Hersheypark Opening Day PTR - 5/6/11

I went to the park on opening day for the very first time and had a blast! I met up with Leah (HPfangirl4life) and Chris (Ccron10) and enjoyed spending the day with them.

Also during the day, I took notice of some more changes that I either missed during Springtime in the Park or that didn't take effect until between that event and opening day.




The park wasn't that busy, mainly school groups outnumbered general park guests.












Now was the time to start taking pics of Comet since this area will look much different next year.




Flying Falcon was up and running again, finally! I love the new signage that they installed on the ride.






Several of the new things I noticed that I don't remember from Springtime in the Park were new signs for Pirate and Coal Cracker as well as a new Rita's stand at the entrance to the Boardwalk.


Glad it's finally up. They had a cherry picker alongside of it earlier in the day working on something. I'm guessing they still don't have the kinks out of it yet, plus pre-season inspecting/testing. I was hoping to ride it but I guess that will have to wait until next month.




I finally rode Sidewinder, twice! I must say I was really impressed with the overall ride experience and especially the new train. It was very comfortable and definitely more elbow room than from what I've heard about the old train. I walked off both times not hurting or with a headache.

After experiencing this one, I have to say that Wildcat is now the roughest coaster in the park. Sidewinder is definitely up there close to Great Bear as far as smoothness goes and I do expect to be riding it often this season!




ZooAmerica from the monorail

And I conclude this PTR with some aerial Kissing Tower pix:








On a side note, Kissing Tower's queue configuration did change, as was reported by other members earlier. I didn't get any pics but it will indeed take some getting used to the new set-up.

Enjoy the pics. I'll be back the first Sunday of next month! Until then, so long!

First of all I love summer! Such great pictures! On another note I'm stoked aout Rita's. I really hope that its normal prices like outside the park not jacked up ones. Anyway I'm excited for my swedish fish gelati walking through the park .

Great PTR I always love seeing pictures of HersheyPark.

Looks like you had a great day!!!

It was mostly school groups. Which I really didn't expect honestly. I figured they would be out in full force in a week or 2, more towards the end of the school year. Good pictures, I really like the one of the sidewinder. Glad to see a rita's in the park but like cheifredskin I really hope it isn't jacked up prices. I can't wait to go on a few wednesdays over the next few weeks because I think the school groups will be there more on Fridays.

I was expecting to see school groups there on Friday. I think a lot of them usually come on weekdays in May and maybe the first week of June. When I was in fifth and sixth grades (1995 and 96), my class took their "end of the year" trips the first week of June. That was when I started going on a yearly basis.

My school always did the end of the year stuff the first week of June too. That's why I was surprised to see so many there on Friday. Hopefully the next few Wednesdays are not busy because due to some weird stuff going on at work, I have every Wednesday in May off and plan on spending some of the days at the park.

Friday was Math day and this coming Thursday is physics day, so expect lots of school groups on Thursday.

Glad Physics day isn't Wednesday.