Chaperone

Last week, on Thursday, May 17, I went to Hersheypark. This was the first visit in my 23rd consecutive year of visiting the park, but it was a completely new experience for me. You may ask, "How can someone who has been to Hersheypark at least fifty times (or probably more) have any type of new experience without a new attraction?" (And no, Hershey's soon-to-be 12th coaster Skyrush isn't open yet--more on that in my next post). No, my new Hershey experience happened when I became a chaperone for the first time, chaperoning my 12 year-old sister's class trip to the park to experience Science Day. Here is a recap of how it went:

My sister and I arrived at her middle school at 6:45 AM and met up with our group--which, it turned out, consisted of only one other person (who I will refer to as M). M was my sister's friend, and it turned out she had very little amusement park experience. Therefore, she was wary about riding big coasters. My sister and I both inwardly groaned, as we are both coaster warriors, but my mind immediately raced, thinking of how we could build our day around a non-coaster rider.

The sixth grade boarded charter buses, and by 7:00 AM, we were on the road. The trip down was uneventful, and we arrived at Hersheypark by 9:00. After a quick chaperone meeting, I grabbed my sister and M and we hit the park. Before we could go on any rides, though, my sister and M had to do some Science Day activities. The first thing we did (after a quick bathroom break--no one is a fan of those bus bathrooms) was sit on a bench and fill out some Hershey-related math and science activities in a packet the girls' teachers had given them. They had to work on this for at least 45 minutes.

When they had done all they could stand with Hersheypark alive around them, we decided to finally hit some rides. We decided to first head to the Pioneer Frontier section of the park to go on the Trailblazer, Hershey's mildest coaster--apparently, M had ridden it before and liked it. After a fun ride (and barely any line--the longest line we waited in all day was only about 15 minutes), we headed up the hill past Storm Runner (Hershey's 0 to 75 mph coaster), and over to the Dry Gulch Railroad, which the girls had seen from the Trailblazer and wanted to ride next. Unfortunately, it wasn't open to the public yet. We instead convinced a slightly-nervous M to ride the next-door Pirate ship pendulum ride (sitting near the middle instead of the back as to not go so high--a compromise my sister generously made for her friend).

At this point, it was after 11:00 AM. We were required to go to one of the Franklin Institutes's Science Day shows in the Amphitheater, and my sister and M decided they wanted to go to the first one, at 11:30. So we headed over to Minetown, where the Amphitheater is located. We had a little time to kill, so we all rode in our own sports cars on the Sunoco Speedway first (which is only a hop, skip and jump away from the Amphitheater).

We attended the 11:30 Franklin Institute show, and to be honest, it was a pretty lame event. Two "science athletes" were competing to win the audience's favor for their own experiments while a "referee" commented on the action. Now, a disclaimer--science isn't something I'm very interested in. However, I've found in my life that if a show (or movie, or book) is well-done, it really doesn't matter what the topic is--it will draw you in no matter what. This show was about a half hour long, and had us checking our watches the entire time. The show's main premise was the referee "randomly" picking science topics out of a hat, the science athletes performing experiments (that mainly consisted of blowing things up), and the science athletes and referee taunting each other.  The three actors onstage kept talking over each other throughout the whole performance, so it was hard to get anything out of the program--it seemed very laid-back and unrehearsed. My sister, M and I were all very glad when the show was over.

It was time for lunch then, so we headed back up to the Storm Runner food court, which had a lot of food choices. We all ended up eating at the Whistle Stop Restaurant--my sister and I got burgers while M tried the chicken strips. All the food tasted very good (although, of course, it was pricey).

After lunch, it was about 12:30, and we headed to Midway America at the back of the park and rode (in very quick succession), the Wild Mouse (which we were happy M decided to try), the Whip, Music Express, the Ferris Wheel and the Merry Derry Dip Fun Slides. All of these were walk-on except for the Wild Mouse, which had about a five minute wait.

We headed back to Pioneer Frontier to see if the Dry Gulch Railroad was open yet, and it was! We had a fun time on the train, and met a Hershey's Chocolate Syrup character afterward. M then made a very brave decision--to try and ride the Comet, Hershey's classic old wooden coaster. We eagerly headed down to Comet Hollow (which is actually just The Hollow now--Hershey has completely remodeled the area for Skyrush. Again, more on that in my next post). Unfortunately, the Comet wasn't running! But people were still in line, and the ride was running empty trains, so we took a quick detour to the Wave Swinger ride, which is right across from the Comet, and rode that first. By the time we got off the Wave Swinger, the Comet was back in operation!

We waited in our longest line of the day (which was only 15 minutes) and rode the Comet. M loved the ride, and I think she was sad we didn't ride it earlier in the day. Maybe if she had, she could have worked up the nerve to ride one of Hershey's wilder coasters.

After the Comet, we headed back to Music Box Way, where we rode the Reese's Xtreme Cup Challenge and Fender Bender bumper car ride. We then walked to Founder's Circle at the front of the park, riding the Carousel, the Scrambler and the Tilt-a-Whirl.

At this point, it was about 3:45. Amazingly, we had ridden thirteen rides in three hours! Not riding any crazy coasters (which generally have the longest wait times) and no long lines for the rides we did ride certainly helped with that, but I'd like to think prior knowledge of the park had a hand in it, as well. :)

The girls wanted to do some shopping, so we shopped in a couple stores on the way out. My sister then suggested, since we still had a half hour before the buses were to leave, that we stop off at Chocolate World (Hershey's visitors center) on the way out. The building, located right outside the park gates, was near where the buses were parked, so it was easy to go to Chocolate World, ride the factory tour ride, and do some additional shopping.

We were back on the bus and on our way home by 4:30, arriving at the middle school at 6:45. I consider the trip very successful--we got almost every flat and family ride in the park ridden in about four total hours. My sister, who has never shown fear at the wildest of coasters, was very courteous to her friend, not pressuring her to ride anything she was uncomfortable with. And I had a great time chaperoning my first trip--not just to Hersheypark, but anywhere. It's a good prep for when my daughter (now four months old) goes on her first field trip someday!