Dani & The Laulings do Hershey Park (August 2019)

I love breaking the summer up with long week-ends. This was our first time heading to Hershey Park. With a 2 hour and 15 minute drive, it was just about manageable for the Laulings in the car to do a straight shot down there (well with one short bathroom break). We left Princeton, NJ at 7 am on Friday morning and were pulling in to the Hershey hotel parking lot at 9.20. The shuttle bus to the park was waiting outside the hotel so we hopped straight on. We did have to show proof of staying at the hotel, but our reservation print out worked rather than having to go and check-in. We sat on the bus for about 10 minutes before it left with a few additional guests to the park. It’s a short 5 minute ride over there as long as the queue of cars isn’t crazy, putting us at the gate around 9.40. It was a reasonable walk from the bus drop off at the time of writing this while they were re-doing the entrance area and with bag search and ticket scan, we were inside at exactly 9.50.

Our hotel package included breakfast and 2 days of park tickets. Technically we could have entered the park at 9 am as hotel guests (note the website says 9.30 but the hotel staff told me it was from 9) but they were already letting regular guests in at 9.50 and we were not asked for proof of hotel stay or annual passes (who also get early access). I did splurge on 2 days of fast track access. It was not cheap and I would only do it if you are doing a week-end trip like we were to maximize the experience. It covers all their rollercoasters, many of which are a 48 or 54 inch height requirement, which my little Lauling could not go on, so for him the price really did not justify it, but did give him access to super dooper looper, cupfushion, laff track and Comet, all of which had pretty long lines, so I still felt it saved us some sanity.

Follow our day 2 itinerary for a far better touring plan, but here is what we accomplished on day 1:

Picked up fast track bands from guest services on entering the park. There are also kiosks which we used on day 2 and were very efficient. Don’t worry that it says on the fast track ticket that you have to be 48 inches to get one; that was not enforced. Hershey recently changed to a ‘magic band’ type set up where you scan you ‘kiss’ chip in a bracelet against the Hershey kiss fast track tracker. We purchased the single ride option but there is also an unlimited option, although I don’t know that you’d get the opportunity to ride all the rides more than once.
Headed to Comet. This is a wooden roller coaster with a 42 inch height requirement. There was already a decent line. The fast track by-passes some but not all the queue. There are 2 trains running so that does help loading and it’s free for all seating- you line up by the seats you want to ride in. It has a big drop at the beginning and probably the ‘biggest’ ride my 5 year old Lauling had gone on. He was a bit traumatized but not enough to say he wouldn’t do it again!
Headed to super dooper looper; same set-up, you by-pass some but not all the line with fast track. This is also a 42 inch roller coaster with one big loop. It was my 5 year old’s first upside down roller coaster- and he loved it.
From there we headed to cup fushion, Hershey’s new shooting ride. The line for this got up to 3 hours almost immediately. The fast track for this takes you right to the loading platform. The attendant forgot to ask us to scan our kiss bands, so we got to save that fast pass for later in the day (kerching!) This was a fun 4-D experience with lovely mint chocolate aromas and accurate shooting technology; definitely ‘a hit’ and my youngest Lauling’s favorite ride.
From there we headed over to the Hershey drop towers. I am not a fan of these kinds of rides and my youngest Lauling was too small (48 inch requirement) so we watched daddy and older Lauling ride that one. No lines for the smallest tower, so fast track not needed
From there we wound our way to Trailblaizer, a junior coaster. No line so we were able to jump straight on, and then rode a second time. Fast track covers this one if needed.
We stopped near side winder for lunch near the Mexican and Chickie and Pete’s. I did like the variety of food options at Hershey with more choice than simply burgers and hot dogs. We bought the refillable cups too, which allows you to fill up from the self-serve kiosks (although you have to wait 10 minutes between fill-ups).
Side winder looked super fun; a coaster that goes backwards and forwards but my eldest Lauling was too chicken to ride, so we had to pass on that one.
We then headed to the pirate ship; just waited for one ship to finish running before we got on (no fast track available for this). We then went to Frontier fliers, which were a pretty unique experience- you can control the angle and height they go, although not the best idea after lunch- did leave me feeling a little queasy! This was a reasonably long wait because each car has to be checked individually (~20 mins)
After that we headed to Laff Track. The fast track by-passes the outside queue area but we still had a reasonable 20 minute wait inside. There are some fairground mirrors in the queue line to keep you amused. This ride was a hit and unlike anything I’ve ridden. It’s a spinning coaster in the dark but the track goes sideways as well as up and down. You can choose whether to start the ride facing forward or backwards- my youngest loved to start backwards which worked well as my eldest liked to start forwards.
Right next to Laff Track are some fairground slides called Merry Merry dip. My youngest enjoyed riding this multiple times and I took my eldest on to wild mouse which is in the same vicinity after. No line although it was covered by the fast track.
From there we all did the music express; it’s a bone jarring ride. Make sure you wedge yourself in the corner if you are going to ride it as your companion will be on top of you!
We then followed a reverse route back, stopping at the coal cracker log flume, which was a typical log flume ride but quite short and only one big drop. It’s not under fast track and I didn’t feel it was worth standing in a long line. It wasn’t bad on the Friday; probably about 20 minutes.

By then it was around 3.45 and we could check in at 4, so we headed out to the bus. The bus service was not the best. They were not very frequent (more frequent for the lodge), and always waited 10 minutes before they left, so I would give yourself 30 minutes to get back to the hotel on the bus. The bus also stops at the Hershey gardens en-route, although they are opposite the hotel so not a big deal. We headed straight to check-in which was pretty quick and our room key was waiting for us. I opted to stay in the cottages, thinking it would be nice to be a way from the hotel and hopefully quiet. They definitely were quiet but were also a good 10 minute walk to the main building, so I would actually recommend staying in the main hotel and trying to get a 1 bedroom suite. We were able to drive to the cottage though and park outside. We were in Cherry in a ground floor room. In the 6 room cottages like ours there are 2 rooms that are basically in the ‘basement’ and I did see some posts on Tripadvisor that you can hear the people above you in these rooms. We were not over the basement rooms which are in the back of the cottage and I didn’t hear anything. The cottages are nicely appointed but I would personally have preferred a larger main living area over the over-sized bathroom. We freshened up and then headed over to the Harvest restaurant where we had dinner reservations. This is actually near the cottages so worked out well. The food was reasonable, although my baked potato was cold. Outside the restaurant they have bean bag toss and table tennis tables which was a nice touch and then you can walk through the hotel garden to enter the back of the hotel. We jumped on a bus back to the park around 7.40. It was PACKED so we just used our fast track for a second go on cup fushion and then rode starship America before heading back to sleep.

Day 2

We headed to breakfast at around 7.45, just beating the 8 o’clock rush. You don’t need a reservation for breakfast which is served at the circular restaurant in the main building. We took our park bag with us so we didn’t have to go back to the room. We did the buffet which was a very nice selection of pastries, muffins, bagels, fruit, yogurt, oatmeal, omelet station and then trays of hot breakfast items including French toast and pancakes. Once fueled up we were on the bus at 8.20 and at the park by 8.30. Everyone was held by a rope after security until about 8.45 when we were allowed down to the check in turnstiles. Just before 9 we were let in. There was a decent amount of people there. Even with a 8.20 arrival we were about 10 people back to the turnstile. Only the front of the park is open for the first hour. We went on Comet and then 2 goes on Sooper dooper looper and then got our fast passes and photo pass and waited at the ‘rope’ outside the music studio experience to enter the rest of the park at about 9.50. Cup fushion was not listed as open as part of the early hour but it was, so if I’d have known I would have headed there first. Once the rope was dropped, we headed all the way to the back of the park to laff track. Many people were going to the boardwalk, so there was only a handful of us making the long trek to laff track. As we entered the ride, there were probably about 10 people in front of us, so we were almost a walk on and as we exited the line still hadn’t reached the hall of mirrors, so we rode a second time without needing to use our fast tracks. While we in that area of the park, the eldest Lauling rode Wild Cat twice and Lightening Racer twice; both were wooden coasters and good fun. Lightening Racer is a dueling coaster where there are two cars racing each other. We did not need to use our fast tracks at all for these- they were all ‘walk on’. The youngest Lauling rode music express, whip 3 times (this was actually pretty fun) and went on the Merry dip slides while the eldest Lauling was riding the coasters, so that worked really nicely to keep everyone busy.

By this point it was around noon. We used our Laff track fast track before starting our way back, stopping for lunch at the pizza place near the Boardwalk (pretty standard pizza fare). We then did the classic Sunoco cars. This was a long wait- probably 40 minutes due to the slow loading. Our youngest Lauling was able to drive though, so the wait was worth it for him! We then followed our same route back as the day before but stopping for the kissing tower this time which is an observation tower giving you a great view of the whole park. We only waited for one ride before we got on. We swung by the log flume but the line was much longer than yesterday, so we decided to skip it. Daddy and the eldest Lauling did the kisses drop tower again and I took the youngest one on the frog hopper, which has been closed the day before. Both had short lines. After that we finished up at the front of the park, doing Cup fushion, Comet and sooper dooper looper with our fast track. We were done for the day around 3 pm. By this point the park was really crowded. I would definitely recommend starting at the back of the park and moving forward as you are then going against the flow of the crowd.

We headed back to the hotel and the youngest Lauling and I hit the hotel pool. While busy, we were able to get a sun lounger and we had a blast riding the slides over and over again. We spent about an hour in the pool before heading back to get changed for dinner. I wanted to try the Italian restaurant in the hotel but they don’t take reservations in the summer so I had a back-up reservation at the Chocolate Grill in Hershey town itself. We were able to get a table at the Italian. Food was OK, potatoes were hard this time- I guess potatoes aren’t their thing!

We headed back to our hotel room for a good night’s sleep.

Day 3

Today we chose to do a couple of hours in the morning at the chocolate factory. This is in the same location as the park but you don’t need a ticket to enter and you can do the tour for free. I had booked us a make your own chocolate experience at 9.30 am. We were outside the factory at 8.50 and there was already a bit of a line, and we were all let in at 10. On the chocolate world website it said the tour was about 30 minutes, so I was hoping we could squeeze that in before we made our chocolate bars, so we headed straight there. It’s actually a ride, not unlike the set-up of Spaceship Earth at Disney world that narrates what’s going on to you as you ride past staged chocolate making scenes. It was done in about 10 minutes. We were walk on for that but we wound through what looked like could be a very long queue system and probably is why they recommend allotting 30 minutes for it. We exited the ride and browsed the very well stocked store before heading over to chocolate making. This was super cool. Donned in our very attractive chocolate making outfits, we were directed to create a profile for each of us linked to a ticket which allows you to track your bar through the process. You start by choosing a base- dark, milk or white chocolate and what you want your bar to be filled with (rice crispies, toffee, pieces, pretzel pieces, choc chips etc.). You then follow your chocolate bar from being filled, to covered in chocolate, finished with sprinkles (optional) and then dried and packaged. We were all engaged through the whole process. You also get to design and personalize your own package. The packaging machine had a bit of a malfunction, so our experience took a little longer than it should, but we were still out in about 50 minutes. I would have liked to have done the 4D movie but that wasn’t starting until 10.45 and we wouldn’t have been out until 11.15 so we decided to call it a day at that point.

The traffic coming in to the park when we exited the chocolate world was horrific- taking 30 minutes for the buses to get through, so we waited quite a while for a bus to come, although fortunately it left to go back to the hotel as soon as it arrived. We headed to our room to pack and check out.

I would definitely go back to Hershey park, especially once my youngest Lauling is over 48 inches. We could easily have done another day and gone to the zoo and spent a bit more time enjoying the hotel facilities which also had a putting green, smores in the evening and other organized activities through the day.