Are you calling him a liar? He provided videos that seemingly show he was there.
Food and Wine Festival 2021
- Thread starter Gavin
- Start date
Are you calling him a liar? He provided videos that seemingly show he was there.
Not a liar. I know he was there even without the video but he has a history of sugar coating the Covid situation and even dying things related it and his report doesn't fully meet with the reality of what I and many others witnessed. I fully believe he was there but believe that he picked and chose what he showed to convey the message that he wanted rather than to the full situation. Specially I wonder why that video was shot from right after passing the French Quarter both and Griffon both of which had sizeable lines most of the day.
It’s when I thought to start recording. That’s the crowd I saw throughout the day. I never saw a Verbolten line on the bridge, except from before Verbolten was open and people were lining up.
The Jamaica line was headed towards the steel drum player and wasn’t a long line (6-7 groups in line). It’s a big park. Is it possible to just have two different experiences?
It could also be that 60° means different things to different people. Some say it’s cold & need a jacket, others wear short sleeves.
My wife echoes that it was way less busy than Christmas Celebration was this year. Davinci’s Cradle, Turkish Delight, all Sesame Street, Der Wirblewind, Battering Ram, Little Ballons all were either walk on or waiting a single cycle. I was specific that Verbolten & Finnegan’s were long waits. For food, seemed like register training was the biggest miss. Food was ready, just waited to order.
You said: “ Again you could not have missed these things if you were there.”
But then you said you know he was there.
But you’re not saying he was lying? But then you question why he took a video at certain times?
I don’t know man...I think it’d just be easier to admit you think he’s lying about his park experience because you don’t like his COVID views.
I don’t see what he would gain by lying about what he saw....
I know I’m not going until BG figures this out. Seems pretty evident that the food portions of the park have ridiculously long lines and that BG needs to staff up in a big way to handle the demand.
I’m happy that the crowd sizes are larger though...gotta make the $$$ to stay afloat.
Who comes up with these names? Also they seem to be lying about there being a special rate for Members and Pass Holders.
Odd names for sure. I do see a discount when I’m signed in under my membership though.
The job of Park Guide, Food & Wine Crawl will be the most variable in the park, right?
You're a guide. You get a random group to walk around with for four hours as they become lightly toasted and you remain every bit as sober as the moment you arrived for work. If they're a great crew, you may have an all-time classic half-day on the job. If you get a boorish, obnoxious, mask-averse, dully silent, or otherwise bad gaggle of up to six shambling handbrakes, you'll be crawling out of your skin for four solid hours while fielding and fencing in their worst Dark & Stormy assisted impulses.
Everyone in public-facing jobs has to deal with a wide variety of people, from terrific/cheery/understanding to incensed/entitled/wholly irrational. Rare is the theme park job that requires dealing with the same small group, whatever their disposition, for four straight hours.
How many of the 15 included samples can be alcoholic? They give you a complimentary festival glass... I wonder if the crawl is timed and spaced to minimize the cumulative impact of the sipping half of "sip and savor." Another way to put it is, I wonder if there is really any way to time and space the crawl to solve for that, particularly when guiding low-tolerance crawlers. I suspect there aren't a ton of practical degrees of freedom there, short of just limiting guests to some small total count of boozy bevs.
As I recall from past tours, many (most? all?) of the guides have "day jobs" at the park, leading tours on a side rotation of sorts that adds to or replaces hours vs. their standard role(s). The stories these Food & Wine Crawl guides must be destined to bring back to their coworker friends in April and May...
You're a guide. You get a random group to walk around with for four hours as they become lightly toasted and you remain every bit as sober as the moment you arrived for work. If they're a great crew, you may have an all-time classic half-day on the job. If you get a boorish, obnoxious, mask-averse, dully silent, or otherwise bad gaggle of up to six shambling handbrakes, you'll be crawling out of your skin for four solid hours while fielding and fencing in their worst Dark & Stormy assisted impulses.
Everyone in public-facing jobs has to deal with a wide variety of people, from terrific/cheery/understanding to incensed/entitled/wholly irrational. Rare is the theme park job that requires dealing with the same small group, whatever their disposition, for four straight hours.
How many of the 15 included samples can be alcoholic? They give you a complimentary festival glass... I wonder if the crawl is timed and spaced to minimize the cumulative impact of the sipping half of "sip and savor." Another way to put it is, I wonder if there is really any way to time and space the crawl to solve for that, particularly when guiding low-tolerance crawlers. I suspect there aren't a ton of practical degrees of freedom there, short of just limiting guests to some small total count of boozy bevs.
As I recall from past tours, many (most? all?) of the guides have "day jobs" at the park, leading tours on a side rotation of sorts that adds to or replaces hours vs. their standard role(s). The stories these Food & Wine Crawl guides must be destined to bring back to their coworker friends in April and May...
I have heard extremely bad things about the current state of culinary's up management or lack there of given what I am hearing I am not sure why the park thought that this event was a good idea.
I'm not gonna say that it's time to kill this off (because it is an awesome event), but maybe they should look at trying to 'outsource' some on these different pavilions and/or reduce the number of pavilions and focus on quality.
11 areas, about 50ish total dishes, and 40ish drinks to be able to master and do to a high level is nearly impossible for one staff. I'd like to see them maybe simplify some to an Asian stand, Caribbean stand, South American Stand, and African stand. 4 distinct areas outside of their regular European eateries. 3 main dishes, 4 "finger foods" is 28 different things to worry about. Especially if you can get a specific chef that specializes in those foods would be huge. Maybe add in about 10-ish drink stands all around with "prepackaged" foods everywhere (like have an Aussie stand with drinks and still Four'N Twenty Meat pies). So find a couple of countries like that to represent and you can get some unique foods that you don't have to worry about prepping.
11 areas, about 50ish total dishes, and 40ish drinks to be able to master and do to a high level is nearly impossible for one staff. I'd like to see them maybe simplify some to an Asian stand, Caribbean stand, South American Stand, and African stand. 4 distinct areas outside of their regular European eateries. 3 main dishes, 4 "finger foods" is 28 different things to worry about. Especially if you can get a specific chef that specializes in those foods would be huge. Maybe add in about 10-ish drink stands all around with "prepackaged" foods everywhere (like have an Aussie stand with drinks and still Four'N Twenty Meat pies). So find a couple of countries like that to represent and you can get some unique foods that you don't have to worry about prepping.
Before COVID their main problem was consistency. They rarely had long lines at the booths and staffing appeared fine.
This year they only have about 25 dishes and fewer booths. Additionally, the F&WF seems to have replaced several normal restaurants, which is a new issue.
Admittedly, it is earlier in the season this year, which might limit the number of people available to work. So, if they keep it in April in the future, it could become a more systemic problem. That said, I wouldn‘t make assumptions based this F&WF about whether they need to implement mitigation strategies.
Hopefully, next year they will have all of their booths back and all of their restaurants up and running. I think that would address the capacity issues we are seeing this season.
This year they only have about 25 dishes and fewer booths. Additionally, the F&WF seems to have replaced several normal restaurants, which is a new issue.
Admittedly, it is earlier in the season this year, which might limit the number of people available to work. So, if they keep it in April in the future, it could become a more systemic problem. That said, I wouldn‘t make assumptions based this F&WF about whether they need to implement mitigation strategies.
Hopefully, next year they will have all of their booths back and all of their restaurants up and running. I think that would address the capacity issues we are seeing this season.
For some reason Brazil and Mexico booths are closed. Lines for the other booths are longggggg
Getting quite annoyed with this event.
Considering it’s focused on food you’d think it’s possible to get some food without standing in line for an hour.
Can’t even get any refills on my soda because almost all the places doing soda refills are closed.
Considering it’s focused on food you’d think it’s possible to get some food without standing in line for an hour.
Can’t even get any refills on my soda because almost all the places doing soda refills are closed.
This event is solid given the current times with Covid. The way BGW is producing this event is crap! I was very disappointed in the park today. It is clear they are in it for the money and not the best interest in their guests. The husband and I got to the park right at opening today at 10am. We had a good two hours in the park with minimal waits. By 12 the park was a disaster. Lines for everything. Not just any lines, but at least 30 - 60 minute waits for everything. All the food booths were crazy, you couldn’t do any rides, and most eating places other than Festhaus and Pretzel World were closed, giving guests limited dining options. It’s almost as if the park was encouraging people to do the booths and not the main eateries.
We left by 1 because we couldn’t do anything without being in a line that barely moved. Some booths only had one cashier working and two booths were closed. If BGW wants to hold this type of event they need the staff to support it. It was clear lack of staffing was the main problem. Get the rides open, staff the booths, and staff the restaurants.
If they want to charge members when they were closed and give them this in return and they want to charge the GP to attend this event, make it enjoyable. Today was not fun and I am disappointed in my home park!
We left by 1 because we couldn’t do anything without being in a line that barely moved. Some booths only had one cashier working and two booths were closed. If BGW wants to hold this type of event they need the staff to support it. It was clear lack of staffing was the main problem. Get the rides open, staff the booths, and staff the restaurants.
If they want to charge members when they were closed and give them this in return and they want to charge the GP to attend this event, make it enjoyable. Today was not fun and I am disappointed in my home park!
I thought KD was foolish waiting until late May to open, but at this rate they may end up being saviors, while BGW burns a lot of goodwill along the way.
New poster here! My family and I were at the park yesterday (4/3) for the 10am-4pm session and had a nice time! Definitely echo some of the sentiments here..
- Food and drinks from the festival were all really tasty. Particular standouts were everything at French Quarter, Cannoli at Italy, Hawaiian Mac n Cheese, and Apple Pie Moonshine at Virginia. Bad part - SO understaffed. Most booths with one cashier and lines extending forever (Virginia and Island Freeze excluded), staff seemed underwhelmed and like they needed more training (multiple issues with the Sampler cards and orders taken incorrectly). Did every booth except for Mediterranean (and the two that were closed, see number 2)
- Mexico and Brazil never opened.. I understand that staffing is difficult given all that is going on but to advertise things and not open them at all is... bad show? We had a team member in New France tell us that booths were "opening slowly" this year... not the best advertisement for the event.
- Rode Apollo (x2), Griffon, Verbolten, and Invadr. LOVE all four of these coasters. Apollo and Griffon had extremely slow load times and ops, lines moved very quickly for Verbolten and Invadr.
- Did eat at Festhaus late in the day (food was awful, beer was good!) and went to Grogan's. Grogan's for drinks and relaxing is always a favorite.