Christmas Town

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this was my first ever time going to Christmastown visit and i am very impressed and glad that i went. my favorite area has to have been England, as i have always favored white lights and the wreaths were a nice touch. Scotland and france weren't far behind. we didn't get to see any shows however as we were just checking the place out and plan to do shows next visit. any suggestions on which shows are worth our time seeing and which ones aren't?
 
Scrooge is, in my opinion, the best show this year by a very, very wide margin. That said, if you're not too terribly turned off by the Jesus story, Gloria is worth your time too. Deck the Halls and Miracles are horribly lacking compared to previous years but for the "average guest" they may still be ok too if you can get past horrible choreography and sexy reindeer. That said, I believe that Deck the Halls is vastly inferior to Miracles though so if you're picking between the two of them, go Miracles.

Also, everyone should see O Tannenbaum.
 
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Zachary said:
Scrooge is, in my opinion, the best show this year by a very, very wide margin. That said, if you're not too terribly turned off by the Jesus story, Gloria is worth your time too. Deck the Halls and Miracles are horribly lacking compared to previous years but for the "average guest" they may still be ok too if you can get past horrible choreography and sexy reindeer. That said, I believe that Deck the Halls is vastly inferior to Miracles though so if you're picking between the two of them, go Miracles.

Also, everyone should see O Tannenbaum.
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We looked into why The Forge (hammered aluminum) booth in Octoberfest was missing this year. We know vendors where asked to surrender a large percent of profit last year. However, The Forge was here in New France during the summer and was scheduled to return for Christmas Town.

It turns out the artist, Chris, had a seizure and was not able to attended. The family asked BGW to put up a sign saying they were absent due to a family health emergency. They wanted guests to know why their booth was gone. BGW has done nothing with this request thus far.

On the up side, Chris has had surgery and is starting to walk and talk. They are hoping he will return to full health. We wish him a full recovery and would like to see them return. They are one of the few vendors remaining who are truly craftsmen and not trinkets pushers. And they are really nice people. Oh, and BGW is the only place The Forge lets the public hammer their own ornaments.
 
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As everyone will have guessed, I never go to the shows, but I have never been bored at CT after dark. I'm not a fan of the event before sundown; mostly I just wander around feeling cold.

I do like doing the Penguin tour, during the day, but the penguin exhibit offends me.

After dark, however, I love the lights. Living in Arlington, I really can't see a lot of great light displays that easily for free, and to be honest, the park does a better job than many places. Besides skyride at CT has amazing views that are hard to replicate.

I also enjoy the drinks and food. I am a particular fan of the doughnuts and hot toddies.

Mostly, however, I am never bored, if I am with interesting people. It is just a charming place to hang out with my friends and share a beautiful experience.
 
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Jonquil said:
Dear God, the "just have fun" people have gotten to David!
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No, I just don't understand why people expect a broadway level show at a theme park. We all know who is creating and managing these shows, so you should know what to expect by now. Before anyone says it, sure BGW used to have higher quality shows, but they were never broadway level. Lets not kid ourselves.

Either way. I'll be going at some point, getting trashed, enjoying the lights, food and rides, and not giving a single fuck about the shows.
 
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I agree, Nicole. I also have to agree with Joe. During the regular season the park never fails to give me something to complain about.(although they never ruin my experience at the park) Whether it be the Bunny Trail, ill-fitting music in hamlets during the F&WF(yes, I said something bad about the F&WF), or the fact we don't get to see San Marco in its regular form for over half the season. But I find it hard to complain about an event that decorates every hamlet in beautiful lights and decorations, lightly overlaying its original theme(excluding Holiday Hills). But even Holiday Hills vastly improves the look of Festa, especially at Night.

In my opinion, even though I'm a big criticizer of the Ent. department, they always seem to nail it during Christmas Town. Last year we saw Aquitaine re-done during CT, which vastly improved its look over years before. And even this year I loved what they've done to Banbury.(although I'm neutral on the re-use of a Howl-o-Scream facade) The little touches of red everywhere manage to give small touches of nice color without going overboard.(yes, I'm looking at you main season 2014 Banbury)

I had an awesome time hanging around with people Saturday, meeting up, exploring, talking, and eating. Although, I felt the event was a little bit un-finished this weekend, it was still a spectacular first weekend. I leave you with a shot of now, one of my favorite CT hamlets, Banbury Cross.

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The unofficial body count (of familiar faces) to my recollection:

Scrooge - 1 Igor/Jester, 2 Fiends nurses, 1 2013 Fiends vampire, a suspect and vaguely Entwined v1 looking candy costume with others at pre-show (Every thing else is so nice. Why? WHY?), and a phenomenal new actor well cast as Scrooge. Props to Igor/Jester for a great pre-show routine. It looks like the rumored puppets were the Punch and Judy variety or the Spirit of Christmas Future and crow. SO glad the punk aspect was dropped and the projections are most excellently used as an embellishment to the stage, not a distracting assault on the eyes. A good example of how simple can be better. Side note: They change the placards in the lobby to the Tiny Tim performing in that show. Nice touch.

Gloria - 2 returning Gloria vocalists, 1 MIU 2013 drummer back from KD as tech, 1 Celtic Fyre/NB keyboardist, and 2 MSoRR drummers. Though we miss Katie (congrats on her engagement) and Gabe (still around as swing), this cast has strong vocalists and sounds great. Speaking of sound, the volume is being pushed way too much for this show. Man was it loud.

Miracles - Beatrix, of course, 2? Fiends nurses, and 1 MSoRR dancer. I can't tell if anyone else has returned from last year's cast having not seen this show very often.

Deck the Halls - 4 MSoRR Whor…uuh, dancers. 2 Shadows of the Night, and 4 reindeer pelts.
 
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I usually love going to Christmas Town. I went Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and dealing with the crowds made it miserable. I'm  blaming the $12 tickets for the increase in opening weekend crowds.

The shows were very good this year. It was obvious that the quality of Miracles and Deck the Halls were cut for Scrooge No More. I am disappointed that the park wont allow people to record or take pictures in the Abby Stone and Globe shows.

They really need to have another roller coaster open, because when one closes due to temperatures or mechanical issues you can still ride the other one. Verbolten was closed almost every time that I walked past it.
 
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Nicole said:
As everyone will have guessed, I never go to the shows, but I have never been bored at CT after dark.  I'm not a fan of the event before sundown; mostly I just wander around feeling cold.

I do like doing the Penguin tour, during the day, but the penguin exhibit offends me.

After dark, however, I love the lights.  Living in Arlington, I really can't see a lot of great light displays that easily for free, and to be honest, the park does a better job than many places.  Besides sky ride at CT has amazing views that are hard to replicate.

I also enjoy the drinks and food.  I am a particular fan of the doughnuts and hot toddies.

Mostly, however, I am never bored, if I am with interesting people.  It is just a charming place to hang out with my friends and share a beautiful experience.
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If I may ask (and forgive me if you've addressed this before), why do you like the penguin tour but dislike the actual penguin display?
 
The penguins are stuffed is incredibly small, empty boxes, while on display. I have been on multiple behind the scenes penguin tours at BGW and SW, and have seen penguins in well-designed habitats, as well. In both cases, the penguins were playful, curious, and seemed "happy." The penguins on display at CT look bored and seem to sleep a lot.

It is like many old-school zoos: the animals are squashed into cruelly small cages. I hate seeing it and I can't condone it either.

On the BGW tour, the penguins are allowed to wander around and explore everything. I really enjoy interacting with them, when they come up and ask for attention.

So, the only thing the tour has in common with the display is that both involve penguins.
 
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Alpenscoot said:
The shows were very good this year. It was obvious that the quality of Miracles and Deck the Halls were cut for  Scrooge No More.  I am disappointed that the park wont allow people to record or take pictures in the Abby Stone and Globe shows.
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You can take pictures, just no flash or video.

Alpenscoot said:
They really need to have another roller coaster open, because when one closes due to temperatures or mechanical issues you can still ride the other one. Verbolten was closed almost every time that I walked past it.
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Verbolten already runs at the lowest temperature. If they had another coaster open, it would have been closed as well if Verbolten is closed due to weather.
 
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I'm no expert and I'm not saying that anyone is right or wrong... But in MY experience, Alpengeist was open in 35 degree weather. I probably rode it 12 times in a row with my husband one very cold night in 2011. (We lost count.) We could have ridden it even more, but the park was closing. It's probably just as well, because I might have gotten permanent facial damage from the cold, but we didn't really care at the time we were having so much fun. That is one of my very favorite memories with my husband. Every year I hold out hope that maybe they'll open another coaster... And every year I cry a little on the inside when I see that it's only Verbarfin. :(
 
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