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This is why I'll continue to visit Hershey during HPITD. Crowds are totally manageable not to mention the park is so nice in autumn weather.

 

Yeah, you've totally sold me on that, it was awesome. It's a great alternative to the other parks in the region that are insanely busy on those days, plus they totally won me over when they added Coal Cracker to the HPITD lineup.

 

The only thing is if you are looking for a real deal Halloween event, HPITD is not it. And I'm not so it works for me. If you want to hit up a park that time of year where the masses aren't lined up for the coasters, Hershey is the place to be. Love the colorful trees against the parks coasters and rides. That we were walking on to the front of Skyrush at the end of the day was just the icing.

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Thanks for the feedback on the line skip program. It's something I'll still look into, but hopefully won't need. I'm looking at visiting the park the last Friday in April, for the locals on here, what are crowds usually like around that time?? Thanks again!

 

Our schools are still in session. My kids don't have off that day so I'm going to assume that the other districts also don't have off. Crowds shouldn't be terrible unless there is an event at the stadium. I happened to go during a high school band festival last year and it was awful. Just check the Hersheypark Stadium schedule to make sure.

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I purchased the line skipper on my only trip to the park. A friend and I were visiting thanks to his company picnic and we didn't pay for admission so we saw a nice value in paying for this. TBH it was busy enough that day we wouldn't have ridden everything if we didn't purchase it.

 

This was during the 2015 season so please correct me if it has changed, but it was good for 1 ride on each coaster. The coasters had assigned times, you couldn't use it before the scheduled time, but you could use it any time after. It was basically 1 ride every 30-60 minutes. Each coaster did have assigned seats which I was okay with. It did annoy me though that they weren't filling those seats on cycles in which line skippers weren't present. Basically letting 2-4 seats go empty on each cycle.

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Maybe I just got lucky, but I visited Hersheypark last summer on Monday and Tuesday, June 20th and 21st, and the lines were extremely manageable. We had no need for the fast pass system whatsoever. It was beautiful weather as well. The longest line we waited in was for Laff Trakk, but it was still only about 30 minutes. Most of the big rides (Skyrush, Storm Runner, Fahrenheit, Great Bear, the woodies) were between 0-15 minutes long. It was a great couple days and I NEED to get more Skyrush soon!

 

This was my experience as well. We went for 3 days in late June 2015 and the longest lines were 45 min for Laff Track and 30 min for Fahrenheit. We stayed at the Hershey Lodge, so we got the 1 hour early entry each morning. There's only 3 coasters open during early entry (Comet, SDL, and Skyrush), but it's basically like an ERT session. We were able to get multiple rides on each during the early entry, most of the time without getting off the coasters. I also found that the park really thinned out around 8pm, which was nice since it was open to 10pm every night. Everyone gets a preview night, which gets you into the park 2.5 hours before close with a next day ticket. I would definitely take advantage of the preview night and the early entry if you can. I got about 4-5 rides each on Skyrush, Fahrenheit, and Storm Runner when I did the preview night.

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For the Preview Plan, is it limited to one area, or do they just let you in to the park and you can have at it until close?

 

You have full access to the park. You can really pack a lot into those 2.5 hours. Gives you a little wiggle room on your full day.

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Why are you such a d*ck on these forums?

 

Wow that was a quick edit, ninja fingers.

 

Uhh, because it's the only other S&S ride of that kind? (S&S Rotating Tower)

 

Sorry I'm not that much of a geek that I know what S&S towers exist outside of my immediate area, let alone on the other side of the planet. It was a legitimate question. Didn't think I was being a dick, but I guess you think I am... carry on.

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Why are you such a d*ck on these forums?

 

Wow that was a quick edit, ninja fingers.

 

Uhh, because it's the only other S&S ride of that kind? (S&S Rotating Tower)

 

Sorry I'm not that much of a geek that I know what S&S towers exist outside of my immediate area, let alone on the other side of the planet. It was a legitimate question. Didn't think I was being a dick, but I guess you think I am... carry on.

 

It's Ok, Boldikus. I don't blame you.

 

I'm saying a lot of these things because I'm noticing more and more that S&S's newer towers (their bigger versions like the Combo Tower and not the smaller Double Shots) seem a lot slower than their older ones. I'm a b!tch for drop towers, so I've really got my eye out for things like these :3

 

At one point (obviously before the test footage was released), I was tempted to make the bold hypothesis that the Reese's tower was going to be the best tower out of the three (Kisses being a close second) Since D2 at Adlabs Imagica in India is so forceful (and exactly the same ride), and Hershey's being the worst, since Sochi's drop tower looks more forceless than a Zamperla Z Force.

 

And then that video was released. Let's just say my reaction was a paradigm shift to say the least.

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Maybe I'm missing something, but what in the video makes the tower seem so awesome? It has one nice pop of air at the beginning, then the ride is basically over. Is that the whole ride? I thought they were gonna shoot you down as well (like the other combo towers).

 

This is just an early stage of testing, so they should be testing the Turbo Drop sequence as well sometime soon.

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It's Ok, Boldikus. I don't blame you.

 

Sorry if I came across as dick, as was so eloquently pointed out, but I was legitimately confused.

 

Also, unrelated - I know this isn't related directly to the park per say, and not sure how much effect this has on the park if any at all, but figured I'd share since it is related to the company.

 

Hershey To Cut Thousands Of Jobs Globally

 

Hershey plans to trim thousands of jobs from the chocolate maker's global workforce, a restructuring that comes as many Big Food makers are enacting belt-tightening moves as the industry faces stalling sales.

 

On Tuesday, Hershey (hsy, +0.88%) said the job cuts would reduce the global workforce by 15% and is driven primarily by cuts to the company's hourly staff outside of the U.S. Hershey employs roughly 19,000 full-time and 1,650 part-time employees globally. The layoffs are one pillar of the company's so-called "Margin for Growth" program that is aiming to improve operating profit margins by reducing administrative expenses and improving the company's supply chain, with savings expected to be seen in 2018 and the year after.

 

The program will result in pre-tax charges of $375 million to $425 million, a range that includes severance expenses. Cash savings are projected to hit between $150 million to $175 million annually by the end of 2019.

 

The move by Hershey to cut costs comes at a time when many major food manufacturers, including General Mills (gis, +0.48%) and Kellogg (k, +0.14%), have been cutting jobs to restructure their operations. While the industry has been busy cutting costs to boost cash flows, the aggressiveness at 3G-backed Kraft Heinz (khc, +0.59%) has put some pressure on others in the industry to step up their game.

 

Hershey has opted to go it alone after the chocolate maker spurned a takeover bid by snacking peer Mondelez (mdlz, +0.82%) last year. The "Margin for Growth" plan is the first big initiative being implemented by Michele Buck, the incoming president and CEO who was named to those roles late last year. Buck is responsible for the strategy and vision at Hershey, which includes hitting the 2017 sales target the company set earlier this year, projecting growth of 2% to 3% due to the rollout of new Hershey's Cookie Layer Crunch bars, expanded distribution of barkTHINS, and new Reese's and Krave snacks.

 

In her prepared statement, Buck said that the initiatives announced on Tuesday would give Hershey "flexibility to invest in certain parts of our business. Our objective is to ensure that we always have the right level of innovation, marketing plans and consumer and customer expertise to drive net sales growth, especially in our North America confectionery and snacks business." Buck and her team will present more details about that strategy at the company's investor conference on Wednesday in New York City.

 

Hershey on Tuesday also updated the company's long-term outlook and sees annual net sales growth of 2% to 4%, below the projection of 3% to 5% a year ago. That nods to the challenge that many Big Food makers are facing: growth is slowing as consumer are increasingly favoring healthier foods and also giving well-funded startups a try. That's pressuring legacy brands owned by Hershey, General Mills and many others, who have seen sales soften. Beyond cost-cutting moves, some on Wall Street are advocating for the biggest players to consider consolidation.

 

Encouragingly, the industry does seem to have a better handle on profitability. Factoring in Hershey's "Margin for Growth" initiatives, it still sees long-term adjusted earnings growth between 6% to 8%.

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Also, unrelated - I know this isn't related directly to the park per say, and not sure how much effect this has on the park if any at all, but figured I'd share since it is related to the company.

 

Hershey plans to trim thousands of jobs from the chocolate maker's global workforce, a restructuring that comes as many Big Food makers are enacting belt-tightening moves as the industry faces stalling sales.

 

On Tuesday, Hershey (hsy, +0.88%) said the job cuts would reduce the global workforce by 15% and is driven primarily by cuts to the company's hourly staff outside of the U.S. Hershey employs roughly 19,000 full-time and 1,650 part-time employees globally. The layoffs are one pillar of the company's so-called "Margin for Growth" program that is aiming to improve operating profit margins by reducing administrative expenses and improving the company's supply chain, with savings expected to be seen in 2018 and the year after.

 

The program will result in pre-tax charges of $375 million to $425 million, a range that includes severance expenses. Cash savings are projected to hit between $150 million to $175 million annually by the end of 2019.

 

The move by Hershey to cut costs comes at a time when many major food manufacturers, including General Mills (gis, +0.48%) and Kellogg (k, +0.14%), have been cutting jobs to restructure their operations. While the industry has been busy cutting costs to boost cash flows, the aggressiveness at 3G-backed Kraft Heinz (khc, +0.59%) has put some pressure on others in the industry to step up their game.

 

Hershey has opted to go it alone after the chocolate maker spurned a takeover bid by snacking peer Mondelez (mdlz, +0.82%) last year. The "Margin for Growth" plan is the first big initiative being implemented by Michele Buck, the incoming president and CEO who was named to those roles late last year. Buck is responsible for the strategy and vision at Hershey, which includes hitting the 2017 sales target the company set earlier this year, projecting growth of 2% to 3% due to the rollout of new Hershey's Cookie Layer Crunch bars, expanded distribution of barkTHINS, and new Reese's and Krave snacks.

 

In her prepared statement, Buck said that the initiatives announced on Tuesday would give Hershey "flexibility to invest in certain parts of our business. Our objective is to ensure that we always have the right level of innovation, marketing plans and consumer and customer expertise to drive net sales growth, especially in our North America confectionery and snacks business." Buck and her team will present more details about that strategy at the company's investor conference on Wednesday in New York City.

 

Hershey on Tuesday also updated the company's long-term outlook and sees annual net sales growth of 2% to 4%, below the projection of 3% to 5% a year ago. That nods to the challenge that many Big Food makers are facing: growth is slowing as consumer are increasingly favoring healthier foods and also giving well-funded startups a try. That's pressuring legacy brands owned by Hershey, General Mills and many others, who have seen sales soften. Beyond cost-cutting moves, some on Wall Street are advocating for the biggest players to consider consolidation.

 

Encouragingly, the industry does seem to have a better handle on profitability. Factoring in Hershey's "Margin for Growth" initiatives, it still sees long-term adjusted earnings growth between 6% to 8%.

 

Hersheypark is owned and operated privately by Hershey Entertainment & Resorts, they are a separate company from The Hershey Company. The connecting factors are HE&R is owned by The Hershey Trust Company and they have a voting majority in The Hershey Company. Hershey's Chocolate World (run by The Hershey Company) has a some what symbiotic relationship with the park. HE&R obviously gets licensing for Hershey products to use at their properties as well, but these job reductions wouldn't affect the park.

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Cool, thank for explaining that. I love the park to death but admit I have no understanding of the companies intricacies.

It's actually none too complicated - nothing The Hershey Company really does directly impacts the park. If The Hershey Company announces layoffs, that only has public relations impact on the park because people don't know the difference between The Hershey Company and Hershey Entertainment & Resorts Company.

 

Hershey Entertainment & Resorts Company was created in 1927 by Milton S. Hershey so non-candy producing businesses could be in their own company. This was to protect entities such as the park, the Cocoa Inn (the first hotel in Hershey - The Hotel Hershey wasn't built until the early 30s), the electric company, the water company, etc.. Prior to that point, Hershey Chocolate Company was the owner of Hersheypark. When the chocolate company experienced significant financial difficulties in 1920, a bank took control of the company for a time. This threatened all of the businesses ran by Hershey (for example, some rides planned to be added to the park in the early 20s were postponed) - and so after Hershey Chocolate recovered, within a few years, Hershey was reorganized such that the businesses in the town could not be threatened by a financial crisis at the chocolate company.

 

So as I said, whenever The Hershey Company does something, it's really not impacting the park beyond PR. I think the only impactful thing they could do is sell the company. Because if that happened - that certainly would impact the entire community in Hershey. We've seen what happens when that has been discussed - particularly in 2002.

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^^ Thank you for breaking that down for us, very interesting!

 

I swear if I ever hit the powerball I'm moving to Hershey, PA. Seems like its creepsville to actually live/work there but they have Intamins.

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Another video incoming!

 

 

Honestly, I think Hershey's tower looks pretty underwhelming if you ask me. I think out of the three, either Kisses or Reeses tower would be the best actually. I mean- did you SEE how they slam to a stop when it reaches the top???

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