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Park Queue TimesPQT

Hersheypark cheat sheet

worked out from 17 days of our own wait data51 rides

Arrive for 12:00 and ride Laff Trakk - Dark Coaster, Great Bear and Candymonium - Dark Coaster first. Leave Storm Runner until after 4pm, when its queue drops to about 5 minutes. The park's queues peak around 16:00 at 29 minutes and are lowest around 12:00.

Before you go

When to go

The days and months this park's rides run quietest

Quietest weekday
Friday
Busiest weekday
Saturday

Each ride's own quietest and busiest day, tallied and weighted by how long its queue runs. For a dated answer use the crowd calendar, which scores every day of the year.

The shape of the day

Average queue across the park, hour by hour

  1. 12:009mquietest
  2. 13:0018m
  3. 14:0025m
  4. 15:0028m
  5. 16:0029mpeak
  6. 17:0023m
  7. 18:0022m
  8. 19:0021m
  9. 20:0018m
  10. 21:0019m

Arrive for 12:00. Queues climb to their peak around 16:00 and fall back through the afternoon; the last hour or two is the quietest the headliners get all day.

Ride these first

The headliners: longest queues, worst by late morning

  1. 1Laff Trakk - Dark Coaster ~72 min typical · up to 110 at peak · worst around 8pm72m
  2. 2Great Bear ~63 min typical · up to 113 at peak · worst around 9pm63m
  3. 3Candymonium - Dark Coaster ~63 min typical · up to 101 at peak · worst around 8pm63m

Straight to these from the gate, in this order. Every minute before the park fills is worth three later.

Leave these until later

Rides whose queues collapse late in the day

  1. 1Storm Runner~56 min typical · about 5 min after 4pm5m
  2. 2Wildcat's Revenge - Dark Coaster~54 min typical · about 5 min after 4pm5m
  3. 3Fahrenheit~50 min typical · about 5 min after 4pm5m
  4. 4Twizzlers Twisted Gravity~43 min typical · about 5 min after 4pm5m
  5. 5Jolly Rancher Remix - Featuring Halloween Overlay~41 min typical · about 5 min after 4pm5m

Save them for the last two hours, when the coach parties have gone and the queue is a fraction of the afternoon's.

Fill the gaps with

Walk-ons at any hour, and the single-rider lines

Usually under 10 minutesMinty Bees5mSweet Swing - Closes at 5PM5mMini Scrambler5mPony Parade - Closes at 5PM5mMini Himalaya5mLivery Stables5mGranny Bugs - Closes at 5PM5mMini Pirate 5m

Watch-outs

Rides that spend the most of the day not running

  1. 1Monorail - Closes at 5PMrunning 13% of the park's open hours13%
  2. 2Skyrushrunning 14% of the park's open hours14%
  3. 3Piraterunning 17% of the park's open hours17%
  4. 4Ferris Wheelrunning 18% of the park's open hours18%
  5. 5Wave Swingerrunning 21% of the park's open hours21%

If one of these is the reason you came, ride it the first time you see it running rather than saving it. The full picture is on the reliability page.

On the day

Your day-of sheet

The same park, for one date: the forecast, the hours, and your ride order

With a free account you get this sheet for a date: the crowd forecast for the day, its published hours, a ride order worked out against that day's wait curve, and a printable version to take in.

FreeGet the day-of sheet with a free account

Here, that is a ride order for your date, the forecast and the hours, printable.

  • Your rides, in order

    Sequenced against the wait curve, so the headliners land in their quiet windows.

  • quiet till 111pm · 66m

    Your date, hour by hour

    How the wait climbs on the day you picked, and the window it stays low.

Everything above is each ride's own recorded queue over recent weeks, sampled every few minutes through the park's opening hours - not an opinion. A ride with too little history is left out.