an attractions host at Walt Disney World. However I still think there should be a little more pep in the step and get a high throughput. There is of course safety be considered, especially for the ops to make sure they do not strain themselves. But with proper tools, stretches, and support from management it can be done.
6:50 that milkshake is a HUGE letdown. It's over priced and very bland. You're better off going to Milton's in the front of the park for ice cream
@@moribundcrux That’s sad to hear. They do look good, but I honestly expect I would get sweetened out before I even got half done.
@Parkproductions1991 Surprisingly, all the stuff on top tastes like great value quality ice cream. Just to test to see if it would melt, the chocolate bar like ice cream, I left out for about 30 minutes in the cup on a 95 degree day. It never melted like the ice cream in Milton's did.
Honestly, the food is the biggest letdown for my family and I. We went about 8 times over the summer and only found about 3 places that we all would eat at that weren't fast food like subway, or chicken fil a.
Also, did you notice that the only place you can buy chocolate is from the vending machines inside the park? And they're about 4 bucks for a king size. You're better off buying it at a store and bringing a cooler in.
@@moribundcrux Yeah I was kinda hoping for more sweets options that you would expect at a place called Hershey Park.
Thank you for the credit :)
@@TheKrystalPalace Of course! Thanks for the footage!
COMET IS THE OLDEST ROLLER COASTER MY PARENTS WORKED THEIR
As a ride operator at Hersheypark, I can attest our operations are terrible. However, it's not entirely our fault. The park enforces a bunch of unnecessary safety measures, so even when we're fast, we can't operate fast.
@@appalachiancoasters2242 That would make sense why it’s universally poor. Safety is of course important, and I’ve seen a few employees defend the ops due to that. However many other park seems to have figured it out to have good operations while also being safe.
It was better when the entrance was in a forest and the chocolate was actually being made there.
Wild cats revenge. The only roller coaster to ever make me throw up.
I only go in the evenings. I live pretty close and just spending 3 hours at night I can ride pretty much anything with a minimum wait. Saturdays are a complete bust and I’ll ride the same number of rides in a longer period.
I agree with you completely. I love Hershey. In my experience the only attractions that had good operations were Wildcats revenge and Candymonium. All the other coasters ops were abysmal. I feel like it gets worse every year. I’m an enthusiast myself so I’ve been to A LOT of parks. It’s truly elite but their operations are not. And PS. I doubt it will improve by your next visit lol. I’ve been going every year for years and it hasn’t changed. By the way. On a side I think wildcats revenge is a top 4 RMC. I was able to go to Cedar Point and Hershey within a span of 5 days. I got 3 rides on Steve and Several on WCR. At points it felt like WCR was more aggressive. To each their own. Liked your review
@@KingWill04 Maybe I went when the candymonium crew was really off because them and Great Bear were the worst offenders.
@@Parkproductions1991 perhaps. Great bears dispatch times are a hot mess. The last few times I’ve been to Hershey they were 3 train ops with dispatches less than a minute. That was after July 4th
@@Parkproductions1991yup. Wildcats revenge was great, everything else sucked. Candymonium especially, until they wanted to leave at the end of the day
🤣, I've noticed that about candymonium too, if I'm actually there near closing suddenly they're hauling.
@@cpdragster420 that’s funny and depressing at the same time.
A little harsh on the food IMO, but fair with everything else
@@xtlm To be fair I’ve been to the park once and in that one visit, the food overall was fine and nothing special. The bbq was pretty good though.
You should go again because I feel like the day you visited wasn’t the best.
@@HersheyParkEnjoyment maybe that’s the case. I will for sure go again one day. Hopefully the operations are better because the rides are amazing
Skyrush was really uncomfortable for me. Wasn't fun at all.
@@shaneh3109 The restrains did change this season. It really bothered people until 2024. Now they use the next gen Intamin restrains like Velocicoaster and Pantheon has.
@@Parkproductions1991 im aware...i rode it a month ago. It still hurts
@@shaneh3109 Yes, still tightens during the ride due to how extreme it is, Pantheon's start out tight but stay the same.
@@spentron1 regardless...it wasn't comfortable. And I probably won't do it again
All the respect I was not very impressed with Hershey Park when I was there roughly around 8 years ago. I had high expectations concerning the park. I have never gotten airtime off of skyrush. Fahrenheit was just okay. The rest weren't that memorable. I remember instead going to Kennywood on the same trip having a low expectations that in contrast for far exceeded by comparison. For Hershey to be elite, They need more variety.
@@colinschmitz8297 granted they have added a good bit in 8 years. Its coaster line up is just now recently getting very good. The rest of the park needs to catch up.