July 11th - 12th - Hershey, Pennsylvania

Thursday we arrived at the Hershey Family Campground around noon. While it is billed as a "brand new" campground it is clear that it is an old campground that is being totally redone. The campsites are new but the new buildings and pool are not yet completed. Here is a picture of the current buildings at the entrance. The office is on the right, then the laundromat, then a little house, and then the shower house on the left. They are all really run down and gross. New buildings are under construction on the other end of the park. It will be really nice when finished. We got the "construction rate" of $75.00 per night, the most I have ever paid for a campsite in my life.

The campsites are all new with new utilities, graveled and sodded. What is completed is very nice.

Here is Marge all set up on our site. Even though it is a new campground and most the campsites are on an angle making it easier to back in, it was tight getting Marge on the site with our long truck and trailer. 

Fortunately the new campground had upgraded electric so that we could run the AC because it is hot.

After setting up Marge we drove into Hershey to "Hershey's Chocolate World" to take the Hershey Factory Tour. 

While the "tour" is free there are three "shows" or "activities" you have to pay money for. We opted for two out of the three because the last one was sold out until 6:00 p.m. We didn't want to hang around the store looking at chocolate to buy for two hours. It cost $55.70 for the three of us to see the two shows and they were both totally LAME. If I owned the Hershey company I would be embarrassed to provide these shows for FREE much less charge people for them. With the "tasting" show we each got a small tin of various Hershey chocolate products to taste - $1.00 worth of candy. I'll put the tins to use in the RV or my shop as a reminder of being ripped off. The factory tour isn't a factory tour. It is ride through a mock up of the various processes of making chocolate. It was "ok" but I like real tours. 

Friday we arrived at Hershey Park (the amusement park) around 10:00 a.m. It cost $15.00 to park and then walk for at least a quarter mile to the park entrance. Kellen was excited upon seeing the rides as we approached. We were standing in the line to purchase tickets when two ladies walked up and said "You guys are seniors. We have a ticket we bought for our grandma and she got hurt and couldn't come. You are welcome to have it." With that they gave us an admission ticket worth $32.80. What a great start to the day!!!!

Like most parks they have perfected the art of making you wait in line and not get pissed off about it. For the first ride Kellen was going to have an hour wait. We decided that at that rate he would hardly get to ride many of the rides in a day and we would go nuts waiting for him each time. So we paid an extra $90.00 to get him a "Fast Trak" pass so he could skip to the front of the lines on most rides. It ticked me off that this "extra pass" cost 50% more than the price of his $62.00 admission but we wanted him to enjoy the park so we bought it. We were really glad we did. In the ten hours that we were there he got to ride every Level 4 and 5 ride at least once and a couple several times. Here is a picture of one ride.

He said the rides were much wilder than Six Flags in St. Louis. He had a great time all day. At one point we thought we lost him and contacted security. He had not come out of the ride after almost an hour and a half. About five minutes after we alerted the security he came walking out. He said that without his glasses on he said he didn't see the "Fast Track" lane and had waited in the regular line to get on.

Here he is on a ride that takes you up about 150 feet and drops you several times. He said it was great. I would have lost my lunch.

They sell a refillable drink cup for $16.00. We got one and put it to good use all day. Of course they don't have regular refill stations throughout the park. Isn't that convenient? In each section of the park we had to walk around to find a refill station and wait in line to refill it.

Kellen had a great time and we were all bushed by the time we left the park at 8:00 p.m. We came back, took showers, and hit the sack.