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Les Frites is literally my favorite place to eat in the whole park after Marco Polo’s, but I understand why it’s closed. I’ve never seen fewer than two people working the line and the kitchen, and they need a person at the register too. That’s three people that the park probably can’t afford to staff during this bare-bones event. Plus, the whole speciality french fry concept is somewhat niche; with Three Rivers and Brady’s, they can reach a broader audience with more basic theme park foods with a wider appeal.

Then again, maybe that’s a reason they should consider Les Frites. I passed on Brady’s and Three Rivers because I’m not interested in kettle corn and pretzels and other foods I can find at any other theme park or shopping mall. Les Frites on the other hand is so uniquely Busch Gardens that I might be willing to drop $10+ for some fries in addition to a meal over at Trapper’s.

They could totally repurpose at least one employee from that snack stand right behind Les Fritas. I didn't realize until tonight that the soda machines don't work there. So it's popcorn and bottled drinks. Ummm...
 
Definitely more people in the park tonight! There were a few areas, like in front of the bathrooms in Scotland, where I had to stop walking with my kids for a moment to figure out where I could safely pass. There were 2 or 3 larger groups spread out there and no way to safely pass. So any more people could end up with more log jams like that.

I spent way too much money, again. ? ?
 
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Definitely more people in the park tonight! There were a few areas, like in front of the bathrooms in Scotland, where I had to stop walking with my kids for a moment to figure out where I could safely pass. There were 2 or 3 larger groups spread out there and no way to safely pass. So any more people could end up with more log jams like that.

I spent way too much money, again. ? ?

This is something I'm curious to see when I go back on Sunday night as well. As someone who is visiting alone and walks notoriously fast, I'm not necessarily that concerned about pathway congestion because I'm unlikely to be in close proximity to anyone for any amount of time, and it's more prolonged exposure that runs a risk in crowded spaces. But I definitely don't feel like it would be prudent for the park to argue for an increased capacity running at their current scale. I think any expansion of capacity (unlikely in the short term, given that yesterday's caseload revealed the previous days' decrease to be a data entry error) would need to come with an expansion of the areas of the park that are open, and I'm not convinced that the 5000 number the park originally cited is feasible under the circumstances.
 
This is something I'm curious to see when I go back on Sunday night as well. As someone who is visiting alone and walks notoriously fast, I'm not necessarily that concerned about pathway congestion because I'm unlikely to be in close proximity to anyone for any amount of time, and it's more prolonged exposure that runs a risk in crowded spaces. But I definitely don't feel like it would be prudent for the park to argue for an increased capacity running at their current scale. I think any expansion of capacity (unlikely in the short term, given that yesterday's caseload revealed the previous days' decrease to be a data entry error) would need to come with an expansion of the areas of the park that are open, and I'm not convinced that the 5000 number the park originally cited is feasible under the circumstances.

If the whole park were open, bumping it up to 5000 might work. But also, people need to be aware of how much space they are taking up, especially if standing still temporarily. It happened all the time before at BGW, but I would just weave through them. Now, I'm not trying to pass that close to anyone and certainly not with my kids.
 
Extending the event: A way to appease members who were unable to book reservations, a sign that they were happy with guest spending on the first two nights, or a pre-planned strategy to signal success and reignite the marketing cycle? Hard to say.
From what I've been told, this. Keep it up people! ?
I can confirm that the park is very happy with guest spending and so far it appears their projections are correct.
 
This is something I'm curious to see when I go back on Sunday night as well. As someone who is visiting alone and walks notoriously fast, I'm not necessarily that concerned about pathway congestion because I'm unlikely to be in close proximity to anyone for any amount of time, and it's more prolonged exposure that runs a risk in crowded spaces. But I definitely don't feel like it would be prudent for the park to argue for an increased capacity running at their current scale. I think any expansion of capacity (unlikely in the short term, given that yesterday's caseload revealed the previous days' decrease to be a data entry error) would need to come with an expansion of the areas of the park that are open, and I'm not convinced that the 5000 number the park originally cited is feasible under the circumstances.
If the whole park were open, bumping it up to 5000 might work. But also, people need to be aware of how much space they are taking up, especially if standing still temporarily. It happened all the time before at BGW, but I would just weave through them. Now, I'm not trying to pass that close to anyone and certainly not with my kids.

5000 people in the entire park is practically empty. I mentioned it before but the HOS nights that people refer to as being very low attendance typically have more that 5000 people in attendance on those nights. I really think there's very few areas where it would be issues because there are a small number of choke points throughout the park where you have to move closer together.
 
When I was on Invadr today I noticed log floom had water running through it like it normally would if it was operating. thought that was kinda strange
Might be getting ready to add it to the event lineup. Or they might be fixing something with and needed to run it to confirm the fix.
 
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Or they might be fixing something with and needed to run it to confirm the fix.

I think this is more likely. Some work has been going on over there—if you look carefully from InvadR’s station, scaffolding is up near some of the supports and there appears to be some new PVC installed as well.
 
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5000 people in the entire park is practically empty. I mentioned it before but the HOS nights that people refer to as being very low attendance typically have more that 5000 people in attendance on those nights. I really think there's very few areas where it would be issues because there are a small number of choke points throughout the park where you have to move closer together.

I think the difference there is that during those HOS event nights where there's about 5000 people, there's also plenty of rides and mazes open to take people off the paths. With so few rides and other areas open, it's going to make the paths look to have more people in my estimation.

Personally I think that antidotal issues like that one brought up should have someone from BGW reminding those groups to allow space for people to pass. Or they should have some "no stop zones". The reality is because of how tight Ireland and the trail is they likely should have gone the other way....then again Italy/Pompeii offer the same issue.
 
I generally think Busch has been trying to be as fair as possible with their resveration for the event but I noticed this today. One is a shot of the membership reservation availability the othe is fun cards for the same time slot. Membership is sold out but not fun cards. Given that both are free admission and in the same boat why are we holding slots separate for fun card holders then members? Seems to me those slots should be equally available to the members who they are still charging monthly.
 

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I think the difference there is that during those HOS event nights where there's about 5000 people, there's also plenty of rides and mazes open to take people off the paths. With so few rides and other areas open, it's going to make the paths look to have more people in my estimation.

Personally I think that antidotal issues like that one brought up should have someone from BGW reminding those groups to allow space for people to pass. Or they should have some "no stop zones". The reality is because of how tight Ireland and the trail is they likely should have gone the other way....then again Italy/Pompeii offer the same issue.

If the park was able to have 5000 people then they would have the entire park open. This would mean more rides and queues open and more room to spread. One other thing to point out is that last year Festa was closed due to Pantheon construction on most, if not all of these Wednesdays and Thursdays during HOS. The added capacity from the rides there would more than offset the queue space for the mazes not being there.

I also want to point out that attendance those nights surpasses 5000. Without being overly specific from what I'm told the average attendance is closer to 8000 for those nights.
 
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Nessie has been smooth sailing today. My daughter rode it twice in a row and was able to move to the front row. Someone could easily ride it non-stop
 
Thinking about it, I really wish the train or sky ride were open and just skipped whatever closed station. Navigating that hill in the heat in a mask can be exhausting.
 
I did fine in Florida at SWO, BGT and UOR with the mask.....but those hills at BGW are rough.
 
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