Hersheypark Docks Tidal Force After 32 Years of Splashes

Hersheypark ran Tidal Force for the last time on September 7, ending 32 years of 100-foot splashdowns on The Boardwalk. The Hopkins Rides shoot-the-chute opened in 1994 as the tallest splashdown of its kind. It dropped boats at speeds exceeding 50 mph and soaked the exit bridge on purpose.

Hersheypark has not said why the ride is gone or what replaces it. Giant shoot-the-chute rides of this vintage have been leaving American parks for years, often on Labor Day, often with the next attraction unnamed.

Tidal Force Took Its Last Drop on Labor Day

The park first told guests on June 9 that the boats would be docked after September 7. The wording was nautical and final. On its Boardwalk page Hersheypark wrote that the final tide goes out on Tidal Force at the end of the 2026 summer season, and asked people to catch the splash one last time.

When a vessel takes its last voyage, we believe it deserves a proper send-off. After 32 years of making the biggest splashes #Hersheypark has seen, we'll dock the boats permanently after Sept. 7.

Grab tickets to splash this summer: https://t.co/fB4CN7Rs4g pic.twitter.com/o7fU9fkrdz

— Hersheypark (@Hersheypark) June 9, 2026

Labor Day was also the last operating day of The Boardwalk’s summer calendar and the close of daily summer hours in the park’s 120th season. The water ride did not linger into fall. Once the boats stopped, the chute’s job for 2026 was over.

TIDAL FORCE AT A GLANCE

• Opened: May 28, 1994, after snow delayed construction.
• Builder: Hopkins Rides, on its Shoot the Chute model.
• Cost: $4 million when the park announced the project in 1993.
• Last public day: September 7, 2026.

The send-off ran all summer. Hersheypark posted 1994 opening photos in August and kept the ride on the Boardwalk map through Labor Day. Fans who wanted one more drop had three months of notice, which is more than some parks give a water ride this old.

Labor Day Closings Across the Chute Circuit

Tidal Force was not an odd one-off. It sat in a class of big, flat-bottomed boats that climb a lift, fall into a lagoon, and throw a wall of water at anyone on the bridge. Parks installed a wave of them in the late 1980s and 1990s. Many of those units are now gone.

The Hopkins Shoot the Chute catalog still counted 19 operating units and 10 closed ones while Tidal Force was running. Subtract Hershey’s boat and that list is 18 still running and 11 closed. Intamin’s taller Mega Splash line went further: all three of those rides have already been removed, including Perilous Plunge at Knott’s Berry Farm in 2012.

GIANT CHUTES THAT ALREADY LEFT

The pattern is blunt. A shoot-the-chute eats a large plot, runs mainly in warm weather, and soaks people who never boarded. A coaster on the same land can run in October. A modern slide complex can pack more riders into the same footprint. Parks that still want a 100-foot wet drop now tend to buy a longer flume with a story in front of the splash, not a straight up-and-down Hopkins tower from 1994.

A Wave Threw a Teen Six Feet

The splash was the product. It was also the first thing Hersheypark had to fix. On May 30, 1994, two days after opening day, a wave from a descending boat hurled 16-year-old Rob Muth six feet across the exit bridge and into a metal fence. He needed nine stitches in his forehead and hurt his right wrist.

There is no question that the safety of our guests is our primary and paramount concern. Our safety record speaks for itself in this industry and we’re very proud of that.

Jay Feaster, Hersheypark spokesman, June 1994

Park officials redirected the wave so it would fall on people after it had crested, instead of hitting them head-on. Guests could still stand on the bridge and get wet. That was the point. The difference was the angle of the hit.

Anyone who rode it later knew the deal. Clothes, shoes, and whatever sat in a pocket came off the boat heavier than they went on. The bridge crowd lined up for that on purpose on hot days. The same feature that sold the ride in 1994 is the feature regional parks have been quietly retiring, because a guaranteed soak is a thrill for some guests and a complaint for everyone standing behind them.

What Still Runs on The Boardwalk

Tidal Force sat on the west side of The Boardwalk, Hersheypark’s 11-acre water park inside the main gates. A 2026 park guide listed 17 water attractions there, open May 24 through September 7, and included in regular admission. The chute was the tall wet drop. It was not the only way to get soaked.

BOARDWALK RIDES THAT OUTLASTED THE CHUTE

• Breakers Edge: A hydromagnetic water coaster with open turns and high-speed tunnels.
• Whitecap Racer: Six-lane mat racers with times posted on a big board.
• Coastline Plunge: Six tube slides (Hydro, Pipeline, Riptide, Surge, Vortex, Whirlwind) ending in a pool.
• The Shore: A 378,000-gallon wave pool, part of about 1 million gallons of water on The Boardwalk.
• Intercoastal Waterway: A 1,360-foot lazy river about 2 feet deep.
• East Coast Waterworks: Seven slides, nearly 600 water gadgets, and a 1,000-gallon tipping bucket.

In 2026 the park also opened two play zones at Bayside Pier, The Inlet and The Island, with 45 water gadgets and 10-foot palms that dump buckets. Those additions already showed where Hershey is putting Boardwalk money: family splash pads, not another 100-foot boat.

Regulars have guessed the empty chute plot will grow the water park, add lockers and changing rooms, or take a year-round ride that can still soak people in July. Hersheypark has only said it will share plans when it is ready. Until then the western edge of The Boardwalk is a hole with a famous name on it.

The Same Script Played Out at Cedar Point

Two Labor Days earlier, Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio, ran the same play. Snake River Falls, an Arrow Dynamics shoot-the-chute that opened in 1993, took its last public boats on September 2, 2024. The park said the 82-foot, 40 mph ride was coming out to make way for future expansion, and that it would not say what that expansion was yet.

Into the 2026 season, Cedar Point still had not put a new marquee ride on that plot. The 2026 preview talked about a tilt coaster that had already opened, coffee-stand remodels, and restrooms. The former chute land stayed in the “later” column. That is the useful comparison for Hershey guests staring at Tidal Force’s empty channel: a Labor Day goodbye does not guarantee a 2027 opening next door.

Hersheypark is a tighter campus than Cedar Point’s peninsula, and The Boardwalk is already a full water park rather than a single wet ride in a dry themed land. If the chute pad becomes more slides and shade, the wait could be shorter than a coaster cycle. If it becomes a major steel ride, guests should not expect to sit in it next summer.

Two Chutes in Pennsylvania Outlived Hershey’s Boat

Pennsylvania did not lose every boat of this type on September 7. Kennywood in West Mifflin still runs Pittsburg Plunge, a Hopkins Shoot the Chute that opened in 1995. Knoebels in Elysburg still runs Sklooosh, another Hopkins unit from 1997. Both are shorter on spectacle than Hershey’s 100-foot tower was, and both still sell the same joke: stand on the bridge if you want to get wet.

Mile High Falls at Kentucky Kingdom opened the same year as Tidal Force and is still on the Hopkins operating list. Valleyfair’s The Wave dates to 1992. Canobie Lake Park’s Boston Tea Party opened in 1998. The product line is discontinued, but it is not extinct. What is getting rare is the record-chasing 100-foot version in a park that also runs a dense coaster lineup and a paid Halloween night.

Hersheypark already has Coal Cracker, a separate flume, plus the Boardwalk slides. Losing Tidal Force removes the park’s loudest splash, not its last wet ride. For families who planned the day around that one drop, the hole is still real. For the park’s summer capacity, the remaining slides and the wave pool carry more people per hour than a 20-seat boat climbing a lift.

Halloween Opens September 12 With the Park Still Running

After Labor Day, a headline about the summer shutdown traveled as if the whole park had died. Hersheypark spent September 8 and 9 putting that out. The official account replied that Hersheypark is still in its 120th season, that one water attraction had closed after Labor Day, and that Halloween would start the following weekend.

We want to clarify any confusion around this headline. Tidal Force, a water ride, closed after 32 years on Labor Day. Hersheypark remains open for our 120th season with Halloween on Sept. 12 and Christmas Candylane on Nov. 13. We look forward to sweet memories for years to come!

— Hersheypark (@Hersheypark) September 9, 2026

On September 9 the park posted a fuller note: Tidal Force closed after 32 years on Labor Day, Hersheypark remains open, Halloween begins September 12, and Christmas Candylane begins November 13. The correction should not have been necessary. The ride is gone. The gates are not.

Halloween is scheduled on weekends September 12 through November 1, with five haunted houses and five scare zones for Dark Nights, plus a Hershey’s Trick or Treat Trail with 14 stops for children 12 and under. Pick-your-day Halloween tickets were listed from $36.99. The Boardwalk’s wave pool area is even on the candy trail’s route, which is a dry walk now that the boats are docked.

The chute’s lift hill will come down on some future work calendar Hersheypark has not published. Until the cranes show up, guests walking that edge of The Boardwalk will see a 1994 splash machine that has already taken its last drop, in a park that is already selling October nights.

Frequently Asked Questions

When Did Tidal Force Open at Hersheypark?

Hersheypark announced the ride in October 1993, with groundbreaking expected on December 1 and an opening aimed at May 7, 1994. Snow slowed construction, and the first public boats ran on May 28, 1994, over Memorial Day weekend, a few weeks after the rest of the park had opened for that season.

How Many Riders Fit in a Tidal Force Boat?

Each boat held 20 people. The posted height rule was 42 inches. That is a wide, slow-loading vehicle compared with a coaster train, which is one reason parks now treat a giant shoot-the-chute as expensive land for the number of riders it moves on a summer afternoon.

How Long Were Typical Waits for Tidal Force?

Wait records compiled by Thrill Data put the average around 21 minutes, with an all-time peak of 135 minutes. Morning was the better window, with the shortest typical waits near 11 a.m. Those figures are now a closed record, because the boats are not coming back.

When Did Hersheypark First Change the Splash?

After the May 30, 1994, bridge injury, officials said that incident and two similar ones led them to redirect the wave. People who still chose to stand on the exit bridge would be hit by water after it had crested, not by a wall striking them head-on. The soak stayed. The aim of the hit changed.