Bürgermeister's Hideaway Cocktail Experience

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Bürgermeister's Hideaway is an upcharge dining and entertainment offering that debuted in Busch Gardens Williamsburg's Rhinefeld hamlet on July 20th, 2022.

The park's official page for this experience can be found here:

Bürgermeister’s Hideaway | Speakeasy Experience | Busch Gardens Williamsburg

Behind a sweet façade lies a secret hideaway bar that houses the true spirits of its country.
buschgardens.com buschgardens.com
 
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Hype has vanished because the park is refusing to mention it exists. Availability is wide open and BGW marketing just doesn't give a shit. Absolutely enraging.

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If nothing changes, I bet a year from now Bürgermeister's will be dead and the park will be citing it internally as justification for why funding immersive, themed experiences is a waste.
 
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warfelg said:
It almost feels like they are trying to do it themselves. Give that then internationally sabotage it.
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Right?!

Imagine being one of the incredibly talented creatives or performers behind this project and watching the park just completely disregard all the love, care, and attention you and your team poured into this product as traffic, bookings, and hype dwindles. It turns my stomach.
 
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I get that a speakeasy isn't supposed to be a well known, advertised thing in real life, but at a theme park? Especially seeing how well received it has been so far on social media, they are really dropping the ball.
 
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Is a Speakeasy supposed to be……a secret? lol

Anyhow, anyone that is complaining that the park isn’t marketing something the way they should shouldn’t be surprised. I’m sure they have a group of mommy bloggers coming to do all the work
for them that will
post a photo or two only to disappear from the park until they are invited again to an event.
 
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Zachary said:
Right?!

Imagine being one of the incredibly talented creatives or performers behind this project and watching the park just completely disregard all the love, care, and attention you and your team poured into this product as traffic, bookings, and hype dwindles. It turns my stomach.
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Turns them all away from even applying too.
 
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Zachary said:
Right?!

Imagine being one of the incredibly talented creatives or performers behind this project and watching the park just completely disregard all the love, care, and attention you and your team poured into this product. It turns my stomach.
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I really just don't see how the current model works. It's a cool idea but there's way too many reasons to say no. In order to be a guest that does this you need the following:

-A desire to pay full price for at least 3 drinks
-A willingness to pay an additional amount for a "theme park show"
-An ability to *enjoy* 3 drinks within the time allotted
-The desire to spend your money on this over or in addition to other day enhancements such as all day dining, quick queue or tours of other backstage areas.
-Other friend(s) who wish to also spend that money, or a desire to experience something that is traditionally a social event solo.

Just off the top of my head that eliminates a massive portion of the park's, passholder heavy, clientel. Change this whole thing to 2 drinks or a flight of 4 or 5 small drinks, lower the cost to whatever that is in the park, and have the experience as a bonus for those who want to shell out for the beverages. How many more people would be willing to give it a try or invite friends if it cost about the same as the drinks they were on the fence about buying in the first place?
 
Fur Dozy said:
I really just don't see how the current model works. It's a cool idea but there's way too many reasons to say no. In order to be a guest that does this you need the following:

-A desire to pay full price for at least 3 drinks
-A willingness to pay an additional amount for a "theme park show"
-An ability to *enjoy* 3 drinks within the time allotted
-The desire to spend your money on this over or in addition to other day enhancements such as all day dining, quick queue or tours of other backstage areas.
-Other friend(s) who wish to also spend that money, or a desire to experience something that is traditionally a social event solo.

Just off the top of my head that eliminates a massive portion of the park's, passholder heavy, clientel. Change this whole thing to 2 drinks or a flight of 4 or 5 small drinks, lower the cost to whatever that is in the park, and have the experience as a bonus for those who want to shell out for the beverages. How many more people would be willing to give it a try or invite friends if it cost about the same as the drinks they were on the fence about buying in the first place?
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I may write about this more at some point, but I completely agree. They setup Bürgermeister's in just about the most difficult to monetize way I can imagine—from the schedule, to the reservation requirement, to the fact that it has to be hidden thematically, to the super high break-even point, etc. It was ALWAYS going to face an uphill battle, but they aren't even trying.
 
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When this initially leaked I was really crossing my fingers for an additional bar / brewery type place. Although the current concept seems intruiging and perhaps I'll attend it once when I go sometime during bier fest, I'd think they would have made a lot more money from the former idea.
 
I personally don’t like being locked into one type of drinks and three drinks before I have my first one. If I go in a bar and order a cocktail and it tastes weak or very off from what it should taste like (if it’s a common drink) I either call
it quits or switch to beer or something else. With this setup if I get my first and it tastes like shit or tastes like no alcohol in it i’m stuck sitting there a hour with two more probably shitty drinks coming.
I could even get behind a one drink minimum at say $25 for the first drink and $10 each additional with a 3 drink limit and allow you to change your drinks. The whole pick ahead of time seems to me like the standard BGW tactic of them
not wanting to spend any more than absolutely nessassary on things by like not over premixing mixers. They would rather lose business than throw away a few dollars for unused product.
 
We did reserve out the 12pm experience on Saturday, July, 23, 2022. We were super happy to see the park add that one at the last minute since the others were booked up for our group size. Nothing but rave reviews from us. Well worth the price, in our book. We will do it again. We already emailed the park with our rave reviews and gave suggestions for a Halloween experience, and a Christmas experience.

In our opinion after making pre-entry observations. The park has provided no way for the sweet shop staff to book in last minute people to experience. There were only 13 people reserved for our experience, but, we observed at least 5-10 other people trying to get in and experience that day. We believe this could be a smash hit, but the park needs to set this up for success. KC was our sweetshop host and she should have been given a way to take last minute bookings to fill our experience up. 100% agreement from us that the failure will be on the back of none other than BGW for setting this up to fail.
 
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My concern is that this special immersive event has a high consumption of alcohol in a short amount of time. Are the alcohol pours generous in each drink? I would think that a good number of folks would be slightly typsy drinking that much alcohol in that 1 hour time frame. Yes, they offer a non-alcoholic option; but, it sounds like it is one or the other; there is no option for a mix of alcohol and non-alcohol drinks.

Course, I pace myself and consume a drink every 30-40 minutes. I would probably still be finishing my 2nd drink when the show is over. Has anyone considered that this could be a liability for the park?
 
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I really think besides advertising it better, there would be a few big changes I would make:
1 - I would make the drinks smaller. I think the full sized with less of a shot is a good thing, but they should communicate that if true. I rather see full strength 5 oz pours though.

2 - I would like to see a two tier flight option. Offer 6 in each category (cocktails, mocktails, beer, and wine). Then offer a 3 drink flight at $35, and a 5 drink flight at $50.

3 - Offer to have one drink in a “to go” cup so patrons can take the drink with them and drink it more leisurely.

4 - They should have a “post drink” hangout spot. Like an outdoor bar behind the building where you can finish your drinks or order a full size of what you got.
 
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They should just open the bar for regular service right after a reservation block ends so you could stay longer if wanted, and last call / clear it out like 30 min before another one starts.

Or just screw this whole reservation thing in the long term, I don't get it. Just train bartenders with the showy aspects or vice versa and let people just come have drinks and sit if desired or order and walk.
 
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I don't think there is anything wrong with their having a reservation system, provided they also allow people to book it same day in the candy shop.

I am withholding judgement, until I try it this weekend, but I think there are some easy things they could be doing to increase attendance and make more money.
 
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mwhinva said:
My concern is that this special immersive event has a high consumption of alcohol in a short amount of time. Are the alcohol pours generous in each drink? I would think that a good number of folks would be slightly typsy drinking that much alcohol in that 1 hour time frame. Yes, they offer a non-alcoholic option; but, it sounds like it is one or the other; there is no option for a mix of alcohol and non-alcohol drinks.

Course, I pace myself and consume a drink every 30-40 minutes. I would probably still be finishing my 2nd drink when the show is over. Has anyone considered that this could be a liability for the park?
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Yeah I had the beer option on my visit and it was hitting me fairly decently even with that. Something to eat while drinking would help a huge amount to but that popcorn isn't enough.
 
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mwhinva said:
My concern is that this special immersive event has a high consumption of alcohol in a short amount of time. Are the alcohol pours generous in each drink? I would think that a good number of folks would be slightly typsy drinking that much alcohol in that 1 hour time frame. Yes, they offer a non-alcoholic option; but, it sounds like it is one or the other; there is no option for a mix of alcohol and non-alcohol drinks.

Course, I pace myself and consume a drink every 30-40 minutes. I would probably still be finishing my 2nd drink when the show is over. Has anyone considered that this could be a liability for the park?
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Unless Virginia law has significantly changed in the last 8 years in this respect it isn't. Virginia law holds the responsibility on the person consuming the alcohol not the person serving it. There are licensing requirements on not serving an intoxicated person but basically it's the bartenders fault doesn't generally hold up in Virginia courts.

Ice said:
They should just open the bar for regular service right after a reservation block ends so you could stay longer if wanted, and last call / clear it out like 30 min before another one starts.

Or just screw this whole reservation thing in the long term, I don't get it. Just train bartenders with the showy aspects or vice versa and let people just come have drinks and sit if desired or order and walk.
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It's the show experience that justifies what they spent on this place. It would be like saying let's open blood banquet as a restaurant and just tell the waiters to talk with an accent.
 
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