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Fun at Hershey

Last week my husband surprised me by reserving a day of park passes to Hershey Park as well as a room at the Hershey Lodge, so last night my children stayed at a hotel for the first time in their lives.  (I make them sound so deprived.  For some reason, we have always vacationed with family and rented houses or cabins, and we realized yesterday that our kids have actually never stayed in a regular hotel room.)

We arrived mid-afternoon and drove down Chocolate Drive, where all of the light posts have Hershey Kisses on top, and arrived at the Hershey Lodge with about half the state of Pennsylvania.  There there were scads of families with small children milling about; I guess we all decided to arrive at about the same time.  But we soon learned that Hershey almost rivals Disney in their amenities and hospitality (no, this is not a sponsored post; we just had a great time!!) and the kids enjoyed the “Kids’ Check In” station while my husband took care of the formalities.  He came away from the front desk with a full-sized Hershey bar for each one of us; those certainly didn’t last long.

The Hershey Lodge is HUH-UGE.  Seriously.  A person could get lost.  After dropping our bags in our (relatively spacious) room, we checked out the swimming pools (2 outdoor and 1 indoor).  Unfortunately it was too cold and gloomy for the outdoor pools (June?  Seriously?) and the indoor pool area was rather small.  We opted for an early dinner and TV in our room, although at 9PM when the kids were bouncing off the walls, we were gravely regretting that choice.

We contemplated dinner at the sports’ themed Bears Den, but then we opted for the more upscale Hershey Grill, which was ABSOLUTELY DIVINE.  I would drive out there again just for dinner.  I had the most delicious grouper served over a salad that was To Die For.  I ate every morsel.  Their multi-grain dinner rolls (yes, I had one; I told you I’m weak when it comes to breads and rolls) were served with the choice of herb butter or chocolate butter.  You can guess which one I chose.  And then my husband had a Resees Cup dessert that I had to seriously sit on my hands so I didn’t steal it.  But enough about the food.

This morning we took advantage of the Kids Eat Free for Breakfast deal that was part of our plan and had the breakfast buffet at the hotel before we headed over to the park for the day.  Another perk was that we were allowed to enter the park an hour earlier than regular park visitors, so we got to ride without waiting in lines for the first hour or so.  SCORE!

I had the kids stop and pose by the flowers at the entrance because I’m one of those annoying moms.

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They’d much rather goof around.

C made friends with the Resees Cup guy.  She has good taste.  She got that from me.  Little R wouldn’t go near him.  She kept saying, “I shy to him.”  She better get over that, or Disney this fall is going to be IN-TER-EST-ING.

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One of the kids snapped this picture.  They’re always begging to take pictures, but they don’t usually turn out well enough to post.

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Why, thank you, isn’t my new hair color nice?  Buh-bye, gray!

This is C riding the Merry-Go-Round and me trying not to puke while I snapped her picture from my seat beside her sister.  That was the first and last ride I went on today.  Every party has a pooper… (or a mom with chronic vertigo)

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Of course we took time out for ice cream.

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By noon it was drizzling, and by 1PM it was pouring, so we left the park and went over to Chocolate World and took the Chocolate Tour Ride.  It’s just not Hershey Park without the Chocolate Tour Ride.  After that, we were all pooped, not to mention cold and soggy, so we decided to cut our losses and head home.  Had the weather been nicer, we may have gone back to the park for the water rides, but we pretty much covered the rest of the territory, which was no small feat with a 3-year-old and no stroller.  And it was actually nice to get home at a decent hour.

We’re already planning to go back next year, but I plan to order better weather.

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21 Responses

  1. Thanks for the review. Does it smell like chocolate all the time? Looks like it was fun. More importantly, you all are going to Disney?!?! So jealous. Did I miss a post where you mentioned this already?

  2. It looks like you had a blast. We were at Hershey last May, but didn’t do the park.

    I didn’t know you had vertigo too! I’m taking a couple things that seem to be helping to keep me feeling normal on a daily basis, but I’m now scared of rides of all kinds.

    Glad you had a good time even though it rained.

  3. Super pics – especially the one of you both (which you didn’t take! LOL)

    We don’t really have Hershey products here, I have only seen them a couple of times. We do have a Cadburys World in Birmingham, England, but I have not been. However it is not a resort, just a day trip place.

  4. This convinces me that we ought to take our family over to Hershey for a visit. I’m so glad you had fun!!

    I’m sorry that I won’t have the chance to meet you in person at the Philly Moms Blog launch party tonight. Have a great evening!

  5. That sounds really fun! We live in Chicago so I haven’t heard much about it. I will have to look into that one for a vacation. My oldest son has a severe peanut allergy and a regular Hershey bar is the only kind of candy bar he can eat! We should drive out just to thank them. =]

  6. Soounds like you had a great time. I have a couple of friends that have been several times and they only have good things to say about it. If we are ever up that way I’ll have to check it out.

  7. Hello June? April wants it weather back! Sheesh!
    I love Hershey – have you ever been to the Hershey Spa at the Hotel Hershey? All that I have to say is Chocolate Spa Treatments!

    Love the hair! Did you do it yourself?

  8. Megan, seriously, I can only handle so much more of this before I crawl into a hole and hibernate.

    I have not been to the spa. Hmmm… 15th anniversary treat, maybe? Heh.

    No, I did NOT do my hair myself. I got it done professionally. Unfortunately it’s a semi-permanent and will only last 4-6 weeks. But I do love it. 🙂

  9. We all love Hershey!! For the past couple of summers we took the kids and went camping in my inlaws RV at Hershey’s Campground. Hershey park is the perfect size I think for a day with the kids. The waterpark was a blast last year although I agree with it being so cold lately that it probably wouldn’t have been too much fun. Glad you had a great time! Maybe we should do a mommyblogger event there!

  10. Just found your blog and love it! I don’t like the rides either but I love to watch my family having fun on them. What is your opinion on a night away to Hershey with my husband? Romantic or too many families? I thought I could distract him from the bill with chocolate!

  11. You said: “Hershey almost rivals Disney in their amenities and hospitality .”

    I say: “Wow! I think you convinced me with that phrase alone.”

    Maybe one day, we’ll venture out to little ‘ol Hershey, PA.

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