Event Holiday in the Park

[GoHokies87]

For what it is worth, I 100% do NOT go for the shows or food.  I go for the lights.  And trust me, if I didn't have to drive down to Williamsburg, I wouldn't.

Perhaps I wasn't clear. Not all people go for all three things(I doubt most do). I am confident in saying that MOST people go for at least ONE of the listed reasons. For the second point, I'm simply guessing that a six flags park with Christmas lights, won't exactly serve as a proper substitute for "the world's most beautiful theme park" with millions of Christmas lights.

I think that the best course for six flags here is to find a way to create an event that works for their park. Perhaps focusing more on a type of "winter fair" sort of event. Thoughts?

 

[Nicole]

I actually agree that SFA likely won't be able to compete with BGW in terms of quality, but I am willing to wait and see.

Admittedly, I am not a Six Flags expert, but they have never struck me as a "family" park, so I think more young adult holiday attractions would make sense?

 

[Mushroom]

Also, since the event is given the more generic "Holiday in the Park" branding rather than a specifically-Christmas theme, perhaps SFA's event may appeal more to the area's non-Christian demographic.

 

[horsesboy]

For what it is worth, I 100% do NOT go for the shows or food.  I go for the lights.  And trust me, if I didn't have to drive down to Williamsburg, I wouldn't.

I am a little puzzled by that there are drive through light shows in Manassas and a very nice one out at Meadow Event park next to KD. What makes Christmas Town more appealing?

 

[Pretzel Kaiser]

I would actually considering going to this if they had some coasters open.

 

[MAZ]

Meadow event drive through has about as much 'atmosphere' as a turkey shoot. No comparison there. The music that the lights are sync' up to is absolutely atrocious. Not to mention the lack of ice in their ice skating rink. Yes....it is plastic. Not ice.

 

[Zimmy]

The drive through lights here in VA Beach/ ORF are spectacular, as is the xmas village at the beach!

 

[Nicole]

The Christmas Village was terrifying.

 

[Zimmy]

delightfully so!

 

[Zachary]

Pictures! Many, many pictures!

[facebook=https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.787559441382484.1073741826.123383461133422&type=1&l=a2d94f726c]

 

[Shane]

Fantastic collection of photos. Their Holiday event looks amazing!

 

[Nicole]

Here is the flier for the 2017 SFA Holiday at the Park.

It was a fun little event last year with some clever light displays, and some surprisingly good food.  I'm very curious to see what they do with it this year.

Additionally, they have said that there will be a holiday VR overlay on one of their coasters.

 

[Nicole]

SFA just emailed another announcement:

A dazzling winter spectacular featuring more than a million glittering lights, holiday entertainment, delicious seasonal treats, visits with Santa and many of our popular theme park rides. Combine holiday traditions with a thrilling family experience that is uniquely Six Flags.

Six Flags America extends its season and will be open weekends and select weekdays from November 18, 2017 through January 1, 2018 for this one-of-a-kind magical event.

 

[horsesboy]

I went tonight and will post a full writeup of my thoughts in the morning but in briefsummary it was a mixed bag.

 

[horsesboy]

Alright here it goes. Let me start by mentioning that last night was EXTREMELY cold and that the weather definitely had an effect on the event.

First the good. There were a number of rides open including both Roar and Wild One. Fireball was open along with all of the flats in the part of the park that was open with the exception of the water rides. They also usually had both Mind Eraser and their spinning family coaster open but those were closed do to the temps last night. The parts of the park that were open were fantastically decorated. I especially liked the candle lit area where they had the manger scene and main street.. After dark the normally western themed part of the park does make a fairly nice looking North Pole.

The mixed bag part of it. While the ham dinner that I had at the restaurant that has the dinner show was good most of the places seemed to just have either standard park food. The shows were by in large OK to poor in production with the stunt show being your normal cheap SF stunt/comedy thing that largely fails in both ends with a Christmas over lay. The one exception to this was the Home of Christmas show. Maybe it’s because I have witnessed some of the issues first hand of a love one deployed in theater over the holiday season and just got suckered into the theme having just seen a friends family dealing with it but I really liked this show and my only real complaint was that the actor that was suppose to be playing a teenage boy was clearly in his twenties at best and just could not convincingly play the roll.

Now on to the bad. There is still plenty of the over sponsorship of SF flags on display. The most glaring example of this was Santa’s House which had two fairly large signs proclaiming Santa’s House sponsored by Peeps . The other thing with Santa’s house was that since it was after Christmas he was gone which was fine except the only thing that they did was close the doors and put up a large sign that read Santa is back at the North Poll and then the number of days till Christmas. It just really felt odd to see it like that. Space in the park to is also a bit of a let down they close off the park at Wild One so a small park becomes a tiny park.. Also even in the part of the park that was open they were littered with closed game booths and food places some of that might have been the cold and the low crowd numbers but much of it looked like it had not been opened at all which gave a kind of down feeling to the whole event.

Over all I found the event OK if a little bit of a let down. It was better then what my first expectations were when it was announced last year but not as good as what I had hoped after seeing other peoples pictures from last year. If I am in town next year I might go again but for me it’s not worth the drive up just to do it and I likely will stick with BGW or KD next year.

One note in closing is I did get a season pass this year when they had the labor day sale and I will have to say I am pleased with the improvements the park has made since I was there 3 years ago. The park appears much cleaner and nicer then it did at that time. While still the lower of the 3 regional parks it’s made big strides in the right direction in my oppion.

 

[Nicole]

You know, I think I never shared my thoughts from this year's event. Thanks for your trip report, horsesboy! Maybe I should take a few minutes to capture my impressions, as well.

I really like the tree lighting ceremony at the start of the evening. They didn't turn the path lights on, until then, so the park lit up all at once.

As I mentioned before, I think, I really appreciate the multiculturalism at SFA's event. Hershey's includes multiple winter holidays, as well, but at is at the moment, SFA stands out regionally.

I also thought the addition of the s'mores fire pits was was clever. I didn't try them, because I was full from the food at the Saloon, so I can't report on the taste.

The hot chocolate was improved from last year, as well. It still isn't fantastic, but it is certainly much better.

I think the lights are nice. Clearly, they aren't on par with BGW, but neither are the displays at Dollywood and Hershey, in my opinion. I especially like the candy cane lights on the trees close to the front of the park.

 

[Nicole]

We just went to SFA for Holiday in the Park, and I was once again charmed by the event.

I think they do a very nice job with the lights and decor. There are overlays on several of the rides, shops, and restaurants. The candy cane area is still my favorite. There is special holiday food, including turkey and ham. I especially enjoyed the s’mores making fire pits. I was a bit bummed that the bar in the Mardi Gras area was closed, because the hot cocktails looks really interesting, but given how empty the park was, I can’t say I was surprised.

It is worth noting that everything outside of Gotham and the train-themed kiddie area was open, including the coasters (I love Roar and Wild One).

As ever, I think SFA is vastly underrated and worth a visit.

 

[Thomas]

It was a good value and a great change of scenery from Christmas Town. The s’mores were fun, I’m particular about my marshmallows so I liked being able to roast it to my liking. There were some fun lighting displays and holiday themed signage and ride names. Definitely a shame about the bar, all those cocktails sounded great.

 

[Crunchewy]

Hoping to get there maybe this weekend, but so much is going on for us that I'm not sure we're going to be able to fit it in

 

[Crunchewy]

Actually, I lied. We are now planning to go on Monday night. I didn't realize they were going to be open then. I wonder what the crowds will be like (school will be out)?

Most looking forward to night rides on Roar, The Wild One, the antique cars (which I have never seen/even realized they had them) and the marshmallow roasting! Do they have lights set up in the antique cars ride?