Last winter I almost went with my family to Hershey Park for their Christmas event but it didn’t work out due to business from buying a house. However, I got the impression from several comments here on a thread I created about HP Christmas that it has gotten to be a difficult park to go to due to low staffing etc. One of my kids is on a school trip there today and crowd calendars said it would be a “ghost town” so we assumed he didn’t need to pre purchase their version of the all day cut the line pass. Well, the park is hideously packed so much so that he doesn’t even want to stand in line for the dining plan we ordered. Is this just what is to be expected of HP post pandemic?
Our one family trip there in summer ( an extremely hot time that may have kept some people away) was 7 yrs ago and I remember it not being that crowded at all, except when it got close to the weekend. I wonder if the “heat dome” that week made it seem like a less crowded place than normal or if in 2016 it was less crowded than now. I’d love to go back for a family trip but what DS has been saying has made me not want to, honestly. I do realize we’re right after Memorial Day weekend however, and that may be skewing things.
For a lot of local amusement parks, the time between Memorial day and end of school will tend to have a lot of school trips, which could send crowd levels up quite a bit.
I can’t speak to HP in general, though.
Once school gets out, summer crowds build, but there still tends to lower midweek crowds just due to work schedules.
Is it possible that today is a big school trip day? When I did group sales for Six Flags it was pretty common for us to have big days like this planned where were had like 20+ schools coming because it was the end of school / start of summer…
Sorry he’s having a bummer day! When my DD was in middle school they went to Dollywood. She had a bad trip where she didn’t get to ride anything either. I totally understand your frustration!!
I think - unfortunately - it was just bad luck today. We went for evening hours on July 4 and all day on July 5 2022, and it was great. July 4 was very busy - you could tell it was a high crowd day, but the park was practically empty on July 5.
I don’t think all days will be like this post-pandemic.
School trips are occurring right now at HP, for those still in school. There are also more schools in the area finishing before Memorial Day. My kids were done Friday. So I expect some families may have taken some extra days off to be with their kids.
And yes, I have heard complaints of long lines. We got a really really good price for tickets and free parking, so we are going on Fathers Day. Sundays are better than Saturdays, but I expect to not be able to get on as much as we used to. We don’t buy Fast Track. I can’t stand the concept and it has ruined the standby wait times in park. It is also very pricey and there is no way I’m buying it for my family of 5. We also plan on eating a good breakfast before going to the park and having a late lunch to avoid some of the lines.
HP is short on employees and had been even before the pandemic. They don’t pay well.
In one of my Cedar Point groups there was a discussion thread with some Hershey Park locals and they said it’s just gotten much, much busier in general over the last few years.
The irony of complaining that all the out of area tourists needed to leave their regional park as a nice place for locals while posting in a group where they were trying to get advice on coming to our regional park was lost on them.
I will agree that since more people from further away have come to HP, it has negatively impacted the park. But it does seem silly to complain about that while going to another more regional amusement park.
I’ve never been to Cedar Point and don’t plan on going there.
Oh, I don’t mind when people from away come to CP… when I worked there the years Millennium Force and Top Thrill Dragster opened it was really cool to talk to people who came to ride the record-breakers and hear where they came from. I haven’t actually noticed that the overall wait times have changed much since the 90s, though they’ve certainly shifted as new rides are built. The introduction of Fast Lane hasn’t changed overall wait time either, except for during Halloweekends but that’s mainly because Halloweekends has just gotten to be more popular than the park can handle.
I just never had a desire to go to Ohio. I also don’t travel for amusement parks, with Disney being the exception. Fast Track has definitely increased wait times for HP. Most of the attractions weren’t built for it. And crowds have steadily increased over the years, especially after some of the more recent coasters and the water park were built.
Overall I think that the HP trip for my DS was a success. He got to ride 4 coasters, eat 2 meals he loved, and brought home merch he liked. I took a photo of him when he got off the bus and he had a nice, natural smile, where he usually has a “don’t take my picture” forced one. Today he seems happy with the experience. In the future I’ll send snacks with my kids going on a trip even if they aren’t supposed to need them, b/c the 3 hrs between breakfast and park entry turned into 5+ and he was starving.
I went yesterday, a Sunday and I’d say it was busy but not packed. My neighbor was with us who has a season passs and said it wasn’t that busy based on the fact that when she arrived around 10:30 she could still get a spot in the pass holder lot. We waited an hour and a half for a water coaster. Monorail said 45. The thing is the lines move slowly in part because of the skip the line person. They’ll just keep letting people through unlike Disney who lets so many go then moves SB. And you can get off the ride and get back on. For all our complaints, I think Disney does a good job managing LLs.
For the most part. The water coaster said 120 and it was about 90. I only waited in thet because I thought we were in line for a different slide they had 20 minutes posted. They don’t actually lot the wait times at the ride - you can only see it on the app so I got confused. Seemed like the waits weren’t too accurate otherwise. Lots of 25 min waits that I think we waited a bit longer for. Kiddie rides were walk on though and few others that said 10 minutes were walk in like the Kissing Tower and that other Hershey Kiss tower.
Just a tip for mobile order - that is a horrible process. It says they text you when you order is ready. They don’t. You are to show up at the mobile pick up window at your time slot which was about 30 minutes out and then they start to prepare your food. We didn’t know that and we’re waiting for a text then DH finally figured it out after seeing other people get in the mobile order line.
