The music’s blasting, the fog is billowing the and the light show is flashing.
No, you are not in some new club – you’re riding Jolly Rancher Remix.
The “new” rollercoaster, a rehaul of the popular “Sidewinder” coaster, features a bright green and blue color scheme and a revolving playlist of songs. For each ride, there are five different ride flavors that you might encounter, coordinating with the main Jolly Rancher flavors such as watermelon or blue raspberry. The flavor is important, because riders will pass through a small tunnel mid-ride that billows out flavored fog and lights corresponding with different flavors.
At the foot of Jolly Rancher Remix is a new family-friendly ride, Mix’d Flavored by Jolly Rancher. Far from an easygoing teacup ride, Mix’d spins riders 360 degrees forwards and backwards in an interlocking puzzle of cars.
Hersheypark gave members of the media and special guests access to the rides on Thursday.
When these two rides open to the public on May 28, it will inaugurate a sort of unofficial Summer of Jolly Ranchers for the park. On Thursday’s media day to promote the opening of the fresh rides, a new mascot, the aptly named “Jolly Rancher,” was on hand to groove to the rollercoaster’s booming new sound system, decked in headphones and DJ wear.
As a lifelong appreciator of coasters near and far, I was of course very familiar with Jolly Rancher’s Remix’s previous life as the Sidewinder. However, you can ride a rollercoaster a thousand times, but the day’s first ride is always going to be a fresh experience. For those unfamiliar, the coaster begins with a slow lurch backwards, and then up.
I rode Jolly Rancher Remix in both the front and back cars, and each time, that lurch felt intense.
The ride goes up over 100 feet in the air, at an angle that instantly had me pressing my feet forward in the car to stay somewhat upright. My first ride featured a soundtrack of four on-the-floor dance music (as compared to other songs, which range from acoustic pop to punk pop to what sounds like a royalty-free Portugal. The Man soundalike), which featured a perfect sync up of the music cutting out and a voice saying “Time to drop the beat!” as the coaster cars began their fast descent.
Over the coaster’s 90 second run time, riders will go a max speed of 47 miles per hour and experience six inversions.
With the speed, it’s almost difficult to enjoy the foggy tunnel portion of the ride, but you do get two chances. The fog does vaguely smell and taste like Jolly Ranchers, though I found my eyes widening at the sight of what appears to be smoke billowing from a rollercoaster. When it’s over, the added razzle dazzle of the ride does make it feel like an improvement over the Sidewinder, a ride that I previously considered most useful for triggering heart palpitations. According to Hershey Director of PR Quinn Bryner, the ride has also received some under-the-hood upgrades recently, including new brakes.
But if rollercoasters aren’t your thing and you still want to experience that general Jolly Rancher feeling, fear not – Mix’d by Jolly Ranchers is but a few yards away.
Seemingly working off the gears in the center of the attraction, Mix’d features eight cars that spin both in a clockwise circle, but also frontwards and then backwards at a surprisingly fast speed. Having eaten nothing but a fig bar before arriving at the park, I could feel it doing a full 360 in my stomach during the ride. With its opening facing a large eating area, there’s a feeling of being on display that all but forced me to wave to several gawking strangers below.
Since its invention nearly 73 years ago, the humble Jolly Rancher has been a source of both sweetness and a certain hardiness that is difficult to come by in candy. Much like the candy, the two new Jolly Rancher-themed rides will remain in your mind long after the actual experience has subsided.
