Even when I’m at Hersheypark, whenever I hear someone say “the claw,” I immediately think of those little, green aliens from Toy Story. While Toy Story is an undeniably great movie franchise, this still shocks me since the Claw is an incredible flat ride. Not only is it the best flat ride Hersheypark has to offer, but it is also my favorite version of these Frisbee style attractions. Located in Music Box Way, the Claw looks great. Not only does the ride sport a fresh paint scheme that really seems to fit in with the area, but at night the ride really comes alive thanks to an incredible light package mounted on the arm. Watching the Claw spin and swing back and forth at night with those lights really makes for some cool photo opportunities. Being Hersheypark’s most popular flat ride, understandably the Claw often has the longest wait of Hersheypark’s flats. However, that still doesn’t translate to all that bad of a wait. Typically, the Claw’s line is around 15 minutes in length thanks to its pretty high capacity of 32 riders per cycle. Additionally, loading is fairly fast thanks to riders being restrained only by an over-the-shoulder restraint. While I personally prefer the added sense of security from the redundant seatbelt, its absence definitely speeds up loading. Eventually the Claw begins to spin and slowly rock back and forth. Unlike the standard Huss Frisbees, this Chance Morgan model relies more on the swinging aspect rather than the spinning aspect. As a result, the spinning isn’t particularly disorienting or thrilling. Instead, its purpose is to give all riders opportunities to experience the swings at their highest points. After about 30 seconds or so of slow swinging, the Claw really kicks it into high gear and the forcing swinging commences. Not only do these swings produce some powerful Gs on the downswings, but the upswings produce some incredible floater air as well. In total, there are about 10 of these full swings. In particular, for four of five of the swings, the arm goes beyond a 90 degree angle. Because of the added height, the floater air is sustained for a good 2-3 seconds on these swings and the Gs are even more powerful on the downswings. Overall, the Claw is my favorite version of this type of attraction. Not only does the swinging have an excellent combination of floater air and positive Gs, but the ride’s cycle is quite long as well. I personally feel that Palace Playland’s Adrenalin (a Technical Park model) is stronger; however, that one has a far shorter cycle. Not only is the Claw Hersheypark’s best flat ride, but it is also better than several of their roller coasters such as the Wildcat and Wild Mouse. Since the Claw is one of Hersheypark’s best attractions, I highly recommend giving this a ride or two.

A fine ride, but fairly typical. The sensation the ride produces is very tickling. Some children may be frightened when the floor falls away, but most should be able to handle it. Adults will have a fun time. Nice thrill.

Fun frisbee style ride thats certainly better than its counterpart at Dorney. The Claw has a high capacity and the spinning on this one was decent. The swinging was what really won me over as there was some strong Gs at the bottom of the swings and a little floater air at the top of the swings. Also, this had a fairly short duration.

The Claw is an inverted frisbee-type ride. I was dragged on this thing against my will, and I thought Id hate it, as a similar ride at SFNE made me sicker than Ive been in my entire life, but it wasnt that bad; it swing back-and-forth more than it spun around, and for me thats a good thing.

The Claw was a good flat ride, no doubt, but wasnt great. I have only been on one other pendulum, Freak Out, at Ocean City, Maryland, which is a similar looking ride. Although Claw seemed a lot more comfortable than Freak Out, I didnt get as much floater air on Claw. It was kind of annoying because I kept seeing people sitting across from me floating out of their seats, but I wasnt! Perhaps it was just a bad cycle, because I only got one ride. Overall, it was a pleasent experience with some good speed and intensity (especially for a flat), but I would have liked some more airtime to make it really great. I also really like all the wind that rushes by you on these rides.

This one didnt have the powerful swing or spinning intensity of other rides of this type that I have ridden. I generally think that this is a good ride, but not excellent.

I thought that this was a fairly good ride, but it wasnt anything extraordinary for me. Maybe it was just because I had chosen the worst possible seat on the ride... It was a simply amazing feeling to drop down toward the ground after being at the very top of the spin, but I basically only experienced that feeling once or twice throughout the entire ride. It seemed as though I was at the bottom of the rides spin for more than half of the ride. The best part was feeling like my restraints were going to fly off during the climax of the ride. Maybe I will have a better experience the next time that I go on this ride, but for now, based on my initial ride experience, it gets a 7.

One of my favorite rides. It was so much fun. I laughed so much. Good airtime. Doesnt get your dizzy. It just really fun and entertaining. To bad its not longer.

This type of ride has immense potential, but this one didnt live up to it. The ride has a fairly large seating capacity at 32 I believe. It spins reasonably rapidly but that speed may detract from the effect, and doesnt go much beyond the horizontal. Ride cycle is fairly short, perhaps due to the extended length of the queue line. The swing rate and spin rate seemed to be badly timed, so that on the high point of each swing I was facing down, while my friend on the opposite side was always facing up. It was good for me, but it could really reduce the pleasure of someone in a less fortunate seat. Overall, it isnt as tall, doesnt go at as much of an angle or as high, or have the ideal spin rate like Freak-Out at little Trimpers down in Ocean City, MD. Id love half points here - a 7 is too low and an 8 is too high.

I thought it was pretty good for my first one but now living in ohio with delirium its a bust but its good to start out the wusses on!