Paws off my phone!://Wildcat's Revenge Media Day 2023

                   Date:5/31/2023-6/3/2023

Destination: Hershey, Pennsylvania

Goal: Media Day for Wildcat's Revenge

Distance: 510  Miles

Means of Travel: Driving

Potential Credits: 1

I fucking hate, HATE ancient outdated wooden coasters, and on that may not be quite as old as the rest of 'em but still plenty awful, is Hersheypark's Wildcat. From day one, I got my spine grinded good by that damn thing while lovely, beautiful, more advanced Lightning Racer would deliver hand-cut racing perfection just down the midway. RMC was already a thing by the time I got to Hershey, and because of that, I never saw any sense in not RMCing Wildcat. They've got not one but two GCIs just around the corner that are way better than shitty ol' Vilecat could ever be, there's no shortage of wood coaster character at all in the Keystone State, aside from being GCI's first coaster it has no historical value, nobody ever rides it compared to the other rides, it's a no brainer. RMC the hell out of it.

So you can imagine how happy I was when at some point late last summer, work on Wildcat was being done and a closure was announced. And to add to it, RMC Connection (not Connoisseurs, we've rebranded) was invited to their media day! And on top of that, there was a video shoot that afternoon that we were added to. And with me planning to stay an extra day Friday, I had a media day, a commercial shoot, and a full operating day at Hershey to look forward to.

Day 0

Ben and I's friend Rachel from Coaster Crew had invited us to stay with her on the night before media day, with Ben's only flight option being a late midnight arrival into BWI nearby, so that made my destination for the day Baltimore. I worked for four hours that morning, finishing up my job just in time to get on the road, with a long but smooth seven hour trek to Baltimore ahead. I got through about Columbus when my friend Chelsey called and we shot the shit for a bit, killing about an hour or two. And by then my chocolate, despite being in a lunchbox, had already melted. From there I cued up some of that Deathbed Confessions podcast I like to listen to as I drive, and it was pretty good. Guy that cried out he was Jack the Ripper as he was being hanged, multiple people who admitted to being the infamous DB Cooper airplane pirate, and the man who allegedly killed Adam Walsh gave me plenty of interesting stuff to listen to. Got a little bored of things about halfway into DB Cooper and about an hour from Rachel's, so I switched gears back to my Hershey mixtape (and by mixtape I mean Spotify playlist) and before I knew it I was there!

Side note, this is a beautiful drive. Ohio East of Columbus and then Pennsylvania/Maryland/West Virginia always feels a bit like a frontier to me, as somewhere I don't usually go 100% of the time. It feels like good road trip territory, even though West Virginia is my least favorite state by far. It's mountainous, no huge cities, just you, some nice views, and little Americana towns with cheap rural gas!

Swung by Wendy's to get some chicken nuggets and this in the window was really funny to me for some reason.

I got to Rachel's around 8 and was able to sit down and have some food, she goes to make a burrito, and just as I'm about to eat a nugget, I hear, "no!!! Stay away from the food you know better!!!" I jumped, startled, wondering what I did to upset Rachel, the next thing I know a cat comes from out of nowhere (was not even aware a cat was in the room), leaps over the counter like an Olympic hurdler and scampers up the stairs into the sunset. And she's like, "oh no you're good I wouldn't talk to you like that," and I just laughed, knowing it was gonna be one of those trips.

My father recently had surgery and I got him some of UDF's (Ohio area gas station chain that sells ice cream) peach ice cream and it became his favorite recovery food. So it made me happy to see that of all ice cream flavours Rachel had it was peach, so we enjoyed that. We stayed up and chatted, she showed me some of her books, and eventually her and her kid had to get to bed. I stayed up, went to BWI to get Ben, red a chapter of my Atlantis book in the cell phone lot, and drove him back home and we passed out on both of her couches straight away, needing to get to Hershey the next morning with a two hour drive in hour way.

Day 1

I had a weird af dream that I was trying to catch a cat around Rachel's townhouse, but I could firebend in the kitchen if I asked Amazon Alexa, and then I realized I was in a dream within a dream so that became a lucid dream within a dream and that put me in Tears of the Kingdom for some reason and I started skydiving. And then I woke up and my sleep paralysis demon, otherwise known as Wall-E, was watching me sleep on the back of the couch.

We got up the next morning, Rachel went to work, her kiddo went to school, and Ben and I had a long commute to Hersheypark for Wildcat's Revenge.

Baltimore was hell to drive in, there were several car accidents and Waze routed us wrong, and that made us a little late to Media Day. But it mattered not, we got there and Hershey was awesome about getting us our press credentials and putting us where we needed to be. We were at Hershey!

Back in 2015, I was already hoping this would happen. Eight years later, it's finally happening. Wildcat's Revenge let's go! 

Not a lot of opportunities to shoot this coaster except from the stretch of queue that goes right next to it, it's a pretty secluded coaster. Didn't have many photos of it from before, even.

Only seen this sign on one other coaster and that's Skyrush!

Wildcat's Revenge has a locker system a la Steel Vengeance, Twisted Timbers, or Velocicoaster, but the lockers are bigger and you have to remember more. There's a bank number, a locker number, and a PIN you create to access it from the other side. Like the colored picture symbol a bit better but this is fine too. The sign also says 6 digit PIN but it's 4 digit. Remember it like a phone number, [LOCKER BANK][LOCKER NUMBER]-[4 DIGIT PIN]. So for example, locker 20 in bank 4 with a password of 6969 you'd remember as the phone number 420-6969.

The Wildcat's Revenge station has some pretty low ceilings but the pump up music they play is perfect for the ride. Same energy as Skyrush with basically a wall on one side of the train, and somewhat claustrophobic.

Also this video wasn't shot on media day, but major shoutout back to the RMC guys that waved hi from the platform!

So let's break it down, how is Wildcat's Revenge?

It feels like yet another step forward in time from RMC, a company that does just that. It feels just like an RMC of this tech level should feel, they've figured out how to make coasters that aren't Steel Vengeance or Iron Gwazi scale continue to consistently have violent layouts, full of great ejector, insane pacing, but Wildcat's Revenge takes it a step further with snappyness and laterals.

The ride starts out with a really fun little downhill prelift, possibly my new favorite on any RMC, before engaging the lift, and the climb into the chain is kind of spongey and probably still needs dialed in because it bounces you a bit as you begin your ascent. The drop is an RMC drop, great ejector, but nothing surprising about it. Best part of this might simply be the nice view of the rolling pastures of Pennsylvania's Dairyland, the Welcome to Hershey sign, Milton Hershey School, and Hotel Hershey atop the hill. The underflip feels a bit like ArieForce One's raven dive, much moreso than just a standard dive loop or something, but it's the camelback afterwards that sends the message that this kitty still means business. A double up leads into a little wave turn, which comes back out into a stall, which snaps VERY violently in the front. Like, you could be right side up, blink, and be upside-down. This pulls out into a second equally awesome wave turn, which then rises into what many think is the best part of the ride: a double down with a twist. It drops sharply, turns sharply, and drops again, with no banking on the turn. You're essentially lifted up diagonally out of your seat. It snaps through another inversion before slamming pretty violently into a little helix and pulling out of yet another zero-g roll, forming somewhat of a 270 degree twisted horseshoe that pulls a lot of positive Gs for an RMC. Like, it slams you pretty hard into your seat as you come out of the inversion and around the turn. After this roll through the structure it does this very Wicked Cyclone-esque dancey turn thing before a lovely finale of two final kicker hills, one of which looks as if it's going to smash through the structure as you slam into the brakes.

Element-wise, it feels like Wicked Cyclone meets Storm Chaser. Lots of basic but well executed hills, rolls, and other inversions meet a few fun dancey tipping out elements, and the ride getting more and more intense as it progresses reminds me of both older RMCs, but with a fresh take utilizing new technology. And it's incredible for it. Better than Skyrush? That's to be decided later, along with overall rankings. But it definitely has a solid case in a US-only top ten.

In addition to the media ride (we actually got to go twice, super nice of them!) they also had this really cool 360 Activation video op that was set up. Some of you may have seen this at Pipeline Media Day done with people standing on surfboards, this is essentially the same thing except we got signs to dance with. Lot of fun to make this and it's a cool technology, albeit very simple. Lots of things parks can do with this!

Wildcat's Revenge has some...odd differences in its restraint device from other RMC trains of the same generation. For starters, Hershey is a bit more hands on (no pun intended) about the whole "hold on" rule than most other parks, and I think to address that, they added this weird little horse bridle bolted to the restraint knee defender. So you have something to hang onto but it isn't solid at all, it's a loop of cable wrapped in padding and hooked to little hinged eyelet things on either side.

In addition, and more importantly I think, the buckle for the seatbelt isn't like a flat Intamin buckle like on the gen 1 trains, or a square airplane buckle like on the gen 2 trains, but it's a chonky plastic clip thing like you might see on a kiddie car seat. And if it gets between your thigh and the lap bar, it hurts over the ejector hills. When putting the belt on, make sure it rests vertically against your stomach, not flat on your thigh. The airtime will smoosh it into your lap and it will hurt.

After this, we went to the video shoot and got all signed in and wristbanded and all that good stuff. Took them a bit to get the equipment ready and an eagle about took out the drone so that was funny, but a few hours of staying hydrated later, we were able to ride!

Also special thanks to Brandon Strouphauer for the photo pass access!

We rode it several times over the course of the afternoon, plenty to get a well-formed opinion of the coaster, and the big thing I noticed comparing seats is that while the experience is different in the front, middle, and back, there's none that's necessarily better than the other. A front row ride highlights just how snappy this ride is, the rolling elements somewhat out-Iron Gwazi Iron Gwazi, it feels like I305 level snapping going through some of those rolls and in/out of the stall. A back seat ride is all about the airtime, from getting pulled over the hills and out of the stall to getting ripped into the twisted horseshoe thing (can we name this element? I feel like it needs its own name), and middle, while usually being a dud, is a perfectly balanced well rounded ride experience. I can't think of a single other coaster where I can't decide between the front, middle, or back as readily and to me that makes this very unique as a design. There are no bad seats on Wildcat's Revenge, only good ones.

Filming wrapped as we were told it would, Ben left a few minutes early to use our media day tickets to get Skyrush and I followed after he had ridden and fallen in love with the damn thing. So I hightailed it around to Chocolate Town and got in myself.

Skyrush became my #1 in 2015 and retained the spot for a year until Lightning Rod kicked it down a notch in 2016, but it remained the only non-RMC that could run toe to toe with the products of my favorite ride manufacturer for a very long time. In 2017 it took a kick to my rankings when I noticed it starting to develop a nasty rattle around some of the curves, and Ben warned me that while the ride is incredible, the rattle is still there.

I met up with Ben, we rode it together, and while I still think my criticism is totally valid, I also don't think I was giving it enough credit for what it does right. That ejector is easily top tier even compared to RMC legends like Steel Vengeance and Iron Gwazi, but doing it suspended off the side of the train with just that tiny seat and lapbar is nucking futs. Add in the creek setting and I'm reminded of why this coaster gets eaten up like candy by even the most hardened coaster junkies. Granted, I do still think the long, drawn out curves at either end of the figure eight kill the flow of the ride somewhat and it definitely has a nasty rattle there, but it's still a fucking awesome ride. Definitely warrants a raise in my rankings, but where? And more importantly, how compared to newcomer Wildcat's Revenge, which also demonstrated merit in my top ten today?

So we get our last ride, get ready to leave so we can take a quick Sheetz, and get Ben to Harrisburg's airport for his flight, but to our horror, something is wrong as we get off Skyrush: our phones have been replaced by similar looking devices that are not ours. Thinking quickly, we get their devices, knowing they're now considered lost articles, and borrow a wonderful nice lady's phone for Ben to log into his Android account and GPS our phones, hoping we'll GPS into another panicky group looking for lost phones while far from home. Meanwhile, I see a staff meeting and alert a green tag to our situation and she takes me to security, and as we're there, the Skyrush supervisor comes up to security yelling if anyone has lost a phone, holding Ben and I's devices. I swap him phones, out of breath, thank both of them for their help as well as the nice lady who let Ben borrow her phone, and we head out, and if we weren't out of breath before we sure were by now!

So we head to Sheetz, get the most disgusting, greasy, delicious hot dog ever and some boneless wings, and chew on the wonderful day we just had before Ben drove back to Harrisburg's teeny tiny airport, and I headed to my sketchy hotel out in the middle of nowhere with several annoying flies in my room. I hit the showers and get some sleep, planning to return tomorrow for Wildcat's Revenge's first public operating day!

Day 2

Of course I couldn't sleep, waking up around 7:30 when the park didn't open til like 10, so I took advantage of the situation and gate crashed! I left around 8:30, got a disgusting Sheetz breakfast sandwich on the way (fried chicken egg white pepper jack and guac? Hell yeah!) and got a spot near the front of the line for ticketed guests. My buddy John was to be my partner in crime today, for his first ride on the new RMC and my first time seeing him in two years.

Rope dropped and we did the running of the bulls to Wildcat's Revenge where everyone filed into the queue line. Usually at Kings Island, this line would stretch all the way back to the Eiffel Tower and wait would be seven hours long and you were lucky to get in the queue for the brand new attraction, but here it just filled up what was built, strangely. Probably because passholders already rode it.

What's this? A look at me without my signature flannel? Stop the presses Jarrett's posting his nudes cover that shit up nobody needs to see your goddamn ninnies and turkums flobbering about all over Hersheypark!!!

In all seriousness, yes, I had to take my flannel off in line because it was HOT. Like, 93 degrees hot. Not 97 and falling, 93 and steadily that hot throughout the day in a park that isn't the best at shading their queues. Wildcat still has the little wooden pergola things over the cattlepen but it was just a skeleton, no frame or awning or anything. The only fans (teehee he said OnlyFans) I remember were in the path from the cattlepen to the lockers. Wildcat's Revenge has a hot queue with minimal shade, make sure to bring sunscreen and water if you go in the dead of summer.

Then it hit me I did something dumb. Sun was out, coaster was hauling, we've got a wait in the only spot you can see it well, so I get my camera out to shoot some photos of it. Turns out I was an idiot and left my memory card in my laptop which was back at the hotel, so great. No DSLR access for me today, gotta make do with a phone and the shitty photos that come with!

John wanted to ride in the back first so we got row 9 and made do with that, and I really liked this ride! It wasn't quite as warmed up as our later ones yesterday but the ride itself was great. Best part in the back is probably the double down, the airtime is unreal but combined with that yank to the side, that takes it to the next level. Getting ripped out of the following zero-G to be slammed into the twisted horseshoe is also pretty awesome.

Stormrunner was next since it usually gets a line, but we caught it early and beat the crowd for a damn good morning ride. I love the launch on this thing, especially since we have nothing like it back home now, and the flying snake dive dishes out great airtime that was well ahead of its time. It's like Velocicoaster 20 years earlier.

And for some reason or another...Wildcat's Revenge wasn't all the way out the park in terms of wait, it was actually pretty reasonable so we did that again next. And in the front...holy shit this ride is good! Like, the snapping in and out of the rolling elements makes the ride this is like RMC's take on I305 while fixing the concept for what I dislike about 305. I think I like it better the closer to the front you get, and that's saying a lot considering the back row is the "all about the airtime" seat.

Also, ran into our friends Dan and Luke at the exit as we hit the brakes, so thanks to both of them for this photo!

We were gonna do Jolly Rancher but by the time we got off it had a really bad line, guess Skyrush will have to suffice! The school groups were in full force at this point, we saw a whole bunch of them line jump right in front of their chaperone before she waved them off and said to go have fun as she left to get a beer at Chocolatier or something. Wait wasn't too hateful, we got on, and it was just as good as last night, though that rattle is still very much there.

I had no idea what this was about to do to my rankings, or what my favorite coaster in the park is. Both are pretty neck and neck in terms of intensity, and that's awesome considering what a legendary ride Skyrush is. Skyrush has the stronger force magnitude, yes, and the better seating arrangement and location, but the ride is definitely somewhat marred by those long drawn out turns at either end. Doesn't kill the ride nearly as much as they kill 305, but they do rattle more and it is a dead spot in the layout you ride through three times. Meanwhile, Wildcat's Revenge doesn't have the phenomenal airtime on an exposed wing over water, but I also don't have any real complaints at all about the ride itself.

Time to compare them yet again, by some miracle it still had a 30-40 minute wait, so we did Wildcat a third time. It was starting to get hot and the school groups had claimed it by now, so we knew it was probably our last ride. This time John wanted closer to the back, so we did row 11. And as I said earlier, this is where the airtime is at the start of the ride and through the wave turns. You get pulled out of a lot of cool elements pretty violently, the only lagging/pulling drawback however is on the double up into the first wave turn how it isn't as violent as it is in the front or middle. But it's far from a miss of the airtime moment and you do get a pop. 

Lightning Racer was another we'd been wanting, and it's a top five favorite for me in the park, but sadly was down all morning. Only one side was up, and somehow several teeny tiny penises had been drawn in the little queue lattice, but our one ride on Lightning was pretty solid, albeit lacking the duel. It's no Mystic Timbers or Gold Striker, but it is a very good ride with a fun unique layout and I can respect that. It was weird, however, riding it not thinking about how it's so much better than Wildcat now.

John and I's Chocolatier reservation was coming up, so we hoofed it from Midway America all the way up to Chocolate Town, got our table, and waited for Dan and Luke to join us. I got this frozen chocolate cocktail thing that was a milkshake but also wasn't a milkshake or something, it had Bailey's and Kahlua and shit in it with Hershey chocolate, it was absolutely delicious, frozen drinks are the bomb on a scorching hot day.

Candymonium is an end of day ride for Hershey, and it had been down all day and that was driving wait times through the roof in some cases, since it eats people like a fat kid eats chocolate. Dan and Luke joined up and we ordered, sat around, chatted, caught up, typical enthusiast talk. So I've got drink in my mouth...when I see the Reese's train ascend the lift! We continued to keep an eye on it, waiting for it to possibly open its doors and let us in. 

But first...food! I was brave and got something I wouldn't usually think to try: a Reese's burger. First one they gave me I ate a bit before realizing they'd basically cremated it and cooked it medium well when I ordered medium rare, so they brought me back one that was basically still mooing as I like it and this was AMAZING. It's got peanuts, peanut butter, the patty, this delicious acidic shallot jam, and these little cocoa spiced sweet potato crispies to give it some chocolate flavour with the peanut butter. There was also a little fun size Reese cup on top that I put on the burger to get all melty and put some ooey gooey chocolate and peanut butter all over the sandwich, it was delicious. You probably read that and are about to throw up in your mouth at the thought of eating a burger that tastes like a Reese's Cup but if you go in expecting sweet and savory, or like peanuts in tandem with savory veggies and meats like you find in Thai food, and you like that kind of thing, you'll love it.

We went downstairs, I got a Wildcat's Revenge keychain, a WCR shirt, and a Skyrush shirt, but still no Candymonium so we went back to Skyrush.

Got a ride on SooperDooperLooper before heading to Skyrush, which was still just as mental as before, but now with much less wait. It was the perfect way to close out the trip, getting yeeted over that drop as you watched the sun set into the Poconos on the horizon, and then the out of control OMFG insane flight to hell this thing takes you on.

This machine is a fucking monster.

My Wildcat shirt was too big so I went up the hill to see if I could exchange it, I couldn't, but we found Stormrunner with a short line so we did that! Love another ride on this as always, I think it might be #3 in the park behind Wildcat's Revenge and Skyrush.

Bonus! We get off and see Jolly Rancher Remix has no line, so we snag it since neither of us have ridden it since it was redone. The theming is a little goofy, they play bad dance music around it, and the Flavor Tunnel (lol) is just a headchopper with some lights in it, nice touch but not any cooler than what's on Demon at Great America or New Texas Giant. There's dance lights and more bad dance music on the lift hills, reminds me somewhat of a tackier, lower budget, American take on what Walibi did with Psyke Underground, and remember to buy our candy so your kids have enough energy to go Super Saiyan.

We walked out, fingers crossed Candymonium would be open, but it sadly was not. So off into the sunset we strolled, everyone returned to their cars, and our hopes melted like the Reese's Cups twenty minutes after being placed in my car on the way out. But at least I had my phone this time!

But on a positive note: The school groups, as they left the park, were marched back into the gulag where they belong.

(Serious note: Compared to what I deal with at Kings Island back at home, these school group kids were actually mostly well behaved. I did Music In The Parks when I was their age, I know they're usually the geeky band kids, that's an age range where maturity varies the most between in my opinion, and I don't actually have an issue with these school group events going on at all. But it makes a damn funny meme so we will laugh.)

On the drive back to the hotel, I found a liquor store but they lacked cold beer, and I wanted cold beer, so they directed me to the Giant around the corner, where I got one of those build your own six pack for $10 things. Then I tried to ring it up in the checkout lane and the cashier about had a heart attack because PA liquor laws, directed me to the special AA register in the liquor section where my ID was taken out of my wallet, scanned, I was judged for having taken beer out of the special turnt corner built for Woody Harrelson in Hunger Games, and left the store feeling like I had just bought something at the out of state dispensary that I'm not supposed to have. Good beer though, which I thought was odd considering the draconian liquor laws here. I haven't seen Leffe since France last year!

Day 3

I slept in as much as I could, getting up around 8:30 to hit the road, and was on around 9 for a pretty quiet, boring, but relaxing drive home. My trip mixtape, calling friends to catch up, and of course, Deathbed Confessions were my choices of entertainment for the 7 hour ordeal.

Stopped at Sheetz for gas and some cheap disgusting food, which was some pot stickers (overpriced and just okay), and a typical Sheetz sloppy ass hot dog with chili and olives and gooey cheese and shit. But they "can not" take payment for gas at the drive thru. However, the lady did do me the service of informing me which state I was in, since I was basically riding the Mason-Dixon line home and passing in and out of Maryland, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia like nobody's business.

Eventually I crossed back into Ohio, and made it home around 5:30, just in time to shower and go to Dungeons & Dragons that night!

But that leaves the burning question: Which coaster did I like better?

It was a very close call, but I'm giving it to Wildcat solely on the fact that while I liked both coasters very closely, Skyrush I can list more negatives than I can for Wildcat's Revenge. Furthermore, Wildcat's Revenge also dishes out an equally good ride in every seat, something Skyrush doesn't do quite as well, and I can't think of another coaster that's quite as all around in every seat as Wildcat's Revenge. Both of them are touching in my rankings, both of them made my top ten, Wildcat for the first time and Skyrush securing a higher spot from when I last rode it and now able to compare it to a good RMC, but I love them both and with coaster technology getting progressively better year after year, picking ten out of 440+ is going to be pretty fierce competition. So even top twenty or even top thirty for someone like me can still mean the coaster is really really good. It's not like I'm one of those people that claims to like coasters but only enjoys five of them out of several hundred, I like most of what I ride so if I like it that much, that speaks volumes. So regardless of which one of these I pick, I think the real winner is Hersheypark simply for having two coasters that are this great in their lineup, it really elevates their lineup and raised them into my top ten parks.

Meanwhile, Wildcat's Revenge slid into my RMC Rankings at 5/14, below Steel Vengeance and above Twisted Timbers. All three coasters have tons of airtime, Wildcat's Revenge can certainly rival these two in that category, but it also introduces some other interesting elements, like Iron Gwazi's snapping and Wicked Cyclone's dancing.

I'm finally glad I got caught my the cat!