Definition of a "Theme Park" vs. "Amusment Park"

Hersheypark: I can never quite follow that. How many sections does the Park have? Tudor Square, Rhineland, Carrousel Circle, Comet Hollow, Minetown, Pioneer Frontier, Music Box Way, Midway America, and Tower Plaza.

Midway America seems to be the most consistently Themed area in Hersheypark... themed to look like an amusement park... bit stretch there.

As for the other areas... Tudor Square and Rhineland have the most consistent themes as well as parts of Pioneer Frontier. The other areas... not much of an attempt seems to be made. Carrousel Circle meets its "theme" simply by having every thing circling the Carrousel. Comet Hollow meets its theme by having everything in the creek hollow where Comet is located. Music box way... simply because it is the midway area around the Music Box Theater. As for Minetown... Isn't much of a theme there, at least not anymore. Never really was. They did have at one time (still there?) a restaurant called Minetown Vittles, and the themed rides Coal Cracker and Coal Shaker (themed cuddle up)... but now only Coal Cracker remains (along with the tunnel on the sooperdooperlooper). Tower plaza also sticks with its Theme simply because it is the plazza surrounding the kissing tower.

Basically, Hershey's "themed areas" are no so much themed areas as they are Named areas.

Some clame that Chocolate is the theme. I fail to see this. They may have costumed characters that look like Hershey products... and the kissing tower may have kiss shaped windows... and you may see an occasional tie in, especially with the characters... and the height markers may be candy related... but over all this is so minor that it can easily be over looked.

However, back in the late 1960's and early 1970's when Hershey was rebuilding its image and making the transition from tradtional amusement park to corporate theme park, I am not sure what the plans were as regards to themes. I believe that in the beginning more heavier themes were planned, but eventually those plans were abandoned. I read somewhere that Rhineland and Tudor Square went way over budget because they did not build building facades (sp?) but rather complete buildings. (I think that was in the Charles Jacques book where I read that).

No problem though. In my opinion, still one of the best parks out there.

Coordinating lands are only part of the theme. It's all about the story. Interestingly, amusement parks are becoming more like theme parks, while some would argue that the reverse is happening to theme parks.

Millennium force has no story, (well, except "go tall, drop fast."). Dragster barely has a story (or, it did when it opened with tires etc.) Nothing in all of Cedar Point has a story that lasts more than one or two sentences. Every time CP builds something with even a minimal story they seem to forget that it costs money to maintain the story bits, and as those bits decay, they just get ripped out (see: most of DT, wheels on Dragster, caves on Whitewater landing).

On the other hand, we have Pirates of the Carribbean (@ Disneyland): that's a story that takes a good page to write down. Indiana Jones at the same park---the *queue for the ride* has a story that takes a while to convey, as do many other Disney queues. To drive the Disney faithful nuts, we also have California Screamin': no story.

To me, parks that try to build rides with stories are theme parks. Those that skip the story, aren't. So, for me, Six Flags and Cedar Fair parks are "amusement". Disney and Universal are "theme", and Paramount is somewhere in between.

I can see where Millennium Force fits in with the Frontier Trail. The entering a new millennium is entering a new frontier.

The theme to California Screamin'? A "beach side" wooden coaster, silly!;)

I remember reading that Hershey's theme park buildings are actually themed on all four sides and not just simple buildings with elaborate facades. It probably was the Charles Jacques book but I'm not positive.

I am pretty sure that much of the theming that was supposed to be applied to other areas of the park was either scaled back or was never actually planned after the concept renderings were completed. If you happen across the Randal Duell (sp?) rendering of how the completed park should have looked, you'll see a very strong "coal mining" theme in one of the areas... it might be what became the Kissing Tower area. That heavy coal mining theme was probably scaled back and lightly applied to an existing area of the park to save money while keeping that section from looking to old and generic. Areas like Comet Hollow and Music Box Way seem to have no theme- the name merely references the main attraction in that area. I am not sure if they had a theme that was scrapped or the park just wanted to make it look as though they made some kind of effort?

Midway America is pretty well themed even though the theme seems to be amusement park. I'm not quite sure why it works but it does!

Hershey isn't quite a full-fledged theme park but in the end, it doesn't have to be. There are enough good things about the park for it to succeed on account of its fantastic rides and operations, not because there is a consistently high level of theming throughout.

Anyone else have a headache just reading this topic? lol