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^^ Also if you're one of those hardcore Christmas fanatics like my wife is, you may be able to find even more magnets at their dedicated Christmas shop also near the main entrance.

 

(I might need to get a second tree this year simply to hang all the ornaments she's purchased/had me purchase for her from our theme park travels.)

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Definitely not a Christmas fanatic, in fact a feeling of dread crept over me when the missus recently mentioned how many paydays were left until then lol, but we do have a few random Xmas decorations related to parks/coasters so I'll definitely take a look.

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(I might need to get a second tree this year simply to hang all the ornaments she's purchased/had me purchase for her from our theme park travels.)

 

We're in the same boat. We have so many f*cking ornaments. I never got into pins (and I never will), patches (again... no), magnets or keychains but if it's an ornament... shut up and take my money.

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I don't collect much park stuff save for a handful of t-shirts and magnets. I do own a Great Adventure keychain from a few years back that I still use - its super retro and awesome. Other than that and a few ornaments I just do the magnets. Our fridge is covered in them. I like to own magnets for coasters I really like, but I have caved on magnets I really liked even though the coaster is not a fave (Hydra, Stinger, lol). The missus definitely rolled her eyes at me the other day when I mentioned having to find some new magnets @ Hershey. We'll run out of room sooner or later.

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I don't collect much park stuff save for a handful of t-shirts and magnets. I do own a Great Adventure keychain from a few years back that I still use - its super retro and awesome. Other than that and a few ornaments I just do the magnets. Our fridge is covered in them. I like to own magnets for coasters I really like, but I have caved on magnets I really liked even though the coaster is not a fave (Hydra, Stinger, lol). The missus definitely rolled her eyes at me the other day when I mentioned having to find some new magnets @ Hershey. We'll run out of room sooner or later.

 

My fridge has so many magnets on it from places we've been and parks/coasters that you can't even tell what color it is haha. Don't expect finding much in the way of magnets at HP this year. I was unbelievably disappointed to not find anything when I went in August. There are the standard Hersheybar and Reeses Dude magnets but nothing even remotely interesting other than that and no coasters. If you do happen to find something cool please post it!

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I ended up going to the park the past 2 Sundays. Both days were low crowds as expected but the 22nd was slightly more crowded than the 15th. Everything was 0 - 10 minutes with the exception of Laff Trakk, Storm Runner (1 train running on the 22nd) and Fahrenheit early in the day. I waited until after 7 both trips and waited 1 train for Fahrenheit. On both days I was at the park for around 6 hours and got 31 rides on the 15th and 25 rides on the 22nd.

 

Coal Cracker was closed on both days. Someone asked the photo booth employee at Great Bear about the ride being open this past Sunday and was told the ride doesn't operate in the fall. It's on the Hersheypark In the Dark map and is listed as an operating ride for the event on the website plus it ran last year in October.

 

The Kisses Triple Tower was also closed both days. It didn't seem to matter much since the Reese's Tower rarely had a wait and the Hershey Tower had at most a 2 - 3 cycle wait.

 

I made the mistake of riding Sidewinder on the 22nd. I got a bad headache from going backwards and I never felt 100% the rest of the trip after that.

 

I'm probably going to visit Christmas Candylane once but it's a shame that with the exception of sooperdooperlooper, the coasters running are probably my least favorite in the park.

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  • 3 weeks later...

It looks like Hershey might not be as strict about the cold temperatures this year for the coasters. It is around 36 degrees and from looking at the app both sooperdooperlooper (with an hour wait) and Wild Mouse are running. I thought they wouldn't run any outdoor coasters if it was colder than the low 40s.

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  • 1 month later...

Hi everybody! (Hi, doctor Nick!)

 

The fiancee and I just took a trip to Hersheypark's Christmas Candylane last night and had a friggin blast! Unlike our trip last year we didn't freeze to near-death. Last year it was probably 30 degrees with a stiff breeze. This year it hovered in the low 40s with no wind at all. Anyways, enough about the weather and more on our bottomless hot chocolate and poor laser targeting.

 

Yes, the bottomless hot chocolate. Still the best deal going in the theme park world. Pay $11.75, get unending hot chocolate all night and you get to take home the travel mug. By the way, the travel mug is actually great quality. I've used the one we got last year plenty of times and it's held up better than any other store-bought travel mugs we have. Long story short, we refilled our hot chocolate eight times. For free. In less than four hours. It was delicious and we're probably both going to die young from diabetes. Delicious, delicious diabetes. You guys got any insulin?

 

Sooper Dooper Looper was running well and HOLY CRAP NEW TRAINS?! I missed the memo on that one. It was lovely to sit on a Schwarzkopf without having my knees jammed into the seat in front of me!

 

The Triple Tower shocked the crap out of me. When they announced it I really didn't care. Another S&S tower? Yay. Whatever. Ride one, you've ridden them all. I was wrong. We hit all three from shortest to tallest and I gotta say this is one hell of an addition. The smallest one has some great ejector air at the top! Not very scary but definitely a great "whoah! whee!" moment. The middle tower has even crazier ejector air at the top, one that made me shout a few obscenities. The tallest tower actually freaked me out. See, I'm not afraid of heights, but this pulls a trick on you. We rode facing the other towers. When we launched and we rocketed higher than the middle tower I legit nearly pooped my pants. It's one hell of an optical illusion to make you think you are WAY higher than you actually are, plus the fact that it was built on one of the higher points in the park. Great ride all around!

 

The indoor laser ride was, well, awful. I really don't know why I willingly ride it every time I visit because I know it's awful. Someone help. Oh, and I also scored maybe three targets because my aim blows.

 

Wildcat I'll defend until the day I die. I love the ride and anyone who says otherwise is dumb.

 

The Wild Mouse. Funny story, they told me to keep the hot chocolate with us rather than set it on the exit platform. Ummmm, OK? Thank god the lid on the travel mug is trustworthy! If you've been on this Wild Mouse you know it's one of the better ones because it doesn't ever brake. The first half with the hot chocolate was fine and dandy since it was just going around turns. Then the sudden drops, airtime, and crazy intense turns happened. I was fully expecting the lid to pop off and to come back to the station covered in hot chocolate but it held strong! We hit the brake run laughing like idiots and happily dry!

 

Laff Trakk wasn't spinning so well this time and it didn't have nearly as many Christmas lights inside as it did last year. Oh, well.

 

The train and monorail were fun little segways to enjoy the lights and get off our feet.

 

Again, great trip to Hershey to see some blinking lights!

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Nice to see that Hersheypark's "cram as many tracked rides into the smallest space possible, even if it means going over buildings" philosophy continues to the water park attractions.

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Hello everyone. I'm looking to do a Hershey Park/Knoebels trip early next year and I'm asking for some good advice on when to go. This will be our first trip to both of these parks. I'd like to get the most out of the park hours.

 

Here's quick preliminary plan:

Knoebels on Saturday 06/02, since the park is open from 10am-10pm. We might get a cottage if we can get past the incredibly dated look.

 

06/03 will be a culture day somewhere near Hershey or within an hour or so out of the way. Suggestions?

 

06/04 - 06/05 two full days at Hershey park from 10am-8pm. I didn't realize this park closes so early.

 

I'm somewhat flexible on the dates and I was curious how the crowds have been in the past on these days. I'm assuming a lot of kids will still be in school, but I fear we may hit a lot of school groups. I hate going when we're surrounded by teens. Again, we're looking for a compromise between crowds and long operating hours. Maybe we could shift our HP day to 06/03 and have our culture day in between to avoid crowds.

 

Any advice is appreciated. Thanks.

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My biggest advice with Knoebels is to go there on a wristband day which would mean saving it for Monday 6/4 or Tuesday 6/5. Otherwise you'll be paying in tickets for everything which will get expensive fast and is sort of annoying. The park closes at 6:00 (local schools are still in session), but I still think it's the better option since if you stay open to close at Knoebels on a non-wristband day you'll spend an absurd amount of money.

 

PS: The Haunted Mansion isn't on the wristband to prevent kids from re-riding it and being little sh*ts, but it's cheap and worth paying for.

 

This of course means that you'll be going to Hershey on (at least one) weekend day, and the park will be crowded but I still think it's the better option. They do have a skip the line pass, albeit a sh*tty one and you can always ride rides with shorter lines or check out Zoo America or do if lines get really bad in the middle part of the day.

 

As for culture... I mean, come on. You'll be so close. You'll pass right by the exit on your drive between the parks.

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Yuengling is swill. Go to Troegs. Its literally right next to Hershey. If you're interested in history there's Gettyburg and all that an hour south of Hershey. Wanna check out the Amish? There's Lancaster right around the corner.

 

You could always do your "culture" day right when you get there Saturday, save Hershey for Sunday and Monday (it'll be less crowded Sun than on Sat, Monday should be much quieter) and then Knoebels Tuesday since that's a wristband day. Just go into Hershey knowing their skip the line system sucks. If you want to bite the bullet, its only ONE ride on each of like nine of the coasters. The park is doable without it as long as you go to Laff Trakk and then Fahrenheit first, and then work your way clockwise (Wildcat, Lightning Racer, Storm Runner, etc) save Skyrush for later as the line always dies down after 5pmish. If you have two full days do the zoo and all, Chocolate World etc. I feel like two days is plenty of time for Hershey. It's my favorite park, I'm excited for you!

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Troegs is a great recommendation. Since you're doing 2 days at Hershey it might even be worth getting a handstamp and going for lunch one day or at least going for dinner after park close.

 

...but you should still go to Yuengling, not only because I know you're a Yuengling guy but because it's actually really historic and cool. I'm no history buff, but when the "history" is a brewery from 1873 and you get to sample beer I'm totally on board.

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Hello everyone. I'm looking to do a Hershey Park/Knoebels trip early next year and I'm asking for some good advice on when to go. This will be our first trip to both of these parks. I'd like to get the most out of the park hours.

 

Here's quick preliminary plan:

Knoebels on Saturday 06/02, since the park is open from 10am-10pm. We might get a cottage if we can get past the incredibly dated look.

 

06/03 will be a culture day somewhere near Hershey or within an hour or so out of the way. Suggestions?

 

06/04 - 06/05 two full days at Hershey park from 10am-8pm. I didn't realize this park closes so early.

 

I'm somewhat flexible on the dates and I was curious how the crowds have been in the past on these days. I'm assuming a lot of kids will still be in school, but I fear we may hit a lot of school groups. I hate going when we're surrounded by teens. Again, we're looking for a compromise between crowds and long operating hours. Maybe we could shift our HP day to 06/03 and have our culture day in between to avoid crowds.

 

Any advice is appreciated. Thanks.

 

Zach, we went to Hershey two years ago in mid-June and didn't find the crowds to be bad at all. However, it was after school was out and before the summer vacation rush. Here are a few things I would suggest:

 

--For your culture day, I would recommend visiting Amish country around Landcaster, PA. We did a buggy tour (http://amishbuggyrides.com) and visited some other historical sites in the Landcaster area (Wilbur Chocolate Factory, Sturgis Pretzel Bakery, etc).

 

--Hershey is actually open to 10pm on 6/4 & 6/5, and I would highly recommend doing the preview night on 6/3. You can get into the park the last 2.5 hours with the next day's ticket and I found it to be completely dead from 8-10pm. I got mutliple rides on the Intamin Trio during the preview time and they were pretty much walkons.

 

--Stay at the Hershey Lodge for early entry at 9am. The Hershey Hotel is nice too, but it's more expensive than the Lodge. The 1 hour early entry is bascially like ERT on Skyrush, SDL, and Comet. Those are the only coasters open during early entry, but you can get multple rides on each during that first hour.

 

--Head to Laff Track or Fahreneit at the 10am rope drop. Laff Track was brand new when we visited, so it maintained about an hour wait all day. We were able to ride it 2-3 times each morning and didn't wait more than 20-25 minutes each time. It's in the back corner of the park and it takes a while for the crowds to get over there.

 

--The waterpark is integrated into the dry park, so there's no separate gate for it. We only did the waterpark one day and just wore our suits under our clothes. (Rode coasters in the morning and evening, did the waterpark in the afternoon.) The slide lines got pretty long though, so the 2018 waterpark additions are sorely needed. You can ride the Tidal Force splashdown ride in your swimsuits, which i would recommend since it completely soaks you.

 

--Don't miss out on the log flume, Coal Cracker. It has a weird bump at the bottom of the drop, so you get some great unexpected airtime.

 

--Also make sure to visit Chocolate World just outside the front gate. The tour is free and it has been remodeled since our visit. There is also a nice food court (we ate dinner there each night) and a variety of paid activities like designing your own chocolate bar.

 

--There are tons of food options and even more dessert options. One place to definitely hit up is the BBQ joint by Trailblazer. The custom Whoopie Pies, Smores, and Kettle Korn are great too.

 

Hersheypark is one of my favorite parks in the country and my kids have been begging to go back since our trip. You will definitley have a great time!

Edited by VegasBaby
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