Hershey park & Knoebels

Hello everyone, I haven't posted in a long time.

However in August im taking a trip with some friends, we're going to Hershey and Knoebels (in case you couldn't tell from the title) We have a hotel booked, and money, but we dont have a plan of attack for the parks, so I'm asking people who have been to both parks. What are the best ways to attack the park? I need a good park guide.

Thanks....

I'm from Dorney's area and an hour from each just in diff. directions.

Lemme Start with Hershey:

Depending on what day of the week it is you could hit all lines that are pretty long or all of them that are small. You deff. wanna do Fahrenheit first as it's the newest and the trains only hold 12 a peice. After that I do Storm Runner and Sidewinder. SR and SW had short waits when I went on a Sunday and a Monday, but on Saturdays the waits will grow much more obviously. After that you can do Trailblazer and work your way to Great Bear, SooperDooperLooper and Comet. GB may be your longest wait if you go on a weekend. Comet's lines usually start out large but shrink as the day goes on because that's the first thing people do because it's right at the front of the park. After that, you should head to the back of the park to do Wildcat, Wild Mouse, Lightning Racer, and Roller Soaker. Typically Roller Soaker always has a long wait unless you do it first thing when you arrive and Fahrenheit and Storm Runner are much more important, so if you do Roller Soaker, you may have to eat and hour or so to do it. Wildcat is alot like Comet in terms of wait...I've had to wait close to an hour and sometimes it's a walk-on...again it all depends on the crowd that particular day of the week. On a weekend I'd expect between 30-45 mins. Wild Mouse typically doesn't get too bad of a wait, and Lightning Racer rarely ever has more that a 10 to 15 minute wait because it runs 4 trains (2 on each side). It is absolutely possible even on on Saturday to do all the coasters in one day so I would not worry about that...the important thing is that you do Fahrenheit first, and do Storm Runner and Great Bear after that before the lines grow too much.

Knoebels is pretty much preference. You will walk by Twister first and then Pheonix is in the back of the park. Typically you can do Twister a few times and then do Pheonix a few times and have a few circuits on each by 12 to 1 o'clock and just reride the whole time, and on your way out do Kosmo if you want.

So like I said...it's not a matter of IF you can get all the rides done, it's how long it will take you, but you should almost deff. have plenty of time for rerides.

Thanks a lot dude. we'll be going to Hershey on a Tuesday, and Knoebels on a Wednesday (August 17th and 18th). So while I expect lines, I did not expect really long lines. Thank you for giving me an estimate on what to expect.

Tuesday and Wed. are the best days to go. You will be fine. My trip this year was a Monday and I had very little waiting even for front seats on some of the rides. You'll have plenty of time for re-rides at both parks!

You don't need to worry for either park at all. Obviously get to Fahrenheit first and then, probably Great Bear and then Comet. (In order of likeliness to develop long lines.) After that, do pretty much whatever you want. It won't matter much after that point. My experiences with Storm Runner is that it never got more than 25 minutes, so IMO it doesn't matter too much with that. Fahrenheit can get to about an hour and a half, Great Bear can get to about an hour and a half, and Comet can get to about 45 minutes. Everything else in the park almost always gets less than 30 minutes.

The water park is almost invariably PACKED when I go, so that saps a HUGE amount of guests from the dry part of the park.

I don't think you should bother with Roller Soaker at all. I've been there three times since the park opened that ride, and I never rode it because the lines often get over 2 hours. If those lines were on Storm Runner, yeah I'd wait for it, but not a ride like Roller Soaker. When choosing between one ride on Roller Soaker and 4 rides on Storm Runner, it's a no-brainer

Other tips:

1: The "wheelchair entrance" next to the real entrance for Fahrenheit is actually a single ride entrance. I recommend getting in this line because it decreases the wait time by about a factor of three, and since the trains are so small, the chances of getting the front or back are very high at 1/3. (4 out of the 12 seats are front or back.)

2: On Storm Runner, MAKE SURE TO RIDE IN THE BACK. And MAKE SURE TO LEAN FORWARD AND LOOK DOWN DURING THE LAUNCH. I have no idea why, but for some reason, this body position makes the launch MUCH more intense. I've tried it on multiple roller coasters and even several drop towers; every time it works. Also, it would be a good idea to do the same on hyper coasters when you come across them as it makes the drop feel about 20 degrees steeper. (Actually, that would likely work on all coasters, but I only remember to do it on hyper coasters.) Again, I have tried that multiple times and it makes a huge difference. I don't understand how, but it works.


For Knoebels, you have nothing to worry about. The lines can get to about 20 minutes for Phoenix, and the car ride seems to have a good line. But other than that, the lines are minimal. Make sure you eat at Cesari's Pizza.

Thanks to both of you. We'll be skipping the water park, and Roller Soaker in Hershey, I hate water parks for one, and Roller Soaker just looks like a massive waste of time.

It is...I waited an hour a few years ago for the credit and havn't ridden since. LOL. Unless you can wait less then 15 or 20 mins. (Which I doubt)...I'd skip it.