NigelSTW
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Columbus Day Weekend Food Blitz! My first PTR! Updated 10/1!
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Li Li
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Oct 11, 2012
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Hi all! And now for something completely different...our trip to Hersheypark last weekend!
Nigel and I had some free tickets that expire as of July 4, so we finally picked last weekend to go. Both of us have grown up with Hersheypark in our backyard, so to speak, and now it practically is in our backyard since we can walk to the entrance! I worked at HP for three summers during high school, so I might be a little biased in that I really like the park. However, I am more old school in that I grew up without the "Boardwalk" area. For those that do not know, Hersheypark was your basic rides park with a few water rides here and there...then it decided to expand and add in a wave pool, lazy river, slides and water play areas galore! True story...we have never entered any of the water attractions! A couple reasons for this...the water attraction area is only open from Memorial Day (or thereabouts) to Labor Day. Many years when we hit HP, we do it during fall or spring (Hersheypark in the Dark, Springtime in the Park) so as to avoid the big summer crowds. Therefore, the water stuff isn't open when we are there. Other times, well, we just don't feel like getting wet! Plus, we would rather spend the time catching all the great coasters. But, we may try to hit the water side at some point this summer, who knows!
More info about us...Nigel is addicted to capturing every moment via picture or video. I used to take pictures, and then I realized that he was taking more and better pics, and I realized today that I think I only took about five pictures on our last Disney trip because I knew he would take all we needed! Anywho, all pictures are courtesy of Nigel with one or two from me.
I think this is the start of our day.
Our first stop...Skyrush!
Image from wikimedia.org.
I think this may be one of my favorite coasters. It just opened last year. It is crazy fast with great hills and twists and you really feel like you are going to fly out of your seat. As you may be able to see, there is nothing over your shoulders, the harness is simply a lap bar! Very exciting
Standing in line, it appeared that it was teenager day! Ugh, lots of high school kids, possibly senior trips. Lots of line cutting to join friends, but I went to my happy place and decided not to sweat the small stuff. In addition, it was also Girl Scout day as tons of different troops (with matching t-shirts) were all over the park. We were hoping that the morning might be slow due to the clouds, but it was still pretty busy. Then, the sun came out at noon, which I think helped drive a lot of people over to the water attractions.
Per our usual plan, we hit most of the coasters first. After Skyrush, we rode Great Bear, a steel hanging down type coaster, which is probably my second favorite. This ride opened in 1998 and has a 124-foot drop. Oh warning, you may get random bits of trivia/history leftover from my days as a park employee! Rumor has it that when they were testing the coaster (without riders), it apparently hit a duck and...feathers everywhere. It swings down over the creek running through the park, so it could be entirely possibly as the ducks were probably not used to it yet, but I did not see it firsthand, just heard about it from fellow employees!
Wikipedia photo.
Next, we slowed it down for Kissing Tower. Old school photo from internet.
As it looks, you ride up and get a 360, panoramic view of the lovely town of Hershey. Now, I feel like I should insert a history lesson about the life of Milton S. Hershey, his start of the candy company and huge trust to fund a school, but I am feeling lazy. Is there a lazy emoticon? It is a really good story, so feel free to check out wikipedia.
Here we are sitting in Kissing Tower.
And some views:
Panorama option on iPhone:
Next...more coasters
Nigel and I had some free tickets that expire as of July 4, so we finally picked last weekend to go. Both of us have grown up with Hersheypark in our backyard, so to speak, and now it practically is in our backyard since we can walk to the entrance! I worked at HP for three summers during high school, so I might be a little biased in that I really like the park. However, I am more old school in that I grew up without the "Boardwalk" area. For those that do not know, Hersheypark was your basic rides park with a few water rides here and there...then it decided to expand and add in a wave pool, lazy river, slides and water play areas galore! True story...we have never entered any of the water attractions! A couple reasons for this...the water attraction area is only open from Memorial Day (or thereabouts) to Labor Day. Many years when we hit HP, we do it during fall or spring (Hersheypark in the Dark, Springtime in the Park) so as to avoid the big summer crowds. Therefore, the water stuff isn't open when we are there. Other times, well, we just don't feel like getting wet! Plus, we would rather spend the time catching all the great coasters. But, we may try to hit the water side at some point this summer, who knows!
More info about us...Nigel is addicted to capturing every moment via picture or video. I used to take pictures, and then I realized that he was taking more and better pics, and I realized today that I think I only took about five pictures on our last Disney trip because I knew he would take all we needed! Anywho, all pictures are courtesy of Nigel with one or two from me.
I think this is the start of our day.
Our first stop...Skyrush!
Image from wikimedia.org.
I think this may be one of my favorite coasters. It just opened last year. It is crazy fast with great hills and twists and you really feel like you are going to fly out of your seat. As you may be able to see, there is nothing over your shoulders, the harness is simply a lap bar! Very exciting
Standing in line, it appeared that it was teenager day! Ugh, lots of high school kids, possibly senior trips. Lots of line cutting to join friends, but I went to my happy place and decided not to sweat the small stuff. In addition, it was also Girl Scout day as tons of different troops (with matching t-shirts) were all over the park. We were hoping that the morning might be slow due to the clouds, but it was still pretty busy. Then, the sun came out at noon, which I think helped drive a lot of people over to the water attractions.
Per our usual plan, we hit most of the coasters first. After Skyrush, we rode Great Bear, a steel hanging down type coaster, which is probably my second favorite. This ride opened in 1998 and has a 124-foot drop. Oh warning, you may get random bits of trivia/history leftover from my days as a park employee! Rumor has it that when they were testing the coaster (without riders), it apparently hit a duck and...feathers everywhere. It swings down over the creek running through the park, so it could be entirely possibly as the ducks were probably not used to it yet, but I did not see it firsthand, just heard about it from fellow employees!
Wikipedia photo.
Next, we slowed it down for Kissing Tower. Old school photo from internet.
As it looks, you ride up and get a 360, panoramic view of the lovely town of Hershey. Now, I feel like I should insert a history lesson about the life of Milton S. Hershey, his start of the candy company and huge trust to fund a school, but I am feeling lazy. Is there a lazy emoticon? It is a really good story, so feel free to check out wikipedia.
Here we are sitting in Kissing Tower.
And some views:
Panorama option on iPhone:
Next...more coasters
Disneylover99
DIS Legend
- Joined
- Jul 17, 2012
- Messages
- 33,590
No events for us because we will only be in Epcot for one day so like you,we are hoping to try out the different booths. We also have a dinner reservation at Biergarten,in case the booths are crazy/busy. Plus we will have our kids with us. Which is not exactly conducive to drinking around the world!
Although I will have to buy a margarita from Le Cava and a Grey Goose Slushie from France. I wish I had one of these drinks now!!!!
NigelSTW
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jan 22, 2013
- Messages
- 98
I love my iPhone and I love taking pictures. Li Li get annoyed with my habitual picture taking, but now we have tons of pics.
Anyway, Milton Hershey started his chocolate company at the turn of the last century, and it was a huge hit. He opened a park a few years later for a place for his employees to relax. He then put in a wooden roller coaster "the Comet" which still runs today for the enjoyment of his employees and the towns people. It stayed small and for local use for the most part. For years up until the early 70's the park had multiple entrances and you bought tickets to ride the various rides and attractions. Apparently up until the early 1980's if you lived in town you could get in free on off days for the evening.
Milton died in 1945 without any kids so he left his fortune to a trust. The trust has controlling interest in the Hershey Company (food) and Hershey Entertainment- the Park, hotels, various restaurants in the hotels, and few around the town. He also left a large sum of money to endow the Hershey School for Boys, which is now the Milton Hershey School. This school has the second or third largest endowment and is only beat by I think Harvard and perhaps Yale?
Times changes and in the early seventies the Hershey Entertainment company decided to do a Disney and make it a single entrance park, and a flat fee to enter the park including the rides. The park remained fairly small with four or so coasters, shows, lots of spinning rides until the 1990s when the Park went on a huge expansion kick. The Park now has 11 coasters, a waterpark, and has over doubled in size. It has become much more a regional park than the local one I grew 20 minutes from by car and had a annual pass.
The town has a population of around 12,000 boasts two major resort Hotels, a theatre, two arenas, and a stadium. Oh, Milt's money went to starting a teaching hospital in town in the mid 1960s which is run by Penn State. It's a special place to live. It's not nearly on the scale of Disney, but it ain't too shabby.
Anyway, Milton Hershey started his chocolate company at the turn of the last century, and it was a huge hit. He opened a park a few years later for a place for his employees to relax. He then put in a wooden roller coaster "the Comet" which still runs today for the enjoyment of his employees and the towns people. It stayed small and for local use for the most part. For years up until the early 70's the park had multiple entrances and you bought tickets to ride the various rides and attractions. Apparently up until the early 1980's if you lived in town you could get in free on off days for the evening.
Milton died in 1945 without any kids so he left his fortune to a trust. The trust has controlling interest in the Hershey Company (food) and Hershey Entertainment- the Park, hotels, various restaurants in the hotels, and few around the town. He also left a large sum of money to endow the Hershey School for Boys, which is now the Milton Hershey School. This school has the second or third largest endowment and is only beat by I think Harvard and perhaps Yale?
Times changes and in the early seventies the Hershey Entertainment company decided to do a Disney and make it a single entrance park, and a flat fee to enter the park including the rides. The park remained fairly small with four or so coasters, shows, lots of spinning rides until the 1990s when the Park went on a huge expansion kick. The Park now has 11 coasters, a waterpark, and has over doubled in size. It has become much more a regional park than the local one I grew 20 minutes from by car and had a annual pass.
The town has a population of around 12,000 boasts two major resort Hotels, a theatre, two arenas, and a stadium. Oh, Milt's money went to starting a teaching hospital in town in the mid 1960s which is run by Penn State. It's a special place to live. It's not nearly on the scale of Disney, but it ain't too shabby.
Li Li
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Oct 11, 2012
- Messages
- 641
After Kissing Tower, we stopped off at the plain concrete building. This is an indoor ride called Reeses Cup Challenge. Think Buzz Lightyear, but probably lamer. I say probably because we have never actually done Buzz Lightyear! We have only seen it from the PeopleMover. Anyway, I used to always pass by the building because I thought it was some private catering space or something, and then I finally realized it was a ride. It came in after my time as an employee. (Actually, it took the place of one of the old games I used to work!). We only tried it for the first time last year or maybe the year before. I just thought Id get some practice in since we were horrible at it the first time. We are still pretty bad, but at least I beat Nigels score! Yay competition!
Beginning of ride:
Did you know that Hersheypark has a monorail?!
Yep, our very own monorail sponsored by Blue Cross.
It only goes on a loop though. We always see what looks like an exit when it goes outside the park and shows the factory in town (sadly, no longer in operation factory moved outside of town but still in Hershey). Anyway, we wish they would open the exit so we could take it at the end of the night and be even closer to home! Oh well. This monorail has its own torture much like CMs memorize the WDW monorail spiel, I have the Herhseypark song memorized! I used to work at the game under the monorail station (now gone). As the monorail would return to the station and pass over my game, it would play the Hersheypark song. Hersheypark happy, hersheypark glaaad, so many things to see and do, good times to be had. I just sang that in my head.
Next, we headed to Pioneer Frontier to ride Fahrenheit. If you know the Rip, Ride, Rockit from Universal Orlando, then this is basically the same thing without music. I think this will be crossed off future lists. Honestly, I think this might only be the second time I have ridden it. It is a fairly new coaster, and the lines are always long! This was no exception; I think we waited about an hour. And it is fun, but not totally worth the wait in my opinion.
After waiting in line all that time, we were STARVING! We headed over to Nathans to get hot dogs and cheese fries, yum!
No pics of food though. Nigel failed!
We decided to head over to Sidewinder. This opened in 1994 and takes you forward and backward.
Now with some of the newer coasters in place, this has a short line and is still fun! We made a stop at Dunkin Donuts first though.
After Sidewinder, the exit leads you right to Storm Runner. Think Aerosmiths Rockin Roller Coaster, but honestly? Not as good. Aerosmith wins hands down for fun story and longer ride. Storm Runner takes your breath away with the cool fast start but it feels like the ride lasts 4 seconds tops! After waiting in line, the quickness of the ride seems like a letdown.
We circled back to hit the Wildcat, Nigels favorite ride. Opened in 1996, it has a 95-foot drop and reaches speeds up to 45 mph. (I guess I should have warned you that random facts from my time as an employee may come up in this report!)
The best wooden coaster at the park in my opinion. It was named after the original Wildcat wooden coaster that was in the park in the 20s, I believe.
Moving on to Lightning Racer. This is another wooden coaster, but two coasters are running at once, racing each other. I like this for the simple reason that it is a fun ride with no wait! I dont know what's going on, but it just does not attract the crowds. It opened in 2000, and I especially wanted to ride this trip as I worry for its future. Some backstory: After last season, HP took out Roller Soaker. Roller Soaker was a steel, hanging coaster where water was shot at you and dumped on you and you could dump water on people on the ground. Again, a relatively recent coaster (in my opinion), it was only 10 years old, but it got taken out to make room for a water play area for kids. ☹ My guess (which is purely a guess) is that they took it out because it just couldnt service that many people, and lines would really back up on hot days. I think they might also add some water slides in this area eventually as well. I bet maintenance on a wet coaster was problematic as well.
Oh, random picture of waterplay area:
Taking out a 10-year coaster like Roller Soaker makes me worried for Lightning Racer. As I said, it is basically walk on, never a wait even on busy days. It takes up a lot of space, which is valuable real estate for a park that is already bursting at the seams. With the huge popularity of the Boardwalk water attractions, I could see them taking out Lightning Racer to put in even more water stuff. Time will tell.
After riding coasters and walking around, we obviously needed ice cream!
I got butter pecan and coffee; Nigel got chocolate and vanilla bean. I dont know if it was really hot or if I was really in the mood for ice cream, but I thought it was fantastic! Very yummy!
After eating ice cream, we still had to continue Nigels quest for chocolate. Did you know that HP has refrigerated vending machines just filled with candy bars?!
Nigel kept trying to buy candy, but the machines were rejecting our bills. We finally found a change machine and got quarters.
Success!
We skipped the Wild Mouse, which is the scariest coaster in the park. It may look small and innocent, but dont let it fool you! It is a small car and whips you around the corners like it is going to throw you and your car right off the track so that you plummet to the ground. I think AK has something similar in the Dinoland area, but the Wild Mouse cars have lower sides and do not spin.
We still had to hit the Comet which is the oldest wooden coaster in the park. Operating since the 40s, I believe. Good, old-fashioned fun. Still a pretty exciting ride for a wooden coaster too! Always popular too, but the line wasnt too bad when we hit it.
Oh, side note. Apparently, Hersheypark has gone the Universal route and instituted a PAID fastpass. For $50, you can enter through the exit for nine coasters, I think. Interestingly though, the seats that are reserved for the fast pass on only the middle cars on the coasters. I saw one girl try to go in the back of the coaster, and the rides employee said she could only sit in the designated middle cars. Is it like that at Universal?
I digress. We finished up with another oldie, but goodie the Coal Cracker. This is your basic log flume ride. Its Splash Mountain without the story! Its an open air ride with a fun drop at the end. Dont worry, no soaking just a little splash!
I almost forgot the Hershey character party we ran into! A whole bunch of Hershey's characters were out...Payday, Chocolate Syrup, Hershey Symphony bar (any of these ringing a bell? or is everyone like what is she talking about?!)
We asked an employee to take our picture with the Hershey's Symphony bar, but it turned out horrible! Off-center, finger in the shot, just plain bad! Oh well.
Up next, a trip to the zoo! There's a zoo? Yep, there's a zoo!
Beginning of ride:
Did you know that Hersheypark has a monorail?!
Yep, our very own monorail sponsored by Blue Cross.
It only goes on a loop though. We always see what looks like an exit when it goes outside the park and shows the factory in town (sadly, no longer in operation factory moved outside of town but still in Hershey). Anyway, we wish they would open the exit so we could take it at the end of the night and be even closer to home! Oh well. This monorail has its own torture much like CMs memorize the WDW monorail spiel, I have the Herhseypark song memorized! I used to work at the game under the monorail station (now gone). As the monorail would return to the station and pass over my game, it would play the Hersheypark song. Hersheypark happy, hersheypark glaaad, so many things to see and do, good times to be had. I just sang that in my head.
Next, we headed to Pioneer Frontier to ride Fahrenheit. If you know the Rip, Ride, Rockit from Universal Orlando, then this is basically the same thing without music. I think this will be crossed off future lists. Honestly, I think this might only be the second time I have ridden it. It is a fairly new coaster, and the lines are always long! This was no exception; I think we waited about an hour. And it is fun, but not totally worth the wait in my opinion.
After waiting in line all that time, we were STARVING! We headed over to Nathans to get hot dogs and cheese fries, yum!
No pics of food though. Nigel failed!
We decided to head over to Sidewinder. This opened in 1994 and takes you forward and backward.
Now with some of the newer coasters in place, this has a short line and is still fun! We made a stop at Dunkin Donuts first though.
After Sidewinder, the exit leads you right to Storm Runner. Think Aerosmiths Rockin Roller Coaster, but honestly? Not as good. Aerosmith wins hands down for fun story and longer ride. Storm Runner takes your breath away with the cool fast start but it feels like the ride lasts 4 seconds tops! After waiting in line, the quickness of the ride seems like a letdown.
We circled back to hit the Wildcat, Nigels favorite ride. Opened in 1996, it has a 95-foot drop and reaches speeds up to 45 mph. (I guess I should have warned you that random facts from my time as an employee may come up in this report!)
The best wooden coaster at the park in my opinion. It was named after the original Wildcat wooden coaster that was in the park in the 20s, I believe.
Moving on to Lightning Racer. This is another wooden coaster, but two coasters are running at once, racing each other. I like this for the simple reason that it is a fun ride with no wait! I dont know what's going on, but it just does not attract the crowds. It opened in 2000, and I especially wanted to ride this trip as I worry for its future. Some backstory: After last season, HP took out Roller Soaker. Roller Soaker was a steel, hanging coaster where water was shot at you and dumped on you and you could dump water on people on the ground. Again, a relatively recent coaster (in my opinion), it was only 10 years old, but it got taken out to make room for a water play area for kids. ☹ My guess (which is purely a guess) is that they took it out because it just couldnt service that many people, and lines would really back up on hot days. I think they might also add some water slides in this area eventually as well. I bet maintenance on a wet coaster was problematic as well.
Oh, random picture of waterplay area:
Taking out a 10-year coaster like Roller Soaker makes me worried for Lightning Racer. As I said, it is basically walk on, never a wait even on busy days. It takes up a lot of space, which is valuable real estate for a park that is already bursting at the seams. With the huge popularity of the Boardwalk water attractions, I could see them taking out Lightning Racer to put in even more water stuff. Time will tell.
After riding coasters and walking around, we obviously needed ice cream!
I got butter pecan and coffee; Nigel got chocolate and vanilla bean. I dont know if it was really hot or if I was really in the mood for ice cream, but I thought it was fantastic! Very yummy!
After eating ice cream, we still had to continue Nigels quest for chocolate. Did you know that HP has refrigerated vending machines just filled with candy bars?!
Nigel kept trying to buy candy, but the machines were rejecting our bills. We finally found a change machine and got quarters.
Success!
We skipped the Wild Mouse, which is the scariest coaster in the park. It may look small and innocent, but dont let it fool you! It is a small car and whips you around the corners like it is going to throw you and your car right off the track so that you plummet to the ground. I think AK has something similar in the Dinoland area, but the Wild Mouse cars have lower sides and do not spin.
We still had to hit the Comet which is the oldest wooden coaster in the park. Operating since the 40s, I believe. Good, old-fashioned fun. Still a pretty exciting ride for a wooden coaster too! Always popular too, but the line wasnt too bad when we hit it.
Oh, side note. Apparently, Hersheypark has gone the Universal route and instituted a PAID fastpass. For $50, you can enter through the exit for nine coasters, I think. Interestingly though, the seats that are reserved for the fast pass on only the middle cars on the coasters. I saw one girl try to go in the back of the coaster, and the rides employee said she could only sit in the designated middle cars. Is it like that at Universal?
I digress. We finished up with another oldie, but goodie the Coal Cracker. This is your basic log flume ride. Its Splash Mountain without the story! Its an open air ride with a fun drop at the end. Dont worry, no soaking just a little splash!
I almost forgot the Hershey character party we ran into! A whole bunch of Hershey's characters were out...Payday, Chocolate Syrup, Hershey Symphony bar (any of these ringing a bell? or is everyone like what is she talking about?!)
We asked an employee to take our picture with the Hershey's Symphony bar, but it turned out horrible! Off-center, finger in the shot, just plain bad! Oh well.
Up next, a trip to the zoo! There's a zoo? Yep, there's a zoo!
Li Li
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Oct 11, 2012
- Messages
- 641
No events for us because we will only be in Epcot for one day so like you,we are hoping to try out the different booths. We also have a dinner reservation at Biergarten,in case the booths are crazy/busy. Plus we will have our kids with us. Which is not exactly conducive to drinking around the world!
Although I will have to buy a margarita from Le Cava and a Grey Goose Slushie from France. I wish I had one of these drinks now!!!!
Did you hear about the new slushie that has cranberry and St. Germaine? Apparently, they kept it at France even after Flower & Garden. Hope it's still there in October!
Li Li
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Oct 11, 2012
- Messages
- 641
Hello and happy Wednesday! I am sitting in the courtroom waiting for my case to be called, so I thought I'd continue my Hersheypark mini-trip update with some side notes.
Many times on the DISboards, I see stories about people taking their own photograph of a ride photograph rather than buying it, which I don't have an issue with. I think the ride photos are somewhat overpriced and it would have to be a pretty spectacular photo to persuade me to buy it. Anyway, Hersheypark has ride photos for most of their coasters. The interesting thing I noticed is that the video screens showing the ride photos have PROOF written through the photo diagonally. Almost like a watermark but very noticeable. I can only presume that this is to thwart the taking a photo of your photo issue rather than buying.
In any case, it just surprised me. To my recollection, I do not believe Disney does the same thing but maybe I am wrong. I get why HP does it, but I guess it surprised or maybe disappointed me a little? I don't necessarily begrudge them this protection, but I feel like theme parks get more expensive every year. Perhaps it's more disappointing to me as I am a local who has watched prices soar and parking go from free to at least $12 as of now I believe. The blatant-ness of it just makes me think it reflects poorly on the park and their image/reputation. I think people might see it as indicative of greediness. Or maybe I am blowing the whole thing out of proportion.
There you have it, my random Wednesday thoughts.
Many times on the DISboards, I see stories about people taking their own photograph of a ride photograph rather than buying it, which I don't have an issue with. I think the ride photos are somewhat overpriced and it would have to be a pretty spectacular photo to persuade me to buy it. Anyway, Hersheypark has ride photos for most of their coasters. The interesting thing I noticed is that the video screens showing the ride photos have PROOF written through the photo diagonally. Almost like a watermark but very noticeable. I can only presume that this is to thwart the taking a photo of your photo issue rather than buying.
In any case, it just surprised me. To my recollection, I do not believe Disney does the same thing but maybe I am wrong. I get why HP does it, but I guess it surprised or maybe disappointed me a little? I don't necessarily begrudge them this protection, but I feel like theme parks get more expensive every year. Perhaps it's more disappointing to me as I am a local who has watched prices soar and parking go from free to at least $12 as of now I believe. The blatant-ness of it just makes me think it reflects poorly on the park and their image/reputation. I think people might see it as indicative of greediness. Or maybe I am blowing the whole thing out of proportion.
There you have it, my random Wednesday thoughts.
glaserjm
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 2, 2011
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- 887
I didn't try the cranberry slush when we were there during F&G...I don't remember seeing it or I would have definitely tried it. I'm glad they're keeping it on though and I hope it's there during F&W in November!
Hershey Park looks fun...more themed and charming than our local Six Flags (which I haven't been to since high school!) which just feels all stuck together.
I have tried to get our pics on the ride pic boards before but they never seem to come out well, I'm always jealous of people who seem to get a great pic of them (maybe it's because I'm usually using my phone!)
Hershey Park looks fun...more themed and charming than our local Six Flags (which I haven't been to since high school!) which just feels all stuck together.
I have tried to get our pics on the ride pic boards before but they never seem to come out well, I'm always jealous of people who seem to get a great pic of them (maybe it's because I'm usually using my phone!)
Li Li
DIS Veteran
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- Oct 11, 2012
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- 641
It definitely feels charming to me, but I am never sure if that is just a by-product of my over-familiarity with it. I do get the Disney vibes from it in terms of theming and everything with the characters, and it is just a company that I really respect, like Disney. Also like Disney, Hershey is held to a high standard as everything goes to the funding of the Milton Hershey School of which the community and the school's members are very protective. But I digress...
Li Li
DIS Veteran
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- Oct 11, 2012
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- 641
So, I have been failing in both pre-trip reporting and in my mini-trip. I hope to finish up the Hersheypark trip this weekend. I will be huddled at home, doors and windows locked against the great scourge and menace that yearly invades my town and its streets. Yes...Dave Matthews band is back
Li Li
DIS Veteran
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- Oct 11, 2012
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- 641
Now, where did I leave off? Oh yes, the zoo. ZooAmerica to be exact, the 11-acre North American wildlife park connected to Hersheypark. Your ticket to HP also gets you entrance to the Zoo, which is nice.
So, here is some wildlife for your viewing pleasure.
Prairie dogs!
Look, the Monorail goes through the zoo!
Um, Elk, I think?
Bald eagle!
So, after the Zoo, we were getting near to dinner time. So, what park fare did we devour? Ha, what are we amateurs? We went to our favorite joint that is right down the road from ZooAmerica!
Our food cause I know you are dying to know! I randomly felt in the mood for cheese sticks. I had wings and Nigel had a club sandwich. And yes, we had some PBR on draft.
So, here is some wildlife for your viewing pleasure.
Prairie dogs!
Look, the Monorail goes through the zoo!
Um, Elk, I think?
Bald eagle!
So, after the Zoo, we were getting near to dinner time. So, what park fare did we devour? Ha, what are we amateurs? We went to our favorite joint that is right down the road from ZooAmerica!
Our food cause I know you are dying to know! I randomly felt in the mood for cheese sticks. I had wings and Nigel had a club sandwich. And yes, we had some PBR on draft.
Li Li
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Oct 11, 2012
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So, over dinner, I broke the question to Nigel...could we perhaps go back to the park after dinner? The plan had originally been to head home after dinner. BUT, I had seen in the park listings that there was something billed as a dueling piano show at the Music Box Theatre at 8:30 p.m. So, of course, I wanted to see it as I am obsessed with dueling piano shows! We saw a Dueling Piano show twice when we went to Las Vegas, and I keep wanting to hit Jellyrolls at WDW but it never seems to happen. Unsurprisingly, Nigel was less than thrilled as he is not really a "show" guy. Personally, I like shows, and I always want to support the performers. I think attendance has REALLY fallen off at shows at HP. If it's not a band or music group, I don't think people are really going into theaters to watch things anymore, at least at HP. DIsney has its own built in audience with making shows out of its movies, i.e. Nemo and Lion King at AK. Anywho, I thought it would be fun to check out. I managed to convince Nigel. 
So, first, we had to walk home and take care of...the puppy! Have I introduced Ike yet?! We rescued him, and he is the sweetest puppy dog ever!
And here he is with our cat, Pip.
So, we walked home and got Ike taken care of, and then, we cheated. Yes, we drove back to the park! Hey, in our defense, we did a lot of walking that day! Home to park, all through park, zoo, dinner, walk home. So, we hopped in the car and parked at Chocolate World, which is the factory tour ride, attraction and chocolate shopping mecca right next to the park. Fun fact: Chocolate World is owned by The Hershey Company (formerly Hershey Foods) while the park is owned by Hershey Entertainment & Resorts. And I'll stop now before we start talking about the trusts and inter-relatedness of it all.
Anyway, you can park for free at Chocolate World for up to two hours, so we drove since we were just going back to see the show. Luckily, we got our hands stamped with the magic UV stamp to let us back in the park that same day. While waiting for the show to open, I went by some of my old stomping grounds...the games! I always enjoyed working the games area. You got to be outside and interact with lots of people, it was definitely fun. So, ever since I was about 10 or so, I have been awesome at the water gun game. You know, the game where you squirt water at a target to make your parrot (or whatever) move to the top so you win the game. I almost never lose (brag)
So, I decide to spend the dollar and win a cheap stuffed animal that Ike could tear apart when we got home. Seriously, he can get the stuffing out of a toy in 2 seconds flat. We didn't take any pics of the game, but here is my winning toy! (duh, of course I won!)
It was a duck.
Take note of the empty seats around me in the above pic. So, we sat down to watch the show with about five other people. Yes, five! Theater was EMPTY! Kind of sad, really. In the end, the show was more a music revue show than dueling pianos, but I liked it. The performers were all really talented! Here's some pics.
They had clapping and singing along portions, and Nigel even joined in. If you knew him, you would know this is an extremely rare thing. I think he felt compelled to give in and participate seeing as how we comprised 1/3 of their entire audience.
So, after the show, we walked around and pretty much were heading out. Some random pics:
Hershey is in the middle of a redesign of their characters, so you can still buy the old Hershey Bar character along with the new. If we were smart, we would have bought one to keep for posterity, but I guess we were to cheap to do so.
The chocolate bar with the white baseball cap is the one on the way out.
Remind you of anything? That's the statue of Milton S. Hershey, founder of it all, the town built on chocolate.
So, there you have it. Our annual trek to check out Hersheypark.
So, first, we had to walk home and take care of...the puppy! Have I introduced Ike yet?! We rescued him, and he is the sweetest puppy dog ever!
And here he is with our cat, Pip.
So, we walked home and got Ike taken care of, and then, we cheated. Yes, we drove back to the park! Hey, in our defense, we did a lot of walking that day! Home to park, all through park, zoo, dinner, walk home. So, we hopped in the car and parked at Chocolate World, which is the factory tour ride, attraction and chocolate shopping mecca right next to the park. Fun fact: Chocolate World is owned by The Hershey Company (formerly Hershey Foods) while the park is owned by Hershey Entertainment & Resorts. And I'll stop now before we start talking about the trusts and inter-relatedness of it all.
Anyway, you can park for free at Chocolate World for up to two hours, so we drove since we were just going back to see the show. Luckily, we got our hands stamped with the magic UV stamp to let us back in the park that same day. While waiting for the show to open, I went by some of my old stomping grounds...the games! I always enjoyed working the games area. You got to be outside and interact with lots of people, it was definitely fun. So, ever since I was about 10 or so, I have been awesome at the water gun game. You know, the game where you squirt water at a target to make your parrot (or whatever) move to the top so you win the game. I almost never lose (brag)
So, I decide to spend the dollar and win a cheap stuffed animal that Ike could tear apart when we got home. Seriously, he can get the stuffing out of a toy in 2 seconds flat. We didn't take any pics of the game, but here is my winning toy! (duh, of course I won!)
It was a duck.
Take note of the empty seats around me in the above pic. So, we sat down to watch the show with about five other people. Yes, five! Theater was EMPTY! Kind of sad, really. In the end, the show was more a music revue show than dueling pianos, but I liked it. The performers were all really talented! Here's some pics.
They had clapping and singing along portions, and Nigel even joined in. If you knew him, you would know this is an extremely rare thing. I think he felt compelled to give in and participate seeing as how we comprised 1/3 of their entire audience.
So, after the show, we walked around and pretty much were heading out. Some random pics:
Hershey is in the middle of a redesign of their characters, so you can still buy the old Hershey Bar character along with the new. If we were smart, we would have bought one to keep for posterity, but I guess we were to cheap to do so.
The chocolate bar with the white baseball cap is the one on the way out.
Remind you of anything? That's the statue of Milton S. Hershey, founder of it all, the town built on chocolate.
So, there you have it. Our annual trek to check out Hersheypark.
glaserjm
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 2, 2011
- Messages
- 887
I love both Pip and Ike...all pets are great, I love when people share their pics! Joben and I are definitely dog people, but we've both loved some cats in our lives as well.
We recently went to Worlds of Fun in Kansas City on a mini-trip (did a small report on our PTR) and honestly Hershey Park looks nicer, at least there's a theme running through HP, Worlds of Fun was just a jumble of nothing.
That's sad about the dueling piano show. I'm a fan, but Joe isn't so I doubt Jellyrolls is in our future unless we're going with other people.
We recently went to Worlds of Fun in Kansas City on a mini-trip (did a small report on our PTR) and honestly Hershey Park looks nicer, at least there's a theme running through HP, Worlds of Fun was just a jumble of nothing.
That's sad about the dueling piano show. I'm a fan, but Joe isn't so I doubt Jellyrolls is in our future unless we're going with other people.
Li Li
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Oct 11, 2012
- Messages
- 641
Did everyone see the F&W booth menus released today? So, realistically, how many items could Nigel and I eat if we start at 11 and go through dinner? He says 11, but I thought maybe 15? Too bad, I already wrote down 25 things I want to try! Lol!
Li Li
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Oct 11, 2012
- Messages
- 641
Your dogs are cuties too! I love rescue dogs. And it kills me that we can't rescue more cats, but I think Pip barely tolerates the dog as it is, so he definitely wouldn't take kindly to another cat. We also have a turtle; I'll have to post a pic of him soon.
glaserjm
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 2, 2011
- Messages
- 887
If you spent all day grazing, I think you could get a fair amount in. We were really anal about it and made lists of things we each wanted and then cross-referenced to make a list of things we could share based upon the overlap of our individual lists. I know this sounds like a lot of unnecessary planning, but since you won't have a ton of time there, it may be a good way to get the most out of it.
They are pretty small portions so you won't get filled up on a just a couple of things, it will take a good amount to get you to a "full" point. If you take small breaks in between for window shopping, watching some of the shows, etc. you could get most of them done.
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