u/WilsonPhillips6789

Have been coming once-per-year for the past 5 years but am strongly considering Full Size season pass for 2027.

My understanding is that the price for a Season Pass isn't set in stone, and that it can vary based on any promotions / sales that Hersheypark is holding.

I also know that Season Pass Plus will likely become available in a few weeks, and that would give us access for the rest of 2026 (along with all of 2027).

Is that the best time to get a season pass (even if the price is higher than it might be if purchased at some other time during a promotion)? My thinking is "yes" simply because of the additional access for remainder of 2026.

However, it might not be feasible for us to make it up there even once between now and end of 2026. So, I'm just trying to figure out what the "next best option" would be timing-wise for getting a season pass at lowest price if we don't go with the Season Pass Plus this year.

Appreciate any words of wisdom from the park veterans! 🙏🏼

For the past 5 years, my 2 granddaughters and I have come to HP (2.5 hour drive from northern VA) in the summer and done preview night and a jam-packed park attack on following day.

I'm starting to lean towards expanding that to two full park days -- TBD whether we'd still try to come up a day early for preview.

But that then got me thinking about the potential value of a season pass, just in case we can actually make it up there multiple times during the summer.

And now that I know about Halloween and Christmas events, my interest in a season pass has gone up even more. Since those events appear to start at 1200p on both Sat and Sun, we'd probably day trip it rather than do an overnight.

Recognizing that the weather would play a significant role in the answer to this question, what are wait times usually like? Do they seem lower on Sunday vs. Saturday? We don't mind doing all of the things that help you avoid long wait times -- e.g., arrive before opening; haul ass to the back and work your way back to the front over the course of the day; etc.

But our tolerance for wait times above 30 minutes is pretty much non-existent at this point. So, if the answer is that, more often than not, Saturdays and/or Sundays are just as bad as they are during the summer, I don't think I'll want to try to make those additional events.

Appreciate any insights from the park veterans!

Links to previous summaries:

Summer 2023

Summer 2024

Posting this here in case anybody who's a fellow "park commando" trip planner can glean some useful info / tips.

This is my 5th year of taking my granddaughters to HP -- they're now 15 and 13, and with a few small exceptions, we're all game for any ride in the park.

We're about 2.5 hours away, so we now always drive up the day before, get settled (this time, it was a VRBO on Chocolate Ave in downtown Hershey), and then do park preview.

We always have super ambitious goals for preview, but recognize that we more likely than not will not be able to achieve them -- but that's ok. Primary goal is to hit as many of the rides that are likely to have long lines for the majority of the following day so that we will hopefully hit all biggies at least one per visit.

They started letting in preview people around 745p (rather than making us wait until 800p).

The original plan was:

• Great Bear
• Hershey's Tower (if no wait)
• Storm Runner
• JR Remix
• Wildcat's Revenge
• Wild Mouse
• Fahrenheit
• Goal: Getting in line for Twisted Gravity just before 1000p.

What we ended up doing based on lines was the following -- we did our own estimation of wait times based on previous experience since the times in the app are so unreliable:

• Skipped Great Bear (45 min)
• Hershey's Tower (no wait)
• Wildcat's Revenge (30 min -- worth it)
• Wild Mouse (no wait)
• sdl (no wait -- girls wanted multiple rides and didn't need to exit station b/c no line)
• Skyrush (5 min wait -- there were 2 unused seats that the girls grabbed to do a 2nd pass)
• Twisted Gravity

Storm Runner was not running. Fahrenheit had a huge wait (and we all know how slowly that ride turns over b/c only 12 riders per run). Comet was at least 45 min.

But, for a 2 hour speed run, that's still pretty good.

Yesterday morning, some really fierce thunderstorms moved in around 830a so we opted not to do our usual, which is to arrive around 930a and make our way to the holding area before hauling ass to the back to hit Laff Trakk and WCR before lines begin to form.

Radar showed things clearing up around 1100a so we ended up parking around 1015a. By not getting there at park opening, we missed our window to ride Laff Trakk without an interminable wait -- it was already a 60 minute wait by 1045a. It didn't help that most coasters didn't start running until 1100a or so. Here's how the day went:

• Great Bear (no wait)
• Hershey's and Reese's Towers (multiple times)
• Trailblazer (no wait -- girls wanted multiple rides; no need to exit station)
• JR Remix (no wait)
• Storm Runner was still closed 👎🏼
• Skipped Fahrenheit (line looked to be about 30 mins and girls wanted to do Tidal Force before it got too busy)
• Passed on WCR (30-40 min and we had already ridden night before)
• Wild Mouse (no wait -- always a fam fave)
• Lightning Racer (no wait -- multiple rides; could just stay in same seat)
• Music Express (JFC, I'm getting too old for this one)
• Tidal Force (we decided not to do the usual water park / get a locker / slides thing -- just did Tidal Force and then moved on w the day)

After Tidal Force, it was about 130p. Sun came out pretty quickly after we arrived and it was steamy, hot, and humid AF. And wait times were starting to look bad everywhere you looked -- even the queue for the Howler was pretty full up.

Our usual approach is to work our way back to the front of the park to catch Candymonium around 300p or so -- then we stop at The Chocolatier for A/C and a much needed break.

We went by the Hershey's Towers one more time -- older granddaughter will only ride Reese's, so all 3 of us went on together. Younger and I then did Hershey's again while older did 2 more on Reese's.

That was just a bit too much for the older and she ended up getting really sick (after feeling nauseated for about 30 minutes). Like REALLY sick, projectile vomiting, felt so bad for her.

But, as is often the case, you do end up feeling a lot better once your body purges itself -- she didn't want to do any more rides, but also didn't want to make us leave b/c younger still wanted to ride a bunch of stuff.

The forecast was looking like some serious / intense storms were imminent, so we decided to skip Candymonium for fear of getting caught in the rain (while still in line). So we headed straight to Chocolatier and checked in around 230p (an hour ahead of our reservation). We JUST beat the rush and were seated -- as soon as we sat down, there were a gazillion people at the check-in.

We figured we would need to kill quite a bit of time so we just slowly made our way through several shared apps (one at a time) before sharing a dessert. From what we could tell, it never actually did start raining (other than maybe misting / sprinkles), but according to the app, all coasters and the water park closed down -- and stayed closed for at least an hour.

Once we had regained our energy, we didn't really know what lines were like -- as we left Chocolatier around 400p, we could see Candymonium and Skyrush running empty trains, so it seemed like things were opening up. The app showed all coasters as having 5 min waits -- and that proved to be spectacularly incorrect.

Fahrenheit -- ew.

WCR -- backed up all the way to the entrance.

Storm Runner -- open (yay!); only one train (boo!); long ass line (boo hoo!).

Kissing Tower -- no wait (and something the older had always wanted to do, but we never prioritized it).

Great Bear -- yikes.

Twisted Gravity -- longest line I've ever seen; and although they were running both swings the night before, they were only running one swing all day yesterday.

They wanted to swing through The Hollow again but sdl, Skyrush, and Comet all had super long lines. So, unlike some instances where the storms drive out a bunch of people, in this case, it was that awful combo of having to close all rides (prob due to lightning in the area), but NOT raining out -- meaning a bunch of people must've just stayed in line where they were (we couldn't tell b/c we were just chilling at Chocolatier).

So, I claimed executive privilege and said, "let's just bounce -- it's not going to get any better". So we headed to the front for a spin on Candymonium getting in line at 530p -- posted wait time 30 minutes; actual time to get into station and onto the ride -- about 15 minutes. So, we did it twice. Worth it.

Final swing through the gift shop to get a few coffee mugs and some King Size bars (I love me some 5th Avenue and Whatchamacallit).

So -- not our best experience weather-wise; and lines were a bit worse overall compared to past trips.

But, it's still a highlight of our summer -- and we'll def be back next summer.

Have been recovering from an injury unrelated to skating, so yesterday was my first time lacing up for a trail skate in about 4 months.

Felt SO good to get back on 8 wheels outside, especially in my Road Hogs b/c they're so freakin' wide and stable that I no longer have that paralyzing fear of "when am I gonna faceplant from a rogue pebble?"

So, of course, as I was T-stopping coming into an intersection where I needed to wait for the "Walk" signal, I momentarily took my eyes off the pavement to gauge the situation at the intersection. Enter One Tiny Pebble, perfectly placed in the direct line of my left skate (I mostly T-stop with my R skate in back) -- any guesses as to what happened next?

Also, why is it that our most epic faceplants ALWAYS seem to happen where we have the largest audience? I wonder if I should start wearing a decal with my Venmo QR code so people can feel free to compensate me for providing them with such visual entertainment. 🤓

As someone else here once said, "pebbles are undefeated vs. humans". #truth

After providing me with "ok enough" protection for the past 6 years, I've decided to retire my Triple-8 wrist guards.

I've seen some interesting designs in my various searches, and am curious to see what you all are wearing for your trail and street skates.

Like, I know there's no time limit, and that I can do whatever the eff I want -- so why do I continue setting myself up to be frustrated b/c I didn't do all of the things on my waaaay-too-lengthy "gotta get it done" list.

I am NOT going for perfection; I am NOT trying to min-max; hell, I am NOT even capable of sticking with a farm layout for more than, like, 3 seasons...

Why won't my ADHD brain just calm the eff down? Why do I get so bent out of shape when I fail to complete a bulletin board request?

Perfectionism -- oh how I hate you with every fiber of my being...

Where my fellow perfectionists at? Holla! 👋🏼

Curious what fellow rink skaters have to say about the experience I had this past Saturday.

Our rink allows people to make song requests -- they have a clipboard where people can list requests; and, while it's usually available, it had been hung up on the wall when my granddaughter and I arrived (which means they weren't taking requests at that time).

About 30 minutes later, I noticed that the clipboard was down and that there were a few people congregating around the counter. When I got to the counter, there was a young man who was feverishly writing down songs -- I counted at least 5, and that's just from the time that I got there. He had already been writing on the clipboard for at least 45 seconds before I rolled up.

He looked around, saw that there were 4 people waiting (including me), so he picked up the clipboard and moved out of the way -- and then just stood there for another 2 minutes drumming his fingers, looking around at others in the rink, etc., and occasionally writing down another song.

I could see the 3 people in front of me getting irritated b/c he clearly knew we were all there waiting -- so, I spoke up and said "Are you almost done?"

That's when the guy got REALLY confrontational with me, saying that he was trying to decide what songs to request and that he'd give me the clipboard once he was done -- basically acting like "WTF is your problem?!?"

About 90 seconds later, he aggressively handed me the clipboard and gave me a truly intimidating staredown -- I just smiled, said "thank you" and then handed the clipboard to one of the other young women who had been there before I arrived.

Oh, did I mention that this guy is a rink guard, who just happened to not be working that day? So, immediately after he tried to intimidate he, went over to his rink guard friends and clearly bad-mouthed me b/c I could see him pointing at me while talking to them. So now I'm thinking I've got 3 new enemies, all of whom are rink guards (and at least one of which is almost always working when I go to the rink).

All 3 of the women who were waiting thanked me for speaking up, and I waited while they wrote down their requests -- I then added my 2 songs (one of which eventually got played), and went back out onto the rink and approached the guy, just saying, "Hey, man -- I wasn't trying to piss you off -- it's just that everybody had been waiting a really long time"

He wasn't a jerk to me then, but he wasn't really that receptive, either -- whatever, I felt like I said my piece at that point. I introduced myself, asked him his name, and shook his hand.

However, this whole thing has stuck with me because, as I mentioned, he's an employee at this rink -- and I can't get over how incredibly rude he was to me, so I almost spoke to the rink manager (someone I've gotten to know b/c he teaches the lessons I sometimes attend).

I mean, sure, I guess I was kind of an asshole for speaking up -- I've decided to try to let it go, although I have to be honest that I now feel like I will have to watch my back whenever he's there.

Anyway, just curious to get your take on this.