The Hershey Story Museum — Attraction in Derry Township

On one hand I want to give this 5 stars-on the other I want to give it 2. The museum itself is delightful. The young lady at the front desk (Sarah I believe) was very helpful and kind. However, Jim, who was working the gift shop was rude. He was extremely impatient with our family.

We were not able to make it until the end of the day so we knew we had a limited amount of time and we’re doing our best to be courteous. We cut our time in the museum a little short to make sure we were able to visit the gift shop.

It was clear Jim was ready to home and I understand that-and we were doing our best to get to the counter with our items. I had my two young sons and disabled mother with me who I was pushing in a wheelchair. He made things more difficult by rushing us. He wasn’t willing to help me with my moms payment (as she was using a debit card but we wanted to run it as credit and not use the pin which you can do every other place and banks tell you to do to protect your information). He literally threw his hands up in the air and said “well I don’t know what to tell you,” when I explained I wanted to run it as credit. So I told my mom I’d run it on my credit card and she could pay me back.

He then volunteered to switch out my sons shirt (as he had picked up an adult XL by accident instead of youth XL). We get back to our hotel which was over an hour away to realize we still ended up with an Adult XL… So the money my 10 year old wanted to spend on something special for himself is useless to him now.

We had several other items we would have liked to have purchased as gifts, but felt rushed and were not able to do so.

We left the museum feeling inspired by Mr. Hershey and his life story-how he embodied kindness and love-and then we leave with the experience of Jim-who absolutely didn’t represent Mr. Hershey. It’s...

The museum wasn't bad, but I would suggest it more for older children and adults only. For those ages, I think it would be great. I had my 3 and 7 year old with me. Before purchasing tickets, I asked if the activities were age appropriate for my children, and was told yes. My 7 year old tried to keep up with the scavenger hunt (museum), but got bored because it was a bit above his understanding; there was a lot of reading involved with zero hands-on activities. I paid $70 for the museum and the chocolate lab experience, and it was far beyond their ability levels. When going back to the front desk to see if I could get reimbursed just for the chocolate lab portion, since we already participated in the museum portion and wouldn't participate in the lab, I was told no refunds. I was a bit frustrated, because I was told it would be entertaining enough for my children but I could tell it was not an age appropriate activity for my kiddos (adults were sitting and listening to someone talk and only participating in chocolate making a little bit... was told it was 45 min long presentation). As an early childhood educator, I would only recommend these activities for children 10 and up. If it hadn't been for my experience/frustration with customer service, and the cost I paid to not get much out of an experience that was meant specifically for my children, I would have recommended the location to others with older children without hesitation. This place has potential to be very entertaining for families with children, 3rd/4th...

It is a great museum which showcases the life of Milton Hershey the founder of the Hershey chocolate company.

The museum is very expensive. And they also only give you one wooden token to use on the exhibit to have it play an audio clip. I am not sure why everyone in the party doesn't get their own chip sinse not everyone would be looking at the same exhibit at the same exact time. My biggest complaint is that the museum does not meet ADA standards for those with low vision, like my wife. She is unable to read small print and there's a lot of small print in this museum.

I think what the Hershey museum should do is take a trip down to Eastern Penitentiary in Philadelphia and see how they handle this issue. There, everyone gets a headset that is attached to a box which the wear can punch in for each exhibit. That would be ideal for a museum like Hershey where someone with low vision could enter a number that corresponds to that exhibit and hear one of the docents explain what they are looking at. Even for the elderly, this would be a great addition to the museum.

I do hope someone from the museum reads this and makes a decision to adopt these measures to make the museum a more enjoyable place for those with low vision and for those families with children who cannot read the small print or don't like to read print in a museum. The wooden token is a neat idea but it's very limited when you only give one to the family.

So if I had to give the museum an overall grade it would...