The bacon is extremely thick cut and long, coated in brown sugar. It really is totally tastey.
Star Spangled Nights
- Thread starter Thomas
- Start date
I've never had 'untasty' bacon before. Even burnt it is still edible. Selling 1 piece of it for the price of a whole pound is my problem with it. Spending big bucks on something unique is one thing, this is bacon we're talking about though. Even thick cut, they would double their money at $1.00 per slice.
The gross overcharging for fatty pork is really the American dream. 10/10 fits the theme.
What a shame we will soon have to say goodbye to San 'Murico and hello to San MaRRRco.
Matthew said:
Fixed that for you. Enjoy your few weeks of San Marco before it becomes San MAARRRRco.
Pirate puns. Giggle.
No because all they have to do is repaint the Canteen for Ports of Skull.
I'm hoping this year for HOS they deck out San Marco in American decorations everywhere. And there would be a bar and highly priced food. Wouldn't that just be terrifying? I'm glad the park will never do this, maybe Kings Dominion.
In all seriousness, I have to say Star Spangled Nights worked okay. I guess I should give a mini-review on my thoughts. EDIT: Maybe it's not so mini. 
I like the idea of having a "mini-event" concentrated to a single hamlet. Even if the event was absolutely phenomenal, I still think it's best fit for a single hamlet. SanMarco Murico may not be the best location for such an event, but its long stretch of land makes it an okay fit. Having the event isolated to one hamlet makes it seem more special and intimate, and leaves the rest of the park enjoyable for the main season.
The idea of an American event is a great idea. I love patriotism and honestly the European influence of the park, don't ask me why, feels like a good contrast for an American event. I don't know why. But I do like the idea for the event.
Just how was the "American" theme carried out? In a very Gasparich-y way. When I think of an American event, I think of sophisticated solutes to our military and the accomplishments of our country. This is how the park would have done it when they still had enough class to care about such things (think "Here's to the Heroes" but as an actual event). Before this event started, I compared pictures of an event saluting our armed forces to an event with a giant Uncle Sam balloon being showered with confetti. The whole thing was a joke, which is why it kind of upsets me that the latter idea actually came into fruition.
San Murico is decorated with gaudy Party City decorations, lots of red-white-and-blue garland, and two 50's diner-style eateries. So the event isn't really celebrating all of the heroic things our country does and has done at all, they're just celebrating a non-patriotic, cartoony, stereotypical hot dog-eating way of American life. They did that pretty well, but I think the better approach would have been the more respectful and honorable celebration of our country. It certainly would have made the event more meaningful to me, and the abundance of military families who could be touched by something like that.
Music plays a big role in how I experience a park, and when the music isn't what I think it should be it changes my whole experience (I'm looking at you, Candy Apple Grove). The stereotypical 1900's big American songs did not appeal to me; there was nothing patriotic about them, either. They took away all the class of the area. It's funny, simply changing that music to something like instrumental patriotic band music or marches to different military songs could have changed the entire event, even if everything else stayed the same. It would have put a patriotic spin to the event.
I kind of like the Statue of Liberty. I could have done without it, but it's a pretty cool centerpiece to the garden and it *sort of* makes sense. I never got to see the bald eagle encounter but I do think that is also a nice touch.
Basically my biggest gripe is how there is basically zero mention of the military at the event. It could have made it so much more touching if they had done so. At least have something as a tribute to our country's brave men and women. That's what we're supposed to be celebrating in July, anyway.
Finally, the fireworks. Holy Lord, those were spectacular. Everything about the fireworks were phenomenal. I liked them a lot better than the Illuminights fireworks to be honest. They did everything right. Like always, the setting over the Rhine is beautiful. But, the music is carefully orchestrated and perfectly synced with the fireworks. The actually patriotic music and inspirational quotes from different American heroes were beautiful. When the fireworks suddenly burst right at peak moments in the songs, I had the strongest sense of inspiration. It was mind-blowing and all-around spectacular. I recently saw KD's fireworks, which were also very good and played to a musical soundtrack, but BGW certainly has the upper hand in fireworks displays this year. BGW's was longer, more inspiring, had more musical interaction, and the display of the fireworks was just more sophisticated than KD. The fireworks show here was obviously very carefully planned out and actually made a show, as opposed to just a bunch of random fireworks in the sky. I hope they do not make a single change to this amazing fireworks performance.
All in all, while I was not an enormous fan of the daytime events in San Marco, the fireworks made the whole thing worth it. We actually visited twice (bringing friends and family along) just to see the fireworks again. That is what makes an event successful: when it makes you want to come back for more. And no, it wasn't a 20-foot Statue of Liberty that did that. It wasn't annoying old-fashioned American music that did that. It was the carefully thought-out, beautiful, touching fireworks display that did that. Let that be a note to Busch Gardens: you don't need all things big and showy to be successful, you just need to inspire the guests. You need to inspire them to do great things, to be awed by what you did, and in turn they will be inspired to bring you more money.
I like the idea of having a "mini-event" concentrated to a single hamlet. Even if the event was absolutely phenomenal, I still think it's best fit for a single hamlet. San
The idea of an American event is a great idea. I love patriotism and honestly the European influence of the park, don't ask me why, feels like a good contrast for an American event. I don't know why. But I do like the idea for the event.
Just how was the "American" theme carried out? In a very Gasparich-y way. When I think of an American event, I think of sophisticated solutes to our military and the accomplishments of our country. This is how the park would have done it when they still had enough class to care about such things (think "Here's to the Heroes" but as an actual event). Before this event started, I compared pictures of an event saluting our armed forces to an event with a giant Uncle Sam balloon being showered with confetti. The whole thing was a joke, which is why it kind of upsets me that the latter idea actually came into fruition.
San Murico is decorated with gaudy Party City decorations, lots of red-white-and-blue garland, and two 50's diner-style eateries. So the event isn't really celebrating all of the heroic things our country does and has done at all, they're just celebrating a non-patriotic, cartoony, stereotypical hot dog-eating way of American life. They did that pretty well, but I think the better approach would have been the more respectful and honorable celebration of our country. It certainly would have made the event more meaningful to me, and the abundance of military families who could be touched by something like that.
Music plays a big role in how I experience a park, and when the music isn't what I think it should be it changes my whole experience (I'm looking at you, Candy Apple Grove). The stereotypical 1900's big American songs did not appeal to me; there was nothing patriotic about them, either. They took away all the class of the area. It's funny, simply changing that music to something like instrumental patriotic band music or marches to different military songs could have changed the entire event, even if everything else stayed the same. It would have put a patriotic spin to the event.
I kind of like the Statue of Liberty. I could have done without it, but it's a pretty cool centerpiece to the garden and it *sort of* makes sense. I never got to see the bald eagle encounter but I do think that is also a nice touch.
Basically my biggest gripe is how there is basically zero mention of the military at the event. It could have made it so much more touching if they had done so. At least have something as a tribute to our country's brave men and women. That's what we're supposed to be celebrating in July, anyway.
Finally, the fireworks. Holy Lord, those were spectacular. Everything about the fireworks were phenomenal. I liked them a lot better than the Illuminights fireworks to be honest. They did everything right. Like always, the setting over the Rhine is beautiful. But, the music is carefully orchestrated and perfectly synced with the fireworks. The actually patriotic music and inspirational quotes from different American heroes were beautiful. When the fireworks suddenly burst right at peak moments in the songs, I had the strongest sense of inspiration. It was mind-blowing and all-around spectacular. I recently saw KD's fireworks, which were also very good and played to a musical soundtrack, but BGW certainly has the upper hand in fireworks displays this year. BGW's was longer, more inspiring, had more musical interaction, and the display of the fireworks was just more sophisticated than KD. The fireworks show here was obviously very carefully planned out and actually made a show, as opposed to just a bunch of random fireworks in the sky. I hope they do not make a single change to this amazing fireworks performance.
All in all, while I was not an enormous fan of the daytime events in San Marco, the fireworks made the whole thing worth it. We actually visited twice (bringing friends and family along) just to see the fireworks again. That is what makes an event successful: when it makes you want to come back for more. And no, it wasn't a 20-foot Statue of Liberty that did that. It wasn't annoying old-fashioned American music that did that. It was the carefully thought-out, beautiful, touching fireworks display that did that. Let that be a note to Busch Gardens: you don't need all things big and showy to be successful, you just need to inspire the guests. You need to inspire them to do great things, to be awed by what you did, and in turn they will be inspired to bring you more money.
I don't think completely decking out a hamlet to make it represent a different theme is the right thing to do. The park needs to find a way to make a special event without ruining the surrounding area with tacky decorations. San Marco is absolutely the worst hamlet you could choose to put decorations of any type in. It is almost un-debatably the most beautiful hamlet in the park. You can't just carelessly cover up, and take down important thematic elements of the park's most beautiful hamlets. Unless the park can find a way to put up decorations without doing this, they will remain in-capable of making, and successfully executing a Summer-time event.
Or the park could choose to decorate hamlets that don't serve a purpose to the European theme of the park. Jack Hanna's Wild Reserve would be perfect to decorate all American-like. The animals in the habitats are indigenous to the US. It would be a near perfect fit. New France would be a good place to put up American Decorations for the summer too.
However, before the park can even think of putting up these decorations, they need to make it less like a propaganda film from WWII, and more like an inspiring July 4th celebration. It should be more historically focused, but that doesn't mean focused on one specific time period in our history either. And like Joe said, honoring our military should be a big part of the event. Contrary to what the park thinks, dressing up bar-tenders in satin-glittery sailor costumes is NOT how you say "We love our Military personnel!" It's how you say "The military is over-rated, and should be mocked, meaning we don't respect or like the military."
The Bridge had some really good messaging, and a lot of interesting facts on it. However the decorations that were set up around those things, were some of the most tacky and cheap things I've seen come from the park. And that says a lot, considering we keep on saying Scott's ploys can't get any worse. The Bridge looked to be straight out of a Six Flags park, maybe even worse than that. The fireworks were awe inspiring, and just all around amazing.
Even if the park could pull off a good summer event. I stick by my stance that Summer-time events do absolutely nothing, other than take away from other park events that need all the money used on Porno Nights a lot more. You better think long and hard Busch Gardens before putting anything up during the Summer-time, because so far you have yet to pull off any type of successful summer time event. Or you could always just save the time and money for better and more useful things. You decide Busch Gardens.
Or the park could choose to decorate hamlets that don't serve a purpose to the European theme of the park. Jack Hanna's Wild Reserve would be perfect to decorate all American-like. The animals in the habitats are indigenous to the US. It would be a near perfect fit. New France would be a good place to put up American Decorations for the summer too.
However, before the park can even think of putting up these decorations, they need to make it less like a propaganda film from WWII, and more like an inspiring July 4th celebration. It should be more historically focused, but that doesn't mean focused on one specific time period in our history either. And like Joe said, honoring our military should be a big part of the event. Contrary to what the park thinks, dressing up bar-tenders in satin-glittery sailor costumes is NOT how you say "We love our Military personnel!" It's how you say "The military is over-rated, and should be mocked, meaning we don't respect or like the military."
The Bridge had some really good messaging, and a lot of interesting facts on it. However the decorations that were set up around those things, were some of the most tacky and cheap things I've seen come from the park. And that says a lot, considering we keep on saying Scott's ploys can't get any worse. The Bridge looked to be straight out of a Six Flags park, maybe even worse than that. The fireworks were awe inspiring, and just all around amazing.
Even if the park could pull off a good summer event. I stick by my stance that Summer-time events do absolutely nothing, other than take away from other park events that need all the money used on Porno Nights a lot more. You better think long and hard Busch Gardens before putting anything up during the Summer-time, because so far you have yet to pull off any type of successful summer time event. Or you could always just save the time and money for better and more useful things. You decide Busch Gardens.
I'd rather see a big, glittery Bill Of Rights as a centerpiece of Star-Spangled Nights than anything else, classy or otherwise. I find patriotism, especially when commingled with militarism, to be a rather troubling thing in a nation founded upon ideas rather than upon symbols.
How do you know if someone is a Libertarian? Don't worry, like vegans they weill tell you!
/me pokes jonquil
/me pokes jonquil
Lady Liberty was already gone this morning; so was all the garland. The canteen and the hotdog stand are just empty shells.