Rollersoaker was only fun when other people interacted with the ride from below. It was great at the beginning, but as it aged the pressure decreased and participation from other guests off the ride decreased. often the water effects would either not happen because of that decreased pressure or because no one was on the floor to activate them. Also sometimes the water wouldn’t even reach high enough to get riders wet! Sometimes when I went on it at the end of it’s life I would hardly get splashed.
Two rungs past the breaking area on the Carowinds model was the perfect time to hit the geyser button. The first blast of water would shoot up, with the second blast holding it in place for the incoming car to not only crash into, but especially to see it coming. One vacation, me and my siblings rotated through the line of kids and we made sure everyone knew where the sweetspot was. Oh man, it was a good day I remember fondly. One of my favorite coasters and it breaks my heart it is gone
Oh man I remember it always had insanely long wait times in the summer because of the low riders per hour. And of course it was the most fun way to cool off!
Roller Soaker was one of the only 2 “roller coasters” I ever rode at Hershey Park. My dad took me on sooperdooperlooper as a kid and I was mortified of trying anything else than Roller Soaker and Trailblazer. Definitely a fun time, I was super upset when I went one year and it was gone :(
I remember being a middle schooler, standing under the Super Saturator in the middle of summer... being missed by every passing rider. But I didn't miss with the cannons 😜
I feel like If they took these swing coasters and pushed terrain they could be really awesome. The track is a pretty small footprint for bracing and it’s such an open car if you built it on a hillside like at Dollywood it could be a really Breath taking ride
When I was 6 or 7, I remember riding the Hershey coaster with my family. It was one of those memories that where not significant but I could remember so clearly and it really stands out. A year later we went to universal and I got to ride the Jurassic park swing coaster, I only just heard from this that it’s no longer there, what a shame.
I went away to boarding school for a year and when I came back I realized these types of videos were way more popular. Thank you Sam for educating all of us during these times
Nintendo should make a Splatoon version of this, somewhere like Spain, or an equally hot country. I couldn't tell you how much I'd ride a water coaster like this, even up here in Denmark. Summers are getting worse to bear.
"wow, what a craetive rollercoaster, what are we doing with it for next season" "We're replacing it with something boring, John" "isn't that like bulldozing a funfair to build a car park?" "People won't be happy" "no they'll only THINK they're unhappy" "I think I'm gonna work at Six Flaggs, K?"
Hehe it meeee! I’m a Pteranodon!! I wish we had the Canopy Flyer at our Universal! Also I agree w others, they should have marketed it as a water ride, not a roller coaster. A “flying water ride” is all they needed to say for any of these. 💦 also I wanna go to Hershey Park!!!!
We went to the Roller Soaker when it opened and waited in line for hours. I’m sorry - it was such a cool idea but I remember my sister and I being so disappointed by how boring the coaster was that we cried after waiting all that time, haha. Waiting in line was more fun.
I could so clearly remember a Nickelodeon coaster that you got to shoot water at, but couldn't remember where it was for the life of me. Carowinds! Thank you for bringing back childhood memories.
9:06 Must be a typo? The real lenght is 1,300ft so they added an extra zero. Still, I can't imagine proofreading that and being like "yep, that sounds right". There's no ride in hell, heaven or earth that's 4 km long! : D
Those promo videos make the ride look like so much fun, I'm bummed I missed out on them. I rode Canopy Flyer, and it's an ok ride. I'm just glad I didn't have to sneak past a maximum height requirement like I did on Pteranodon Flyers.
I always love references to Hershey park. That was my home park while growing up in Hanover, PA. My great grandmother worked at the Hershey orphanage for many years. My grandfather recalls riding The Comet as a child. I remember the thrills of the super dooper looper as a kid and the chocolate they gave after riding the chocolate themed dark ride called “Hershey’s Chocolate World.” Ahhhhhh, Hershey, from their chocolate to their park, has been a staple in my family for years.
If these kinds of coasters were built a little more thrilling and actually inside water parks (not thrown in around or in regular parks) I think there was more potentional. Sadly, this one wasn't really happening and I feel they went over the top with endless saturation elements to the point where you couldn't get in or stand in line without getting dretched or feeling like it was raining on you. "Over-saturation." Hershey's was so random and when they built up the waterpark it'd lost so much traction, I think it was too much overall, and not the right marketing. Then again, I personally don't get why waterparks don't get river rapids rides or log flumes either, especially with so many regular parks removing them especially in the recent decade.
There's a water park about 2 hours from Carowinds that had a similar attraction, however it didn't last more than 3 years. Most water parks aren't equipped to handle the maintenance for a roller coaster so I doubt these would be viable at anything other than larger water parks.
Man it's so surreal to see you doing a video on one of my childhood favorites. It's so nostalgic to see footage of it after all these years. Super Saturator was great, I remember trying to soak people as they walked by. We always had the most luck hitting people when we dropped the water at the curve at 7:48. The ride was always long, but it was worth it. Unfortunately during its last few years, even on the hot days when it should've been running, the water part often wasn't working. Sometimes, the ride was completely down and you couldn't ride it at all. It had a lot of downtime towards the end, which could've been another reason it was removed. Not as many people wanted to ride it when the water part wasn't working, especially when the water park was just a few feet away, since they could just walk there to cool off instead.
Seeing the old Hersheypark map is a major throwback, it is nice to see more rides come in that get loads of foot traffic to replace the Canyon River Rapids and Roller Soaker. It is sad that it was the only ride in the park that got named by someone other than The Hershey Entertainment Company and ended up leaving the park.
I remember this ride! My kids went on it and loved it. It was my daughter's favorite ride and she rode it several times with her dad at Carrowinds in N.Carolina.
I remember using the ground interaction stations to mess with the people on the coaster at hershey park. I didn't know they could drop water on me until it was too late the first time haha... I was pretty young and didn't really notice it could do that. It was a good time as a kid but later on it just didn't shoot far enough to hit the coaster.
WOAH that new track system at the end WOULD be perfect for donkey Kong mine arts! I really hope the rumour is true, I'd love to see how it looks with theming!
Thank you for this video! I have fond memories of Rollersoaker. Before I truly enjoyed big thrill rides, this was one of the few "coasters" I was willing to go on. My cousins and I would ride and try to dump water on our parents and grandparents. We loved it and were sad to see it go, but the water rides that replaced it are fun too!
I want them to bring this back with even more water elements, imagine the coaster it was over a whole water-playground thing and you got to drop more than one load of water. It's really two attractions in one, a water-park attraction for the people on the ground and a coaster where you get wet for those on it
A small correction, but the LEGOLAND coaster was called the Spellbinder, not the Spellbreaker, and it seems to be mislabeled in some places. I remember it being advertised in LEGO Magazine many years ago, but very little evidence of it remains. I'd love to see an episode on it.
I used to love this ride at carowinds when I was younger! I went to carowinds several times from the years 2005-2007 and then just stopped going. I went again around 2013 and was shocked at how everything had changed. I was supposed to work there this summer but then covid happened :(
As a kid this was my first coaster (and really, my last because heights and dangling feet are not it for me) but I loved standing under it on hot days to get soaked. The day it will removed was such a sad day.
I rode Roller Soaker in 2010 and I remember it being really rough and quite boring. I was surprised to hear mention of a “smooth ride experience” in the video.
I was first introduced to this coaster concept through Roller Coast Tycoon 3 (it was featured in the Soaked expansion) :-D I really hope to ride one in real life one day, whether a park decides to build one in the future or if I ever get to ride the one at Yas Waterworld.
One of these at Volcano Bay would work, it could go through the volcano at one point and have surprise soaking elements. It could also go over the main wave pool where you can drop the water.
So happy to see some history on Carowinds Nickelodeon collab. I loved those rides as a kid. I hope you get a chance to touch on some more of the Carowinds Nickelodeon rides.
All I can think about is the maintenance nightmare coupled with the plumbing and pumping, with fighting corrosion and rust, and having sufficient water resistance lubrication, with all. That. Water.
I can't believe i saw one of these in person as a child. My parents didn't let me use it becaues they thought it was tacky and covered in germs from all the other kids playing with it, but looking back i REALLY regret not using it considering they don't exist anymore.
My brother and I used to go to Hershey all the time and I distinctly remember waiting in line for roller soaker and without fail on every train, despite clear instructions to wait, some doofus would get on and immediately pull the lever and dump all of their water on the station floor and have nothing for the ride. Haha good times!
It’s not everyday my home park gets mentioned! It wasn’t always the most reliable attraction, but man do I miss riding Roller Soaker on a hot day. The removal of Canyon River Rapids always stung more personally - the whole Boardwalk area has never appealed to me.
I just want to say, great job, these videos are all amazing and have so much information. You are like tied with El Toro Ryan Problematic coasters. The best part is you make all of them different which I know is very challenging. Great work.
I'm glad I got the chance to ride both. Both were very fun and very wet. I remember the one at Carowinds being a little better, mainly due to it being lower to the ground and I felt it was more interactive than Hersheypark's.
Guess they built it based on what they thought was going to be the winner, from the polls at the time. Trump winning was... Unexpected, to say the least.
Great video as always Sam, I had the chance to ride the one in Carowinds back in 2007 and it was a very fun family coaster. I always thought one of these would make a perfect addition to Toon Lagoon at IOA themed to Rocky & Bullwinkle and have it interact with Ripsaw Falls.
I got to ride Roller Soaker during my one & only trip to Hershey Park. It was fun, but the line was VERRRY long because of the throughput. My son and I did it once right after the waterpark opened, but the line was too long to get on it again,
I live in Charlotte, NC, and grew up going to Carowinds. The Super Saturator was one of my favorite rides, but walking around wet afterwards was always annoying.
Was lucky enough to ride Roller Soaker, possibly even during its first year in operation, if I remember right. As a kid who wasn't used to coasters yet, it was tame enough that it didn't freak me out, and while it wasn't all that exciting of a coaster ride, the water element really made it stand out in my mind to this day.
This thing was great, the best things were the signs around it that said "you WILL her wet" instead of you might get wet and not releasing the water in the tank until you got back to the station and dumping the water all over the people waiting in the queue to get on it.
I remember the Flying Super Saturator being at Carowinds back in the early-mid 2000s. I never rode it as I was too young, but I remember my brother rode that coaster and he said he felt like he was slipping out of the seat. I miss the Nickelodeon theming, but good riddance to that coaster!
I never even knew the Nickelodeon ride existed! I DID go on the Roller Soaker at Hersheypark, however, and thought it was fun, but kind of a weak experience. Definitely a “one and done” experience, but at least it was pretty inexpensive
I wrote on this ride. I also was one those people that would shoot at people with water cannons from the ground. I went on the ride with my son we had a blast! Was sad hearing? It's no longer an existence..
Omg I knew I wasn't crazy! I remember that roller coaster at Legoland California and I loved it and then it was suddenly gone and my family didn't remember the ride except me! Omg yessss! It was real! Lolololol
im just half way through and they just got to the Hershey park one. I use to go to hershey park all the time and the few times i went on that ride it was really lame. For one the water drops in the seat never worked and was empty, and second you only really got wet if the people below you played along. If not it was like a slow moving tram car
