About seven weeks ago, I was one of many lucky people to ride Hersheypark’s Skyrush on opening day, May 26. Like many people, I absolutely loved the ride and it immediately jumped to the top of my favorite steel coaster list. Some however, did not share the same opinion over the next month and a half after riding, claiming that the lap bars stapled them into the seats and were very uncomfortable. While I did not think they were painful, I could certainly see why some found them painful and uncomfortable, as they airtime is extremely powerful and the ride is relentless all the way to the end.

While many loved the ride like myself, Hershey knew that enough people disliked the ride that something had to be done to try and improve the ride experience, and Intamin, the maker of the ride, acknowledged that improvements could be made fairly quickly in order to improve the ride.

Just before the July 4 holiday, we heard that Hershey had indeed made modifications to the restraints on one of the two Skyrush trains. The new restraints looked nearly identical to the originals, but were said to be much softer and have a bit more padding on the bottom in order to make the ride more enjoyable for all. After the holiday weekend, the second train was expected to be removed for modifications as well during a less busy time at the park.

I visited the park on Wednesday, July 11 to find that only one train was in operation, and that the train that was running did indeed have these new restraints. On a personal note, I did not find the originals incredibly uncomfortable, but there certainly was room for improvement. I am happy to tell you that the new lap bars are a vast improvement on the old ones, making the ride even more enjoyable to myself, and very exciting for those who disliked the originals. Unlike on opening day, I did not hear one complaint from guests all day about leg pain.

I rode twice throughout the day, once in front and once in back just like on opening day, and both spots provide improved rides from opening day, my personal preference still being the back seat purely for the incredible airtime down the first drop. The winged seats towards the back of the train do still shake a little bit more than the inner seats, but I do not think it subtracts from the ride.

A few other minor changes have been made since opening day as well. The station is still a single sided load and unload station, but the rotating bins that originally were by the entrance gates have now been replaced with traditional cubbies with the exception of the back two rows. Expect those to be replaced as well in the near future. This seems to allow guests to retrieve their belongings a bit faster and avoids the issue of the bins not rotating and trapping guests’ articles in a place where they cannot retrieve them.

Also on that note, despite only running one train, the line did move at a fairly decent pace. The operators as expected were checking trains much faster than when the ride opened, and hopefully that holds true when the second train returns. A line that with two trains on opening day was about twenty minutes for me ended up only being about twenty-five to thirty minutes the other day with one train, so dispatching as a whole has seemed to improved now and should continue to do so.

Once more people get to ride with the improved operations and restraints, I truly do feel that we could be seeing the coming-to-be of one of the best coasters of all time. The ride is intense, powerful, fast, and exciting, everything that a great coaster should be, for me anyway. It may not be exceptionally long, but when you have the intensity that Skyrush has, it doesn’t need to be a four-minute ride. Also keep in mind that like Storm Runner, the magnetic brakes cause this ride to shut down in rain even if there is not thunder or lightning, so plan accordingly if you go to the park.

I highly encourage anyone and everyone to go ride this ride as soon as humanly possible. If you haven’t ridden yet, you have no idea what you are missing. If you have ridden and loved it like I did, you will love it even more. If you have ridden and disliked the pain, trust me when I say you will want to give it another shot. I even think we may see the off-season bring some more slight improvements to the ride. Once more people get on this thing with the improvements, I think we could be witnessing the emergence of a new player in the “Best Steel Coaster” race.