Friday, July 23, 2010

A Look At Hershey Park's Fahrenheit


Considering Hershey Park is about an hour and a half away from me it's pretty sad that it took me as long as it did to check out Fahrenheit.

I promised myself that I would remedy that this summer - and mission accomplished. Fahrenheit opened at Hershey in 2008, and was designed by Intamin. It features a vertical lift and beyond vertical drop at 97 degrees.

The ride is fairly short, but it packs a punch. The speed gained from the first drop doesn't seem to let up at all until you hit the final brakes.

The trains are shorter than your average coaster stock; each one has three cars, each seating four people for a total of 12 passengers. This was necessary due to the tight curves and steep angles found along the track. Hershey was doing a great job with dispatches when I was there, so the line never seemed to stop moving.

The 97 degree first drop is quick but filled with airtime. I purposely tried to sit in the last seat for this reason. One second you're staring up at the sky going up the lift, then suddenly you pull out of your seat and head toward the ground!

The "Norwegian Loop" debuted on Speed Monster in Norway a year before Fahrenheit included the element. The element resembles a pretzel and flips riders twice.

It's a very big element, too. You get some nice hang-time once the train flips you before dropping down. It's got great midway value, too, people just stop and watch it when the train goes through.

The rest of the ride was a bit of a blur, I must say. There's this cobra roll included, two corkscrews, and some extra tight twists and turns. Also in the photo above take note of the fact that there are two an Intamins, one B&M, and a GCI all in one shot!

Here we see Fahrenheit towering over the splash pool for Tidal Force. Wonder what happens when the boat comes down?

This happens.

I'll leave you with this parting aerial shot of Fahrenheit. With Hershey's history of coaster additions I can't wait to see what they cook up next.


2 comments:

Ryan said...

Ride's alright... to me, it feels like that park's Hydra.

Benjamin Gagne said...

Tidal Force has the wettest splash of all of the shoot-the-shoot rides I have ridden!