Wildcat’s Revenge is now open at Hersheypark, giving Pennsylvania its first hybrid roller coaster from revered coaster firm Rocky Mountain Construction.
Entrance sign for Wildcat’s Revenge (Theme Park Tribune)
RMC has repeatedly transformed older and maligned wooden coasters into beloved headliners for their parks, as was the case with Busch Gardens Tampa Bay’s Iron Gwazi and Cedar Point’s Steel Vengeance. Wildcat’s Revenge aims to do the same by building on the bones of Wildcat, a 1996 woodie which closed last July.
Riding Wildcat’s Revenge at its June 1, 2023, media preview (Theme Park Tribune)
Following several days of passholder preview and Thursday’s media preview, the ride is open to everyone as of Friday, June 2. (Editor’s Note: Theme Park Tribune rode Wildcat’s Revenge as part of that invitation-only media event.)
You’ll get some small pops of airtime right out of the station before ascending the 140-foot-tall lift hill.
(The first drop on Wildcat’s Revenge (Theme Park Tribune)
At the top, you’ll be greeted with an 83-degree first drop. That’s followed quickly by the ride’s most-hyped element: what Hersheypark calls the “world’s largest underflip,” an inversion that starts out going upward, followed by a 270-degree, counterclockwise roll and ending with a downward dive.
The “world’s largest underflip” (Theme Park Tribune)
You’ll then head into another airtime hill and then upward into an overbanked turn, with several short bursts of airtime heading into a RMC favorite, a Zero-G stall.
The biggest overbanked turn on Wildcat’s Revenge (Theme Park Tribune)
More airtime hills and turns follow, along with two more inversions: a Zero-G roll and a reversing downhill roll.
Zero-G roll on Wildcat’s Revenge (Theme Park Tribune)
The coaster hits a top speed of 62 miles per hour along its 3,510 feet of red track. It also is capable of running three trains at a time thanks to having separate load and unload stations, giving the ride higher capacity than some other recent RMC creations.