Hershey's Chocolate World and Hershey Park

On our 2 week road trip in early August, my son and I made a stop in Hershey, Pennsylvania to visit Hershey World.

Our Hotel: We decided it was too expensive for us to stay onsite, so we chose the Comfort Suites Hummelstown-Hershey at 320 Milroy Rd. It has free parking, free wifi, and free breakfast. What more could we ask for? The room seemed clean and the staff was friendly enough. Our breakfast was pretty standard (waffles, fruit, eggs, sausage, cereal, muffins, etc.).

We decided to head to Hershey’s Chocolate World before heading to Hershey Park. Well, little did I know that this was going to be the highlight of our time in Hershey. Seriously! It was amazing. Right away when you walk in, there are multiple photo opportunities. We were even lucky enough to bump into Miss Hershey Kiss herself! It was great. I love a good meet and greet. Then, we walked over to the Hershey Tour Ride. It’s like a mix between a slow amusement ride and a factory tour. Clearly, you’re not really in a factory, but you definitely get the idea about how chocolate is made.

We walked over to the ticket counter to add some fun to our time here. We chose to do the Build Your Own Chocolate Bar experience and the 4D Mystery Movie.

First was our Build Your Own Chocolate Bar experience. And while we still had to wait in a fairly long line even though we had tickets (everyone had tickets), it was still an awesome experience. It isn’t cheap, but I would definitely recommend doing this one! You start out by putting on a hairnet and an apron. It’s a really great look for absolutely everyone! (sarcasm) Then, when it’s your turn, you are led to a screen where you decide what you want in the chocolate bar you’re creating. I decided on a base of dark chocolate with pretzel bits, chocolate cookie bits, and butterscotch chips topped with sprinkles. (I just ate my chocolate bar recently and first off, it was huge and secondly, it was delicious!) Then, you wait in another line and when it’s your turn, they cue up your chocolate bar to be made. (I think they do it like this so that 1. You can watch your bar being made and 2. To keep families together.) Then, you walk along the line, watching the machines add all the pieces to your chocolate bar. It was fun to see it get filled with the items we chose, covered in milk chocolate, and then dashed with sprinkles. After that, you walk over to another set of screens where you design the wrapper. It’s so cool! You can put your name on the front, add stickers, change the background, and so much more!

Then, you wait for your chocolate bar to come out of the cooling rack. It is packaged, put into a Hershey tin, and then wrapped in the custom wrapping you designed. My son had the time of his life at this experience. Plus, when we walked out of the “factory”, Reese was there, so we were able to get a picture with him.

Owen’s Notes: “Chocolate Bar! I really really really liked making my own candy bar! It had a dark chocolate base with chocolate cookie bites, semi-sweet chocolate chips, and crisp rice and on top, there are sprinkles! I loved it. I loved making it.”

Then, we went to the 4D Mystery Movie. First, you stand in line. Then, you stand in a little room, waiting. Eventually, you do go into the theater. But let me tell you something, there really is no reason to get there early. It’s a theater so there aren’t really bad seats. And everyone that purchases a ticket will get in. Besides, there’s no reason to stand for a long time, especially with kids. The show itself was a fun, interactive mystery. I won’t spoil any of it for you. You’ll just have to experience it for yourself. Plus, it’s a great time to sit and relax if you’ve had a long day or know that your day is going to be exhausting like us.

The last thing I’ll say about this place is to continue looking over by the Build Your Own Chocolate Bar area for meet and greets. It rained on and off while we were at Hershey Park and we didn’t see a single character out so before we went to our car to leave for the day, we stopped back in Hershey’s Chocolate World to see if any characters were out and about. We were able to find Jolly Rancher. And where? By the Build Your Own Chocolate Bar area!

We eventually made our way over to Hershey Park. The forecast wasn’t looking so great so we tried to get in as many rides as possible before the rain came. I’m not a huge fan of walking around wet. It’s just not comfortable. Here’s how our day went:

Tilt-A-Whirl: This was the first ride we rode (mostly because it was right by the entrance, but also because it was a good way to ease into rides). I love a good classic ride.

Reese’s Cupfusion: We happened to get to this ride at a great time! At first, we didn’t want to go to this ride yet because the app said the wait was 2 hours long. But we decided to chance it anyway and wait. Well, not 15 minutes after we got in line, it started raining. And not just raining, it was pouring! Lucky for us, 90% of the ride line is covered! We didn’t get wet at all. And to top it off, even though the app said the wait was 2 hours, we really only waited about an hour. And the ride was so much fun! We really enjoy the shooting games where you try to collect as many points as possible so this was sure to be a winner for us. And it was.

Trailblazer: This was the only rollercoaster my son would ride so we clearly had to ride it three times!! It was a blast though. I’m a big fan of this coaster. It’s probably the most tame one in all of Hershey Park so if you have a child that is a little scared of coasters, start here for sure.

Kissing Tower: This was a nice little ride that takes you pretty high up in the air while rotating slowly, giving you great views. I recommend this ride as a nice break from everything else to just sit and see the views. Don’t forget to give your loved ones a little smooch when you get to the top!

Coal Cracker: We went on this ride twice. It was one of Owen’s favorites! It was just a fun little log flume ride with a nice drop at the end. We even got this awesome photo.

Tea Cups: It had just started lightly sprinkling when my son decided he wanted to be on this ride so he actually got to ride it all by himself! But he had a blast. It’s a small, little kid ride, and it’s tucked back in a corner, but it’s still cute.

Pirate: Our last ride was a good one. My son and I both really enjoy these types of rides. They’re the ones that swing back and forth and give your tummy that funny feeling as you drop back to the other side. We rode this one twice as well.

We did end up buying one of those refillable cups where you pay once and get free refills all day. (including ICEEs!)

Owen’s Notes: “I really liked this roller coaster called the Trail Blazer. It twisted around a bunch. We went on it three times. I also really liked this shooting game called Reese’s Cup Fusion. Hershey Park was the best place that we went on the trip!”

For the record: I am a large, plus-sized woman (size 24 pants) and I had no problem fitting on any of these rides. That being said, I did look up what others had said and didn’t even try to ride the ones that people said were tight fits.

We didn’t spend a long time at Hershey Park, mostly do to the rain, but the time we did spend, we had a lot of fun! I definitely recommend giving this place a visit!