My children, like most, are amusement park aficionados. When we discovered Hershey Park, after years of blogmixmarche traveling to Disney World, we thought we had found an undiscovered gem. However, when we made return trips in the following two years, park overcrowding made the trips extremely expensive wastes of time.
Our first visit had taken place during the first week in September, and unusual occurrence where the park was still open on a weekday following Labor Day when school hadn't started yet. We only visited for the day but it was delightful. Our children could go on any ride, any number of times. The restaurant seated us without a delay and we went home singing the Park's praises and planning our next visit.
For our second visit, we went at the end of August. The park was so overcrowded you couldn't get Windows Installer 5.0 on a ride without a one hour, and sometimes What Web Businesses Can Learn From Online Gambling two hour wait. There were no seats to be had for dining. The only saving grace for the visit was that Poison Ivy, Oak, And Sumac we had stayed at the Hotel Hershey. And while it was very expensive, we found the help pleasant, the food excellent, and the outdoor pool fun for the children with its water slides. And by comparison, we have stayed at other expensive resorts, such as The Grand Floridian in Disney World.
Visitors of the Hotel Hershey or the Lodge are offered Hershey Resorts Advantage where you are allowed into the Park an hour before it opens. So you would think that you could get on all the popular Kb290934 rides early, right? Wrong. They only open a small section of the park with one wooden roller coaster, a swing ride, and a few rides for smaller children. They post park guards at all the exit points from that section so you cannot even walk back to the rest of the park until it officially opens. We decided, albeit with very disappointed children, that we would spend more time at the Hotel Hershey pool, than at the Park. Disney does something similar but gives you early access to the whole park, and doesn't limit the rides to a select few.
Our third, and I'm sad to say it, final trip to Hershey, was this year during the latter part of May. The children had Service Unrecognized Service some extra days off from school and we decided a mid week trip to Hershey would probably result in a smaller crowd. Wrong again. While we were correct that there weren't many hotel visitors, there were buses lining the parking lot as far as the eye could see. Unfortunately, we had inadvertently come during a music appreciation week where hundreds of choirs and bands from the tri-state area descended on the park before attending an awards ceremony in the Park's arena. My children couldn't get on a single ride without waiting at least an hour and a Baseball Betting 101 half. Three separate times during our three day stay we went to the park and decided to leave and return in the hopes of finding the park a little less crowded. It never was.
So, you would expect Animal repellers for protection against animals that we could still enjoy ourselves at the Hotel right? Wrong yet a third time. The outdoor pool, although running, heated 2105 Error Windows 7 and apparently ready to go, was closed to hotel guests as it was being used to train lifeguards. We decided instead to take advantage of another activity offered at the hotel grounds through Hershey Outfitters. The "Odyssey" as marketed on the Hotel Hershey website is described as "possibly the largest jungle gym you've ever seen." Imagine our surprise when we discovered that it wasn't a jungle gym at all, but a difficult climbing tower. We had to be harnessed and attached to guide lines at all times as we walked across wires 20 and 40 feet above ground. The staff was wonderful but it was more team building Windows Server 2003 Print Spooler exercise than family event. After some anxious moments, three out of the five of us decided to make our way safely back to the ground. Even though we didn't complete half of the activity we still paid over $400 for the pleasure of trying to overcome our fear of heights.
If money is no object, Hershey offers a VIP service called a Sweet Access Pass, which provides you with a personal concierge who will take you to the front of the line during a six hour period. You must buy a minimum of 4 Sweet Access Passes, at a cost ranging from $199-$240 per person for ages above 9, and $115-$140 for ages 3 to 8. For our family of five, during July or August, it would cost us $1200 for the six hour experience.
To be fair, we still What Materials Can't be Placed in a Skip? found the hotel staff helpful and the facilities beautiful. But if you intend to go to the hotel to enjoy the amusement park, I would highly recommend calling the park in advance to see if they have any special events planned. And if you still decide to go, go with the expectation that you will be spending a lot of time waiting and very little time riding, and you won't be disappointed.
C. J. Mackey is a working mother of three, balancing a full time career while taking an active role in her children's lives. She has an advanced degree in engineering and over twenty years making technology decisions for fortune 500 companies. For more visit at http://cjmackeypress.com/
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