Fuel for Thought
Hershey's Chocolate World!!
We decided yesterday that we were going to take a trip to Hershey's Chocolate World, as we made our way down to Alabama, to deliver our load on Monday. We got there, and there were thousands of people there. They have the "Hershey's Park" amusement park, and water park, as well as the Hershey's Chocolate World attraction. To be honest, I was a bit let down by the whole experience, but still had fun. 
The tickets are overpriced. It is about $10-$15 an attraction, or you can buy a 4 attraction pass for $35 a person, so that's what we did. It included the chocolate tasting adventure, a 3d movie, a trolley ride through the town of Hershey, and making your own chocolate bar.
We started in the chocolate tasting adventure. You are in a room with about 30 other people, with a placemat of chocolates. You learn about where the Cocoa beans come from, and how chocolate, itself, is made. Then you get to taste it all. At the end you are given a "Chocolate University" diploma. 
After being loaded up on chocolate we needed to get something that was a bit normal to eat. Two hot dogs, a small mac and cheese, and a medium drink, $18. OUCH! Next was the 3d movie, which was a bit of history on Milton Hershey, and his company. It actually was enjoyable.
Then came the trolley ride. It was VERY cramped in the trolley, but it was very educational. They take you all around the town of Hershey. They show you where Mr. Hershey lived, where the factory is, the kiss street lights. I learned a lot about the town and how it thrived solely based on the chocolate factory. A very interesting fact is, during the great depression, not a single one of his workers lost their jobs. We saw the homestead where his family lived, and where he started making his milk chocolates, after selling his caramel business. 
45 minutes later of being stuffed into the trolley, we arrived back at Chocolate World, where the attraction I was looking forward to all day was. Making my own chocolate bar. They dress you up in aprons, hairnets, beard nets, and gloves. 
You are escorted into a room where you scan your ticket, and the whole process begins. You pick the shell for your bar, either white, milk, or dark chocolates. You then pick three things that you would like filled into your bar. It goes through an automated system in front of you where it distributes the correct amounts of your ingredients. Then it is covered with milk chocolate, and goes through the cooling chamber. 
While it is cooling you go in and make your wrapper for your bar. Once you select print, you go back out and watch your bar get boxed, then is placed in a big metal tin, and then your wrapper is placed around it. 
The only free attraction there, was the chocolate tour. It is a little "roller coaster" track that takes you through a mock up of the factory and how chocolate is made. During your ride, they take your picture, which you can purchase at the end of your ride, of $12. The end of your ride also dumps you into the LARGE retail area. It is filled with every kind of chocolate that they make, as well as clothing and stuffed animals. They make most of their money on retail sales. A childs small sweatshirt, $38, a stuffed Reese's cup doll, $40. The chocolate is very reasonably priced though. We made it out only spending about $10 in the retail area.
Now we are off to Alabama, hoping for some new adventures to share!
Jenny Marcu
Leased to Load1