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Planning Guide

Hersheypark One-Day Plan

Built around two things the park controls and you do not: the reverse boarding time system, and the hill.

⚠️ Hours, seasons, and policies change. Confirm the operating calendar and current accessibility requirements on the park's official accessibility page before your visit. Last verified August 2026.

Before You Arrive: Five Things to Do

  1. Download and complete the Attraction Accessibility Questionnaire. It is on the park's accessibility page. Bringing it filled out is the single biggest time saver of the day, and a guest under 18 needs a parent or guardian signature on it anyway.
  2. Get everyone's height category sorted in your head. Miniatures under 36 inches, Kisses 36 to 42, Reese's 42 to 48, Hershey's 48 to 54, Twizzlers 54 to 60, Jolly Rancher over 60. You can be officially measured at any Guest Services location, and the whole day's ride list follows from the category.
  3. Check which season your date falls in. Hersheypark runs distinct Spring Weekends, summer, Halloween, and Christmas Candylane seasons, and the ride lineup and hours differ. A Candylane visit is a very different park from a July visit.
  4. Buy parking online. General parking is $25 online, and accessible spaces are first come, first served with no way to reserve one.
  5. Read the sensory symbols in the Rider Safety & Accessibility Guide. The guide tags every attraction for dark spaces, strobe and flashing effects, sudden sounds, smoke or fog, and strong smells. Screening the list at home beats discovering it in a queue.

Best Time to Visit

Weekdays in late May, early June, or September give you the summer ride lineup without peak crowds, which matters more here than at most parks because your break between rides is set by the standby wait when you board. A 20 minute standby wait in September becomes a 20 minute window; the same ride at 2:00 p.m. on a July Saturday can hand you 90 minutes. Crowd level does not just change your wait, it changes how many rides fit in your day.

Central Pennsylvania heat peaks in July and August, and the park's hills amplify it. If you are visiting then, treat The Boardwalk water park as a planned midday block rather than an afterthought, because it is already on your ticket.

Hour by Hour: One Day With the Boarding Pass

Before Opening: Accessibility Services Outside the Gate

The Accessibility Services building on the left side of Ticketing Services, outside the Front Gate, opens 30 minutes before the park does. Go there first. Hand over your completed questionnaire, have the interactive discussion with the agent, and walk away with a Boarding Pass listing your attractions and the specific entrance for each one. Doing this before the turnstiles open means your first ride happens while standby waits are still near zero.

First Ride: Spend It on the Biggest Wait You Will Face

This is the counterintuitive part. Your first ride starts the clock, and the assigned time you receive equals whatever that ride's standby wait is at that moment. At opening every wait is short, so your first assigned time will be short no matter what you ride. Use that free window on the ride that will have the worst line later: Skyrush, Candymonium, or Wildcat's Revenge. You get the headliner and a near-immediate return time.

First Two Hours: Chain the Twizzlers-Category Coasters

Stay on the 54 inch and up rides while waits are still low, because those are the ones where a late-day boarding time costs you an hour. Candymonium, Skyrush, Storm Runner, Great Bear, and Fahrenheit sit within a manageable stretch of the park. Use the test seats at each before you commit a window, not after. If someone in the party is likely to be turned away by restraint sizing, you want to learn that in the first hour.

Late Morning: Wildcat's Revenge and the Hershey's Tier

Wildcat's Revenge is the best ride available at 48 inches, which makes it the one to reach before the queue builds if you have a rider in that category. Lightning Racer and Jolly Rancher Remix are close by in the same tier. Between boarding times, Midway America and The Hollow have flats and games that need no height check.

Midday: ZooAmerica, the Monorail, and the Boardwalk

This is where the bundled ticket pays. Cross the bridge into ZooAmerica for a quiet, ramped, air-conditioned-in-places break with no queues, or ride the Monorail for a seated narrated loop, or spend two hours in The Boardwalk water park on a summer ticket. Any of the three fills a long boarding-time window without burning anyone out. The two designated quiet locations, Guest Services inside the Family Health & Services Center in Pioneer Frontier and the Kissing Tower Hill area, are the fallback if someone needs a real reset.

Afternoon: Comet, sooperdooperLooper, and the Water Rides

The Reese's-tier coasters, Comet, sooperdooperLooper, and Laff Trakk, hold up well in the afternoon and put the whole family on the same ride. Coal Cracker and Tidal Force are the soakers. Note that Coal Cracker is not wheelchair accessible at the platform: it requires stairs, then a step down into a boat and a straddled bench seat.

Evening: Re-Rides and the Low-Effort Circuit

Re-riding the same attraction uses the same rule as riding a new one: you cannot stay on or immediately re-board, and you come back at or after your assigned time. Late evening is when those windows get short again. Save the Kissing Tower for last if anyone wants the view.

Managing the Boarding Pass

Your assigned time is a floor, not a deadline. The guide is explicit that guests are not obligated to board at the assigned time and can return any time after it, valid through the end of the day. That means you can queue up a long window deliberately, go do the zoo or the water park, and come back whenever your group is actually ready.
  • The enrolled guest has to ride. If that guest sits one out, the companions ride the standard queue for that attraction.
  • Three riding companions, not five. A party of six splits. Decide in advance who rides with whom rather than negotiating it at a ride entrance.
  • The pass is checked every time. The attendant verifies the attraction is listed and that every rider requirement including height is met. A ride that is not on the pass is not a conversation at the gate.
  • Ambulatory and non-ambulatory guests use different entrances at the same ride. Read the entrance printed on your pass rather than following the group ahead of you.

Terrain Planning

The park warns about elevation changes and steep grades, and it is the single most underrated factor in a Hersheypark day. Practical responses:

  • Rent an ECV at $70 or a manual wheelchair at $35 if there is any doubt. Both are first come, first served with limited quantities, so ask at opening rather than at noon.
  • Plan the day by elevation rather than by ride list. Group Kissing Tower Hill together, then The Hollow, then Pioneer Frontier, instead of crossing the hill twice for two coasters.
  • Use accessible trams from the parking lot tram stops to the Chocolatetown plaza rather than walking the lot.
  • The Monorail covers ground while seated, and it is worth using as transport, not just as a ride.

Sensory Planning

  • Laff Trakk uses strobe and chasing lighting effects. The guide says guests with conditions triggered by those should not ride.
  • Nine attractions use magnetic fields, which matters for pacemakers and hearing aids: Breakers Edge, Candymonium, Fahrenheit, Laff Trakk, Skyrush, sooperdooperlooper, Storm Runner, Trailblazer, and Wildcat's Revenge.
  • Dark Nights haunted houses and scare zones during the Halloween season carry their own restrictions, including loud sounds, low lighting, strobe effects, theatrical fog, and latex. The guide lists them as not permitted for several conditions rather than merely discouraged.
  • Bring noise-canceling headphones. Midway America and the Boardwalk are the loudest parts of the park.
Last verified: August 2026 · Hours and policies subject to change. Confirm the calendar and current requirements at hersheypark.com before your visit.