There's a reason Universal doesn't funnel Volcano Bay guests through CityWalk. The demographic of people going to spend a day in a water park isn't the same demographic that's interested in a dining and shipping district.
I’ll respond to the first part when I’m at my computer.
But for this part - I get what you are saying, but Chocolatetown has a little outside the park, but it’s mostly inside the park now. And they want to pull people towards that.
Also could argue that your statement on City Walk is a little misleading because there wasn’t really space for Volcano Bay there.
They will always have a densely packed property—they will keep that vibe. What is going to continue to harm them long-term is their disinterest in providing facilities that can accommodate the crowds they seem to desire (and frequently, currently draw only to disappoint and enrage).
And that was an issue up until they did Midway America in the mid-90’s and has been an issue since the early 2010’s. But people’s wallets speak and the spending hasn’t shown any displeasure.
I actually don't have a good idea of your comprehensive vision for the property I don't think. Can I get like a few sentence rundown on how you envision getting the waterpark a separate, dedicated gate, fixing Hersheypark's layout, and finding more land for the long-term growth of both Hersheypark and Hershey's waterpark (wherever it may be)?
Ok, so I've got visuals to go with what I understand the change to be proposed as, along with my simple idea that doesn't take moving Boardwalk and my option with moving Boardwalk.
Ok, so with what I understand to be proposed, the highlighted green would be Hersheypark, the blue would be Boardwalk, with no real proposal to move that parking and offices/maintenance. As I've pointed out Giant Arena (left of my screen shot) isn't a likely viable area, and the area between Chocolate world and Park Blvd isn't a great water park option as it floods and the land has too much undulation for a water park.
So here's the "big proposal" that I don't love (between money investment and park disruption would be massive):
This would be the complete relocation of Boardwalk north of Hersheypark Dr into the blue area. There's enough space there for parking and a water park and expansion. This would require a pedestrian bridge over Hersheypark Dr for either interior park movement of people to park at one spot and move to another. I would have the gate for the park to be across the corner from where the pink and green areas meet, that way you can build 1 foot bridge with 2 purposes, a split for parts of people not already in the park, then a split for people already in the park and crossing over. The parking over on the Boardwalk side would be premium priced for Boardwalk only tickets.
The green (current HP footprint) would stay the same, with the black circle being the land vacated from Boardwalk that would be the expansion. That's all that I would leave for expansion to current Hersheypark as the other areas would get other uses.
The highlighted yell and pink are tied to each other. The pink would be converted to parking, with the yellow being where employee parking, maintenance, and park offices would be relocated to. This would give employees access through Park Blvd for helping them avoid traffic. The pink would become a place that people who want to do both Hersheypark and Boardwalk in one day could park at. The brown line is tied to this as that would be the expanded tram line. This would help with people that walk between the parks but didn't park close.
The yellow circled area would be future Chocolatetown expansion land to not only do more outside the park but also make use of the new parking as a more premium offering.
Then there's my "ideal" of what I would like to see:
Ok, so here's my cost effective option that really works well, moves far less, and creates a two gate system with both parks being in use as much of the year as possible.
The dark purple north of Hersheypark Dr would be the new employee parking, maintenance, and offices. With this you could create a tunnel under Hersheypark Dr that would be able to handle vehicles transporting items over to the repair shops. This would give them more room to have for those items and put it in a place where it's out of sight out of mind so to speak.
The Blue would not have the movement of anything Boardwalk. The 'new' park would be named Hershey Shores. Boardwalk would remain the same name and there would be no new expansion in there. Midway America would say the same as is. To expand this park, the current southern part of park offices and maintenance would be used for more water park called "Pocono Lake Shores" and the theme would be more a mountain lake. The northern part of that expansion plot would be more dry park expansion with a historic central PA theme (I got to be honest I have no great name for this). The lot between Chocolatetown Blvd and Hersheypark Dr (used for employees most days) could become the future expansion plot for this new park.
The black curve here would be the entrance gate for the new Hershey Shores park. I want it down at the corner for reasons I will soon get into. The white line would become the internal "wall" between the two parks, with the yellow line being the internal gate with access between the two parks.
The highlighted pink area would be for the Chocolatetown expansion to connect the two parks together are the front gates. A mini-city walk like vibe. Heck, I could even make a case for a small tower boutique hotel build into the Hershey Shores gate that can allow access for guests directly into both parks for a Sweet Start access and a quick back to the room access. The red would be the new tram loop that connects the new park to the existing park and parking lots.
Then the green highlighted would be Hersheypark, both the pre-existing part and the now expansion down along Spring Creek. This centers the entrance and makes use of land that is currently unused. It fits with the existing Hersheypark in that it uses terrain.
They didn't own the old golf course land at the time, and the course didn't always play nice at the time.
The rerouting of the entrance road and Chocolatetown all became possible because they bought that land and had new options to manage the floodplain issues. It allowed them to develop a system to better mitigate the stress that Spring Creek flooding puts on the park.
The issue with that is Midway America is some of the flattest land on the property within the park walls. Basically it's buh-bye LR, LT, and WR if that's the case.
Couple of things here - it would be MASSIVELY expensive to move all of the piping, pumps, dig new holes for pools and trenches. And then there's the power output that is required and would need to be moved. While a stand along Boardwalk would likely be massively profitable, it's still a huge expense for a park that is going to operate 4-5 months a year.
100% a no go. Hersheypark Arena is a historically protected building, Hersheypark has some offices in there, some storage is in there, and the ice rink is still used.
And when it gets replaced it will go in this same complex. Other areas around Hershey don't have the infrastructure to handle 10k+ people.
But also - it's about to undergo an extensive renovation (although tight lipped) that's going to extend the life another 25-30 years (FYI it's only 23 years old).
It may....but one issue I heard pop up already with the new gate is that it's made to handle the traffic that Hersheypark sees with it's current footprint. They really didn't make it "too big" so if they were to massively expand by moving Boardwalk but keeping it part of the current park, there would be even more crowds going through that one gate.
It doesn't solve the issue either of the length of the walk from front gate to the Boardwalk/Midway America. An argument I head that pops up internally is if you do ever put in a smaller secondary entrance near The Claw, how many people would try to go there, which pulls people away from the investment of Chocolatetown and the spending that happens there. So if they were to do that it wouldn't be another entrance they would want to duplicate many of those shops, amenities, and infrastructure anyways, so might as well make two gates.
As for the relocation of employee parking and the maintenance buildings, I've heard rumor that they are very tight for space on both fronts anyways and need to explore how to expand or move those items. One of the options I've seen brought up is putting employee parking across Hersheypark Drive from Laff Trak and have a walkway over the road,
Great insight, thank you. Although Zachary was 100% correct that I was proposing a secondary gate between hypothetical new water park (which had its own gate that was not that one) and existing park.
Hershey is just a strange position overall. They prefer one gate, they like their footprint, and Derry Township has a good relationship with them. But at the same time they need to expand, they need to do more, and Derry Township wants to keep much of that together.
The arena being a historical site really ‘goobers up’ the area too. The stadium is not however, and they would do great to work with Hershey Co and Derry Township to relocate to a new stadium elsewhere. It still gets lots of use outside of concerts (band shows, PIAA championships for football/soccer/fieldhockey) so there is a need for the stadium. Just south of Giant Center and west of Park Blvd would be an awesome location. It would also ease on traffic for when the park is open late and there’s a show going on by having most people on opposite sides of the parking. Getting people over the parking entry way would be the only issue.
so, are we talking about moving the water park or keeping the water park because I love to see the water park be moved, it could open room for future expansion (or maybe not but a man can dream)
Hershey is just a strange position overall. They prefer one gate, they like their footprint, and Derry Township has a good relationship with them. But at the same time they need to expand, they need to do more, and Derry Township wants to keep much of that together.
The arena being a historical site really ‘goobers up’ the area too. The stadium is not however, and they would do great to work with Hershey Co and Derry Township to relocate to a new stadium elsewhere. It still gets lots of use outside of concerts (band shows, PIAA championships for football/soccer/fieldhockey) so there is a need for the stadium. Just south of Giant Center and west of Park Blvd would be an awesome location. It would also ease on traffic for when the park is open late and there’s a show going on by having most people on opposite sides of the parking. Getting people over the parking entry way would be the only issue.
They just have such a mess of a layout overall. I honestly think they’ve actually made the best of a bad situation in some areas (entry and exit roads, the giant center’s location, chocolatetown) but man once you get inside the actual park the layout is just atrocious in so many ways. I’m 100% with Zachary that when you zoom out and look at the bigger picture, a few painful years of massive investment into something as drastic as relocating the Boardwalk would be worth it long term and allow the park to grow in a healthy and less haphazard way
They just have such a mess of a layout overall. I honestly think they’ve actually made the best of a bad situation in some areas (entry and exit roads, the giant center’s location, chocolatetown) but man once you get inside the actual park the layout is just atrocious in so many ways. I’m 100% with Zachary that when you zoom out and look at the bigger picture, a few painful years of massive investment into something as drastic as relocating the Boardwalk would be worth it long term and allow the park to grow in a healthy and less haphazard way
It would be very painful and require a massive undertaking of Derry Township, HERCO, and Hershey (keep in mind the companies behind Giant Center, Chocolate World, and Hersheypark are different) to work together to change everything there.
I agree that it would take some sort of big painful investment, but completely removing Boardwalk is going to be one of the last things they do IMO. They would find a way to likely do one of the things I proposed here:
Post in thread 'Hersheypark Project 2026: Hershey Inn & Suites, Park Expansion' News - Hersheypark Project 2026: Hershey Inn & Suites, Park Expansion
The one I’ve heard from them is because of how short the season for Boardwalk is, that’s a major sticking point as to why it isn’t stand alone and likely never will be.
The one I’ve heard from them is because of how short the season for Boardwalk is, that’s a major sticking point as to why it isn’t stand alone and likely never will be.
You see, I hear "how short the season for Boardwalk is" and that is part of WHY I think kicking Boardwalk out from Hersheypark makes sense. Right now, a huge percentage of Hersheypark property is consumed by a waterpark that isn't very effectively monitized when it is open and can hardly be monitized at all when it isn't open. Contrast that approach with what I believe to be the gold standard of the "regional destination park resorts" right now, Dollywood. Splash Country, by being a separate gate with its own parking, gate, hours, tickets, passes, upcharges, dining, shopping, infrastructure, staff, etc can be optimized monetarily incredibly well during its (short) season, doesn't negatively impact the experience inside Dollywood when Splash Country is overrun, doesn't constrain development at Dollywood, and doesn't detect from the experience at Dollywood when it's closed.
I do wonder if this idea of Boardwalk's short season could be exploited for a solution though. I think we all would agree that Hershey wants to expand the resort's season, right? What if Hershey were to construct a massive, separately ticketed, premium-targeted, indoor waterpark on some land near-but-outside the current Hersheypark campus—probably connected to a new onsite resort—that is designed from the start to accommodate large-scale, outdoor expansion. This would prevent the incredibly costly, all-at-once investment of building a new, complete, full-scale waterpark from the ground-up, demoing Boardwalk, and filling in the land left over with at least something for Hersheypark. Instead it would allow the resort to build up the new "premium," year-round waterpark and deprecate Boardwalk over the course of multiple expansion cycles—say, upwards of 10 years even.
I do wonder if this idea of Boardwalk's short season could be exploited for a solution though. I think we all would agree that Hershey wants to expand the resort's season, right? What if Hershey were to construct a massive, separately ticketed, premium-targeted, indoor waterpark on some land near-but-outside the current Hersheypark campus—probably connected to a new onsite resort—that is designed from the start to accommodate large-scale, outdoor expansion. This would prevent the incredibly costly, all-at-once investment of building a new, complete, full-scale waterpark from the ground-up, demoing Boardwalk, and filling in the land left over with at least something for Hersheypark. Instead it would allow the resort to build up the new "premium," year-round waterpark and deprecate Boardwalk over the course of multiple expansion cycles—say, upwards of 10 years even.
I would have to look up the current land holdings of HERCO to see if they can. It would need to be near Hersheypark Dr as Derry Township isn’t going to want to expand many other roads around there. With no true highway running through Hershey itself, Derry Township is park of the reason everything entertainment wise is really close together. If you end up seeing an expansion to Hersheypark it’s going to be right near the current park. Either down west of Candymonium or another gate across the street.
With that area, it’s important to remember that 422 is the major road that connects Harrisburg to Lebanon out to Reading. So the more you pull in traffic to 422 by expanding HERCO’s holdings that are big draws that’s more pressure on the entire infrastructure of a region not designed for it.
You see, I hear "how short the season for Boardwalk is" and that is part of WHY I think kicking Boardwalk out from Hersheypark makes sense. Right now, a huge percentage of Hersheypark property is consumed by a waterpark that isn't very effectively monitized when it is open and can hardly be monitized at all when it isn't open. Contrast that approach with what I believe to be the gold standard of the "regional destination park resorts" right now, Dollywood. Splash Country, by being a separate gate with its own parking, gate, hours, tickets, passes, upcharges, dining, shopping, infrastructure, staff, etc can be optimized monetarily incredibly well during its (short) season, doesn't negatively impact the experience inside Dollywood when Splash Country is overrun, doesn't constrain development at Dollywood, and doesn't detect from the experience at Dollywood when it's closed.
So because you feel it isn’t effectively monetized are you of the position all water parks should be a separate gate? Because to me that’s what that statement entails. Hershey does charge for cabana and other rentals around the wave pool and they are near impossible to get at times because of how busy it is. I would argue that it is much better monetized than say Soak City or Dorney’s water park.
I’m not trying to change you mind or anything but each time I feel like you are taking steps further and further from what is the most likely solutions for HERCO to do with this. Any response to these concepts:
Post in thread 'Hersheypark Project 2026: Hershey Inn & Suites, Park Expansion' News - Hersheypark Project 2026: Hershey Inn & Suites, Park Expansion
EDIT
And look, I’m saying this from knowing people that have worked at HP in the recent past high enough up, people that I know that work for Derry township. The level of expectations you are putting out there are highly unlikely and most likely the park is going to stay close to it’s current center and footprint.
So because you feel it isn’t effectively monetized are you of the position all water parks should be a separate gate? Because to me that’s what that statement entails. Hershey does charge for cabana and other rentals around the wave pool and they are near impossible to get at times because of how busy it is. I would argue that it is much better monetized than say Soak City or Dorney’s water park.
I don't believe that all waterparks should be separate gates, but I believe that any major, independently successful amusement/theme park that currently contains a successful, popular waterpark should be looking for ways, long-term, to separate those two elements out into separate gates.
Separating the audiences between gates provides many, many more levers to pull for guest experience, cost optimization, and monetization and, in my experience, almost certainly expands the audience for your waterpark product and improves the reputation of your amusement park product.
And yes, I'm sure cabanas and other rentals in Boardwalk are constantly sold out because the demand vastly exceeds the supply due to Hersheypark literally strangling Boardwalk. The developed area of Boardwalk is about 400,000 square feet. The developed area of Splash Country—which, for the record, isn't even a particularly large waterpark—is nearly double that.
I know Boardwalk is dense, but Boardwalk is space-constrained to the point of not being able to offer adequate amenities to meet mass market demand, let alone enough to meet premium, upcharge demand. And again, any expansion to Boardwalk in its current location just directly harms the rest of Hersheypark.
I’m not trying to change you mind or anything but each time I feel like you are taking steps further and further from what is the most likely solutions for HERCO to do with this. Any response to these concepts:
Post in thread 'Hersheypark Project 2026: Hershey Inn & Suites, Park Expansion' News - Hersheypark Project 2026: Hershey Inn & Suites, Park Expansion
At first glance, I'm amenable to the across the road solution, I just don't know anything about that land. What I'm not amenable to is the idea of gutting a ton of existing Hersheypark attractions to keep expanding the waterpark as your other solution proposes. Even if the land area is replaced in-kind elsewhere, demoing Lightning Racers, Laff Trakk, Wildcat's Revenge, Fahrenheit, and more to accommodate the waterpark growth the resort deserves needs is a complete nonstarter. I'm confident a new, ground-up waterpark could be built for far less than it would take to build-out replacement dry park areas and attractions to make up for the losses incurred by expanding Boardwalk in-place.
New, ground-up waterparks aren't that uncommon, for the record. H2OBX opened in 2017 for $46 million. Though I can't find the price, Island H20 opened in 2019. Soaky Mountain Waterpark opened in 2020 at a cost of $90 million. Hersheypark claims to have spent $150 million on Chocolate Town in 2018. Asking for them to do at least the same in 2025 dollars for an all-new, separately ticketed waterpark is completely reasonable if you ask me.
I don't believe that all waterparks should be separate gates, but I believe that any major, independently successful amusement/theme park that currently contains a successful, popular waterpark should be looking for ways, long-term, to separate those two elements out into separate gates.
Separating the audiences between gates provides many, many more levers to pull for guest experience, cost optimization, and monetization and, in my experience, almost certainly expands the audience for your waterpark product and improves the reputation of your amusement park product.
And yes, I'm sure cabanas and other rentals in Boardwalk are constantly sold out because the demand vastly exceeds the supply due to Hersheypark literally strangling Boardwalk. The developed area of Boardwalk is about 400,000 square feet. The developed area of Splash Country—which, for the record, isn't even a particularly large waterpark—is nearly double that.
I know Boardwalk is dense, but Boardwalk is space-constrained to the point of not being able to offer adequate amenities to meet mass market demand, let alone enough to meet premium, upcharge demand. And again, any expansion to Boardwalk in its current location just directly harms the rest of Hersheypark.
And I agree it’s a problem. I haven’t disagreed with the landlocked issue. But what doesn’t Boardwalk have that it should other than space? With Tidal Force being on its last legs that’s going to be a big addition to the space (which fyi is about 1/3 of that 400,000 area).
I think part of the issue of the space discussion with Boardwalk is it’s not just a boardwalk problem, it’s a HP in general problem. And when they have removed something they haven’t used the space well.
What I’ve learned via text form someone in marketing in the early 2010’s is the concept of the Boardwalk wasn’t a water park per say, but it was supposed to be a water attraction in the park. They used to have a few water slides (Chute the shoots I think) that served this purpose.
It’s an old airfield and is owned by HERCO. Right now it’s basically used as emergency overflow parking when there’s stuff at the park and giant center at the same time. Otherwise it’s unused a majority of the time.
It’s really their best asset but also a random line they have. Hersheypark Dr is such a block to going over there and there’s a reverence for Hotel Hershey that they don’t want to mess with the views up to or down from.
What I'm not amenable to is the idea of gutting a ton of existing Hersheypark attractions to keep expanding the waterpark as your other solution proposes. Even if the land area is replaced in-kind elsewhere, demoing Lightning Racers, Laff Trakk, Wildcat's Revenge, Fahrenheit, and more to accommodate the waterpark growth the resort deserves needs is a complete nonstarter. I'm confident a new, ground-up waterpark could be built for far less than it would take to build-out replacement park areas and attractions to make up for the losses incurred by expanding Boardwalk in-place.
They aren’t going to do that of removing attractions. Tidal Force is on its way out which is likely to give them expansion for a few more years.
The flip side to what you say there at the end - that would also be costs incurred to undo infrastructure tied to removing Boardwalk. Especially if they are just trying to relocate things because it would have to be more carefully taken apart.
I honestly think the biggest misstep they took with Boardwalk was using White Water Rapids plot for a wave pool and lazy river. That is a MASSIVE plot of land they wasted. They should have taken out White Water Rapids and Tidal Force together and did more slides, saving a lazy river and wave pool for way down the road.
I think a big part of why they aren’t doing the two park solution with the current layout is they are in that “competition” with Cedar Point for having the most coasters. So yea a separate waterpark makes sense on the surface to expand. Just all indications I’ve had is they prefer to try everything the can to keep it all one gate.
And I agree it’s a problem. I haven’t disagreed with the landlocked issue. But what doesn’t Boardwalk have that it should other than space? With Tidal Force being on its last legs that’s going to be a big addition to the space (which fyi is about 1/3 of that 400,000 area)
I honestly think the biggest misstep they took with Boardwalk was using White Water Rapids plot for a wave pool and lazy river. That is a MASSIVE plot of land they wasted. They should have taken out White Water Rapids and Tidal Force together and did more slides, saving a lazy river and wave pool for way down the road.
I disagree on some aspects of this part of your post, although I’m not doubting your inside knowledge.
What the boardwalk is really lacking right now is capacity. Tidal force helps in that regard, but I have no doubt that a smartly chosen and designed selection of attractions can more than offset that - and there are several major gaps in the lineup that I would argue the boardwalk should have, such as a family raft slide and drop slide complex. Should those have been prioritized above a lazy river and wave pool? Hard to say, but what I will say with the backing of professional knowledge behind me is that it’s a LOT harder to install a lazy river and wave pool around other stuff than it is to showhorn in some slides. Lazy rivers and big pools are the stuff you master plan around and use as foundational pieces of your layout, not slides.
That said I agree with you that tidal force needs to go, and they can use that big space to at least attempt to remedy crowd flow within boardwalk.
I disagree on some aspects of this part of your post, although I’m not doubting your inside knowledge.
What the boardwalk is really lacking right now is capacity. Tidal force helps in that regard, but I have no doubt that a smartly chosen and designed selection of attractions can more than offset that - and there are several major gaps in the lineup that I would argue the boardwalk should have, such as a family raft slide and drop slide complex. Should those have been prioritized above a lazy river and wave pool? Hard to say, but what I will say with the backing of professional knowledge behind me is that it’s a LOT harder to install a lazy river and wave pool around other stuff than it is to showhorn in some slides. Lazy rivers and big pools are the stuff you master plan around and use as foundational pieces of your layout, not slides.
That said I agree with you that tidal force needs to go, and they can use that big space to at least attempt to remedy crowd flow within boardwalk.
The solace I get “stuck” with debating Boardwalk and capacity isn’t that it needs more space, it’s that Hershey doesn’t well utilize what it has. And that’s long been a problem.
The issue I have with the wave pool was it was shoehorned in and surrounded by a lazy river. So you can look at it as they created the issue through their design.
And I can tell you as someone who’s been pre and post Boardwalk going up close to its current state: that part of the park has always been a choke point. The only way through the backside of Tidal Force was through Roller Soaker, but it still met up with the path right in front of Todal Force thanks to Canyon River Rapids. And because Hershey has always had a “dry path” this has actually opened things more.
It’s an old airfield and is owned by HERCO. Right now it’s basically used as emergency overflow parking when there’s stuff at the park and giant center at the same time. Otherwise it’s unused a majority of the time.
It’s really their best asset but also a random line they have. Hersheypark Dr is such a block to going over there and there’s a reverence for Hotel Hershey that they don’t want to mess with the views up to or down from.
At best, this could partially become a new boutique hotel/resort property associated with the Hershey Gardens up the hill. At worst, it remains empty land that is used for event parking overflow (it's used for camping during the Car show and extended lots during the RV show, parking for concerts, etc).
It's about 23-ish acres and is technically owned by MHS since 2014 (although land can and does change hands within the Trust assets - same with the space off Boathouse Rd that is used for concert parking and Sweet Lights).
ZooAmerica holds its own as a smaller attraction. It's only 11-acres but I think access and direct view from a residential neighborhood limits what they can do there - also it's built around Spring Creek, and I don't see them spending serious money to turn that into anything else.
I'd like to see them purchase the Hershey Silos, which went back up for sale, and turn this into a hotel; that could have access for the park or connect to the Zoo since it's next door, but who knows? Although train noise is always going to be a problem for this location.
@paintervision already touched on why it won’t go anywhere, but ZooAmerica is an important component of the Hershey experience even though I almost never set foot in there. I expect it to stay long term
I'd like to see them purchase the Hershey Silos, which went back up for sale, and turn this into a hotel; that could have access for the park or connect to the Zoo since it's next door, but who knows? Although train noise is always going to be a problem for this location.
Whenever I saw the Hershey silos, I always wondered about the inside of them, how they look and how it feels to be in one of those silos. But yeah, they could connect it to the main park one way or another. But it'd probably be a lot of work. I think what would be cool is to explore inside the silos and around, urbex style. But since there's a huge risk of injury, they probably won't do anything like that. It's more likely that they'll renovate them, who knows what else they'd be bought for. You're right about the train noise though
Whenever I saw the Hershey silos, I always wondered about the inside of them, how they look and how it feels to be in one of those silos. But yeah, they could connect it to the main park one way or another. But it'd probably be a lot of work. I think what would be cool is to explore inside the silos and around, urbex style. But since there's a huge risk of injury, they probably won't do anything like that. It's more likely that they'll renovate them, who knows what else they'd be bought for. You're right about the train noise though
I think condos and offices are out of the question due to street access and noise levels. It would take a lot of work to make it anything - but at least a boutique hotel could have the views and set a higher price for how exclusive it would be.
