Entwined: Tales of Good & Grimm

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RE: Entwined: Tales of Good and Grimm (2012)

Haberdasher1973 said:
I noticed in another TV appearance (last week, I think) she was wearing a more... "traditional" cloak like that; I wonder if they gave the isopod cape the axe altogether, or if they're just not putting it on TV so as not to scare people off.
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I have pics from early this week with her in her carapace (shell) hood. Hopefully this means that it's a TV only thing.
 
RE: Entwined: Tales of Good and Grimm (2012)

PzP said:
Haberdasher1973 said:
I noticed in another TV appearance (last week, I think) she was wearing a more... "traditional" cloak like that; I wonder if they gave the isopod cape the axe altogether, or if they're just not putting it on TV so as not to scare people off.
Click to expand...
I have pics from early this week with her in her carapace (shell) hood. Hopefully this means that it's a TV only thing.
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Ok. Wow. The video didn't come up when I first visited that page. All I saw was the article. I just revisted it and watched the video. So Mr. Gasparich is the one who gets the tomatoes? LOL He was certainly pumping up his show. 'Maxing out the Festhaus' all the time? Do tell. And he confirmed that they have, indeed, kicked the adults outside...where they have the new exterior biergarten. Great. I think they'll have alot of inebriated people ticked off for being kicked out into the heat/cold to celebrate what WAS Oktoberfest. Now...it's CandyLand in lights. God help us.
 
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RE: Entwined: Tales of Good and Grimm (2012)

For the record, Scott is a super nice guy. I, like a lot of the rest of you, defiantly disagree with the direction he's taking the park's main-season entertainment and shows though. He knows what he's doing with Christmas Town and Howl-O-Scream but when it comes to the shows, I'm not so sure.
 
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RE: Entwined: Tales of Good and Grimm (2012)

Do you think das festhaus is a beer hall?

I reference this as all the proof needed that it is. http://www.dailypress.com/news/hr-dp-bgwe20091005174938,0,2579636.photo
 
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RE: Entwined: Tales of Good and Grimm (2012)

A beer hall (German: Bierpalast, Bierstube) is a large pub that specializes in beer. From here
 
RE: Entwined: Tales of Good and Grimm (2012)

I didn't have the kids yesterday so I wanted the catch Entwined from a more adult point of view. I went to the 12:30 show, and the Festhaus was indeed packed.

I specifically sat at a table with a group of other adults to try to gauge their reactions. The group had no kids, appeared to be in their early 40's and, without stereotyping too much, let's just say they looked like die hard country music fans. Not a group that looked to be a favorable audience. They all had beer or wine and no one was eating. I chatted with them a bit before the show. They were from Northern VA and have been coming to the park about 2-3 times a year "forever" (their words).

So, we watched the show. I asked what they thought (very objectively). Here's my takeaway:

1) The general impression, even with the men, was that the show was "cute" but only "ok."

2) They did not seem to particularly care about This is Oktoberfest being removed. I asked if they liked the old show better than this one, and they seemed ambivalent. They told me they had not really seen the TIO very much and they never "went out of their way" to see it.

3) I asked why they came to see Entwined. They said because it "was new and the wanted to check it out."

4) I asked if they would see it again and the consensus was basically "maybe." They kept coming back to the "it's cute" thing, but did not seem enthusiastic about the show.

5) One of the women did comment that she liked the new decor of the Festhaus and said it really made you "feel like you were part of the stage."

6) I walked out with that group and we were held up at the lines at all the photo op spots. The lines were very long. The kids were very excited. One of the woman in the group said something like "that's a really cute idea." When I pointed out that it was not a paid photo op, just pics for the parents to take, her response was "Wow, that's rare. These places never miss a chance to have their hand in your pocket. That's really cool."

7) Toward the end of our conversation, I explained that the show and the changes to the Festhaus were somewhat controversial. The reaction was a little surprise at first then a kind of "yeah, I can understand that." But it is not an opinion I believe they would have formulated on their own.

So, all in all, in just a random sampling of a group of adults that are casual long time visitors to the park, the basic response to the show was "meh." They definitely did not hate it, nor did they really have a strong negative reaction to the changes to the Festhaus. I think they may watch it again given the circumstances, but it would definitely not be on their "to do" list. I tried to be as objective as possible in my conversation with them and to relate their responses here accordingly.
 
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RE: Entwined: Tales of Good and Grimm (2012)

Shafor said:
They told me they had not really seen the TIO very much and they never "went out of their way" to see it.

...They definitely did not hate it, nor did they really have a strong negative reaction to the changes to the Festhaus. I think they may watch it again given the circumstances, but it would definitely not be on their "to do" list.
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I'm glad you did this... it sounds like they're about as neutral about the current as they were about the former... Did they say anything else about shows in general?

Now that you've seen it without the kids, what are your thoughts? Would you see it again without them (experiment aside)?
 
RE: Entwined: Tales of Good and Grimm (2012)

Haberdasher1973 said:
Did they say anything else about shows in general?
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I didn't ask. They did watch the show intently. No smirking or head shaking or talking among themselves. I thought it was telling that they did go out of their way to see it. First show of the day and they did not go there to eat.


Haberdasher1973 said:
Now that you've seen it without the kids, what are your thoughts? Would you see it again without them (experiment aside)?
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Meh.

Maybe?

:D
 
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RE: Entwined: Tales of Good and Grimm (2012)

I just had a random and scary thought that, a few years from now, the back half of the Festhaus will have Bounce U style inflatables, and the old Brewmaster's Club/Festhaus Kaffe will be the pizza & cake room, with appearances by one or two of your child's favorite Entwined characters...
 
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RE: Entwined: Tales of Good and Grimm (2012)

AoenOne said:
Do you think das festhaus is a beer hall?

I reference this as all the proof needed that it is. http://www.dailypress.com/news/hr-dp-bgwe20091005174938,0,2579636.photo
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You rock, guy! I was going to go through all my old Busch brochures, because I remembered SOMEWHERE that Busch referred to the Festhaus as a 'beer hall' themselves. Just saved me a few hours of work ;)

Shafor said:
I didn't have the kids yesterday so I wanted the catch Entwined from a more adult point of view. I went to the 12:30 show, and the Festhaus was indeed packed. .../snipped/...
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Thanks alot for that insight into peoples reaction to the show, Shafor. It sounds like (to those that were indifferent to TIO), this is like a 'lateral move'. Neither an improvement, nor a detriment to the Festhaus.

I will take a minute to clarify our feelings of TIO. We rarely sought out the show just to see it. The idea was to get to the Festhaus fairly soon after entering the park. Once there, we felt like we had 'arrived'. Again, kindof like our 'BGW mecca' (for lack of a better representation). We seldom would stop eating to watch the show. Other times, we would wait to get our food until we had watched the show. The fact it: it was an integral part of the Festhaus...which was itself an integral part of the park as a whole. A park icon, if you will. We rarely - if ever - sought out TIO. But when we went to the Festhaus, that is what we expected to see. Why? Because that WAS Oktoberfest! The Festhaus celebration. Who doesn't like a celebration?! It felt 'warm' sitting in there with the stage as a kind of 'backdrop' in itself. The colorful banners and ribbons all part of one unified effect...creating a central, tightly woven theme that kept you coming back to the Festhaus. Regardless if there was a show playing or not.

As far as the Festhaus being packed, I will say again that I'm sure that word is out now that the Festhaus show (a park icon, no matter if you miss it or not) has been replaced, and the Festhaus re-themed. I'd be surprised if it weren't packed, and if people weren't eye-balling up the show to see if it would 'pass muster'.

I think the free photo-ops are quite a change of pace. I have to wonder how long that will last...

Haberdasher1973 said:
I just had a random and scary thought that, a few years from now, the back half of the Festhaus will have Bounce U style inflatables, and the old Brewmaster's Club/Festhaus Kaffe will be the pizza & cake room, with appearances by one or two of your child's favorite Entwined characters...
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Dude...don't even go there! I'm having visions of a warp, twisted and distorted 'Chuck-E-Cheese' experience! @_@

Another quick thought about the news video. Gasparich said the new show was a more 'family friendly' show. I disagree. I think that TIO was LIGHT YEARS more 'neutral' than this new show. And I'm being kind... ;) It had stuff specifically for the adults. It had stuff specifically for the kids. And even stuff for teens (hey...anyone who has a teenage son who had a German maiden pick them out of the crowd to dance with them, I dare you to disagree!! ROFL). I'm sure my son still dreams of those girls! :rolleyes:
 
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RE: Entwined: Tales of Good and Grimm (2012)

Does anyone know of an email address in management that I can send this letter to? Thx

Dear Busch Gardens,
My family and I and another family that we are friends with visited the park this week. We have all been season pass-holders for several years now. I must say that this visit felt very different from our visits in past years, and it was because the This Is Oktoberfest show had been removed. We were all less then enchanted with the replacement, Entwined. To be perfectly honest, we were laughing at how bad the new show was. We could not tell what was going on in the show, there were extra characters in it that we never really saw any more of and the music was sort of like a Broadway-knockoff of some sort - very cheesy songs. It also felt derivative, “borrowing” from fairy tales but not really sticking with those stories, also from Willy Wonka, Wicked, the Wizard of Oz, etc. And for some reason there was a ridiculous Disco Gingerbread number in the middle of the show that was WAY out of place, even in a show that is entirely out of place to begin with. I am sure the people who worked on the show worked very hard and the performers did the best with what they were given, but we all felt that it was awful. Even our children (ages 3, 3, 6 and 6 across both families) were less than impressed. They liked it, but they like almost anything with lots of sound and bright colors and dancing, and they wanted to know where the normal show had gone.

This Is Oktoberfest was an ‘anchor’ for us on each visit, and we visit the park about 10-15 times a year. We are probably part of your target audience: mid-30’s couple with young children who spend money every time we are in the park (upwards of $50-$100 each visit on food, drinks, snacks). On each trip, the one thing we did every time was to work our way back to the Festhaus to see the Oktoberfest show and eat a snack or a meal (the new pretzels, for example – love these, but not sure why you don’t sell them in the Festhaus too so I don’t have to run back there to get them and bring them back for my daughters). The good thing about This Is Oktoberfest was that it was appealing to all of us, not just children. Also, you could pretty much walk in at any point in the show and enjoy it – no need to follow a plot or storyline. Even if the songs were the same each time, we still went and enjoyed them and my children would get up and dance with the girls and look at their pretty dresses. Now that we have seen Entwined, we don’t have any appetite to go back – it is not re-watchable – and I would think you would want something in the Festhaus that brings people back again and again. And the show made you feel like you actually were in a German Beer Hall, not a fairytale theatre. I thought the theme of this area was Oktoberfest and that the theme of the Festhaus was a German Beer Hall, so I am not sure how anyone thought this would fit in.
I really hope you saved the old 2-level stage somewhere so you can re-install it after the end of this season. I don’t know who thought this show was a good idea, but I am very disappointed to see the old show gone. And pretty much everyone I talk to has not liked the show or has had lukewarm thoughts about it at best. I hope there is not an “Emperor’s New Clothes” situation going on there where you are only hearing people connected with this show or whomever developed it say that this show is good and not hearing any other opinions – this is mainly why I am writing to you (I am full of other opinions about the park experience if you ever want to hear them). I know you have sunk money into this, so get some value out of your investment and move the new show to the Globe Theater (where I probably still would not watch it, but at least it would put something there) and please bring back This Is Oktoberfest.
Thanks,
Mike
 
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RE: Entwined: Tales of Good and Grimm (2012)

First off, welcome to the forums!

Anyway, I'd say to print it, sign it, and mail it. Letters always get more attention than emails.

Busch Gardens Virginia
1 Busch Gardens Blvd.
Williamsburg, Va. 23187

mdb07 said:
I really hope you saved the old 2-level stage somewhere so you can re-install it after the end of this season.
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Sadly, from what I've been told, it has been scrapped. :(
 
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RE: Entwined: Tales of Good and Grimm (2012)

CarterGee said:
Guys. Every single show in this building has been "cute" but only "okay." Don't confuse THIS as a replacement for something much better than what it is
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Finally, an expert! Do enlighten us on every single show the Festhaus has seen since 1976, and how they differed...
 
RE: Entwined: Tales of Good and Grimm (2012)

This my be true, but the past show didn't turn our replica beer hall into a children's fairy tale forest. Also, even for a children's show it's pretty mediocre.
 
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RE: Entwined: Tales of Good and Grimm (2012)

The only thing worse than someone who hates everything is someone who loves everything.

Carter, if the stereotypical question posed to some of us is whether anything the park does could please us, the question that has to be put to you is whether anything the park does could ever be wrong in your eyes.

I want the place to be great. I was not in love with This is Oktoberfest, and, though you may not believe it, I actually encourage shows to get replaced, more often than they actually are. I get excited to hear that new shows are getting set up, including Entwined. But if the end product is lack-luster, what should be said? I don't get paid to cheerlead everything they do at BGW.
 
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