Negative-G - Hersheypark 2015

If you'd like to see a larger version of any of the photos just click on the photo and a larger version will open up on top of the page.

The Sooper Dooper Looper Rollercoaster at Hersheypark, Hershey, Pennsylvania

In the intervening thirty-eight years I became more and more afflicted with "Coaster Fever" and through newspapers, books, television and finally the internet learning what goes into the rides that I likes and who made them, especially the ones that I liked. Sooper Dooper Looper was designed by the best of them, a gentleman from Germany named Anton Schwarzkopf. He was at the forefront of bringing tubular steel track to the coater world and then he took those tubes of steel and turned the world upside down with the worlds first vertical loop on The Revolution at Magic Mountain in 1976. With the world wide attention that The Revolution and its loop garnered it was no surprise that Hersheypark wanted a just like that as the aging park was going through a rebirth as Hershey brought the aging park into theme park era.

Now Anton made amazing coasters that were thrilling and were engineered to be smooth, reliable and to last which is why the majority of the coasters he built for parks in the 1970's are still with us. Unfortunately he wasn't the greatest salesman so his competitors sold more coasters and he wasn't the greatest at running his business as he spent more time on making his coasters perfect than keeping in the black resulting in bankruptcy. As a result there are not many of his masterpieces for us to enjoy so it is a red letter day when I get to add another Anton Schwarzkopf designed ride to my count of coasters that I have ridden.

So after all of this build up did Sooper Doooper Looper live up to my expectations. Of course it did as I have never been on a bad Schwarzkopf coaster.

I do have to say that this is his weirdest design. All of his other rides from the portable coasters be built for traveling fairs to his multi looping park coasters flow from element to element in a very natural way. The rides are just perfect from start to finish and there is nothing you could add or change to make them any bettter.

Sooper Dooper Looper starts out with a lift that goes up the side of the hill and turns around before diving down with a very shallow first drop similar to the Whizzer at Six Flags Great America. At the bottom of the drop Sooper Dooper Looper turns from The Whizzer into The Revolution with a wonderful force filled circular vertical loop before a helix that takes you around and through the center of the loop before the ride turns back into The Whizzer again with a terrain hugging hillside run with a helix finale before hitting the brakes.

Sooper Dooper Looper in the end is a really fun coaster. There was never a line for it so whenever we walked past we had to hop on it for a couple of laps ending up in twenty or so rides throughout the day.

This quirky but fun Schwarzkopf coaster is going to be around for a while. Not only is it intertwined with the Great Bear coaster and the Coal Cracker flume but Hersheypark replaced the rides aging trains a couple of years ago with these new orange trains.

Oh if you are in the mood for some really tasty French fries covered in all sorts of toppings Hersheypark has them for you.