For that price they better be staffing the booths and get rid of the normal backups.
Christmas Town 2021
- Thread starter Gavin
- Start date
When we got here, all of the booths appeared to have two people in them.
The line I was in on the far left was one person rotating between both sides
This sums up how I've felt reading this forum leading up to the event...
Just kidding, guys. I'll see myself out.
In all seriousness, looking forward to reviews from this weekend and appreciate the insight from tonight so far. Still excited to go this year just to see the lights and grab some apple pie funnel cake, as is tradition for our group.
Just kidding, guys. I'll see myself out.
In all seriousness, looking forward to reviews from this weekend and appreciate the insight from tonight so far. Still excited to go this year just to see the lights and grab some apple pie funnel cake, as is tradition for our group.
Alright here we go. Starting off with the positives first. I really enjoyed Celtic Fyre and agree that they did a nice job keeping the classic but with enough of a Christmas refresh for it to be worth the effort. The parts of the park that I went through tonight were all on par with 2019 I'm the decorating category. I do have to comend BGW they appear to have done a nice job keeping food cost down and portion size appeared to be very similar to last year.
Now the marginal category. Christmas Town express 8s ok but once again unless you have s right side seat there is very little to see. As a matter of fact more then what I remember in the past is just plain bare on the left. Unto Us as I said just plain fell flat for me. But yeah they use actual candles fir lighting so we probably will have another chapter in the BGW fire saga before the season is over. Up on the House Top didn't do much for me but I also didn't hate it like I thought I might. It just a little to loud and flashy for Festhaus in my view.
Now the ugly. Staffing for food services is extremely bad in my opinion. It was a 20 minute wait to get to the serving line and then another 20-30 minutes to get through that line at 8 this evening. They were only running one serving line in Festhaus. Adding to their short Staffing situation is several employees were wearing earbuds and not actively paying attention to what guests were trying to get slowing down the line more by not fixing the right food or asked guests to move down and let other up to get something.
Now the marginal category. Christmas Town express 8s ok but once again unless you have s right side seat there is very little to see. As a matter of fact more then what I remember in the past is just plain bare on the left. Unto Us as I said just plain fell flat for me. But yeah they use actual candles fir lighting so we probably will have another chapter in the BGW fire saga before the season is over. Up on the House Top didn't do much for me but I also didn't hate it like I thought I might. It just a little to loud and flashy for Festhaus in my view.
Now the ugly. Staffing for food services is extremely bad in my opinion. It was a 20 minute wait to get to the serving line and then another 20-30 minutes to get through that line at 8 this evening. They were only running one serving line in Festhaus. Adding to their short Staffing situation is several employees were wearing earbuds and not actively paying attention to what guests were trying to get slowing down the line more by not fixing the right food or asked guests to move down and let other up to get something.
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The most important takeaway from tonight for me was that, despite it being a preview weekend, it still really feels like Christmas Town—and I sorta think that's all the entertainment department really needed to pull off for this year to be a success on their end.
Park decorations weren't complete everywhere, but overall, it looks every bit as good as 2019. Plus, overall, I think the show situation is SHOCKINGLY positive—despite Twas not returning until later this month. Celtic Fyre is great, Scrooge is untouched and still fantastic, and I found Unto Us to be passable. Parts of Up on the Haustop surpassed recent iterations of Deck for me, but, by the end, the tonal mishmash really condemns Haustop in my opinion—it just doesn't seem to have any idea of what it wants to be AT ALL.
Overall though, things are a lot better than I expected on the decorations and entertainment fronts.
Like @horsesboy said though, especially with culinary, I'm TERRIFIED of what things are going to look like in a couple weeks. I didn't get food at the park at all today because of the lines—and this was a preview weekend well before Thanksgiving. I'm VERY scared that things are only going to get worse from here. BGW needs to up culinary pay substantially to draw in staff because if it doesn't improve, they're going to have a five alarm fire on their hands.
Park decorations weren't complete everywhere, but overall, it looks every bit as good as 2019. Plus, overall, I think the show situation is SHOCKINGLY positive—despite Twas not returning until later this month. Celtic Fyre is great, Scrooge is untouched and still fantastic, and I found Unto Us to be passable. Parts of Up on the Haustop surpassed recent iterations of Deck for me, but, by the end, the tonal mishmash really condemns Haustop in my opinion—it just doesn't seem to have any idea of what it wants to be AT ALL.
Overall though, things are a lot better than I expected on the decorations and entertainment fronts.
Like @horsesboy said though, especially with culinary, I'm TERRIFIED of what things are going to look like in a couple weeks. I didn't get food at the park at all today because of the lines—and this was a preview weekend well before Thanksgiving. I'm VERY scared that things are only going to get worse from here. BGW needs to up culinary pay substantially to draw in staff because if it doesn't improve, they're going to have a five alarm fire on their hands.
Does that mean the park will top off my gas tank when at the parking booth?
VIP parking should include a sedan chair ride from your car to the main gate.
Nice photos. I think the guy on the stage in San Marco was part of the 2019 cast of Holly Jolly Trolley at KD. What was really nice was that 7 of the 8 cast members did a youtube COVID remote version of HJT last year as a "gift" to all. I think it is still available to view. I watched it and I swear one of the guys in that cast is the one in your photo.
I feel like this five alarm fire has been burning now for quite a few years and they just barely keep it in check with a extinguisher and guests just keep giving them a pass. I know they have a staffing issue but I think they also have a process issue. Look at the 6 to 8 people usually working the line. The one at desserts looks like they dont know what to do so the just shuffle the piping bag around to look busy. Then you get to salads where the person is wither trying to get that one cherry tomato that keeps falling off to stay or they are filling the little cups of salad dressing......why not hust gave the pre packaged Kens to save time on. The you get to the two people actually plating food....it seems like usually one is working hard and the other is standing at the window because they are out of something and waiting......then finally you ahve the one person that is running food to the stack of people they send to the end of the line to waitfor something. They ususlly are confused on who is waiting for what and ping pong back and forth 3 times per plate.
Now that you have your hot plate of food you get in line to pay.....and then you wait....and wait while your food is getting cold for the cashier to find the right button for that extra cup of salad dressing.
I really wish they would reopen the pizza line as well as add a dessert only line with seasonal special cookies or desserts. Think about Christmas Town, what if you could come into the festhaus for the show and grab a suger cookie or gingerbread cookie and a milk, hot chocolate or Wassail? Have everything basically grab and go except for drinks.
I think food trucks are a great idea. And it gives them a lot of culinary flexibility. I hope they find trucks that offer holiday food the way KD has done at Winterfest in the past.
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That sounds like a winner to me - staff only has to package and stick each item in the right spot on the serving line.
Of course, supposedly that's what they're supposed to be doing now too though...
At this point, just actually serving food to customers should be considered a win for BGW. They could serve totally out of context food and I’d be happy not having to plan external meals around visit times to avoid going hungry.
I agree the lines even at the food trucks were still bad. But if you are looking for good food the Korean BBQ truck was great. It was in France today not sure if they have the same spot each time. The trucks in general use most of the F&W Locations with a cluster of them by Roman Rapids to.
My thoughts after going Friday and Saturday for preview weekend...
Shows - I loved the Christmas additions to Celtic Fyre! While the story was the same, the changes were enough to make it feel different than before. Unto Us fell short. It was overall mediocre. Definitely and one and done. Scrooge No More was excellent and a very fun show. Up on the Haustop was something... The vocal and instruments were really good and very enjoyable. The show as a whole is 30 minutes of loud music and flashing lights and is generally just a lot to take in.
Attractions - Christmas Town Express was meh. Yes, the lights are nice to look at, but as mentioned earlier in this thread, the left side of the train really has nothing to offer at all during the ride except the very end before returning to Caribou. If BGW did away with Christmas Town Express and just ran the train like normal with all 3 stations and had the lights along the way then that would be much better. Or even if they would run the train as normal during the day and switch to Express at 5pm. On Saturday, Verbolten was running both stations which helped keep the line manageable most of the day.
Food - Christmas Town is going to be a food disaster, just like Howl-O-Scream and before. On Friday, Festhaus only had 1 serving line open and even at 8pm you had to wait for 20 minutes just to get into the actual food line and then wait another 20 minutes. On Saturday, the entrance to Festhaus was back around the left corner like how it was during covid. The food line started halfway up the side by the ladies room and went the whole way across the entrance. And that was just the "pre" line before you actually got in one of the main food lines. Brauhaus was open, but only had pretzels and beer; no chips, meatballs, sliders, or anything else. The other establishments seemed to have long lines as well.
All in all, I am excited for everything that Christmas Town has to offer this year!
Shows - I loved the Christmas additions to Celtic Fyre! While the story was the same, the changes were enough to make it feel different than before. Unto Us fell short. It was overall mediocre. Definitely and one and done. Scrooge No More was excellent and a very fun show. Up on the Haustop was something... The vocal and instruments were really good and very enjoyable. The show as a whole is 30 minutes of loud music and flashing lights and is generally just a lot to take in.
Attractions - Christmas Town Express was meh. Yes, the lights are nice to look at, but as mentioned earlier in this thread, the left side of the train really has nothing to offer at all during the ride except the very end before returning to Caribou. If BGW did away with Christmas Town Express and just ran the train like normal with all 3 stations and had the lights along the way then that would be much better. Or even if they would run the train as normal during the day and switch to Express at 5pm. On Saturday, Verbolten was running both stations which helped keep the line manageable most of the day.
Food - Christmas Town is going to be a food disaster, just like Howl-O-Scream and before. On Friday, Festhaus only had 1 serving line open and even at 8pm you had to wait for 20 minutes just to get into the actual food line and then wait another 20 minutes. On Saturday, the entrance to Festhaus was back around the left corner like how it was during covid. The food line started halfway up the side by the ladies room and went the whole way across the entrance. And that was just the "pre" line before you actually got in one of the main food lines. Brauhaus was open, but only had pretzels and beer; no chips, meatballs, sliders, or anything else. The other establishments seemed to have long lines as well.
All in all, I am excited for everything that Christmas Town has to offer this year!
Since this was only Preview Weekend, I am still holding out hope that they will add lights to the train. That said the Skyride has always been the better CT attraction, in my opinion.