Attraction Wildcat's Revenge

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warfelg

Mar 16, 2016
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Rumors are flying about Wildcat.

Markings on footers.
One train operations.
Photo booth gone.

There’s been rumors of GCI staff on site, makings on supports, tracer lights gone. GCI and HP have a great relationship as Wildcat was their first design, and they have LR. It’s been long rumored that Hershey would never turn Wildcat over to RMC out of respect for GCI and partially this helped push the Titan Track development.

Additionally Hershey was always on an every other year new coaster schedule on even years. Candymonium was supposed to open in 2020 (iirc) and COVID pushed it back. JollyRancher remix opened this year and may have been a “placeholder” to get us to 2024. Odd years tend to be flats, kiddie, or Boardwalk packages for Hersheypark.

Are we potentially on a no Wildcat in 2023 with Wildcat 2 Electric Bugalu in 2024? Is it going to just get retracked with titan track or all new layout? Or is this much ado about nothing?
 
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I hope if they put in titan track it will just be partial, just on the highest wear parts of the ride.
 
I really don't know what to think of this. I, of course, would prefer Titan over RMC but I really like Wildcat the way it is. Along with that, Hershey is well equipped to take care of wooden coasters so I don't feel it has the same need for a steel track like other parks have. That being said, I certainly think that Hershey is about to do something with Wildcat. I honestly think the argument could be made for a complete wood retrack or potentially Titan -- or hybrid like @Crunchewy suggests. I do kind of feel like the stopped doing serious maintenance on the track in the last year or two because, while I never found the ride rough like others have suggested, I do think it was not as good last year as it was in previous years.

I doubt it would happen but I would really like to see a wood retrack and new PTC trains. Wildcat was so much better with PTC.
 
I know little to nothing about this ride, but is it also possible that there isn't a major ride change coming but instead a new ride that will intersect/interact with the support structure in a way that requires big enough modifications to need all the markings and/or permitting a regular retracking operation may not need?
 
Jonesta6 said:
I know little to nothing about this ride, but is it also possible that there isn't a major ride change coming but instead a new ride that will intersect/interact with the support structure in a way that requires big enough modifications to need all the markings and/or permitting a regular retracking operation may not need?
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Could we be looking at the first GCI hybrid conversion?
 
Jonesta6 said:
I know little to nothing about this ride, but is it also possible that there isn't a major ride change coming but instead a new ride that will intersect/interact with the support structure in a way that requires big enough modifications to need all the markings and/or permitting a regular retracking operation may not need?
Click to expand...
While it's possible.... especially with the way Hershey stacks coasters on top of each other (which I love), I don't think this is something that's easily going to be done with Wildcat. I suppose maybe something coming CLOSE to the ride but I still have my doubts of that.
 
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CoasterTalkBob said:
While it's possible.... especially with the way Hershey stacks coasters on top of each other (which I love), I don't think this is something that's easily going to be done with Wildcat. I suppose maybe something coming CLOSE to the ride but I still have my doubts of that.
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Yea. Wildcat is such a self contained structure of a twister coaster.

For anyone that doesn’t know the layout:
A98C4AAD-242A-49DA-8C36-759018892B72.png

I think Titan Track is most likely, I’m questioning if GCI is willing to take on some RMC like elements or not. That first incline helix would make a cool IG/SV like barrel roll into the turn and fallout to drop. Inverted hangtime in the first straight over another part of the track. Overtaking on the helix. Off axis bunny hop to the next one. More overbanking, then a barrel roll to the right that continues into a low fast outward banked turn. Some more high banked turning into the brake run. That would be a cool RMC like layout revamp.

Otherwise I can see the whole thing staying the same with just more extreme banking thanks to the Titan track. I don’t see a “new layout” of new footers added and old ones left unused happening here.
 
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warfelg said:
Yea. Wildcat is such a self contained structure of a twister coaster.

For anyone that doesn’t know the layout:
View attachment 26849

I think Titan Track is most likely, I’m questioning if GCI is willing to take on some RMC like elements or not. That first incline helix would make a cool IG/SV like barrel roll into the turn and fallout to drop. Inverted hangtime in the first straight over another part of the track. Overtaking on the helix. Off axis bunny hop to the next one. More overbanking, then a barrel roll to the right that continues into a low fast outward banked turn. Some more high banked turning into the brake run. That would be a cool RMC like layout revamp.

Otherwise I can see the whole thing staying the same with just more extreme banking thanks to the Titan track. I don’t see a “new layout” of new footers added and old ones left unused happening here.
Click to expand...

Not gonna lie: I hope your dreams are thoroughly dashed.
 
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I thought Wildcat was insanely rough when I rode in July 2020, to the point it wasn’t remotely enjoyable. And I say this as someone who enjoys rough coasters — for context, I adore Grizzly at KD. But Wildcat’s roughness was just constant jackhammering the whole way through, not the sort of out-of-control feeling a good rough coaster delivers.

I’d welcome a track renovation.
 
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My Sources closer to the ride seem extremely confident some form of major renovations are happening, but they’re unsure what kind. Trees are coming down, and the entrance and nearby catering pavilion are getting renovated in addition to the footer and structure markings mentioned above.

We’d likely be looking at a 2023 opening for any sort of conversion, which would break the 4 year pattern of recent years, but is also not unprecedented - Laff Trakk was three years after Skyrush and was also a relatively low cost coaster as this would be.

I for one hope it’s an RMC, as I find Wildcat both uncomfortable and uneventful, but I’d welcome any sort of major work.
 
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Mushroom said:
I thought Wildcat was insanely rough when I rode in July 2020, to the point it wasn’t remotely enjoyable. And I say this as someone who enjoys rough coasters — for context, I adore Grizzly at KD. But Wildcat’s roughness was just constant jackhammering the whole way through, not the sort of out-of-control feeling a good rough coaster delivers.

I’d welcome a track renovation.
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Honestly, last year was the first time I would have ever said Wildcat was rough at all. When people complain about a rough wooden coaster I usually see what they are talking about but disagree that it's unenjoyable but with Wildcat I genuinely never found the ride rough at all. The only thing that Wildcat ever had an issue with was tracking which is left to right rather than up and down and I think that is purely because of the trains but, again, I never found it bad -- it was just something I noticed.

This isn't meant to be an argument..... Wildcat and Roar are two coasters that I genuinely don't understand why I can't sense roughness that many others talk about. Maybe it's just purely that I enjoy the two coasters so much that I don't notice the roughness? I really don't know.
 
I'm on team Titan Track or get rid of the ride. It was unbearably rough. Usually I require myself to ride a ride at least once a year incase of a sudden closure (looking at you Volcano), but I will never ride Wildcat again in its current form. At one point the jack hammering was so bad, that my wife slammed her head against mine during the middle of the ride. So not only were we in pain from that, but we still had to go through the misery of the rest of the ride. Without question, it was the worst coaster I have ever been on.
 
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Mushroom said:
I thought Wildcat was insanely rough when I rode in July 2020, to the point it wasn’t remotely enjoyable. And I say this as someone who enjoys rough coasters — for context, I adore Grizzly at KD. But Wildcat’s roughness was just constant jackhammering the whole way through, not the sort of out-of-control feeling a good rough coaster delivers.

I’d welcome a track renovation.
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If you'd said it was that rough by NOW I'd buy it since I haven't been there, but I rode it 5 times in Aug. 2020 and not only enjoyed it, but due to retracking it was far smoother than 2018(?), which was fully washboarded through the whole beginning. I'm pretty sure it was also better than 2011. It does help to know about that airtime moment during a turn, very unusual.

No plans are know yet to fully Titan track a coaster, so expect a lot of similarity. The most obvious places for it in the course are also the places most recently retracked. As to RMC, traditionally most parks let their woodies decay a lot more before going that way, but that's not a rule and I guess that could be a matter of opinion how far it's gone.
 
So some recent findings in marketing from Hersheypark in addition to the blue markings on Wildcat::

Videos teasing a new Hersheypark in the Dark had coordinates to the location of the original location of Wild Cat.
An image of tarot cards teased a death and rebirth.
And the latest image shows a blue hue-d image of Wildcat at the first elevated helix.
 
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Haven't you read? Reddit has unequivocally proven that this is a RMC conversion beyond a shadow of a doubt. The basis seems solid as well -- all of the RMC fanboys have begun celebrating.

.... ok, vent aside, it's pretty clear that something is happening with Wildcat but I also think some people are reading too much into certain things. The coordinates to the location of the original Wildcat could be coincidental in that it also lines up with Trailblazer. What really got me was the fact that a tiny snip of the Wildcat POV in the Hersheypark in the Dark promo was decided to be the most damning evidence that RMC was coming in -- despite that lacking, well, anything of merit. I am honestly really curious what basis the people that are saying this is definitively an RMC conversion are using. I'm not saying that RMC isn't possible but I honestly don't get the certainty that some people have.

There's another big part of me that thinks Wildcat could be up for some type of thematic change. Wildcat was always heavily pushed as a major Hersheypark in the Dark attraction because you got to ride it in pitch black darkness but that effect has really worn off with the new entrance to the park and the fact that the stadium seems to be used a lot more regularly for events which end up seriously lighting up Wildcat's plot of land. I tried very hard to experience Wildcat in the dark last year and I never got it because each time lighting from something was really killing that. Markings would make a lot of sense if they were building tunnel(s) on the ride.... this could also line up with the death and rebirth when it comes to the Wildcat in the dark promotion. Far fetched? Maybe..... but I think with Hershey's embracing of theme that's recently become clearly evident, especially with JRR, I think this makes just as much sense as a RMC conversion.

My hope is still that Wildcat just gets TLC with the wood track that it has but, realistically, I still think Titan Track in high stress areas makes the most logical sense. The biggest problem that Hershey has with Wildcat is a serious perception problem that no one will ever allow themselves to re-evaluate until something is done with it.

Of course, all of the HPitD promo videos coming out could be just pointing to locations for haunts/mazes and Wildcat's role in this is nothing more than a location of one of such attraction.
 
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