Busch Gardens Williamsburg Membership Program

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I can’t emphasize this enough:

Everyone with a grandfathered Premier, who plans to use it before January, needs to check their accounts. If it says 2 Park / 1 Year, please email BGW Guest Services (BGW.GuestRelations@buschgardens.com) and ask how to prove a Premier Membership is the grandfathered type, and not the newly-introduced version. I recommend against calling, as you will get a rep in Florida.

For reference, here are a screenshots of what my grandfathered Premier now says when I log in and the park’s responses when we asked about this problem previously:

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I'll be calling to book the KWUC tour this week, so I'll report back on any issues to get my discount. We're heading to Florida on Friday, so I'll report back if we have any admission/discount issues. As usual, we'll be expecting to get re-ride privilege's and reserved seating as premier.
 
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Just a comparison. Cedar Fair platinum pass with season pass dining and drinks at all parks $350 on a renewal
Busch/Seas platinum pass same price with no food.

If one visits a park lets say 10 times during the year and typically spends $30 on dining and drinks (low estimate since the all day dining/drink at Busch is $40), that would translate into the pricing at Busch/Seas being $300 year more.
 
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I agree with that the food at several Cedar Fair parks leaves a LOT to be desired, with Kings Island being bad and Cedar Point (believe it or not) having some of the worst food in the industry.

One of the reasons that both parks are so bad is that they would rather have Subway, Chic-Fil-A, etc sponsorships and serve that mediocre food instead of original items. Kings Island features local restaurants Skyline Chili and LaRosa's pizza, both of which are horrid.

But on the other hand, Kings Dominion and Carowinds have some good, original food choices (plus some of the outside fast food as well)

Busch Gardens strong point in their food service is that their food is original to the park, not something you can get elsewhere at a fast food restaurant. The food there is good and generally better than CF parks, it it is still theme park food for the most part. I wouldn't pay the price they charge at Busch Gardens for anything that they serve in the outside world, it isn't THAT good. For a season pass holder, eating at the park each visit during the year can add up as noted above compared to the Cedar Fair parks.


Another pricing comparison is Cedar Fair platinum pass renewal (all parks included) is $190ish. Busch premier season pass (one park and a water park) is $204.

I will give Busch credit on maintaining their railroad, skyway, and having a strong live show lineup, all of which Kings Dominion lacks. But on the flip side, Kings Dominion has more rides so that sort of evens out the value of the tickets at both parks. While Busch claims to be the "most beautiful park," KD is right up there with all of its landscaping, trees and especially I-Street. I also give Cedar Fair/Kings Dominion a higher grade in the way they operate their parks. They have normally have longer hours than Busch, and they open the entire park and all the rides at opening time. Not in penny pinching phases like Busch.

In conclusion lol, I just don't see the Busch Gardens 1 park/1 water park season pass being worth THAT much more than the Cedar Fair all park pass when dining is included. Food is not a hobby for me, so it does not drive my decisions of where to go. But one does have to eat sometime during a long day at a park. I have passes to both Busch Gardens and the Cedar Fair parks (with season dining and drinks). When I travel to VA now, I see Busch as costing at least an extra $30-40/day to go there vs. KD.
 
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I think it'd be smart for them to start a membership where the former meal plan system is included, the entree and a side for lunch and for dinner. The 90 minute deal is too much of a bargain to throw onto a membership imo
 
super7 said:
One of the reasons that both parks are so bad is that they would rather have Subway, Chic-Fil-A, etc sponsorships and serve that mediocre food instead of original items
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I like original food but personally, I think for Cedar Fair parks, fast food joints is a pretty safe bet. I think it's nice because you know what you're going to get, and there's not really a gamble whether it's actually gonna be good or not. For Busch that's different story because their food fits with the theme and is generally pretty good.

But just now re-reading the title, I'm not sure what this has to do with the Membership Program. Sorry if I'm derailing haha.
 
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CaptainPrism said:
I like original food but personally, I think for Cedar Fair parks, fast food joints is a pretty safe bet. I think it's nice because you know what you're going to get, and there's not really a gamble whether it's actually gonna be good or not. For Busch that's different story because their food fits with the theme and is generally pretty good.

But just now re-reading the title, I'm not sure what this has to do with the Membership Program. Sorry if I'm derailing haha.
Click to expand...


Sorry if that seemed like a sidetrack. This thread basically was showing that Busch is increasing their membership prices by added a new platinum tier. I was just pointing out how much more it costs to go to Busch Gardens than the Cedar Fair parks, and it doesn't seem like they have that much more to offer at Busch to warrant the difference in price, especially now that Cedar Fair is properly managing those parks.
 
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Not sure if I should create a new thread for this, but I feel it’s relevant to making decisions about the your memberships, especially since the majority of us are now in grandfathered plans...

It was my understanding that you could pay the balance of your EZPay membership. There’s even a place on your account page to do so. (I tried, but the “confirm” button simply kept refreshing.) When I called customer service, they told me that was an option, but then my membership would be set to close at the end of the 12 mo. They said I can’t pay the balance and it remain open indefinitely, like it is now. I would have to call back at renewal and tell them then to renew.

This sounds odd to me. It sounds like they want to convert me from EZPay to pay in full. I specifically didn’t do that this year so I could lock in the intro price. Further, if I would, in fact, still technically be EZPay, I certainly don’t trust that I would still be grandfathered upon “renewal,” especially in light of all the changes and miscommunications that have gone on this year.

I haven’t totally decided whether I’m keeping my membership long term, but I still want to keep my grandfathered plan open until I do. For me, EZPay is inconvenient because I’m not amazing at keeping $ around, so it’s better if I can pay it off right away. But you are essentially punished for paying in full because you’re not locked in. I thought the balance pay-off could be a great option but it apparently isn’t what it seems to be.

Has anyone here paid their EZPay balance, and were there any issues? Were you able to keep your price upon renewal? Is what customer service telling me even correct? Thx!
 
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Not an answer, but a warning. A friend had his credit card compromised. When he called the park to change the EZ pay to the new number, they told him this was considered breaking the contract and he had to change to whatever pass/cost was available at that time. So, at no fault of his own, he was forced into a higher cost bracket.
 
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What?? That is ridiculous! I’m really starting to question remaining a member. The way they have been handling their business just seems to get worse and worse. And I don’t even ride the rides, so including some other changes to things I used to enjoy, make it feel less and less worth it.
 
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The way SEAS ez-pay system is setup, yes if you make payments in advance, the system automatically expects that you are paying up full and thats it.

It's not really a policy but more of a technical complication with their system. They could fix it, but I doubt they care to invest in updating their system.
 
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Very happy to report we’ve had zero issues getting all of our normal perks at BGW including admission, preferred parking, ride again privledges and our 15% discount on everything. The park is fairly busy so we were surprised to get preferred. All of this while our pass still says premier.
 
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We became a premium member in October. It says Christmas town is included. So we can show up at the gates whenever the park is open for Christmas town and get in? We don't need a special Christmas town ticket?
 
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