Here is a recap of my trip to Hersheypark on Monday, May 28 (aka Memorial Day).
My sister (age 12 and in the Jolly Rancher height category for the first time) and I arrived at Hersheypark at 9:00 AM after an uneventful drive (and a stop at Dunkin Donuts for breakfast). I had bought my season pass and my sister's one-day admission ticket online before leaving. One interesting note about the one-day admission purchase--I used the standard $14-off coupon found at Dunkin Donuts and Burger King. While checking out, I was asked if I wanted to upgrade my ticket to a 2 or 3-day flex ticket for a discounted price. Discounts for 2 and 3 day tickets are rare, and this one is definitely not advertised by Hershey, but it looks intriguing. For my June trip, when we will need to get a 2-day ticket for my husband, I am going to try buying a 1-day ticket first and then "upgrading" for the cheaper price. We'll see!
Anyway, I flashed my season pass voucher at the parking attendant to get free parking. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that my season pass also lets me park in the preferred parking lot (when available), which is MUCH closer to the park. We were right next to the Hersheypark Arena and Tram Circle, and I've never parked so close before! My parking spot was also close to the season pass office, where I needed to go first to get my picture taken and official pass made up.
After I had my official pass, my sister and I waited in line for the gates to open. There was quite a crowd gathered, but we were pretty close to the front of the line. We hit a minor snag when our bags were checked--you are allowed to bring one water bottle per person into the park, but apparently, you're not allowed to bring FULL bottles of water. This seems pretty ridiculous to me--my sister and I had two generic bottles filled with water, not brand-names like Aquafina or Dasani. Plus, it's not like Hershey makes any money when we fill our bottles at a water fountain. We were told to dump our water before entering the park. I didn't.
At 10:00, the gates opened, and just about everyone (my sister and I included) headed to The Hollow via a new path near the stroller rental building in Rhineland. This is the quickest way to get to Skyrush. But halfway down the path, we were stopped--Skyrush apparently wasn't open yet, and the queue outside the ride entrance was backing up. We waited for about twenty minutes, but by this time, any advantage we'd tried to gain by hitting Skyrush early was gone. With no idea when the new coaster would be opening for the day, I made an executive decision--to head to the Boardwalk for some water rides and come back to Skyrush later. It was a risky move--if the ride opened soon after we left, we could be facing a LONG wait later in the day. But I didn't want to stand around and do nothing, either, so we headed off.
On our way to the Boardwalk, I noticed Storm Runner (the 0 to 75 mph in 2 seconds coaster) was running fairly empty trains. My sister and I decided to take advantage of the short line and hop on Storm Runner. The ride was practically walk-on, and I got to ride in the front seat on this coaster for the first time EVER. It was absolutely thrilling!
We next passed Fahrenheit, the 98-degree drop coaster, and noticed the line wasn't substantial for this, either--not walk-on, but certainly much shorter than usual. We queued up and rode Fahrenheit within twenty minutes. This time, we sat in the very back row for the first time ever, and it definitely added intensity to the already-thrilling ride!
It was finally Boardwalk time. To save money, my sister and I chose not to purchase a locker. I put all my money and valuables in a waterproof pouch around my neck. We used bag drops for all the water rides and coasters throughout the day, and ran into no big problems. Lockers are definitely preferable, but when you care about saving money, Hershey does make it easy to lug a bag around all day. (Not sure how easy it is on your back and shoulders, but that's a different issue.)
In the Boardwalk, we only rode four rides, even though the area was refreshingly not crowded and lines were minimal. We first rode the Whirlwind, a big funnel that is part of the four-slide Coastline Plunge complex. We next headed to the Roller Soaker, the interactive water coaster, but it was down for maintenance. My sister and I instead hit the next-door Intercoastal Waterway lazy river. We floated around three times, keeping an eye on the Roller Soaker each time. After our third trip, we saw the ride was open, so we disembarked and headed to the water coaster.
We hit the shortest line I have ever waited in for the Roller Soaker, which was wonderful, since this line can be very slow-moving. After the Roller Soaker, we headed over to the splash-down ride Tidal Force, which we got on quickly with another record-short line.
It was now time to abandon the water rides--my sister and I were both hungry, and still had Skyrush on our minds. We changed in the rooms near the Ferris Wheel and had lunch at our favorite Midway Munchies. Since they were right there, we then rode the two wooden coasters Lightning Racer and Wildcat with minimal waits (Wildcat was walk-on).
We decided to check on Skyrush's progress. I kept trying to see what was going on using the Hersheypark app I had downloaded onto my Android phone. However, the app never seemed to work right. I couldn't access closed rides or wait times, which is pretty much the whole point of the app for someone who already has a map of the park in their head. We therefore had to hoof it all the way across the park to see if Skyrush was open, but it was worth the walk--the ride was running! Not only that, but the queue was manageable--definitely the longest wait of the day, but I think we only waited about a half hour. For a brand new coaster on its third day of public operation, that wait is NOTHING. I think my sister and I would have waited longer if we hung out in the original line backup at the beginning of the day!
So, how was Skyrush? It was like nothing I have ridden before! I got more air-time on this ride than I have ever gotten on a classic wooden coaster. The lap bars are just that, in your lap instead of over the shoulder, which I have heard some complaints about. However, to me, they were perfect--they held you in comfortably but still made me feel like I'd be thrown from the ride at any second! The ride is also silent--it makes no noise as it zips through the track, which is one reason I had trouble knowing whether it was running or not. Standing in line, I couldn't tell when the train was on the lift hill unless I was looking for it!
I was very impressed with Skyrush. It is definitely the craziest, most thrilling coaster I have ever ridden. The wing seat (which I ride in) definitely made the ride even more exciting. The coaster is a great addition to Hersheypark!
After Skyrush, my sister and I rode the SooperDooperLooper, complete with the new trains and brakes. The new trains are very spiffy, and update a ride that is a classic without taking away any of its charm. The new braking system was impressive, really smoothing out some of the old, awkward brake spots, and made the ride more enjoyable.
After the Looper, my sister and I rode the Coal Cracker flume, then got an Icee at the next door Coal Cracker Pretzel stand. We took a break from the almost-90 degree heat and took our Icees to the nearby Minetown Restaurant, which was air conditioned. While in the restaurant, I noticed the Coal Cracker and Great Bear had closed. Since Great Bear was to be our next ride (and my favorite coaster of all time, by the way ), we were disappointed. It turns out that these rides, plus the Looper, Skyrush and Comet, were all closed because a circus train had come in, and the circus was worried the coasters would scare the departing animals. That made sense and was fine, but I wish Hershey had let us know ahead of time when the ride closures would be occuring.
Luckily, the rides were due to re-open later in the day, so my sister and I instead headed back to Pioneer Frontier, where we rode the pendulum Claw ride and the boomerang Sidewinder coaster. The Sidewinder has new restraints--not sure if this was a new addition this year or last, but they were very comfortable and made that ride more enjoyable, as well. My sister and I also rode the Kissing Tower, where we got to see some elephants getting off the circus train.
The coasters still weren't open yet, and I wasn't sure how much longer to wait--it was about 5:30, and I wanted to leave between 6 and 7. My sister and I went back to The Hollow and rode the Wave Swinger. While riding the swings, the Hollow coasters all re-opened, and we quickly rode the classic wooden Comet. Great Bear trains finally started running while in line for the Comet, so of course we next rushed back to Minetown to ride the great inverted coaster. It was our last ride before we headed back to our car.
The trip to Hersheypark on Memorial Day was one of my best ever. It was an unhurried, relaxed trip with almost no line waiting and minimal crowds. I might make Memorial Day a Hershey tradition--the crowds will probably be even thinner in a year where Hershey doesn't introduce a new coaster. I had a great time, but I can't wait until next month, when my family has a three-day Hershey extravaganza and I introduce my baby daughter to Hersheypark!
Showing posts with label vacation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label vacation. Show all posts
Thursday, May 31, 2012
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Hersheypark Trip, Day 1
I went to Hersheypark for two days on Sunday, August 8th and Monday, August 9th, using the Preview Plan for the first night. I went with my husband and my ten year-old sister. Here's a recap of our first day!
We left our home in the Scranton area around 1:00 in the afternoon, heading down Interstate 81 for almost the whole trip. There were some traffic issues, but our GPS guided us around them easily, and we arrived in the Hershey area in exactly two hours, at around 3:00.
The first thing we did was check into our hotel. We stayed at the Days Inn in Grantville, which is right off the I-81 exit. It's only seven miles away from Hersheypark and is drastically cheaper than any hotel you'll find closer to the park. Plus, it's nice and clean with good amenities and a polite staff who seem to be knowledgeable. As long as you don't care about things like having a pool or fitness center, the Days Inn Grantville works great for families on a budget.
At around 5:00 we headed toward Hershey, eating dinner at the Cocoa Grill, a diner near all the chain restaurants in Hershey. The food is good and not too expensive, but the ambiance definitely leaves something to be desired.
At 6:00, we headed off toward the park. We parked in the Hersheypark lot and paid the full $10 parking charge, which at first seems a bit steep for the Preview Plan's two and a half hours in the park. However, as long as you keep both your parking ticket and admission ticket, parking the next day is free. Hershey doesn't go out of their way to advertise this--I had seen it tucked away on their web site, and we received a piece of paper explaining this when we paid for parking, but I think that if someone wasn't paying close attention, they could easily pay for two days of parking and be none the wiser.
Since we still had about an hour before I wanted to go to the Hersheypark gate, we decided to go visit Chocolate World. This is a big "visitors center"-esque venue outside of Hersheypark, with shops, food, a factory tour ride, a 3-D show, and Hershey's Factory Works, where you can make your own candy bar (among other things). The crowd at Chocolate World was big but not too bad for a Sunday in the middle of summer. Since we were trying to save both time and money, we only chose one thing to do at Chocolate World. My family decided to ride the totally-free chocolate factory tour ride.
The line for the factory ride was out the door when we queued up. However, I wasn't daunted--the factory ride has an extremely fast-moving line due to the fact that it is a continuous-loading attraction with a high capacity. Therefore, we only waited in line for ten minutes before we got to ride the ride. I have probably ridden the factory tour ride at least fifty times in the past twenty-one years, and it never disappoints. It's a nice ride through a simulated factory that explains all about how they make the chocolate. As you exit the ride, you get a complementary Hershey bar, which is a nice way to satisfy the craving you developed while riding the ride.
After buying some fresh cookies and milk from a stand in the food and shops area of Chocolate World, it was about 7:10 and time to head down to the Hersheypark gate. The first thing we did was go to the Candy Brand measuring stations. Hershey puts a creative twist on height requirements, separating each height into categories featuring their own products. We were all thrilled to find out that my little sister was a Twizzler for the very first time--she barely made the 54" Twizzler cut off, but she was definitely over the line. This meant that she could ride the park's biggest coasters for the first time!
There was a line formed for the Preview Plan outside the gate. (Check out the "Let Me In!" entry from a few months ago, which explains this fantastic Hershey perk in more detail.) The line was long, but we were let in slightly before 7:30 (two and a half hours before park closing). The first ride we decided to ride was the Great Bear, Hershey's fantastic inverted coaster. This decision was made for several reasons--first and foremost, my little sister was dying to ride one of the coasters she had just been watching for years. Second, the Great Bear is located in Minetown, which is right in the middle of the park, yet not a far walk from the entrance gate. When you only have two and a half hours of park time, taking long strolls around the park isn't an option!
The line for Great Bear wasn't very long, and we rode it in a good amount of time. (My little sister loved it, by the way.) We next headed to the Great Bear's next door neighbor, the Coal Cracker, which is a standard flume and had no line, which was a great surprise. My family then continued down into Comet Hollow, which is one of the older sections of the park; therefore, it's pretty close to the entrance. We rode the famous Sooperdooperlooper (the first looping coaster on the East Coast) and Wave Swinger with lines that weren't too long, but the next ride we wanted to try, the Comet, had a VERY long line. The Comet, Hershey's classic wooden coaster, is a favorite, especially by people leaving the park who want one last thrill. Since it was about 8:30 at this point, I made an executive decision to wait on the Comet until the line was shorter.
Instead, we headed up the hill to Music Box Way. There, we rode the Reese's X-treme Cup Challenge, an indoor arcade game-like ride that can have really long lines--but only had an average one tonight. We also rode the Skyview, a scenic sky ride that takes you over a river and inches from the mighty Great Bear.
By this time, it was about 9:40, only twenty minutes before the park closed for the night, and lo and behold, the line for the Comet, which had looked to be forty minutes an hour ago, had now dwindled down to about a five to ten minute wait. Excitedly, my family rode the Comet, glad we had spent the last hour riding two additional rides and not standing in the long Comet line.
It was 9:57 when we got off the Comet. We finished off the night by getting some soft ice cream at the Crossroads Creamery, which is located next to the Reese's X-treme Cup Challenge, before heading out of the park.
After leaving, my husband and little sister both wanted some roller coaster shirts to wear the following day, which would be our full park day. Outside the park gate, I found a store called Hersheypark Memories, which actually had many coaster shirts to buy! It was a nice surprise, since I hadn't known about this particular store before. They bought their shirts, and we walked back to the car, ready to go back to the Days Inn and sleep. After all, we had a full day at Hersheypark to wake up for!
To be continued!
We left our home in the Scranton area around 1:00 in the afternoon, heading down Interstate 81 for almost the whole trip. There were some traffic issues, but our GPS guided us around them easily, and we arrived in the Hershey area in exactly two hours, at around 3:00.
The first thing we did was check into our hotel. We stayed at the Days Inn in Grantville, which is right off the I-81 exit. It's only seven miles away from Hersheypark and is drastically cheaper than any hotel you'll find closer to the park. Plus, it's nice and clean with good amenities and a polite staff who seem to be knowledgeable. As long as you don't care about things like having a pool or fitness center, the Days Inn Grantville works great for families on a budget.
At around 5:00 we headed toward Hershey, eating dinner at the Cocoa Grill, a diner near all the chain restaurants in Hershey. The food is good and not too expensive, but the ambiance definitely leaves something to be desired.
At 6:00, we headed off toward the park. We parked in the Hersheypark lot and paid the full $10 parking charge, which at first seems a bit steep for the Preview Plan's two and a half hours in the park. However, as long as you keep both your parking ticket and admission ticket, parking the next day is free. Hershey doesn't go out of their way to advertise this--I had seen it tucked away on their web site, and we received a piece of paper explaining this when we paid for parking, but I think that if someone wasn't paying close attention, they could easily pay for two days of parking and be none the wiser.
Since we still had about an hour before I wanted to go to the Hersheypark gate, we decided to go visit Chocolate World. This is a big "visitors center"-esque venue outside of Hersheypark, with shops, food, a factory tour ride, a 3-D show, and Hershey's Factory Works, where you can make your own candy bar (among other things). The crowd at Chocolate World was big but not too bad for a Sunday in the middle of summer. Since we were trying to save both time and money, we only chose one thing to do at Chocolate World. My family decided to ride the totally-free chocolate factory tour ride.
The line for the factory ride was out the door when we queued up. However, I wasn't daunted--the factory ride has an extremely fast-moving line due to the fact that it is a continuous-loading attraction with a high capacity. Therefore, we only waited in line for ten minutes before we got to ride the ride. I have probably ridden the factory tour ride at least fifty times in the past twenty-one years, and it never disappoints. It's a nice ride through a simulated factory that explains all about how they make the chocolate. As you exit the ride, you get a complementary Hershey bar, which is a nice way to satisfy the craving you developed while riding the ride.
After buying some fresh cookies and milk from a stand in the food and shops area of Chocolate World, it was about 7:10 and time to head down to the Hersheypark gate. The first thing we did was go to the Candy Brand measuring stations. Hershey puts a creative twist on height requirements, separating each height into categories featuring their own products. We were all thrilled to find out that my little sister was a Twizzler for the very first time--she barely made the 54" Twizzler cut off, but she was definitely over the line. This meant that she could ride the park's biggest coasters for the first time!
There was a line formed for the Preview Plan outside the gate. (Check out the "Let Me In!" entry from a few months ago, which explains this fantastic Hershey perk in more detail.) The line was long, but we were let in slightly before 7:30 (two and a half hours before park closing). The first ride we decided to ride was the Great Bear, Hershey's fantastic inverted coaster. This decision was made for several reasons--first and foremost, my little sister was dying to ride one of the coasters she had just been watching for years. Second, the Great Bear is located in Minetown, which is right in the middle of the park, yet not a far walk from the entrance gate. When you only have two and a half hours of park time, taking long strolls around the park isn't an option!
The line for Great Bear wasn't very long, and we rode it in a good amount of time. (My little sister loved it, by the way.) We next headed to the Great Bear's next door neighbor, the Coal Cracker, which is a standard flume and had no line, which was a great surprise. My family then continued down into Comet Hollow, which is one of the older sections of the park; therefore, it's pretty close to the entrance. We rode the famous Sooperdooperlooper (the first looping coaster on the East Coast) and Wave Swinger with lines that weren't too long, but the next ride we wanted to try, the Comet, had a VERY long line. The Comet, Hershey's classic wooden coaster, is a favorite, especially by people leaving the park who want one last thrill. Since it was about 8:30 at this point, I made an executive decision to wait on the Comet until the line was shorter.
Instead, we headed up the hill to Music Box Way. There, we rode the Reese's X-treme Cup Challenge, an indoor arcade game-like ride that can have really long lines--but only had an average one tonight. We also rode the Skyview, a scenic sky ride that takes you over a river and inches from the mighty Great Bear.
By this time, it was about 9:40, only twenty minutes before the park closed for the night, and lo and behold, the line for the Comet, which had looked to be forty minutes an hour ago, had now dwindled down to about a five to ten minute wait. Excitedly, my family rode the Comet, glad we had spent the last hour riding two additional rides and not standing in the long Comet line.
It was 9:57 when we got off the Comet. We finished off the night by getting some soft ice cream at the Crossroads Creamery, which is located next to the Reese's X-treme Cup Challenge, before heading out of the park.
After leaving, my husband and little sister both wanted some roller coaster shirts to wear the following day, which would be our full park day. Outside the park gate, I found a store called Hersheypark Memories, which actually had many coaster shirts to buy! It was a nice surprise, since I hadn't known about this particular store before. They bought their shirts, and we walked back to the car, ready to go back to the Days Inn and sleep. After all, we had a full day at Hersheypark to wake up for!
To be continued!
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