After Kennywood Park, our next theme park together was Hershey Park in Hershey, PA. We were ready for the amount of coasters that Hershey Park had after reviewing their park map, and we knew it would take a full day to finish the park. We only had 1 day built into our itinerary, but due to the size of the park I would recommend two days to avoid feeling rushed.
Before arriving to the park, we purchased the following:
2 Entry Tickets- $49.99 each (sale online before park opened for the season)
2 Fast Passes Unlimited- $70 each (sale online before park opened for the season)
1 Pre-Paid Parking Pass $20 total
All Day Drink(1) + Single Meal Deal (2)- $64 total
This was roughly $324 before entry with all that is listed above. As I stated in my previous post, the drink deal is our choice because we like to drink a lot of fluid and it saves us money by the end of the day rather than buying a new drink each time. We also knew that we would be spending the entire day at Hershey Park, so buying a single meal was a great option for us. With the meal deal, there were some restaurants on-site that did not accept the Single Meal deal, so I would plan this out beforehand and be aware of those restaurants. The parks had signs posted if you could use the single meal deal or not at each restaurant around the park. The fast passes and entry passes had to be picked for a certain date when we purchased them. Luckily, we had our entire Pennsylvania trip planned and knew the date we would be hitting the Hershey Park.
Things to Know
*Hershey Park is cashless and only accepts debit/credit payment. They do still have penny machines for those that collect.
*Arrive early if you want to get in on time (30-45 minutes early, at least)
*The closest stand to redeem your Fast Pass and get a band is by the Starbucks
*Parking is not super close to the entrance, but there is a trolley that will take you to the front entrance. You will want to add time for this, if you plan to line up early.
*Bring some walking shoes! It is a big place!
Pros and Cons
One of the obvious great things about Hershey Park is the theme of the park. Almost everything is centered around the Hershey company candies from the height of riders to the ride names to restaurants around the park. The theme itself brings a lot of joy to candy lovers like ourselves. The next thing amazing thing is the size of the park. We could have easily spent 2 full days there. It has a full North American based zoo built into the park as well. Also, most rides had bins for your bags and if they didn't have bins they offered FREE locker space for 2 hours and 20 minutes.
The first downside of the park was they seemed to let a lot of the general admission line go and sparsely pulled from the fast lane line on a few of the bigger rides (Wildcat's Revenge and Candymonium). We had to wait a little longer than expected because of this. However, this could be a positive for you if you don't plan to buy the fast passes. As mentioned, the park is HUGE and due to the size of the park we were only able to ride everything once for the 1 day we got to visit even with fast pass unlimited. The park being large is not a negative, but it does prevent what you can do in 1 day because of its size. Lastly, we arrived about 5 minutes before the park opened, and we didn't get in the park until 35 minutes later. The crowds were insane, especially with school trips going to the park for end of the year field trips in the first week of June. We even visited during a weekday (Wednesday), so I can only imagine weekends are worse. I would highly recommend arriving 30-45 minutes before the gate opens if you want to avoid the crowds.
Fast Pass Unlimited
We purchased the fast track unlimited that allowed us to ride each of the attractions as much as we wanted. However, we only were able to ride each ride 1 time due to the size of the park, and we could have used the regular Fast Track pass that allowed us to do each ride once. I will say, if it wasn't for the fast passes we probably would've only made it through half of the park during their operating hours. Therefore, it was worth it to us we just would've downgraded and spent a little less on getting a fast pass for each ride once with the summer crowd. If it is offseason, I am sure the unlimited is the best option!
Our Top 6 Rides
#1: Wildcat's Revenge: This is a new hybrid coaster they just built in collaboration with their old wooden coaster "The Wildcat." Many people talked about how rough the original ride was, and how this ride was much smoother. This ride moves you around a ton, and you are up out of your seat on various parts. It's intensity is unmatched to the other rides in the park.
The rest are in no particular order, as we can't really decide the order. They were all unique in their own ways.
Storm Runner: This ride goes 0-72 in 2 seconds and has an amazing take off. The ride itself is also great for any adrenaline junkie. If you have ever been to Cedar Point, it has similar features to Top Thrill Dragster, but definitely not as tall or fast.
Fahrenheit: If I had to absolutely pick a #2 coaster in the park, I would probably pick this one. It's a steel coaster that has a straight up 121 foot lift followed by a 97 degree drop. These kind of coasters are the most appealing to me personally.
Candymonium: This has the tallest drop in the park, and is the longest and fastest one! It was our first coaster of the day, and I wish we would have had a chance to try it a second time. It's definitely a thrill with its 210 foot drop at 76 mph as well as camelback hills!
The Great Bear: We didn't get front row of this ride, and really enjoyed that we didn't. With being in the middle rows, you couldn't tell when corkscrews, turns, flips, etc., were coming and it added an element of surprise that we really liked. Also, this ride has your feet dangling and was smooth compared to some of the other coasters that have this type of setup. Additionally, it is over 2 minutes long!
Skyrush: This was a fun winged coaster with 5 zero-G hills. The hill climb also wastes no time taking you up and down your first drop. This coaster was extremely exciting, and was one we wish we could've repeated!
Zoo America
This area of Hershey Park is included in the admission, and is an awesome addition. After we had finished most of the rides, we went and enjoyed a short little break over in this area. The park will give you a stamp so that you can re-enter into the rides area. This zoo is 11 acres, and houses animals that are all from North America including gray wolves, porcupines, bears, big cats, reptiles, birds, etc. The zoo had thematic areas based on the environmental regions in the USA such as: Southern Swamps, Great Southwest, Eastern Woodlands, Big Sky Country, and Northlands. We were really impressed with the Great Southwest area that had an indoor replica of a desert that had several animals such as owls, quails, and tortoises. You can see us in front of this in the picture below!
The Chocolatier Restaurant
At the closing of the park, we had dinner at the Chocolatier which is located at the entrance of the park on top of the gift shop. This was a great final stop to our day. The menu featured many items that had chocolate infused flavors. I tried the Barbeque Bacon Burger with Hershey's chocolate BBQ sauce. At first, I was really worried, but I felt that the flavors worked perfectly together and I thoroughly enjoyed the meal. They also had chocolate potato chips, steak with Hershey's cocoa spice rub, and Heath Bar crusted salmon... just to name a few examples. However, if you are not willing to try these types of things they had chicken fingers, regular burgers, chicken alfredo, and other items to try that weren't chocolate infused. One thing I do wish we had tried was the Ferris Wheel Sampler. This looked awesome with BBQ chicken wings, cheese sticks, chicken tenders, corn dip, and pretzel dippers. It was almost $40 for the sampler, but from the looks of it- it looked worth it, especially if that's all that you ordered for your table! Additionally, when we can we will try to make reservations to secure our spot. You can make reservations for the Chocolatier through OpenTable at https://www.opentable.com/ or by downloading the app!
Overall Review
This was an amazing park and we enjoyed our first visit to Hershey Park. We look forward to another visit in the future. It offers everything for the adrenaline junkie and candy lover alike! It is also very family friendly with the Hershey characters, kid rides, and a water park. I would have dedicated more than one day to visiting Hershey Park if/when I do it again, and could possibly see myself visiting the water park as we didn't get to explore it. This is a must see amusement park that you won't want to miss!
Our Overall Rating: 9/10
Travel Tandem Ratings Scale:
1-4/10: Below Average Park (Could Skip)
5-6/10: Average Park (Recommend)
7-8/10: Great Park (Highly Recommend)
9-10/10: LOVED IT! (Must Go)
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