Sorry. Took an open some gifts break. Last one. Ride and shows.
Half the swing seats were physically removed instead of blocked off. With only Copperhead and Afterburn open, wait times were abysmal. After the 2 hour wait for Copperhead, we went to Afterburn and the line wrapped around to the photo sales booth. No thanks. So running out of things to do came quickly. There were random performing characters. Some elves in a traveling cart had some clever things to say and do. We found Santa in his new sleigh. Forget finding the old one, Santa. You got this. Shows were drastically paired down, as expected. Nothing was quite spectacular. The Sleigh Bells, on the carousel as a stage, were excellent vocalist. The too heavily laid on southern accents weren't necessary. The Gingerbread Drummers (a product of a new company of former BGW performers) wasn't well thought out. Banging on drums to prerecorded midi music. Stick to Monster Stomp, guys. The Tinsel Tones, by the Rock n' Roller, were the next best entertaining. All the other shows were...lacking. Perhaps prep and rehearsing time was short? Harmony Hall was dark since no inside performances could happen. With half the tables removed to distance, it caused clumps of closely placed people waiting to get seats.
That's it for my level of reporting and observation. Only one "time slot" and you can arrive and stay as long as you like. More people as the sun went down. Distancing wasn't that hard. Cleaning seamed good. Ride ops were in no hurry to clean the rides. They cleaned blocked off seats which seemed like a waste of time. The worst employee interaction, as usual, was at the metal detectors. These are probably still Showco employees (or whatever that show security union is) rather than park guys. Season dining and drinks worked fine. Merch was sparse. Nice to do for the first time this year. Not worth the wait to ride anything. Absolutely a one visit event. If only Intimidator was open. It looks fantastic. If you are local and craving a simple fix, I'd recommend it once.
