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Anybody here have a favorite hot chocolate? My favorite is the peanut butter Ghirardelli hot chocolate. It would be even better with some spiced rum ?
I prefer just plan old hot chocolate. The few times ive tried the stuff at BGW it makes me thirsty. I also wish they had more places to get just plain coffee. It seemed in the early days of CT you could get hot chocolate or coffee at so many more places, there were booths everyhwere that had it. Now the few times I do want some it seems to be a scavenger hunt to find it an then many times they are out.
 
Is the Christmas tree maze something that is best done at night? I'm thinking near opening might be the best time, if capacity is rather small at the tents. But, if seeing it lit up at night is a big part of it.... that might not be the best approach afterall.

As close to park opening as possible would definitely be the best time to experience it as the lines are going to get absurd. That said, BGW wasn't opening it until 5pm last weekend making that strategy null and void. ?
 
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Opening would definitely be the best time to experience it, but BGW wasn't opening it until 5pm last weekend. ?
Also I think you would need to be there well before opening as the line was fairly long before opening. Once they let those guests in they will flood the tables and be there for a little bit. It will take a little while to even things out where there is a constant flow of people exiting so more can enter.
 
For what it's worth:
My kids loved the Christmas tree maze. They sat down at each of the activities and made sure to color the things they got at each station. They liked learning about different cultures.

If the maze looks better in a week or two its a nice plus.


Any visitor without kids will be disappointed by this attraction, no matter if they put lights on the trees or not.
 
For what it's worth:
My kids loved the Christmas tree maze. They sat down at each of the activities and made sure to color the things they got at each station. They liked learning about different cultures.

If the maze looks better in a week or two its a nice plus.


Any visitor without kids will be disappointed by this attraction, no matter if they put lights on the trees or not.
So as someone with kids that has done this do you consider it a kids event? We went through with no kids and had no idea what we were suppose to be seeing. We saw the tents filled with kids coloring but as adults didnt go in and take up space. We saw the booths but it looked as if they werent presenting any information just handing out pieces of paper for the kids to draw on.
 
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Sooo, Busch gardens Tampa has had an area like this for years. Gwazi parks is filled with various kids activities, coloring, model trains, etc. sounds like a rebranded version for wburg.

The idea of a Christmas tree trail is already pretty vague. I would have thought it was a walk through attraction with several themed displays or something. Sounds like it’s just a smaller version of bgt’s Christmas village.

In fact I’ll stop by this evening to get some pics when I get off work.
 
Yes, I assumed it would be like the Disney Springs version only smaller and themed to just the 3 areas they mentioned. A walk thought trail with 500 lighted trees, with a few highlighted trees decorated for the 3 they advertised.
 
Yes, I assumed it would be like the Disney Springs version only smaller and themed to just the 3 areas they mentioned. A walk thought trail with 500 lighted trees, with a few highlighted trees decorated for the 3 they advertised.
That was my assumption as well with how it was presented.
 
You know years ago everyone joked about the HOS maze there was like the Lowes Garden Center and now the Tree Trail feels like the Lowes tree lot......must be something about that area.
 
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So as someone with kids that has done this do you consider it a kids event? We went through with no kids and had no idea what we were suppose to be seeing. We saw the tents filled with kids coloring but as adults didnt go in and take up space. We saw the booths but it looked as if they werent presenting any information just handing out pieces of paper for the kids to draw on.
I definitely see it as a kids event.
Some of the boths did a good job trying to explain their holiday while others just handed out the activity without much explanation.
There is definitely room for improvement there but my kids mainly wanted to do the activity without learning too much about it. They are fairly young though.
There is some value for older kids and adults that actually want to learn more about the other cultures, but the main value is in the coloring for the smaller kids.

I agree that the advertising for this was way too vague.
 
That kinds sucks, I as a adult was looking forward to some new cultures holiday celebrations being added. Its like going to Epcot for the holidays, I find it interesting. If this is geared towards kids why didnt the put it out behind SSFoF like they did the other special event.
 
So as someone with kids that has done this do you consider it a kids event? We went through with no kids and had no idea what we were suppose to be seeing. We saw the tents filled with kids coloring but as adults didnt go in and take up space. We saw the booths but it looked as if they werent presenting any information just handing out pieces of paper for the kids to draw on.
Yes, it's a child-centered activity. My 8 yr old and 4 yr old loved it. We spent close to an hour in that section doing all the activities and they are still talking about it this week. They were bummed we didn't see the Diwali booth. At each booth, the BGW employee explained the holiday that they were focused on and what the craft was about. And then while we were in the tent coloring, there was music being piped in specific to that holiday. It was really nice as a child activity.
 
Not sure I would call the "much better" but definately better than the nothing they had last week. I really wish they had gone with some colors or something, some variation in the trees. Looking forward to seeing for myself tomorrow night....thanks for the photo.
 
So here are my thoughts on week 2 of CT 2019. They definately did alot of work this week putting lights on trees throughout the park and getting things that werent working fixed. Had dinner at the Festhaus and I know its a shocker but they were out of the cranberry sauce by like 6:30pm. They were also out of salads as we were told for the night....but yet still were filling the counter with salad dressing. One thing I found interesting was literally the line was barely moving because so many people were ordering pizza, but yet the pizza line was closed tonight. We saw Gloria and had a group behind us that up until the Nativity scene thought they were watching a video. They were blown away from that show and rightfully so. Gloria is for me hands down the best show at CT. We also caught the 9pm Twas That Night.....who ever they found to fill Elvis's spot was spectacular. Heck they could keep him he was as good if not better that Elvis. No pyro this year which I like, no being covered in soot. We stopped by the Christmas Tree Trail around 9:30 and while they threw lights on the trees....literally some trees looked like they threw net lights on and walked away, the area did look better. I also saw much better interaction and storytelling from the team members tonight. Now heres where they are still lacking. The installed a ton of green fence and some of it had garland with lights, not working of course. But the fence between the snack stand and the entrance just had the garland hanging over the fecce waiting to be hung up. The new entrance and exit area worked better, if the team members did their jobs. There was no sign saying which side of the rope to go in so we went to the left side like it was for HOS and the guy didnt say a word to us. We had to figure out on our own that we were going the wrong way....thansk for nothing buddy. Lastly they brought back the Christmas Countdown at the basketball game in Festa. But its just kinda boring and plain compared to the old show they used to do. We did see the Member ornament tonight, this season its blue with gold glitter. Looks much better than last years, still plastic and cheap but better.

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The salads might be related to the romaine lettuce warning depending on where the park is getting there from.
 
The salads might be related to the romaine lettuce warning depending on where the park is getting there from.
Could very well be, but they had paper plates upside down on the chiller table like they had them earlier, they also still had cups of salad dressing out. In addition the menus are magnetic, why not take it off the menu.
 
Went tonight. Cold and wet but great time overall. Gloria is my favorite show and has been for years but the lead vocalists need to have super strong range and this year they just seemed to be lacking a little.idk maybe it’s just us, but husband said same thing. Trail of trees was meh. Def nothing like Disney springs.
 
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