Breaking the Disney Bubble | Hershey Park Family Vacation Review
Beyond Disney and Universal, family theme park experts explore whether Hershey Park deserves a spot in your family vacation budget. Rachel breaks down the rides, dining, and strategy to make Hersheypark a must-visit destination alongside HHN updates, Disney Christmas offerings, and the latest resort news from WDW.
Jason: Grab your mouse ears and ready your wands. You're tuning in to Castles to Cauldrons, your ultimate guide to the magic, the thrills, and everything in between. From strolling right down the middle of Main Street, USA, to dodging fire-breathing dragons in Dygon Alley, you've got your theme park adventures covered. And now, sharing their hottest takes and best tips, here are your hosts, Jason, Micah, Rachel, and Terry. Welcome to episode 65 of 65. Rachel's only been here for 40 of them. Half of them. I was gonna say half, but thanks for giving me some credit. She's a busy woman. She is. As you can hear, Micah, Terry, and Rachel are here. Rachel, we are glad you're back. We missed you last week with recapping Disneyland because you were so instrumental in everything. So I know. I was bummed to miss that episode. But you know, I had to represent Magical Travel with ⁓ the golden silver earmarked forum. So Disney World. Disney World. Yeah, it was a long I was home for one night in between the two hosts. So yeah. Yeah. The ⁓ was there anything memorable that you you I know you said you listened to the episode, but was there anything that you wanted to add from the Disneyland stuff just as as the owner and everything of co owner of what we did, anything that we missed or anything like that? No, I just think it was great that, you know, we had fifteen agents and I thought that was a perfect size. ⁓ we've had, you know, events where it's been thirty six people and we've had events where it's kind of been around twenty, but I think fifteen was great. I was able to mingle with everyone. Everyone was, you know, talking with other people, it wasn't clicky. So I think fifteen really is a nice number. Yeah. Lauren and it was a great group. ⁓ everyone just got along so well. ⁓ You know, Lauren and Disney setting up the resort tours so we could see the good neighbors. I thought that was fantastic. ⁓ just to be hosted by them is always a pleasure and a treat. And then I just really enjoyed getting to like I met agents that I've never met in person before. ⁓ so it was nice to to do that. ⁓ but no, I just had a great time. Churros are definitely better in Disneyland than Disney World. And apparently everyone loves my dancing with the churros. It was actually a great video. It's a it was fun video It was. Like Jamie texts me, she's like, I just she's Your video is epic. I'm like, that's just me being me. Like I was sober, like I was just you know. Like do they not remember the your Jack Sparrow run? ⁓ I was universal AEB? I was very not sober during that. Jason's just that video, he's like, I don't know what you can do with this, but I think we can do something. He's like, We've gotta be able to do something. Terry. The music was perfect. Yeah. Like you picked the best song to go with it. I was like, ⁓ what's Rachel's vibe? And I was just going through music and once that one hit, I was like, perfect. Yep, it was perfect. I text Rachel, I was like, Hey, we're gonna I'm gonna send this to Terry. Is if it's okay with you, just to put it on reel so we have something fun for this episode. And naturally she's like, Yeah, sure. I don't care. So it's and you know how like TikTok or Instagram tries to pick the music for you, the AI guess reads it. It tried to put like a doot doot doo kind of Disney song behind it and I was like, no. No, this this is not the vibe we're going for right now. I'm gonna say no. But just the fact that like Lauren bought the trues, she got all she got the last ten. She's got people fought out the cart. Bissed. The people behind her. I think the reason they taste better in Disneyland is 'cause they make ⁓ fresh on site in Disneyland. Disney World they're shipped in frozen by a third party and all that jazz. So they they you know, they're a little bit more stale in places. I'm not a churro fan so much. I mentioned it last week, but I love those. That was so good. They were still hot. Yes. And I only ate half, which half was more than enough 'cause they're huge. Like they're big churros, so I actually when I was in World last week, I got scarlet churro popcorn. Ooh. She has she has yet to open it yet. It's in a bag, like a sealed bag. So she has yet to open it. But I I'm gonna be curious what that tastes like. I would have think very cinnamon and sugar, like just kind of more of the flavor probably. But doesn't really look cinnamony, but Yeah. Who knows? Like I feel like if you crunched up cinnamon toast crunch, which is more sugar than cinnamon, and like you Wunging around in a bag of popcorn, it might taste like that. Yeah. That's I'll let you know. Yeah. Now I'm curious. I'm not like I said, I I'm not I like popcorn, popcorn. I don't like flavor on my popcorn. Well we'll start this episode with my favorite type of topic and the topic that we have to discuss off podcast too, because we need to know if we're gonna go to do this together. But HHN naturally. The cool thing that came around ⁓ it was been a couple of weeks. I actually had this in the show notes for last week and it got lost. So the Simpsons creator has mentioned in passing at a panel that there is talks of the Simpsons and the treehouse of horror coming to HHN one one year. And he kind of alluded to the fact of that we could see something small this year with it growing next year, that they have a bigger Bigger thing. There's a video from Hollowed Horror on Twitter. If you want to go watch, it's about two minutes with him talking about this. I think that's really cool. Like, as a fan, the people, I'm not a huge Simpsons fan, but an HHN fan that knows that there's a big Simpsons episode every year of the Treehouse of Horror. I think this is really cool that they're going to try to get it in there. And that people have been really wanting for the past. I don't know how many as long as I've been doing H H N. So would it start off as like a zone? Like something small like that or smaller than that this year. I don't think I don't know if they would just decorate the fast food boulevard because they put the chainsaw board back in there the past two years. Yeah. Yeah. And I really like that chainsaw chainsaw hoard. We just remind remembering when we walked through that section. And that little kid or the little girl was right behind the pillar. No, not that. Sh the one of the one of the team members like came up to me and was like and he like it could not about that. Walked up to you like real creepy and staring at you. Yeah, no, he like wanted to try to clean polish my bald head. Stuff that would never happen at Disney happens at Definitely Well you know what? I don't get offended with that because like listen, I gotta have fun with it. So like I thought that was great. I could see another L Pcian getting r upset about that. Maybe he could just like, Hey, she's at H H N. She seems real cool. Right. We're gonna do this. I wonder, like he approached slowly, you know, like I wonder if he like gauged like, you know, kind of like she looks like she'd be cool with it as opposed to like someone else who maybe would have like flinched or, you know, something like that when he came by and could have just been like, Hey, this person is either gonna hate this or love this and if they throw throw at me, then they're just gonna get banned from the park. So I'm gonna go for it. Whatever happened to happen. Yeah, so Simpsons I I also think we were talking about this off off ⁓ recording that I think they're fixing to lose the rights to the Simpsons at Universal. There's the rumor that they're fixing to let that go back to Disney. So they're probably throwing everything they can at the wall to get this done at least once before it leaves. Now they have an house, do you think it'd be gory? No. I I don't think so either. Like it would it be like a truly scary house if they had like a whole house. ⁓ I think it would just go in line with the Triasa Horrors video like episode. It can't be. Yeah. I would probably go with my son because we're a big Simpsons household. But more in the fact that like we like we like seasons like one through twelve. That's kind of where we live. But yeah, I think I would take Mason. I think he would probably enjoy that. So I think the biggest thing with the Simpsons at HHN is Disney's going to have to sign off on whatever. So that's why you're own Fox. Yeah. They're not gonna give you like gory stuff like Terry was asking about. They're gonna give you as close to Simpsons as possible without crossing any lines that Disney would be like, We'll be there in a second. So it'd be great to see that they actually do something and how they do that. Yeah. I think that'd be a fun house to go through. Like especially like she said, if you have kids and you want to do H H N and like This is like your house. Your kids like thirteen, like this is their first time experiencing it. This is a good like I'm not saying they necessarily do a full on house. They might just do something in the Simpsons area that fully engulfs the Simpsons. More like a scare zone or like stuff. ⁓ I don't like clowns. I think they're creepy in the daylight, not Halloween. So they could just have some dude dress as Crusty the Clown out there, and I would think that's creepy enough. Like you don't have to go all out with a house because clowns are inherently just super creepy. They are. Especially in the dark like that. Yeah. It's and usually they're scared. Go ahead. The scare zone right there, usually the chainsaws are something to do with clowns in a way. Yeah. I and then my head I'm like, the kind of people who like want to dress up like a clown. Like what's going on in that person's head? You know, like I don't know many grown men that are like, you know what I wanna do? I'm be a clown. We got three new houses this week as well. ⁓ and we're as usual recording this on Thursday, so there's probably gonna be more announced before this comes out is all original houses versus the eyepiece we've gotten recently. First one is HR Blood and Guts presents a Halloween frightacular. I know y'all know all the history of HR Blood and Guts. So can I ask a question? Yes. What does HR stand for? Do you remember the show back in the day? Like legit. It wasn't HR No, it was HR puffin stuff. Yes. It was filmed and ⁓ here's here's the random knowledge of Jason. Christine, this is for you b and and Heather, since y'all were making fun of all that stuff. Where the CNN building is in Atlanta that they got rid of now, that was a theme park for H ⁓ Pluff Puffin stuff or HR Puffin stuff. And that's was a theme park beforehand. It's the world's tallest freestanding escalator and that's where you would go in and see all that stuff. And then CNN bought it, Ted Turner bought it and Redid it to CNN center. So there you go. There's your random knowledge for Atlanta that I I know. But that's what that's like this was taken off of that type of thing. I wasn't a H H N person in 2011. That was when HR first made his debut at H H N. The the way they talk about this is that it's a spooky sequel tribute house on a dark Halloween night where there's a scarathon. Which kids nowadays don't know what a telephone is any in the first place. No. So it's it's all very dated. I don't I don't even know who H. R. Puffin stuff is. I had to Google him. Like I've heard the name, but that it was before my time. Yeah, that was it before my time. So I had to Google that. So this whole thing is very dated. But I think it's good nostalgia dated. I don't think it's like outdated. Does that make sense? Is this something that people have been wanting for a while? Yeah. ⁓ I've I know there's always been rumors in the back saying that we should get another HR blood and guts, but I don't I'm looking forward to seeing what it's all about and how he looks and everything for the first time. ⁓ the next one we got was probably gonna be Micah's favorite one because it has to do a little bit with animals. But it's I mean, like not being like being serious. I actually thought it sounded cool, but I I was like Micah's gonna like this one. ⁓ so Madlands, it's cage cannibals. It's set in a ⁓ the funk zoo that has become a f ⁓ deadly domain of roaring cannibal f factions that have taken on their animal instincts to extremes. So these can they say this is probably gonna be the bloodiest house they've ever done. So that went up sterifier from last year. And just a bunch of people eating people. I just to me, like, I g I think I said this last year, but like this to me sounds like what a like ⁓ H H N house should be. Like if you're wanting to go through and it's gonna be gross and scary, like this is what it sounds like to me. Like I I agree with that. Yeah. Yeah. When I think like Halloween, I think things like this. Right. I'm gonna be curious if that's gonna be like a set house. Like if you're gonna smell it. Yeah. Which it should. 'Cause if it's if I would imagine there's probably gonna be like dead animals in this thing and stuff like that too, just because it's in a z old zoo. Yeah. But then you're gonna have, you know, dead bodies and the blood and everything like that. They could do like decomp and blood. That's what I was saying when you said smells, the first thing I thought was like rotting flesh, and I was like, But the weird part about like that is like like blood, but also like decaying things 'cause I've done, you know, animal stuff for so long. Like it almost has a sweet quality to it though. Like it has a sweetness to the smell. It smells like laces in here. Not like that. No, it's still disgusting. But it also though, because of the way things break down, it'll have a sweetness to it. It's weird. When you mix that with the metallic smell of like pennies from the blood. Yeah. I'll say I'm I'm kind of with Micah that this right now is probably my most anticipated house that I've seen with what the story arc is since it's it's so original. Yeah. The last one we got was actually just announced today of the recording. Cyber Goria. A futuristic dive thousands of years in the future into a cold world driven by machines that have a singular goal to keep you alive forever, even if it kills you. Sounds very matrix meets the Terminator to me. Yeah. So it does it it doesn't excite me. It's it's gonna be fun to go through once and it'd probably be that. I'm not a fan of the Mat ⁓ the Terminator stuff. I'm not a fan of the Matrix, so I could see that one there being really bad. 'Cause like you said it's kinda what do you do with it? Or it's gonna be really good because of visuals and like sets and elements and things they put in it. I I feel like it's never gonna be in the middle. It's either gonna be like a really good one where you're like, ⁓ wow, like I wasn't expecting that, or it's gonna be really bad where you're like, Okay, that was about as cheesy as I thought it was gonna be. I'm sorry for interrupting you, Michael. Go ahead. No, I was gonna say my prediction is that's gonna be one of the tent houses. Like it's as ⁓ like big as You know, I feel like the cage cannibals need a lot of space. So the where it all is. I the one thing I'm looking for that they haven't announced is something like ⁓ Gaulkin last year, the the quote unquote pretty house. Yeah. Yeah. They always do. where it's scary, but they put a lot of thought into the decor sets and everything like that. No, I will say as much as I don't like HHN or scary houses or anything like that, I do like How they pander to everybody's horror. You know, what what what you like? Like you said, the c you could like the nostalgic HR blood and guts or the Gokan Vikings or the cannibals or the clown terrifier. It's like they kind of pick up all the elements of fear and then all the elements of horror movies, whether it's like there's suspense, there's thriller, there's blood and guts, there's ⁓ Can't be. There's like always I feel like one with like a religious aspect. Like, you know, there's nothing creepier than to me than like a kid in a movie that's possessed by the devil. You know, that's like the creepiest thing I've So I I do like how they don't like box themselves in into like, ⁓ this is all like Jason type horror where it's gonna be someone setting you up. Like some of it's psychological. So I do like that. And they also hit you with the Okay, we're gonna throw Stranger Things in there because that's gonna get people who might not normally come, but we're gonna put you in there. People who love that movie centers. Yeah, like we're gonna go popular things, then we're gonna go ⁓ HR Blood and Guts, who I literally had never heard of until today when I read the rundown. But Jason says goes all the way back to two thousand eleven. So I I do like how they encompass everything. They're very big on their lore with everything. So that's that's the fun thing. They try to build on all these things. Well, it's marketing too. They have to Yeah. Yeah, they have to appeal to the masses to in order to have four different people here that want four different things when they go and we all will come out satisfied. But we will all come out Yeah. Satisfied. So Terry will only have one house rank because she's only she says she's only doing stranger things. If I go I'm only doing stranger, but I'll have all the food. For I'm gonna eat this time. We're not instead of going into houses. While y'all are going to houses, I'm gonna eat and remember. Wonder what taste our blood blood and guts food's gonna look like. Covered in ketchup. Yeah, it's gonna be chill. ⁓ and then the cannibal food too. That's chili. Decomposing bodies and stuff. I say chili and hot sauce kind of things. Say like a hot dog that looks like a finger. like a finger. That's yeah, that's what I was thinking too. Better than toothpaste. corndog. All right. We're probably gonna put some type of red foam in the middle of a corndog. Yeah. No thank you. ⁓ that's universal news we got. Well well you let's talk about this right quick. I didn't put it in the show notes. Universal kids resort. We've seen pictures. We've seen I've TikToks I I assume and reels and whatnot. What are y'all's overthoughts of what what we're seeing coming out of Texas? It's a cute part. Like I mean it visually is very cute. I think it panders lower, lower ages. I even had a group text this week with you guys and a nine year old who likes therill rides and her mom was like, Do you think she'll like it? And I think our consensus was it was probably a little young for her. Yeah. If she likes thirtle rides. Now if you have a nine year old that doesn't and just like the cutesy stuff, it might be perfect. It's gotten a lot of hate online. Mainly because, you know, people take that's what people have too. Yeah, that's what they do. They sit behind the keyboards. But they take the artist renderings that they had of this is what it's gonna look like and then when they said it just opened, it doesn't look like this. You know. And some some of it I get. Like you could have easily painted some of the the minion rides, stuff like that. I think the hotel looks great. I really think it looks fun. I I would like to take Travis out there within the next year just to see what he likes about it. But I don't know if it's really worth a fourteen hour drive or a plane flight to go experience. Like if you're already gonna be there and you have an extra day. Right. Yeah. Like you're visiting family in Texas. You're like, We could swing by here on like our last day on the way home and So I am gonna like sound horrible in saying this, but I have not even looked at the anything about it. ⁓ I think this is because my kids are so old now that I really have no interest in it. Is it a one day park? They're selling half day tickets. Yeah. So why if it's like a half day Monday park, why am I gonna fly there? That's what I'm saying. I think eventually, you know, that we've talked about it where they they have enough land where maybe they build a water park of some sort right next to it. It's a two-day thing. But they have to do some major expansion to it because there's two thrill rides. One coaster looks like Fly of the Hippogriff. The Jurassic Coaster doesn't look all that bad, but it doesn't look amazing. The Minions ride looks fun. And then ⁓ the Shrek ride looks horrible. Like it's just flats. And it's that's saying something after we come off Disneyland where Pinocchio, Snow White, Mr. Toad, they're all good all flat and they put so much into it. And it's like you're making the some of these people making excuses of, well, this is for a six year old. Well, Disneyland was for a six year old too. And they went above and beyond. Do you think that they rushed it? I kind of think they my theory is, and I I can't take full credit. I've seen it online, is that ⁓ this is a proof of concept, kind of like Disney Quest was. Here's how much we spent right now to get it open. And as it becomes successful, we can start making these things look a little bit better. So if you wanted to build one in Ohio, here we go. We can build it. Because this it's not open year round. They've released all the dates saying that, you know, it's not open on major holidays. Thanksgiving, Christmas, that type of stuff. And I think it during the winter it's not gonna be open or something like that. So it's like very much a regional park. And they know to make money there. Crazy 'cause nobody wants to go to a theme park in Texas in August. Like the winter is almost when you wanna go because they have ice storms in Texas just as much as they have the I mean they do, but think of someone like Rachel in Pennsylvania. She doesn't want to go to a hundred and eight degree Texas, but she might want to take her family over like Thanksgiving holiday. Like if they had family down there, you know, she might say 'cause it might be it'll be eighty degrees still. Don't even have eighty degrees there, where it might be snowing in Pennsylvania or cold by that point. I don't know. I don't know if Pennsylvania mother. But you know, I'm saying I just I I obviously I'm like you Jason, I feel like it's like they're dipping their toe in. Yeah. Like we'd love to see Kelly Hyman's going. Like the weekend before it opens. So ⁓ I'd be curious to see what she has to say about it. So yeah, boots on the ground. We'll have to get her on and talk to her about it. Yeah. But I mean, they might have done market research and said, Hey, there's nowhere in Middle America that has a theme theme park and this might be like the first of like you said, it might expand around it to where it just you know Yeah. I just think You you're like Terry, you're talking about like a theme theme park, but it's more based on kids. Like it's not inclusive. There's not a lot that the adults sort of like I say and I'm adults paying a lot of money to go to something that their only their six year old is gonna enjoy. Right. It almost reminds me of like Sesame Place up here. Yeah. Where it's like localized. Like you guys have never I'm sure you guys would never come up here to go to Sesame's place. Like so Okay, yeah, you would. But yeah, can see it being like something like that. Yeah. I'm not I g I guarantee you I would not sell it. Like I have no one interested in it. No one's asking about it. I'm in the same boat. A lot of my clients have older kids, so they're not asking about it. I'm the only one that's kind of interested in going just because of Travis, but at the same time I don't wanna take that long trip. Now we've talked about doing a road trip to Disneyland in the near future. And that was not absolutely so 'Cause hotel, we gotta stay one night. If they're selling half day tickets, Travis is not a roller coaster person right now, so it'd be perfect for us to go and do that and then get back on the road the next morning and keep going. Yeah. I mean, I'm literally flying into Texas in September, like to Dallas, and thought briefly about it just to see what it was like and then I like, Mm, never mind. I'm not going to that as an adult by myself and seeing what's going on. You should. There's nothing creepy about that at all. No. Showing up without a child to a children's theme park. The influencer d did it last week. They got invited though. Yeah, that's different. They're the only ones in there. Move over to Walt Disney World and Disney News. We've got the halfway to the holidays got announced this week. A lot of big news. There's some discounts. Rachel, what are discounts looking like for the Walt Disney World Resort over the holidays? you know I had them print it out from working today? Yeah. And then there's my list of clients. ⁓ so there's a Disney Plus promo, but you have to be part of Disney Plus perks, which I don't I think it's like a separate enrollment or like you have to do it. It's free, but I think it's like yeah. Yeah, yeah. I have not done that. ⁓ you can receive a free park hopper add-on, which is huge. save up to twenty five percent off of rooms. But yeah, it's a four night, you know, four day ticket. The offer starts end of September for that. Then there's just a broad room offer up to twenty percent off. Those dates are October fourth to December twenty fourth. Obviously it's usually like a Sunday to a Thursday type of deal. So not every date and not every hotel is included. Then there's flood of resident AP holders discounts as well. For the October to December time frame. I saved my clients a few bucks, ⁓ be able to upgrade a few room categories, but other than that, the availability I think is extremely limited. I have some friends that I've been texting about it and they they were hard on getting their stuff too. And it's like, hey. ⁓ just as a note, we always like to say that the the twenty percent discount up to twenty percent is usually the highest percentage off is the deluxe deluxe villas and then it goes down per resort. Yeah. So if you're wanting to save a lot of money, you're gonna save money staying at Pop Century. You're just not gonna save twenty percent. You're gonna only save ten. So and then like the exclusions are usually the the campsites or the little mermaid rooms that are art of art of animation. No, actually the little mermaid rooms have been included lately. Yeah. On like a lot of the yeah, they've I think they've stopped including them. Or stopped excluding them. I definitely have had promos with the Little Mermaids. That's good because I have people that want to stay at art, but they don't want to have the suite. Sweet. So Yeah, no, they definitely include them now because I've definitely looked discounts with it. ⁓ but it's gonna be like the three the three bedroom villas, the campsites, the ⁓ cabin, like the over the water cab the bungalows, yeah. Those. We have dates for the Very Merry Christmas Party. And then Jollywood. And Jollywood nights. Jollywood now goes into January. That's a first. So Mickey's Very Merry starts on November eighth, runs luck nights through December twenty second. And then we've mentioned it before. I'm not trying to say like a Do this, but after the twenty second, the very merry Christmas party offerings usually move up into the regular stuff. Like and by offerings I mean the parade and the fireworks. It's you're not going to get the the cookie tre the cookies, you're not going to get the meet and greets. You're that's what you pay for. So, you know, the busier week that they can't do that type of stuff. I haven't seen much change and I they've gotten a lot of flack on. On social media because there's not not much changing. Well, I was looking at the Jollywood pictures and they had like Bing Bang and like other Pixar. Was he there last time? Because I feel like he's a land character. You only see him at Disneyland. Which you only see him at Pixar place in Disneyland. Right. So are they making Jollywood more Pixar? That is in Hollywood studios? Well, they're trying to make it more character friendly too, because that was the biggest thing when they first started doing it was more like adulty like sequency vibey type of dress up thing. Yeah. Which I thought that was they try to appeal to the adults, but you know, I think, you know, Hollywood Studios is a second best park, so they need to appeal to the kids. I love Hollywood Studios. And we've done the the party the past two years of Jollywood Nights. So the dates for Jollywood night are starting November seventh. through January fifth of twenty twenty seven. Like Rachel said, it's running all the way that that far out. That's that's very surprising, but you see that they take off that Christmas week again. My theory is that January third and fifth, that's they're trying to get the marathon crew in. They can sell a few more of those tickets when marathon runners and their families come in. Or it's, you know, people are there for New Year's as well. And they might go and have they might lure people to stay a couple extra days. Yes. They don't want to miss Christmas at home, but they want to do Christmas stuff at Disney. I was going to say, especially 'cause the Very Merry Christmas party ends on the twenty second of December. So they don't really have an opportunity to do a Christmas party unless they're going to do Jollywood nights. Yeah, and I don't think they move any of the Jollywood stuff into regular into regular park hours like they do at ⁓ for Very Merry. So You c it's not like you're putting it behind a paywall, bringing it out of the paywall, and then putting it back behind a paywall. If you did that with Very Merry, you'd have a lot of mad people. Like you could have seen this parade yesterday for free, but now I have to pay a hundred and something dollars to see it. ⁓ Jolly ⁓ the Very Merry Christmas tickets go on sale July ninth for guest staying on property and July sixteenth for general. And then the same thing for Jollywood. Big news coming out of all of this though was coming from Grand Floridian of all places. They are they are not bringing back the gingerbread house. And it's supposedly confirmed that this is a permanent deletion, that it will not be coming back. And I think I called that last year. I think when we talked about this at some point, I said. We just said, where is it gonna go? Like there's no space with that new bar and how they did things. It is it is gonna be missed. Like I love going into that lobby and seeing it. They've they've said they're going to do big things still, like not necessarily that big, but they will still have gingerbread displays around the resort where we'll get more information at a later date. But I'm just I'm sad to see that one go. That was a moneymaker too. I said that's ⁓ from what I read it was a no one could put exact numbers to it, but it's gonna be a big revenue loss. But they've gotta figure they're gonna make it up somewhere or they wouldn't have done it. Can you explain the revenue loss? Because like beside like besides people going into the grand and like maybe going to the bar and the gift shop, like what do you mean revenue loss? Remember what I was reading last night. The gingerbread house was an active store. And it celebrates drinks. Yeah. They didn't they have that at the boardwalk too? They do, but this was that the special one that you actually gotta walk up to the gingerbread house and buy stuff out of the gingerbread house. It was a shingle from the house. Yeah, that you were buying as your gingerbread. So it brought people there and then they were buying stuff once they were there from the shop. They gotta be doing something for that then. I mean, yeah, making more money than the gingerbread house makes, you know, over a a two month time period. Right, it's permanent fixture. Yeah. I do hate it. The big big news that also comes off of that comes out of the press release they put out. Excuse me. It says ⁓ forget like ⁓ let me move up some. Where do I need start? ⁓ if you if you're looking to take Instagram worthy pictures with Christmas trees or joyful decorations, they can are a place to exchange gifts with family members while soaking the sounds of peaceful holiday music. ⁓ they can go and do the Disney Resorts Collections offers ⁓ offerings as long as they have a valid resort stay or valid dining reservation. So they were segueing this into the the conversation we had last week with the bus thing at Disney Springs. Mm-hmm. It's weird that they're saying we're gonna do all this with the gingerbread stuff, but you have to have a valid dining reservation. Or on property hotel reservation. At least they're saying on property, you know, and not like for those specific places, because that would also like kind of not be worth them putting stuff at the different resorts if other people can't come see it. Isn't there a way around that? Like, this is what I'm thinking. I drive my butt to TTC, I jump on the monorail, and I take the monorail. But you're paying to park at that point. What they're trying to do is like the people who were trying not to pay to park. Like the game. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I wasn't thinking about like trying to like get over on parking. I was just more of trying to get into that resort. One of the live streamers this week was trying to walk from TCC to Grand Cal Grand Flow and he got stopped right outside the TCC asking if he had a resort reservation or a dining reservation. And they turned him around because he didn't have either. So kinda like when we were doing the special walkway between Pixar Place and the Grand California where they're making sure you have something. Right. So from what we've learned since we recorded last week was that the d ⁓ for Disney Springs, the bus stop, you just have to you've there's a cast member there that has an iPad. What's your name? Where you're staying? Okay. Or what's your dying resident? Yes, it is. I agree. But or are they gonna have like a band scanner, like a zzz thing that You know. It's gotta be one of those. Right. But you can once you get past that, you can get on any bus you want to to any resort. But you have to have that valid reservation, whether it's resort stay or it's a dining reservation. I'm not mad about it. I think it's now going back to what Terry said with the gingerbread, they're losing revenue. How many families went to the monorail loop and hopped on to go to the Grand Flow? Then to contemporary to see their gingerbread displays. Then get out on a bu boat to Wilderness Lodge to see whatever they have. And then hop on a bus over to Epcot and go to Boardwalk. Beach and all those. Because me and Beth, we love doing that. We might not have had a resort stay or dining reservation. We might have come from Universal just to do those. And now we can't do it. But is there like a Have they had complaints or have there been problems with like people waiting for monorails and people waiting for buses and r resort paying guests and this is their way of alleviating those things? I don't know. But at the same time, the lobby bar of Grand Floridian doesn't have re reservations. Right. Trader Sam's doesn't have reservations. The outer l outer limit, outer loop, whatever they call it at contemporary doesn't have reservations. Enchanted rows at Yeah. So you're losing revenue if you're saying, Hey, these guys can't just come over to the bar and do the ⁓ monorail loop and and do the monorail crawl. Or are you gaining revenue 'cause you're making them pay to park now. I don't think they'll even let you on the resort if you sit at the hotel unless you have a reservation. Yeah, I think it's not that's I don't think it's just the pay to park thing. I think it's they're wanna keep they wanna keep non resort guests out of it. You can't roll up to Grand Flow and say, I'm I'm gonna go to Enchanted Rose and Have a drink. Yeah. I guess it's also a way people I'm sorry, Rachel, go ahead. I'll say it's might also be a way they get like A Ps because you might have locals that don't have APs that go there for the restaurants and whatnot. And now they're gonna have to have an A P in order to do that. But if they don't see another re If they don't have a reservation at the resort though. But they if they have an A then they belong they can scan that in. Yeah. I was gonna say like like the the only people I was gonna say it's gonna hurt is like the peop the locals who wanna go and just have a drink at the contemporary or Trader Sam's or go somewhere like that. It's gonna hurt those people. Like the people with little passes, it's not gonna matter. But last year if this was an infect though, like Terry and Micah when we went to Disney for the day. Mm-hmm. And we we didn't have reservations to get out. When we left Epcot and we went to Beach Club, you know, unless we were with Allison's, but I don't know how that would work if we can say, Well, Allison's our area we're rooming with her. Maybe that's how they need to fix it is it needs to include people who also have park tickets for that day or because those people might not want to stay at the park the whole time. Like you're on Disney property already. Yeah, I agree. So last little bit of news and this is we're going to spend very little time on this. It's just more of a informational thing. By now it's been fixed. Wilderness Lodge was without air conditioning for a few days, if I remember right. No more than a week. The hotel rooms completely out and then the lobby was out. So like they were talking about like temperatures in the nineties in these areas. Just understand we're in Florida when you do when you're going to to Orlando, when you're going to Walt Disney World, you're in places where you don't know what's gonna happen. And they don't have the traditional air c air conditioning units that we have at home. They have chilling stations that are big, massive plants and that supply the AC. to these rooms. Disney can only go as fast as they can. They're gonna try to get you back in AC as as fast as you can. You may or may not get compensation for whatever's going on. We aren't Disney. We can't we can only do so much as agents. But no, that's something that can happen. And that set your and that that's even for Universal. That's for SeaWorld. That's for any of those hotels. Yeah. If you're going to stinking Holiday Inn before you're Disney cruise, there's a chance that their Air C A C unit just goes out and you're gonna be without air the night before your cruise. So it's that time of year. It's gonna be hot. Just pray that they can get the AC working again at your hotel before if it goes out. They did do their best. They did bring in portable air conditioning units to try to do like the main areas. So they they were trying. So and you know, it things had to be ordered in. Yeah. Things I think that was the holdup was that you're there specialized parts and they had to be ordered in and you know when you're dealing with a system that big. Yeah. Yeah. The biggest thing for it out of all would be the cast members that are working that resort cannot do anything to help get the air conditioning going. They they don't have the power. They don't most likely don't have the knowledge and they don't have the skill set because they if they had the skill set, they'd be doing it. And they have to work in it. Yeah. So just be patient with them. They're suffering just as much as you, if not more, because because you're staying at the wilderness lodge, you can go put your bathing suit on and hop into the pool. Those cast members have to stay at their their desk or their restaurant or whatever they're doing and stay in that heat in a costume for their entire shift. Could you imagine being like housekeeping, having to clean all those rooms in that heat and doing stuff? Like As hot as Florida is, this very rarely rarely happens for as many things they have to keep air conditioned on the entire property. So it's never a big complaint. Can you imagine the people working in the laundry room? How hot that room probably is, like with no air conditioning pumping in. That's gonna do it for the news. We're gonna come back and talk something completely different than we ever talked about, thanks to Rachel. So we'll be back after this. Are you dreaming of your next adventure, but overwhelmed by planning? Magical Travel has you covered. With over 22 years in the business, we specialize in Disney destinations, Universal Studios, cruise vacations, and all-inclusive resort getaways. Our services are 100% complimentary when you book a vacation package with one of our knowledgeable agents. Request a free quote to start the planning process at www.magicaltravel.com. Mention our podcast to be connected with one of our agents you are listening to. And we're back. So we always talk Disney Universal, but there's that whole little thing in our title called two. Because we're castles two cultrons. We want to talk about other things that might interest us. So like MSC cruises or Royal Caribbean cruises. And Or sandals and beaches. And sandals and beaches, yeah. Where Rachel's gonna do this. Don't worry. There was this one. There's this one. What a couple of weeks ago Rachel was talking in our in our group text about how ⁓ they were gonna go up to Hershey. I'm like, Well that'd be fun. We need to talk about that 'cause that's a little regional park that they have a lot to do and you know maybe someone wants to do a weekend trip to Pennsylvania and see where everybody's favorite chocolate is made. And they have a theme park. Yeah. So Rachel, can you give us a little bit of rundown of Hershey in general and what they have to offer when it comes to like R resorts and things to do. Well, Hershey Park is in Hershey, Pennsylvania. They have a school there. They it's like a cute little town. ⁓ you know, you have Milton Hershey School. It's a you know, they do a lot in the community up there. There's several hotels. You have plenty of restaurants on that whole, you know, area. And then you have the gardens, you have the museum, and then you have the theme park. Hershey Hotel is known as having the one of the best spas in the country. Wow. And ⁓ that's where I was while my son was on a field trip. So ⁓ my mom and I ⁓ were at the Hershey Hotel and we did the spa day. So very jealous of all the things you had done that day. It looked fantastic. Yeah. Yeah. It was like a mortgage payment. Yeah. It's an expensive day. It's not cheap. So they bring out the fancy chocolate to put in put on you in the massage and all that stuff or what? They have different like yeah. So the cool thing about their massage or like, you know, their services, they have like the chocolate scent stuff and there's like a chocolate wrap and like a chocolate bath you could do. So they have a lot of the chocolate things incorporated in it. On my last service, I was like, just give me some lavender. Like I'm gonna chocolate it out. In the common areas, they have the hot cocoa. Like it's so good because it's like faster. Yes. ⁓ it's like in the it's like next to the coffees. Like they have it in like all the like the rooms. There's bowls of Hershey kisses like everywhere you go. So it it's themed beautifully. It's a fun day. If you can do it, splurge and get a few services done. my husband and I went eight, seven, eight years ago. And we only got one service done. Like 'cause kind of a last minute thing. And it's definitely not worth it to go up there for one service. You definitely want to make a day out of it. But yeah, my son went to Hershey Park with a field trip. So he was there running the rides and eating food and doing all that. You know, it's an hour and half, hour and fifteen from us. They have three sections in the park. They have Hersh the main Hershey Park, then they have the boardwalk, which is the Butter Park section. And then they have the ⁓ the zoo section, which is called Zoomerica. I usually don't do water parks like around here. I kind of I'm a little skeeved out by the Is it the same price like with the ticket to do It's a three in one it's a three in one ticket. It is seasonal, so they're not open during winter usually. They do like a Christmas light thing, but they will close down. It's like Monday weather. Yeah, Monday through Thursday they're closed during the and the only reason I know is I I've been watching videos ⁓ trying to prepare for this. But The video I watched from last year's Hershey Lodge, the person was like, Yeah, they're closed Monday through Thursday during November and December because of you know lower crowds and all that. And yeah. Well yeah, cause you can only run roller coasters at like certain temperatures. Yeah. Fun little fact is when I was probably ninety seven, ninety eight, I went to Hershey on a family vacation. ⁓ we stopped and did the Rose Garden. And I just I remember seeing the the Hershey lamps, the light post all around. Okay. And then the ⁓ the screen, hold on and the the Hershey lamps my dad made. Really? ⁓ really? That is pretty cool. Yeah. My dad's a I have a I have the I have a picture I'll just send it to you. My dad ⁓ retired as a welder and his company was you know, they want to bid to make their the Hershey lampposts. That's so cool. That is so you guys should have like free admission all the time. You would yeah. Right. But yeah. So every time I got there, I'm like, there are my dad bland posts. So sorry I had to cut you out for that one. I love that. Yeah. Fun fact. Yeah, that's I'd like that was the biggest thing as a little kid because I was maybe like Mason's age when we went up there. I have a picture of me with the Reese Cup character. Plus two with Gaia. And I remember just wanting to do the theme part 'cause we went to the garden and it overlooked. I remember just looking down and y'all have like it's the oldest wooden Wooden roller coaster on the east coast, if not America. And I just remember looking down there and being like, I want to go there, but they wouldn't let us go. But we did the the museum tour, which is the Hershey store museum experience now. And I remember getting the I think it was just a little Hershey kiss or maybe it was a fun sized Hershey bar. You get a fun sized. So I I that's all I remember. And then there's a picture of me somewhere. I'll have to see if I can find it of me with that Reese cup and Hershey man. ⁓ go ahead, Terry. I was just saying first of all, I think every middle school field trip should come with a place for moms to go to the spa. Yes. While they're there. That sounds amazing. 'Cause middle schoolers are, you know, middle schoolers. But second of all, like Jason said, I've never been, but all I ever heard growing up was like that the entire town smelled like chocolate. No. So it does not. Yeah. See? Dispelling themed. I I will say that, you know, with the lamppost, when you're in, you know, a certain square radius, square mile radius, ⁓ it is themed. And I like that. And it's historical. You know, the Milton Hershey school, it's historical. Like they they take great pride in in their community up there. What I like about the older companies like that, like Hershey and then I'm gonna reference to Walt Disney is that these the hometowns really embrace them. So you have Milton Hershey that does all like everything's named after him there. You go to Marceline, everything's the Walt Disney, the Walt Disney Post Office, Walt Disney School, the Walt Disney Museum. I mean it's all there. So they really embrace that and because at the end of the day, Marceline, they're not making as much money off of Walt Disney as Hershey does with what he's done. So like what size park? Like if you had to compare it to a park size that you've been to before, like as people that have never been, how big are you we we talking when we are You know. It looks a lot from this from the few pictures I've seen, like it looks a lot like a six flags to me. Yeah, I was trying to compare it to like a Disney. It's like a six flag size. I was gonna try to compare it to like a Disney park. It's definitely what's the smallest Disney park? Epcot? Studios. Hollywood Studios. Yeah. It's okay. Disney and Land is I I would say it's probably like two thirds of Hollywood Studios. And it has a mix of rides, right? Like roller coasters, kids rides. Yeah, they candemodium. My so my son is a huge roller coaster nut. He can tell you what type of ri like what type of coaster it is, the inversions, like everything that's supposed to like technical names for it. Candemonium, I went on that. That's the best that's that's a pretty cool ride. And then comments. Candemodium, like you got some airtime. It's a lap bar one. So it's a g is it like a giga coaster with no inversion? So it's similar to our like ⁓ Fury three two five we have here at Carowinds. Like it's it's like tall and a lot of like upside down. Like a Goliath at six flags or Manta at six. It looks Comet. Yeah, Comet is the the wooden coaster. ⁓ but then they have, you know, they have other stuff that for kids. So I think that they they definitely appear appeal to you know, preschool all the way up to thrill rides. So that's why they do, you know, a lot of field trips in this area. We'll go up there for the day. I actually went to Hershey Park in my seventh grade field trip and Mason did it on his eighth grade field trip. So I mean they've been doing it for, you know, how many years? So I no, it I think it's a great So I just think it's we can move over to the resorts right quick. They they really have it looks like they've done the same thing that Disney's done when it comes to resort styles. So looking at their their stuff, they have a Hershey Park camping resort, the the Hershey Park In Hershey Inn and Suites, which is a new ⁓ new hotel, the Hershey Lodge, and then the H Hotel Hershey. So it kind of feels like those are like different tiers of hotels. They are. I I say that the lodge with Andy, we're like in a little outdoor it was like a not a cabin. I forget what they called it, but it was like a building and there was like just two entrances to it. It was like a twin house almost. And you know, we had a fireplace in our room and and whatnot. ⁓ so yeah, they definitely have different styles and which is great. I th I I like how they appeal to it. There's also a bunch of other hotels that are close by. That you don't That's what I was just noticing online. Like when you go to when you Google Hershey Park Resort, it does give you like the Nice you know, nice ones nearby, I guess, if you don't want to stay on resort. Yeah, Hotel Hershey, I mean, it's just a a beautiful high end hotel. It looks like you drive it's beautiful. It looks like Grand Flow, Grand Californian esque, like with all the grand architecture and all that stuff. And that I that's where the spa is. I would Yeah, it is. Like the hallways are darker themed, like elegant, like old time money. Like it's definitely have a has an elevated rich feel to it. Beautiful. The video I watched ⁓ before we started recording was on the lodge and they were talking about the sheets had Hershey Kisses like actually embedded into the as a design on the sheets. I'm like, well that's pretty cool. Disney doesn't even do that with their thousands of sheets. Yeah, ⁓ yeah. No, no, Pixar. Pixar place when we were just there. I don't know if you looked at the sheets, but they were it had the Pixar balls in them. Okay. Mm-hmm. But well, Disney World would even do with awesome. There's there's three resorts over there in Disneyland. Well Disney World where they're ⁓ you know, thirty, forty, they don't do stuff. Yeah, and then the bath like ⁓ tool trees are like chocolate scented. I gotta go. Yeah, it's I really wanna go I've always wanted to go. Yeah. So Siobhan c Siobhan took a day there just to go to Chocolate World when she was up this way. One of our ⁓ She was a sportscaster down here. Now she's on the main news. Her sister is ⁓ special needs and she works in the she hands out the candy at the end of the story. So Okay. And it's really cool. So we've met her a few times because of ⁓ Night to Shine stuff. While we're talking about the bent the hotels right quick, yeah, there are reasons to stay off site, save. I said they have but they have lots of perks to stay on there. The exclusive Hershey Park benefits, you get free front gate shuttle service to an exclusive resort drop-off location just steps away from the front gate. Best price on Hershey Park tickets, up to three extra hours with a preview plan and one early access with sweet start during summer season. If I understood the preview plan, It's like the Yeah, if you have a ticket the day before, you get three hours the night before to go in. Like that is amazing. And three hours like that size is a lot of time. It is. They have like a a fast track line too. ⁓ the heck's it called? It's called Fast Track. Yep, skip to the line fast track. So it's kinda like, you know, ⁓ Lightning Machine or Lightning express. I didn't buy it when I was there with my family last year. I didn't think it was I need it the day that we went, but I can definitely see needing it on certain days of the weekends or holiday times or like spring break times. They also have like dining plans too, like drink packages and whatnot. Wow. So yeah. And honestly, the park ticket itself, like I think I paid fifty-five dollars for Mason's ticket for one day. And he has access to all three. And then the grocery stores around here usually ⁓ will have discounted tickets like for forty something dollars. So it's always cheaper if you get it beforehand online than when you're at the gate. But for what it is, like it's clean, it's fun, the food's decent, like it's not overly priced. I just think it's a great, a great time that doesn't really break the bank. I know we were talking about theming, and one of the things I love is their height requirements. And what they're called. So like the the no height would be a Hershey's miniature. And that's like zero to thirty six inches. And then thirty six to forty two inches is Hershey Kisses. Then you have forty two to forty eight inches, which is Reese's. And then forty eight to fifty four, so Hershey Chocolate. Next is Twizzlers. And then the top one is Jolly Rancher. And I just think that's awesome. I like that they name That's cute. different height requirements so you know where you are. The Twizzler would be the tallest instead of tallest. I thought they were doing ⁓ in order of like the sizes of the the packages. The only rancher would be like small. The short they have those like height boards. Boards up when you go in and it has all that. It's so cute. And then like characters are around. It's just I'll I'll we've talked about it with the universal and Disney stuff is like No one cares about taking pictures with a lot of the universal characters because we didn't grow up with their characters as much as we did with Mook Mouse and everything. But you wouldn't think that you would want to take a picture with a Hershey bar, but at the same time it's like When am I ever gonna take a picture with a Hershey bar? I have ornaments from them. Like we the kids the kids were little, I forget how many years ago it was. I still had hair. So it's gotta be at least eight years ago. We went up there during Christmas time and we did they have these like old school like cable cars and went on this like historical tour during Christmas time and like Santa was there. It was like so we were like it was super cool. Like we went around, it was historical. They had like some elf guy on our car, like playing along. Like it was they they have different things like that that, you know, it for the holidays and whatnot. So would you say it's a good like obviously if you're somebody for me that lives what, probably fourteen hours away if I'm driving, it you know, it would be a f good flight. Would it be a good weekend trip where I could go, okay, let's go to Hershey and then we'll do something, you know, in the area, whether it's you know, sightseeing. You know, we would never come see you, Rachel. Why would we could drive an hour and a half to see you? God, I would never meet you halfway or even go up there. You wouldn't even want to come to Hershey Park and hang out with us. But like You know, would would it be a consideration for me to like book a room for the a long weekend? Yeah. And do all that stuff. Yes. I think it's absolutely worth it. I think as long as you know if you're only gonna do like the rides and not like the water park section, it's a one day park, I would say. Especially if you get the fast track. If you do like the museum or the gardens or just kind of the anything around that area historically, I I think you can definitely make a weekend out of it. And then you could do a spa day as well. So I mean, you can definitely make a weekend out of it. I don't think I would drive fourteen hours. I'd probably fly. I would probably and in full full transparency, like last last Christmas, we me Bethany actually discussed coming up this way. 'Cause we were already in Oxford, North Carolina. You know, that's what about maybe four or five hours away from everything. So I was like, We're already this far away, let's take the rest of the way up and then drive halfway home one day and then take a little bit longer getting home. We didn't. We decided to spend more time with our family and let Terry, you know, bail on our lunch. You didn't want to see you didn't want my month long sickness I had from that. I would have given it to you, gladly. No, I definitely think it's it's worth the trip. It seems like you said it's you you keep emphasizing how clean it is. I feel like it's like a hidden gem almost. Like it hasn't become like US wide popular. It reminds me of like Dollywood around here when I was a kid. Like no one from Tennessee or North Carolina really went to Dollywood. Like if you talk to anyone outside of there, they'd be like, What the hell are you talking about? Doll you know, Dollywood. And now it's like gotten bigger, so it's like kinda it's it's actually blowing up twenty five years. You know, we knew what it was. So I feel like that's kind of what Hershey's like it's it's small but it's it's still great because like it's not overcrowded yet and it's still clean because it's not overcrowded. You don't have every influencer in the world there telling people to go there. So it's almost like if you w wanna go, like go now. And I think like the price point's good too. Like it's affordable for people, but some people it might be like you have to save up for it. You know, when I keep emphasizing clean, you know, I also have Dorney Park up this way. I don't find it as clean. So it's because the people with Hershey, I feel like like take pride in like the backstory and the history of everything. So it's really important. Like and when I was with the spa people, you know, they've been there one guy was there for 17 years. Like he's like So it must be a good company to work for. They are. And he says, you know, it's different. He goes, I'm an actual employee here when usually at spas are ten ninety nines. Yep. The contract. So he they the I think the because the company treats their employees well, the employees have pride. It reminds me of Disney, where they're proud to work for, you know, the Hershey brand. So I think that's also why it's clean. I think the the employees take pride in it. And you c it just it just com it just ha You can see it. That was gonna be my comparison. Was that I from the pictures and videos I've seen of Hershey, to me, this is what if Disney, if Walt said, Hey, I'm gonna build an amusement park, not a theme park, that we'd get something that looks like this out of it. That's clean. The hotels, everybody's appreciative of what it is and they take pride in it versus a six flags where it's just where you just I was just about to say six flags. I think it was like Not on the opposite 'cause they're so nice, but once you go to a well kept park and then you go to a Six Flags, you're like, This is the difference. And Six Flags is more of just like, you know, you have acreage with some rides, where Hershey is more of like a town. Yeah. So I I do yeah, absolutely. Yeah, these people have have lived in the town for as long as they have, so they have for the pride like you talked about. Yeah. And you know, when I booked the spa services, she's like, it gets booked out four months in advance. Wow. And like and think of it if it's seasonal as well, like people aren't going there for the parks. That spa is that good that people book out four months year round. So So if you want your Christmas at Hershey spa, go ahead and book it now. Book it now. We actually did the lights. When we there's they do like a light section too. So when we did that trolley motor coach thing, there was like a drive through a few ⁓ like a mile to three, I forget how many miles it was, of all like the lights and whatnot. So that was cool too. I did see they do a Halloween thing too. Yeah. I've never done that. I I mean, I would really like to compare it to H H N because I don't think it's gonna be as I don't think it's gonna be that scary. Hey, but wasn't the people from that last year making it like all over TikTok, the guys that were sliding across the ground? Wasn't that one of the parks that was making it? Was Hershey Park? I don't think so. I think that was ⁓ either SeaWorld or Bush Gardens with Hollow Scream. I felt like it was Hershey Park, but I'm probably very wrong. You ⁓ you might be right. ⁓ I know the hollow square hollow scream does it for the other two. I don't know what else there is. Like I think Hershey's gonna tell you that the you have Hershey World and you have like the the ride of how they So you have the the how they make the tr the the chocolate ride and at the end of that is when they give you like a miniature size fun you know thing. The one thing we need to talk about is the make your own Reci's. Yeah. You make your own Reci's. Yeah. How are you gonna leave that out? Well, I don't do it because my son's alerted to be peanuts. Well I mean I know. Send my peanut allergic kid to Hershey Park. It's fantastic. With an epi pen in one pocket and pen and jewel the other. No, so I've never done it. Or do you make like a chocolate to peanut butter ratio or something? I don't know. I I skip it. I haven't even like it's just because of my kid. I just yeah, I Somebody named the family had done before. Siobhan I think was gonna wait for it. She said it was like a forty minute wait. Wow. But it's not like a small Reese though. It's like a No, no, it's a big it's a big one. ⁓ and then they have like ice cream there and you can like make your own Sundays and like it's like a whole food court thing with like specialized Reese stuff. I do remember the food court and getting a chocolate coke. And that was because they pulled chocolate syrup in it and it was absolutely disgusting. But we had to get it because we were in Hershey. Right. ⁓ they just have like nowhere else can you buy like big things of your exit to the gift shop isn't buying a big box of Reese's when you walk through E.T. Fantastic. Like you you just have like all the different and they have like seasonal stuff and like you just have Hershey products that you don't typically see. And like that's why I I always end up with a bunch candy. So like when you go into like the MM stores if they have everywhere like New York, Vegas, whatever, they have like the big cylinder tubes. They have they have that Do they have that? I'm picturing that in my head with kisses. Like they're like every ⁓ that'd be great. Yeah. Because there's all these different flavor kisses now. They have the hugs, the kisses or almonds are my favorite. Almonds are I was gonna say something in it. So the almonds are my favorite. They are they do Brookside, you know, like the Brookside candies, that's Hershey. Those pretzels. What is it? There's like really good pretzels that everyone gets nowadays. Dots, dots. They also earn dots. I love dots. So they're in my cabinet right now. Yeah. There's like some weird sugar free stuff. Like they they have. No one cares about that. I'm that, right? But yeah, no, I think it's it's so like you just walk and then they have like prod like mugs, shirts, games, plushies, pajamas. Like they have all that fun. All of it smells like chocolate. No matter how many times you walk with pajam chip pajamas, that's gonna smell like chocolate. It doesn't. It looks fun though. It definitely looks somewhere like as Kova gets older and wants to ride more like thrill ride type things 'cause they do have quite a few roller coasters, like it would definitely be somewhere that I'd be like, okay, we have a long weekend or we have this random fall break and we want to take three or four days out of that fall break to go and do something. 'Cause it's not a terrible drive from us. I think it's like seven or eight hours from where I am. So it wouldn't be a terrible drive to do. See, that's Lights up to Philly are really expensive for me. I've re I've looked at them before, so Charlotte. And I don't know why they do that. So expensive. We'll ⁓ we'll we'll pull through meet Micah and then we'll bit run a big party bus. ⁓ my god, we could get a big R V and then and then pick up to Hershey. And we can all come up to Hershey and then Rachel just meet us there. She gets to miss out on the big party part, but Throw all the families in the RV and we just the sixteen passenger van thing. I don't know, something. Each kid gets their own row. Row. Nice. Really get to know the families. Yeah. Because we can get me, then get Terry, and then we keep going. Y'all would hate me. I have to pee all the time. But we're not stopping. If I'm driving, we're not stopping. That's that's why we're getting an R V. Let's get a big old Winnebago and it's got a bathroom. We can keep going. Then we can then you guys can, you know, camp park at the campsite. There. Yeah. I can see Terry camping. Terry will be like, I'll see you guys at Hotel Hershey. Bye. Thanks. Thanks a lot. Terry will be at the spa. I think that's a lot of great information. There's like there's so much when it comes to exploring different things for families to do around the United States. And we always forget about these small parks like Hershey and don't think about it. The good thing about Hershey is that they do work with travel agents. So that's something that Your good agents over at Magical Travel can help. Rachel would love to help you book a a Hershey vacation. Man, I would love to just go to Hershey and eat all the chocolate. Like I can be paying. You do you get a piece of chocolate for checking into a hotel. Like Yeah. Not nothing. Yeah, I'm I'm I'm gonna take a big old bar of Hershey. Just eat that. That was our Father's Day thing at church this week, was they gave us a Hershey bar. Yes. Yeah. Hershey that but they gave them like bite size Snickers cars. I'm the chocolate person in the in the house, so like I I would love going to Hershey and spending I like roller coasters, I like chocolate. Hershey Park. It should be my favorite theme park in the United States. But you know what we could do, Jason? Then if you're doing that, you could stop by me, we could go to Carowyn's, yeah, ride the roller coasters there, then go get Terry and then make it up to Hershey Park. It could be a whole thing. We're gonna make a week of it. Yep. Coming coming soon to the Castles of Cauldrons is the East Coast tour. We're gonna live vlog it like the whole like car ride. Yeah, we're gonna have we're gonna set up the R V studio and record podcasts. Yep. Yeah, there might not be anything. It's gonna be a WWE cage match, like last one standing. That's gonna do it for us today. You can find us over on all social medias at Castles of Cauldrons. We're really trying still and it's We've got some good stuff coming down the pipeline. You can find if you want to book a Disney vacation, universal vacation, Hershey Vic vacation, anything in between. You can find us over at magicaltravel dot com with any of our great agents over there. They'll ready to help you. Until the next time, we will see you on the next episode. Bye.
Apple Podcasts
Castbox
Castro
Goodpods
Moon FM
Overcast
Pocket Casts
Podbean
Podcast Addict
Podcast Republic
Spotify