-LiLDaReDeViL5-
07-29-2009, 01:26 PM
Well, our podcast is located in the northeast. The two big parks that seem to battle it out the most are Hersheypark in historic Hershey, PA and Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson, New Jersey. All of the cast has visited both parks this season. We have different opinions. We had a debate. Idiotic arguments were made by one party (names kept unknown) and we were stuck at a dead tie again. Time to turn it over to unbiased enthusiasts. We ask you to honestly answer the question: Which is a better overall amusement park, Hersheypark or Six Flags Great Adventure? When we say overall we mean EVERYTHING. Every single aspect of the park from coasters to flat rides to kiddie rides down to the characters. Which park just beats out the other?
Now I will take the time to make my little observations now. Don't let me sway your vote. Unless that is to the Hershey side, of course :). Before you read, I want you to know my goal is not to bash either park. I rerally like both parks, great places to visit. That's my little disclaimer. I'm supposed to pick the better one, so I'll honestly analyze.
Coasters (Thrills)
Six Flags is known to be a coaster park. Coasters are their thing. Kingda Ka, El Toro, Nitro, and Bizarro are all top 20 coasters in the world. Hershey? They're the family oriented park from the start 102 years ago. Milton Hershey wanted a place where families can go and enjoy things together. That however hasn't stopped Hershey from adding world class coasters such as Stormrunner, Fahrenheit, Great Bear, and the number nine wooden coaster in the world and top ranked dueling coaster, the GCI beauty, Lightning Racer. Sure, Gadv has more coasters to offer. Quantity doesn't mean quality for me, but I'll get to that later. Gadv's coasters are bigger and faster, sure. But does that mean that they are automatically better because of that? No. El Toro is an amazing coaster, ranked number 3 in the world and my personal number one. Now, this is all my personal opinion and personal coaster list. After Toro at number one, I have three Hershey coasters coming in at numbers 2,3, and 4 (Fahrenheit, Stormrunner, and Lightning Racer) before my next Gadv coaster, Nitro at number 5. Next at my number 6 is Wildcat and then Medusa at 7. Great Bear is number 8 and Superman: UF at 9. Now that for me is 5 Hershey coasters to the 4 Gadv coasters in my top 10. Looks like I'm leaning towards Hershey in this category. But wait. Batman the Ride. Fantastic coaster. Sits on the outside looking in on my top ten. So, right now I'm leaning towards Gadv. But wait. Great American Scream Machine, The Dark Knight, Rolling Thunder, and Runaway Train are the other coasters at Great Adventure over 15 feet tall (sorry Blackbeard, this is thrill talk right now). To be honest, those are bad coasters. When I was on GASM, RT, RT I was crying to get off because of the pain. Unenjoyable to be honest. Hershey's other coasters (Comet, Sooperdooper, Wild Mouse, Rollersoaker and Trailblazer) are all enjoyable coasters. So now for me it's even. I'll call it a tie.
Coasters (Family)
I'm going to give it to Hershey on this one. Trailblazer, Comet, Rollersoaker, and Sooperdooperlooper are all coasters that the entire family can enjoy. Kids can ride with their parents and they have just enough of a little bit fo thrill for the older kids to enjoy too. You can even sneak Lightning Racer into this category. Enough said by saying "Lightning Racer". What a coaster. The only two coasters I can see for a family at Gadv is RMT and RT. Ouch. Trailblazer and Comet are much much better. Hershey wins.
Flat Rides
Uh....Hershey wins. The Claw, Howler, Flying Falcon are all big time thrills. Then you have rides like the Whip, Tilt-a-whirl, Kissing Tower, Music Express, and the Buccaneer for the family. Gadv offers little to no flat rides. With the rumors of Hershey adding a flat package next season, this category only gets better for the winning side, Hersheypark.
Kiddie Rides
I may have to go and give this one to Gadv. They do have four kiddie areas that are very nicely done. The great thing about Hershey, however, is there are no kidde "lands", the kiddie attractions are mixed in with the other rides so families can stay in the same areas together rather be in separate parts of the park. I personally like the Golden Kingdom kiddie area and it's enough for me to give Gadv the win. But, Wiggles World is too out dated for kids to enjoy to the full extent. Let's face it, today;s 3, 4, 5-year olds don't know what the hell the Wiggles are. The Wiggles were 2002-2003 and are done, over. The rides seem great for kids, but a timeless thing like Magic Mountain's Thomas Town would've worked better. I am almost tempted to say the same goes for Bugs Bunny. Outside of Bugs, kid's don't know that anymore. Today's cartoons are Spongebob. Not Bugs anymore. Once again, a timeless thing like Cedar Fair's Snoopy lands would work better. Yet, the attractions in the lands at Gadv are great for kids and are a perfect fit. Gadv wins.
Dark Rides
Well, this is a tough one because what am I counting as a dark ride? Do I get to count the Grear American Chocolate Tour (on par with Disney detail outside of the cows if you ask me), which is technically out of the Hersheypark gates, as a dark ride? Do I count Skull Mountain, which is technically a coaster? I'll let your responses tell me then I'll compare if necessary. I will be comparing Reeses' Extreme Cup Challenge and The Dark Knight. To be honest, to me, Reeses' is set up so much better than the Dark Knight. I may be a little rough on TDK here since the park says it's supposed to be a "Disney" sttraction. I don't recall Hershey saying Reeses is trying to do that so I won't be so over analyzing it. The story makes sense for Reeses. I get it. One sports star loves Chocolate, the other Peanut Butter. They don't like each other, they're rivals, but their kids are in love. They come up with a combination of Choco and PB, a Reeses' Peanut Butter Cup. They set up an Xtreme Cup Challenge to settle the debate once and for all: Chocolate vs PB. They have the targets hidden inside of different sports and your job is to shoot as many targets as you can for as many points. Very nicely done story. The station is really cool. It's like a locker room. The ride itself? Awfully executed. enough said. It's awful.
Now for TDK. The story (preshow) is told by Harvey Dent that the Joker has taken over Gotham City. Of course, his news conference is interrupted by the Joker. The preshow is well done. Very well done. But, if the Joker has taken over the city and it's a dangerous place, why am I going in to the city on a subway? Disney would have explained that. This didn't. Now, the station for TDk goes for the same as Reeses, very cool. The ride is eh. It's not a thrilling Wild Mouse at all. It's actually slow. Now, that's perfect for them to heavily theme, which they didn't. I had very very low, almost non existent expectations for it after hearing all about it, and I left thinking it wasn't bad. It was eh. Not great, not terrible. But it's not a Disney attraction like they said it would be. They failed on that. I'll give this one to Reeses' Extreme Cup (Suck) Challenge just for the fact it does what it's supposed to do. Be a cute little amusement park Sally dark ride the family can ride together. TDK, I don't know, kids under 9 can be frightened by that preshow. So, yeah, families can do it, but beware for younger kids. Even though I hate the ride, Reeses' is actually a ride you see families coming off of saying it was fun and they actually talk about it alot. So, Hershey wins.
Food
Even. It's the same over priced food pretty much.
Shows/Entertainment
Hershey by a landslide. Two IAAPA awarded shows, the Milkmen (my personal favorite) and Beyond the Dragon Gate are the headliners. I've seen what is supposedly Gadv's best show, Dead Man's Party and was so disappointed. It, to be honest, was awful. Gadv does have a parade and fireworks which I hear are better than Disney. Tough to imagine. Hershey wins in a landslide just with those two shows I mentioned.
Atmosphere/Landscaping
Hershey. No doubt. It's a beautiful park with great people and great employees. Not saying Gadv has bad employees, they're great too. Not saying Gadv isn't beautiful. But, it's two different kinds of beautiful. Gadv has natural beauty Hershey doesn't, yet Hershey's landscaping is ten times better than Gadv's. Both parks are incredibly clean, so hats off to them. Also, I guess "Streetmosphere" comes in to play here. Hershey wns in that too. Sure, they both have characters for the kids. In my opinion, Hershey has the better ones because kids don't know who the hell Flash and Green Lantern are. They sure as hell know what a Kit Kat is. I love the Mr Six character. Great idea. Hershey has "Streetmosphere" that Gadv doesn't. Every few weeks a marching bad will be marching around playing, the Milk Men are always out on the midways and same for the Boardwalkers. Little things like that make a difference. Nothing better than walking around or waiting in line and watching a live band play like that. Hershey wins.
Overall, Hershey just has more to offer for you. More to do. Gadv is great at what it is, a thrill park. They're not the family park they say they're trying to be. Hershey is just Hershey. They know what works and they're really hitting their stride now. Their smarter investments paid off (see Kingda ka) and now they benefit. They're that family destination that's more affordable than the Florida parks. I haven't even said the words Boardwalk, Chocolate World and Zoo America yet. Another thing, is it's more affordable. Hershey is trying to make themselves more affordable with them lowering prices on their hotels and tickets with the Family Stimulus Package. Sure, Gadv has that Big Six thing, but what family is really going to go six times? Also, Hershey's parking is only $8 and then free the next day. Gadv? $20. That's half a ticket almost. To me, it's not even close. Hershey, you win for me. I leave this argument Hersheypark Happy.
Now I will take the time to make my little observations now. Don't let me sway your vote. Unless that is to the Hershey side, of course :). Before you read, I want you to know my goal is not to bash either park. I rerally like both parks, great places to visit. That's my little disclaimer. I'm supposed to pick the better one, so I'll honestly analyze.
Coasters (Thrills)
Six Flags is known to be a coaster park. Coasters are their thing. Kingda Ka, El Toro, Nitro, and Bizarro are all top 20 coasters in the world. Hershey? They're the family oriented park from the start 102 years ago. Milton Hershey wanted a place where families can go and enjoy things together. That however hasn't stopped Hershey from adding world class coasters such as Stormrunner, Fahrenheit, Great Bear, and the number nine wooden coaster in the world and top ranked dueling coaster, the GCI beauty, Lightning Racer. Sure, Gadv has more coasters to offer. Quantity doesn't mean quality for me, but I'll get to that later. Gadv's coasters are bigger and faster, sure. But does that mean that they are automatically better because of that? No. El Toro is an amazing coaster, ranked number 3 in the world and my personal number one. Now, this is all my personal opinion and personal coaster list. After Toro at number one, I have three Hershey coasters coming in at numbers 2,3, and 4 (Fahrenheit, Stormrunner, and Lightning Racer) before my next Gadv coaster, Nitro at number 5. Next at my number 6 is Wildcat and then Medusa at 7. Great Bear is number 8 and Superman: UF at 9. Now that for me is 5 Hershey coasters to the 4 Gadv coasters in my top 10. Looks like I'm leaning towards Hershey in this category. But wait. Batman the Ride. Fantastic coaster. Sits on the outside looking in on my top ten. So, right now I'm leaning towards Gadv. But wait. Great American Scream Machine, The Dark Knight, Rolling Thunder, and Runaway Train are the other coasters at Great Adventure over 15 feet tall (sorry Blackbeard, this is thrill talk right now). To be honest, those are bad coasters. When I was on GASM, RT, RT I was crying to get off because of the pain. Unenjoyable to be honest. Hershey's other coasters (Comet, Sooperdooper, Wild Mouse, Rollersoaker and Trailblazer) are all enjoyable coasters. So now for me it's even. I'll call it a tie.
Coasters (Family)
I'm going to give it to Hershey on this one. Trailblazer, Comet, Rollersoaker, and Sooperdooperlooper are all coasters that the entire family can enjoy. Kids can ride with their parents and they have just enough of a little bit fo thrill for the older kids to enjoy too. You can even sneak Lightning Racer into this category. Enough said by saying "Lightning Racer". What a coaster. The only two coasters I can see for a family at Gadv is RMT and RT. Ouch. Trailblazer and Comet are much much better. Hershey wins.
Flat Rides
Uh....Hershey wins. The Claw, Howler, Flying Falcon are all big time thrills. Then you have rides like the Whip, Tilt-a-whirl, Kissing Tower, Music Express, and the Buccaneer for the family. Gadv offers little to no flat rides. With the rumors of Hershey adding a flat package next season, this category only gets better for the winning side, Hersheypark.
Kiddie Rides
I may have to go and give this one to Gadv. They do have four kiddie areas that are very nicely done. The great thing about Hershey, however, is there are no kidde "lands", the kiddie attractions are mixed in with the other rides so families can stay in the same areas together rather be in separate parts of the park. I personally like the Golden Kingdom kiddie area and it's enough for me to give Gadv the win. But, Wiggles World is too out dated for kids to enjoy to the full extent. Let's face it, today;s 3, 4, 5-year olds don't know what the hell the Wiggles are. The Wiggles were 2002-2003 and are done, over. The rides seem great for kids, but a timeless thing like Magic Mountain's Thomas Town would've worked better. I am almost tempted to say the same goes for Bugs Bunny. Outside of Bugs, kid's don't know that anymore. Today's cartoons are Spongebob. Not Bugs anymore. Once again, a timeless thing like Cedar Fair's Snoopy lands would work better. Yet, the attractions in the lands at Gadv are great for kids and are a perfect fit. Gadv wins.
Dark Rides
Well, this is a tough one because what am I counting as a dark ride? Do I get to count the Grear American Chocolate Tour (on par with Disney detail outside of the cows if you ask me), which is technically out of the Hersheypark gates, as a dark ride? Do I count Skull Mountain, which is technically a coaster? I'll let your responses tell me then I'll compare if necessary. I will be comparing Reeses' Extreme Cup Challenge and The Dark Knight. To be honest, to me, Reeses' is set up so much better than the Dark Knight. I may be a little rough on TDK here since the park says it's supposed to be a "Disney" sttraction. I don't recall Hershey saying Reeses is trying to do that so I won't be so over analyzing it. The story makes sense for Reeses. I get it. One sports star loves Chocolate, the other Peanut Butter. They don't like each other, they're rivals, but their kids are in love. They come up with a combination of Choco and PB, a Reeses' Peanut Butter Cup. They set up an Xtreme Cup Challenge to settle the debate once and for all: Chocolate vs PB. They have the targets hidden inside of different sports and your job is to shoot as many targets as you can for as many points. Very nicely done story. The station is really cool. It's like a locker room. The ride itself? Awfully executed. enough said. It's awful.
Now for TDK. The story (preshow) is told by Harvey Dent that the Joker has taken over Gotham City. Of course, his news conference is interrupted by the Joker. The preshow is well done. Very well done. But, if the Joker has taken over the city and it's a dangerous place, why am I going in to the city on a subway? Disney would have explained that. This didn't. Now, the station for TDk goes for the same as Reeses, very cool. The ride is eh. It's not a thrilling Wild Mouse at all. It's actually slow. Now, that's perfect for them to heavily theme, which they didn't. I had very very low, almost non existent expectations for it after hearing all about it, and I left thinking it wasn't bad. It was eh. Not great, not terrible. But it's not a Disney attraction like they said it would be. They failed on that. I'll give this one to Reeses' Extreme Cup (Suck) Challenge just for the fact it does what it's supposed to do. Be a cute little amusement park Sally dark ride the family can ride together. TDK, I don't know, kids under 9 can be frightened by that preshow. So, yeah, families can do it, but beware for younger kids. Even though I hate the ride, Reeses' is actually a ride you see families coming off of saying it was fun and they actually talk about it alot. So, Hershey wins.
Food
Even. It's the same over priced food pretty much.
Shows/Entertainment
Hershey by a landslide. Two IAAPA awarded shows, the Milkmen (my personal favorite) and Beyond the Dragon Gate are the headliners. I've seen what is supposedly Gadv's best show, Dead Man's Party and was so disappointed. It, to be honest, was awful. Gadv does have a parade and fireworks which I hear are better than Disney. Tough to imagine. Hershey wins in a landslide just with those two shows I mentioned.
Atmosphere/Landscaping
Hershey. No doubt. It's a beautiful park with great people and great employees. Not saying Gadv has bad employees, they're great too. Not saying Gadv isn't beautiful. But, it's two different kinds of beautiful. Gadv has natural beauty Hershey doesn't, yet Hershey's landscaping is ten times better than Gadv's. Both parks are incredibly clean, so hats off to them. Also, I guess "Streetmosphere" comes in to play here. Hershey wns in that too. Sure, they both have characters for the kids. In my opinion, Hershey has the better ones because kids don't know who the hell Flash and Green Lantern are. They sure as hell know what a Kit Kat is. I love the Mr Six character. Great idea. Hershey has "Streetmosphere" that Gadv doesn't. Every few weeks a marching bad will be marching around playing, the Milk Men are always out on the midways and same for the Boardwalkers. Little things like that make a difference. Nothing better than walking around or waiting in line and watching a live band play like that. Hershey wins.
Overall, Hershey just has more to offer for you. More to do. Gadv is great at what it is, a thrill park. They're not the family park they say they're trying to be. Hershey is just Hershey. They know what works and they're really hitting their stride now. Their smarter investments paid off (see Kingda ka) and now they benefit. They're that family destination that's more affordable than the Florida parks. I haven't even said the words Boardwalk, Chocolate World and Zoo America yet. Another thing, is it's more affordable. Hershey is trying to make themselves more affordable with them lowering prices on their hotels and tickets with the Family Stimulus Package. Sure, Gadv has that Big Six thing, but what family is really going to go six times? Also, Hershey's parking is only $8 and then free the next day. Gadv? $20. That's half a ticket almost. To me, it's not even close. Hershey, you win for me. I leave this argument Hersheypark Happy.