A few years ago, as we left my grandmother’s house near Hershey, Pennsylvania, we decided to tour Chocolate World on a whim. I hadn’t been in a few years but loved it as a kid, and I thought that our kids were old enough to enjoy it.
I was right.
While they had fun exploring the newly expanded building and its attractions, their favorite one was the old simulated ride through the Hershey Factory – the same ride that I had enjoyed as kid.
When we were making our plans to visit Pennsylvania this time, we knew that Chocolate World had to be on the list.
In fact, it turned out that the simulated factory ride was my Little Man’s only request for our time in Hershey.
He was so excited to see the characters that he even posed for me – a rare event!
Chocolate World had just been renovated – again. We spent some time with a super nice ticket lady to choose our options. The main ride through Chocolate World has always been and still is free, but most other attractions have a fee.
We began with Gabby, Harmony, and Olympia, the singing cows, and did the factory tour. The lines were non-existent for a Wednesday afternoon in May, and since my Little Man liked it so much, we rode twice.
One of the new big things, just opened that week, was a 4-D show involving a mystery in the Hershey Factory. We decided to try it out. We weren’t really impressed with the mystery aspect, but the special effects were great.
I would love to be able to bring this much Hershey’s chocolate home! It’s a good thing I can’t – but we always have fun playing around with it.
My Big Helper decided to go for the Hershey’s Factory Experience. They have a simulated factory line, designed for little-little kids, where they make a photo ID name badge for them, give them the paper hat you see above, and let them fill up a tin with chocolates from a conveyor belt. The experience is free, or you can take home the tin and some photos for an added fee.
Before leaving, we had to do some shopping. As we explored the stores, we found a new feature in a back corner – the ability to send an email via this super large screen. My Big Helper chose to send a message home to her daddy and really liked typing on the big screen.
Hershey’s Chocolate World is definitely a fun experience. You can learn a lot about how chocolate is made and about the many ways to eat chocolate from these tours – and Chocolate World is home to several other attractions, as well.
This was a great cap to our spring chocolate study. We were able to compare the Hersey Chocolate Factory to the small and exclusive Videri in Raleigh and the mid-sized Wilbur Chocolates in Lititz. Throughout this unit we studied geography, history, biographies, science, and the art of cooking with chocolate. How could learning get any better?
It will be hard to top this chocolate-flavored study. I wonder what could top this one??
Have you been to Chocolate World – or any chocolate factory? What has been your favorite thing to study?
