Busch Gardens Williamsburg Goes Cashless

[Zachary]

@I305Evan nailed it. From a security perspective, plastic is safer than carrying cash. I've been at a park before with someone who was carrying like $150 cash (you know, for expensive park food, drinks, maybe front of the line passes, whatever). His wallet was swiped–gone without a trace never to be seen again. That cash was long gone and everything in the wallet went with it. It took him a couple minutes on a friend's phone to turn off his cards and put a potential fraud alert on his account. That cash though? Gone for good with (obviously) zero recourse.

Also, also, teens today that can be trusted off on their own in a park should probably have plastic of their own. Like @warfelg said, there are countless easy, teen-aimed checking account options these days that allow parents to monitor and limit spend remotely. Teens learning to manage money through bank apps is just basic financial literacy at this point in my opinion.

 

[halfabee]

Fundamentally cash is a loss of income for them.

You do mean "income" as in "earnings minus expenses," yes? Handling cash is a laborious operation, even though it doesn't incur merchant fees. So I could see that.

But if we're using "income" loosely as a stand-in for "revenue," as is often done in casual conversation, I don't see how accepting cash would put a dent in that metric.

Not to be pedantic. I don't particularly care whether or not the park goes cashless (though obvious global trends are clear). Just want to understand the arguments being made here.

My teen kids have plastic (well, their phones actually) with modest limits and parental notifications. Keeping an eye on it and quickly preventing fraud if unusual events pop up is easy. But their grandfather slips them sweet untraceable cash at every opportunity, enabling enough off-the-grid transactions to leave their electronic trails suspiciously pristine. They think I don't know. Ha.

 

[Icer]

I should've stated "take home income" to be specific, yes. I am used to using the shorthand "income" for profit. Cash costs money to handle, large companies processing card transactions doesn't really. Cash also constitutes higher risk, which increases the cost of handling. In an ideal world for a business, everyone uses cards.

 

[Click]

This really doesn't need to be a heated debate and I don't see the need to imply that those who prefer to use cash are Luddites and out of touch with society, too stubborn to accept modern ways. The cash folks have the very, very substantial argument that enshrined in law is that their dollar bills must be accepted for all debts, public and private.

As I said above, I never use cash and it annoys the crap out of me when I have to wait in line at the supermarket for someone to dig pennies out of that little rubbery change purse and count them out, while I just wave my phone and go. BGW going cashless has zero impact on me, and I welcome the efficiency. Heck, I take 4-5 cruises a year and the cruise industry went cashless onboard more than 30 years ago.

But this doesn't need to be either/or. The world is wide enough for both camps. For the vast majority of us, this is good news. For those who prefer cash, I do believe that BGW needs to make the process as frictionless as possible for them. If there are plenty of kiosks AND THEY WORK (BGW hasn't been very good at that), and there are not long lines (BGW hasn't been very good at that) and you can easily refund unused funds (somehow, I think the people that made the 5% surcharge in nearly disappearing ink might try to pull something here), then everyone is happy.

Let's just see how it goes.

 

[RKRCC]

Last year, didn’t BG have an issue with their credit card processing system??? I seem to remember some people being charged multiple transactions and/or others being charged more than they spent at that particular transaction. I hope all that doesn’t happen again…..

 

[Jonesta6]

Last year, didn’t BG have an issue with their credit card processing system??? I seem to remember some people being charged multiple transactions and/or others being charged more than they spent at that particular transaction. I hope all that doesn’t happen again…..

Was that for in-park spending or for memberships?

Thinking that the POS isn't using the same systems as recurring payments.

 

[RKRCC]

Was that for in-park spending or for memberships?

Thinking that the POS isn't using the same systems as recurring payments.

From what I recall, it was for in park purchases

 

[Icer]

It was, and that problem is a massive problem regardless of if they accept cash. Just now instead of impacting 99% of their guests it will impact 100%.

 

[Alf33]

As I said above, I never use cash and it annoys the crap out of me when I have to wait in line at the supermarket for someone to dig pennies out of that little rubbery change purse and count them out, while I just wave my phone and go.

And conversely I don't know how many times I've had to wait in line because someone using plastic has their card declined and then has to try another one and then another one when the second one is also declined. So this goes both ways.

 

[RKRCC]

It was, and that problem is a massive problem regardless of if they accept cash. Just now instead of impacting 99% of their guests it will impact 100%.

I’d like to know how many are actually spending cash versus using electronic payments…. I’m sure it is a little more than 1% so I assume your point is a little bit of an exaggeration.

I’m not arguing cash instead of credit or other electronic methods. I’m just saying I hope the issue they had in the past has been fixed, trouble shot, and other protections are in place so a similar situation they had a year or so ago doesn’t happen again.

 

[Icer]

I agree with the fact that the issue should have been addressed and should definitely never happen again, I just think it has nothing to do with going cashless since that change doesn't impact the extent to which they should strive to prevent that issue from happening again.

 

[warfelg]

I agree with the fact that the issue should have been addressed and should definitely never happen again, I just think it has nothing to do with going cashless since that change doesn't impact the extent to which they should strive to prevent that issue from happening again.

IIRC the issue was also with the POS provider as it happened to other companies at the same time.

Interestingly- hasn’t KD/CF been cashless for a year now? That thread is crickets and no one is complaining about it. Not sure why this one is blowing up but that one isn’t.

 

[Nicole]

The demographics at KD are very different than BGW.

 

[Icer]

Also, this website is very hard leaning towards BGW fanatics compared to KD. There are some KD faithful who are only here for KD related info, but the number of BGW only folk vastly outnumber in my experience. And the majority who have a foot in both parks still lean BGW.

Not saying that as "BGW is better", just the background of this site, BGWfans. BGW always had more of an obsessive nerdy following anyhow, due in part to how AB operated the park as compared to the average regional park.

Most people who are complaining here probably just either didn't see the KD one or just didn't care because it didn't impact them.

 

[bwick29]

There are some KD faithful who are only here for KD related info, but the number of BGW only folk vastly outnumber in my experience. And the majority who have a foot in both parks still lean BGW.

Our family went from a couple KD trips per year and probably a dozen to BGW (for a decade) to 6 KD visits already and 0 at BGW. The laundry list of reasons is too long to type, none of which have anything to do with a cashless park (unless we're talking about surcharges ).

I was first thinking that cash should be accepted everywhere... until I remembered the kiosks technically account for that. Then I was going to chime in and write a great reply explaining my own thoughts... until I realized I would be rehashing everyone else's points. Next, I was going to summarize with a witty one-line zinger.... until I ran into the problem of not being very witty.

I don't love the growing trend of a cashless society, but I can't see a way (other than plastic card waste) where this is a negative.

 

[Mr. Porkchop]

 

[Mr. Porkchop]

The park map was updated to include the locations of the Cash-to-Card Kiosk.

 

[warfelg]

Those are actually well thought out and well placed in spots they would most likely be needed.

But it always brings me back to the thing I hate the most about BGW’s/SEAS maps. The scaling and naming on map is just god awful. Please just number and color code areas with the names and everything printed out the side.

 

[Mr. Porkchop]

Since I could not find a cashless FAQ page on BGW's website, here is the one for SWSA. This page might be added to BGW's website soon.

Cashless: The easy way to pay & play | SeaWorld San Antonio

Cashless

seaworld.com

Edit: bwick29 found the link. It is under the Park Info tab.

 

[bwick29]

Genuinely surprised that they invested in that many kiosks too. They have the major eateries, games, and shops covered and even one out at Guest Services for convenience.

Not too shabby...

Since I could not find a cashless FAQ page on BGW's website, here is the one for SWSA. This page might be added to BGW's website soon.

Cashless: The easy way to pay & play | SeaWorld San Antonio

Cashless

seaworld.com

https://buschgardens.com/williamsburg/cashless/