Hersheypark, located in Hershey, Pennsylvania, has a long and rich heritage. It's home to some of the oldest coasters in the state. The Comet is a classic wooden out-and-back coaster and the SooperDooperLooper is a Schwarzkopf looper that was the first coaster in the east to go upside-down. Hersheypark is also home to the first GCI woodie in the world, Wildcat. While Hershey is a great place to spend the day with family and friends, the park is also trying to attract more thrillseekers. What's the best way to attract thrillseekers? Rollercoasters.

The Great Bear is Hershey's most "modern" coaster. Built by Bolliger and Mabillard, the Great Bear features an incredibly steep drop, a top speed of 58mph, and 4 super-smooth inversions. The compact layout makes for some very quick transitions.

The station and queue are setup fairly well. When you get closer to the station, you can pass the time by watching the "Coal Cracker" flume go down its final drop. The station of the 'Bear has blue-tinted windows to give the station a neat, "spacey" look.

We line up, the train pulls into the station, the gates swing open and we're seated. Hop on into the very comforatable B&M seats, pull down on the harness and away... we... go!

After ascending the lift hill, we dip down into a small, but intense helix before dropping down the steep, 124ft drop. We fly down and then soar back up into a nice loop. We immediately race back down, nearly scraping our feet on the concrete as we shoot back up into the fantastic immelman turnaround/inversion. After diving back down once again, we get about half a second to catch our breath before rolling up in the Zero-G roll. Next up is a bit of a slow down as we fly behind the Sooperdooperlooper's station. Zooming under the 'loopers lift hill, we bank hard into a corkscrew. After the corkscrew, we go through a few zigs and zags before we hit the station breaks.

All in all, this is a great way for Hersheypark to start expanding. It does slow up in a few spots and the ride itself is WAAY too short. Unless you're riding in the front seat, this ride actually can get a bit boring, after you've ridden it about 20 or so times. However, it's always worth a ride -- the line is never more than 15 minutes (unless you come on a weekend). The wait for the front is usually an extra 30 minutes.

All in all, it's not such a bad rollercoaster -- but it could've been an "awesome" ride had it been longer.