Hersheypark Announcing 2019 Attraction August 2nd + A New Coaster in 2020?!

© Hersheypark

Hersheypark has been pretty consistent each summer with giving some sort of tease about their plans for the following year... and 2019 is no exception.  No puzzles this year, just a website for the "top secret" project for 2019, which allows visitors to enter to win all sorts of prizes including season passes.

The theme of the page and some of the text are where most of the hints are.  Those who enter the contest will be a part of the "agent trainee program," due to their "love of chocolate and peanut butter."  All very secret mission sort of graphics as well.

© Hersheypark

There are also these little characters strewn about the page as well, which looks like the residents of ... whatever the new ride is.

If I had to take a guess I'd say that this looks like some sort of interactive dark ride, but Hersheypark already has one!  So that would lead me to believe that Reese's Xtreme Cup Challenge, a Sally designed shooting dark ride that opened in 2006, may be rethemed for 2018.  (here's some video of the ride from Sally)

In the ride, teams themed to chocolate and peanut butter (links to the text on the teaser page) battle it out for the highest points during the extreme sports themed ride.

I also noted that the image at the bottom of the page is titled "phasers," which seem to most commonly refer to "pulse energy" blasters used in the Star Trek series.  Would make sense if the new ride continues to be a shoot-at-targets-for-points style of ride!  Luckily we only have to wait until August 2nd to find out!

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Moving on to 2020, we already knew from recent planning meetings that Hersheypark wants to use the former golf course land to start a big expansion, with a whole new entrance gate going in.  Today Pennlive released some plans that give a good look at the 2020 expansion, and appear to include a pretty big new roller coaster.

Above are the plans.  If you're familiar with Hersheypark, you can see how the new entrance will be very close to the tram drop off, just below Chocolate World, and North of where it is currently.  The much more open area (which is badly needed) contains all the buildings you would need along with a circular one that looks like it could have a ride in it.  You can even see the old Hersheypark pinwheel logo in the pavement!

But at the bottom of the expansion is the outline of what looks quite like a roller coaster path, and the image also has a footer plan that lets us see even more.

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Here is the plan that Pennlive released with my markup, showing the path of the coaster.  The station building is clearly visible, even with transfer tracks located right next to it as we would expect.  The ride appears to go out for a long way in a straight path, cutting through the middle of the former golf course land and passing over the creek a few times.  There's a turnaround, more straight track, then a helix.  The track then curves off toward the new entrance, and appears to swoop around a giant fountain that will be just inside the new turnstiles.  The ride then meanders over the new midway before a turn back to the station.

© Hersheypark

This second image Pennlive published is a zoomed in section of the new entrance.  This is the image that was just clear enough to make out some text, which is how you can be sure that the fountain is a fountain, etc.  If you look close you again can see the new ride's footer path through this area.

© Hersheypark

Here is the same image with markup of the ride's path, based off the footers visible.  You can see how the ride will swoop and do a full helix around the water fountain, then cross over the midway before the final brakes and station (which would be just south of the image).  You can also see the cutoff pathway that will lead to the ride's queue and station.

Granted we can't be sure, but this layout seems to feature an awful lot of design elements we've seen used on B&M hyper coasters in the past, but that's just a guess on my part.  While the layout is pretty clear, the manufacturer is not, so that will remain a mystery for now.  Exciting developments for sure!