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Visited the park today and had a wonderful time. Crowds were fantastic outside of the horde of people heading out after the ice show and the huge bottleneck in England. Bolt had the longest wait at 20 mins. Not bad at all.

I could see the crowd control problems but they're a pretty easy fix.

Let's start with the elephant in the room. TTN - this one doesn't seem too difficult.
- Have something else open. Either Griffon without the water brakes or Alpengeist so that people have something to run to after the show. When nothings open in the area people just stand around and block the pathways or walk back the way they came in.
- Have more than two shows so that you don't have 10,000 people trying to see the show at a time. Every other show in the park has five shows except TTN. I dunno if that has to do with them needing that much time to straighten the ice or if they only run two shows on slow days. Even one more showing should help crowds somewhat.

England
All they really need to do is move the carolers back to where they used to be. They were fine where they were. Why the park decided to move them I'll never know.

Festhaus
Thus is probably the hardest bottleneck to fix but they can start by having attractions open in the Festhaus park. That way people can head there after the Christmas tree showings and Deck the Halls and there isn't a giant mess during shows on peak nights.

Attractions-wise the park needs more exclusive attractions
Zach's recommended Rudolph Christmas Village in the Festhaus park is a perfect candidate. Gave something similar to the CT in Florida with ice and show to play in for families.

Move penguins to Pompeii. They could use some of Deadline or make a separate room for the penguins to hang. As long as they have a bigger exhibit, I don't really care.

Tempesto and other hot ticket rides in the future. Pesto can run in low temps. Alpengeist fits the theme. Griff can run with a drained lake as long as they crank up the brakes like what Tampa did with Sheikra.

Don't increase prices unless you can justify the price increase with more stuff to do at the park. Pricing people out of a special event doesn't seem like a good idea to me and would just piss off pass members further.
 
I don't think they can use Deadline for the penguins and use the same exit. The only areas I can think of in that building that could possibly accommodate an exhibit are backstage areas.

Perhaps they could route people through the normal entrance and let them exit through the area with the sign that reads "Entrada di Excavazione". They might be able to have the actual exhibit in the last room.

Otherwise, Escape From Pompeii is far worse than Europe in the Air as a location for the penguins. The maze is not going anywhere (the underside of the set is semi-permanent), and the remaining space leaves little to work with.
 
Imaginique said:
Luke said:
I too have been stuck there...literally every visit to CT (which has been almost every operating day....livid...they do need to move them over to big ben. I hate large crowds but I can usually just "deal" with it. However, there have been a couple of instances were I almost panicked. Everyone gets packed tightly in there. I could easily see someone getting hurt.
I did have a near panic attack last year due to the same reason; carolers on the steps cause people to stop, others shoving, someone hopped over my small stroller with my child in it. It was a nightmare. I've complained about it on their FB page and through guest relations email. This year when I saw them singing there again it made that panic feeling come back. Though the crowd wasn't as bad, and we no longer use a stroller, it was still frustrating and it doesn't put me in a jolly exiting mood. Which is sad, because the carolers have lovely voices. I have fond memories of my kid dancing to the carolers when they were in front of Big Ben in 2012. Now I dread hearing them.
Well I sent an email to Carl. He said "We'll be sure to take a look at this." And the next day they were out on the steps again...same crowd issue.

Sooooo, I guess I'll just wait until the mass exodus dies off before I venture towards the exit. And yes I almost had a panic attack too. I wondering how many other people feel like that going through there.
 
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Found Rudolph in New France...he moved next to Trappers.
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Some poor lady stepped on that cable that drapes across the entry of Germany lot last night. I'm guessing she fell pretty hard, She was surrounded by people. Hope she is ok. The tram line was so long that we also walked to Italy, but I knew about the cable when walking thru and lifted it up.
 
What time are they allowing cars in to park? I know the park opens at 2 but what time do they start to allow cars in.
 
Did anyone go get the free blanket they were offering yesterday? Interested to see what it looked like.
 
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K9copinmd said:
What time are they allowing cars in to park? I know the park opens at 2 but what time do they start to allow cars in.

Hmmmmm so no one knows what time they start letting cars in to park?? I thought you folks knew everything there was to know about BGW. ;)
 
K9copinmd said:
K9copinmd said:
What time are they allowing cars in to park? I know the park opens at 2 but what time do they start to allow cars in.

Hmmmmm so no one knows what time they start letting cars in to park??  I thought you folks knew everything there was to know about BGW. ;)

Last year it was 1:30, and I would assume it is the same this year, but haven't been there yet.
 
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I have heard from the "inside" that SWP&E CEO, Joel Manby visited the park this Wednesday. Supposedly he told BGW management "This is the best Christmas event ever!" Keep in mind that the chain has several other great Christmas events. Also, he came from a chain which is also well known for their Christmas events. I would consider that a compliment.

In other news, Park President, Carl Lum announced that Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer will be coming to the event next year. To my knowledge, no further information was given.
 
CastleOSullivan said:
I have heard from the "inside" that SWP&E CEO, Joel Manby visited the park this Wednesday. Supposedly he told BGW management "This is the best Christmas event ever!" Keep in mind that the chain has several other great Christmas events. Also, he came from a chain which is also well known for their Christmas events. I would consider that a compliment.

In other news, Park President, Carl Lum announced that Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer will be coming to the event next year. To my knowledge, no further information was given.
I can confirm that he was there and was very happy about how things were going.
 
I walked past the whole group of them 4 times throughout the visit. Twice in the daylight and twice after dark. There were 10-12 executives and 4 younger park employees following them with their faces buried in their cell phones. Each time they passed by, I heard 'happiness' :)
 
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