IOA Coaster question

[LionKingRules84]

I visited Hershey Park this past weekend and realized I enjoy rollar coasters now thanks to my trusting boyfriend He pushed me to go on all the coasters he felt I would enjoy(did not go on Storm runner boyfriend said it was a bit rough). Since I absolutly loved Great Bear at Hershey park what do you guys think that is compared to Dueling Dragons or Hulk, how 'extreme' are these coasters to be exact? What are the Postive vs negative G forces on each? Although I know having my BF ride first and letting me know what he thinks will be my best bet here(I trust his judgement on what he thinks I can handle) My curosity is killing me because I feel I may love DD or Hulk but it may be to high of a step for me. I researched the coasters as well as the Hershey Park ones and found out Great Bear was designed by the same people DD was designed by so I'm wondering if I might like it, good attitude or not?

Any input or help is appreciated, thanks in advance.

 

[Metro West]

I visited Hershey Park this past weekend and realized I enjoy rollar coasters now thanks to my trusting boyfriend He pushed me to go on all the coasters he felt I would enjoy(did not go on Storm runner boyfriend said it was a bit rough). Since I absolutly loved Great Bear at Hershey park what do you guys think that is compared to Dueling Dragons or Hulk, how 'extreme' are these coasters to be exact? What are the Postive vs negative G forces on each? Although I know having my BF ride first and letting me know what he thinks will be my best bet here(I trust his judgement on what he thinks I can handle) My curosity is killing me because I feel I may love DD or Hulk but it may be to high of a step for me. I researched the coasters as well as the Hershey Park ones and found out Great Bear was designed by the same people DD was designed by so I'm wondering if I might like it, good attitude or not?

Any input or help is appreciated, thanks in advance.

I haven't ridden Great Bear but I think your best bet is to check out: www.rcdb.com and compare the coasters.

 

[MrDroopy]

After talking to a lot of people about these two roller coasters, we have all come to the same conclusion...

Hulk: One hell of a surprise in the beginning.... if you're able to make it through the first 10-15 seconds of the ride, the rest is easy, smooth, and just all out fun.

DD: *Rule of thumb* No matter how intimidating the line may appear to be, wait for the front row if it's your first time riding this ride. I assure you, you will be blown away by what the engineers were able to do with this ride!

Fire Dragon: The roller coaster for those who simply love speed and are not really into the whole upside down feeling. From riding both, this one truly feels like the fast roller coaster.

Ice Dragon: More inversions than the Fire Dragon, however, it does not reach the same speed and hair-pin turns that the Fire Dragon appears to reach.

All in all, from your experience, I would say since you able to tame Great Bear, you will have no problem with DD. As for Hulk, it's one of those rides that you'll be intimidated to get on then once you've done it, you'll be thinking to yourself "Why was I scared of that!?"

 

[AlexandNessa]

I loved Storm Runner! Sorry you didn't try that.

Anyway, we found Great Bear lame. DD and Hulk are more intense, and Great Bear is more tame in comparison.

 

[damo]

Yes, Great Bear is a little coaster in comparison to Dueling Dragons. However, if you liked it, you should like all the coasters at Universal/IOA.

 

[LionKingRules84]

I haven't ridden Great Bear but I think your best bet is to check out: www.rcdb.com and compare the coasters.

Wow thanks for the link there I've been searching on the net forever for a site like that, Thank you!!

Yes, Great Bear is a little coaster in comparison to Dueling Dragons. However, if you liked it, you should like all the coasters at Universal/IOA.

That's what I want to hear, thanks! From the site I looked through that was posted here and other accounts on this thread I'm pretty sure I'll be fine on Ice, if I get intimidated enough by either Fire or the Hulk I may have my boyfriend ride them first.

After talking to a lot of people about these two roller coasters, we have all come to the same conclusion...

Hulk: One hell of a surprise in the beginning.... if you're able to make it through the first 10-15 seconds of the ride, the rest is easy, smooth, and just all out fun.

DD: *Rule of thumb* No matter how intimidating the line may appear to be, wait for the front row if it's your first time riding this ride. I assure you, you will be blown away by what the engineers were able to do with this ride!

Fire Dragon: The roller coaster for those who simply love speed and are not really into the whole upside down feeling. From riding both, this one truly feels like the fast roller coaster.

Ice Dragon: More inversions than the Fire Dragon, however, it does not reach the same speed and hair-pin turns that the Fire Dragon appears to reach.

All in all, from your experience, I would say since you able to tame Great Bear, you will have no problem with DD. As for Hulk, it's one of those rides that you'll be intimidated to get on then once you've done it, you'll be thinking to yourself "Why was I scared of that!?"

I said the same thing about Great Bear after getting off of it, you can not imagine how scared I was to ride it though, should tell you how much I trust the judgement of my boyfriend.

I also rode in the front row on Great Bear but I had my eyes closed the whole time(I rode the ride 3 times by the way) my boyfriend who was riding with me said the view was amazing. Even if he doesn't want to wait for the front row of DD I may make him for his benefit because I know he would love the view. It looks amazing from the ground shots I've seen and I've watched video I can't imagine what it's really like.


Thanks for your posts everyone you all made me more confident about going on the coasters at IOA now I'm uber excited to visit IOA now as much as Disney!

 

[damo]

The intensity levels are very similar.

 

[Timmy Boy]

After talking to a lot of people about these two roller coasters, we have all come to the same conclusion...

Hulk: One hell of a surprise in the beginning.... if you're able to make it through the first 10-15 seconds of the ride, the rest is easy, smooth, and just all out fun.

DD: *Rule of thumb* No matter how intimidating the line may appear to be, wait for the front row if it's your first time riding this ride. I assure you, you will be blown away by what the engineers were able to do with this ride!

Fire Dragon: The roller coaster for those who simply love speed and are not really into the whole upside down feeling. From riding both, this one truly feels like the fast roller coaster.

Ice Dragon: More inversions than the Fire Dragon, however, it does not reach the same speed and hair-pin turns that the Fire Dragon appears to reach.

All in all, from your experience, I would say since you able to tame Great Bear, you will have no problem with DD. As for Hulk, it's one of those rides that you'll be intimidated to get on then once you've done it, you'll be thinking to yourself "Why was I scared of that!?"

Well. I used to work at Dragons, let me tell you the good and bad parts.

Also, they both have 5 inversions. Neither one has more upside down manuevers than the other.

Fire Dragon: starts out with an immelman inversion (1) then does an airtime hill over Ice's barrel roll, then has another immelman inversion (2) with a wrap around helix, then the famous vertical loop next to Ice (3), then the corkscrew around Ice's corkscrew (4), then a last corkscrew before the brake run (5).

Ice Dragon starts out with a big sweeping left handed turn, then comes back up for the barrel roll under Fire's airtime hill (1), then comes up close to the castle and does a cobra roll, which count for 2 inversions, since the train goes upside-down twice (2 and 3) then the vertical loop next to Fire (4) then the corkscrew around Fire (5), then a couple more turns into the brake run.

They both are the same height, but Fire is a bit faster because it drops farther then Ice does. Ice also has the castle wall scrape, where, from the front row has excellent visuals. It looks like you will hit the wall.

Here's a pic of Ice's cobra roll, in case you're confused about the "train upside down twice" thing. It's a turnaround manuever, and the train does go upside down twice, therefore taking up 2 of the 5 inversions.

http://www.rcdb.com/ig558.htm?picture=31

 

[englishteacha]

I'm a roller coaster addict, thanks to my DH. Like you, I was afraid to ride big roller coasters. Then my DH made me ride Kraken at Sea World. I was petrified but I did it, and LOVED it. I wondered why I had been so scared! As you can see in my signature, our vacations now often occur where there are roller coasters. While I haven't been to IOA, I can assure you I'll be riding all the coasters there. I love the Great Bear in Hershey. It's one of my favorites. If you like the Great Bear, pretty much anything by those designers (Bolliger & Mabillard) will be right up your alley. Hulk and DD are both designed by B&M. I've never been on a B&M coaster that I disliked. My DH is more of a coaster fiend than I am, and can tell you about all the loops, inversions, launches, twists, etc. All I know, if it's a B&M, I'll ride it! I'm sure you'll be fine. The nervous twitch in your tummy is part of the excitement!

Now, if you were asking about Top Thrill Dragster or Millenium Force, those might be a bit much. They're at Cedar Point and have both held the record for being tallest and fastest at some point in the past 8 years. They're intense! I rode them, to say I rode them, but I'm in no great hurry to do it again! However, I'll drive from ME to PA just to ride Talon at Dorney and Great Bear at Hershey over and over again!

 

[LionKingRules84]

I'm a roller coaster addict, thanks to my DH. Like you, I was afraid to ride big roller coasters. Then my DH made me ride Kraken at Sea World. I was petrified but I did it, and LOVED it. I wondered why I had been so scared! As you can see in my signature, our vacations now often occur where there are roller coasters. While I haven't been to IOA, I can assure you I'll be riding all the coasters there. I love the Great Bear in Hershey. It's one of my favorites. If you like the Great Bear, pretty much anything by those designers (Bolliger & Mabillard) will be right up your alley. Hulk and DD are both designed by B&M. I've never been on a B&M coaster that I disliked. My DH is more of a coaster fiend than I am, and can tell you about all the loops, inversions, launches, twists, etc. All I know, if it's a B&M, I'll ride it! I'm sure you'll be fine. The nervous twitch in your tummy is part of the excitement!

Now, if you were asking about Top Thrill Dragster or Millenium Force, those might be a bit much. They're at Cedar Point and have both held the record for being tallest and fastest at some point in the past 8 years. They're intense! I rode them, to say I rode them, but I'm in no great hurry to do it again! However, I'll drive from ME to PA just to ride Talon at Dorney and Great Bear at Hershey over and over again!

Yeah I reserached and found out B&M did both Hulk and DD and since they did Great Bear I'm sure I'll be fine but I wasn't sure if it was the right attitude to have. I'm an artist(graphic designer to be exact) so I figured that if these were designed by the same people I should be able to handle them. After my third ride on Great Bear I started wanting something different and I think both Hulk and DD will fill that. I don't think I could do some of the major Coasters ever. I did Steel Force in Dorney and it seriously scared the crap out of me and was the reason I was so scared of coasters. I've been thanking my boyfriend alot for making me go on Great Bear and helping me realize that going upside down is really not as extreme as a long or steep fall. Infact it's more fun and I love the feeling, I even liked the corkscrew. I actually kept thinking back to when I was kid and you use to hang upside down on the monkey bars or spin around in circles and giggle at the effect it had on you, well Rollar coasters(atleast the ones I like) to me are like the adult version or next step up to that and a ton more fun.

Well. I used to work at Dragons, let me tell you the good and bad parts.

Also, they both have 5 inversions. Neither one has more upside down manuevers than the other.

Fire Dragon: starts out with an immelman inversion (1) then does an airtime hill over Ice's barrel roll, then has another immelman inversion (2) with a wrap around helix, then the famous vertical loop next to Ice (3), then the corkscrew around Ice's corkscrew (4), then a last corkscrew before the brake run (5).

Ice Dragon starts out with a big sweeping left handed turn, then comes back up for the barrel roll under Fire's airtime hill (1), then comes up close to the castle and does a cobra roll, which count for 2 inversions, since the train goes upside-down twice (2 and 3) then the vertical loop next to Fire (4) then the corkscrew around Fire (5), then a couple more turns into the brake run.

They both are the same height, but Fire is a bit faster because it drops farther then Ice does. Ice also has the castle wall scrape, where, from the front row has excellent visuals. It looks like you will hit the wall.

Here's a pic of Ice's cobra roll, in case you're confused about the "train upside down twice" thing. It's a turnaround manuever, and the train does go upside down twice, therefore taking up 2 of the 5 inversions.

http://www.rcdb.com/ig558.htm?picture=31

Thanks for this description I've actually been looking for something similiar and couldn't find one on the net. Ice looks like so much fun, I may be riding that first for sure!

 

[Cherbear013]

I absolutely hate most traditional coasters that just go over hills. The last time I was at Universal (about 5 years ago) I went on Hulk and DD with my aunt and uncle. I LOVED them! I'm very excited to go back and ride them again! I think if you are new to coasters you will really like them.

 

[lindalinda]

I am going to take a different perspective here, esp. since you have already gotten great info and I am sure have about decided to go for it.


OT.....

You have done the research, you are ready! Dont have your BF ride first and tell you if you can handle it! I know, I know, that sounds sweet but dont head down that path. Decide yourself, and go for it! (or not, if thats what you decide) What if your BF says no, its too scary for you? So you dont ride it at all. Fast forward 5, maybe 10 yrs. Someone else rides it (that you trust) and says you'd love it. Now you've missed all that fun!

*advice not warranted, not to be used for small children, pets or the extremely high strung

 

[tlinus]

even though I am a chicken, I allow my 12 yo dd on these coasters with DH....she is fine - you will be as well!!!!

Have Fun!!!

 

[LionKingRules84]

I am going to take a different perspective here, esp. since you have already gotten great info and I am sure have about decided to go for it.


OT.....

You have done the research, you are ready! Dont have your BF ride first and tell you if you can handle it! I know, I know, that sounds sweet but dont head down that path. Decide yourself, and go for it! (or not, if thats what you decide) What if your BF says no, its too scary for you? So you dont ride it at all. Fast forward 5, maybe 10 yrs. Someone else rides it (that you trust) and says you'd love it. Now you've missed all that fun!

*advice not warranted, not to be used for small children, pets or the extremely high strung

Thanks for the prespective and I appreciate it. The reason I have my BF ride stuff first is that is how well I trust his judgement. Without him I would have never had the courage to go on the coasters I did at Hershey and would have never ever thought of riding DD or Hulk. He already told me I should ride them with him and he said he plans on making me because he knows I'll like it even without him riding them first. I've pretty much made my desicion to to ride them with him.