Ok, my random thoughts from last night. Parking plaza...super slow and why do they have to touch the pass? We held it up at the window to scan but the person "had to take it" to scan it. Their scanners are on long cords this extra cross contamination is unneeded. Temperature screening went as exected basically in line with other SEAS parks. We actually went through so fast I didnt even see if they had a cooling tent. Park entrance is nicely numbered but the team member was not being clear on what we should do as guests. I wasnt sure if we just picked a lane or he was there to tell us a lane. I had to ask. Mask compliance was good although with the rain and extra high humidity it was hard to breathe through. We arrived right at the start of the event, in fact we were at Grogans about 4:50 so we were in early. Pretzels at Grogans were huge. Next was the snack stand right outside of Grogans, they had churros, the smaller pretzels and turkey legs. We then moved deeper in the park. France was desserted, nothing open except Griffon and the gift shop which sells the wine and honestly there are zero souvineers there that interest me. Made it to Trappers, they have 4 entrees, 3 desserts, some random muffin that we asked what it was and she said that they didnt even know they had to cut it open and think its just bacon? That was random and odd, some salads that sounded good but they were not serving (they have a cobb on the menu but said they did not have them). They had what looked like the usual sides to choose from as well. Entree prices were $18.99 and 19.99. We had two of the brisquite dinners and two sodas....total with pass discount $39.99. We sat at the table almost a hour, watching the people, took our time eating, watching to see if they cleaned any of the tables, just relaxing and enjoying the park. Again the place was desserted so we werent hogging a tble from someone else there were plenty. After that we checked out the only other place that was open for food, the snack place across from Trappers. They had popcorn, funnel cakes and novelty ice cream. We moved on to the the shop next to Invadr and the flume entrance. The candle guy is gone, im going to miss that. He has been at the park as long as I can remember. In his place is the paintings and the rest of the shop is the same beach type stuff they sold before. Again, nothing I could find worth buying to me. We then checked out the rest of the area and walked back toward England where we went into the emporium. Basically same stuff as before, 2020 branded merch is 70% off. I picked up a couple of the hand sanitizer bottles as souvineers to put in my archives but really couldnt find much else that interested me. I will probably pick up the 2020 mug tonight, I think its ugly but for like $5 why not. The plan now was to get a dessert and this is when we realized the only option was trappers so back to New France we went. Took a ride on Nessie and watched the cleaning of FF, which took 20 minutes. I think with the high humidity they couldnt get the cleaner to dry. The kids shop and magic shop by FF was open, we skipped going in becaise from the door it looked like the same old stuff and for me nothing worth picking up. The biggest pile up of the night was at Wolf Preserve where a show was going on. People were shoulder to shoulder two and three deep in the viewing area and on the bridge making a choke point for those passing. Again, dosent bother me but there was no distancing there. Got back to Trappers where the line was out the queue and halfway to the snack stand so we parked it on the Caribou Pottery porch for a good 45 minutes watching people. By then the line dies down so we headed for that carrot cake at Trappers. Line was still about 20 minutes, we got our two desserts and then stood there for 10 minutes while the larger group in front of us was ordering.....one at a time being prepared.....somewhat unsure what they wanted. Now in the olden days I would just squeeze by but I was good and just stood there waiting. We found us a table and enjoyed dessert. I do want to give a shout out to the food service employee wearing gloves with long fingernails........with the nails poked through the fingertips of the gloves so I guess the gloves fit right......thats not how it works. After our dessert it was close to 9pm so we headed out.
Now a few things on tonight.....they need more food options/locations. Something in England needs to be open, either the candy shop, funnel cakes or squires. We did not use any of out Busch Bucks so hopfully that helps boost the numbers but I got to say its going to be hard to go back and spend money. There just not enough options. Basically for a meal its bbq or nothing. Theres no reason they couldnt throw a burger onto the trappers menu. We honestly struggled to find things to do, we did alot of sitting around and I did some work emails on my phone. Dont get me wrong it was glorious to be back in the park to enjpy the sights and sounds but without more to do and more diffrent food and snack options im not sure for me I will keep spending money on the same entree every trip and no real snack options. Anyhow, I will be back tonight with a couple other folks so lets see if we find anything new that wasnt there last night.
Edited to add.......I really feel like the description BGW used for this event is misleading. The variety of brews is basically just Grigans pub where I feel like they had just as good a selections before. I really thought they would have a couple food and wine booths spread out with the various beers, this also would have helped with the looooong line at Grogans. Again, the "BBQ Cusine" is a dumbed down Trappers menu and the "and more food and beverage options will be avaliable at select dining locations"....guess that is popcorn and churros. I guess I just misunderstood what I read in the marketing compared to what was actually in the park. I actually pictured a small scale mash up of food and wine and bier fest sprinkled across 4 or so booths throughout the open parts of the park. The park itself als also looking rough. No flowers in any planters, the hanging baskets have no plats in them, and the buildings need a good pressure washing. Actually we noticed alot of rotting wood on the trim around the buildings in France. England was bare, in fact ive been in the park when its closed between seasons and dont remember seeing the planters as bare as they are right now. We did find a welcome back shirt, but it was all the way back in the shop by Invadr and even then it was tucked out of the way, those should be front and center at the doorways of the emporium to be the first thing you see coming in.
