The Hersheypark Thread

[jormom1030]

We are going on Sunday. We were there last year after not having visited for a few years and they did a great job with the new front area of the park. We are ride wimps but find there is enough for us to do between there, ZooAmerica, which you get in for free with HP admission, and Chocolate World.

Make sure you go to the seal/sea lion show. The times are 12:00, 1:30, and 4:30.

 

[CynBeth]

Yes the the seal/sea lion show is one of our favorites.

 

[mickey916]

Here's a brief review of our trip on Friday, August 12 with some pointers.

We had an awesome time! We absolutely love this park. It was so clean and ride operators and other team members seemed very happy to be there. There were no ride breakdowns during our visit. Hershey seems to have upped its food game in the park as well. We really enjoyed the whoopie pies with ice cream and it looked like there were lots of other tasty treats we didn't have time to try.

HPGO was a must for us. The lines were very long...some over two hours. We rode every coaster as well as the new Reeses cupfusion and mostly just walked on. The longest wait for us was the first time we rode the Storm Runner which was about 30 minutes but it looks like we got there during a shift change. We ended up riding Great Bear twice, Storm Runner twice, and Lightning Racer three times. 15 total coaster rides, 1 cupfusion and 1 train ride in our eight hour day (subtracted one hour for dinner).

Candymonium and Laff Track were great new additions since our last visit. My boys and I loved Laff Track (and the line was 2.5 hours but we got on in 5 minutes with HPGO). I still think Skyrush is too painful on my thighs and Great Bear is still #1.

Check park hours before you go and especially before you purchase HPGO. I had assumed it was open regular hours like it always has been when we've gone. 9 or 10 am until 11 pm...I purchased the "unlimited" HPGO before checking the hours...come to find out the hours were only 11 am to 8 pm. Had I realized I probably would have saved $ and purchased the once per ride HPGO since we really had very little time to do multiples. Still worth every penny however since we only had one day.

The only downside: The Chocolatier Restaurant was a let down and with limited park hours I kinda wish we hadn't made a reservation. Luckily it only cost us an hour of park time but really wasn't worth it. Our server was excellent though. We ordered the Ferris Wheel Sampler but the kitchen staff accidentally delivered it to the table behind us who didn't say anything and just let them leave it at the table (they didn't eat any of it though). We didn't realize what happened until they brought out our entrees and we asked where our sampler was. Then, we overheard the people behind us asking them to take it off their bill since they didn't order it....why they didn't say something when it was brought out is beyond me...at that point we decided to just eat our entrees rather than have everything at the same time. The server was very apologetic and took it off our bill.

For our entrees we ordered the pulled short rib mac n cheese (2 orders), the take5 chicken sandwich, and the bbq short rib with mashed potatoes. My boys shared the chicken sandwich and one of the mac n cheeses. Here's some pics (I didn't take them until they already split the sandwich).


They said the sandwich was fine but the fries weren't good. My DS-26 said they tasted like they were fried in old oil.

We all thought the mac n cheese was fine. Nothing special.


My DH and I shared the other mac n cheese and short rib dinner. This is a picture of my half. The short rib and mashed potatoes were good. The carrots were practically raw. I had to saw them with the steak knife to get a bite.


Everything tasted fine but nothing that any of us would say was amazing or even different with the added "chocolate"....honestly the chocolate wasn't even noticeable in any of the dishes. Seemed like a missed opportunity and kind of a gimmick.

Overall a great day and still one of our favorite places to visit.

 

[mamamary]

Do you remember the price for skipping the line? I’m going in a few days and I don’t see the price anywhere for the different options. Thx

 

[mickey916]

Do you remember the price for skipping the line? I’m going in a few days and I don’t see the price anywhere for the different options. Thx

It varies by day. Our day was $160/person.

 

[mamamary]

Thanks for the reply.

 

[mickey916]

Thanks for the reply.

Try this link for specific dates/pricing: Hershey Fast Track

 

[CynBeth]

Here's a brief review of our trip on Friday, August 12 with some pointers.

We had an awesome time! We absolutely love this park. It was so clean and ride operators and other team members seemed very happy to be there. There were no ride breakdowns during our visit. Hershey seems to have upped its food game in the park as well. We really enjoyed the whoopie pies with ice cream and it looked like there were lots of other tasty treats we didn't have time to try.

HPGO was a must for us. The lines were very long...some over two hours. We rode every coaster as well as the new Reeses cupfusion and mostly just walked on. The longest wait for us was the first time we rode the Storm Runner which was about 30 minutes but it looks like we got there during a shift change. We ended up riding Great Bear twice, Storm Runner twice, and Lightning Racer three times. 15 total coaster rides, 1 cupfusion and 1 train ride in our eight hour day (subtracted one hour for dinner).

Candymonium and Laff Track were great new additions since our last visit. My boys and I loved Laff Track (and the line was 2.5 hours but we got on in 5 minutes with HPGO). I still think Skyrush is too painful on my thighs and Great Bear is still #1.

Check park hours before you go and especially before you purchase HPGO. I had assumed it was open regular hours like it always has been when we've gone. 9 or 10 am until 11 pm...I purchased the "unlimited" HPGO before checking the hours...come to find out the hours were only 11 am to 8 pm. Had I realized I probably would have saved $ and purchased the once per ride HPGO since we really had very little time to do multiples. Still worth every penny however since we only had one day.

The only downside: The Chocolatier Restaurant was a let down and with limited park hours I kinda wish we hadn't made a reservation. Luckily it only cost us an hour of park time but really wasn't worth it. Our server was excellent though. We ordered the Ferris Wheel Sampler but the kitchen staff accidentally delivered it to the table behind us who didn't say anything and just let them leave it at the table (they didn't eat any of it though). We didn't realize what happened until they brought out our entrees and we asked where our sampler was. Then, we overheard the people behind us asking them to take it off their bill since they didn't order it....why they didn't say something when it was brought out is beyond me...at that point we decided to just eat our entrees rather than have everything at the same time. The server was very apologetic and took it off our bill.

For our entrees we ordered the pulled short rib mac n cheese (2 orders), the take5 chicken sandwich, and the bbq short rib with mashed potatoes. My boys shared the chicken sandwich and one of the mac n cheeses. Here's some pics (I didn't take them until they already split the sandwich).
View attachment 694025

They said the sandwich was fine but the fries weren't good. My DS-26 said they tasted like they were fried in old oil.

We all thought the mac n cheese was fine. Nothing special.
View attachment 694026

My DH and I shared the other mac n cheese and short rib dinner. This is a picture of my half. The short rib and mashed potatoes were good. The carrots were practically raw. I had to saw them with the steak knife to get a bite.
View attachment 694027

Everything tasted fine but nothing that any of us would say was amazing or even different with the added "chocolate"....honestly the chocolate wasn't even noticeable in any of the dishes. Seemed like a missed opportunity and kind of a gimmick.

Overall a great day and still one of our favorite places to visit.

I know what you mean. When we were there for a day trip last summer decided to have lunch at the restaurant when it first opened at 11 am and luckily got seated pretty quickly but it took over an hour. We have a dog at home and don’t have anyone that can walk her so can only be gone 8 hours and it is an hour and a half drive each way so we have a limited amount of time and it took up a lot of it and found the food just ok.

We were there yesterday and had a great time as we always do. We arrived around 9:30 am and spent a little time at Chocolate World where we looked at the store before going on the ride showing you how chocolate is made. Then at 10:30 we decided to get in line for the park. They started letting people who were not resort guests or passholders go in 10 minutes early. There were a lot of people but went pretty quickly. My DH got pulled over to have his bag looked at and I forgot I had his ticket so explained to the person scanning what had happened and she could not have been any nicer saying to wave him over once he finished and he would be all set. We each got the souvenir mug for $20 and change and you could get free refills all day. Luckily we are ride wimps so most of what we go on did not have a long wait and Zoo America did not take very long to walk through. We had lunch at The Overlook Food Court and liked that they had a variety of options which included dairy free for him. We got to do most of what we wanted.

 

[mickey916]

Forgot to post a pic of our dessert at the end of the night Reese's King Size Shake from Simply Chocolate. Absolutely delicious!

 

[Dead2009]

I'm sad I didn't get to get up there to ride Wildcat before they closed it down

 

[LMO429]

Hello are there baby care centers at Hershey if so where are they located ?

 

[Donald Duck Family]

I know what you mean. When we were there for a day trip last summer decided to have lunch at the restaurant when it first opened at 11 am and luckily got seated pretty quickly but it took over an hour. We have a dog at home and don’t have anyone that can walk her so can only be gone 8 hours and it is an hour and a half drive each way so we have a limited amount of time and it took up a lot of it and found the food just ok.

We were there yesterday and had a great time as we always do. We arrived around 9:30 am and spent a little time at Chocolate World where we looked at the store before going on the ride showing you how chocolate is made. Then at 10:30 we decided to get in line for the park. They started letting people who were not resort guests or passholders go in 10 minutes early. There were a lot of people but went pretty quickly. My DH got pulled over to have his bag looked at and I forgot I had his ticket so explained to the person scanning what had happened and she could not have been any nicer saying to wave him over once he finished and he would be all set. We each got the souvenir mug for $20 and change and you could get free refills all day. Luckily we are ride wimps so most of what we go on did not have a long wait and Zoo America did not take very long to walk through. We had lunch at The Overlook Food Court and liked that they had a variety of options which included dairy free for him. We got to do most of what we wanted.

We enjoyed the Overlook food court as well. It had a good variety for all if us to find something.

 

[Donald Duck Family]

We enjoyed The Chocolatier, but were fortunate enough to have reservations on an evening when we weren't at the park so we were able to enjoy a relaxed dinner. I really liked the crispy chicken sandwich.

 

[LMO429]

Two quick questions do the skip the line passes get assigned by name ? We were going to get one for our son who is 7 and just one for my husband and I to split since we have a baby who can’t go on all the rides ? Or do we each have to have our own skip the line pass

Also are there baby care centers at Hershey if so where are they in the parks thank you

 

[mickey916]

Two quick questions do the skip the line passes get assigned by name ? We were going to get one for our son who is 7 and just one for my husband and I to split since we have a baby who can’t go on all the rides ? Or do we each have to have our own skip the line pass

Also are there baby care centers at Hershey if so where are they in the parks thank you

You enter your purchase # and then your initials at the kiosk (think ATM) and it prints out a wristband, presumably so only one person can use it. It works like a magic band and you scan your wristband as you enter each line to prove you have the pass. To share it you'd have to somehow take the wristband off and on, not really sure how feasible that would be. I don't know about baby care centers but Hershey is very family friendly so I'm guessing they would likely have them.

 

[ultraviolet]

Has anyone been to the new Hersheypark Halloween event? I took my daughter to HersheyPark After Dark quite a few years ago and we were completely disappointed as we thought it as going to be a scary Halloween event, but it was geared towards kids. Apparently, it's been revamped and has actual haunted houses and scare zones. Considering a trip out there possibly next weekend with my daughter.

 

[RedAngie]

I'm sad I didn't get to get up there to ride Wildcat before they closed it down

Well, it was a horror movie of a ride, so perhaps you would have enjoyed it.

 

[scjo68]

If we go to Hersheypark during the day, can we walk to the Giant Center that evening for an event there?

 

[disny_luvr]

If we go to Hersheypark during the day, can we walk to the Giant Center that evening for an event there?

Yes, you can walk. You can take the tram from Hersheypark out to the the last drop off location in the parking lot, which happens to be the closet to the Giant Center. From there you just need to walk over the bridge and it’s right there.

 

[scjo68]

Yes, you can walk. You can take the tram from Hersheypark out to the the last drop off location in the parking lot, which happens to be the closet to the Giant Center. From there you just need to walk over the bridge and it’s right there.

Perfect! Thank you!