Jarrett
Most Obnoxious Member 2016
So as of last year, I've been going on my girlfriend Emily's Hersheypark trips to get Skyrush laps and this year was no different, with the exception of a few more creds than I got last year! This year Emily suggested I do Six Flags America and Kings Dominion since I'm a bit strapped for cash (gotta pay tuition and student loans this fall...ugh!) and I have passes to both chains, in addition to my Hersheypark early season pass.
Day 0
That morning I grabbed my rental car from Hertz and headed up to Canada to meet Emily for the wedding in her family that weekend. With zero trouble at the border whatsoever, I was over early, and then got a text from Emily that she would be stuck at work later than she expected. And I knew since 2014 that there's a Miner Mike near the border on the Canadian side.
What would a true coaster enthusiast do? I pulled into a fast food parking lot literally still on Huron Church a stone's throw from the border, plugged Colasanti's Tropical Gardens into the GPS, and got my whore on!
This place is strange. Like, really strange. Like, you drive through this absolute wasteland of agricultural fields and greenhouses dotted by wind turbines away from any civilization in the slightest. Then one of these greenhouses, nothing unlike the others, has a nice little wooden facade for you to walk in. So this greenhouse is like a little Chucky Cheese on the inside but because it's in the middle of flippin' nowhere, the place was dead. Like I walk in and all I hear is the hum of the air conditioner and one employee telling me hi. No mechanical game noises, no laughter of guests, no music, it's dead silent. So I walk around and find this racist thing among bumper cars, ride ons, and arcade games.
Not a soul in sight. So I ran around the place until I got to a food stand and one of the girls there told me to go to the ticket redemption desk and talk to them. So I do that and the girl there is not only very polite with me, but she even swaps my USD out for five CAD Loonies and radioed Zack from ride operations over there. So I used three of the Loonies to get nine tokens, and after finding Zack (who was very nice as well), handed eight of them in for a spin on Credit 255!
This was my first Miner Mike and surprisingly, it wasn't bad. It was pretty smooth and enjoyable for a little kiddie credit. Zack informed me of another credit at the Leamington County Fair that was from the same manufacturer (Wisdom) that was one of only two built and the only surviving one left, but sadly I couldn't find it and just headed to London.
I got to Emily's around 7 right around the time she got off work and went out for Greek food with her folks that night.
Day 1
Well before Hershey came family obligations, a wedding in Emily's family! I'm not too big on weddings myself but she was kind of guilted into going so we ended up going to support her cousin Mitchell and his fiancee Meg as they tied the knot in Ingersoll.
As much as I don't like large events like that, I like getting dressed up, and made sure I picked Emily's favorite color combination; teal and purple.
We didn't mean to but we ended up matching! Emily went with teal and green as her colors (and just about smacked me when I said it reminded me of Fury 325) and we were actually really cute together. But notice the champagne that Emily has? That would end up being a whole theme for this wedding! I had eight drinks (a LeBatt Blue, a champagne, a bloody Caesar, four Sangrias, and a white wine) and Emily had nine (same thing but two champagnes). Needless to say, we were hanging over the edge after the event!
We had a funny photo contest at the reception and this is what Emily and I came up with, appropriately. Sadly we didn't win but it was sure fun!
We let both of our hangovers wear off for a bit over some dessert before everyone started dancing. Emily used to do both dance and gymnastics so she was fine, but event though I did musical theater in grade school I've long accepted that I'll always be an awful dancer. So we got up there and danced to Bruno Mars and probably looked like idiots but it was actually kind of fun, especially with a bit of a buzz still lingering.
We left pretty drunk before they started the slow dancing because we wanted to get up early and get to Hershey early in the afternoon so Emily could get on track to 2000 Skyrush laps. Emily's Nana's old people transportation showed up later than we expected so we got in and took that back to London. After dropping her Nana off we took a cab back to Emily's apartment driven by a cool Quebecois guy playing electronic music at 1 in the morning. We went upstairs, changed, and hit the hay for the long drive that awaited the next day.
Day 2
We woke up to a very rainy morning bright and early and got on the road. After a quick stop at Tim Horton's (because Canada) Emily and I continued on over to the border and had zero problems coming into the States for the first time (coming back, however, is a different story...) and just sped on to Hershey! Once we got there, I immediately let Emily out of the car to run in and get Skyrush laps as I processed my pass and followed her in.
There was no line so I found Emily doing her thing and marathoned with her a bit! After I got tired of the coaster that brought us together, I went to go check out Hersheypark's newest addition, Hershey's Triple Tower!
Here's me with another New for 2017 ride! In case you're out of the loop with the flat rides for this year, Hershey's Triple Tower is a new ride that's actually three rides stuck together in one plaza. Hershey's Triple Tower is made up of three S&S towers lined up from shortest to tallest. You have Kisses Tower, the shortest tower and Reese's Tower, the middle tower, operating as two differently-sized space shots, and Hershey's Tower, the tallest, operating as a combo tower. The park was dead so Hershey's had a few people in its line but everything else was a walk on. So I started with Kisses and worked my way up, here's my review on all of them!
Kisses Tower: I was honestly expecting this to be very tame, as it should be being the shortest of the towers. Just a fun little shot up, maybe a bit of floater, but I expected this thing to be, in essence, a minor step up from a Frog Hopper and nothing more. Boy did that surprise me! The blast off was about as intense as I expected but it stops you really fast up there, I got thrown right into my restraint and cursed very loudly in a gondola full of children! You aren't out of your seat long at the top, but it really relies on that restraint to keep you in, there's certainly a sizeable amount of ejector on this thing.
Reese's Tower: This ended up being my favorite of the three. I love Power Tower at CP and Kisses really exceeded my expectations. It's taller than Kisses Tower so you actually get a very nice view of the park as this thing goes about its business. So it shoots you up, the view at the top is gorgeous, the ejector is as strong as Kisses (maybe a bit weaker but not by much), but it's way more sustained and you're in your restraint for more than just a fun little pop.
Hershey's Tower: Definitely the letdown of this attraction. I was expecting Reese's/Kisses ejector but very high off the ground, but it just doesn't deliver. I like the round gondola on this one, the view is the best of the three, but sadly it's just considerably weaker in terms of force. We got to the top, I was expecting to be thrown out of my seat, and instead it's just a fun little pop of floater. Then it holds you up there, you hear the pistons pressurizing again, it's absolutely terrifying and you expect a horrifyingly brutal trip back to earth, and then, poof! The saddest, weakest excuse for a blast knocks you back down the tower with almost no airtime. This thing's literally a big teddy bear and nothing more, Reese's puts it in its place any day.
Final verdict: The park needed something like it, but they needed to do something fresh and not seen before. Maybe the triple tower concept qualifies, maybe it doesn't. Those S&S towers, as much fun as they are, are dated technology and most people have experienced them in some form or another before. They kind of played it safe keeping the concept fresh and unique but let's face it: it worked. Sure there have been different programs stuck together in tower complexes, sure Intamin's toyed around with drop tower seating arrangements, sure BGW put all these bells and whistles on Mach Tower, but three different heights and two programs have never been stuck together like this and while it probably isn't the most original way of doing this, it's original enough to make it a hit. I heard all kinds of buzz among the GP comparing the three towers and the whole week, there were people crowded around the base of the tower complex watching them go. The fact that there's three also ensures that there's never a horrendous line for them. They took an old concept, barely did anything to it, marketed it as this new and exciting thing, and people are eating it up like chocolate. Visually, the thing looks great on that hill like that but I personally wish they had done something to connect them at the top. Having like a truss structure or a wavy red ribbon or something with the Miss Kiss, Reese, and Hershey character hanging out on it over their respective tower would have been awesome in my opinion.
After Triple Tower I headed back to Skyrush to tell Emily what I thought of it, took a lap, and then went to give the GCIs some love. I ended up noticing that Lightning Racer was really booking it on the red Lightning side so I rode it a total of sixteen times that night, switching seats to empty ones and casually sitting in the train planning a meetup with Celia (yes, cray cray Celia, you'll see more of her two updates from now) in between laps. I ended up liking this marathoning thing, especially on a modern wooden coaster! Thought I might give it a try... (again, two updates from now.)
After that I went back to say hi to Emily once more before heading out to a Giant to buy us dorm food for the week and then went back to pick Emily up.
After that train whistle blew, Emily and I headed to our host Melissa's house (Hershey local that lives practically across the street from Great Bear, very good friend of Emily's) and dug into some cold Chef Boyardee out of the can like the classy mofos we are! I managed to get to sleep early, knowing I had to drive to SFA and back the next day.
UP NEXT: Coaster enthusiasm gets ratchet! Jarrett actually enjoys himself on a flying coaster for all the wrong reasons, Six Flags America "aint no motha#$%& Burger King," the worst shin restraints ever that would make RMC Knee Defender haters wish they were instead stapled on Wicked Cyclone, and a 100-year old coaster that Mr. #RMCitorWreckit himself still has as his favorite ride in the park!
Day 0
That morning I grabbed my rental car from Hertz and headed up to Canada to meet Emily for the wedding in her family that weekend. With zero trouble at the border whatsoever, I was over early, and then got a text from Emily that she would be stuck at work later than she expected. And I knew since 2014 that there's a Miner Mike near the border on the Canadian side.
What would a true coaster enthusiast do? I pulled into a fast food parking lot literally still on Huron Church a stone's throw from the border, plugged Colasanti's Tropical Gardens into the GPS, and got my whore on!
This place is strange. Like, really strange. Like, you drive through this absolute wasteland of agricultural fields and greenhouses dotted by wind turbines away from any civilization in the slightest. Then one of these greenhouses, nothing unlike the others, has a nice little wooden facade for you to walk in. So this greenhouse is like a little Chucky Cheese on the inside but because it's in the middle of flippin' nowhere, the place was dead. Like I walk in and all I hear is the hum of the air conditioner and one employee telling me hi. No mechanical game noises, no laughter of guests, no music, it's dead silent. So I walk around and find this racist thing among bumper cars, ride ons, and arcade games.
Not a soul in sight. So I ran around the place until I got to a food stand and one of the girls there told me to go to the ticket redemption desk and talk to them. So I do that and the girl there is not only very polite with me, but she even swaps my USD out for five CAD Loonies and radioed Zack from ride operations over there. So I used three of the Loonies to get nine tokens, and after finding Zack (who was very nice as well), handed eight of them in for a spin on Credit 255!
This was my first Miner Mike and surprisingly, it wasn't bad. It was pretty smooth and enjoyable for a little kiddie credit. Zack informed me of another credit at the Leamington County Fair that was from the same manufacturer (Wisdom) that was one of only two built and the only surviving one left, but sadly I couldn't find it and just headed to London.
I got to Emily's around 7 right around the time she got off work and went out for Greek food with her folks that night.
Day 1
Well before Hershey came family obligations, a wedding in Emily's family! I'm not too big on weddings myself but she was kind of guilted into going so we ended up going to support her cousin Mitchell and his fiancee Meg as they tied the knot in Ingersoll.
As much as I don't like large events like that, I like getting dressed up, and made sure I picked Emily's favorite color combination; teal and purple.
We didn't mean to but we ended up matching! Emily went with teal and green as her colors (and just about smacked me when I said it reminded me of Fury 325) and we were actually really cute together. But notice the champagne that Emily has? That would end up being a whole theme for this wedding! I had eight drinks (a LeBatt Blue, a champagne, a bloody Caesar, four Sangrias, and a white wine) and Emily had nine (same thing but two champagnes). Needless to say, we were hanging over the edge after the event!
We had a funny photo contest at the reception and this is what Emily and I came up with, appropriately. Sadly we didn't win but it was sure fun!
We let both of our hangovers wear off for a bit over some dessert before everyone started dancing. Emily used to do both dance and gymnastics so she was fine, but event though I did musical theater in grade school I've long accepted that I'll always be an awful dancer. So we got up there and danced to Bruno Mars and probably looked like idiots but it was actually kind of fun, especially with a bit of a buzz still lingering.
We left pretty drunk before they started the slow dancing because we wanted to get up early and get to Hershey early in the afternoon so Emily could get on track to 2000 Skyrush laps. Emily's Nana's old people transportation showed up later than we expected so we got in and took that back to London. After dropping her Nana off we took a cab back to Emily's apartment driven by a cool Quebecois guy playing electronic music at 1 in the morning. We went upstairs, changed, and hit the hay for the long drive that awaited the next day.
Day 2
We woke up to a very rainy morning bright and early and got on the road. After a quick stop at Tim Horton's (because Canada) Emily and I continued on over to the border and had zero problems coming into the States for the first time (coming back, however, is a different story...) and just sped on to Hershey! Once we got there, I immediately let Emily out of the car to run in and get Skyrush laps as I processed my pass and followed her in.
There was no line so I found Emily doing her thing and marathoned with her a bit! After I got tired of the coaster that brought us together, I went to go check out Hersheypark's newest addition, Hershey's Triple Tower!
Here's me with another New for 2017 ride! In case you're out of the loop with the flat rides for this year, Hershey's Triple Tower is a new ride that's actually three rides stuck together in one plaza. Hershey's Triple Tower is made up of three S&S towers lined up from shortest to tallest. You have Kisses Tower, the shortest tower and Reese's Tower, the middle tower, operating as two differently-sized space shots, and Hershey's Tower, the tallest, operating as a combo tower. The park was dead so Hershey's had a few people in its line but everything else was a walk on. So I started with Kisses and worked my way up, here's my review on all of them!
Kisses Tower: I was honestly expecting this to be very tame, as it should be being the shortest of the towers. Just a fun little shot up, maybe a bit of floater, but I expected this thing to be, in essence, a minor step up from a Frog Hopper and nothing more. Boy did that surprise me! The blast off was about as intense as I expected but it stops you really fast up there, I got thrown right into my restraint and cursed very loudly in a gondola full of children! You aren't out of your seat long at the top, but it really relies on that restraint to keep you in, there's certainly a sizeable amount of ejector on this thing.
Reese's Tower: This ended up being my favorite of the three. I love Power Tower at CP and Kisses really exceeded my expectations. It's taller than Kisses Tower so you actually get a very nice view of the park as this thing goes about its business. So it shoots you up, the view at the top is gorgeous, the ejector is as strong as Kisses (maybe a bit weaker but not by much), but it's way more sustained and you're in your restraint for more than just a fun little pop.
Hershey's Tower: Definitely the letdown of this attraction. I was expecting Reese's/Kisses ejector but very high off the ground, but it just doesn't deliver. I like the round gondola on this one, the view is the best of the three, but sadly it's just considerably weaker in terms of force. We got to the top, I was expecting to be thrown out of my seat, and instead it's just a fun little pop of floater. Then it holds you up there, you hear the pistons pressurizing again, it's absolutely terrifying and you expect a horrifyingly brutal trip back to earth, and then, poof! The saddest, weakest excuse for a blast knocks you back down the tower with almost no airtime. This thing's literally a big teddy bear and nothing more, Reese's puts it in its place any day.
Final verdict: The park needed something like it, but they needed to do something fresh and not seen before. Maybe the triple tower concept qualifies, maybe it doesn't. Those S&S towers, as much fun as they are, are dated technology and most people have experienced them in some form or another before. They kind of played it safe keeping the concept fresh and unique but let's face it: it worked. Sure there have been different programs stuck together in tower complexes, sure Intamin's toyed around with drop tower seating arrangements, sure BGW put all these bells and whistles on Mach Tower, but three different heights and two programs have never been stuck together like this and while it probably isn't the most original way of doing this, it's original enough to make it a hit. I heard all kinds of buzz among the GP comparing the three towers and the whole week, there were people crowded around the base of the tower complex watching them go. The fact that there's three also ensures that there's never a horrendous line for them. They took an old concept, barely did anything to it, marketed it as this new and exciting thing, and people are eating it up like chocolate. Visually, the thing looks great on that hill like that but I personally wish they had done something to connect them at the top. Having like a truss structure or a wavy red ribbon or something with the Miss Kiss, Reese, and Hershey character hanging out on it over their respective tower would have been awesome in my opinion.
After Triple Tower I headed back to Skyrush to tell Emily what I thought of it, took a lap, and then went to give the GCIs some love. I ended up noticing that Lightning Racer was really booking it on the red Lightning side so I rode it a total of sixteen times that night, switching seats to empty ones and casually sitting in the train planning a meetup with Celia (yes, cray cray Celia, you'll see more of her two updates from now) in between laps. I ended up liking this marathoning thing, especially on a modern wooden coaster! Thought I might give it a try... (again, two updates from now.)
After that I went back to say hi to Emily once more before heading out to a Giant to buy us dorm food for the week and then went back to pick Emily up.
After that train whistle blew, Emily and I headed to our host Melissa's house (Hershey local that lives practically across the street from Great Bear, very good friend of Emily's) and dug into some cold Chef Boyardee out of the can like the classy mofos we are! I managed to get to sleep early, knowing I had to drive to SFA and back the next day.
UP NEXT: Coaster enthusiasm gets ratchet! Jarrett actually enjoys himself on a flying coaster for all the wrong reasons, Six Flags America "aint no motha#$%& Burger King," the worst shin restraints ever that would make RMC Knee Defender haters wish they were instead stapled on Wicked Cyclone, and a 100-year old coaster that Mr. #RMCitorWreckit himself still has as his favorite ride in the park!