Owner The Hershey Company | Floor count 2 | |
 | ||
Type Visitor center/Indoor attraction center Location Chicago
Dubai
Hershey
Las Vegas
Niagara Falls
Times Square
Shanghai
Singapore Opening June 30, 1973 (1973-06-30) (Hershey)
June 3, 2014 (2014-06-03) (Las Vegas) | ||
Hershey’s Chocolate World is the name of eight visitor centers which started in Hershey, Pennsylvania, United States. Another installation opened on June 3, 2014 to New York-New York Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas Strip, Nevada, United States.
Contents
Open year-round, Hershey's Chocolate World offers marketplace shops and restaurants, specializing in Hershey's chocolate products. Attractions include Hershey's Great Chocolate Factory Mystery in 4D, the Hershey Trolley Works, Wrap Happiness, and a free Chocolate Tour ride.
The first Hershey's Chocolate World is located off of Hersheypark Drive, in Hershey, Pennsylvania, and is in an entertainment complex which also includes Hersheypark, Hersheypark Stadium, Hersheypark Arena, Hershey Museum, and Giant Center. The Las Vegas location is where the Broadway Theatre used to be.
Although Hersheypark and Chocolate World are in the same complex, both operate independently of each other. Chocolate World is owned by The Hershey Company (formerly Hershey Foods), while Hersheypark is owned by Hershey Entertainment and Resorts Company (HE&R). However, the Hershey Company and HE&R are both owned by the Hershey Trust Company.
Parking is available via a separate lot which is free for the first three hours only, or via the Hersheypark parking lot (when the park is open), which offers a tram service to and from Hershey's Chocolate World. While the facility is open year-round (except Christmas), hours vary depending on the season, ranging anywhere from 9 am to 11 pm.
History
Hershey's Chocolate World was built as a replacement of the Hershey chocolate plant tour, which had reached its capacity and was no longer able to handle the large numbers of visitors per year. The facility opened on June 30, 1973, and took inspiration from World's Fair pavilions. Through its first year of operations, Chocolate World had over 1.4 million visitors.
On June 1, 1986, the visitor's center welcomed its 20 millionth visitor.
A $4.5 million update to the chocolate-making tour ride opened in 1988, featuring a curious robot for a host named CP-1. It was phased out within a year. In the mid-1990s, the ride saw numerous revisions on a small scale, including the removal of several show elements. The last renovation occurred in early 2016 when several scenes in the chocolate tour ride were replaced. Today, there are still portions of the ride that have changed very little from the 1978 updated version, including the sorting and cleaning, roll refining, milling, and chocolate conching scenes.
The building features brownstone quarried out of Hummelstown, a neighboring town.
In 2014, the retail area received major renovations as well as a new entrance and queue area for Hershey's Chocolate Tour. Following the June 3, 2014 opening of its Las Vegas location, Hershey then rebranded all other visitor centers worldwide under the Hershey's Chocolate World name.
In July 2016, it was announced that Hershey's Chocolate World would expand to a new location in Times Square and would open in late 2017.
Current attractions
The rest of Hershey's Chocolate World contains various shops selling Hershey souvenirs and chocolate, and several counter service meal locations (Dessert Creation Studio, Hershey's Courtyard Food Court, and Hershey's Ice Cream Shop). The main candy store is one of the largest stores of its kind in the world selling Hershey's products including new items not widely released, and premium chocolate brands such as Scharffen Berger Chocolate.