Busch Gardens Christmas Celebration 2020
- Thread starter netdvn
- Start date
We went to the park today and it wasn’t any busier (or hardly any busier) than with the 1000 person capacity. BGW may be able to price high on some popular nights, but there may not be the demand for any other days at their current pricing. $40 base prices is really pushing it for the offering when $25 or $30 is probably more in line with the market and could at least fill the park.
Went to the park Friday night. Got to the park around 530 and pretty much did everything I wanted to do by 9ish thanks to the low crowds.
Pros
Low crowds as usual with these events.
The little live stages are a nice touch. I feel those should be permanent. The park really needs more mini areas with live performances
Three coasters open! This needs to be permanent as well.
I do appreciate the new paint job on the Festhaus. Now its time to start repainting the murals in Rhinefeld.
Cons
The event feels a lot more scaled back. No stars in Scotland, no trees in France, no little touches in Ireland.
No lights on the train. I wish they added something to make the ride a little more special. Capacity isn't very good thanks to the cleaning process so they might as well make it worth the wait.
Overall its still better than nothing so I don't really have any real issues with the event other than a lack of the usual amount of Christmas lights everywhere.
Pros
Low crowds as usual with these events.
The little live stages are a nice touch. I feel those should be permanent. The park really needs more mini areas with live performances
Three coasters open! This needs to be permanent as well.
I do appreciate the new paint job on the Festhaus. Now its time to start repainting the murals in Rhinefeld.
Cons
The event feels a lot more scaled back. No stars in Scotland, no trees in France, no little touches in Ireland.
No lights on the train. I wish they added something to make the ride a little more special. Capacity isn't very good thanks to the cleaning process so they might as well make it worth the wait.
Overall its still better than nothing so I don't really have any real issues with the event other than a lack of the usual amount of Christmas lights everywhere.
Yeah, I think what this event captures well is the basic ambiance of immersing yourself in a Christmas environment: there’s an absence of specific shows/attractions (like the train) that achieve this same goal, but there’s enough lights to basically create the effect, and the stages help make it feel like things are “happening” related to the event. I do think the lack of a clear schedule makes it a bit tough to necessarily enjoy them as full performances (in other words, more similar to Winterfest’s entertainment approach), but as a background soundtrack of sorts they work really well.
I mean, chances are the crowds would have been similarly lower (at a higher scale) under normal circumstances as well: it’s still mid-November, after all. But as I said, the park has ever ability to be adaptive to the market and offer deals/groupons as they’ve done in the past, and if they misread the climate (or if the shifts in the virus changed the climate, which is also possible) they’ll adjust accordingly.
Totally agree with this. I think the abundance of small street performances throughout the park is one of the biggest edges that Winterfest has over Christmas Town, so I'd love to see this change continue in future seasons. Just a musician here or there really makes the park feel more alive and really makes the festivities more immersive.
Something that I've found really interesting in the progression of Christmas Town is how there once was an abundance of carolers and instrumental groups throughout the park, but as the event went on, they slowly began to vanish from the line-up. As the event expanded to the whole park, it seems there was much more of an emphasis placed on having bigger theatrical shows rather than smaller, more intimate performances throughout the park. This transition from a few scattered about small pathway performances to an abundance of large scale productions make it seem like the park values putting more budget into larger shows rather than pathway performances? This thinking does make some sense to a degree as these monster capacity eating shows usually require huge casts and probably have a much larger ROI than paying a few pathway perfomances throughout the park when the same performers could just be in an actual show instead. It would also be much more enticing to visit the park for CT from a guest perspective when they're advertising that have a new "big budget" show, versus a few pathway performers that wouldn't event be worthy of a mention on the map.
Although, I definitely agree without them the park loses some of it's charm and warmth and that they still should try and expand in this aspect of entrainment, as Winterfest is currently wiping the floor with BGW in that regard.
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given how extremely crowded it can get I am not sure that those small show are practical during a normal year. There have been issues with congestion at Winterfest with the smaller path shows and KD generally has wider walkways I honestly have a hard tie seeing where you could put one without creating a traffic flow issue. I mean Jack didn't work to great for Hallowscream.
I attended this past Saturday 5-10 session. The crowd was notably larger with the new guidelines. We found that the congestion seemed to be the heaviest in New France which we deemed a "transition" area. It felt as if at this point the crowds heading further into the park, and those returning to France/Ireland, were constantly meeting here. Couple that with Invadr and the train and it felt very congested here. A few instances in New France we had difficulty social distancing. However, that is what the masks are for. In our experience, mask usage was very high. We suspect the cooler weather coupled with larger crowds aided in other people's willingness to wear it appropriately. I'm happy to report, personally, that we had no issues social distancing in most other areas of the park. We hit Alpengeist and Verbolten early, so I couldn't provide a later in the evening report on the lines for these rides. The ride we did late was the train and we found, while waiting, that as soon as we began the "stand on the dot" behavior those around us followed with little issue. Let me know if you have any other questions, as I am happy to give you any other information.
NEW experiences added for 10am-3pm daytime sessions (Nov. 21-29)!
-Griffon
-Gingerbread Meet & Greet
-Holiday Treat Trail
-Find Jingle, the Surprise Elf
-Griffon
-Gingerbread Meet & Greet
-Holiday Treat Trail
-Find Jingle, the Surprise Elf
I'm scared to find out what a "Surprise Elf" is.
This is really interesting: they must have realized that the morning sessions weren't drawing the level of reservations/ticket purchases due to the lack of lights. I have a reservation for Saturday that I was considering skipping, but I'll probably go and ride Griffon now.
I think the "gingerbread character" meet and greet sounds terrifying. The gingerbread man costume they have used in shows previously is creepy, and the concept on meeting a cookie is bizarre.
The morning session we attended was rather sparsely attended. While these are nice additions, I'm not sure they'll move the needle much in terms of ticket sales. The ticket prices are just too high, particularly for the daytime event, and waiting around two hours to see lights in the evening really limits the potential guest pool.
It sounds like a college hazing game.
This would never work, as the system probably can’t account for it, but as a pass holder it would be a nice treat if they let our tier visit during the morning sessions. Many of these people have been visiting the park for a very long time and are loyal to the park considering how long some of them have held onto their pass. These guest would be much more inclined to spend money on food, beverages, etc if that entry fee was waived. The concept of cheap tickets/passes and focusing more on In-Park spending has worked at other parks, and during dire times like these where few people are visiting and the park can’t fill up the morning sessions, this would be an easy fix.
I totally understand from the parks perspective as to why it’s only for members, as CT is normally only for members, but if they can’t fill up those morning slots there’s thousands of AP’s would rush to book those morning sessions for a chance to see the park decked out for Christmas and get a few final rides in before the end of the year. If they’re adding another coaster and all these extra additions exclusively for the morning session, it seems like it’s a guarantee they’re struggling to hit that 4,000 mark.
Anyways, just my two cents, and yes, I am still saddened that I can’t complete the Gingerbread Scavenger Hunt.
I totally understand from the parks perspective as to why it’s only for members, as CT is normally only for members, but if they can’t fill up those morning slots there’s thousands of AP’s would rush to book those morning sessions for a chance to see the park decked out for Christmas and get a few final rides in before the end of the year. If they’re adding another coaster and all these extra additions exclusively for the morning session, it seems like it’s a guarantee they’re struggling to hit that 4,000 mark.
Anyways, just my two cents, and yes, I am still saddened that I can’t complete the Gingerbread Scavenger Hunt.
This is heartbreaking. Clearly one of us should livestream a walk through the park so you can complete it remotely. Who has unlimited data?
It's definitely telling that they chose this as their response to low ticket sales instead of, you know, offering discounted tickets. It's a clear effort to convince members to make reservations, since I agree that this is unlikely to move the needle much in terms of single ticket purchases.