HersheyPark didnt open until 10am on Thursday morning, so we had time to take advantage of the hotels hot breakfast, which was waffles in addition to the standard bagels, doughnuts and cereal. There was a pond in front of the hotel that attracted ducks and geese, so the hotel had a coin-operated food dispenser installed so you can feed them. We made sure they had some breakfast, too, before we headed to HersheyPark. Of course a brief detour was required over to the nearest Dunkin Donuts for coffee before we entered the parking lot. We were pleased that we were up close once again and took that as a good sign that the park wouldnt be too crowded. We suffered through the singing cows again to get our chocolate fix before entering HersheyPark.
We started with the roller coasters again, riding The Comet and Great Bear, but also tried out some of the other rides, like the Coal Cracker, which is a flume ride, and the Flying Falcon, which took us high above the park while spinning around. The entrance to ZooAmerica was near the exit from the Flying Falcon, so Tammy suggested we take a walk through. ZooAmerica is a North American Wildlife Park, so it is pretty small as far as zoos go. It was interesting, though, so we were glad we had taken some time to enjoy it, especially in light of this year being their 100th. Once wed returned to HersheyPark, we were on the lookout for rides we hadnt ridden the previous night as we also rode several of the coasters again.
I was taking pictures of the various rides whenever I could, but the trees throughout the park were so tall and so dense that it was difficult to find a location to get shots of some rides. We also realized what a visionary Walt Disney was with his hub and spokes layout for
Disneyland and Walt Disney World, especially when we discovered a section of the park that we hadnt even passed through yet. The lines were short and the park was not very busy, so we still had some opportunity to ride some coasters without having to get off and go through the line again. In fact, on the Lightning Racers, Tammy was in the front of the Lightning side while Alex and I got the front seat on the Thunder side, but we had no one else in our coaster while Tammy had 6-8 more people riding with her. We also rode the swinging pirate ship ride with Alex in the rear seat on one end and Tammy and me in the rear seat on the other end with no one in between us.
When we were starting to feel hungry and ready for a break, we headed back to the car and drove over to Friendly Rising Sun again. Alex discovered a touch-screen video game system and amused himself after placing his lunch order. I discovered $1.55 mugs of Yuengling Lager and amused myself after placing my lunch order. Tammy bought herself a t-shirt. After again enjoying substantial meals at prices that were dramatically less than we would have paid for essentially fast food inside the park, we stopped briefly at the hotel to freshen ourselves up a bit. When we were heading back over to HersheyPark, we noted that there were some dark clouds moving in, so we were prepared for the possibility of rain at some point.
We hadnt ridden the SkyView yet, which is similar to the old Skyway at Disneyland and WDW, so we took that leisurely ride. The guy running the ride warned us that we were under a thunderstorm warning and we could potentially end up stranded if the ride was struck by lightning and the power went out; he was a real optimist. We didnt realize that rain basically paralyzed the park, however, until later and not because of lightning taking out the power. We survived the SkyView and rode the swing ride just as the rain started. By the time we finished, the rain was getting a bit harder, though still not a full-on rainstorm. It was enough rain, apparently, to start closing rides, though. We couldnt get on The Comet, the Coal Cracker or Great Bear and, as the rain started to come down harder, we ducked into an arcade. After playing some games for a bit, we checked on the weather and found a torrential downpour. It was so bad that we watched as some trash cans started to float away.
It rained long and hard and, by the time it started to let up, we were ready for a change of scenery, so we dashed through the lighter rain to the shops near the front gate. We browsed for a while and picked up a few things but the rain continued to fall lightly. We werent expecting any rides to reopen at least until the rain stopped, so we finally just decided to leave the park and go over to Chocolate World and do some more shopping over there. Imagine our surprise to find Chocolate World locked up and empty. We never did get an explanation as to why the rain caused an indoor attraction to close down and why they didnt take advantage of all of the potential shoppers. We finally just decided to call it a night but headed over to Friendlys for something to eat before going back to the hotel.
Friday started out pretty much the same as Thursday, with breakfast, feeding the ducks and stopping for coffee at Dunkin Donuts. Once we were inside the parking lot, however, we could see that this day would be different than the previous one. The area where wed parked the previous day was already full of buses and we ended up parking significantly farther away than we had before. We had expected Friday to be busier, so we were glad wed ridden everything wed wanted to plenty of times knowing that wed likely be getting in fewer rides. It was crazy busy right from the start, so we were choosier about which rides we were willing to wait in long lines for. Ultimately, it wasnt too bad and some lines, though longer than the previous days, still werent too long.
Based on the matching t-shirts that a lot of the kids were wearing, it appeared as though a lot of the groups were 8th graders on class trips. On the plus side, there were a lot more redheads his age around, so Alex was in his element. On the negative side, 8th graders do tend to think that theyre all that, so there was attitude all over the place. We left for a while in early afternoon for another hearty lunch and a couple of cold Yuenglings at Friendly Rising Sun. Wed also been stopping in just down the street from Friendly Rising Sun at a Turkey Hill convenience store for some of their outstanding iced tea each time we stopped off for lunch. We went back to the hotel again for a bit, then headed back over to HersheyPark.
When we got back into the parking lot this time, we were even farther out than we had been earlier that day. We figured we walked off our lunch as we trekked from the car back to the gate. As the hour grew later, we assumed that the buses would gradually begin to depart and that turned out to be correct. It was still busier than the previous days, but not as bad as that morning had been. Another rain shower passed through that afternoon, though not nearly as severe as the one on Thursday had been. Again, though, we were surprised that even the rides that were entirely indoors were shut down; you could see that we werent the only ones baffled by this. As the rain let up, we started heading toward the far end of the park, thinking that the coasters beyond the water park would have shorter lines and the walk would allow time to get them up and running again.
As we made our way over toward Lightning Racers, we saw a rainbow for the second day in a row. We had to wait a few minutes before Lightning Racers opened again, but there werent too many people waiting so we got right on once it was ready. We rode a few times before heading back through the park again and getting our last rides on some of our favorites. Surprisingly, there were still a few buses there pretty late, but we figured wed hit the park hard during the time wed been there and didnt feel like wed missed anything, so we headed out feeling pretty good.
Saturday morning was Tammys spa treatment at The Hotel Hershey, so I drove her up there after breakfast, then went back to the hotel to make sure we were ready to check out. She got finished up quicker than she thought, so Alex and I had to hustle the luggage down to the car and check out, then go pick her up. Shed had a very nice time and was glad that shed indulged. We were heading down to Lancaster for the day but stopped at Dunkin Donuts yet again and I talked Tammy into buying a t-shirt that says Friends dont let friends drink Starbucks. It wasnt a very long drive from Hershey to Lancaster and we ended up stopping at the visitors center to figure out what we wanted to do and where we wanted to go. Some of the places Tammy and I used to visit when we lived in NJ were no longer around, so we figured out what was and made sure to visit those places. We had a nice meal in Intercourse, PA, but even that place had changed a bit; I guess you just cant stop progress.
After lunch, we went over to the stadium where the Lancaster Barnstormers play, wanting to pick up a souvenir for my SILs husband. The guy running the team store asked if we wanted to see the stadium, which they were preparing for a game that night. We took him up on his offer and he shared a lot of information about the stadium, the team and the fans. It was a nice experience. When we left there, we headed for Lititz, PA where there was a company called Wilbur Chocolate. Apparently, we had not had enough chocolate while in Hershey and, once wed parked and opened the doors, the smell of chocolate was all around us. We found it interesting to learn that Wilbur Chocolate had a product similar to the Hersheys Kiss, but with an imprint of petals and the name Wilbur imprinted on the bottom, that they called Wilbur Buds. They were also foil wrapped, but Hershey apparently had better marketing and the Kiss became synonymous with Hershey.
Once wed finished up in Lititz, we went to check in at our hotel in Manheim. Wed covered a lot of ground around Lancaster, so our plan for the evening was to rest up a bit, head out for some dinner and then swim at the hotel pool. Since wed learned about The Friendly Rising Sun from the owner of the motel wed stayed in on our first trip to Hershey so many years ago, and it is still one of our favorite restaurants, I asked the desk clerk there in Manheim where she recommended for dinner. She gave us a couple of options, one of which was a brewpub that served barbecue called JoBoys Brew Pub. After relaxing in the rocking chairs on the front porch of the hotel for a little while, we drove up to JoBoys.
That is crazy that even the inside attractions were shut down for the rain storm. Glad you didn't get stuck on Skyview in a thunderstorm. 
