Hershey Park, PA - August 13

A rare and special occasion occurred on Monday August 13.  My husband, myself and the kids were all scheduled to be off on the same day...together...all of us, at once.  It just so happens that I had also committed to babysitting (can you call it babysitting when they are 11 & 14?) the neighbors that day.  So, we approached their mother and asked her if she would be willing to send money for park tickets and food and allow us to take her kids to Hershey Park for the day.  This was win /win.  Our kids would have someone to hang out with and ride roller coasters with and her kids would get a tip to an amusement park. 

We set off at 7:30 in the morning for what should have been a two and a half hour drive.  We hit traffic just before the Chesapeake Bay Bridge due to a combination of  rush hour traffic and an accident.  We picked up some speed for a couple of hours but then hit horrendous Pennsylvanian traffic caused mostly by construction.  But, we eventually made it to our destination.  It was 1:00 and the park had already been open for an hour.

I am figuring that a lot of people were trying to get one last summer blast in before the start of the school year because the park was a little on the crowded side.  But, on the other hand, we escaped the usual blistering August heat in exchange for an usually pleasant day.  It was hot but not August, dreadful, hot.

Hershey Park has a lot of hills and, unlike Disney, where I have the park memorized, I can never seem to find my way around.  The maps don't seem to do me any good at all.  We split up based on ride height and desire and then seemed to spend a lot of time chasing each other down. 

Hershey is a great destination but, unlike Disney, I could not imagine spending more than a day there... maybe two but surely not three.

The ride heights are clearly marked by different candy bars.  Lil' Bit who tops out at 44 inches could ride anything marked with a Reese's Peanutbutter Cup sign. 

But not this ride.

Lil' Bit quickly declared all of the "Hershey Kiss" rides too babyish and demanded speed and thrills.  Unfortunately, there are not a lot of rides for her size but she managed to find enough to keep her interest.

She and M went on a Pirate Ship ride before we split up.

I don't care for big coasters or rides that spin you around but, due to all of us heading in different directions, I was her riding partner.

Momma don't like going fast

Hershey Park has a water park in the middle of the regular amusement park and it is included in the price of admission.  We decided to head there early since that part of the park closes at 6:00 and we wanted to make sure the kids got their fill of it.  We got them changed into their bathing suits and splashing around just before noon.  My husband and I commandeered a table and told the kids that this would be our command post.  They were to check in with us there if they got hungry or just needed to see our faces.  I will say, they only came by when they were hungry.

 One of the highlights of the day, at least for me, was when the boys did this surfing, body boarding, ride thing.  (Big Boy went first and Little D jumped in the next lane while Big Boy was riding his wave)

Oh, and if you are wondering why there are no other pictures of Little D on this blog post, he is a fast little dude and I barely caught up with him all day.

We left the waterpark area around 5:00 and set off to find as many thrill rides as we could (for the kids, of course).  The boys waited in line for a ridiculous 90 minutes for the Fahrenheit ride while the girls and I found a few rides that both Lil' Bit and M could ride.

The crowds dipped down a little bit but picked back up shortly after 6:00.  Hershey offers a deal where you can get in at 6:00 on the day before your all day park ticket.  So, all the folks were were spending the night in a hotel, came to the park for a few bonus hours.

We headed out of the park a little before closing with the intention of getting to the souvenir shop.  Now, not to beat a dead horse and constantly compare all other parks to Disney World but, this is one area where Hershey Park fails and Disney does it right.  Hershey Park's souvenir shop closes at the same time that the park closes while Disney keeps their stored open for quite a while after the park closes.  Disney has figured out that if people are still in their park, they are sill spending money - even more so after the rides shut down.

Well, we had run through the maddening crowd to get to the store before it closed at 10:00 .  My husband and the girls made it in but the doors were slammed shut in the faces of myself and the boys.  And the 17 year old security guard was earning every penny of his minimum wage.  He would not budge to allow anyone in the store.  And there were quite a few people with money left in thier pockets who would have loved to leave some of it at Hershey if they could have gotten in the store.

My husband and the girls grabbed enough souvenirs and candy to keep everyone happy and we headed home.  We had eaten a late lunch and a couple of snacks so now (at 10:30PM) it was time toe feed the kids dinner.  We stopped at McDonald's and had them eat in the car.

Our drive home took less time than the drive up but it was still 1:30 AM before we pulled into the driveway.