Park Celebrates Pass Members During Pass Member Appreciation Weekend Event
WILLIAMSBURG, Va. (Sept. 8, 2012) – Busch Gardens announced details of its fall event lineup, and offered a taste of a new event being planned for the 2013 season during a special pass member appreciation breakfast presentation held today at the Williamsburg theme park. The breakfast is part of a weekend celebration of the park’s loyal fans that includes special discounts on food and merchandise and events designed exclusively for pass members.
Pass members packed Das Festhaus, the park’s 2,000-seat dining facility, to hear from the park’s senior leadership about this year’s Howl-O-Scream and Christmas Town events.
Howl-O-Scream begins Sept. 14, a week earlier than last year, to accommodate park guests’ seemingly insatiable need for thrills, scares and startles.
This year, park guests can experience the thrill that only comes from being chased by a horde of monsters when visiting the park. With throngs of roaming minions feeding on the fear of the living, Howl-O-Scream visitors will need to keep a watchful eye for these scary followers. Parents with small children take note, no place is safe in the darkness of the gardens.
The Lady of the Gardens returns this year to show off the Dark Side of the Gardens. Evidence of her decaying green thumb can be seen throughout the park, much to the chagrin of the park’s landscaping team. She had a hand in a special new haunted maze debuting this year called Root of all Evil where the plant life has taken over. This is a new attraction that increases the park’s maze count to six haunted attractions, and is being built in an area near the park’s Oktoberfest village that normally is off-limits to park guests.
Two new Halloween-themed shows are debuting at the park this year. Dig It Up, a new musician-based show in Italy, brings old relics to life. Night Beats in Das Festhaus celebrates things that go bump in the night and is filled with dancing, singing and a live band that takes guests on a musical journey from the devilish sounds of the roaring 20s to today’s popular music. Fiends has moved from Das Festhaus to Ireland’s Abbey Stone Theatre and features all new twists of terror.
Guests can experience Howl-O-Scream every Friday, Saturday and Sunday through Oct. 28. Howl-O-Scream is intended for mature audiences. Parental guidance is strongly suggested. For complete details as well as park operating hours visit http://www.howloscream.com/va.
Christmas Town: A Busch Gardens Celebration kicks off the holiday season with the sights and sounds of a perfect Christmas memory. Now in its fourth year, Christmas Town has become a tradition for families looking for wholesome holiday entertainment.
Busch Gardens is taking the cellophane wrapper of a new area of the park this year. Retro Lane celebrates the sights, sounds and nostalgic good cheer of a vintage Americana Christmas come to life. The park invites guests to celebrate a festive time gone by when holiday traditions were bold, flashy and warm as apple pie. Retro Lane will reside in Festa Italia and adds another one million Christmas lights to the park’s Christmas light count. In total, Christmas Town features more than six million twinkling lights in 2012.
Of course, all the Christmas Town favorites will return this year as well. Children can still meet Santa in his amazing workshop filled with treasures he has collected from all over the world. And families can sip hot chocolate around a 50-foot, light-dancing Christmas tree during their visit to the world’s most beautiful theme park decorated for Christmas.
Christmas Town opens Nov. 23, and will continue select days through Dec. 31. For more information, including a complete operating schedule, visit christmastown.com or call (800) 343-7946.
Park guests also got a taste of the epicurean delights awaiting them next year with the announcement of a Busch Gardens food festival being planned.
While details are still being baked, the park will celebrate what Busch Gardens does best, offering guests a taste of Europe through amazing culinary offerings. The yet-to-be-named food festival will feature special foods and beverages not normally found at Busch Gardens, or at any other theme park for that matter. Busch Gardens is bringing the great sights, sounds and aromas of world-class cuisine out of the kitchen and into the park so guests can sample authentic tastes of Europe at the world’s most beautiful theme park. More details will be announced soon. Stay tuned, and bon appétit.
SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment operates 10 parks across the U.S. including SeaWorld parks in Orlando, San Diego and San Antonio; Busch Gardens parks in Tampa, Fla. and Williamsburg; Discovery Cove and Aquatica in Orlando; Sesame Place near Philadelphia, Pa.; and water parks Adventure Island in Tampa and Water Country USA in Williamsburg.
The 10 parks play host to 25 million guests each year and employ 26,000 people nationwide. To learn more, visit www.SeaWorldParksandEntertainment.com or call toll-free (888) 800-5447. Additionally, SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment created the SeaWorld & Busch Gardens Conservation Fund, a non-profit, private charitable foundation committed to supporting wildlife and habitat conservation, research, education and animal rescue programs worldwide. Learn more at SWBG-ConservationFund.org.
