The Sidewinder is a fun Vekoma boomerang neighboring the massive Storm Runner. Located in Pioneer Frontier in the center area of the park, Sidewinder is a black Vekoma boomerang. With an entrance under the cobra roll, the Sidewinder generally doesnt have a long wait. Its usually less than 10 minutes even with Sidewinders low capacity because it doesnt get too many riders. Riding in a 28 passenger brown train, my favorite seat is the back seat because of the excellent feeling you get during the long first drop. Once you board the train and pull down you black over-the-shoulder restraint, you are checked which takes a while to do. Then, you are slowly hauled up the steep lift hill backwards. When you reach the top, you are instantly dropped down a very good drop. After zooming back through the station, you travel through a rather smooth cobra roll that had some fairly strong forces. Following that was a good vertical loop and then you ride up the second lift hill. Once your at the top, youre dispatched and repeat the course backwards. This time the vertical loop is much better with the powerful Gs entering and exiting the loop. However, the cobra roll is rougher this time with some slight headbanging. You then zoom back through the station, slow down, ending the ride. Overall, a fun Vekoma boomerang overshadowed by Hersheyparks other roller coasters. I recommend this ride to anyone who likes looping coasters or Vekoma boomerangs. The Sidewinder was better than Lake Compounces Zoomerang, the only other Vekoma boomerang I have been on.

Your typical boomerang. Nothing special or unexpected. A pretty average ride with some head banging, as usual.

extremely short line which is wonderful but it is very bumpy. if you read my other reviews you would know that i hate when rides are bumpy!!! This would be a good ride if it wasnt so BUMPY!!! besides that its funny

My first conventional Boomerang. Given that this is an old Vekoma, and that I have never been overly impressed with their Deja Vu creation that I have ridden, I did not have great expectations, except for the fact that a select few individuals have said that they enjoy these. However, it was not at all as bad as I would have thought. It was actually a lot of fun, the roughness wasnt too bad, and the cobra roll in reverse was one of the most dizzying elements I have ever experienced on a coaster. If theyre all like this, they cant be that bad! And while I know that there are some that are certainly better than others, Sidewinder did a good job of not turning me off from riding other installations in the future.

This just sucked in the back seat. Rough, headbanging, whiplashing, and worst, tush bruising after a minor injury at Great Adventure shortly before. The misaligned braking that prevented the attendant from getting the train back into the station so I could get off added further insult to prior injury. Unfortunately it was the last ride of the day, and ended my first Hershey experience on a sour and sore note. I would not be sad to see this go away.

I love Boomerangs! For some reason i just do...

Call me crazy, but I liked this thing (just figured that I would start this off in the traditional boomerang fashion). Sidewinder is an interesting ride to me. I have memories of this thing being a ride of "awe". I know what you are thinking: A Vekoma Boomerang having an "awe" factor? Yes that is right. It may have been installed back in 1991, but even in the early 90s a ride with multiple inversions (3) was something that had a lot of allure to it. Throw in going backwards and people were drawn to this thing. With it, at the time, being only the fourth operating coaster installation (Comet, SooperDooperLooper, Trailblazer), only added to what it brought to the table. These days, not so much going for it. With so many coasters in the park and with Storm Runner being its new neighbor, Sidewinder has drifted into the Land of the Forgotten, although on a very busy day the ride can still hold its own with about a 45 minute wait (which with a one train operation still isnt that many people in line anyway). Most of the time however, it is a relative walk-on eventhough it is in one of the now most populated areas of the park. However those people are preoccupied with the new "awe" of a coaster... Storm Runner. As for the ride itself -for some reason Sidewinder does not seem like the tallest or fastest boomerang out there (eventhough most of them are the same size), but it still delivers a decent ride. The ride is not a good going forwards as the other boomerangs that I have been on (I guess that could be attributed to the speed of the ride) but going backwards is fun and there are some heavy forces that goes along with it. I dont find these coasters to be overly painful or anything like that. I only find this coaster to have one part of headbanging and that is while entering the cobra roll going backwards, and even that isnt that bad. Not a big deal at all. Yet, one place that I do have to look down on the ride these days is the horrible jerk when the train is getting set up to take the ride backwards. The stop and jerk is just jarring. I dont know if that is some age showing, but it is not plesant. Other than that, I like it. It might be the lost soul in a land of coaster manufacturer giants, but the ride still gets my respect.

I sort of like boomerangs for some reason. I didnt find this to be too rough. A pretty good boomerang.

when we went backwards up the first hill i thought i was going to fall out and the hill did not have airtime like i thought it would have. the funnest part of this ride is going backwards inside of the vertical loop

I found Sidewinder to be rougher than the other Boomerangs that I have been on. The best part of the ride, at least for me, was that it was a walk-on right before closing after getting my last Storm Runner ride of the evening in on it. Going through the inversions backwards it still fun, but not enough to make the ride. I orginally planned to skip it, but I then decided that for once I would be a credit junkie.