This year's Hersheypark In The Dark

Has anyone been to this year's Hersheypark In The Dark? I'll probably be heading that way this weekend and staying overnight. Do they have any haunted mazes or houses setup in the park, or is it just a Halloween themed Hershey?

Also, I noticed all the hotels around Hershey have no vacancy this weekend. Is this normal for this event? Thanks.

I tried to book my usual Hampton at the next turnpike exit east from the park ... no rooms for ANY Saturday though the end of the month! Something's going on in Hershey other than the park ... either that or I'm SERIOUSLY underestimating the drawing power of the place ...

I'm assuming you've looked at the hershey site like I just did too. And it appears it ultra-family friendly. I didn't see anything about any haunted houses/trails, just that apparently many of the rides will run in the dark during HPitD. I had hopes for "Creatures of the Night", but it turns out it's at the zoo, and it's a tour of the nocturnal animals. *** Edited 10/19/2005 12:36:51 AM UTC by Floorless Fan***

Yeah, I got the sasme impression from the site too. I haven't been to Hershey in a few years and have some time this weekend to go. I guess I'll try looking in York or around there for a room.

I wouldn't underestimate any of the parks in Mid-Atlantic this time of year. Even SFA was packed last weekend.

I am dissapointed that they didn't keep the haunts this year. I didn't get to go last year and was looking forward to the new haunts this year. We canceled our plans.

Were they not very popular? Why did they stop after only one year?

They had haunted stuff last year, but I don't know how well it went over. I didn't go last year to find out if it was cool. I don't think that they are going to do anything, or they would be advertising it like they did for last years Haunted Harvest.

Hershey's always been about the family. Perhaps they decided it wouldn't be good to pursue the scare-side of the Halloween festivities, because it pissed off too many of their current guests?

Haunted Harvest was ok. $15 extra for the Haunted Harvest after paying the $20 for a RAD wristband was a bit expensive if you ask me. Especially since you cand drive the 35 minutes or so and do The Field Of Screams in Lancaster for $20 and make an entire night out of it and have 3 good attractions instead of just an average one.

Haunted Harvest had a great website and storyline but Hershey didn't do a good job transfering that to the actual walkthru. It had a handful of cool suprises but not enough for the $15 upcharge and hour wait. $5 would have been a better price if you ask me..

I was at Hersheypark all day Saturday. (No TR yet.) Compared to most other parks, Hersheypark's halloween events are pretty tame. No scaractors, no haunted attractions. They do go all out in renaming all their rides with Halloween names (eg. Scardey Cat instead of Wildcat). However, Hersheypark has a couple non-coaster attractions that deserve attention:

• Creatures of the Night at Zoo America - Yes, there are a lot of kids and strollers to navigate, but when else can you watch owls, alligators, wolves and mountain lions active in the dark? There were lots of staff holding animals and answering questions. We were able to pet an alligator and a skunk (de-scented).
• Chocolate, chocolate everywhere! Not unusual for Hershey, but Halloween is extra sweet!

Another pleasant surprise was multiple-train operation at all coasters all day long. (Stormrunner was running just two trains - one for each platform.)*** Edited 10/19/2005 2:01:47 PM UTC by greatwhitenorth*** *** Edited 10/19/2005 2:24:27 PM UTC by greatwhitenorth***

I'm jelous guys. Im in ontario. Hope you guys have a good time. Just thought i'd drop a quick one. Have fun though, sounds like a major killer time. :-<

The Hampton Inn at old PA Turnpike exit 20 (Lancaster/Lebanon) I still don't remember the new number is right across the road from another major area attraction, The Pennsylvania Rennaissance Faire which runs weekends from August through the end of October.

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greatwhitenorth said:

Another pleasant surprise was multiple-train operation at all coasters all day long. (Stormrunner was running just two trains - one for each platform

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Darn, Storm Runner was only running 2 trains?

Okay... so it isn't scary. It's a 20$ wristband with practically everything open (water rides being the exception). I look at it as one last chance to get in a visit to the park before the end of the season.

Last year on the 31st, I walked over to the park before the hockey game to get in a few last rides on Comet for the season and one last ride on Giant Wheel for ever.

For me, no better way to end the season than to spend about the last hour of a cool and crisp October night riding Comet.

A few years ago they ran it for only two weekends, but that also included Thursday night. Thursday night was the best to go. The hours were shorter, but the park was empty. Down side... a few years ago they didn't open Wildcat, Wildmouse and Lightning Racer.

Crowds on Saturday can be pretty crazy. Sunday isn't too awfully bad. Not sure how it is on a Friday night.

Umm.. Storm Runner only has 2 trains.

I was sitting here trying to think of 3 trains on Storm Runner and all I kept thinking was accident waiting to happen ;)

Well, there is a retractable fin break right before the switch track entering the station that you could stop a train on. So I guess it'd be possible. Although one would question if it's feasible (can you say "stacking"?)

A real scary Halloween event would be if they tried running two trains on Sidewinder.

ummmmmmmmmm I think I'll sit that ride out ;)

I was at HP on Sunday evening. My half-finished TR is sitting in my documents folder.

In brief, no haunted attractions, and none of the coasters are totally "in the dark" at least in the way Phoenix was for PPP. Crowds were light and just about everything was a walk-on, but that may have been because the weather was pretty windy and cool that evening.

It's all about family fun, as in be prepared to see a lot of little girls dressed up like princesses. But unless you really really want haunted attractions, it's still lots of fun.