Christmas Town 2012
- Thread starter Glissade
- Start date
Tonight was the night the night to go. This is the first time I have ever been at BG where the trams were not running. They only had two parking lots open (France/England). The crowds were nonexistent. Everything was a walk-on. I got there at 2:30 just as they let people into England. At 3:00pm Scotland opened. At 3:15 Italy, Ireland, France/New France opened. At 4:00 Germany opened. No lines for anything, icluding food. I loved every minute of it.
I'll be going tomorrow and I'm sure it will be crowded. But I suspect Sunday will be fairly slow there since most area folks will be going to Colonial Williamsburg that evening for the Grand Illumination.
From what I've heard, tagging onto what Zach said, Saturdays are the only days to expect the park to open early. Fridays and Sundays will open up on time. Emphasis on only Saturdays.
For those who haven't heard, the park was not fully prepared for Christmas Town the first weekend. They did add a few things for this weekend, such as decorating and pimpin out the Verbolten car and branches in lights, adding a new sign a Nacht Tower indicating that some circumstances may require the reide vehicle to be dropped for quick return to the platform and should this happen, riders will be notified before it happens. This new sign is posted right on tip of the test seat in case anyone goes looking for it. There were a few lights that were dead and have been replaced with new ones, such as some of the stars in Scotland. There have also been a few more other nominal changes as well but in general the majority of the event was ready just not everything.
EDIT: The second Saturday was way worse than the first. Just saying.
EDIT: The second Saturday was way worse than the first. Just saying.
Party Rocker said:
I'm sure the weather had something to do with that. It was a lot warmer than last weekend.
I arrived at the parking entrance just before 3 p.m. and waited 10 minutes to get through the parking booths. Got inside the park at 3:15 p.m. and there was already a huge crowd inside, so I'm guessing they did open it earlier. I had kids in tow so we went straight to the Ice Palace to see the penguins and the line was already spilled out of the entrance and partially onto the Aquitaine pathway.
Festa looked pretty good. I liked how they decorated the footbridge going into it and painted street lane marking lines.
The highlight of the night was a majority of the crowd watching Mock Tower and waiting for it to drop. And when it descended slowly they thought it was broken! LOL
Here's a pic of the Verbolten Car decked out with XMas lights!
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Yeah, the park opened at 1 yesterday. I think I read somewhere that it would. 
Came to the park with a few friends from Hershey yesterday. It was definitely a good time.
- Got at least 10-15 rides on Verbolten. The view going down the river drop over the lit trees at night is phenominal. If you go to the park during CT, definitely go early before the rush comes in. By the time we were done with V-bolt and headed to Ireland, the entrance was literally wall to wall people.
- Tried to to EITA for some friends that missed out on it over the summer, but it shut down on us. Went back later in the night to a walk-on. I still miss Corkscrew Hill
- Waited an hour for the penguins. It was a bit anti-climactic for that long of a wait. Two rooms with a three tanks of penguins? Really? The park was better off keeping Catacombs and reopening it up for Christmas Town.
- Lights are amazing in every part of the park. We stood around taking tons of pictures throughout the day. It was fun.
- Mach Tower was nice. I'm surprised the waits for that have been pretty insane compared to the summer/fall. I kept thinking the car was gonna drop any minute.
Since the people I was with weren't really into shows, we skipped all of them. I did see a few actors singing carols around the park though. I hope they bring that back for Illuminights/regular season next year.
- They said CT totally beats out Hersheypark's Christmas event, but they still have Skyrush and Storm Runner to make up for it.
- Got at least 10-15 rides on Verbolten. The view going down the river drop over the lit trees at night is phenominal. If you go to the park during CT, definitely go early before the rush comes in. By the time we were done with V-bolt and headed to Ireland, the entrance was literally wall to wall people.
- Tried to to EITA for some friends that missed out on it over the summer, but it shut down on us. Went back later in the night to a walk-on. I still miss Corkscrew Hill
- Waited an hour for the penguins. It was a bit anti-climactic for that long of a wait. Two rooms with a three tanks of penguins? Really? The park was better off keeping Catacombs and reopening it up for Christmas Town.
- Lights are amazing in every part of the park. We stood around taking tons of pictures throughout the day. It was fun.
- Mach Tower was nice. I'm surprised the waits for that have been pretty insane compared to the summer/fall. I kept thinking the car was gonna drop any minute.
Since the people I was with weren't really into shows, we skipped all of them. I did see a few actors singing carols around the park though. I hope they bring that back for Illuminights/regular season next year.
- They said CT totally beats out Hersheypark's Christmas event, but they still have Skyrush and Storm Runner to make up for it.
Got to the park Sunday around 1:45 with hopes of it being open earlier than the posted 3pm like last weekend. Nope! Had to wait until 2:15 before they started letting cars go through and park. But, after scanning my tickets to get in, they were opening some areas like Scotland & Ireland earlier than the posted times on the back of the map. I'm sure there are reasons, but I wish BGW would please get this stuff straightened out and post the real time on the website and/or Twitter & FB when the decision has been made. Don't like to waste my time guessing, and it was a gorgeous day for CT at this time of the year. Crowds weren't too bad; shows and rides that I went to didn't have bad waiting times. Pretty nice visit overall.
Question:
Does anyone know what the schedule for all of the street performers are in all of the different areas around the park? I'm guessing it is at the top and bottom of every hour, but would like some confirmation before I try and see all of the performances.
Here are some new items mentioned in previous posts:
Question:
Does anyone know what the schedule for all of the street performers are in all of the different areas around the park? I'm guessing it is at the top and bottom of every hour, but would like some confirmation before I try and see all of the performances.
Here are some new items mentioned in previous posts:
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I suppose. I guess it depends on what you mean by being open. But regardless of what Zachary said the fact remains is that the actual times don't always match what is on the website and it is irritating.
When the park opens at 3pm, that means parking will open 45 minutes before and most countries will be open by 3:30pm. When the park opens at 2pm, that means parking will open 45 minutes before and most countries will be open by 2:30pm.
Early openings are ONLY on Saturdays from what I've heard, which makes perfect sense.
The reason: Employees didn't care too much to let people in a few minutes early. The park was supposed to open as scheduled on the map, but the team members or their supervisors didn't mind too much if people were let in like five or so minutes early. Just remember, this happening is VERY rare and probably won't happen again, I stick to my original statement at the beginning of this post.
Early openings are ONLY on Saturdays from what I've heard, which makes perfect sense.
chickenking said:
The reason: Employees didn't care too much to let people in a few minutes early. The park was supposed to open as scheduled on the map, but the team members or their supervisors didn't mind too much if people were let in like five or so minutes early. Just remember, this happening is VERY rare and probably won't happen again, I stick to my original statement at the beginning of this post.
The plan is to do a "soft," unannounced early open on days with projected high attendance. The intent in to limit the log jam that they've been experiencing with people starting to line up at the tolls two hours before they open. If they announced that they were opening early, it would completely defeat the point.
Got it!
I have never really worried about making it at opening before. Just trying to maximize my time at the park this season at CT with the limited hours. So the times that get mentioned on this forum are the so-called soft openings? Thanks for the information!
I have never really worried about making it at opening before. Just trying to maximize my time at the park this season at CT with the limited hours. So the times that get mentioned on this forum are the so-called soft openings? Thanks for the information!
Evan said:
That is exactly how I felt. It was kind of a disappointment. There were only two tanks, and most of the walk-through was animatronic penguins moving their heads up and down. Seems like this attraction has always been like this; long wait, little payoff.
The Ice Palace features approximately 8 penguins, one in each of the two dry tanks, and then four at a time in the swimming tank with the two behind the scenes that are put on display to replace of the others occasionally. Honestly, I am not sure this is how it works but I am for real that they have at least 6 live penguins. The problem with this exhibit is, it is a scaled down penguin exhibit whereas a normal penguin exhibit at a zoo or other marine life park would be much larger and able to handle a large volume of people at one time. That and the fact the penguins are so darn popular.