Pierces is dog ass. No idea why that place is so hyped
Christmas Town 2025
- Thread starter tursiops
- Start date
You can avoid it but it’s not easy. Also packing food and going out to the car is a massive annoyance for many. Gathering things, leaving the park, getting back to the car, unpacking all of that…..so on and so on.
Even in some cases it might not be a full meal but just a snack is hard to avoid.
It takes roughly 15min at an average walking speed to go from my car to almost the back of the park. Maybe if youre a family of 5+ but were getting down to smaller and smaller % of people. If youre a couple with 1 kid (take all medical possibilities asside) it's extremely eaay to eat at a car. I did it for 4 days at cedar point. Lunch meat, bread, nuts, protein bars, small containers for condiments and a really really good cooler does wonders. It's like a 5min cleanup. Thousands upon thousands do it at festivles
So think of even a family of 4, 20-30 minutes walking, 30-40 for getting everything out and eat and cleanup, then another 20-30 depending on lines to get back in. That’s 90 to potentially 120 minutes out of a 6-8 hour window lost. Where eating in the park is a great way to warm up/cool down and spending 30-40 minutes inside Festhaus watching a show while eating.
If you're just a slow person sure. We all got our differences. I don't really even know how to discuss this because this can derail into 1000 whatabouts. Bottom line is in my opinion, you're perfectly healthey and able, you can avoid paying for park food. I will never complain about the food I get at a park unless it's so gross I gag and throw up from it. It's a theme park. It's not supposed to be gormet. Therefore I avoid it and if im on vacation I pack a cooler
It should be interesting, unique, and thematically relevant. Your expectations have been eroded by shitty parks, but that isn't how it should be.
Does BG not have CT themed food and beverages? Same for HoS? They have italian food in italy, Meats ect in New France, I don't understand
Agreed. Like no one is expecting fine dining, but when “gas station mildly linked to the area” is the bar, then you are doing something wrong.
A cooler with samdwiches just takes some pre planning.
You're not even wrong, but that's still a hell of a lot better than current Trapper's.
At this point? Very few for HOS or CMT. Honestly KD's WinterFest was better at it than BGW. TOTALLY different experience at the Herschend parks where they have full food festival components for their events.
BGW's main season food problem remains one more of pricing, quality, and service than thematic accuracy. I do think they should debut more, interesting, thematic items more often, but that's a secondary issue to the quality just being bad. And again, that's an issue other parks don't have—legacy Cedar Fair, Hershend, the independent parks—they all offer a notably cheaper, notably higher quality, better dining experience.
Why do you think independent park can keep quality so high? Are they just wlling to take the hit on food budget for the guest happyness?
I think both culinary and cleanliness at the United parks are victims of very short-sighted, next-quarter-exclusive, thinking. The chain has been more than happy to cash in their food quality and cleanliness reputation for short-term market gains. They've laid everything at the alter of higher and higher margins.
I (like presumably the other parks that haven't made this play) believe there's a reputational and, ultimately, financial consequence to cashing in that long-accumulated clout, but I don't have the numbers to say it for sure.
Went to CT yesterday because the morning forecast showed rain holding off until after 7pm and figured the Busch bucks and free entrees for December were worth the trip. My daughter has overlapping passes for the next week so it worked out, and we had one all day dining pass left from last years BF sale. Well, it started to rain heavily closer to 6, and by the time we got off the train and made it to England we were surprised to see Squires was closed due to the weather. The funnel cake/sundae place was still open, but everyone hoping to grab a last meal were screwed. Also, they stopped letting you use Busch Bucks at the jewelry store (Belinda’s?). I know they have had signs in the past that said you could redeem them there (but no other discounts) and the worker said the park was taking away things from the contractors which I completely believe. Lastly, sharing is no longer caring at Grogans & Brauhaus…the 2 16 oz pints for $25 ($20 for platinum) has been gone since the end of summer/Beerfest
Also requires spending an hour going back to your car to eat. While this is fine for before or after, it's often not great in the middle of the day.
This only matter if you happen to go on a busy day. I did this during the summer and cedar point and still had more than plenty of time to do what I wanted to do. Also if you're spending more than 1 full day at the park you got more than enough time to do mostly everything and save money eating at the car. I just see that as a horrible excuse im sorry
My family of 4 is heading down on Sunday the 14th. We are either going to have lunch prior to park opening or pack something. We bought 1 meal plan for snacking. It's a shame that you can't even get good french fries in the park.
Despite how much I hate McDonalds, we hate the food (and prices!) in the park even more, so my family always stops by the one right outside the park and eat it while waiting in the parking line. Then we can survive the day with snacks.
I feel like both the food quality and maybe more importantly food availability is something BGW should care about more, and everyone I visit with agrees and is always frustrated.
I feel like both the food quality and maybe more importantly food availability is something BGW should care about more, and everyone I visit with agrees and is always frustrated.
At BGW it is going to take almost that time to eat with the limited food service in long lines
High prices for non-necessities like anything at a theme park is 100% the fault of the consumer because they are willing to pay the price and not take the extra time or make substitutions to avoid it.
Exactly. In my eyes eating inside a theme park for a whole meal is a luxury. No one NEEDS to feel obligated to eat inside a theme park and pay those prices