Christmas Town at Busch Gardens has been around for 10 years. I have never been. When they first opened, I had season passes for Busch, but they did not include Christmas Town. As the boys grew older and became less interested in family trips to Busch Gardens, I eventually stopped getting passes. Last month I found a promotion for Christmas Town tickets for $20 each. As this will be our last Christmas season in Williamsburg I decided to take advantage of the deal.
Christmas Town tickets are date specific, so we picked a Monday night. The least expensive tickets were during the week and I knew we would not be working. The day before we were to go we were hit by a snowstorm. Busch Gardens closed due to the storm. Not knowing if they would reopen on Monday, I looked up their inclement weather policy. If they close, tickets are good for the next six days. I was a bit nervous as we would not be able to go within that time period. Fortunately, it was a non-issue as they were able to open on Monday.
We headed to Busch just after the sun went down. When I previously went to the park (last time was probably 8 years ago) I had a pass that included parking, so the $20 parking fee shocked me. We ended up parking in the lot right next to the entrance (normally preferred parking in the summer), so it was an easy walk to get in.
The park was beautifully decorated with over six million lights. There was a different color scheme in each section of the park. We made our way through England and headed right to go through Ireland. We stopped in at the pub in hopes of getting a shot of Jameson. That didn’t work out. I had forgotten that they don’t have real bars in the park. Beer and wine are available, but the only liquor is the whiskey flight (which we were not willing to pay for), so we settled on Irish Coffees. Unfortunately, their version of an Irish Coffee was a pre-mixed urn of coffee with Irish Cream.
Our timing was off for the shows in Ireland so we continued on to France. I really enjoyed the decorations along the way. Trees were lit along the pathways. France was beautifully decorated with pink, purple and blue. As we made our way to New France, I enjoyed the reindeer decorations. We made it to the Christmas Town Express just before it departed. We settled in and only waited a few minutes before we were underway. The train took us on a ride around the park while we listened to carols and enjoyed the beautiful scenery along the way.
After departing the train we took the Skyride to Germany. As we walked toward the Festhaus we heard music playing. There were snowflakes and Christmas themed scenes projected on a building, which made it look almost as if the building were dancing. It was fascinating to see that there were 12 projectors used to create the show.
As we walked along we saw open fireplaces every so often to aid with warming up. We arrived at the Festhaus just in time for the O’Tennanbaum show on the plaza in front. Holiday music played as the lights on the 50-foot Christmas tree (and two sets of smaller trees on each side, as well as overhead and on the front of the Festhaus) blinked and danced. I was slightly disappointed that some of the lights seemed to not be working, but they had resolved that issue when we came back a little while later.
The bridge between Germany and Italy was twinkling with lights. We stopped on the bridge to look at the lights along the water. There was a large “Peace On Earth” beautifully reflected in the water. We enjoyed the Santa, complete with sleigh and reindeer, decorations in Italy. The prettiest tree in the park (in my opinion) was at the base of the bridge in the center of Italy. The entire tree twinkled with beautiful white lights and it was absolutely gorgeous.
As we made our way through Italy Escape to Pompeii was mesmerizing. Covered in lights, it was breathtaking. Where the water normally is, were thousands of blue lights. Polar bears and lighted trees were everywhere. The snow added to the charm, especially where the lights were twinkling underneath. It added a beauty that we would have missed otherwise.
Continuing through Scotland, we stopped to visit the Clydesdales. We headed to Germany on the Skyride (hopping off and then back on in France) and made it to the Festhaus with time to spare before the Deck the Halls show. We were able to secure a seat right upfront. As we waited for the show to start I sipped on my Cranberry Hot Toddy and took in the scenery. The show was a high-energy, wonderful mixture of music and dancing. I particularly enjoyed the blending of “Santa Baby” and “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus”.
We had time for one more show, so we made our way back to Ireland for Gloria!. As the show started, it looked like we were watching a movie. Perplexed, I couldn’t figure out why they would have live music playing for the movie, but then I noticed that the performers were wearing microphones. I still wasn’t completely sure what I was watching, but then the screen lifted and it was definitely a live performance. The highlight of the show was the new twist they put on “Little Drummer Boy”. What started as a traditional Christmas song soon went to a fun, funky place, which I thoroughly enjoyed.
I was hoping to ride one of the new roller coasters that are usually running, but between the cold and the snow, they were not able to open them. Even without the rides, it was an enchanting evening.
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