Hershey's Chocolate World — Restaurant in Hershey

First time going. From out of state. 2 adults, no kids with us; however the kids around us with other people seemed to enjoy it. Went on a Saturday & arrived by 815am. I recommend going early for great photo opportunities you won't get so easily when it gets crowded. If you arrive before your ticket time, you can still walk around in the park and access the bathrooms & get photos with the character statues. Also, we got front parking by arriving early.

Location: gps got us there but getting to the parking lot was super confusing. There are different lots depending on what you are there for. We had to ask a worker who gave us directions to basically go back to the highway and do a uturn. We arrived at 8:15am, didn't have to pay parking. Our tickets were for 930am.

Atmosphere: very positive, colorful, extremely crowded.

Accessibility: There are some ramps outside to get to the building; however I would think there would be some great difficulty for those using a wheelchair (ie the crowds, trolley is too small & steps, the free ride has steps & a moving floor & it'd be super hard to carry someone while walking on the moving floor, the make your own bar is a little tight for space (but possible). I do believe the 4d movie and the hersheys unwrapped and the make your own (a bit cramped) would be accessible. There is also alot of gift shop to look at and some food areas.

Staff: Extremely friendly and peppy. Everyone was in character and their goal was to give you a good experience. The Trolley guy and the actors in hershey unwrapped deserve alot of recognition for their 110% efforts!!

Tickets: available for purchase onsite inside and online. I purchased our tickets in advance online ($50 total per adult for all of the experiences). I recommend getting tickets in advance so you can plan your visit easier and avoid more waiting.

Gift shop: there is sooo much to look at. It's pretty big. Candy, magents, stuffed animals, cups, toys, pins, shirts, etc. We didn't want to spend alot, so we opted for a little candy & the pressed pennies ($5 for 8). The other stuff was priced a little too high for us.

Experiences: overall, as adults, my favorite was the trolley ride and make your own bar. Both were very interesting and alot of fun.

Hersheys Unwrapped: very cute theatrical experience about using your senses to enjoy chocolate. Involves a little history & a lesson about making mistakes. This was geared more towards young kids as it was very high energy and silliness. However, we still enjoyed it and I loved seeing nearby grandparents loving it with their grandkids. They provide the chocolate for the experience. FYI no recording allowed.

4d Movie: an interactive movie to help the hershey characters solve a mystery. Provides a neat time with a lesson about giving people a second chance. It was great that you could actually interact with Hershey character. FYI no recording allowed.

Trolley: I feel like kids liked it, but I think older kids & adults got more out of it. This adventure provided alot of history about Mr. Hershey & the factory all while touring the town! An absolute must!!

Make your own: you wear a hair net and apron. Part of it is using an electronic ipad-like device to select your ingredients. Then you enter the room where you can see your bar get made. You also get to customize your wrapper. The viewing area can get crowded. I suggest waiting a moment before scanning your ticket in the viewing area bc when you scan it, your bar gets put in que to be made soon. The large crowd can make viewing your bar difficult, especially if everyone is trying to photo/video. Just have some patience and enjoy...

My husband and I are in our early 60's and had a great time! Disappointed in the make your own candy bar as they don't tell you that when you input your name, that is the name of your candy bar. Also very limited selections of what to put in your candy bar so if you don't have kids, I'd skip this. Kids would love it though. It is interesting to see the process and that was the best part. Your bar is boxed and placed in a commemorative tin which is a nice touch. Create your cup was great as my favorite candy is Reese peanut butter cups! You get a large chocolate bottom with sides of the peanut butter cup and they mix fresh peanut filling that is brought over every morning from the factory with a variety of mix ins of your choosing. (Odd that this offered so many different selections but the candy bar didn't.) They fill the cup and then you can get chocolate and/or peanut butter and/or caramel drizzle. They put the top on and box it up! It's two pounds. The top also breaks into eight pie shaped pieces so you can eat it chips and salsa style. Personally I'd eat it with ice cream! You can get a Reese Cooler Bag here at a discount if you buy two cups. The ride through the "factory" is nice but I toured the real factory in 1972 when I was eight but sadly they stopped doing those tours in 1973. I liked the singing dairy cows and seeing how the ingredients are sourced and how the process to make the candy works. The simulated train ride through the different candy making cities is cute and kids would love it. You wait in the "station" and then go into a theatre which seems like you're riding the train. The audience votes which places you visit for the three stops. My favorite part of the day was the Historical Trolley Tour - it was 75 minutes of stories and information about Milton Hershey and his life and legacy. They have three tours to choose from and they do special trolleys for holidays. We started our day at 9 and finished at 245. This included time for a light lunch (large pretzel) and a milkshake and plenty of time for shopping! You get a piece of candy after the "tour" ride, you get a small bag of candy after the theatre experience and in the trolley you get different candy passed throughout the ride and a full size bar at the end. Buy your tickets online as you can schedule the different events as you like and there is a coupon on the ticket page when you print it for a discount off a nice cooler bag. The tour and create your own cup are not booked in advance so plan to leave time for these activities in your schedule. Our package ticket was $62 each and included free parking all day. If you don't buy a package, you get three hours of free parking and after that it's $60. Alot of cute displays to take pictures with and I recommend you get there at opening as it started to get crowded around 11 on Friday. Oh when you get there, at your first event, they give you a smaller ticket with a bar code on it which is scanned at each event. Nice idea but they don't print the times you signed up for so you need to refer back to your paper ticket or take a pic of the paper ticket and have it...

LOTS of people. We did the meal deal and the free refill cup purchase.. To use the free refill cup you have to scan a QR code on a machine next to the restaurant style multiple beverage dispenser and then you have 20 seconds to dispense your chosen beverage. Many cheapee people would wait behind you with their personal mugs or cups and right after you scanned your mug, they rush up and dispense beverage into their cup, stealing it right in front of you. And the machine allows one fluid being dispensed at a time so u can't even try to recoup some of your time and ounces. If they do that enough times the maxhine cuts you off for 10 minutes. I had to stand behind my wife and children each time we refilled at a Fill Station to prevent these vultures from trying to rush their own mugs in. No supervision by the park whatsoever. Water and ice were free tho so ice was frequently out. Not good on 90 degree days. If you go, just bring your own mugs like lockable Contigo mugs, fill up with water and ice when possible and bring Mio flavoring if you want.

Bathrooms had lines for men as well as for women not for just stalls but urinals too. That was a major drag.

Rides were good, quality wise.. HUGE lines with so many people creating 60 to 90 minute wait times.. Monorail still broken, going on several years now we heard. Many rides close temporarily if it rains and there is even a small chance of lightning.

The first day we were there, on a Friday, we didn't see anyone emptying garbage cans. It got up to 91 that day. By the end of the day all I could smell was garbage everywhere. The second day we went we actually saw some garbage cans being emptied.

Download and get familiar with their app to your phone well before you go.

Also, you don't need to buy a meal plan for every single member of your party. You can eat every 90 minutes at participating vendors, and not all of them participate, share that meal with 2 people and then buy more food later or maybe get 2 meal passes ($40 a day) for a family of 4.

A nice place to visit every once in awhile but I would go twice in 5...