Busch Gardens Xmas Time!

 Happy New Year! I have a ton of pictures to share from my recent Xmas travels, starting with a trip we took to Busch Gardens Williamsburg! It's sort-of matching that we went to the theme park after Xmas, which was still fully decorated in massive amounts of Christmas cheer; by the time we left the park, I was certainly in a very Xmas-y mood. Which was a little weird that Xmas had already passed. So maybe you'll get a similar effect by looking at these pictures.

The temperature was a little chilly, but not too bad. Grey skies but very little chance of rain.

If you noticed on the previous picture, you can zoom in to see that parking cost $30 for the regular lot. My friend had just bought a Season's Pass, and that included free Preferred Parking, so already we made back $40. We parked pretty close to the entrance.

There's a small bit on this welcome sign that says you are being recorded on webcams while in the park, and you consent to having your pictures used blah blah... enjoy your visit!

This signpost implies they have stuff going on all year round. It's a huge place, I don't see why they can't fill it up outside of the summer seasons, it makes sense.

You may have heard that Busch Gardens Williamsburg wins awards for "Most Beautiful" theme park like, every year, for decades. So they might as well brag about it on a giant sign when you enter. 

I don't even know what a ticket would cost, since my friend got a bunch of guest passes, and we got to use one of those. Except when he was registering the names last night, he accidentally mixed them up and put the guest pass name on the Season's Pass! So we had a small detour to Guest Services to fix the mix up.

We didn't actually have to wait in line, because he um... whoops! He left his pocketknife in his pocket. So while he did the paperwork, we walked this troublemaker back to the car. It was close enough, and by the time we got back, he was already done. 

Haha! View your photos? Get it? We're doing that now!

Wheeeee! We're in the park! Everyone calls this Big Ben, just because it's a giant clock and it's in the England section. Even though the real Big Ben in real England looks a lot different.

These blue lights are so intense, they are shining in the daylight! A lot of these pictures are just quick shots, we are still intent on enjoying a relaxing day at the park, if you were wondering.

Here's the map. It's the Christmas Town version of the map, so if you are looking for The Loch Ness Monster, it's not on it! It's still here though, but closed for Christmas, so why even put it on the map? There's other stuff like that on it, er... off it?

This picture is the GOAT! I mean, ram. Those are rams. No big horses right now, it's too cold outside, I guess.

It's been many years since I've been here, looks like they put a swing ride of some kind on the bridge over to Ireland. We didn't go on it, but it's probably cool because there's quite a drop below that bridge, and it looks like it swings you out over it. Who doesn't like swings?

I guess you really can't get a good sense of how high this bridge is, but for sure the scenery is nice.

A long time ago, this place was known as The King's Menagerie, and it was full of stuffed animal plushies. My friend has very fond memories of that place. It's still got the carved trees at the entrance but it looks like the hollow crawl spot is boarded up for some reason.

Our ideal choice for a lunch meal was going to be Grogan's Grill, which serves an awesome giant baked potato filled with stew. Sadly, it was closed today. But... it's still here, which means we can look forward to getting some of that another time.

The ole' "Questor" ride is now called Battle for Eire. Looks like some kind of dragons vs faeries thing. We don't know exactly because it was closed and we couldn't find out.

Really? It's like, an open burning flame, and they feel like they need to put up a sign to tell you it's hot? How about a sign to let you know the bricks are hard? In case you felt like smashing your head into them or something.

Something about seeing giant predatory birds up close... it's awesome and creepy at the same time. Could you really defend yourself? Would they even dare? Well, I'm a little plastic pony, so of course I got no chance.

What football team did you say you played for? Philadelphia? Sorry we can't feed you, hope you brought your own snacks. You too, rockband called The Eagles. Welcome to the Hotel Busch Gardens... these birds can check out any time they want, but can never leave.

I always spell the word "Grey" but I guess this sign says "Gray" Wolf. Is there a difference? I'm sure those wolves don't care either way.

Oh wow. Look. Tourists. Yay. Those wolves are soooo bored.

Look at those beautiful creatures! Of course I have to zoom in and get more pictures. Big puppies is what they are.

From over here you can see a poorly-hidden path to that swing ride on the bridge. I tried to get a picture of the thing at its highest but right when I was about to take the picture, it slowed down. I'm not waiting for it to go again.

When we got there, the crowd was light. It was after Xmas, so we didn't expect a huge crowd, but we really had no idea how much worse it would get later.

We have a few friends who probably would have liked to do a wine tasting. So we had to get a picture to show them what they missed. I don't drink personally, so it's no big deal for me to miss this.

The nearby Griffon coaster stands where an old railed driving road attraction used to be. It's cool they still have a Le Mans Raceway car on display. For a lot of young kids, it was the first time they'd ever driven a car!

There's the Griffon! That drop is epic! Not running today though. The real star here is the food truck that some genius drove into the middle of the park. We didn't know it at the time, but the meal options are very limited.

A quick pic of the drive-a-monster truck area. We didn't do it, but briefly thought it would be a crazy thing to say we did. Why didn't we?

Oh yeah. Because we were hungry! The Trappers SmokeHouse was a place we were looking forward to having again. It's been sooo long!

Hahaha. The signs are still here. A lot of people freak out when they bite into the chicken, and it's..... pink! AHHH! Did they cook this?!!! AHH!!!! Um... did you read the sign?

Those have got to be the weirdest cookies I've ever seen! Chocolate Chips? Really? What kind of sorcery is this?

I tried to get a picture of pink chicken for everybody, but the first cut was alright. It wasn't until we got to the thigh and leg that it had the pink-look. But by then, my friend's fingers were too full of barbecue sauce and mess to get another picture. If I need to tell you, this meal was amazing.