- November 28th, 2010, 8:49 pm
#43902
So I went to Christmas Town on opening day. For those of you who care, here is a really lame trip report since I have no pictures.
So my extended family and I got to the park about half an hour after it opened. Lines for tickets were really long, so I guess that not many people minded that they were jumping from Thanksgiving to Christmas in less than 24 hours. This being my first time at Busch Gardens, I was pretty much blown away as soon as we entered the park. I mean really, the theming is just great, not even including the Christmas stuff. Of course the first thing we did was head over to Griffon. On the way I noticed that every path was lined with real miniature fur trees. Got a really nice blast of pine scent while we were walking past the closed wolf and bird exhibits. When we got to Griffon the lines were great. About a five minute wait and didn't get much worse than 10 for the entire time. Griffon is a really fun ride, my only complaint is that it feels WAY too short. Nevertheless, an 8 out of 10 in my book, but only from the front seat. After riding a few more times, we went back through France, which had real snow blowing off the top of one of the shops. The stuff melts in your hand. They had snow in another one of the villages too, might have been Ireland or Germany. Speaking of Germany, we went there next and rode Darkastle. Literally a 30 second wait. This thing blows Boo Blasters completely out of the water and if we could get something like it Carowinds would be a much better park IMO. Then we hit the bumper cars and the chair swing. These two are pretty much just like the stuff we have, but their chairswing is a little better than ours. By now it was getting dark. Everything lit up, an entire hillside was just covered in decked out Christmas trees and Italy was just incredible to walk through. Really cool looking. Even at night temperatures were fine. I never even had to duck inside a building for a minute so I could have some warmth injected back into my blood. Italy was an okay country, they had a few flats. We rode Da Vinci's Cradle, which is a fun little ride, and The Battering Ram, which I didn't like at all. The thing made me sick for the next half hour, and my cousin never recovered while we were in the park. After that we walked to England and rode the chairlift, which had the longest wait by far of about half an hour and really wasn't worth it. It came back to where it started so you weren't given the option of getting off at one of the stations, which would have been great because Griffon had an even shorter wait than before. Because of that, I ran back over to Griffon by myself and took three more rides in the front seat. You have not LIVED until you've ridden this thing in cold temps in the dark. It's like facing into an arctic wind for a minute and a half. I think my hoodie saved my life a few times on this one, and my on ride photo made me look like I was Rudolph the red nosed reindeer. I wanted to go to Polar Pathway afterward, but there was no way I was waiting in line for 20 minutes to see a few penguins. So I went to Europe in the air. The thing had no wait, and by no means deserved one. The thing is a never ending pun. Aside from the title, there was also a video featuring 'Miles O'Sky', who made me regret being Irish for the few minutes I was forced to listen to his into video. It really isn't a bad ride, a fun little motion simulator, but it's just so cheesy when it isn't showing the main movie that I wouldn't want to ride it again. After that we left, and the only other thing I wanted to ride was the train.
This was a great trip to a great park, even with only one coaster running. The crowds were big but all waits were great except for the chairlift. The place really made Carowinds look pathetic with its amount of theming (and I know it's a theme park but really.) and the flats it has. My only complaint is how few coasters were open, because the cold but not freezing temps really would have let any of them be open without any problems. I'd recommend this trip to anyone who is in Williamsburg during the remainder of the event. I'm sorry I couldn't give my opinion of any shows but it's not like I went to any anyway. I still got to experience some new stuff though, like a churro and a hypothermic wind chill! Thanks for reading through this thing or just skipping to this part of the review, and again, I apologize for the absence of pictures.
