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Yes, seeing legit costumes throughout the entire park would be awesome. However, I don't want to necessarily walk up and down a platform in 100 degree weather wearing a kilt, wool coat, knee high socks, a beret, and carrying around bagpipes. I see what you're saying, and I think we coukd probably agree that what we wear are themed uniforms.
 
Gropplo said:
Yes, seeing legit costumes throughout the entire park would be awesome. However, I don't want to necessarily walk up and down a platform in 100 degree weather wearing a kilt, wool coat, knee high socks, a beret, and carrying around bagpipes. I see what you're saying, and I think we coukd probably agree that what we wear are themed uniforms.

I agree, a little extra theming to the uniforms for operators and other workers would be nice but it would be overkill to have them wearing similar costumes as performers. (Nessie's operators don't need to wear kilts and Alpie's operators don't need to wear lederhosen.)
 
Gropplo said:
Really?! I don't remember last year...but no they wear pants now

See, man? They USED to wear kilts then they switched to pants. How lame. Also, the fact that they wore kilts means that at some point, someone thought ride ops should be wearing costumes, not uniforms. That person was right. This is case-in-point about the slide some of us are talking about.

If it were me, it'd be like this: obviously we're dealing with some anachronism, from word one. I mean, I talk about "destroying the illusion," but, I mean, to my knowledge, there weren't any roller coasters in Ancient Rome, anyway. So, the idea then isn't really to convince the rider that they are in the ancient city, it's to reenforce the tongue-in-cheek aspect of the thing. Probably I'd make 3-4 different roman-themed costumes, and each op could pick one to wear. Would they be authentic period pieces? No. Would they be button-down bowling shirts and knee-shorts? Definitely not.

Man, kilts. See, as a guest, I see kilts and go "wow, look a that, the ops are wearing kilts. What a cool detail. This place is cool." I see pants and think "oh...black slacks...how...Scotish?"

By the way, this has been a great discussion.
 
I'd agree with you on the point that I would have rather they kept the kilts (really just plaid skirts, btw), however, to be honest I didn't even notice it until this thread got me thinking about it.

I disagree strongly with the notion that the park is somehow going in the wrong "direction" theme-wise. Just look at the past two seasons. The addition of Illuminights adds 2 full months of heavy theming throughout the park, with 4 new themed shows. The revamp of the Highland stables and Tweedside gifts has made that area decidedly more "Scottish." Oktoberfest has been completely redone with new decor, a new ride (eventually), a new shop, 3 new staging areas (shows), new games, etc. The new coaster is expected to be heavily themed. They took the Sesame movie out of England and brought Pirates 4D back. They replaced the Elmo dinner (now lunch only) in Ireland with a Celtic Fyre dinner. You could also throw in the addition of Christmastown, which I think everyone could agree doesn't have a problem with theming.

I don't see how it's reasonable to conclude after all of the changes/additions from the past two years that the park is somehow on a "slide" away from strong theming.
 
I agree. The park was definitely losing it there forma little, nut I think it's regaining it's mojo
 
Basically the park is kinda steeping away from the whole European theme...while not ditching it completely, they're just reinventing themselves through different themes.
 
To me it seems less like they are TRYING to reach some new over all appearance goal and more that they are trying to appeal to as large a group as possible. 15 years ago when most of the outfits were themed "costumes" appropriate for a specific work location, it was obvious that the goal was to immerse the guest in the atmosphere to make them feel like they were actually there. Now, it seems like maybe they want to find a new balance between immersion and thrill, to appeal to as many people as they can. The guests that want a prettier than average "Park" experience will appreciate the themes that are still used, while newer, younger, or just plan thrill oriented customers (on average) won't care one way or another. My guess is that it's cheaper to order, in bulk, a bunch of bowling shirts than it is to create and maintain "themed costumes" for every employee.

Just like everything, some people will hate stuff and some people will love stuff. I doubt the outfitting of the employees will affect the bottom line to any significant measure, so I can't imagine it changing much based on public opinion.
 
The costuming department creates all of the costumes... not just for entertainment, all costumes (with the exception of the pant/shorts)... I know this because I know one of the ladies who makes all the costumes

EDIT: About the new shirts, BG probably wanted to change things up a bit (I wish they would change the festa/italy costumes, they have been around since the 80's)
 
I haven't been to the park this season, so if they've made advances in the theming this year, then I wouldn't know about them. In my view, though, there's been a dip. Look:

England: replaced Pirates with Elmo. Not English. I understand Pirates is back now though, so that's good.
Scotland: kilts, though honestly Scotland has never had much of an identity. It should have one, though.
Ireland: by far the worst offender. I don't count Europe in the Air as a plus for the theming, because it is in IRELAND. They dropped an Irish show for a "Europe" show (which isn't any good). They had Elmo in the place of what used to be a killer Irish themed show. Then they replaced Elmo with a Celtic Fyre show...but Celtic Fyre is decidedly less "Irish" feeling that were Emerald Beat and Irish Thunder.
France: Imaginique is gone. Kinetix was not French. I understand that Royal Palace is looked at as sort of a non-country area, but it's not exactly like they've out anything great in there, regardless of country.
Germany: no problem, actually, although, some things I've heard about the Oktoberfest changes have been less than flattering. Still, I'll reserve judgement.
Italy: You have an italian theater suitable for an Italian dinner show. What do you put in this space? Some rainbow colored chefs? I know, they play "Italian standards" but I mean, if Chuck E. Cheese starts singing African folk-music, does that make Chuck E. Cheese an "African themed" restaurant?


I think mostly I am disappointed by what I see as missed opportunities. If you're going to replace something, replace it with something better. If you're going to have a theme, get the most that you can out of it. What separates a true theme park from one of the many amusement parks that masquerade as theme parks is devotion to the concept. If I were giving out grades, it'd go like this:

Magic Kingdom gets an A.
KD gets a D-.
I'd give BGW a B-.

The only problem with that, of course, is that I think it's got B+ potential.
 
The "Costumes" are not nearly as important as the theming in the attractions, shows, food, and music. On those 100 degree days, the cast needs to be comfortable too. However, the park needs to maintain themes in the Hamlets. Scotland is great, as is England. Ireland could use an "Irish" attraction other than the Celtic Fyre show. France could use a Cirque style show in the large theater they have. Germany is doing just fine with the balance of theme and thrill. Italy could use a better "Italy" themed show but keeping the live music. I have an Idea, bring back "Holiday in Roma" and the Starlight Orchestra!
The Bottom line is Busch Gardens used to focus on having something for everyone in the family.. . it did it even better than Disney in my opinion. Everyone had (and has) awesome themed food. The Younger kids had the Land of the Dragons, but could still do a lot with the family. Older folks had the amazing shows and theming. The Teens had the thrills of Apollo's Chariot and Alpengeist. And the 20's and 30's folks had everything; The Shows, theming, roller coasters, food, and atmosphere. There was something for everyone.
I hope that the focus on something for everyone comes back after the year or 2 of Thrills.
 
Shafor said:
They used to last year.

That’s not even true. I have friends that worked at Nessie this year and last.... female friends and they didn’t wear kilts. Having said that, my brother worked at Loch Ness back I wanna say 6 years ago and the females didn’t wear kilts then either.

As for Alpengeist, they haven’t worn Lederhosen in many years.

Also, these changes aren’t necessarily related to a modernization of the park or movement away from being so “themed” it’s purely the fact that things have to be updated every so often and often they update in the favor of the team members as they find that the GP aren't so concerned with (e.g) Alpengeist TMs wearing red plaid shirts w/ Lederhosen vs. w/o.
 
There were definitely several female ride ops last season who wore plaid skirts (not specifically kilts). Maybe it was an option vs pants so not all of them wore them, but some definitely did. That is true. I haven't seen that this year though.
 
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