The ULTIMATE Guide to Hersheypark

[Music] over the last three years i've made 16 trips to hershey park i've seen and learned a lot and today i'm going to share it all i'll cover everything from the smallest of details to the biggest tips i've learned over the years where to stay the best way to beat the lines and some of the best places to eat and just like my other ultimate guys i've placed hidden secrets all throughout this video so whenever you hear this sound you're getting a great tip it's time to own hershey park [Music] i've got so much to cover so i'm just going to dive right into this now the progress bar of this video is divided into different sections so feel free to skip around but just remember when you skip ahead you could be missing one of my secret tips kind of like this one one look inside hershey's chocolate world and instantly you understand that they left no stones unturned when it comes to showing off the entire hershey collection but if you look real hard you can even find a few pieces of chocolate that are exclusive to hershey's chocolate world and can only be purchased here hershey park's packed to the gills with great rides things to do and amazing places to eat it's located in the town of hershey pennsylvania which also offers a few other experiences i'd highly recommend checking out during your visit and i'll briefly cover those as well in this guide now don't worry we'll get into the best way to experience this great coaster collection all the delicious food and a few secret tips but first we have to get the foundation of your triplaid in my opinion there's three ways to plan your trip depending on how much time and money you want to invest and each will offer a completely different experience you have the single day trip which i like to call the short but sweet the two day package now that's more like it and three or more days for the full hershey experience so let's start with the short but sweet for this trip i would mainly focus on two things hershey chocolate world and hershey park to get the most out of your day i would plan on getting to the parking lot around 8 45 getting parked will typically run you 20 unless you have a season pass but this is good for both attractions as they're right beside one another most days hershey park opens at 11 and the chocolate world at nine and this is why you should arrive at 8 45 but it's always a good idea to double check the hours before your trip getting into the hershey chocolate world and taking a ride on the chocolate tour ride are both free and a ton of fun but you'll need to visit chocolateworld.com to reserve your nine o'clock time slot ahead of time here you also have the option of purchasing discounted tickets to some of the other attractions inside of the chocolate world and if you're looking to add any of these experiences i'd recommend getting them ahead of time as they do sell out from time to time by the way this video was taken at 8 40 in the morning so trust me when i say go ahead and reserve your spot it's very popular now you spend as much time as you like in chocolate world but personally i always try to get into hershey park as soon as i can after it opens at 11. the lines of people entering the park can be very long but don't let this bother you because the new entrance and security they installed is among the fastest and most efficient i've seen at any park once you get into the park there's so much to do and see and i'll help you get the most out of it all but we have to pause right here so i can go over the benefits of the two day and three day package first if you're looking for cold water and you have your own cup then forget waiting in those long lines just find the nearest fast field station and it'll dispense water for free without having to scan your cup or pass the two-day plan is a great way to experience even more both hershey park and the town of hershey while still getting a great value for your money the thing to keep in mind here is that every single ticket to hershey park comes with a perk included called the preview plan the preview plan allows you to enter hersheypark a day before you visit for the last two hours of that day so for example if a park closes at seven then you would be able to enter for free at five just by showing your ticket now of course you can always just purchase a multi-day ticket at a discount in order to have two full days at the park but if you want to experience more what hershey has to offer i'd recommend pairing this free perk with a visit to both hershey gardens and the hershey story museum both are fairly inexpensive and if you decide to go this route with your trip then this is how i'd plan it out first you're going to need a hotel and there's lots to choose from around the area day one i'd plan on riding to the town of hershey around 10 or 11 in the morning it doesn't really matter the order but go ahead and use that time before your preview plan to visit hershey gardens and the hershey story museum hershey garden's got a place set up where you can watch butterflies and also 23 themed gardens and the hershey story museum it teaches you all about the life of milton hershey and both have lots of activities that you can learn more about by visiting hersheypa.com try to finish both of these before heading over to the park for your two-hour preview plan it may not seem like a lot but those last two hours of the day can be some of the best as many people have already had at home for the day and use your second day the same as we talked about in the one day short but sweet section earlier all right there's one more section before we get into the good stuff the three day full hershey experience first things first if you want the full hershey experience i'd highly recommend booking a stay at one of the three official hershey resorts now they can be a little more expensive than some of the other hotels in the area but at the same time they do provide you with different savings that can help offset other parts of your trip you have the hotel hershey hershey lodge and the hershey park camping resort with all three free shuttle service to the park is included saving you twenty dollars per day in parking fees along with the hassle of driving back and forth each day you also get exclusive access to the best prices on hershey park tickets as well even better you'll get into the park free the last three hours of the day before your visit instead of just the two that's included with the preview plan giving you even more time on that first day without having to pay for a ticket when staying at either hotel hershey or the hershey lodge you'll also get tickets to the hershey story museum and hershey gardens for free making your activities for the day you arrive completely free and still getting you into the park three hours before close after that i just purchased a two-day ticket at a discount for the remainder of the trip the hotel hershey is a beautiful piece of history that i could walk around for hours just studying all the detail and it's packed with wonderful places to eat including a circular and the coffee from chef's market's incredible i enjoyed mine while sitting on this lookout getting some great views of hershey before the park opened this resort offers so much that i'd need to put out an entire video just to cover it all so i'll just stop here for now the hershey lodge is also incredible they have a mini golf course you can play and in the evenings they also have a meet up to cook some mores over the fire pit inside you'll find a few restaurants including fire and grain and the cocoa beanery they also have a self checkout for the kids once again way too much to list in this video maybe i'll just put out a full video on the resorts in the future and last but certainly not least you have the hershey park camping resort if you're more into that camping lifestyle this is a great place to stay you can rent spots for tents or rv hookups and they even have cabin rentals and they have everything you need including a country store ice pools and a shower area it's finally time to get into this great coaster collection so i can give you some of my best tips to help you get as many rides as possible on your next visit if you're enjoying this ultimate guide it'd mean the world to me if you gave it a thumbs up and even consider subscribing as that really helps to support the channel i've got a ton of videos in the works and i'm really excited to share them soon i stressed it in my dollywood ultimate guide i stressed it in my cedar point ultimate god and i'm going to stress it again in this one if you truly want to maximize your day at hershey park you have to get here early real early you see from may 27 to september 6 the park has sweet start which allows anyone staying at an official resort or anyone with a full-size or king-size season pass to enter the park an hour early now i know not everyone will have access to this early entry feature so i'm going to explain how to do this both with and without it the best way i know how so let's take a look at the front entrance these two lines to the far left will be for anyone entering the park early for sweet start and all the other lines will be for the official park opening so check the calendar and if the park opens at 11 then you know sweet start is going to start at 10. if this applies to you then i would plan on being at the park around 9 15 45 minutes early so you can be near the front of this line when it opens if you're not entering for sweet start i would plan on being in line around 9 45 to 10 for the official opening at these spots the game plan is different depending on which time you enter the park so let's look at the sweet start first the reason you want to be one of the first in the early entry line is because of this and that's only half the line candemonium's hershey's newest coaster and it's at the very front of the park most of the crowd you just saw is headed straight to it and within a matter of minutes on a busy day the wait time is going to skyrocket my goal is always to be on one of the first trains of the day so i can enjoy the next 50 minutes of early entry with basically no wait times once you finish your ride on candymonium it's important to note that not all sections of the park are going to be open for sweet start so if you're here for the coasters you're focused until the park officially opens should be super duper looper skyrush and comet now you may be really tempted to head straight for skyrush at this point and there's nothing wrong with that but keep in mind that on most days it'll be a walk on during sweet start whereas comet and super duper looper tend to get a much longer line of the two comments line seems to fill up faster so personally that's what i'm headed to as soon as i get off candymonium right here at candemonium's final turn into the brake run you'll find a shortcut to skyrush and super duper looper this path was closed for the majority of the last two years but it's backing better than ever offering some amazing views of sky rush along the way however it's important to note that while this is your fastest path for getting the sky rush that's not the case for comet it took me 325 steps to get from here to sky rush and then an additional 144 steps from skyrush to comet so if you plan on heading to comet i just go straight here on the original path and turn right into skyview rod as that way only takes you 350 steps typically i can get my ride on comet right away without any weight and that's always a good thing because this is a great rod that tends to get some long lines throughout the day from here i'm headed straight over to super duper looper another coaster that gets really long lines during the day due to its low height requirement and smooth layout that really makes it a winner for almost everyone once again you should be able to get on this ride fairly quick at this point i'm headed straight for skybrush in my experience the lines here will be a walk home for most to sweet start and sometimes well into the day so far this has been a fairly simple game plan but when the rest of the park opens at 11 well that's when things get a little muddy and you have some decisions to make let's look at the map so i can explain here are all the coasters now i'll fill in the circles of the ones that seem to get the longest lines during the day as you can see there's a lot of popular coasters and they're all spread out through the park and most people would tell you to immediately make your way to the back of the park but personally for me i would never do this at the back of the park you have lightning racer wildcat wild mouse and lav track lightning racer rarely gets aligned because it's at the very back of the park and you can kind of think of it as two coasters because it races which really helps with the lines wildcats hit or miss but typically has one of the shorter lines during the day and while wild mouse can get a decent line i find it to move pretty fast the laugh track on the other hand does get some very long lines that'll typically last throughout the day but most of this lines queues indoors and it's a lot of fun things to look at and do so if i'm going to wait in a long line during my visit on a hot day this is the one i'd prefer to be waiting in in my opinion i say forget going straight to the back of the park and instead think about this if all things during sweet start went according to plan hopefully you already got a ride on candymonium comet super duper looper and skyrush so they're out of the coasters that are left there are three must rides that can get very long lines on busy days great bear storm runner and fahrenheit it's up to you at this point based on what you're most excited to ride but here's my thought process when i go earlier when discussing the two-day plan we talked about checking out the other things that the town of hershey has to offer before getting into the park for the last two hours free if those things don't interest you then you can do it lots of other coaster enthusiasts do start off day one with a trip to knoebels it's a wonderful pay-per-ride park located about an hour away from hershey many people would get to knoebels for opening and head down to hershey park just in time for the free two hour preview plan the day before their visit because great bear is such a reliable coaster and it's located across the park it's out instead at 11 o'clock i'm going to be waiting for the section of the park at chick-fil-a to open up as soon as that rope's dropped i'm going straight for fahrenheit from there head across the small bridge to stormrunner this intimate accelerator coaster is less reliable than some of the other machines at hershey so always try to get a ride on it early when possible if you really want to ride sidewander you're going to be very close to the entrance as you exit storm runner it's not a super popular rod but it can still get some long lines later in the day due to the design only allowing for single train operations as you make your way to great bear you might as well stop and take a ride on trailblazer if that's something you want to do as you'll pass right by it on your way finally go ahead and get a ride on great bear and just do the best you can for the rest of the day one thing i'll mention that on my more recent visits candemonium tends to have a long line until the end of the day so if you want to get a second ride on that you may be better off making it the last route of the day as the lines will slow close to closing let's talk about what to do when you're not entering the park for sweet start and instead for the official opening if you're a seasoned pass holder don't forget to check the rewards and events calendar sometimes you can grab some sweet deals on something you may have been purchasing anyways unfortunately if it's a fairly busy day your paths more than likely going to be much more difficult and require more waiting in order to ride all the coasters but with that being said i do still have some great tips to help out like i already stated try to be early so you can be one of the first in the park as they officially open up unless it's a slow day you're almost certainly better off to just keep walking right on past candymonium i've personally seen the lines at 240 minutes on busy days at 11 o'clock both comet and super duper looper will already have long lines due to already being open for sweet start skyrush is a great option at this point but keep in mind that on most days it's typically not too long of a wait throughout the day i think you would be best off heading for either great bear or towards fahrenheit and storm runner like we talked about earlier if you got in at 11 you're not in too bad of shape as long as you make your way straight to the one you choose remember lightning racer wildcat and sky rush are typically a quicker way throughout the day than some of the other ones as long as they're running if you're only in town for a day and you really want to experience as much as you can you can always consider getting either a fast track or fast track unlimited pass as they would drastically cut down on those wait times but it will increase the cost of your visit keep in mind too that not every day is going to be slam packed week days like tuesday to thursday tend to be less crowded and i've been to hershey many times where you didn't need to follow any formula you could just enjoy yourself and ride all you want this is just a helpful guide to help on those busy days now before we get into some of my favorite places to eat in the park and the great hershey treats let's talk about some of the other things you can do when you're at hershey park like flat rides and other fun attractions included with your mission to hershey park is zoo america it's a great way to step away from all the rides and just walk around and learn all about the animals [Music] the monorail is a great way to see the park and learn more about it along with the chocolate factory as it takes you through and even out of the park while telling you lots of facts about the area during your journey you even pass over top zoo america and can get some great views of the animals the train ride takes you on a journey through the pioneer frontier section of the park on a miniature replica steel train time it just right and you can get some great views of storm runners launch and also trailblazer the kissing tower takes you up 300 feet and spends you to offer a 360 degree view of the park and surrounding areas unfortunately it's been temporarily closed since the 2020 season but hopefully it'll reopen soon and then you have this sky view these rides are becoming more and more rare every single year as parks continue to remove them and for the parks that do still have one it's almost always hit or miss if it's going to be running during your visit due to the wind i guess and maybe i just have good luck but i've never seen the one at hershey park not operating hershey park is packed with flat rods so i'll just cover a few of my favorites you got your typical boat ride the swinging claw and howler all fun and reesy's cup fusion is one of the most popular attractions at the park but it's a hershey triple tower that's the real winner in my book these sns compressed air towers not only give you the feeling of free falling but also blast you up towards the sky if the 189 foot hershey tower is too much for you then you could always try and ride the reese's at 131 foot or the kisses tower at just 80 foot and who wouldn't want to try this water ride tidal force those huge boats in that hundred foot drop deliver one of the most powerful water splashes you'll find anywhere hershey park also has a boardwalk with some shops and a huge water park that's included with your admission so let's talk about the food at hershey park this park really has something for everyone seriously it's packed with places to eat and i'd never be able to cover them all instead i'll just show you some of my personal favorites tower fries across from a great bear is always a great option you can pick from cheese steak barbecue pulled pork disco and cheddar bacon ranch i baited the overlooked food court several times because it seems to always be one of the fastest places to get food from my experience and if you're at the park with a bigger group you can't go wrong here because the selection to choose from is so huge the 1906 grill also has a pretty good selection think of burgers chicken tenders fries and dessert and those crab fries at chickies and peeps are always delicious and of course moe's subway and chick-fil-a always seem to be a good option but without question the hottest spot in the park right now is the brand new chocolatier restaurant i haven't even ate here yet and it's already my favorite just the smell of the food took the top spot in my book the one time i tried to eat here the wait time was massive so be ready for that and just try to get on the list as soon as possible now no trip to hershey park is complete without those amazing chocolate treats and they're everywhere you turn just way too many to try them all so i'll just show you a few that i think are great first up is a funnel cake shop where you can get yourself a funnel cake with any of these flavors hershey reese's or strawberries and cream these mini donuts have also been a huge hit recently the king-size shakes at simply chocolate are one of my favorites and just massive in size i've always heard that you can't finish an order of cinnamon bread from dollywood or a king-size shake from hershey all by yourself well let me tell you the cinnamon bread is no problem for me but i've yet to be able to finish a king-size shake by myself there's sweet treats at every corner of this park but just like the chocolatier milton's ice cream parlor decided to drop the mic and finish off everything where it all started [Music] you know always wonder what silver dollar city would be like you

Channel: okaycoasters

Views: 77,248

Keywords: Hersheypark, Hershey park, hersheypark guide, guide, roller coasters, hersheypark roller coasters, top 10, best tips, tips and tricks, secrets, best secrets, winning, winning at hersheypark, skyrush, pov, Hershey pa, milton hershey, The Hershey Story museum, butterfly, plan your day, tickets, hersheypark hacks, top tips, storm runner, hersheypark best rides, top rides, secret tips and tricks, okaycoasters, okcoasters, Hershey Chocolate World, Hershey Park, Winning formula, planning

Id: W5XOyd9U17E

Length: 19min 28sec (1168 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 23 2021