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Hersheypark (HP) Discussion Thread


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Our HP trip was during early June (6th-8th, I believe) and it was on a Tues-Wed.

 

and yeah, pretty much EVERYTHING (other than Fahrenheit) was a walk on -- including the amazing Storm Runner

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If i were to visit hershey in very early June, are the crowds gonna be light? I did my research and schools are still in session up there during this week, the majority of time i'll be in park will be monday though wednesday. Will all rides be walk-on?

 

We went to Hershey for 3 days in mid June 2015 during the week and most rides were a walk on. We stayed at the Hershey Lodge and got the early entry, which was basically an hour of ERT each morning. We were able to get multiple rides on the 3 coasters they have open (Skyrush, SDL, and Comet), and most of the time we just stayed in our seats for re-rides. Laff Track had the longest consistent line of about 45-60 min, but we rode it 2-3 times each morning at the 10am rope drop and never waited more than 20 min. Even Fahrenheit wasn't too bad, the longest we waited for it was about 25 min. I would also recommend doing the free preview the night before using your tickets. The park was open to 10pm every night but seemed to really clear out about 8pm.

Edited by VegasBaby
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My family is doing a family reunion in New Jersey the last weekend of July, and we'd like to go to Hersheypark on Thursday, July 28. Some of us may also go on Wednesday, July 27, even if it's just for the water park. Is it pretty crowded during the week in late July? The property hotels were all booked, and according to the person on the phone it's because of a cheerleading competition that week/weekend, but we were unable to find this anywhere online. Does anyone know anything about that and how much it affects crowds? Any advice for families (a lot of the families coming have small children, ages 1-10) and how to go about the park would also be really appreciated!

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My family is doing a family reunion in New Jersey the last weekend of July, and we'd like to go to Hersheypark on Thursday, July 28. Some of us may also go on Wednesday, July 27, even if it's just for the water park. Is it pretty crowded during the week in late July? The property hotels were all booked, and according to the person on the phone it's because of a cheerleading competition that week/weekend, but we were unable to find this anywhere online. Does anyone know anything about that and how much it affects crowds? Any advice for families (a lot of the families coming have small children, ages 1-10) and how to go about the park would also be really appreciated!

 

Hershey Lodge is HUGE. . . if it was completely booked? I'd be concerned about crowds.

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My family is doing a family reunion in New Jersey the last weekend of July, and we'd like to go to Hersheypark on Thursday, July 28. Some of us may also go on Wednesday, July 27, even if it's just for the water park. Is it pretty crowded during the week in late July? The property hotels were all booked, and according to the person on the phone it's because of a cheerleading competition that week/weekend, but we were unable to find this anywhere online. Does anyone know anything about that and how much it affects crowds? Any advice for families (a lot of the families coming have small children, ages 1-10) and how to go about the park would also be really appreciated!

 

Hershey Lodge is HUGE. . . if it was completely booked? I'd be concerned about crowds.

 

I misunderstood. I guess my sister was looking for a suite and they were all booked out of those. It looks like they have regular rooms available.

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My family is doing a family reunion in New Jersey the last weekend of July, and we'd like to go to Hersheypark on Thursday, July 28. Some of us may also go on Wednesday, July 27, even if it's just for the water park. Is it pretty crowded during the week in late July? The property hotels were all booked, and according to the person on the phone it's because of a cheerleading competition that week/weekend, but we were unable to find this anywhere online. Does anyone know anything about that and how much it affects crowds? Any advice for families (a lot of the families coming have small children, ages 1-10) and how to go about the park would also be really appreciated!

 

Hershey Lodge is HUGE. . . if it was completely booked? I'd be concerned about crowds.

 

I misunderstood. I guess my sister was looking for a suite and they were all booked out of those. It looks like they have regular rooms available.

 

the regular rooms are a good size ..she should look into those.

 

our room only had a King bed, but we could have easily fit two rollaways in the room if we had needed to.

 

(and the extra hour benefit of staying on property -- not to mention the free shuttle (no parking fee, and they drop near the front gate!) made it very much worth it to stay.

 

We were there on a fairly quiet week (think we and one other couple were the only ones staying in our wing -- we had asked for "away from kids if possible" -- and the indoor pool was still PACKED.. so they definitely need that pool improvement up there!

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^ Ah, I wasn't aware that Hersheypark had early access to rides for resort guests. Thanks for the info about Hershey Lodge. What about the park? Anything we should know beforehand or times of day to hit specific rides? I think it has been at least 20 years since any of us have been back there. I personally haven't ridden anything besides Trailblazer and SooperDooperLooper (my first coaster).

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^ Ah, I wasn't aware that Hersheypark had early access to rides for resort guests. Thanks for the info about Hershey Lodge. What about the park? Anything we should know beforehand or times of day to hit specific rides? I think it has been at least 20 years since any of us have been back there. I personally haven't ridden anything besides Trailblazer and SooperDooperLooper (my first coaster).

 

early entry too, but there's also actually an extra hour the day before your park tickets.. .so at the end of the day, when the crowds die down anyways.

 

On site guests get to go into the park 3 hours before closing, instead of the 2 hour before closing that the GP gets with next day tickets.

 

we made great use of it, and didn't even take the full 3 hours to ride everything we wanted to do (things we knew would have longer lines the next day).

 

we went from the Lodge to the park via shuttle around 3pm, and spent a few hours in Chocolate World (outside the gates) doing activities there -- making our own candy bar, trolley tour around downtown Hershey, the chocolate ride, etc. .and then just went to main gate at 6pm to get in for our early admission the night before (park closed at 9pm that day I believe)

 

after getting so much in the night before, we didn't even bother with getting up early the next day, and just went after eating breakfast

Edited by bert425
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as to rides, don't miss the Whip (even tho it runs a short cycle), and Lightning Racer -- a super smooth racing woodie next to each other way back past the waterpark.

 

I would say also do not miss StormRunner (it's awesome), tho you can skip the flashback style coaster next to it - still hurts, even with the better cars.

 

Great Bear, Log Flume, SDL, Skyrush, and Comet are all right next to each other in the "Hollow" section, and Skyrush (which I hated, but others seem to like) had a long line early in the day, but was walk on in the afternoon.

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^ Ah, I wasn't aware that Hersheypark had early access to rides for resort guests. Thanks for the info about Hershey Lodge. What about the park? Anything we should know beforehand or times of day to hit specific rides? I think it has been at least 20 years since any of us have been back there. I personally haven't ridden anything besides Trailblazer and SooperDooperLooper (my first coaster).

 

The early entry gets you into the park 1 hour early (typically 9am) and there are 3 coasters open: Skyrush, SDL, and Comet. You should be able to get multiple rides on each of these before the 10am rope drop to the rest of the park. When we went last year, Laff Track had the longest lines at 45-60 min in the middle of the day (we went in mid-June). We would head to Laff Track at the rope drop and ride it 2-3 times before the line got crazy (it was my 5 yr old's favorite ride). We would then hit up Lightning Racer and Wildcat (both walk-ons) while we were in that area of the park. We then made our way to Fahrenheit and Storm Runner and hit those before lunch. After lunch we just made our way around the park hitting up the rest of the rides. The Hersheypark app is extremely helpful with wait times and directions, so I would definitely suggest downloading it.

 

Hershey Chocolate World is right outside the park and has a food court with lots of selections, so we ate dinner there each night. The park seemed to really die out after 8pm each night (park was open until 10pm), so we would come back and get night rides on Skyrush, Fahrenheit, and Storm Runner with minimal lines. If it's a warm day, you can count on the waterpark being very busy. The big slides were typically 30-40 min waits during our stay, so you may want to hit those up early as well.

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The early entry gets you into the park 1 hour early (typically 9am) and there are 3 coasters open: Skyrush, SDL, and Comet. You should be able to get multiple rides on each of these before the 10am rope drop to the rest of the park. When we went last year, Laff Track had the longest lines at 45-60 min in the middle of the day (we went in mid-June). We would head to Laff Track at the rope drop and ride it 2-3 times before the line got crazy (it was my 5 yr old's favorite ride). We would then hit up Lightning Racer and Wildcat (both walk-ons) while we were in that area of the park. We then made our way to Fahrenheit and Storm Runner and hit those before lunch. After lunch we just made our way around the park hitting up the rest of the rides. The Hersheypark app is extremely helpful with wait times and directions, so I would definitely suggest downloading it.

This almost exactly mirrors my own experience. Early entry is a wonderful thing, take full advantage of it if you're staying on-site. Laff Trakk is a fun one-and-done for the most part, and the funhouse mirrors in the queue are a nice touch to pass the time. Due to the limited capacity of the trains the Fahrenheit line fills up fast and is slow-moving; I'd definitely recommend trying to take care of that one as early in the day as possible.

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The early entry gets you into the park 1 hour early (typically 9am) and there are 3 coasters open: Skyrush, SDL, and Comet. You should be able to get multiple rides on each of these before the 10am rope drop to the rest of the park. When we went last year, Laff Track had the longest lines at 45-60 min in the middle of the day (we went in mid-June). We would head to Laff Track at the rope drop and ride it 2-3 times before the line got crazy (it was my 5 yr old's favorite ride). We would then hit up Lightning Racer and Wildcat (both walk-ons) while we were in that area of the park. We then made our way to Fahrenheit and Storm Runner and hit those before lunch. After lunch we just made our way around the park hitting up the rest of the rides. The Hersheypark app is extremely helpful with wait times and directions, so I would definitely suggest downloading it.

This almost exactly mirrors my own experience. Early entry is a wonderful thing, take full advantage of it if you're staying on-site. Laff Trakk is a fun one-and-done for the most part, and the funhouse mirrors in the queue are a nice touch to pass the time. Due to the limited capacity of the trains the Fahrenheit line fills up fast and is slow-moving; I'd definitely recommend trying to take care of that one as early in the day as possible.

 

+1. This is the best advice you could receive. I did the same thing last year when staying onsite at the Hershey Lodge. Early entry is the best way to get multiple re-rides on the coasters near the entrance (SKYRUSH FTW), then head immediately back to the rear of the park to get re-rides on those rides while the rest of the crowd meanders through.

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If you'd like to see a small update on my Hersheypark NL2 park you can see it here

www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=70995&start=20

Also, with Great Adventures success with their Christmas event, and Hershey seemed to fair well from upgrading theirs, does anyone see them expanding even more with Candylane? The temperatures were mostly in the high 40's throughout the event. That approximatly matches Springtime in the park temperatures where they have all roller plasters operating.

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If you'd like to see a small update on my Hersheypark NL2 park you can see it here

www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=70995&start=20

Also, with Great Adventures success with their Christmas event, and Hershey seemed to fair well from upgrading theirs, does anyone see them expanding even more with Candylane? The temperatures were mostly in the high 40's throughout the event. That approximatly matches Springtime in the park temperatures where they have all roller plasters operating.

 

I think if parks start expanding various holiday events they will soon have to start sacrificing quality for quantity. They need to have enough time for off-season construction and maintenance of the park and rides. There is a lot of stuff that needs to be worked on or rehabbed in order to make the summer months run smoothly.

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^Exactly my thought. I know Hershey especially takes their off-season very seriously so downtime is minimal during the main operating season. I can't imagine them cutting their off-season nearly more than in half just to have more coasters open for Candylane

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Speaking of off-season, I went out and checked out what was happening around town. They are really starting to get into building that new road for Park Blvd and some work seems to be going on at the Tour Ride in Chocolate World. At the Hershey Story Museum, Cafe Zooka is out and The Pantry Cafe is in, which serves quite a few fresh sandwiches and flatbread options. The also serve breakfast as well and have quite a few awesome-looking dessert items!

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A set of doors were added to the hallway around the corner from the timeline in the queue. This hallway looks like it will be re-painted.

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While exiting the ride, this was built behind the turntable next to the accessiblity entrance for the ride.

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In town Cafe Zooka is no more and The Pantry is now open! It is owned by the same people who own Hershey Pantry.

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The desserts look awesome!

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The fenced in lot for the Hershey Company on Park Blvd is no more. The new road will travel right through the middle of it.

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Down next to the security gate for Skyrush, it looks like some utility digging is going on.

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