Hershey Park in the Winter

[sent]

Anyone have advice on going to Hershey Park during Christmas break? I’m having Disney withdrawal but we can’t go because of quarantine rules at DD’s school. A trip to Pennsylvania doesn’t require quarantine so I booked a tentative hotel stay for Hershey. I’ve never been. DD will be 8, DS will be 3.5. They mostly like rides. DS refuses to sit still and watch the shows at Sesame Place and he knows those characters, I doubt he would be into shows if they do them there.

Do I need 2 days in the park at that age or will 1 be enough? Crowds? Buy the “skip the line” bands?

Hopefully I can buy the tickets closer to the date because if the weather forecast looks rainy or too cold, I will cancel.

[daisyduck]

I went to Hershey Park with my 5 year old in July. It was a lot of fun and they have a lot of kid friendly rides. I think one day will be plenty, but if you wanted to spend 2 days there you could (re-riding a lot of rides). If you were going over summer and could also do the water park I'd say 2 days, but during winter I think 1 day is enough.

As long as you plan to stick to rides your kids can do, you won't need the skip the line pass. We looked into it and there weren't very many rides that you could use the pass for that my 44" DD could even ride.

Hershey World is right next to the park. It is free to get into and has a free (simulated) factory tour and some other paid attractions. You could look into that for additional entertainment while there.

ETA: Your 8 year old is probably quite a bit taller than my DD, so my logic on the skip the line pass probably won't work for you. If they will be able and want to ride the bigger rides I'd strongly consider the skip the line pass. You can only use it on select rides, so look at the list and go from there. If you'll have to stick to rides that your 3.5 year old can also do, definitely skip the pass.

[lessel]

We went around Halloween a few years back. We did one day, but I think we could have done two. DS was almost 3 at the time... it was a great age. They had a bunch of rides that little ones can do. We also did a trolley ride through Hershey, which DS mostly slept on, but it was nice. I would vote do two days so you don't feel like you have to jam everything into one day.

Other random suggestion... we also did Strasburg railroad and ate at a restaurant that's in train cars. (I think it was the red caboose or something like that??). It's about an hour drive from Hershey.

[mrsslocombe]

I used to work there at all times of the year, including Candy Lane.

Fewer rides are open during Candy Lane (and with the staffing issues, I imagine there will be even fewer open than normal). So you don’t need as much time. I think one day is plenty, assuming you go on a day that they open at 10/12…some days they only open at 5pm.

There’s some special things open at the time of the year-they have actual reindeer, Santa (until Dec 25th), and of course a million (literally) lights/decorations. They haven’t been doing shows during COVID.

It gets very crowded on weekends and on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Otherwise the crowds usually aren’t too bad, if you aren’t going on the major coasters then you won’t have to wait long for anything. I would never buy the line skip pass, unless you wanted to ride every single coaster multiple times. But even then the lines are rarely all that long, it’s nothing compared to Disney. Usually the only miserable line is for Santa. Last year we went on Dec 26 and I don’t think we waited more than 15 minutes for anything.

There’s a small zoo that is included with your park admission (it usually closes by 4 or 5 though) that has some fun exhibits for kids.

It’s cold AF so wear a million layers. And rides like the roller coasters, swings, etc are even colder.

Chocolate World is a good indoor break. Check before you go though-they have been requiring (free) times reservations to go in during COVID.

There are a bunch of places to get discounted tickets (usually GIANT supermarkets, Turkey Hill…others I can’t remember) so look around before you buy your tickets online.

LMK if you have any other questions.