It was high 60s and sunny and despite being limited to season pass holders and despite the new Sesame Street attraction not opening until early April, the park was packed. Although the big industry in that part of Virginia is military and somewhat recession proof, the attendance nonetheless had to be encouraging. Although season pass holders do come with a slightly different mentality, I didn't see many people buying things and for the size of the crowd food lines were shortish. As I told my wife that could be the ultimate InBev nightmare, a season of season pass holders doing only the free stuff and leaving it to the park hoppers and one dayers to pick up the slack.
The demand was strong enough that Jack Hannah added an extra animal show in Ireland. It was his only appearance at the park this year (go figure), so only season pass holders got to see him.
If InBev cut costs, they tried to keep it from showing in the park. There were some surprises, though. It seems the bread and burgers were either outsourced or the production dramatically changed so that you could easily detect the difference. The famous landscaping is still on par with previous years. And despite InBev owning 100 million beer brands, only AB products were in the park in most locations. I saw some people with what appeared to be draft Guinness but that's only a guess. Beer prices went up 50 cents (16 oz Bud is now $5.99) and as discussed elsewhere, the free beer is gone.
It was the first day of the new season so we all should be prepared to cut the park some slack but I did find the attitude of the employees very curious. Returning were many of the retirees that previously staff many of the park positions along with a reduced number of European guest employees. While the majority were generally friendly and helpful as in years past there were jarring incidents of not so happy shining people. At the Italy train stop a family was having trouble loading a stroller delaying departure. The station master barked "c'mon people lets get a move on it's time to leave!" over the PA instead of giving them a hand. Not satisfied a minute later he barked again "let's go we got another train coming!" It was very un-AB like.
Other quick examples, two different back of the park employees leaving kitchens into guest areas covered from head to foot in food and grease, one park employee assisting a guest while taking a nonbusiness call on her cellphone in Ireland, and what appeared to be far fewer dustpan and garbage collectors. Again though, it was the first day and the size of the crowd might have taken them off guard.
Also, we saw from the train that some kind of painting or prop work was underway in a corral between Italy and Germany and everything had been left scattered about including large stencils and scene flats.
Nonetheless, AB was brilliant about hiding seams from guests so you have to wonder what was up with all that. My guess is InBev "streamlined" customer service training.
Overall though, it was BGE as usual, the Sesame Street area, not yet open nor landscaped, looked fun (although out of place with the rest of the park themeing), Pompeii's water was really sparkling and there was evidence of fresh paint everywhere. So far so good I would say.
I also noticed that prices on food also went up and they had a new drink area near Alpengiest. The drink area was called the Pepsi Ski Mart and they had two drink fountains and three different Slurpee type drinks available. The drinks are all self serve.
They also changed the entrance for the skyride in England. You can no longer get there from England, but have to enter from the Sesame Street area.
I hated that Sesame Street will not only be invading England with the new 4D film, but is also invading Ireland. In Ireland they have gotten rid of the Secrets of Castle O'Sullivan and replace it with Dine with Elmo & Friends.
They are also offering new for this year two different tours that are $28 per person. They are Animals Up Close and Budweiser Clydesdales: Then And Now.
Do you find it odd that Dining with Elmo and Friends is clear over on the opposite side of the park from Sesame Street Forest?
What fun hauling your toddlers on a 100 degree day from the Forest to Ireland and then back again.
Admittedly the Sesame Street concept was AB's and is at odds with the old Europe concept, but some of the execution seems "stapled" on. Maybe the Muppets people will loosen up over time and let the Old Europe concept be applied to the Muppets instead of the other way around. I don't know but it seems closer to the park themeing to be dressing Big Bird as Robin Hood instead of just seeing him bounce around England.
I also thought it a bit much to charge $28 dollars per person for a glorified petting zoo.
Maybe InBev will get the hang of it yet.
Probably the funniest thing I saw all day was a blue thing outside of Roman Rapids that a bunch of BG employees were huddled around. After further inspection, it was a walk-in drier for people who maybe got too wet after riding. It said $5 but it looked like a few people could pile into it, so it will be curious how popular it will be.
Caught the Hanna show at 2:30. Sadly, my low-end digital camera doesn't take good pictures in limited lighting so I missed out. It was almost the same line-up of animals as last year. Liked the sheepdog and cheetah, however. That was new.
I only talked to a few employees, and they seemed about the same as always. I did miss the AB design in the mulch area to the left after driving through the parking attendant booths.
I'm pretty excited about the concerts this year and look forward to many happy visits. Definitely will be bringing sunscreen from now on.
So maybe it's a cost-saving move. They had the building, the can use if this year, and by next year they can build a dining building over in the Sesame area once they figure out what new thing to do in the Castle O'Sullivan building.
I'll miss Castle O'Sullivan, if only because last year we only tried it once, and it broke -- and they had a female doing the part, which would have been interesting.
