I heard they were going to be getting this Penguin Exhibit (or something very similar) instead of only using penguins that they brought up from Florida. They said it is very difficult as the penguins have to be trained to be capable of traveling so much, so very few of the penguins in Florida are mobile.
Christmas Town 2010
- Thread starter BTT_Racheal
- Start date
Swiftman said:
Yeah...maybe they'll upgrade them from a 30 gallon fish tank to a 55 gallon fish tank.:s
pandorazboxx said:
I'm glad they put something on the bridge. But man, that just looks hilarious. I probably would enjoy some generic light set up a bit more.
About one week to go! I'm gonna take a crapload of pictures this year.
Black Friday's gonna be busy for me. Wake up early, buy a new xbox (mines making noises and I'm sick of hearin them, so I'll just dump it off onto someone who wants to pay for it), buy an iPod, go to CT...maybe. I could be there, it depends on how tired I am (I'm on a nocturnal schedule).
I know the park will be very crowded this weekend, but which day would be the best Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. I am thinking Friday, even tho it is opening day people will still have family over and other people will be shopping, then again if people do have family over they might go just to show their family it... I dont know I just confused myself but what day do you think would be best?
michaelcollier1 said:
I'm going to be there on Sunday. Mainly because that will be my only weekend in Virginia till next summer, but I'm hoping many people will be traveling back home after their long Thanksgiving weekend and maybe the part won't be too crowded. I may be completely wrong, but I have to take what I can get.
pandorazboxx said:
I went to the Stone Mountain Christmas in Georgia the day after Thanksgiving a few years ago thinking most people would be shopping or doing other things. That turned out to be a disaster as the park was so full I could hardly walk around. I'll never go to any Christmas event at an amusment park the day after Thanksgiving again.
I recall it being crowded last year on the first day (expecting it to be worse this year), but not unbearable. Saturdays, as usual were the killer. I'd suspect Sunday would be the least crowded day. People are traveling away from town then, getting ready for the week after hectic holiday etc. We'll be there Friday by 2:00. I'll be tweeting from there
Opening day was our only trip to CT last year. We got there right before opening hour. Crowded, crowded, crowded. 2+ hour waits for the penguins (so we skipped them), line for Santa crazy (so we skipped that too), the shows were packed except the outdoor Christmas tree light show which was about the only thing we saw besides walking around and riding the train, food concessions all had long lines (we did get a hot drink in Grogan's on the way out and that was all we were willing to queue for given the long lines), Festhaus packed, shops packed. Brewery smell really strong and we were cold and there just didn't seem to be any nook or cranny to just rest and warm up, though we did pause by the outdoor heaters to listen to a sadly mediocre group playing outside in New France. I'm sure the crowd negatively colored our impressions of CT but we didn't see enough to make it worth going back to as a separate ticket event. So I'm definitely with robbie on avoiding Christmas events on Black Friday as I might have been more impressed if all the main attractions hadn't been so crowded.
I also naively thought they'd have some kind of "grand opening" moment with some kind of special welcome to the first Christmas Town in history (just like an announcement or something), and I in a silly way thought it would be special to be there at the opening moment of the very first CT but obviously that turned out to be a dumb notion on my part and we heartily wished we hadn't blown our tickets on that day.
Of course you can't predict that that will happen again this year but we really, really disliked our CT experience. Riding the train and just looking at the lights was about it for us and it sure didn't make us say, "Now THIS is Christmas." Given my experience, I'd only go opening day again if I knew I would have plenty of other chances to go.
ETA: I really don't think the overall number of people was excessive it was just that the crowd really bottled up around the attractions and shops. You could barely wade through in places but walking from area to area was generally pretty quiet. So it was more an issue of long queues for attractions, food, and shops than an overall crowd issue, which I have certainly also experienced at BGW.
I also naively thought they'd have some kind of "grand opening" moment with some kind of special welcome to the first Christmas Town in history (just like an announcement or something), and I in a silly way thought it would be special to be there at the opening moment of the very first CT but obviously that turned out to be a dumb notion on my part and we heartily wished we hadn't blown our tickets on that day.
Of course you can't predict that that will happen again this year but we really, really disliked our CT experience. Riding the train and just looking at the lights was about it for us and it sure didn't make us say, "Now THIS is Christmas." Given my experience, I'd only go opening day again if I knew I would have plenty of other chances to go.
ETA: I really don't think the overall number of people was excessive it was just that the crowd really bottled up around the attractions and shops. You could barely wade through in places but walking from area to area was generally pretty quiet. So it was more an issue of long queues for attractions, food, and shops than an overall crowd issue, which I have certainly also experienced at BGW.
Some advice for those going Friday: Get there early. RUN to the back end of the park first (everyone else will be working their way around slowly). You can hit the penguins, Santa, and be eating dinner at the first show in the Festhuas without any lines at all. The key is to knock out everything you want to do early, THEN once the crowd builds up you can take your time on the rides, with the marketplace, enjoying the decor, whatever, while they're all waiting in crazy-long lines for everything.
We went 7 times last year, including the first and last day, and were there open to close each time. We got a pretty good feel how to smartly navigate through the event. (Of course, this year everybody else will probably be hip to all the same tips so this advice may all be moot)
We went 7 times last year, including the first and last day, and were there open to close each time. We got a pretty good feel how to smartly navigate through the event. (Of course, this year everybody else will probably be hip to all the same tips so this advice may all be moot)
