Skyrush and Comet Hollow Renovation - Official discussion thread

Since a sixth-grade class trip to Hersheypark, where he rode the Comet roller coaster 10 times in a row, Spring Grove resident Matthew Meckley has become a roller coaster connoisseur.

Some don't go fast enough and some aren't tall enough, he said. But the 28-year-old Keystone Thrills roller coaster club member is impatiently waiting for Hersheypark's newest - which features floorless seats - to open in 2012.

Hersheypark officials shared Skyrush with park guests Tuesday afternoon. The roller coaster will be the 12th in the park, as well as the fastest, longest and tallest.

Meckley and other Keystone Thrills members discovered the park would unveil a new roller coaster about a month ago after checking the park's new

Matt Meckley of Spring Grove watches a video of 'Skyrush' the new HersheyPark roller coaster. (Bil Bowden)trademark license requests. They attended the park Tuesday, eager to hear more details.
The $25 million roller coaster will leave the station at 26 feet per second and crest at 200 feet. The train will plunge down an 85-degree descent traveling around curves and dips at 75 mph. The 3,600-foot track will be a 63-second ride.

"I'm excited about the height of this thing," he said. "It's amazing. I like the thrill of (roller coasters)."

Trains will seat four riders per row, with the two outer seats being winged and floorless to give riders a 270-degree panoramic view of the park. The trains, which will also have magnetic braking to stop at a speed proportionate to the weight of the train, are the first of their kind in the country, said Kent Bachmann, director of design and engineering at Hersheypark.

"What we were missing is a megacoaster," he said. "Each time they go, they'll remember something different (about the ride)."

The roller coaster will allow the entire family - from grandparents to grandchildren - to enjoy the rush. Keeping the ride family-friendly was important to designers, Bachmann said.

Construction is under way on the site formerly known as Sunken Gardens. Bachmann anticipates test rides will begin in April and the ride will open for the public in May 2012.

Fahrenheit, a vertical-lift inverted loop roller coaster, is the most recent addition at the park. It debuted in 2008.

Aidan Moore, 11, of Newberry Township, called Fahrenheit his favorite, but is looking forward to Skyrush's debut.

"I think it looks really high and exciting," he said. "I'm kind of nervous about how fast it is and then how steep it is."

URC Thread wrote:Preface to my post: I am very much looking forward to riding this thing next spring. It looks like a fun experience.

But, again, I am left underwhelmed by the details of the ride, more than I was by the "rumored" information.

It's saving grace may be the...

> Model Mega/hyper coaster with winged seating

> Seat Details
> Cantilever geometry
> Four seats per car (two floored, two floorless)
> Floorless outer seats are winged
> Outer seats offer a 270-degree panoramic view

I don't know what a 270 degree panoramic view is. It sounds made up. Otherwise, I'm excited for these trains. No mention so far of the restraints. Here's hoping for lap-bars, like the B&M staggered-seating trains. Fingers crossed.

> Structure Steel track
> Maximum Height 200 feet

What happened to the requested height of 212.2? That's what the park submitted for this ride. Why is it 12 feet shorter? Why is no one talking about this short-coming?

Track Length 3600 ft

Are you kidding me? That's it? All I heard all along was that this would be the longest ride in the park. Well, it is... by 100 feet. This is PATHETIC, in my opinion, and it's got me all fired up again about Hershey's decision making.

> Elements

> 50-degree ascent

Sounds good.

> 85-degree descent

Sounds GREAT!

> Four high-speed/high-banked curves

Sounds good.

> Five airtime hills

Sounds good - I thought there'd be more.

> Lift Speed 26 feet per second

Sounds good, I'm thinking cable lift, though no mention was made of this either.

> Maximum Speed 75 mph (+/-)

Sounds good, but it's just a smidge faster than Storm Runner, which is listed on RCDB as 75 mph. I thought it was 72.

Why hasn't the height of the first drop been released? Too short to market? Fromt he looks of the construction site, I'm thinking less than 190. Still good, but not what I was expecting.

> CAPACITY AND RIDE TIME
> Number of Trains 2
> Capacity per Train 32 riders

I was hoping for three trains. But 32 riders at a time is not bad. Especially when you factor in...

> Approximate Ride Time 63 seconds
> Theoretical Ride Capacity 1,350 riders per hour

Wow. Just wow. Pathetic ride time. I would hope that this is the time from the top of the lift to the brakes, but I doubt it. It seems as if that is the estimated time from dispatch to station brakes.

We already know that 26 seconds is lift, leaving 37 seconds for the rest of the ride.

The brakes are where I suspected them to be. So, take off another 20+ seconds for brakes, return to station.

> COST
> Projected Cost $25 million (estimated)

... a major portion of which is the excavation and construction. This ride looks to be a $10-15 million ride on a flat piece of land.

Again, I can't wait to ride it. For now, I'm just disappointed, again, in another too short roller coaster from Hersheypark.

I'm sorry, but aside from the extensive marketing campaign (whose parts don't seem to add up) this all has the feel of "going through the motions" from Hersheypark. It feels kinda' half-@$$ed to me, almost like they committed to an announcement date, but ran out of time to put everything together.

The announcement looked silly. The new image of the layout (yellow one) is very poorly done, and doesn't match up with the video or the aerial blueprint image.

The video is downright pathetic too. It looks like a 10 year-old did it on RCT. I hope more info is coming.

There is really nothing impressive about this ride for me. I think most people are underwhelmed by the announcement, but don't want to say so.

I do like the logo, though.

bboynfuel wrote:I'm thinking that the ride is 200 feet tall because there will be a lightning rod placed at the top that will be 12.2 feet tall. That's where the 212.2 variance comes in to play.

Belfries
Chimneys
Cupolas
Domes
Flagpoles
Antennas, other than satellite antennas (see § 225-183) and communications antennas (see § 225-104)
Skylights
Spires
Tanks
Penthouses for housing mechanical equipment
Windmills
Sirens or alarms
Utility poles, masts or towers

HPCrazy wrote:I can pretty much say that this coaster will have a singles rider line.

Fooz wrote:

I made this to help visalize the ride (at least the colors are somewhat correct).

pushingbuttons wrote:

HPCrazy wrote:I can pretty much say that this coaster will have a singles rider line.

I can guarantee you that this ride will not have a single riders line. It's the dumbest thing ever and in some cases is actually longer than the normal line. It was a mistake giving Fahrenheit a single riders line.

Park Connoisseur wrote:I don't understand why a single rider line is problematic. It's only problematic if it's not operated properly. Otherwise, it's a great way to move people through a line and make sure trains are full.

If there are problems with Fahrenheit's single rider line, I don't think it's a good example of how such a line works at Hersheypark, and they should not base the decision to have one on Skyrush on Fahrenheit's operation.

Fahrenheit has small trains with rows of two. Skyrush has longer, "quirky" trains and pretty much has rows of four. It's the ideal situation for a single rider line. I sincerely hope that Hersheypark opts for a single rider line for Skyrush.

In fact, I wish the park had a single rider line on Great Bear and especially for Storm Runner.

Park Connoisseur wrote:I don't understand why a single rider line is problematic. It's only problematic if it's not operated properly. Otherwise, it's a great way to move people through a line and make sure trains are full.

If there are problems with Fahrenheit's single rider line, I don't think it's a good example of how such a line works at Hersheypark, and they should not base the decision to have one on Skyrush on Fahrenheit's operation.

Fahrenheit has small trains with rows of two. Skyrush has longer, "quirky" trains and pretty much has rows of four. It's the ideal situation for a single rider line. I sincerely hope that Hersheypark opts for a single rider line for Skyrush.

In fact, I wish the park had a single rider line on Great Bear and especially for Storm Runner.

gb980109 wrote:With that said, I don't have a problem with the park incorporating more single rider lines onto the rides. The problem is that the most of the coasters do not have the room to incorporate a line for that purpose; the room exists to build more queues, but I think a better purpose would be the rumored fast pass

CoasterBGW wrote:1 - appears to be the entrance from he queue area
2 or 3 - one is the exit and the other is for some use...

gb980109 wrote:

CoasterBGW wrote:1 - appears to be the entrance from he queue area
2 or 3 - one is the exit and the other is for some use...

1 appears to be the exit to me. It looks like you walk down the stairs, then once you get to the ground, you walk underneath the stairs to the GTP booth. I'm thinking 2 is the main queue and 3 is the single/fast pass/whatever queue, from the looks of it.

CoasterBGW wrote:Yes, that building in the middle right is the "Get the Picture" building.

gb980109 wrote: Personally, I think Fahrenheit is a better example of a ride that should have a single rider line. Because there are fewer seats on a Fahrenheit train, that raises the value of each seat. Therefore, having one empty seat on Fahrenheit has a greater impact than one empty seat on Great Bear.

gb980109 wrote:With that said, I don't have a problem with the park incorporating more single rider lines onto the rides. The problem is that the most of the coasters do not have the room to incorporate a line for that purpose; the room exists to build more queues, but I think a better purpose would be the rumored fast pass (see the Screamscape update from 2-17-11).

Park Connoisseur wrote:I don't like the idea of making customers, who have already paid a good amout to get into the park, feel like second class citizens to those who can afford to pay more to skip the lines. Nothing is more annoying for me than to have waited for my turn to ride something and then have to wait an extra cycle because somebody paid extra to skip the line.

ChiefRedskin89 wrote:I personnaly love the single rider line on RXCC! Me and my borther don't mind who we sit with and only want to compete with each other so we can ride more because of this line. It was also really fun when a bunch of rowdy teens got really cocky and annoying but then lost to two 8 yr olds, their mom, and me. I ended up having 185,000 that round!

Park Connoisseur wrote:I don't like the idea of making customers, who have already paid a good amout to get into the park, feel like second class citizens to those who can afford to pay more to skip the lines. Nothing is more annoying for me than to have waited for my turn to ride something and then have to wait an extra cycle because somebody paid extra to skip the line.

Ccron10 wrote:
Q: What was the segnifigence of the spider fibers and white dwarf particles?
A:They were toying with the idea of constallations and at the time, they haven't figured out a name yet so they added it into the game just in case ...it went down that road. Interestingly, one of us thought the name Draco would be a good name for the ride and it was close to being picked, but it fell through at the last minute. As for the spider fiber, they asked themselves, "what would an advanced institution like RIT develop?" So they added it into the game as one of their fictional inventions.

Q: What was the winged creature that flew above the rain forest?
A: This was a clue paying homeage to the winged trains.

Park Connoisseur wrote:I find this interesting. Was Draco the name/theme for this ride, until someone on this site called it early? It seems likely due to the fact that an all early clues dealt with space, and one referred to a winged creature. Too bad, because I like Draco much better than Skyrush.

Let's face it, with Great Bear and Comet, a 'space' name like Draco makes more sense. Perhaps Hersheypark decided against that name since it was "outed" early. Maybe they thought someone leaked the name, and changed it as a result.

gb980109 wrote: No, the Draco name was a direct result of a suggestion on this site. It wasn't considered any earlier than that. So, it wasn't "outed." it was just that it didn't make it across the finish line, unlike Skyrush, which is a name that when I first heard it I didn't really like, but it's really grown on me and I like it at this point. It's a very clean, marketable name.

gb980109 wrote: But I agree. Draco would've been a great name. Going with a constellation theme would have made a lot of sense. With that said, I still like the Skyrush name. But it does make me think that perhaps Hersheypark's theme is that there is no theme, akin to the plot of Seinfeld being that it's a show about nothing.

Park Connoisseur wrote:I wouldn't say Hersheypark is without theme. They do have western section with western-themed rides. They also have a mine-themed section with mine-themed rides. They have a Rhineland and Tudor Square too (areas that they seem to be stripping the charm/theme from). And of course the water park is themed to the "local" shore points.

gb980109 wrote:Pioneer Frontier has mostly lost it's western theme. Conestoga, Chute-Out, Rodeo are gone, and the rides that have replaced them are Howler, Fahrenheit and cabanas. Midway America's theme was lost years ago, and now the old music has been replaced. Minetown only has one mine-themed ride - Coal Cracker. The Boardwalk is the best themed. Founder's Circle was really well themed in 2005, but that was stripped down a bit. Rhineland and Tudor Square are aging.

Speaking of I-305, KD paid $25 million for it. 305 feet tall, over 5,000 feet long.

Cedar Point paid $25 million for Millennium Force. 310 feet tall, over 6,500 feet long.

Hersheypark is paying $25 million for Skyrush. 200 feet tall and 3,600 feet long.

What's wrong with this picture?

The difference is the location, and it kinda' gives you an idea of how much it's costing Hersheypark to move a creek, excavate, and build this ride where they've chosen to build it.

Decisions to build things where they have in the past (cough-waterpark-cough) have added millions to this ride's pricetag, and probably played a part in this ride's less than inspiring statistics.

I hope this ride's location adds that much more to the ride experience.

In retrospect, it would have been better to build Fahrenheit where Skyrush will sit (as it has a compact footprint), and build a long majestic megacoaster starting at Fahrenheit's current location.

warhawk911 wrote:Can we take theming to another thread? I mean....I drove on Park Blvd after dropping wifey off at work and there were a lot of workers showing up to get back to work! I couldn't tell how much water there was inside but it looks like they are ready for some more hard work.

Shift work...hard work....9 to 5 blue collar work and baseball cap....

I just hope that the rains hold off so they can actually get more done today.

Park Connoisseur wrote:I apologize for quoting another website again, but this perspective was too interesting to pass up, and is certainly pertinent to the discussion here.

In retrospect, it would have been better to build Fahrenheit where Skyrush will sit (as it has a compact footprint), and build a long majestic megacoaster starting at Fahrenheit's current location.

Valid points all around, I think.

HPCrazy wrote:

warhawk911 wrote:Can we take theming to another thread? I mean....I drove on Park Blvd after dropping wifey off at work and there were a lot of workers showing up to get back to work! I couldn't tell how much water there was inside but it looks like they are ready for some more hard work.

Shift work...hard work....9 to 5 blue collar work and baseball cap....

I just hope that the rains hold off so they can actually get more done today.

I was just thinking the same thing. I'm going to begin a topic for that kind of discussion right now.

warhawk911 wrote:
Skyrush is probably in a great location because of the other rides its going to interact with. Skyrush will interact with at least Looper and Comet and according to the announcement, it is supposed to interact with Bear as well.

Park Connoisseur wrote: Those are just empty marketing words, just like "270 degree panoramic view".

warhawk911 wrote:
So you are saying that it won't be a 270 degree panoramic view?

Park Connoisseur wrote:

warhawk911 wrote:
So you are saying that it won't be a 270 degree panoramic view?

No, I'm just saying that it doesn't make sense.

It sounds like an invented term that Hersheypark needed to better market the ride.

Park Connoisseur wrote:I apologize for quoting another website again, but this perspective was too interesting to pass up, and is certainly pertinent to the discussion here.

Speaking of I-305, KD paid $25 million for it. 305 feet tall, over 5,000 feet long.

Cedar Point paid $25 million for Millennium Force. 310 feet tall, over 6,500 feet long.

Hersheypark is paying $25 million for Skyrush. 200 feet tall and 3,600 feet long.

What's wrong with this picture?

The difference is the location, and it kinda' gives you an idea of how much it's costing Hersheypark to move a creek, excavate, and build this ride where they've chosen to build it.

Decisions to build things where they have in the past (cough-waterpark-cough) have added millions to this ride's pricetag, and probably played a part in this ride's less than inspiring statistics.

I hope this ride's location adds that much more to the ride experience.

In retrospect, it would have been better to build Fahrenheit where Skyrush will sit (as it has a compact footprint), and build a long majestic megacoaster starting at Fahrenheit's current location.

Valid points all around, I think.

gb980109 wrote: Fahrenheit couldn't go where Skyrush is. That's not a valid point whatsoever. In regards to the waterpark, from what I've heard is that the current location of the Boardwalk was not the first choice and that the township blocked the first choice. I suspect whoever wrote that thinks that the park can do whatever it wants where ever it wants, and that's the farthest thing from the truth.

gb980109 wrote: Fahrenheit couldn't go where Skyrush is. That's not a valid point whatsoever.

gb980109 wrote: In regards to the waterpark, from what I've heard is that the current location of the Boardwalk was not the first choice and that the township blocked the first choice.

Park Connoisseur wrote:This is false, and it seems to be a bad rumor that is floating around employees of Hersheypark, and people who know employees at Hersheypark. I've heard it on many occasions, and it simply is not true.

From what I've always understood, other locations were considered for the water park, but the township had nothing to do with the decision to place it where it currently sits.