New seats coming on Hersheypark's Skyrush

This is MASSIVE and long-awaited news. I think Hersheypark realizes how big this is, because they're doing a full-on social media campaign around this modification by touting the change will be like a "first class" upgrade. From the looks of it, Intamin replaced the restraint arm and pad with a new system that appears more like Velocicoaster, Pantheon, and the like. The deeper leg buckets on the seat combined with the more contoured restraint pad (and improved angle that the bar come downs at) should dramatically increase the comfort and allow for greater freedom (airtime) for most guests. The one drawback here is that larger guests who used to be able to ride, might not be able to fit as both Velocicoaster and Pantheon can both have pretty tight tolerances for guests with larger legs and midsections.

I have plans to visit the park in late May, and am looking forward to see if this coaster can fulfill the promise that its twisting layout portends. I've always liked the forceful nature of Skyrush, but the oodles of airtime are accompanied by pressure on your legs that becomes incredibly uncomfortable near the end. It is one of the few coasters where I physically hold onto the grab bar to try to keep myself from pushing up against the restraint. For me, it was literally like riding a bull, where you're fighting the coaster throughout the entire course trying not to get crushed by the forces inflicted on your body by the intense layout.

I am definitely looking forward to this. The discomfort in the thighs is one thing holding it back from being one of my favorite coasters. I have always liked the first drop and the speed as it moves through the track, but the pain my thighs would feel kept me from multiple trips every time I would visit Hershey.

We shall see. If this really results in a significant improvement I'll be thrilled. Skyrush was so painful that a couple of years ago I vowed not to ever ride it again. As to new restraints, I've always been of the opinion that OTS restraints would be best on this coaster. The way it's designed, there's too much lateral upper body motion. In terms of intensity, it's on a par with I-305 and the OTS restraints on I-305 serve that coaster well.

Considering the volume of complaints I think it was a huge mistake to not do this ASAP after the ride opened. Now the ride has been beating people for 12 years and i'm sure tons of people will never ride it again not realizing it got new restraints. If I were running that park I would have made this priority #1 after the ride was opened, before allocating capex towards anything else. That just blows my mind the park has spent money adding 4 new coasters before spending the money to make this necessary simple modification to one of their biggest and most expensive coasters (I mean i'm sure why is because executives thought "won't drive a return therefore we don't have the money for it"...sigh).

Kind of surprised they actually went for it, but it should be a welcome change. Skyrush is one of those coasters that I've always thought should be a top 20 coaster, but it's just such an uncomfortable ride. I'm tentatively planning to revisit Hersheypark this July, so it will be interesting to see how much this affects the ride experience.

@the_man - I think Hersheypark was between a rock and a hard place, because Skyrush was the first Intamin coaster with these newer lap restraints. Hersheypark didn't want to drop a bunch more money into updating the restraints until Intamin had a proven solution that would upgrade the experience. Once Velocicaoster and Pantheon offered a reliable and more comfortable solution, Hersheypark began the work to retrofit the trains.

Also, they're seriously putting out the message on their social channels about this change, and creating a lot of buzz about this upgrade. I would anticipate that this change will make Skyrush seem like a brand new roller coaster in terms of overall demand, and this is in a park that just added a highly rated RMC last year.

There was a way to sit a little further down in the seat so the restraints weren't putting pressure directly on your mid-thigh, but it was cumbersome and it still hurt by the end. Back when Skyrush first opened they wouldn't even release the restraints on the brake run, so you had to sit there and wait for the train in front of you to load while in fairly intense pain!

Does anyone know if the trains will remain four across? The teaser material is unclear and the render they tweeted out only shows two seats, but from an angle that makes it look like there could be more. A capacity reduction combined with a spike in popularity would not be good for wait times.

@evanweston - I'm pretty sure they're just swapping out the seats and restraints on the existing trains, not not using all new trains with a different seating arrangement. The photo is a bit deceptive because the trains utilize a staggered seating arrangement with odd-numbered rows situated in the middle of the car and even-numbered rows on the outside of the car (actually hang off the edge of the car and track). Some B&M hypers use this same staggered arrangement (like Intimidator/Thunder Striker, Diamondback, and Behemoth).