Review: DARK NIGHTS 3 at Hersheypark

For the third year in a row, Hersheypark is coming in strong with their attempt to become a premier destination in Central PA for spooky Halloween fun. As per usual, we'll be diving right in to explore this season's changes as compared to the previous two years. You can find my observations of past years HERE (year two) and HERE (year one). Let's get this spooktacular show on the road... but buckle up, because it's a long one.

We had our usual stroll to enjoy regular park activities for the afternoon and decided to take advantage of their accessibility services for the first time, as my disabilities are making it increasingly more difficult to stand in lines for any length of time. Attempting to secure a boarding pass was ridiculous, to say the very least. There is nothing dedicated to preregistry for this service before your trip, so the line to get these passes is insanely long for well over half of the day. Asking people who are already at a major disadvantage to stand in line for an extremely extended length of time to obtain a pass because they can't stand in lines is such a waste of their limited day and energy. It makes absolutely no sense. It gives them much less time to enjoy the park like everyone else and drastically lowers the value of the nearly $87 admission ticket they paid for. This process is NOT accessibility friendly at all. However, once we finally secured a pass (five hours after park arrival and shortly before Dark Nights began), the actual system for the boarding pass was organized and fair. Overall though, shame on you, Hersheypark. Please do better for your disabled guests. There is no good reason that those passes can't be fully registered for in advance and just picked up upon park arrival.

As for the food, we backtracked on the quality and variety of food offerings for this event from last year by quite a bit. The phenomenal character dining experience no longer exists, which was beyond disappointing. Back again are the super strange, underwhelming concoctions of the first year. There is a tasting pass available to sample any five of these spooky themed treats IF you appreciate the menu. However, we're back to thinking that spooky food has to mostly include strange spicy things and other weird ingredients. The portion sizes on most things could also use some work for the high price of the food mixed with the mediocre taste. One themed food item piqued my interest (though I wish it hadn't), and that was the beer cheese and bacon spirello potato. First of all, the poor employee that was stuck completely alone to run this stand was struggling so hard that I felt terrible for them. The food itself was pretty gross (not the employee's fault). The frankensteinesque fried potato chip that was awkwardly wrapped around a wooden skewer got cold and soggy so fast from the beer cheese that it was hard to eat by the time I sat down, both texture and construction wise. A cool idea but horrid execution. We were also sorely disappointed by the pizza and garlic knots at Toxic Crust that tasted like they were just defrosted and heated, as well as the handcrafted lemonade that, despite having a half lemon floating in it, tastes like it contains zero lemon juice. We did thoroughly enjoy our gyro from the truck in the Boardwalk section, as it was packed with flavor and lots of juicy meat. We also liked our funnel cake and the handmade orangeade at the truck right by the gyros. Overall, I do not recommend eating in the park based on this particular experience.

Since hearing rave reviews from last year, we decided to check out the Shake, Rattle, And Glow: Monster Ball show in the Music Box Theatre. This show was advertised as being especially kid friendly. It was the perfect blend of interactive for the little ones and entertaining for the adults. A mini mosh pit in front of the stage allowed kids the perfect space to rock out from their sugar high while being well monitored by staff. The storyline and choreography were adorable and pretty creative. My only complaint was that with a huge catalog of Halloween style songs to choose from, a couple of the cover song selections were pretty inappropriate for a show that is so geared towards children. For example, while "Bad Romance" by Lady Gaga is definitely a dance hit, watching a bunch of 5-year-olds rave dancing and singing it made me uncomfortable. Other than that, this show was really well done.

Hersheypark seems to be having a lot of trouble holding a solid cast for this event based on the consistently small amount of performers in most places again this year. Midway Of Misery was well cast as usual because of the Decayed Brigade wandering around all night. We explored Fallout Zone multiple times and found it basically vacant of performers. While the mini fire shows on the bridge of Tidal Force were cool, they also produce way too much heat, making it nearly impossible to enjoy them up close. I really love what Darkstone's Hollow is developing into. The characters are exquisite. The haunted house of past years is now a broad scare zone and feels much more authentic. We were able to catch a new show in the Hollow called Battle For Spring Creek, and the fire performers were stunning. This was a fabulous concept at building a cohesive storyline arc for this zone. I would love to see this expand even more in the future in various ways and into the other zones.

All five houses continue to improve each year. Auntie Mortem's Abbatoire continues to impress in all areas, especially with the new scene addition. Twisted Carnevil is always a visual delight. However, a strange sequence was added to the end of this house that was quite confusing and not well executed at all. It was incredibly disappointing in comparison to the plot elements of the previous two years. The Descent improved drastically from last year, bringing back the preshow in the first room and adding lots of new scenery. My favorite new additions were the continuation of the library and a stretch that simulated walking through underground pipes. Estate Of Evil is a new house set to replace the elimination of Creatures Uncaged. The overall concept for this new house was solid and had a lot of cool themes throughout the individual rooms, though the overall plot still needs work. The Haunted Coal Mine is still struggling with getting the beginning elevator sequence anywhere near the calibur of the first year, as we were guided in by a regular employee (not a character), which makes the effect much less intense. Somebody also went super crazy on the scented fog, because you could actually taste whatever is pumped into the air whenever you opened your mouth, which was really disgusting. I would really enjoy either longer houses or a slower pace through each house. After waiting in some lines for over an hour, it is no fun feeling rushed through what seems like a two minute experience. I would also love to be able to better hear the characters that are reciting lines that add to the story of each house, as they often get lost in the other ambient sounds and screams. Maybe mics could be incorporated somehow...

It seems like each year, there is vast improvement in some areas of this event while other things are messed with that weren't actually broken. I hope to see more professionals hired in both the performer and creative sectors as this event continues to blossom to move it fully into the category of must-see Halloween attractions. You can experience Dark Nights for yourself now through November 3rd by visiting their website HERE to purchase tickets. Try to keep your head as you traverse the darkness...

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