A daytrip to Hershey late Sept- thinking of alt. trans.

[JDo217]

Right so I might be going to Hersheypark on the 26th with a friend since we've got the extended weekend thanks to Yom Kippur. It's only going to be a daytrip. We're both 18 and she can legally drive but obviously her parents might be uncomfortable with her taking the car some 3+ hours away. I have no confirmation yet on whether or not she's gonna be able to drive but I figured we better start thinking of alternate means of transportation.

 

The first thing I thought of was Amtrak. It's not the cheapest option but it's pretty fast and definitely better than flying, which we will not be doing. Being that I live on Long Island, I can easily take the LIRR train to Penn Station. I've still got a 10 trip pass that's barely been used so both of us would be covered. From Penn we'd take the Amtrak to Harrisburg and I'm pretty sure we could catch a taxi to the park from there.

 

1) The fare is $90/person roundtrip. The most confusing thing about amtrak is that I can't purchase roundtrip tickets that depart and return on the same day but I can get two one-way tickets that are the same price ($45 each way).

 

http://tickets.amtrak.com/itd/amtrak/FareFinder?_tripType=OneWay&_origin=New+York+-+Penn+Station%2C+NY+%28NYP%29&_depmonthyear=2009-09&_depday=26&_dephourmin=0700&_destination=Harrisburg%2C+PA+%28HAR%29&_retmonthyear=&_retday=&_rethourmin=&_adults=1&_children=0&_infants=0&_searchBy=schedule&x=22&y=7

 

Above is the departure. I'm thinking the 7am one is good.

 

http://tickets.amtrak.com/itd/amtrak/FareFinder?_tripType=OneWay&_origin=Harrisburg%2C+PA+%28HAR%29&_depmonthyear=2009-09&_depday=26&_dephourmin=1800&_destination=New+York+-+Penn+Station%2C+NY+%28NYP%29&_retmonthyear=&_retday=&_rethourmin=&_adults=1&_children=0&_infants=0&_searchBy=schedule&x=3&y=8

 

Above is the return trip. I'm thinking 7:05pm is good. It's a transfer though from what I can see and I've never traveled Amtrak alone before so I'm a bit hesitant but I'm sure it would work out for us

 

2) Anyways, this is slightly on the expensive side. $90 just to get there, $50 more for the tickets, and then more for food. I'm just not entirely sure how we're going to get taxi service from the park back to the train station?

 

3) From experience, can anyone tell me how crowded the park would be on sept 26th? It's a Saturday and also the only day of the weekend that the park is open, let alone a 3-day weekend for some

 

4) Can anyone suggest other means of travel for me? The only other thing I can think of would be bus service but I'm not entirely sure how that works or if I could even get one from NYC to Hershey

 

Hopefully some of you guys can help me out, thanks

[eddie200330]

Have you checked Greyhound? It seems like a $90 train ride and then what I would imagine to be a pretty costly cab ride From Harrisburg to Hershey, the bus would be cheaper. If not, maybe you could offer her parents half the cost to just drive you there.

[JDo217]

I'm not really familiar with Greyhound but I googled it and it's definitely cheaper but I'm not sure how the schedule is gonna work out. There's one that leaves Penn around 9am and arrives around 1:30pm at Hershey, which I guess is doable.

 

The return trip is where it gets weird though. I could leave from penn and go directly to the Hershey, PA stop but on the return trip, it looks like Harrisburg is the closest departure site. But the depart time was 11:45pm abnd the arrival time was a whopping 7 hours later at 7:45am. Hmm...I'll definitely keep searching Greyhound though

[ginzo]

FYI: Greyhound is pretty terrible. Their buses SMELL and you won't like most of the clientele. Not sure I'd want to bring a nice young lady on Greyhound if I could help it.

 

Also, you're going to smell like bus all day if you take Greyhound.