Fahrenheit at Hersheypark opened as the world’s steepest roller coaster.
This is a unique Intamin roller coaster combining a little of everything- it has a steep drop,
a few airtime moments, and six inversions.
However, the ride is often overshadowed by Hersheypark’s other two Intamins, but is
that a fault of Fahrenheit?
I don’t think so.
In this video, I will review Fahrenheit and explain why this is one of Intamin’s most
underrated coasters.
After the 2007 season, the Western Chute Out water slides were slated for removal.
Located in Pioneer Frontier, this was a relatively compact footprint for a large-scale coaster.
But shortly after its closure, Hersheypark started one of the most complex and mysterious
viral marketing campaigns in the history of the amusement industry.
The root of the marketing campaign was a fake company called Nantimi, which was an anagram
of swiss manufacturer Intamin.
A fake website was created with a long trail of breadcrumbs, puzzles, and word cyphers.
The buzz around this marketing campaign was immense.
The website received over 34,000 hits and Hersheypark’s mysterious new ride was the
talk of the coaster community.
After weeks of teasing, Fahrenheit was announced on September 27, 2007.
This coaster would feature a 121 foot or 37 meter tall vertical lift and a record-breaking
beyond vertical plunge with a max angle of descent of 97 degrees.
But Fahrenheit wouldn’t hold the steepness record for long.
Fahrenheit opened in May 2008, but just 2 months later, Indiana Beach opened Steel Hawg,
the prototype El Loco coaster with a 111 degree first drop.
Unlike a lot of major parks that received Arrow multi-loopers in the 1970s and 1980s,
Hersheypark never did.
They had an Intamin accelerator in Storm Runner that took riders upside-down 3 times, a B&M
invert in Great Bear that took riders upside-down 4 times, and a Vekoma boomerang in Sidewinder
that took riders upside-down 6 times.
So Fahrenheit was a welcome addition to the park.
Fahrenheit is an incredibly compact coaster.
And the ride looks dazzling with its bright orange track and delightfully twisted layout.
The coaster is located in the Pioneer Frontier section of the park, but it doesn’t really
fit in with the area.
It has no western theming or any theming for that matter.
Fahrenheit routinely has one of the longest lines at Hersheypark.
The ride features short, three-car trains seating a maximum of 12 riders.
The ride usually runs three trains, but the ride almost always double stacks.
Dispatches on this coaster are always slow.
As a result, I strongly recommend riding this coaster within the first hour of the day before
it starts building a line.
Even on quiet days, this ride usually sports a half hour wait.
On busy weekends, the line can easily exceed 60-90 minutes.
And it moves painstakingly slow.
The queue is a sea of switchbacks in the middle of the ride, which offer some great vantage
points of the ride.
When Fahrenheit originally opened, there was barely any shade in the queue line, but thankfully
the trees the park planted have started growing in to block the sun on hot days.
From 2008 to 2015, Fahrenheit had hard over-the-shoulder restraints, similar to the ones found on Kingda
Ka at Six Flags Great Adventure.
For the 2016 season, Fahrenheit received an upgrade.
The hard straps were replaced by soft straps.
These eliminated the chance of painful neck chopping during the ride’s aggressive maneuvers,
even though headbanging wasn’t really an issue on the ride to begin with.
I think the soft straps are an upgrade for the most part, but the straps do come really
close to your head.
So when the restraints release at the end of the ride, they will try to remove glasses.
I always turn my head 90 degrees to the side to prevent my glasses from being hit.
I also have two other minor issues with Fahrenheit’s restraints.
One, I’m not a fan of the seat molds on this generation of the Intamin trains.
Two, the lap bar portion of the restraint is not the most comfortable since it’s a
large cylinder perpendicular to your lap.
Neither ruins the ride for me.
In terms of seat selection, I prefer the back on Fahrenheit.
That’s mostly so you can experience the first drop at its full potential.
Once dispatched, you round a 90 degree turn and head up the vertical lift hill.
Unlike some of the Gerstaluer EuroFighters where you slow down at the top, you get thrown
over the 97 degree first drop on Fahrenheit.
And this is easily the highlight of the ride.
Up front, you get a good pop of airtime due to the drop’s steepness.
But the drop is extra special in the back row.
Almost every beyond vertical drop delivers strong ejector airtime, but usually those
rides have really short trains.
With Fahrenheit’s 3 car train, the drop delivers an incredibly intense moment of ejector
airtime the whole way down.
It’s one of my favorite drops on any coaster.
That’s followed by the Norwegian loop, which is a really interesting element.
It starts off as a dive loop.
The inversion itself doesn’t really stand out, but the pullout is very intense.
It slams you with positive Gs, especially up front.
If I’m up front, I usually start greying out here.
The second half of the Norwegian loop is an Immelmann that finishes really high in the
air.
Like the dive loop, the inversion itself isn’t anything special.
But what follows is.
The end of the Norwegian loop drops back down to the ground and it delivers some sustained
floater airtime in the back car.
That’s followed by a cobra roll.
It’s not particularly snappy or forceful.
What stands out most about this element is the nasty rattle.
For the most part, Fahrenheit is a very smooth coaster.
However, the train shuffles constantly through the cobra roll and approach to the first corkscrew.
It’s quite jarring compared to the rest of the ride.
While the first 4 inversions aren’t standouts, the final two corkscrews are.
These corkscrews are taken at breakneck speeds and the whip through these corkscrews is unbelievable.
They are very disorienting.
I know the coaster’s 58 mph or 93 kph top speed is attained at the base of the first
drop, but the ride’s second half feels significantly faster because of how compact and tight the
elements are.
That’s followed by a speedy and moderately forceful turn and then comes a wonderful surprise-
a powerful bunny hill that delivers intense ejector airtime throughout the train.
This hill feels like it belongs on an Intamin hypercoaster rather than a multilooper.
It’s that strong.
You then loop around a low turn and then rise up into the brake run ending the ride after
traversing 2700 feet or 823 meters of track.
Fahrenheit really finishes strong so you will hit the brake run breathless.
And you will be sitting there for quite some time while you wait for the two trains ahead
of you to be dispatched.
In terms of pacing, Fahrenheit is pretty good and seems to get stronger as it goes.
The ride has very little downtime in between elements.
The only weakness in the coaster’s layout is that the first four inversions don’t
have any real power to them while they’re inverting actually inverting you.
So what would I rate Fahrenheit?
I would give this unique Intamin multi-looper an 8 out of 10.
This is a very solid coaster.
I absolutely love the insane first drop and relentless second-half.
The Norwegian loop is also pretty good in the parts where you aren’t actually inverting,
which is weird to say about an inversion.
My biggest issues with Fahrenheit are the rattly cobra roll and slightly uncomfortable
trains, but the ride is ultimately an intense and fun coaster that combines some airtime
moments with inversions.
It’s my least favorite of the three Intamins at Hersheypark, but it’s still an excellent
fit in the park’s lineup and it’s my fourth favorite coaster in the park.
So those are my thoughts on Fahrenheit.
Have you been on this coaster?
How do you think it compares to Hersheypark’s other coasters?
I would love to hear your thoughts down in the comments.
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Thanks for watching!