Hersheypark's Future, Discuss rumors and ideas here!

HI!!! Im Coasteral.
Im a HUGE Hersheypark fanatic. Today I would like to post a new discussion called HERSHEYPARK'S FUTURE. I dont know the plans that Hersheypark has. Thats where you come in. What do you think the future of park is going to look like? Please let me know I would love to here your comments.
Thanks
COASTERAL

EDIT: Hey Alex. I edited your post a little and fixed your spelling and grammar. Remember to proofread your posts before you add them to your topic.
-Chris

I think Hersheypark is currently going through a big attraction boom even though we are in a bad economy. Over the past few years, the park's additions have become more detailed and bigger. Usually a major ride would be added every even year, but since they've added The Boardwalk, it seems like it's something big every year.
Looking ahead to 2010, some people have been speculating that HP will add another coaster. IMO I don't see that happening because they just added Fahrenheit in 2008. I believe we will either see a new flat ride or two or some more kiddie rides.
I may be wrong though and keep in mind that HP is not like Six Flags.

I'd say we'll get a new flat ride package in 2010 like we did in 2003. I hope it will be a couple of flats and maybe a kiddie ride or two.

A nice larger flat would be great. Maybe 2 big ones and a few kiddie.

Well, in terms of coasters, I'm not really sure what more they could build. They really don't have any space left (obviously) and their only two options are taking out more rides and building one over everything.

It may look like the park ran out of room, but that's not really true. Sure, they have no room to expand without removing something, but the park can remove something that they can easily relocate or that was abandoned. There are 2 examples:
There is an employee parking lot behind Wildcat which could be the prime spot to expand the Boardwalk. They could create a path going between Wildcat Catering and the coaster.

The other area could be a little hard. The parkview Golf Course closed a few years ago and has been used as a storage area since then. Hersheypark could be able to link this area to the park and if it did, it would nearly double the space the park has now (think of the possibilities). The only problem would be getting it accross Park Ave. To do this, they would have to build a tunnel or bridge over the road.

Those were a few things to think about.

Personally I would like to see the park get some more thrilling coasters. I know that the Great Bear and Strom Runner are pretty thrilling, but I would like to see more thrilling. I would like to see coasters with more height, speed, and inversions.

Please do not get me wrong I love how family oriented the park is. I just want to see some bigger thrill coasters. Some coaster ideas I would like to see are:
-Stand up (Example Riddlers Revenge)
-Inverted bobsled (Example Big Bad Wolf)
-Dark ride (Example Outter Limits)
-Hypercoaster (Example Steel Force)
-Giga coaster (Exmaple Millenium Force)
-Floorless (Example Medusa)

I would also love to see more and more flat rides. It seems amusment parks today are staying away from them or not getting a lot. Some examples of what I would like to see are:
-Drop ride
-Falling star type ride
-Round up
-Haunted house
-Rodeo
-Octopus
-Hang time
-Enterprise (I MISS THIS RIDE hehe)

Not a year-by-year outline, but things I want to see happen at Hersheypark over the next decade or so...

Boardwalk Expansion: Replace Tidal Force with a multi-slide tower (Multi-Lane Mat Racer, Pro Bowl, Speed Slides, ect... see also: Geauga Lake's Slide Tower (pdf link))

Ride Replacements: Mini Himalaya (it would look good with a Chance Wipeout with a giant fiberglass Hershey Kiss in the middle, right up at the front of the park, and would be an obvious replacement for Rodeo, which is going to Dutch Wonderland), Convoy (replace with a Zamperla Rock'n'Tug and Demolition Derby, maybe named "Coal Shaker?"), Flying Falcon (S&S Double Shot... not too high, similar to the one they have at Canobie Lake or Holiday World),

New Coasters: Miler Family Coaster (connected to Minetown Family Restaurant indoors, so it can be used during Candylane... maybe where that skee-ball area is, or just inside the arcade itself), Mack Custom Water Coaster (replacing Coal Cracker... I'd hate to see it leave, but the area really needs something new), Gerstlauer Custom Spinning Coaster (replaces Sidewinder... if that's too many wild-mouse-style rides in one park, move Wild Mouse to Dutch Wonderland instead... that's prime space for waterpark expansion anyway)

Re-located Rides: Mini Himalaya (move across the pathway from the Trailblazer bathrooms where Pony Carts used to sit, re-painted and re-named Stampede)

New Rides: Tea Cups (squeezed in over Coal Cracker/Great Bear?), Vekoma Mad House (replacing the old Skyway station at the front of the park), Fabbri Flying Carpet (replacing the BBQ pit by Trailblazer... with the gondola themed to a Conestoga Wagon, like in the old days...), Zamperla Jump Around (next to Trailblazer's Bathrooms)

Area Refurbishments (ala Founder's Circle): Comet Hollow, Music Box Way

Ice Show in the Hersheypark Arena (when possible)

Re-paint Great Bear... no black track this time.

Remove the Midway America Fair Tent and build a two-story restaurant/catering area with a stage in it's place.

Tear down and rebuild the Trailblazer Cafe, and turn it 90-degrees to the left and completely enclose it, incorporate Pit Barbeque stand where the stage used to sit.

Indoor Waterpark Resort (either owned/operated by HE&R, or maybe through partnership with Great Wolf or Wilderness Resorts)... it would be a great fit for the old Golf Course, or the land behind the Hershey West Plant (across from the campground)

And, on top of this, I would want them to purchase one or two smaller parks (Dixie Landing, Funtown Splashtown, Geauga Lake, Alabama Adventure, Fun Spot (in Indiana), Adventure Park USA, Cliff's Amusement Park, Martin's Fantasy Island, Joyland (Texas)... take your pick!


Ten years, three coasters, some more water slides and family rides... that's about what I would expect from them.

Here is what I think we need desperately:

Coasters:
-B&M Sit-down
-B&M Floorless
-B&M Flyer, possibly
-B&M or Intmain Hyper
-Spinning Wild Mouse (if we don't mind having two of them - lol)

Flats:
-Intamin drop tower
-Huss Top Spin
-Aviator (Like KD's Nickelodeon Space Surfer)
-Huss Troika
-Monster/Octopus
-Chance Wipeout
-Rock'n Tug
-Huss Enterprise (an updated one)
-Huss Rainbow (an updated one)
-Downdraft-type of ride (like at Knoebels)
-Go-Karts

Expansion/Renovations:
-Fix up Tudor Square and Rhineland and transform them back to how they appeared in 1973.
-Fix up Minetown and make it more of a "Pennsylvania Coal Mining Town" as they originally intentioned.
-Transform the old Rhineland Skyride station into a catering area.
-Demolish Creekside Catering and have this be an access point over to the former golf course, or for a new flat or two installed.
-Move the employee parking lot across the street and transform the current one into part of a Boardwalk expansion with more slides and maybe another tubing river. Build a new rapid ride with this expansion.
- Fix up Music Box Way and transform it into more of a 50's themed area. Have a drive-in restaurant (similar to Jukebox at KD/KI) with 57 Chevys out front of it. Maybe make it a full service restaurant with character dining.
-Remove Sidewinder (more and more people are hating this ride anyways) and put in a spinning Wild Mouse, or one of the above B&M's (they could pull it off like they did with Great Bear, Storm Runner and Fahrenheit being in really compact areas).

I do disagree with Badgroceries' suggestion on removing Tidal Force and Flying Falcon though. Tidal Force should stay because it is the only other "non-waterpark" water ride in the park besides Coal Cracker (even though it is part of the Boardwalk). Flying Falcon is one of the best flats I've been on (besides Knoebels' Wipeout and Downdraft) which were also intense. Adding a Wipeout and Downdraft in the park would help round out their flat collection along with the Falcon.

That is some of my two-cents on what I would like to see them do.

B&M coasters are getting way, way too expensive. And honestly, I'd rather see the park get something like a spinning coaster or water coaster than a big B&M, since Dorney and Great Adventure have all of that (Talon, Nitro, Hydra, Superman, Medusa, Batman).

I know Hersheypark has a hard time with height limits, so no hypercoasters (unless it'd be something like a Mega Lite, or Raging Bull, and built out near Creekside Catering).

Chance Aviators are too similar to Flying Scooters (yes, I know KD has both, but I'd rather see Hersheypark get something more unique).

Downdraft is a little too carnival-like... and it needs way, way more padding. I've ridden a different version at the IX Indoor Amusement Park in Cleveland, and that ride also suffered from little to no padding for the rider. Then again, the park did install Howler, so...

No Enterprises... parks already have a hard time keeping the parts for them (Cedar Point's is on it's third boom... which came from Geauga Lake). Nice thought, but expect to see these rides disappear over the next few years (except at Kennywood, I'm sure).

Go-Karts? I like Hersheypark not stooping to the level of Six Flags and Cedar Fair's upcharge rides, especially since they removed Mini Golf for Great Bear. These things do nothing for me.

50's areas are so common these days (see also), so I think the land's just fine. It could just use some new bathrooms (worst restrooms in the park).

Tidal Force is a relic of the 90's, and to be honest, while nothing's wrong with the ride per-se, there's problems with the area around it. There's no natural way to expand the boardwalk (and it won't be behind Wildcat), and the pathway to Midway America around Tidal Force is always clogged in the middle of the day. The huge planters and narrow pathways (and now, with Fahrenheit to distract people), it becomes a huge problem with the park's flow. And hey, why keep a ride that only has a max hourly capacity of 950 riders/hour, when you could put in a large multi-slide complex that could handle three times that (that giant slide 7-slide complex, a 4-person family rafting slide, and, say, a 6- or 8-lane mat racer). In the middle of the day, that could be the answer to large crowds, plus fix the walkway problem.

Flying Falcon has escaped removal several times. Like all Huss rides, the cost to upkeep the ride is huge (one year, they had to buy a million-dollar motor, which is something that happens on things like coasters, not flat rides). I know for a fact that one member of the Hershey board loves the ride, and this is why it hasn't been removed years ago.