Christmas Town 2018

Register or Login to Hide This Ad for Free!
Everyone can have their own opinion but for the amount of money I pay for my membership they should be giving us ther best product they can. The previews are listed as selling points on why membership is a good value. Everyone is right I guess that I sould expect all the problems I saw preview night.
 
We're not saying expect problems, rather don't be upset when you see them. Like we've said, we're people that will be back no matter what. So if there is an issue in front of us, it's less likely to have an adverse effect on spending than if it happened to daily paying guests. Also they call it a 'preview night' for a reason. It's a members only event, but they use 'preview' for a reason. If they called it a "member only performance night" and stuff was still half done it would bother me.

I will also say, like HOS preview night: There has been some foul weather leading up to the member only event and it's only been 3 weeks to take all of HOS down and put up as much CT as possible. And on top of that they likely don't have the staff to get it all done in such a short turnaround without hiring massive temp help.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Alf33 and Nicole
warfelg said:
There has been some foul weather leading up to the member only event and it's only been 3 weeks to take all of HOS down and put up as much CT as possible. And on top of that they likely don't have the staff to get it all done in such a short turnaround without hiring massive temp help.
Click to expand...

Exactly why them opening a week earlier this year was dumb. If it takes hiring temp workers to help with the teardown/install to be ready in time to open a week early then thats what they need to plan for.
 
My only problem with them being unprepared for a preview/opening night is that I find it difficult to get it out of my head that the park has a bad event, once I have had a bad experience at the start. For instance, I grew to love Vault XX, but I still kept thinking about how relatively lackluster it was the first night and sometimes forgot how it turned into one of the most solid mazes at HOS 2018.

Still, I love to see how many improvements the park makes after the first night of an event, and it's one of the reasons I keep returning.
 
  • Like
Reactions: warfelg
WDWRLD said:
Exactly why them opening a week earlier this year was dumb. If it takes hiring temp workers to help with the teardown/install to be ready in time to open a week early then thats what they need to plan for.
Click to expand...

They also s fair amount of time do to heavy rain storms for much of the week before opening. It's not a good idea though play with electric lines in rain or ladders and cherry pickers in the winds that csmed with those storms.

On top of that the park has had a significant over crowding issue the last few years and has had repeat nights at capacity where theth have actually had to stop letting people in. It only seems to make good sense to try and open up new dates to try and help with those issues.
 
horsesboy said:
They also s fair amount of time do to heavy rain storms for much of the week before opening. It's not a good idea though play with electric lines in rain or ladders and cherry pickers in the winds that csmed with those storms.

On top of that the park has had a significant over crowding issue the last few years and has had repeat nights at capacity where theth have actually had to stop letting people in. It only seems to make good sense to try and open up new dates to try and help with those issues.
Click to expand...
Adding the weekend before will not fix the overcrouding issue. That is caused by people wanting to go when its closer to christmas when family is in town. The park was desserted preview night. Ive never missed a opening night of CT and by far this one had the lowest turnout.
 
WDWRLD said:
Everyone can have their own opinion but for the amount of money I pay for my membership they should be giving us ther best product they can. The previews are listed as selling points on why membership is a good value. Everyone is right I guess that I sould expect all the problems I saw preview night.
Click to expand...

I think what I'm saying is that words have meaning. You can ignore these meanings but when they convey important information and you choose to ignore it then the issue is on your side of the court. The park is CLEARLY saying that, "this will not be perfect and there will be growing pains, because we value your patronage we are offering you a chance to see the process and enjoy what we have complete." If this deal does not offer you value then perhaps the offer is not for you." Either way, just because a person does not understand something or wants something other than what he was offered, does not mean it is up to the vendor to provide said service, particularly when said service or good would impact their process negatively and does no harm to the customer. At some point, "buyer beware," is a thing.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Alf33, Nicole and ToddF
warfelg said:
I used to go to quite a few of these and I always had fun. Why? The groan from the pit when the actor(ress) made a mistake was about the funniest thing you could experience.

I love too when someone stopped action to correct something, they often addressed the audience as to why they are stopping and what the choice should be. The insight as to why was great and when you saw the actual show it was great.

Alas in my experience that doesn't stop one of the leads in "The Sound of Music" tell Baron Von Trapp that his "Cell phone is ringing".
Click to expand...

I have to say, as a designer, I REALLY try not to make changes after tech. When I am doing lighting design, I might tweak certain levels up until opening and even add a cue or two if it is clearly necessary, but I really try to avoid this. As a set designer, I avoid at all possible cost to add things to the stage after tech. It is just not fair to the actors. Again small things like paint might get tweaked, but not if I can avoid it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Alf33, halfabee and warfelg
WDWRLD said:
Adding the weekend before will not fix the overcrouding issue. That is caused by people wanting to go when its closer to christmas when family is in town. The park was desserted preview night. Ive never missed a opening night of CT and by far this one had the lowest turnout.
Click to expand...


Preview night isn't opening night I was there Saturday night the actual opening night and it was busy they were actually pretty close to filling all three lots with cars. I stopped by Sunday too snd while not as busy as Saturday it still had pretty decent crowd size. I would say that those two nights completely back their decision to open a week early.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: jornor, Alf33, Nicole and 3 others
horsesboy said:
Preview night isn't opening night I was there Saturday night the actual opening night and it was busy they were actually pretty close to filling all three lots with cars. I stopped by Sunday two snd while not as busy as Saturday it still hadvs pretty decent crowd size. I would say that those two nights completely back their decision to open a week early.
Click to expand...

Yup. Crowd levels on Member only nights are bad indicators of if it will be busy or not.
 
  • Like
Reactions: jornor and Zimmy
Also, just another perspective since everyone seems very worried about the definition of preview. It is currently called a sneak peek night, not a preview, meaning that the park is giving members an inside sneak peek at what the final product is shaping up to be. At least, that's how I interpret sneak peek, as I don't speak for the park.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Suswa, jornor, VonDerrick and 4 others
It's definitely a mountain out of a mole hill thing. Reminds me of being in college when the professor would give a full class extension on a paper the week before it was due, and there was that one person complaining they they already finished and it wasn't fair to them for being done.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Zimmy
PrincessArlenasDad said:
Finally good weather this weekend. Anyone in the park today? How were things?

We can't make it down until Christmas week, so I need to live vicariously through these reports!
Click to expand...

I went! It was fairly light crowds at the beginning, picked up a LOT closer to dusk. VERY crowded by 6 PM. I left shortly after 7 PM and they were parking people in the Scotland lot. We saw Deck The Halls and T'was That Night. I saw several sections of lights that were not working on Preview night but were working last night.
 
  • Like
Reactions: PrincessArlenasDad
I will be at Christmastown with a couple of friends on Sunday December 16th. Hopefully it won't be too crowded.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Consider Donating to Hide This Ad