Hershey's Chocolate World - The Factory Tour

Hershey's Chocolate World is a magical place. I don't say that lightly.

The exterior is built to resemble the original factory.

The inside contains a lot of retail space with some great decorations and displays. There are other candies, but the theme is chocolate.

They teach you general things about chocolate as well as their manufacturing process. As it turns out, the best ride in Hershey, Pennsylvania isn't at the amusement park, and you don't even have to pay to go on it. You walk in, go through the line, and step into your car.

Because it was moving (and my camera was busy dying), I don't have great pictures, but they use a combination of film footage, actual equipment, and models to give you the sense of how the chocolates are made.

There is also animatronic livestock singing to you.

Yes, Hef, Gabby, Harmony, and Olympia sing to you about Hershey's Milk Chocolate, giving it kind of the feel of a ride at Disneyland, with one key twist. Yes, you essentially do exit into a gift shop, because the main area is kind of a gift shop, but on your way out they give you candy. And you can go as many times as you want, and they regularly rotate in new candy.

There was a lot more to see and do there, so you do spend money and it's worth it, but that anyone who wanders in can go on the ride and get candy is awesome.

We loved it.

http://www.hersheys.com/chocolateworld/

Hershey, PA - ZooAmerica North American Wildlife Park

ZooAmerica has a separate entrance and is open year round, but it can be entered through Hershey Park and is included in the admission. There is a bridge that takes you across.

Although it has gone through various changes through the years, since 1975 the zoo has focused on animals of North America and the environment.

http://www.zooamerica.com/about_us.php

The exhibit on the American Southwest was my favorite, but that may have just been that we were glad to get out of the rain.

I know we could have enjoyed it more if it were dry, but that probably goes for the animals too.

It is still a good selection of animals, and the habitats are good. They are accredited.

But if you can, go when it's dry.

I did like the porcupine.

Here is the last picture my camera ever took. After acting up more and more throughout the trip, it was here that it died. From this point on I needed to start borrowing my sister's camera.

http://www.zooamerica.com/

Hershey, PA - Hersheypark

We came away from our trip with a true appreciation for the Hersheys. I like the story of the park. Originally the picnic ground for the factory workers, it gradually had rides added, and became a regular theme park. That is pretty cool.

Ultimately, the reason that we ended up not being thrilled with the park is that it was a regular theme park.

There were things they did to incorporate the theme, like the Kiss Tower, but most of the rides were standard rides.

There were a lot meant for children, which was fine, but there were a lot where it wasn't clear if they would be comfortable, and as the day started getting wetter they became less appealing.

The entrance area was charming.

We also really liked their system for determining if you met height requirements.

But perhaps the least surprising thing is that our favorite part ended up being the selection of claw machines.

And the happiest surprise ended up being that when I saw the giant claw machine I knew I could get it, and I was right.

http://www.hersheypark.com/

Hershey, PA - Simmons Motel

We had been back from vacation for about two weeks when Julie got a call:

"Was that the Simmons Hotel you stayed at? It's on TV!"

I had not previously heard of the show "Hotel Impossible", but it's been around for a while, someone we know watches it, and our hotel was on episode 5 of Season 6.

There are some hotels associated with the Hershey name. They sound lovely, with lobbies full of special flavor kisses, but they run a little expensive. For other options, the Simmons Hotel didn't have great reviews, but they weren't horrible either. I booked there.

My sisters had some trepidation, but the negative reviews focused on things being out of date but still clean. Clean is very important.

The reviews ended up being accurate - things were clearly out of date. It's not that they were dirty, but when somethings get old enough, there is still something off-putting. The carpet was so old it had taken on kind of a spongy texture, the trim on the bathroom was dingy and peeling away, and I think some of the paint was worn through. It could have been worse, but it could have been better too.

At the same time, there was a multi-generation, historic aspect to the property, and while there was no shuttle at least the walk was short (though dangerous). Seeing that Days Inn had apparently added a shuttle after we researched did make us question our decision, but we were only there for two days; we were going to suck it up.

There was a guy around who was on the sketchy side, with sketchy friends.

Then we saw the show.

Host Anthony Melchiorri's assessment was similar to mine: clean but outdated, and with potential.

The biggest disconnect was that we had been there so recently, and it was before the changes. With reality shows I thought there were months spent in post-production. Unless they only renovated one room, this had all happened after we left. We arrived on September 11th and left early on the 13th. This aired on September 29th. Somehow coming, assessing, renovating the rooms, getting the sketchy guy into rehab and him checking out early, and airing a show reporting on that all happened in between.

Yeah, the sketchy guy was the son of the owner. She was 91, and this hotel was her home and history, but the falling business and the mismanagement was breaking her heart, and that focused largely around her son's alcohol addiction.

Most of the episode focused on that, and it was really uncomfortable. There was a point where Anthony was talking to the grandson, and all of the patterns that you see with children of alcoholics are there, and it's heart-breaking.

I know there was one part where it occurred to me that Whitney was simply not meant for the hospitality business, and if the family business is one that won't work for you, that's a problem, but at the same time, so much of what was going wrong centered around the drinking that it would be hard to untangle. There was a moment of hope when he was in rehab and the front desk clerk was getting training and taking over as GM, but shortly after Whitney came back he fired her, probably jealous. Marnie, with her new training and experience, will probably be okay, but that still leaves a generation above and below that are suffering.

It was all very sad.

In light of this, I do wish I had taken more pictures. Here is our room door. We were in Room 0. The hotel is white with green shutters and trim, which is why the door signs were green (and kiss-shaped because Hershey). With the gold 0 in the green kiss, it did feel a little University of Oregon to me.

Hershey, PA - Getting to and around

We loved Hershey World. We would gladly go back there, and we would certainly visit their new location in Las Vegas.

There were still some things that were not great.

I have mentioned that after Philadelphia nothing was pedestrian-friendly; that was most true here.

It's not just getting around within the area. Yes, there were sidewalks that connected most of the lodgings with businesses like Walgreens and Chipotle, which was nice. However, to get to the park - which was only a mile away from our hotel, so we did not anticipate any problems getting there - you leave the sidewalk, walking along narrow shoulders and bushes. The grade of the hill wasn't terribly steep, but the reason there was a hill was that the path dipped under an underpass. Therefore, at the bottom of that dip you were walking through a tunnel with no shoulders and for that stretch no visibility. We were taking our life in our hands.

Some of the hotels (thought notably not ours) had shuttles, which is a good thing. It may seem unnecessary based on distance, but for safety purposes it is really valuable. However, if it seems like everyone is just expecting you to have your own car, there is a reason for that: cars are the only way into Hershey.

The nearest Greyhound depot is in Harrisburg, ten miles away. Harrisburg is also the site of the airport and the Amtrak station, but the Amtrak station couldn't help us because there was no connection from Easton. We went Greyhound.

Before that, we looked for shuttle services, even calling the Hershey Hotel. She told me that everyone rented cars.

Well, maybe most people did, but we got a taxi at the bus station, and then took one to the airport when we left. The taxi services are similar to in Easton, unaffiliated individual with varying levels of cleanliness and professionalism.

I guess there's not enough people going back and forth for a SuperShuttle there, but we would have liked that.