Resurrecting this old thread with a 2025 trip report in case others are heading up to Hershey. We went today, which is the third day of record setting heat. The empty roller coaster queues are unlikely to happen other times.
Hershey has updated the park opening protocol with all visitors allowed through the gates at 9 and then those not eligible for sweet start held at a fence (roughly where the old gates were) until 10. Rope drop was key to getting an hour of slides in before the waterpark got too packed.
We arrived earlier than expected at 9, saw the empty gate area, and scurried through security and ticket scanning with no wait. We don’t do big coasters, so skipped candymonium and did two rounds on the carousel. We found a spot in the shade near the rope drop fence/Xmas store. Stood up around 9:55. One of us scurried to wave pool to get chairs in the shade while the other started on the mat slides. After three more times on the mat slides, we moved onto tube slides. Did pipeline/hydro three times before the stairs started to get to us. Moved to the body slide tower for three more slides by 11:05. From there, we headed back to our chairs and then into the wave pool. Spent about an hour in the wave pool until the waves stopped working (just never turned on). Ate lunch. Line looked short at mat slides, so went back there. Was 15-20 minute wait. Waves came back on, so went into wave pool. Got one round of waves in a crowded pool, but the waves stopped working after that. (The app showed a 10-15 minute wait for the wave pool all morning, but there was never a line to enter the pool while we were there.) sun was getting to us, so we decided to exit the boardwalk area.
The rest of the park was virtually empty. Walked on Trailblazer 3x and Kissing Tower. Waited 10 minutes at Fender Bender, 5 minutes at Cocoa Cruiser, and ~15 minutes at monorail. Popped into the 3:45 stage show just as it started. Cast was very enthusiastic, and the AC time reinvigorated us. Waited about 30 minutes for cup fusion (line was to third row of outside queue.) Rode chocolate world ride and were back at car at 5:30.