TheCoasterNerd
HAPPY PRIDE! Have I told y'all I'm nonbinary?
Yeah the tree this year looks awful. Rule of thumb - if they don't think it's good enough to advertise with, it shouldn't be there.
Busch Gardens Williamsburg Christmas Town 2024
- Thread starter Nicole
- Start date
The tree didn’t look great, but ultimately, we really enjoyed our time this weekend. Friday wasn’t crowded at all, which we didn’t complain about since we got to enjoy a quiet walk around the park and like 4 rides on Nessie. Last night was pretty busy to where we didn’t attempt to ride the train or any coasters apart from Nessie after like 6.
I felt like the hot cocoa was better this year than it has been in recent years. Last year, we were pretty underwhelmed, but that could’ve just been an outlier. Regardless, we enjoyed it by itself and then the spiked variation.
Also, this was our first year seeing Gloria (I’m late to the party on that one), and we agreed it was one of the best amusement park Christmas musicals/events we’ve ever seen! I’m not sure what its iterations were like in the past, but it was solid.
I felt like the hot cocoa was better this year than it has been in recent years. Last year, we were pretty underwhelmed, but that could’ve just been an outlier. Regardless, we enjoyed it by itself and then the spiked variation.
Also, this was our first year seeing Gloria (I’m late to the party on that one), and we agreed it was one of the best amusement park Christmas musicals/events we’ve ever seen! I’m not sure what its iterations were like in the past, but it was solid.
This is, in my opinion, the best year the show has before getting axed:
Direct Link to Embedded Media Source
Gloria is the primary one, though Wisemen has had a fair number of more religious songs in it as well historically.
I’m here for Ambassador night, and I’m kind of disappointed, because us employees have half the park (England, Scotland, Ireland) and the chamber of commerce has the other part. I have my dad and stepmom here and wanted to show them the tree I wrapped in New France 
Sorry for the double post, but I just met Kevin Lembke himself!
That’s concerning. The last several years the lighting has been more sparse than it was before 2020. If it’s even more sparse this year than the last few, that’s not good at all
Lighting last night definitely felt more sparse to me vs even just last season. And while the lighting reductions hurt, honestly, what I hate way more is that it feels like the sophistication of the decorations—lights and otherwise—keeps falling at a very notable clip. Things like wreaths and garland are few and far between. Christmas trees along pathways (in the Wild Reserve for instance) are massively reduced. Hell, they haven't even put the temporary walls up on the shops in San Marco.
There's just a lot of park dressing—even outside of lights—that isn't up right now—and now that previews are over, even if they show up in the weeks ahead, that's unacceptable.
I'll also note this: What the hell happened to merch this year? Feels like the entire park is full of the same, generic amusement park Christmas merch no matter what store you walk into. Unique and desirable merch seemed non-existent to me last night with many stores still stocked almost entirely with their main season selections. Plus, there are only a couple 3rd party merchants setup and two of them are basically year-round tenets at this point so they hardly even count. Even just that downgrade really sucked some life out of the event for me.
Year over year I'm sure people won't feel much of a change because the degradation of Christmas Town has been a slow and steady slide, but damn, it really did feel quite evident to me last night.
There's just a lot of park dressing—even outside of lights—that isn't up right now—and now that previews are over, even if they show up in the weeks ahead, that's unacceptable.
I'll also note this: What the hell happened to merch this year? Feels like the entire park is full of the same, generic amusement park Christmas merch no matter what store you walk into. Unique and desirable merch seemed non-existent to me last night with many stores still stocked almost entirely with their main season selections. Plus, there are only a couple 3rd party merchants setup and two of them are basically year-round tenets at this point so they hardly even count. Even just that downgrade really sucked some life out of the event for me.
Year over year I'm sure people won't feel much of a change because the degradation of Christmas Town has been a slow and steady slide, but damn, it really did feel quite evident to me last night.
I will once again grab my soapbox to say:
This is why year round operations are terrible. Even the 2-3 weeks off between HOS and CT would help immensely with some of this even if the same issues on budget existed. I think having guests go through a park while you are trying to set up one event while taking down another is a mistake. I believe that some of this issue with not fully decorating is that fact that they stay open all the time and upper management can hit the "just good enough" button on these decorations mostly because they ran out of time. Then with having to make sure all the rides are good and then you need people to work the nights in all departments, especially ones that would help set up, it strains the labor hours to decide whats more important for coverage.
I will also say if they do want to continue down the road of year round no breaks, then they need to invest in extremely good lighting packages, professional LED color changing lights, high quality projection mapping, and quick change decoration setups; and do up the entire park with this stuff. Then it can all be pre programed that on a certain date you hit a program to flip all the coloring. Maintain a small amount of lighting that does need to be manually put up to make sure each event feels fresh.
This is why year round operations are terrible. Even the 2-3 weeks off between HOS and CT would help immensely with some of this even if the same issues on budget existed. I think having guests go through a park while you are trying to set up one event while taking down another is a mistake. I believe that some of this issue with not fully decorating is that fact that they stay open all the time and upper management can hit the "just good enough" button on these decorations mostly because they ran out of time. Then with having to make sure all the rides are good and then you need people to work the nights in all departments, especially ones that would help set up, it strains the labor hours to decide whats more important for coverage.
I will also say if they do want to continue down the road of year round no breaks, then they need to invest in extremely good lighting packages, professional LED color changing lights, high quality projection mapping, and quick change decoration setups; and do up the entire park with this stuff. Then it can all be pre programed that on a certain date you hit a program to flip all the coloring. Maintain a small amount of lighting that does need to be manually put up to make sure each event feels fresh.
Except they will continue year round no breaks, and NOT invest....I can't think of any good spin sorry.
I agree with this up to a point.
I have 100% been against year-round operations from the start. I think they need the breaks to reset the park and do yearly maintenance. Moreover, Virginia is miserable in the winter. I feel more and justified every year in this position.
That said, I disagree that overlaying the park with lights addresses the problem. Both HOS and CT require dramatically more than themed lighting to properly theme the events, and there are many Christmas Town displays that physically can’t be installed during the main season. Further, I have never seen projection mapping that is anything more than a vaguely interesting novelty at any park. (I’m not saying that is what @warfelg meant; I am merely responding to the suggestion). There are so many things that also need to be done to fully immerse guests: props, physical overlays, sound and music, lighting, merchandising, performers, seasonal food, etc.
Even if they saved time by not having to string lights (although the trees would still need to be wrapped), there would have to be an interest in doing the other things for it to matter. Given the merch that is available this year, I wouldn’t assume the park would necessarily improve, since it is totally separate from the mad dash to dress the park. The dramatic reduction in ornaments for sale, alone, is puzzling. The lack of BGW-specific items is bizarre. The dearth of any expensive merch just for the holidays is frustrating. It is as if they hate money. Similarly, BGW seems to have given up on most of the culinary options people looked forward to in the past. They don’t even have Christmas cookies this year, much less unique entrees at the regular restaurants. I remember when there were several rethemed and completely holiday-focused locations.
And don’t get me started on what they have done to both light shows. They used to be my favorite places in the park during the event.
To defend my point here a touch:
I’m not saying everything of every like should be there. But if things like the bridges were pre-lit, some buildings outlined, some trees done. So something like 30-40% of what’s needed for HOS and CT.
I guess I wasn’t clear. I specifically said that I didn’t think you meant that year-round lights and projection mapping were all that are needed. My post was focused on all of the other things that the park no longer seems interested in doing, especially those unrelated to physical set-up. My basic point is that I don’t think their being able to save time would actually solve the underlying problem.