My biggest disappointment, however, was that Chocolate World was just a big commercial enterprise. In hindsight, from comments I’ve read from others, it sounds like the new Hershey museum is what I was looking for, but it wasn’t yet open when we were there.

I’ll look forward to hearing about your experience. One person’s disappointment is another’s joy. Please report back.

In reading your article, it seems your biggest “disappointment” was that they served a peanut product.

Like you, I’d much prefer a ‘real’ factory tour, but if they had one, my 2 and 4yo’s probably wouldn’t be allowed anyway (which is why we can’t do Harley Davidson in York…) As long as the kids can get an idea where the chocolate comes from, that seems fine by me.

Anyway, maybe I’ll stop back in a few weeks and let you know how I felt

Thanks for your perspective about Hershey and Easton. It’s always useful to have another viewpoint.

I wish the Hershey Museum would have been open when we were there (we were a few weeks early). I think it would have been more of what we were looking for in our Hershey experience.

Our kids loved the National Canal Museum as well.

Thanks for chiming in.

Linda

My thoughts of Hershey were completely different. We live in CA and have visited 3 times over the past 15 years; all visits were, in the opinion of my kids and myself, well worth it. On the last visit, April 2009, my son narrated a 10 minute video on the life of Milton Hershey (school project) so we made stops at Homestead House, Hershey’s first school, the new (and totally AWESOME) Museum, as well as Chocolate World (we skipped the amusement park – living by Disneyland sort of spoils us). It was crowded and there were plenty for sale, but we walked in and out spending a total of $15 (t-shirt).

The ride was a highlight for my 9 yr old son and we found it informative…really. It was presented in a juvenille format (could’ve done w/out so much of the singing cows and we edited most of them out of our video) but there was useful info from start to finish on how chocolate is made. My son loved how the tunnel felt hot when we went through the “roaster” and the smell of chocolate during the stirring was mouth-watering.

We took pictures of the “world’s largest chocolate bar” and “world’s largest chocolate kiss” in the gift shop (I’m sure they aren’t the actual largest in the world at all, but they were GIANT).

As for the Crayola Factory, it is another fun stop for us. We enjoyed the demonstration about the making of a crayon and marker, w/ my son having fun rolling his own paper cover on his newly made crayon. He enjoyed using the special coins they gave him to put in the machine for his marker and crayon too. True, many of the crafts available you can easily be done at home, but we don’t have a drying oven like that and my son loved watching his creation go through. He also liked playing w/ the model magic (using the markers to change it’s colors as they showed him) that was also free using his special coin (mine actually). The model magic came in handy on the flight home.

BUT – our absolute FAVORITE part of Easton, PA was not the Crayola Factory – but the Canal Museum above it. My son walked his barge around and around the water-filled canal and learned how a locke works with the hands-on activities there. We left there and followed the directions of one of the docents and visited the Lehigh Canal and Lockhouse – that was just breathtaking! They give canal rides in a mule-drawn boat, but because it was closed at the time,we didn’t ride it. We did see the locke, the dog-house holding the gears and saw the close proximity to the Lehigh River…so we could SEE how the whole process works. Water from the river fed into the canal through the locke system – absolutely priceless. No classroom or book could have conveyed the idea as well. Info on the canal is here: http://freepages.history.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~carrleith/lehighcanal16.html

Here are a couple photos we took of the trip: http://s386.photobucket.com/albums/oo301/vmoreno4/Lehigh%20Canal/

We found both Hershey and Easton well worth our time. The Hershey museum has an interactive map that is being used as a model for new museums the world over. It’s too complicated to put in this review, but if you have a minute, visit the site and read about it. It’s just unbelievable how it works, projecting the image of your choice on the opposite wall. We learned Hershey was all set to sail the infamous Titanic when we saw the $300 signed check he’s made out the the White Star Shipping Company projected up on the wall. Fortunately, business in New York kept him from making the trip.

I just wanted to share my thoughts on Hershey and Crayola, since they were so different from the original viewpoint, in the hopes others might decide to give it a chance to prove a worthwhile venture!

And in case you are a history buff, the new Hershey Story will give you a much better idea of who Milton Hershey was, a philantropist and entrepenuer, the likes of which we seldom see today. This amazing man, built this amazing town with a park (Hersheypark) just for his employees. He started the Hershey School for orphaned boys but it now serves underprivileged students, both male and female, and pays for every student’s higher education in college or trade school. All of this is funded by the Hershey Trust which is funded again by the The Hershey Company. Look it up history buffs.

So next time you wish for some foreign chocolate company to do well and prosper, remember Milton Hershey, who cared for his employees and children and still to this day leaves an American legacy of love. Hershey has changed but maybe it’s because we have all changed and the children and families who come to Hershey expect even more.

Lori

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I’ve been watching those Ace of Cakes commercials too!

In a nutshell, it’s not very creative if you allow your kids to use crayons and markers at home. If you don’t allow your kids to make a mess at home, you’ll love it!

Best part of Crayola was the store, because they had every Crayola product there, a lot that I hadn’t seen elsewhere.

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I’m thinking of trying a tour of the nearby Crayola factory this spring, although I’ve also been cautioned that it’s not that great and mostly just a big product placement. I wish they let you actually go into the factories to see what happens! They do this at the Ben & Jerry’s factory, and it’s very cool.

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