Here is the continuation of my trip to Hersheypark that I took with my husband and ten year-old sister on Sunday, August 8 and Monday, August 9th. This entry covers our second day, on the 9th.
We checked out of the Grantville Days Inn at about 7:40 AM. We then got back on Interstate 81 south, getting off at exit 77, which is the other Hershey exit. There is a nice, out of the way Perkins restaurant right off this exit where I knew we could get a filling breakfast before the park opened. The restaurant was almost empty, and we got our fresh, yummy food within twenty minutes of sitting down. It was a low pressure way to start the day. I made sure that we ate enough food to get through several hours, since I knew the Boardwalk water park was one of our first destinations that day, and eating meals in the always-crowded Boardwalk is always a hair-raising experience.
We arrived at Hersheypark by 9:15 (and didn't have to pay for parking because we had yesterday's parking stub and Preciew Plan-marked admission ticket) and got in line in front of the main gate by 9:30. There was a good-sized line of people waiting to get in, but it moved fairly quickly, and the gates opened slightly before the official opening time of 10:00.
Our first stop was to be Fahrenheit, Hershey's newest coaster with a record breaking 97 degree drop. However, since it was still only 9:57, we got stopped by ropes in Music Box Way. We only had to wait three minutes before the ropes dropped, and we quickly moved on to Fahrenheit. My little sister and I got in line for Fahrenheit, which was already about a twenty-minute wait two minutes after opening, while my husband went to the Boardwalk to get a locker. It was a good thing we went right to Fahrenheit, because in the twenty minutes we waited in line, the queue became very long. However, we got on and rode the ride without any issues.
We then met up with my husband, who had gotten a locker at the centrally-located Boardwalk changing rooms near the Roller Soaker and Nathan's hot dogs. After changing and putting on sunscreen, we headed first for the Roller Soaker, a unique interactive water coaster that is very popular and always has a long line by the middle of the day--and, to make things worse, the line is one of the slowest-moving in the park. Luckily, it was so early in the day that there was not a long line, but we still had to wait about a half hour due to technical difficulties with the ride. The ride operator announced that it could only be a five-minute delay, or it could stretch to hours. My family decided to take a chance and stay in line, since if we got out of line we risked the chance of it getting very long later on. Our risk paid off--the ride was fixed in about ten minutes, and we had a fun, soaking wet experience.
We next rode the Intercoastal Waterway, Hershey's lazy river that is only in its second year of operation. The park has made some nice changes to this ride. There are no more double tubes, which cuts the wait drastically. Also, you can now ride around the Waterway as many times as you want. This was a nice addition, and we floated around the Intercoastal Waterway twice before deciding to disembark.
Next we rode Tidal Force, Hershey's great splash down ride, which had an average-sized line. By this time, it was after noon. The Boardwalk was becoming very, very crowded due to the popularity of the area and the 90-degree heat, so we decided to pick and choose our next rides. While my husband went to ride the Vortex "toilet bowl" water slide, me and my little sister spent some time in Hershey's other new attraction that is in its second year, The Shore wave pool. The wave pool was pretty crowded, but we had a nice time riding the waves.
After that, we decided to try out East Coast Waterworks, the biggest water play area on the East coast. However, there was actually a line to get into it! None of us wanted to wait in a line to get into what should be a free-entering play area, so we decided to call it a day regarding the Boardwalk. We changed but left our bags in the locker (since we had paid a $15 all-day charge), then headed to the back section of the park and the Boardwalk's next door neighbor, Midway America.
The first thing we did, since it was around 2:00, was eat a late lunch of popcorn chicken and perogies from Midway Munchies, a great little stand next to the Ferris Wheel. After we were full, we rode all the Midway America rides--the Ferris Wheel, Lightning Racer (Hershey's wooden racing coaster), Music Express, the Whip, the Wild Mouse and the Wildcat (Hershey's third wooden coaster). They have some good midway games in this section, and my husband played some of those, as well. Lines were a big longer than usual, but the longest we waited for any of these rides was probably around twenty minutes.
It was very, very hot by this time. To stay cool in lines (some that should have been better shaded), I decided to buy a misting fan/spray bottle. They have these all over the park; I bought ours at Fun in the Sun, a shop near the Wild Mouse and Wildcat. It really came in handy for the rest of the day, and was well worth $12.99 for keeping cool while waiting in lines.
We next headed to Pioneer Frontier and tried to ride the Frisbee pendulum ride The Claw. However, we had another technical difficulty--this time, we were on the ride and ready to go when the ride operators detected some problems, and we had to vacate the ride. Unfortunately, we didn't feel like waiting in line all over again, so we had no Claw ride that day. We did ride several other Pioneer Frontier rides with no problems, however--the Pirate ship, the Dry Gulch railroad, Storm Runner (Hershey's launching coaster) and the Trailblazer (a tame mine train coaster) were all fun rides with average-sized lines.
We walked back to Minetown, at this point having done almost everything we wanted to do in the last twenty-four hours. My little sister and I decided to ride the Great Bear again, only this time we decided to ride in the front seat. You have to wait in a separate, slow-moving line for the front seats, but the view during the ride is totally worth the wait!
After a couple more Sooperdooperlooper rides, we decided to call it a night. My husband went back to the Boardwalk to get our things out of the locker while my sister and I waited for him at the main gate (doing some shopping along the way). Upon leaving the park, we had a late dinner at an Olive Garden restaurant about seven miles away from the park. We ended up leaving the Hershey area around 10:00 PM.
My trip to Hersheypark was loads of fun. A few issues cropped up, but we planned a loose schedule of rides ahead of time and concentrated on making the most of our time, so these issues did not put a damper on our trip. Hershey will be open for about two more months, with crowds becoming thinner as the summer wanes. Plan a trip before the park closes for the season!
We'll be back to regular blogs next week.
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