I rode Hero for the first time a couple of weeks ago. I thought I'd give you a few of my thoughts and a very brief overview.
We went when the ride had it's official opening, so to the left of the ride there was live music, the local radio station and all sorts of celebrations for this new ride. Hype is not the word! I was very impressed to see that the local radio station had even branded its car with Hero vinyls all over it!
So onto the ride itself, you spend around half an hour at the very most in the queue which appears to me to have been done with as much chequer plate as humanly possible within one area. The ride then snakes towards the station with glass partitions with the hero logo keeping riders away from the lift motors. Although bits of this looked like they were unfinished when I went.
You then enter the station, when I visited staff were dressed in white masks and orange capes when we went which was nice to see! It's not as zany and over the top as The Smiler uniform, but it was still nice to see that someone had thought about it.
The ride cars themselves are very hard to describe without photos. Imagine standing on a moving stepladder before a restraint comes and pushes against you. This wasn't a problem for me as I'm fairly average height but for my girlfriend she complained being short that there was no comfortable position. She also complained that it wasn't very comfortable on the chest.
So having seen Air's frankly amazing whirl of motors to get the cars into the flying position I was intrigued to see how Hero's would work? Pulley system? Nope literally the car wheels over a concrete mound into the flying position where you then enter what I can only describe as the lift hill of death. You do physically feel the bump as the car engages with the 'lift paddle'. As soon as you reach the top there's some nice moments where you fly out your seat, but there's no way of bracing.
I also struggled because I was between two rungs on the ladder? I wasn't tall enough for one and I was too short for the other, trying to maneuver during the ride didn't really help. As we entered the inversions I have never felt pain like it! I'd say that it was up with Saw and Colossus with rides that I have to brace for.
So did I enjoy my ride? Nope. Not really it was far too rough, there's no way of getting comfortable and at no point can one adopt the superman pose! What's the point in a flying rollercoaster if you can't adopt the superman pose?
It is a good investment for the park though as other people were enjoying it, and it will bring people in for something new and unique. The problem is there's nothing about the ride to rave about. It's simply fun but rough, fast but tiresome. It's a massive shame because I wanted to prove everyone here wrong and say that I had a good time on it. But yes I eat my hat because everyone here who initially slated it off did so for the exact same reasons I have.
Least with a constantly moving rollercoaster they can't faf around though?
