I went to the Last Call Fall Festival today. My summary:
1) We got there at about 11:30 AM. Temperature was between 29 and 30 degrees. Unlike previous visits to the park, they didn't open the park early. People began filing in at the posted start time of 12:00 PM.
2) I didn't think I'd fit on the coasters with my parka, so I entered the park wearing a hoodie over a T-shirt. When we got into the park, we found out that the coasters were down. At that time, I should have gone back to the car for my parka, but the sun was out and I was doing OK. When the clouds rolled in around 3:00 PM, it felt much cooler, but I was off in Yukon Territory and didn't want to make the the long walk to the parking lot to get a heavier coat. I was often uncomfortably cool for the rest of the day.
3) How busy was the park? When we arrived at 11:30 AM, there were about 50 people in line. By 12:00 PM, maybe over 100. Walking around the park later in the day, I was surprised at how undead it felt. It didn't feel busy, but there were plenty of people in the thoroughfares and the indoor Dining locations had decent lines during the Dining Pass meal periods. I'd say the front parking lot was about 1/6 full when we left the park at 6:00 PM.
4) Which rides were running?
Columbia Carousel
Justice League
Rue Le Dodge
The Dark Knight
Whirligig
Winner’s Circle Go Karts
5) Anything else? I heard that Hometown Park was up and running, but I couldn't verify. If so, these rides were also online:
Lady Bugs
Red Baron
Tot's Livery
6) Which Dining locations were open?
Antoine’s Funnel Cakes
Big Lou's
Capone's Kitchen
Captain Salty's
Claimjumpers
County Fair Grill
dippin' dots (County Fair)
dippin' dots (Southwest Territory)
Firehouse Snacks
Funnel Cake Foundry
Go Fresh Café (Orleans)
Hometown Funnel Cake
Jack's Snacks
JB's Barbeque & Sports Bar
Johnny Rockets (Mardi Gras)
Macho Nacho (wasn't serving food typical of this location)
Mooseburger Lodge
Primo’s Pizzeria (Food Court)
Primo’s Pizzeria (Orleans)
Six Below
Sticky Fingers
Strutters
Taphouse
Trudy’s Sweet Shop
The Freestyle Coke machines also appeared to be operational.
7) My brother and I did the double dining pass thing where we enter the park twice with our 2018 and 2019 season passes. Combined with the extra food/drink we were taking in at the Last Call booths, we just couldn't take in any more. We ended up converting 4 dinners to snacks, then bought eight pieces of fudge from Trudy's to take home with us.
The Last Call food portions are noticeably smaller than normal food you'd get at Mooseburger or JB's. Because I was just wearing a hoodie, I opted to consume hot spiced wine and hot apple cider in an effort to raise my core body temperature. This worked, but if I'd known we were going to convert our dinners to snacks, I probably would have gone for hot meals instead.
9) The Chicago Bites booth wasn't open, which was a shame. They had some pretty good meals that I would have liked to try.
10) Chubasco is getting a makeover over its entire exterior. Walls of LED lights are being installed. See the Holiday in the Park thread for a few pictures.
11) I heard old theme music throughout the park except for Southwest Territory and Hometown Square. SW was playing Country music, and there was an Indian singer in HS (celebrating Diwali).
In summary, if I could do today over again, I would have worn my parka instead of my hoodie, I would have consumed more Last Call food instead of drink, and I may not have even gone to the park: most rides were down, which took a lot of potential fun out of the day.