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Maybe I can offer a counterpoint to that:
You might feel that way because you were around pre and post renovation and remember the way it used to be. I only saw the park 1 time before Oktoberfest got redone so I don't have a lot of memories of how it was but like the way it is now.

And I bring that up because that's the way I feel about The Hollow at Hersheypark. I had fond memories of pre-reno/pre-Skyrush days and how it was, then it got a bright new yellow and blue paint job and I felt it was tacky. But my college friends that didn't have pre-reno memories of it loved the look.
 
But when comparing the two, wouldn't it be more accurate to have a view of both or just a one sided view of what is current?

I have pictures of both. What I’m saying is the nostalgia of what used to be could be skewing the perception. I think both present their own issues from both looks and historical portrayal.
 
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I may be the outlier, but I didn't really notice a huge color difference since the reno was done between a few seasons of my having a pass.

Can anyone post a before/after example?
 
I may be the outlier, but I didn't really notice a huge color difference since the reno was done between a few seasons of my having a pass.

Can anyone post a before/after example?

Try taking a look at Google Maps Street View of Oktoberfest, which was taken in 2009 before the renovations began.

I'm a bit torn on which iteration of Oktoberfest is better. I always thought I preferred the old Oktoberfest, but after going through it on Street View this now, I'm wondering if that opinion was clouded by nostalgia The Big Bad Wolf/Wirbelwind side of the area doesn't look like much of a "fest" at all; it's a quite subdued aesthetic, with brown and tan as the predominant color scheme, simple flower beds, and simple park benches and tables. It looks like that part of the area might have been more aptly named "Bavaria" than "Oktoberfest" specifically.

The new Oktoberfest definitely made some improvements in that regard. In the Verbolten/Wirbelwind side of the area especially, the addition of new game booths, Beste Bezeln und Bier, the Oktoberfest barrel photo op, colored banners, even Mach Tower's maypole appearance do a lot to bring a lot of life to the area.

That said, I can't get over the cheap feel of the new Oktoberfest. The bright yellow and orange banners everywhere are gaudy, and the rainbow-painted buildings look like cartoons. There is just something "off" about the way the area feels. What the original Oktoberfest lacked in festivity, the new Oktoberfest lacks in authenticity.

Honestly though, I think Oktoberfest would be fairly easy to "fix." First, they should repaint the buildings to a more realistic color scheme. Then, they should ditch the cheap orange and yellow banners and replace them with classier and subtler, but still festive, blue and white banners like the original Oktoberfest had (click here for a picture). They could even bring back those poles with the festive German people on them, which would add to both the festivity and the Bavarian feel of the area.

This way, I think you'd combine the best elements of the old and new Oktoberfest.
 
Try taking a look at Google Maps Street View of Oktoberfest, which was taken in 2009 before the renovations began.

I'm a bit torn on which iteration of Oktoberfest is better. I always thought I preferred the old Oktoberfest, but after going through it on Street View this now, I'm wondering if that opinion was clouded by nostalgia The Big Bad Wolf/Wirbelwind side of the area doesn't look like much of a "fest" at all; it's a quite subdued aesthetic, with brown and tan as the predominant color scheme, simple flower beds, and simple park benches and tables. It looks like that part of the area might have been more aptly named "Bavaria" than "Oktoberfest" specifically.

The new Oktoberfest definitely made some improvements in that regard. In the Verbolten/Wirbelwind side of the area especially, the addition of new game booths, Beste Bezeln und Bier, the Oktoberfest barrel photo op, colored banners, even Mach Tower's maypole appearance do a lot to bring a lot of life to the area.

That said, I can't get over the cheap feel of the new Oktoberfest. The bright yellow and orange banners everywhere are gaudy, and the rainbow-painted buildings look like cartoons. There is just something "off" about the way the area feels. What the original Oktoberfest lacked in festivity, the new Oktoberfest lacks in authenticity.

Honestly though, I think Oktoberfest would be fairly easy to "fix." First, they should repaint the buildings to a more realistic color scheme. Then, they should ditch the cheap orange and yellow banners and replace them with classier and subtler, but still festive, blue and white banners like the original Oktoberfest had (click here for a picture). They could even bring back those poles with the festive German people on them, which would add to both the festivity and the Bavarian feel of the area.

This way, I think you'd combine the best elements of the old and new Oktoberfest.

So this is my thoughts on it after looking at the street view of the park as a whole:

I like the coloring of the current iteration for the most part compared to the past. The past looks really flat, with not just Oktoberfest but a majority of the park using mostly earth tones. I like that things were repainted and some areas made to be more bright and cheery. However, what I don't like about the current iteration compared to the past is the fact that the past era (on street view) was more detailed. I feel as though the last refurb of the park took detail stuff like stonework, wood work, and brick work and painted over them flat, while what I see from back then there was texture and details to them. Now I know it's expensive to do that painstaking amount of detail, but they could have done better than just sprayed on the new paint.
 
Agree about the detail levels - however, for the caricature of paint schemes, it is important to remember that this is a theme park and not a historical exhibit so personally in ok with it - to me, they didn't go extremely far with it to where it looks like someone puked up a rainbow.
 
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