My son’s class is taking a class trip to Hershey Park. They will be eating lunch and strongly advised to eat dinner (plus, plan for a snack) all in the park. How much cash should we give him to cover this? I hear food prices in the park are astronomical.
$12-$15 per meal. $6-$7 per snack. Expensive and typical for parks around the country.
I had the pleasure of chaperoning my son’s and daughter’s band trip to Hershey Park 
Chicken tenders, fries, and a drink at one of the food places was $15 or so. So that’s $30 for lunch and dinner. Add a snack (churros or dippin’ dots or whatever - another $5 or so) that’s $35. And if they have time to visit other things there, like the Chocolate Museum or factory or whatever it is, they can get candy there. I’d say $80 just to be safe, but I’d probably give my kids $100, so they can buy a souvenir or something if they want. How old is your son?
I googled it. They seem like Nazis about checking bags. You can bring a sealed water bottle and that’s it. I bet the food vendors are pricey. You’re a captive audience. I agree at least $100.
It looks like you can buy all-day drink and dining packages. About $50, but it seems like you can eat all day long.
StG
That’s actually not a bad deal. You can eat every 90 minutes. When I was a teen I could have done them some serious damage.
I googled it. You can get an all day meal pass for $29.67 and drinks for $13.99. I presume that’s the adult price, maybe it’s cheaper for children. It won’t allow the more expensive restaurants, but should be adequate for pizza and burgers.
edit - ninja’d
Not all the vendors take part in those plans.
It is expensive, yes. I haven’t been there in nineteen years, but even then back in 2000 it was pricey. **manson1972 **sounds about right on the math.
My information may be a bit out of date.
We had a class trip there for 7th grade (I believe), and I recall that the food was very inexpensive.
That was 44 years ago.
There are limitations but it is a good deal; the Old Wench and I have both used it. They are common features at parks today but theirs is among the better ones you can get.
And while Hershey is bad --------- Six Flag parks are worse IMHO. Its one of the main reasons we avoid that chain if at all possible. But then again, Knoebels has spoiled us for almost any other park when it comes to cost and value provided especially when it comes to food.
PS – if you want to go cash so he can more easily match what his friends are doing I would go say $75. Now Six and I would say $100 but you can do better at Hershey.
On the site it says “Must scan wristband to validate. Must wait 90 minutes between uses.”
I don’t know anything about this, so is the wristband something stuck to your wrist, that snaps or something when taken off, becoming invalid; or could 6 people who are there all day and only want 1 meal each game the system ensuring they all get to something to eat by swapping wristbands?
My guess would be it’s a single-use wristband, like this Tyvek one, which are common at waterparks and festivals. Many of these have RFID chips, and use an adhesive to connect the two ends when you put it on; when you take it off, one of the ends gets shredded and the adhesive can’t be re-used.
You don’t have to swap the wristband. You just get the food and then give it to your friend. You just can’t eat at the same time.
These prepaid food passes that some theme parks are doing are the biggest deal since triple green stamps. Mrs. Homie and I splurged for such a deal at Walt Disney World, and we got our money back and then some, and got to eat at restaurants we wouldn’t have dreamed of eating at if we paid off-the-shelf. Buy the food pass.
The site mentions a souvenir cup. Do you have to carry that around all day and use only that? Because I wouldn’t want to have to do that.
I don’t know specifically about Hershey park, but other theme parks I’ve been to, yes, you have to carry the cup around. At Cedar Point (in Ohio), they scanned the bottom of the cup before you could get a refill.
Parks do all sorts of things with the cups. Some parks are 99-cent refills all season, some are one-day-free refills, some are all season free --------- you really need to check each park and never assume.
And there is always Holiday with free sodas and sun-screen!