May 12th, 2001 (4:15-6:45pm)

After a day of work, I clocked out and headed over to Carousel Circle to meet my Uncle, Aunt, and two cousins. After a brief wait, one of my cousins comes over to me and tells me that they're in line for the carousel. I wait for their ride to finish and we head down to the "Comet". The "Comet" was sporting about a 30minute line, so we decided to get a quick ride on the "Sooperdooperlooper". We got right on; the 'looper never has more than a very, very brief wait. It was a pretty darn good ride. The loop felt a little bit faster than usual, and the mid-course brakes were not on too hard -- they usually bring the train to a near-complete stop.

After a good ride on the 'looper, we decided to split up for a little bit. My younger cousin said that she wanted to go on "Skyview", so my other cousin and I headed up to the "Great Bear". Unfortunately, the 'Bear had a very long line -- about an hour wait for a coaster that usually has a max of 20minutes. We skipped the 'Bear and headed over to "Flying Falcons", because that ride never has more than a 1 cycle wait.

FF is a standard Huss Inc. "Flying Falcons" ride. This was my first time on the ride and, after getting off, I was glad that I had decided to ride it. The ride is far more enjoyable than it appears to be.

We decided to check out "Sidewinder"... but the line was 1:30 long. Ouch! We wanted to head out to the "Lightning Racer", but we decided to meet up with the other half of our group first. They had just getting of the "Skyview" and so, we headed out to "Lightning Racer".

On the way to the 'Racer, my cousins decided that they wanted to take a quick ride on the waterslides. We agreed to wait for them -- it was only about 10 minutes. We again decided to split up -- the younger cousin wanted to take a few more rides on the slides. So, my cousin, my Aunt, and I all headed out to "Lightning Racer". There was about a 7-minute wait before we were on our way up the lifthill. The 'Racer is such a great GCI! Lots of tight turns, some airtime, and a fantastically twisted layout. Our train won! Yay!

After the 'Racer, we decided to catch back up with my Uncle and younger cousin back at the slides. My cousins took one last spin on the slides before we decided to head home. On the way back, we decided to wait out the 15 minute line for the "Comet". We had a very good ride. The "Comet" seems to run a little bit slower, but for some reason, gives better airtime than last year. The new seatbelts aren't as much of a pain as I'd thought that they would be.

After a good ride, we bid farewell to Hersheypark for the day and headed out to the car. We would have stayed longer had the lines not been so incredibly long. It was quite odd for Hershey to have such long lines on an early weekend in May. Hopefully, next weekend won't be quite as crowded. Overrall, though, I enjoyed myself, despite the long lines.