Hersheypark in the Dark

We attended the Hersheypark in the Dark on the opening weekend - Saturday 17 October 2008. The photo to the right is of the entrance during the evening.

Tickets are $23.95 for attendees ages (10+) and $16.95 for ages 3 to 9 and seniors (55+). This includes entrance into Hersheypark and includes all rides and shows. On Saturdays the park opens up at 2pm. Parking is $6 for this event.

Barking Lot

Hersheypark provide a clean, well staffed, and maintained kennel to house your pet called "the Barking Lot". Kenneling your pet will cost $10.

Rides

With exception of the Boardwalk section (waterpark) of the park most of the rides were open. Each ride was named something different for Halloween. The carousel even had Halloween music coming from the Orchestra. We were disappointed that the monorail only had 1 train running. This caused a large delay and long lines. However most rides did have the maximum number of units running.

Theme

For being one of the top candy producers in the USA, except for the great entrance, the "themeing" (decorating, holiday spirit, etc.) of this event was somewhat a disappointment. There was corn stalks and hay bales and some lights few and far between.

Employees were dressed neatly in nice Orange "Hershey in the Park" sweaters and rides were "renamed" with a Halloween feel.

The good news for parents of young children is that there is nothing scary about this event. We were concerned about the Busch Gardens event and the Canobie Lake event (right here in New England).

Also the Trick-or-treating was a bit disappointing especially since we took the extra effort to bring costumes for the kids. Trick-or-treating (for kids 12 and under) in the brochure is advertized as starting at Hershey's Chocolate World through Treatville (which is a catering area across from Boardwalk) but this must of been a well hidden secreat as the only trick-or-treating we found was in Treatville (nowhere else) where kids receive about 10 pieces of candy and a magazine that is suited more for adults. The brochure definately is not correct.

We were disappointed that there was hardly any character sitings. Only one spot when you entered the park.

We have been to the Hershey Sweet Lights show and Hersheypark's Christmas Candylane and have expected the same type of quality that we have experienced at these two events.


Value

Lets face it, you come to Hersheypark for one thing -- the rollercoasters and the superb rides and shows that they have and we were not disappointed. For $23.95 (about 1/2 the summer price and most of the rides open) this is well worth the visit! I relaxed more and didn't feel I had to hit every ride.

Tips

• Arrive early - Hersheypark parking lot opens well before the park opens. We arrived 1 hour early and were able to get parking near the stadium. You can poke around in Chocolate World, nearby shops, and then head down and stand in line.
• Buy Tickets Ahead of Time - Hersheypark did not open up the gate early and by the time they did there was a LONG line. If there is a specific popular attraction that you want to hit (e.g., Farenheit, Stormrunner)
• General Savings Tip. After about an hour of searching (and even a post to the facebook site) I was not able to find any promo codes; coupons, etc. online. We stopped at the Giant Supermarket in Hershey, PA (off of PA 39) and was able to pre-purchase our tickets a savings of $3 per ticket (9 and over $20.95; 3-9 $13.95) and was able to immediately enter the park which saved about 15-20 minutes.
  
  As always, photos on my webshots account.