The official "Things in the park that are impressive and often overlooked" thread.
Is it me, or has landscaping really stepped up this year? There is shrubbery all over the place, a lot more than any previous years I can remember. Flowers are in every pocket and midway of the park and look nice, a lot of them with designs. Carousel Plaza looks nice as always and the admissions area is better than ever. Today I noticed they brought out a ton more plants all over the midways in Mardi Gras and Yankee Harbor. Ragin Cajun's queue line is like a forest compared to last year where it was all dirt. Major props to the SFGAm landscaping team, often overlooked, are making their presence felt this season.
Entertainment is also overlooked in my opinion. The one show that is dissapointing was not really made by SFGAm entertainment (Spygirl), but the rest of the shows are very good, especially Showstoppin. Also there is entertainment crawling all over the park. There is a group of garbage can drummers that walks around the park and drums on the cans and they move from area to area just doing that. They also do a good job with the park opening celebration every morning at Carousel. Starlight Spectacular parade is awesome also. Also of course Manny B, I doubt anyone here has actually taken the time to sit through a Manny B show but they are very good, definitley worth seeing.
Painters also looks like have stepped up this year. No "upkeep" issues that i've seen anywhere, the buildings look very nice (every time I go to the park, buildings were being painted, especially in Yukon). The main reason painters make the list: Demons new airbrushed logos on the front of the trains .
I completely agree wtih everything you just said. Now, while all of this is true, someone could easily argue, things that are NOT done well by the park (which this year isn't much). I wont be that person.
I've also noticed the midway itself being cleaner. They're working hard with keep up on trash, gum, and all of that. ITs a very nice place to walk.
Another thing is that they completely re foamed all of the stations. Every station you can see has been re-sealed in spray on concrete, and the placed that were big holes are now gone. To go along with that, Have you seen BTR this year?!?!?! The qeue part in the garden looks amazing! The whole qeue for that matter was repainted wtih black. The gutter in the sewer looks like the actual thing . And the station got a complete refurbish. The walls were re painted, they basically redid everything.
I'm very impressed with the park this year. I really hope they keep it up.
^ It's dirty. When I was there Tuesday, the water was almost green. My guess is they will be draining it and refilling it soon. That's what they did when the water got green last year.
I think the park looks great this year. I really like the new billboards for the show, like the spygirl one on the way into Soutwest Territory by Demon, and the Showstoppin one. I think they're pretty cool.
I also agree with the entertainment thing. I've always been an entertainment person. I'm one of those people who have to see every show when the season starts, and I think most of the stuff, besides spygirl, which isn't even SFGAm anyways, is really good. I saw Showstoppin yesterday, and it was fantastic. The set was great and everyone was really really good in it.
I really like the side entertainment too, like the 80s show and the older man in Hometown Square. I think it can liven the park up a bit.
I'm happy the street performers are back too. I miss the director and the assistant that were up by the carousel last year. I don't get what the point of the scarecrow between Yukon and County Fair is supposed to be though....
DejaVu2001 wrote:^ It's dirty. When I was there Tuesday, the water was almost green. My guess is they will be draining it and refilling it soon. That's what they did when the water got green last year.
Good call.
I went yesterday and when i got there it was empty. When I got back from BK in the afternoon they were filling it back up.
i'm rocking the suburbs, just like quiet riot did...
hah LAFF fan, the scare crows latched onto my boyfrined last time we were there. Then they kept remembering him... it was pretty funny if I do say so myself... He was pretty creeped out though... But I bel;ieve that's in fitting with the county fair theme. County fair... corn fields, etc. Gotta have scare crows!
But yeah, the street performers are, all around, awesome and very entertaining.
Its all looking good but I went opening weekend and they hadnt painted the seats at Farmers Market. I havent checked as of late but I will this weekend. Im hoping they did becasue it looked pretty sad.
Something else I just thought about, it looks like they finally got a good solution with the disability passes. The way it works now they give the guest a pass and they come back 1/2 hour later, and it only enables the guest with disability to ride with ONE additional guest. If there is more in the party, the rest of the party has to wait in line and meet up with the disabled guest when they get to the front of the line.
I have seen quite a few angry people in GR/ride exits this year, and in my opinion thats a good thing! Looks like they finally got a solution that works and doesnt allow groups to bypass queue lines without waiting. What ends up hapenning is when the group finds out they have to wait in line anyway, they just throw away the pass and the whole group waits in line. Major props to SF, finally a procedure that works and doesnt allow abuse.
Glad you mentioned Manny B.
As was mentioned elsewhere most people probably don't take time to sit through an entire show, which is understandable. We have rides to ride, games to play, etc.
However, I would urge you guys to catch a couple of his shows sometime. If you have any appreciation of music at all you will see that Manny and the rest of his band (Papa Phil, Donnie Watts, Brett Brandon) are a pretty talented bunch and you won't find many better guitar players than Manny.
Sure, they play some older stuff but during the last couple shows of the day they usually play Smoke on the Water, Frankenstein, etc and rock things up a bit more.
Sadly, in the past couple weeks Manny and the guys have been forced to "tone down" things a bit which included less volume, removing the bass cabinents, and removing the stage monitors. It seems that someone that lives East (?) of the park copmplained that they could hear the music. So, the park asked that the volume be reduced. I think it's a ridiculous complaint.
I was at the park Sunday and would agree that the landscaping looks great and the place looked very clean even though it did get pretty busy.
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. And the station got a complete refurbish. The walls were re painted, they basically redid everything.
