Mardi Gras 2022
- Thread starter super7
- Start date
They announced they will be closed tomorrow due to inclement weather.
Squires was removed from the event line-up. Trappers was open with one serving line (first time it had been open for Mardi Gras this year). Fudge Shop in England was open instead of Annie’s Cafe.
I guess I'm just writing about my observations. They seemed to arbitrarily open and close several places in the 3 hours we were there. I don't much care that the Fudge Shop in England opened when I am in Ireland. I'm not walking back to get a cup of coffee. The advertisement said they would have Annie's open; it wasn't. When we walked through Ireland the Abby Stone Theatre snack stand was open. When we came back through; it was closed. The only part of Trappers that was open was the grill which was part of Mardi Gras. Glad they opened it later. Maybe, just maybe somebody wised up enough to realize the Mardi Gras food places were being overwhelmed. I guess my issue is if you advertise and push an email flyer that a place is open; then it should be open. People seem to get irate if their favorite ride is closed for no apparent reason. My observation is it's not just rides. It's every place. Don't tell me you are opening someplace and then don't open it. Just not the way to good relations with paying guests who will probably conclude it's not worth coming back.
Maybe the big corporate people from Seas need to make an unannounced visit and see exactly what is going on. If they are responsible than let them experience what every visitor to the park has to deal with. No escorting to the front of the lines. Let them wait like everybody else.
Maybe the big corporate people from Seas need to make an unannounced visit and see exactly what is going on. If they are responsible than let them experience what every visitor to the park has to deal with. No escorting to the front of the lines. Let them wait like everybody else.
This has always been my gripe....you never know what you are going to get. I understand and get it, when crowds are low things close but when you have people that plan crowds and whet to open for your company and advertie that then thats what should be offered to you when you take your time and spend money to travel to a park. Reguardless what people say about this being a event for locals when you have gas prices the way they are now if I drive 1 hour roundtrip to the park its like $30 in fuel.
I"m of two minds on this:
For guests it really sucks. SEAS should develop a better system and app to better communicate what is going on, what's open, what's closed. I think it really sucks when you go to the park for one reason and it's not available, despite small writing saying it may not be available. It sucks when things randomly open and close on a whim.
But at the same time it's hard on the park. They are advertising a partial experience yet guests are showing up expecting the full experience. They can't offer everything everywhere in what's supposed to be a limited event. Weather isn't something that they can control yet guests are getting pissed when the weather forces closures.
Personally I think the best bet would be to dump the Mardi Gras theme. Pick a major celebration from each country (like Oktoberfest, Bastille Day, Guy Fawks Night, St. Patricks, Liberation day) to theme the areas after. Do some unique foods in each area. Have some unique one off perch with each celebration. But then I would go with a generic menu across every other eatery. A pizza dish, a sausage dish, a burger dish, and something else like a vegetarian dish. I think this would help with a ton of the complaints I'm seeing of the food and theme elements. Additionally this is why I'm big on them adding more flats and family rides, because that would add a bunch of things that could be guaranteed to be open year round. I would advertise everything but coasters being open and let it be a bonus to have one or two open.
For guests it really sucks. SEAS should develop a better system and app to better communicate what is going on, what's open, what's closed. I think it really sucks when you go to the park for one reason and it's not available, despite small writing saying it may not be available. It sucks when things randomly open and close on a whim.
But at the same time it's hard on the park. They are advertising a partial experience yet guests are showing up expecting the full experience. They can't offer everything everywhere in what's supposed to be a limited event. Weather isn't something that they can control yet guests are getting pissed when the weather forces closures.
Personally I think the best bet would be to dump the Mardi Gras theme. Pick a major celebration from each country (like Oktoberfest, Bastille Day, Guy Fawks Night, St. Patricks, Liberation day) to theme the areas after. Do some unique foods in each area. Have some unique one off perch with each celebration. But then I would go with a generic menu across every other eatery. A pizza dish, a sausage dish, a burger dish, and something else like a vegetarian dish. I think this would help with a ton of the complaints I'm seeing of the food and theme elements. Additionally this is why I'm big on them adding more flats and family rides, because that would add a bunch of things that could be guaranteed to be open year round. I would advertise everything but coasters being open and let it be a bonus to have one or two open.
I will say, the food at O'Tator's was again consistently really good. I was afraid that wouldn't be the case (as Busch Gardens inconsistency is its most consistent feature), but the Étouffée was so good.
Beautiful pictures but it's time for my seasonal rant.
The clock is beautiful and special and really sets the mood for that part of the park so BGW COULD YOU PLEASE JUST LEAVE THE THING ALONE!!! I mean seriously stop messing with it every dam event before you break it even more then you already have.
I really miss when BGW could just be Busch Gardens with its yesteryear European theming and rides and good food and landscaping. And that was world class and more than enough.
I, personally, don't understand the need for these events and dressing the park up with tinsel and serving a spoonful of food they don't normally serve expecting to draw people to the park in the middle of winter. I am not against year round operations but I believe it needs a lot of work.
I, personally, don't understand the need for these events and dressing the park up with tinsel and serving a spoonful of food they don't normally serve expecting to draw people to the park in the middle of winter. I am not against year round operations but I believe it needs a lot of work.
I was there on Saturday and Trappers was open every time I walked by it.
A large part of stuff closing is out of BGWs control on single day basis. Let's estimate that to open everything listed they need 150 employees to work on a day. What happens if 25 of them don't show up or are late? There are going to be things that don't open or open late. It's the same thing if someone is sick or has an emergency and they need to leave. Sometimes that means that something has to be closed early.
They need to move people across the entire park to ensure that all locations have the minimum amount they need to operate. It's never as simple as you are making it out to be. BGW schedules and staffs locations and then might not open them because of employees not showing up or being late. They can't really control who decides they don't want to show up on a given day.
I went Friday. Seasonably warm, only flawed by the late opening; I carried my jacket for an hour and then was glad to have it. Still only a small crowd, within one parking lot. Apollo ran one train which was just right if it can be. Yet still could be a 20 minute wait just to pay for the samplers. They also didn't open the Festa location (ice cream was open).
Saw the Samba Jamboree show, sounded good and was silly. Also watching it gave some time for the Skyride to open around 4, your best transpo now on a slack enough day.
Saw the Samba Jamboree show, sounded good and was silly. Also watching it gave some time for the Skyride to open around 4, your best transpo now on a slack enough day.
If this was a once in a while thing and they were upfront about and say due to staffing shortages today then I would give them a pass.....but they cant do that week after week.....but its a week after week day after day issue. They need to stop over advertising their offerings if they cant figure out how to properly staff them. They need to over staff then based on projected callouts if that is the issue.....but its not its about money. They dont want to spend a penny more than they can squeeze by with. Pay employees more, offer full time positions with benifits to attract retired people that want a more reliable job. Then when they show up for a shift dont send them home early after driving 30 inutes just because not many people decided to come to the park today Do you think Walmart dosent have callouts every day and every shift? But you dont see them closing the deli or bakery because someone called out sick.
Ill say this, ive been going to BGW for a long time, ive been a passholder since the early 90s and there are very very few team members I see regularly at the park and even fewer from season to season. Now I look at Disney and Universal.....I can go year after year and see the same person working the same position. Heck Hersheypark is the same way.......why dont I see the same team members at BGW enjoying their job and coming back season after season?
I am hearing that attendance was over 9 THOUSAND Saturday which was more then double whT the park had planned for. I also heard that the park completely used up the food that they had prepared for the event last week and that that was part of the reason for the weather closer for Sunday.
That definitely checks out. When I rolled out of the park at 5:45pm on Saturday, England, France, and Germany parking lots were all FULL of cars still (probably 90% of spaces were taken). Verbolten's line went through the majority of the extended queue, Skyride line in England went through all the back and forth corals and out into Sesame, Festhaus seating was mostly full, and Mardi Gras food stand lines were outrageous. It was great to see that there is demand for the park on days when the weather isn't half bad, but yeah, it was busy.
That one flag in the fountain really conveys the level of care BGW shows nowadays.
So, was at BGW yesterday for MG and saw a new sign in front of the Pottery Barn. The sign was for "grab and go" food so I had to go in and look. They had a glass front fridge with various items, and some sandwitches. The sandwitches were 2 pieces of loaf bread with like ham or turkey cut in half and pre packeaged for $12.99 if I remember correctly. That is insane pricing, its the same sandwitch you would get from a interstate vending machine for probably $5.00 which is still overpriced.
The park was pretty busy but I have to say, the event this year compared to last year sucks royally. With the Italy bridge out I basiclly made two laps by having to double back, not once did I see any beads. The stilt people were out, but entertainment to me was lacking. The foods I tried were shit......the crawfish boil for $9...2 crawfish, 1 potato and a small ear of corn that was just over a inch long. Other things tasted like they had been sittingin giant kettles and were just turning to mush. The Shrimp Po Boy had good bread but the shrimp looked and tasted like something you bought at the grocery store and warmed up in the oven. I stopped at the booth in France but sonce they were cooking beingets to order the loooong line didnt move in the 10 minutes I stood in it. The sounds of backup alarms from the painting going on over at Alpe got annoyong as well. Weather was perfect and it looked like everything was open. The cars are back on the arms at The Flying Machine. Painting was going on at Tradewinds, the new colors in Germany I liked but I heard many negative comments when just hanging out in the area. I even heard one person say "thats just primer theres no way they would paint anything that color orange". Last oddity for today...parking. The general was in the lot closest to the print kiosks. Preferred was in the bus lot. They gave me preferred but I just parked in the general lot, right in the front row because I had to print out the members sampler vouchers, why have to walk all that extra way just so you could prk in "preferred".
The park was pretty busy but I have to say, the event this year compared to last year sucks royally. With the Italy bridge out I basiclly made two laps by having to double back, not once did I see any beads. The stilt people were out, but entertainment to me was lacking. The foods I tried were shit......the crawfish boil for $9...2 crawfish, 1 potato and a small ear of corn that was just over a inch long. Other things tasted like they had been sittingin giant kettles and were just turning to mush. The Shrimp Po Boy had good bread but the shrimp looked and tasted like something you bought at the grocery store and warmed up in the oven. I stopped at the booth in France but sonce they were cooking beingets to order the loooong line didnt move in the 10 minutes I stood in it. The sounds of backup alarms from the painting going on over at Alpe got annoyong as well. Weather was perfect and it looked like everything was open. The cars are back on the arms at The Flying Machine. Painting was going on at Tradewinds, the new colors in Germany I liked but I heard many negative comments when just hanging out in the area. I even heard one person say "thats just primer theres no way they would paint anything that color orange". Last oddity for today...parking. The general was in the lot closest to the print kiosks. Preferred was in the bus lot. They gave me preferred but I just parked in the general lot, right in the front row because I had to print out the members sampler vouchers, why have to walk all that extra way just so you could prk in "preferred".
Are there not still kiosks down by the gates? I could've sworn last time I went there was one down there off to the side for precisely this reason.