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Hersheypark | Chocolatetown | 2019/2020 Park Expansion

CrashCoaster

CF Legend
I think the part of this ride that interests me the most is the whereabouts of trim placement. It looks to have some solid airtime but lets hope it wont be an Intrimidator.
 

CrashCoaster

CF Legend
^But the concept art for the trains doesn't and as I said on the previous page, the station track has seven restraint-release mechanisms, for seven row trains.
 

Antinos

Slut for Spinners
Regardless of whatever the concept art or the animation or the blueprints or the recently erected station track shows or what the Lemon Chill Guy says, it's still bewildering that they aren't utilizing nine row trains on a brand spanking new attraction at the front of the park. Anybody with half a brain will realize that a huge amount of people that walk through the gate will head straight to Candymonium, and two less rows will be a legitimately significant hit to throughput.

With that being said, the initial reaction to this announcement feels like Mako's for me - they're building about as standard of a hyper coaster as they possibly can. That isn't a bad thing though - if it tracks like Mako, it will be legit.


And because nobody has posted them yet, here are the photos from the website:

tallest.jpg


tallest1.jpg


fastest1.jpg


fastest.jpg


longest1.jpg


longest2.jpg


longest.jpg


sweetest.jpg


sweetest1.jpg


 

oriolat2

Giga Poster
Having done a tad of research on the matter of train length I have found that Mako, indeed, is the odd coaster.

Candymonium aside, out of all B&M hypers since Shambhala (2012), the V-train configuration has not been used. Leviathan, opened as well in 2012, went back to 4-across trains but with a small variation, since all previous 4-across installations featured 9-row trains and Leviathan's are 8 rows long.

  1. Fury325 (8 rows)
  2. Flight of the Himalayan Eagle Music Roller Coaster (9 rows)
  3. New Chinese hyper opening at Hot Go Dreamworld (to be confirmed: 8/9-row trains)
About the number of trains running on Candymonium, I wasn't sure if it would be 2 or 3, but the video features three different colour schemes for the trains, suggesting it might run 3. This coaster, again, follows the late B&M trend of pushing the MCBR towards the very end of the ride (see Shambhala, Intrimidator, or to a more extreme extend Leviathan, Fury325 and Banshee). I guess this helps the ride flow better and avoid killing the pace with a MCBR section too early while keeping the blocks free to allow a smooth 3-train operation (although I think later models tend to have more stacking than when rides had their MCBR earlier in the layout).
 

bob_3_

Giga Poster
So there are a few reasons for a smaller train on a coaster.

Quicker dispatches due to less seats needed to check, the seconds really do build up
It allows for tighter elements (the front-to-back force differences are reduced)
Maintenance - obviously less wheels and parts..

B&M tend to be pretty good at balancing everything so the theoretical throughput is decent though, so I shouldn't worry too much. Basically a shorter train doesn't always mean a worse throughput.
 

Matt N

CF Legend
I think that 7-car trains will suit this ride fine! Mako at SeaWorld Orlando also has 7-car trains, and that seemed to have an excellent throughput when I was at SeaWorld Orlando! I didn't calculate, but it must easily get 1,500pph!

Actually, I think a more comparable one would be Fury 325, which has a similar brake arrangement and gets 1,470pph with 8-car trains, but a longer track length. So I'd guess this Hershey hyper should still exceed 1,400pph easily, which should be fine for an entrance coaster.

As for the layout, I think it looks fantastic! I can see plenty of wonderful floater airtime in there, and if it rides like Mako it should be a wonderful ride! From what I've seen of B&M hypers, they seem like just my type of ride, and this one should be no exception!

Also, I'd controversially argue that this ride may have a wider appeal than Skyrush. While I won't deny that Skyrush probably has more forceful airtime and greater positive g-forces than any B&M hyper, so a lot of enthusiasts might like it better, I think this could appeal to your average Hersheypark guest more than Skyrush, as it should likely be a very fun, rerideable coaster, whereas Skyrush is a very extreme beast with a somewhat niche appeal outside of enthusiasts from what I've heard.
 
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CrashCoaster

CF Legend
Having done a tad of research on the matter of train length I have found that Mako, indeed, is the odd coaster.

Candymonium aside, out of all B&M hypers since Shambhala (2012), the V-train configuration has not been used. Leviathan, opened as well in 2012, went back to 4-across trains but with a small variation, since all previous 4-across installations featured 9-row trains and Leviathan's are 8 rows long.

  1. Fury325 (8 rows)
  2. Flight of the Himalayan Eagle Music Roller Coaster (9 rows)
  3. New Chinese hyper opening at Hot Go Dreamworld (to be confirmed: 8/9-row trains)
About the number of trains running on Candymonium, I wasn't sure if it would be 2 or 3, but the video features three different colour schemes for the trains, suggesting it might run 3. This coaster, again, follows the late B&M trend of pushing the MCBR towards the very end of the ride (see Shambhala, Intrimidator, or to a more extreme extend Leviathan, Fury325 and Banshee). I guess this helps the ride flow better and avoid killing the pace with a MCBR section too early while keeping the blocks free to allow a smooth 3-train operation (although I think later models tend to have more stacking than when rides had their MCBR earlier in the layout).
The website confirms the coaster will have three different candy-themed trains and they will be 7-rows long, as I said on the previous page.
 

Hyde

Matt SR
Staff member
Moderator
Social Media Team
My general response:
giphy.gif

It's taller, faster, longer than Skyrush... but many does this coaster just feel lacking compared to what could have been.
 

SilverArrow

Certified Ride Geek
The CEO said in the CF interview they were working on the new entrance 5 years ago so I don't know how long in advance coaster specifics are usually decided (expect it varies a bit) but maybe that explains why the coaster doesn't feature anything mind blowing for 2019. Also, maybe they just they wanted something nice for families. I mean it should be decent.


Sounds like they thought they had too many Intamins vs B&Ms lol.
 

Hyde

Matt SR
Staff member
Moderator
Social Media Team
The CEO said in the CF interview they were working on the new entrance 5 years ago so I don't know how long in advance coaster specifics are usually decided (expect it varies a bit) but maybe that explains why the coaster doesn't feature anything mind blowing for 2019. Also, maybe they just they wanted something nice for families. I mean it should be decent.


Sounds like they thought they had too many Intamins vs B&Ms lol.
5 years is about par for how much advance timing and planning it takes to do a large scale roller coaster like this. Gatekeeper, as a comparative large roller coaster that transformed an entrance, was also a near 5 year project.
 

Matt N

CF Legend
Giga, RMC, Mack Multi-launch, Wing; the list goes on for other roller coasters that could have been built. Building a hyper coaster that is exactly 10 ft. taller and 1 MPH faster than your other hyper coaster hardly is pretty low bar.
Does every ride necessarily have to push the envelope, though? B&M hypers always provide a fantastic ride experience, and there are many rides that didn't necessarily contain any mind-blowing looking elements upon announcement that turned out great!
 

Hyde

Matt SR
Staff member
Moderator
Social Media Team
Does every ride necessarily have to push the envelope, though? B&M hypers always provide a fantastic ride experience, and there are many rides that didn't necessarily contain any mind-blowing looking elements upon announcement that turned out great!
If you're going to sell a roller coaster as pushing the envelop, which Hersheypark is as the "tallest, fastest, longest roller coaster at Hersheypark", when in reality it is one of the shortest B&M hypers in length; yeah, that's gonna be an annoying jab for enthusiasts.

Granted, many parks build "tallest, fastest" roller coaster types that are only mild variation of the roller coaster design (think a lot of tallest, fastest B&Ms for their type such as Valravn, Alpengeist, Riddler's Revenge, etc.) without bringing much new to the table outside of being taller and faster. But that's where Candymonium grinds my gears; it is going to be a very average (if not below average) B&M Hyper. I'd be perfectly on board if it even just had a bit longer of layout. Or, and hear me out here, they built the exact same layout as a Giga (coughKingsIslandIsProbablyGoingToBeTheSameLengthAsThisOnecough). But, this is, what it is: an aggressively average B&M hyper in a park with one of the best hypers in the world.

And no, please don't try to rationalize a 210 ft. coaster as a family attraction. :p
 
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