Great Bear - Hershey, Pennsylvania

Dalton W.

I’m reviewing this now but I rode this definitely around 16 years ago. It was my first real roller coaster ever so 100/10. I’m now 30yo and was just telling my partner about it. We live in Asia now! What good memories. Need to make a trip to PA next time I make it back stateside and take him to a proper Hershey’s experience. Not the one in Singapore.

Ashleigh C.

Over the years Hershey Park has added many roller coasters, but this coaster in my opinion is the best in the park! I love the sensation you get when your feet dangle on this thing. It is very smooth for being over 20 years old and it is very well maintained just as the other coasters here. The front seat is the best seat on this thing. It is a very popular coaster as typically this will be one of the longest wait times. I highly recommend this!

Cece R.

This is one of my favorite rides at Hershey Park. Love the experience of your feet dangling and this roller coaster rides so smoothly! All the corkscrews and the loops are just a fun experience. The wait was long, but the ride was worth it.

Mary C.

This ride makes me very sick but the rest of my family loves it!

Shane H.

Nice coaster. Smooth ride with loops and cool S-turns and corkscrews. Not the fastest, but still fun. The problem with this ride is that no matter how long the wait in line is. The workers constantly send this coaster with half the seats empty. I don't understand why they don't have a single rider line and fill in all the empty seats.

Jonathan C.

Don't sleep on Great Bear. This is one of the better B&M inverts that there are. This ride may be small with the inversion being the only stand out parts, but the whole ride still has a bite.

Eric E.

Great Bear is one of my all time favorite inverted coasters. I haven't ridden Candymonium, but it's currently my favorite coaster at Hersheypark. It's a forceful and well paced coaster with a cool setting.

I think every inverted coaster is better with a helix, and usually that comes at the very end. For Great Bear it happens high in the sky right before the first drop, and it's quite forceful.

The 3 inversions right after the first drop are excellent. Two forceful loops back to back, with one turning you the other way. The zero-g roll is probably my favorite on any invert, as the twist is forceful, whippy, and rapid with no gradual entry or exit into it.

After this the layout gets unconventional again, taking a hill that banks hard left crossing the water on the way down. This is an awesome element which has airtime in the front row on the rise, and strong g forces on the turn on the way down. After this is a straightaway over the water, where you can really feel the ride's speed as you zoom past SooperDooperLooper and you go through keyhole supports for a unique footchopper effect.

For the finale, a hard bank left underneath the monorail, which aggressively then twists to the right into a final corkscrew, followed by a gentle meander over Sooper again into the brake run.

Aside from the great pacing, unique layout, speed, footchoppers, and forceful elements, Great Bear has an awesome setting, either over water, midways, or past other rides. This is the icing on the cake for an amazing coaster.

Robert B.

Great Bear is an excellent roller coaster experience! It's a steel coaster where the cars hang from the track. The ride is super smooth while you're taken through a loop and then a couple spirals that turn you upside down. The ride lasts about 2 minutes, but goes by fast since you are spun around so many different way that it's hard to tell where you are until you get to the end!