Recent (last summer?) Hershey Park experiences
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Anonymous
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I’m trying to plan a trip to HersheyPark for this summer. I have never been, my husband went once about 15 years ago so no recent experiences. I watched a YouTube video review from 2022 that had me concerned - the YouTuber went in what looked like the spring judging by the leaves and attire of the people in the video and the fact that the water park wasn’t open. And he noted a fair number of kid rides that were closed and a few of the food stands. The ones that were open had very long lines. I saw another separate video of the water park, again from 2022, which had the kid attractions closed and huge long lines for everything and that was on Memorial Day weekend! If they can’t open everything on one of the busiest theme park weekends of the year, that is concerning to me as a customer. But it was also a little bit during Covid, so maybe things were better last year?
We could go whenever during the summer, not limited to weekends. However if weekends are better for staffing that’s something good to know. Or if attractions being closed due to presumably understaffing is still an issue, we would go to Busch Gardens instead, where I’ve always had good experiences but haven’t been since Covid. We have 2 kids age 5 and 9 and I just thought Hershey would be more little kid friendly. We’ve been to Dutch Wonderland a number of times and it was good but we were looking to do something different this summer. |
Anonymous
| Don’t go on weekend. We did last summer and lines were so long we were there all day and only made it onto 3 rides. We were in lines forever. The app said they’d be 20 min and they were actually over an hour. I think they have something like a fast pass too that you should look into. |
Anonymous
We may get one fast pass, I’m not sure, but my kids are too young for the “big” roller coasters anyway and I’d assume those have the longest lines. Did you notice a lot of rides being closed when you were there? Did you go to the water park? My kids both really want to do it but the video I saw, there was something like an hour long line just to get into the lazy river??? That’s crazy to me, we went to GWL over the fall and even at near max capacity you could just walk on to the lazy river there! |
Anonymous
| I went during Halloween and it was great. N0 lines during the day. I also went ver the summer but am having trouble remembering exactly when. There are some rides I''ve never been on but also some I've hoped on based on the app. That said, get there at gate-time. |
Anonymous
We’re definitely staying at the park so I think that comes with an early admission deal to the park before it officially opens. I’m no theme park newbie in general LOL. Just some of the things I read/saw about 2021/2022 concerned me and not sure if they were fixed by last summer. |
Anonymous
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They staff with HS and college kids so prior to mid-May or after Labor Day the staffing is insufficient and many things are closed. Anytime in the summer will be fully staffed with everything open. Clearly better to go on a weekday. We always get fast pass but maybe with littl kids it’s not worth it. If you stay on property. You can get in an hour early (not everything open for that) and you get a free “sneak peak” two hours before closing the night before, when lines are often much shorter.
You can download the app and start checking wait times if you are curious. The attached zoo America is also nice for younger kids. |
Anonymous
| I think they close the little kids rides in the off season. We've been for Halloween before and the kiddie rides were mostly closed. |
Anonymous
| Would suggest avoiding weekends and buying a fast pass. Otherwise, I think those staffing issues might have been covid related. |
Anonymous
| We had a great time there last summer. Went on a Friday through Sunday. Hung out at the hotel Saturday, park on Sunday. Had a great time. |
Anonymous
Also if you’re staying at one of their hotels, your ticket gives you access to the park the night before, so we could have gone Saturday night. We did Hershey world, etc on Friday afternoon. Stayed at hotel Hershey and had a great weekend. The circular has great dinner and breakfast buffet. |
Anonymous
| We went last summer on a Monday and it was packed. The little kid rides had 5 minute lines, but the roller coasters were 1 hour+. The water park stuff too had lines/were at capacity and you had to wait. Food took an astonishingly long time. The little kids we were with had fun, but even the 12 year old said she wouldn't go back. |
Anonymous
| We just went there last Saturday and it was ok. The longest ride wait time was 1 hour, but we did other rides then came back when it dropped to 30 min wait. Not every food stand opened but we didn’t wait long when ordering meals. We went in summer in the past and it’s too crowded, long line every ride and food stand and the pool/water park were fully packed. Weekday is better than weekend but it could still be awful. Either go before summer start or after summer end. |
Anonymous
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If you can, and you aren't buying the fast pass, save the rides that usually have the longest lines for like 4-7 p.m., when a lot of people are typically either leaving for the day or eating dinner. We found the lines were greatly reduced over those hours.
If you're going for only one day and it's peak summer, you pretty much have to purchase the fast pass if you want to ride everything. Otherwise waiting in line will eat up your entire visit. |