Founders Circle - shoulder to shoulder everywhere

Well, my prediction was right and Hersheypark was wall to wall today, the first day of 2012 Springtime in the Park.  We didn’t arrive at opening so I wasn’t there to see how long the line was when they opened the gates, but the picture below was from about 10:45am on the approach to the gate.

Approaching the gate 10:45am

So that line wasn’t all that long compared to some I’d waited in but I had a hunch today was going to rival last December’s warm day for crowds and it was very similar.  I checked the stroller prices (still $12 and $17) and tried to check locker prices, but all the lockers were blocked that I saw except those outside the Season Pass office which are $2 – quarters only.

My opening photo was taken standing on a concrete median looking over the crowd of families in the kids’ area of Founders Circle.  It was one of those days when the line for the Carrousel wrapped around the whole tent and doubled back on itself.  Granted, everyone tries to ride the Carrousel first thing but that is always a good judge of what you’ll find inside the park.

We did two turns on the Traffic Jam and took some photos of Skyrush from this area.  I really don’t like the way it sits in front of the Comet.  That was always such a classic Amusement Park vantage point – in fact it is the view I use as the backdrop for this website.   But now you have yellow steel in front of all that white wood as you can see below.

Skyrush, the Comet and a lot of sun

Honestly Skyrush didn’t look that tall from this point, but we knew we’d think differently when we went down in The Hollow.  Yes folks, they have renamed Comet Hollow to just “The Hollow.”  I think it is kind of disrespectful of the old girl, but nobody asked me.  So we headed down into the guts of the park to see what was what.  I have to admit when we went down there I completely missed the loading platform for Skyrush, but that might be because I was taken aback by the long line for the Comet.

Skyrush Loading Platform

It actually is a very nice looking structure and, drumroll please, it includes new bathrooms!!!!  This area had the smallest bathroom in the park prior to this redo and I can say now the women’s bathroom boasts 15 regular stalls and 2 handicapped ones with autoflush. (Yes, I counted.  I do these kinds of things.)  Plus there is a family restroom with changing facilities (there is one in each of the regular bathrooms as well) but one downfall for me is they have those new turbo driers that make the skin on your hands move around.  Ew.  And little kids hate them because of how loud they are – until that is they find out they move the skin on your hands around and then they want to stick their heads in.

New Bathrooms in "The Hollow"

Now back to that long line at the Comet.  Here was the second indicator of how busy the park was.  The Comet doesn’t often have lines like this except for busy summer days.  Again perhaps people were hitting this coaster first and other areas of the park were thinner.  That didn’t hold true though as the Comet still had a line this long at 3:30pm when we left.

Line for the Comet 11:30am

Skyrush first hill

I can’t wait to see this thing running with the winged seats.  At various points on its run it seems to come very close to the Comet and other structures.  I couldn’t help but remember the problems they had with The Swarm over in the UK.  Seems the test dummies kept losing limbs because they passed too close to some of the themeing.  Makes you wonder….

So we took our pictures and continued on.  Sooperdooperlooper was closed as scheduled, I assumed due to continued work on Skyrush which is not scheduled to open until Memorial Day weekend at this point.  Here is a shot looking back into “The Hollow” of the mess of supports and hills you see now.

Got coasters anyone?

Up the hill with the Great Bear roaring by and we saw the new roof of the Ampitheatre.  It’s ugly.  This was a replacement after the flood and wind damage in September 2010.

New Ampitheatre Roof

On up the hill and we noticed another big change – no more Boardwalk fries.  They are now called “Tower Fries” and they have a larger menu included loaded fry options.  We had some fries (plain) for lunch and they tasted the same.

Bye, bye Boardwalk. Hello Tower Fries!

I’m not going to talk about prices much since the place was way too crowded for me to do any comparisons, but they appeared higher but not more than a dollar so people won’t think much of it.  Check back later for my play by play on food prices. (If anybody read earlier that I wasn’t going to get a season pass, well, I caved.  I couldn’t imagine not going to the park whenever I wanted so we sprung for the passes – $600 for two adults and one child including Dutch Wonderland and the Discovery add on.  Ouch.)

We got our souvenir cup for the season at Tower Fries and I was sad to see that Hersheypark has moved to the same design Dutch Wonderland has been using.  The cup is thinner, clear plastic with a handle and a curve over straw.  I hate drinking out of these things so we bought our soda in the new cup and transferred it to an old cup which made for easier drinking.  (Always keep your old cups for this purpose.  You only need 1 cup for each year – buy your drink and then transfer to an old cup and repeat until you have enough beverages.)

2012 Hersheypark Cup

We spent some time in the arcade.  Lots of machines were down which is unusual for this time of year but not so unusual for the park in general.  Usually by Springtime they have everything up and running.  Since I am a Skeeball freak I did notice they purchased some new Skeeball machines.  No price on them and they weren’t working so I’m not sure if they are a quarter or two.

Hersheypark branded Skeeball

So after this we went to ZOOAMERICA and I have to say this place is creepy to me now knowing animals died her in the flooding last year.  You can see changes to some of the habitat, like the prairie dogs with their new high ground, as a result of the flooding last year.  The empty bison pen just makes me feel ill.

After a 30 minute wait to ride Convoy again with a tween complaining behind us the whole time I called it a day.  I had had enough of the crowds and rude people.  Problem is when you visit a park as often as I do and you’ve been there when crowds are light you don’t have patience for this kind of thing.

At 3:30 the parking lot was filled on both sides, Tram Stop 2 was open and Chocolate World was using overflow parking.  It was busy, really busy.

So my friends I can’t tell you what is new in Music Box Way, Pioneer Frontier or the Midway.  Perhaps I’ll get back Sunday or next weekend and give you another report.  If not opening weekend in only a few weeks away.

Thanks for reading!