Spring Break trip to Hershey, PA (Or will drive 7 1/2 hours for free chocolate) part 2
On Tuesday, we drove about 15 minutes from our hotel to Hershey's Chocolate World. We made one stop on our way- to buy two umbrellas because it was raining pretty hard. I wasn't sure how close to the building we'd be able to park and I didn't want us to be soaking wet going into the building. As it turned out, we arrived at Hershey World about ten minutes after it opened and parking spaces close to the entrance were in abundance. But I had no way to know that before hand and I'm glad we were prepared.
My stars, could this photo op area be any cuter??
We had tickets to four events at Hershey World and they were all timed- I had to pick the times of the events when I purchased the tickets. Our first event was the Make Your Own Candy Bar experience. I will likely overuse adjectives like "fun" and "cool" because those words describe a lot of what we experienced. The MYOCB experience was a lot fun- I think one reason is that it's something unlike anything we'd ever done before. We had to don aprons and hair nets as we entered the MYOCB space. Next, at touch screen monitors, we made selections of what we wanted our candy bar to look like/ be. We could choose milk, dark or white chocolate as the base of the candy bar. Then, we could chose certain ingredients to go inside our candy bar. There were only three choices- mini pretzel pieces, mini chocolate chips and toffee chips. You could get one or all three inside your candy bar. Finally, you could add something to the top- I know you could add sprinkles and there may have been another choice.
The really cool thing about it was that you could watch your candy bar being made. You could see your selections being added to the bar. You could tell it was yours because your name was in front of it. Pretty nifty! The bars went through a series of steps including being covered with a thick, luscious layer of chocolate. The fun was far from over as the candy was temporarily hidden from view to be cooled. While the bars were being cooled, we went to another touch screen monitor and customized a candy bar cover. It was really the covering for a tin that the candy bar was placed in. From a distance, the covering and tin looked like a really large chocolate bar. In reality, the actual size of the candy bar wasn't that large.
Shortly after we finalized our candy bar covers and sent them off to be printed, our candy bars were cooled, placed in tins and our custom wrappers attached to our candy bar tins. Such a fun activity. We loved this!
Here are some pictures:
The base of Abby's bar...
Alyssa's...
My bar is approaching the mini chip add in area...
And, they're being added...
Our bars are getting ready for their chocolate bath...
Now they're getting ready to be cooled.
Making candy wrapper selections
Here's the monitor on which I made my selections.
The production schedule- would have preferred this picture without my reflection in it...
Our bars are numbers 1, 2 and 3. They're getting ready to be wrapped.
They were wrapped in this light cardboard and then that was placed in a tin. Our custom cover was placed on the outside of the tin.
Our next experience was watching a 4D mystery. "Mystery" is a bit too strong a word to describe the events occurring on the 4D screen. Entertaining, yes, and cute but there was very little mystery involved.
After the 4D experience, we became "paleteers." A "paleteer" is a taste tester. And what a great place to be a taste tester in, right? For our chocolate tasting experience, we sat down at tables in which each place setting had a bottle of water (to clear our palate), two different mini sized candy bars, a small cup with chocolate bits in its pre processed form, and a dark chocolate bar. Then we learned more about the process of chocolate making and were instructed on how to use all five senses when getting ready to test taste a food item. Then, we got to taste the chocolate in front of us and vote on various flavors that we detected. It was a fun activity.
Here a few pictures from the tasting experience
Inside the bag that Alyssa is holding are the candy samples that we would be taste testing.
Here is a bigger picture of the room we were in. The lady running the presentation is in the middle of the picture (she's barely visible).
Getting ready to taste!!
Let's get this taste tasting party started!!
Every two or three seats there were monitors where you selected flavors that you detected in the chocolate. After everyone voted on what flavors he or she tasted, the computer tabulated the results and we talked about them.
Perhaps needless to say, we enjoyed this experience...
From the taste testing room, we hurried to the front of Hershey World to catch the trolley for a trolley ride through Hershey, PA. Alas, we missed the trolley that we tried to catch. The person in charge said that we could ride in the next trolley ride but that wouldn't be for two more hours. That was no problem as we had lunch to eat and shopping to do ;). Hershey World has a few quick service type food places from which to choose for lunch (and it has several bakery type areas throughout it with the most incredible selection of decadent baked goods). After we ate, we shopped. There was a great selection of chocolate/ candy from which to choose and many kitschy "Hershey" emblazoned items. I wanted to buy one of each item! After purchasing our items (no, I did not buy one of each), we were able to leave the bag in the check out area to pick up at the end of our time at Hershey World.
Shopping:
Yes, we did pick up a package of Key Lime Pie flavored Twizzlers- for Donnie who doesn't eat much chocolate but loves Key Lime Pie and Twizzlers.
Abby loves Jolly Ranchers...
Some of our purchases...
I was a little disappointed with the dining options. I felt like the Hershey World website portrayed the dining options a little more grander than they were. I thought there'd be a much better selection of items. Oh well, the loaded baked potato hit the spot. Could the small pop that I ordered have been any smaller??
The girls wanted soup which kind of surprised me. Alyssa especially is not a big soup liker but she really liked the chicken chili that she ordered. Chocolate (unsweetened of course) was an ingredient in all of the food items that we ordered.
I took this picture from where we seated at lunch just to get an idea of what part of the inside looked like. Those are cocoa trees in the middle area. I'm not sure what process occurs so that they'll grow in PA.
Before we caught the trolley ride, we went on the free ride through a simulated factory tour. Actual factory tours don't exist anymore so this is as good as it gets. You sit in little cars that move through a series of tableaus that describe the chocolate making process. It was an entertaining ride and we actually did it two times.
Here are few pictures of the factory ride:
He had some good one liners, Milton Hershey did.
Walking up a ramp to get to the ride
You wind up on the second floor- I took this picture from the second floor as it gives a little birds eye view of the first floor.
We learned soooooooooo much!!!
Took this picture to show the cars that you sit in throughout the ride
Hearing information from Derry the talking cow is always more interesting than say, from hearing the information from a person.
Derry had some friends who also talked to us...
We also heard from some candy bar friends
And then we were gifted this at the end of the tour.
Next up was the trolley ride. We braved the cold and rain to wait outside (there was a covered waiting area but you had to walk through the rain for a little bit before you got to that).
The trolley ride through a few locations in Hershey was incredible educational, entertaining, and sweet (we were given chocolate throughout the hour long ride). Our guide was super knowledgeable and obviously proud to be a part of Hershey's. As he talked about the life of Milton Hershey- from his failures to ultimately success, his incredible philanthropy when he "made it" financially, his passion for education and the creation of the Hershey School, it was evident that our guide had an incredible amount of pride in the company that he'd worked for (he was a retired employee of the Hershey school- he volunteered his time as a guide on the trolley).
The only bad thing about the trolley ride was no one's fault except Mother Nature's- the rain made it harder to see out the windows all the various places that the trolley took us to. We enjoyed the ride quite a bit, despite less than ideal conditions of viewing our surroundings.
When we finally left Hershey World- about 6 and a half hours after we'd arrived, we went straight to our hotel to wind down/ relax. We didn't even go out for dinner. We weren't super hungry. It's not like we pigged out on chocolate in Hershey World, but we had a few small pieces of chocolate throughout the day and that managed to tide us over pretty well. We reheated left over pizza in the microwave and had apples that I'd brought from home for dinner. Of course we had plenty of chocolate for dessert... We completed the evening by swimming in the hotel's pool.
One last note about chocolate and the day... when I was reading online reviews of Hershey World, many people referenced getting "free" chocolate. Of course we didn't travel to Hershey World just to receive free chocolate but we were hoping to receive some. Some of the reviews that I read said that sometimes Hershey's runs out of its free samples so free chocolate is not always guaranteed. Happy to report that the free chocolate was in abundance when we were there. We each received two miniature Kit Kat bars at the conclusion of the 4D show, we each received a mini crunch bar at the end of the factory tour ride (and we went on it twice so we got two of these yummy bars), we received several pieces of Hershey's Kisses during our trolley ride and at the conclusion of the trolley ride, we were given a full sized Hershey's Milk Chocolate candy bar. One word to describe our chocolate haul: SWEET!
The visit to Hershey World was the highlight of our short spring break; it exceeded our expectations!!
My stars, could this photo op area be any cuter??
We had tickets to four events at Hershey World and they were all timed- I had to pick the times of the events when I purchased the tickets. Our first event was the Make Your Own Candy Bar experience. I will likely overuse adjectives like "fun" and "cool" because those words describe a lot of what we experienced. The MYOCB experience was a lot fun- I think one reason is that it's something unlike anything we'd ever done before. We had to don aprons and hair nets as we entered the MYOCB space. Next, at touch screen monitors, we made selections of what we wanted our candy bar to look like/ be. We could choose milk, dark or white chocolate as the base of the candy bar. Then, we could chose certain ingredients to go inside our candy bar. There were only three choices- mini pretzel pieces, mini chocolate chips and toffee chips. You could get one or all three inside your candy bar. Finally, you could add something to the top- I know you could add sprinkles and there may have been another choice.
The really cool thing about it was that you could watch your candy bar being made. You could see your selections being added to the bar. You could tell it was yours because your name was in front of it. Pretty nifty! The bars went through a series of steps including being covered with a thick, luscious layer of chocolate. The fun was far from over as the candy was temporarily hidden from view to be cooled. While the bars were being cooled, we went to another touch screen monitor and customized a candy bar cover. It was really the covering for a tin that the candy bar was placed in. From a distance, the covering and tin looked like a really large chocolate bar. In reality, the actual size of the candy bar wasn't that large.
Shortly after we finalized our candy bar covers and sent them off to be printed, our candy bars were cooled, placed in tins and our custom wrappers attached to our candy bar tins. Such a fun activity. We loved this!
Here are some pictures:
The beginning of the production for my candy bar. Da da da, dah...
The base of Abby's bar...
Alyssa's...
My bar is approaching the mini chip add in area...
Our bars are getting ready for their chocolate bath...
Making candy wrapper selections
Here's the monitor on which I made my selections.
The production schedule- would have preferred this picture without my reflection in it...
Our bars are numbers 1, 2 and 3. They're getting ready to be wrapped.
They were wrapped in this light cardboard and then that was placed in a tin. Our custom cover was placed on the outside of the tin.
Our next experience was watching a 4D mystery. "Mystery" is a bit too strong a word to describe the events occurring on the 4D screen. Entertaining, yes, and cute but there was very little mystery involved.
After the 4D experience, we became "paleteers." A "paleteer" is a taste tester. And what a great place to be a taste tester in, right? For our chocolate tasting experience, we sat down at tables in which each place setting had a bottle of water (to clear our palate), two different mini sized candy bars, a small cup with chocolate bits in its pre processed form, and a dark chocolate bar. Then we learned more about the process of chocolate making and were instructed on how to use all five senses when getting ready to test taste a food item. Then, we got to taste the chocolate in front of us and vote on various flavors that we detected. It was a fun activity.
Here a few pictures from the tasting experience
Inside the bag that Alyssa is holding are the candy samples that we would be taste testing.
Here is a bigger picture of the room we were in. The lady running the presentation is in the middle of the picture (she's barely visible).
Getting ready to taste!!
Let's get this taste tasting party started!!
Perhaps needless to say, we enjoyed this experience...
From the taste testing room, we hurried to the front of Hershey World to catch the trolley for a trolley ride through Hershey, PA. Alas, we missed the trolley that we tried to catch. The person in charge said that we could ride in the next trolley ride but that wouldn't be for two more hours. That was no problem as we had lunch to eat and shopping to do ;). Hershey World has a few quick service type food places from which to choose for lunch (and it has several bakery type areas throughout it with the most incredible selection of decadent baked goods). After we ate, we shopped. There was a great selection of chocolate/ candy from which to choose and many kitschy "Hershey" emblazoned items. I wanted to buy one of each item! After purchasing our items (no, I did not buy one of each), we were able to leave the bag in the check out area to pick up at the end of our time at Hershey World.
Shopping:
Yes, we did pick up a package of Key Lime Pie flavored Twizzlers- for Donnie who doesn't eat much chocolate but loves Key Lime Pie and Twizzlers.
Abby loves Jolly Ranchers...
Some of our purchases...
I was a little disappointed with the dining options. I felt like the Hershey World website portrayed the dining options a little more grander than they were. I thought there'd be a much better selection of items. Oh well, the loaded baked potato hit the spot. Could the small pop that I ordered have been any smaller??
The girls wanted soup which kind of surprised me. Alyssa especially is not a big soup liker but she really liked the chicken chili that she ordered. Chocolate (unsweetened of course) was an ingredient in all of the food items that we ordered.
I took this picture from where we seated at lunch just to get an idea of what part of the inside looked like. Those are cocoa trees in the middle area. I'm not sure what process occurs so that they'll grow in PA.
Before we caught the trolley ride, we went on the free ride through a simulated factory tour. Actual factory tours don't exist anymore so this is as good as it gets. You sit in little cars that move through a series of tableaus that describe the chocolate making process. It was an entertaining ride and we actually did it two times.
Here are few pictures of the factory ride:
He had some good one liners, Milton Hershey did.
You wind up on the second floor- I took this picture from the second floor as it gives a little birds eye view of the first floor.
We learned soooooooooo much!!!
Took this picture to show the cars that you sit in throughout the ride
We also heard from some candy bar friends
And then we were gifted this at the end of the tour.
Next up was the trolley ride. We braved the cold and rain to wait outside (there was a covered waiting area but you had to walk through the rain for a little bit before you got to that).
The trolley ride through a few locations in Hershey was incredible educational, entertaining, and sweet (we were given chocolate throughout the hour long ride). Our guide was super knowledgeable and obviously proud to be a part of Hershey's. As he talked about the life of Milton Hershey- from his failures to ultimately success, his incredible philanthropy when he "made it" financially, his passion for education and the creation of the Hershey School, it was evident that our guide had an incredible amount of pride in the company that he'd worked for (he was a retired employee of the Hershey school- he volunteered his time as a guide on the trolley).
The only bad thing about the trolley ride was no one's fault except Mother Nature's- the rain made it harder to see out the windows all the various places that the trolley took us to. We enjoyed the ride quite a bit, despite less than ideal conditions of viewing our surroundings.
When we finally left Hershey World- about 6 and a half hours after we'd arrived, we went straight to our hotel to wind down/ relax. We didn't even go out for dinner. We weren't super hungry. It's not like we pigged out on chocolate in Hershey World, but we had a few small pieces of chocolate throughout the day and that managed to tide us over pretty well. We reheated left over pizza in the microwave and had apples that I'd brought from home for dinner. Of course we had plenty of chocolate for dessert... We completed the evening by swimming in the hotel's pool.
One last note about chocolate and the day... when I was reading online reviews of Hershey World, many people referenced getting "free" chocolate. Of course we didn't travel to Hershey World just to receive free chocolate but we were hoping to receive some. Some of the reviews that I read said that sometimes Hershey's runs out of its free samples so free chocolate is not always guaranteed. Happy to report that the free chocolate was in abundance when we were there. We each received two miniature Kit Kat bars at the conclusion of the 4D show, we each received a mini crunch bar at the end of the factory tour ride (and we went on it twice so we got two of these yummy bars), we received several pieces of Hershey's Kisses during our trolley ride and at the conclusion of the trolley ride, we were given a full sized Hershey's Milk Chocolate candy bar. One word to describe our chocolate haul: SWEET!
The visit to Hershey World was the highlight of our short spring break; it exceeded our expectations!!
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