Last night I went to the opening night of Christmas Town at Busch Gardens Williamsburg, and it did not disappoint! I also had a chance to check out the progress that's been made on Verbolten, and they've definitely made a lot of it since closing weekend. I was also able to get a few laps on Alpengeist before the line got long, which was a nice bonus. As for Christmas Town, the park put up over 5 million lights all around the park to transform it into an absolutely breathtaking display. I've honestly never seen anything like it, I was VERY impressed. Basically take the lights show at your local zoo and give it a few shots of steroids. I'm not sure if there was anything of importance inside the park that DIDN'T have lights on it.
As far as the food and entertainment were concerned, I had the Christmas dinner at the Festhaus, which was delicious, as well as a "Christmas S'more" with some peppermint hot chocolate in England on my way out of the park, which were also very tasty! I caught the Deck the Halls show in the Festhaus, which consisted of traditional, upbeat carols. It was a bit corny (of course), but an enjoyable show, especially for kids. I also happened to catch a little bit of the Miracles show in Festa Italia as I was walking by, and it seemed like a beautiful show. I was able to see the new show, Gloria, before I left, and it was also very, very well done. They had a live symphony accompanying the singers, and they performed the more mellow, religious carols that told the story of Christmas. I would definitely recommend anyone to check this show out, just make sure you get there 20 minutes beforehand to get a good seat! I also waited 45 minutes to do the Sky Ride lap around the park and took video of that, so that will be posted here, as well.
The only drawback for me on the evening was the outrageous number of people that were in the park, but that just goes to show how popular this event has become. And it really didn't detract away from the experience too much (except for the crazy parents using their children in strollers as battering rams to get through the crowd).
I do have a facebook album with almost 100 pictures in it, and it's public, so you can check that out here. I'll just be showing off about half of those in this report, so if you want to see the rest, check them out on facebook!
- Christmas tree in the front entrance. The appearance of Christmas trees is going to be a recurring theme. ;)
- Viewed 10863 times
- Apparently they relocated the North Pole to BGW for this event, these guys go all out!
- Viewed 10863 times
- As you can see here, the launch track is in place!
- Viewed 10863 times
- Let's just launch one through now, see what happens.
- Viewed 10863 times
- The framework of the event building is now up!
- Viewed 10863 times
- And this building is HUGE!
- Viewed 10863 times
- They've also constructed the track almost all the way back to the station.
- Viewed 10863 times
- As you can see in this picture, they've connected the track all the way to the launch and into the building.
- Viewed 10863 times
- Looks like it will be a relatively tame portion of track before hitting the launch, but it's not bad for a pre-launch section.
- Viewed 10863 times
- They were also reinforcing the old Big Bad Wolf footers. I had been wondering if they were going to do something like this, and as it turns out, they are.
- Viewed 10863 times
- And they've done more work on the footers for the bridge.
- Viewed 10863 times
- I loved this, they even re-themed the teaser signs to Christmas!
- Viewed 10863 times
- Ok super dorks, someone tell me what's wrong with this picture.
- Viewed 10863 times
- The giant tree in front of the Festhaus, this will look much different later!
- Viewed 10863 times
- The Festhaus was decked out and looking......festive.
- Viewed 10863 times
- Frosty!
- Viewed 10863 times
- Little drummer boys.
- Viewed 10863 times
- The Festhaus band made a return for this show.
- Viewed 10863 times
- And I had Christmas dinner the day after Thanksgiving!
- Viewed 10863 times
- Peace on Earth, there's a concept.
- Viewed 10863 times
- Festa Italia was looking beautiful.
- Viewed 10863 times
- Especially this tree!
- Viewed 10863 times
- Polar Pathway at Escape From Pompeii was the highlight of the entire night!
- Viewed 10863 times
- I mean come on, they even put blue lights down where the water usually is!
- Viewed 10863 times
- It looked really great at dusk, wait till you see it at night!
- Viewed 10863 times
- And I'm not joking, I heard someone ask if the ride was open.
- Viewed 10863 times
- Attraction sign.
- Viewed 10863 times
At this point, I went and stood in line for the Sky Ride tour of the park, and like I said before, waited 45 minutes. When I got off the ride, the line was probably up to at least 90 minutes.
I did take video of the experience, though, and here it is in spectacular HD!YouTube Videolink
- Back to the Polar Pathway and its purple trees.
- Viewed 10863 times
- I'm not entirely sure, but I think this might have been bright enough to see from space.
- Viewed 10863 times
- Anyone who cares to count how many lights there are, you'll get a Skycoastin Steve Bag-O-Crap!
(no, literally, a bag of my crap) - Viewed 10863 times
- Bye bye, Santa, just be careful of that volcano.
- Viewed 10863 times
- The white tree in Festa Italia was gorgeous!
- Viewed 10863 times
- As was the Christmas tree in the gardens!
- Viewed 10863 times
- As were these two orange trees!
- Viewed 10863 times
- That streak of light over the Peace on Earth sign is the train going by.
- Viewed 10863 times
- I like trying to find where the ground ends and the water begins.
- Viewed 10863 times
- The signature Skycoastin Steve reflection photo!
- Viewed 10863 times
- One of the several mini Christmas trees on the bridge.
- Viewed 10863 times
- The Festhaus and ginormous Christmas tree looking spectacular!
- Viewed 10863 times
- This whole plaza was amazing, BGW definitely didn't spare any expense.
- Viewed 10863 times
- Meanwhile, back at the North Pole, it has begun to snow (although you can't really see it in the picture).
- Viewed 10863 times
- The only picture I took in "New France." I just don't like Canada.
- Viewed 10863 times
- Over to regular France, this little display was very pretty.
- Viewed 10863 times
- As was this little tree. I think someone should walk through the park and count how many Christmas trees there are. Anyone who does gets a SSBOC! But in order to get my crap in a bag, you have to prove that the number of trees you counted is correct. I don't hand my crap out to just anyone!
- Viewed 10863 times
- Joyeaux Noel!
- Viewed 10863 times
- Over to Ireland, where the trees are lit up green (imagine that).
- Viewed 10863 times
- I did laugh at the number of people who were taking photos like this with their flash on. I bet those turned out REALLY well.
- Viewed 10863 times
- This show did not disappoint!
- Viewed 10863 times
- And of course, they had shamrocks lit up at the entrance to Ireland.
- Viewed 10863 times
- Back to Scotland and its absolutely stunning display of blue trees with TONS of white Stars of Bethlehem over the midway.
- Viewed 10863 times
- My video of the Sky Ride gives you a great view of this whole area, it was amazing!
- Viewed 10863 times
- Definitely breathtaking, they did a wonderful job on everything in the park.
- Viewed 10863 times
- I had this "Christmas S'more" before I left. It was tasty, but I may have temporarily blacked out from the sugar high.
- Viewed 10863 times
- Carolers singing in England, the one chick is staring a hole through me.
- Viewed 10863 times
- Save the clock tower!
- Viewed 10863 times
- The front entrance was also very pretty.
- Viewed 10863 times
- They had all these snowflakes over the walkway leading up to the entrance. The end! Thank you for reading!
- Viewed 10863 times
