Busch Gardens Williamsburg Membership Program
- Thread starter Nicole
- Start date
Here's the link from the email I just received. I haven't looked it over yet, but it's now live:
https://buschgardens.com/williamsburg/annual-pass/upgrade-membership/
Edit:
I'm currently paying $12 a month for a single park annual pass. For another $3/month (at introductory rates) I add Christmas Town ($35 in 2017?), Water Country, and some passes for friends. WC isn't a draw for me, but for a dollar maybe I'd spend a few hours in the morning there one day. Passes for friends may convince some family friends to visit with us (but add the hotel expense for them since we're five hours away). $36 a year more, it's really a wash for me - no pun intended.
My wife is paying $10/month for a two park pass, so that's another $60/year for her to make the change to 'membership' status, which really just adds CT for her. Definitely hold onto her existing pass for as long as possible at that $10/mth rate.
I can see where some like me will say 'why not', and others will be dissatisfied with this change.
To Zachary's points though (and others), consumers really can't expect to pay 1998, 2008, whatever year prices forever. Salaries and wages increase, infrastructure enhancements and regular maintenance costs money, and if a park doesn't put in a new [major] attraction every few years many cry it's stagnant and there's no reason to visit every year (much less four or five times a year as we do, driving from PA).
Removing the bulk of the zoological operations surely saved a lot of money from OpEx. But anyone's that assembled a department budget before knows that you have to keep saving money to make the upper echelon happy; so that cut isn't reviewed each year "as a good thing" (no, it was a bad thing, I concur). Point being if you aren't cutting expenses you have to increase revenue. EBIDTA has to go up each year, profit has to go up each year. It's a business.
Doing it gradually and with some perceived value-add cushions the blow. I think this membership approach is the best compromise available. Keep what you have, that's fine. Buy up to the new plan for some increased options.
OK, I'm going to go read the fine print now. :sick:
https://buschgardens.com/williamsburg/annual-pass/upgrade-membership/
Edit:
I'm currently paying $12 a month for a single park annual pass. For another $3/month (at introductory rates) I add Christmas Town ($35 in 2017?), Water Country, and some passes for friends. WC isn't a draw for me, but for a dollar maybe I'd spend a few hours in the morning there one day. Passes for friends may convince some family friends to visit with us (but add the hotel expense for them since we're five hours away). $36 a year more, it's really a wash for me - no pun intended.
My wife is paying $10/month for a two park pass, so that's another $60/year for her to make the change to 'membership' status, which really just adds CT for her. Definitely hold onto her existing pass for as long as possible at that $10/mth rate.
I can see where some like me will say 'why not', and others will be dissatisfied with this change.
To Zachary's points though (and others), consumers really can't expect to pay 1998, 2008, whatever year prices forever. Salaries and wages increase, infrastructure enhancements and regular maintenance costs money, and if a park doesn't put in a new [major] attraction every few years many cry it's stagnant and there's no reason to visit every year (much less four or five times a year as we do, driving from PA).
Removing the bulk of the zoological operations surely saved a lot of money from OpEx. But anyone's that assembled a department budget before knows that you have to keep saving money to make the upper echelon happy; so that cut isn't reviewed each year "as a good thing" (no, it was a bad thing, I concur). Point being if you aren't cutting expenses you have to increase revenue. EBIDTA has to go up each year, profit has to go up each year. It's a business.
Doing it gradually and with some perceived value-add cushions the blow. I think this membership approach is the best compromise available. Keep what you have, that's fine. Buy up to the new plan for some increased options.
OK, I'm going to go read the fine print now. :sick:
BenWilkerson said:
That sounds like overly-dramatic hearsay to me.
As BGW Family noted above, the FAQ says this:
It does not say that you will be forced to switch in 2019.
Based on our conversation with Marketing, we do not believe BGW has decided when or if to make everyone move over to the Membership Program.
jornor said:
Sorry. I misunderstood. You post sounded more accusatory than that.
To answer your question, there is no price lock beyond the first 12 months. That said, as we mentioned in our article, they told us that they would only raise prices as necessary, and don’t have any specific plan to do so yet.
acrossdapark said:
It seems to me that the park REALLY wants people to buy an Unlimited or Premier Pass. The Basic Pass gives an option for those for whom price is the absolute deal-breaker AND who have the flexibility to still be able to use it often enough to make it worth their while. And it allows the park to advertise "Passes starting at only $12/month!" even though for most, that price won't get them the pass they want.
I could make a reasonable case for the Basic tier.
I don’t really want to go near the park on most of those blocked out days. They could be a good solution for a family that buys one top tier membership and saves money getting the basic level for everyone else.
I don’t really want to go near the park on most of those blocked out days. They could be a good solution for a family that buys one top tier membership and saves money getting the basic level for everyone else.
Nicole said:
You're absolutely correct Nicole. Traveling as a family, you only use your free parking once / car. If I can save $60/year by doing three basic and one middle package, I'm onboard. That's a bunch of pretzels!
MadridBot said:
This seems a bit contradictory. They're saying they have no plans to raise the EZ pay rates for existing pass members, but simply by putting this date out there makes it sound like there is somewhat of a plan.
They should move that date up to the end of Howl O Scream 2018. Since current passes don't include Christmastown, it would be a bad move for us to make the November, December, and January payments before being told that our passes will no longer be valid or that there will be a price increase that makes us want to move to memberships. In any case, I'm sure there will be some sort of promotion if and when a switch to membership is required.
I think I've decided that I'm going to move to the membership program. Trying to decide between doing it over the phone vs doing it in person at the park the first weekend in March. I'm about 2 hrs away, could make a fun day trip out of it and do other stuff in the area. Anyone care to weigh in? Does it matter if I have my Premier pass already in hand for passmember preview day? That would be the biggest reason to do it in person, I think.
DJTLG said:
As I mentioned above, BGW has taken down the reference to a January 2019 end date for current passes. We were told yesterday that no determination has been made about if or when the old passes will expire, for EZPay accounts.
lilleape said:
Assuming nothing has changed, you should be able to get your membership card at a kiosk, if you buy it on-line in advance. Your receipt from you purchase should get you into the parking lot, as well.
That said, we plan to drive down from Arlington the first weekend. As you said, there are other things to do (like Colonial Williamsburg and Merchants Square).
If the park wants to increase sales for the higher tier passes, they should implement monthly perks like the Florida parks. It would definitely be a good incentive to bring people back to the parks on a regular basis.
Outside of peak HOS/CT, some concert weekends and August crunch, I've never really seen the park crowded to the point where they need to add blackout dates. If anything the park wants more of those crowded days so they can turn a profit. Most parks that do have blackouts are usually year round destination parks like Disney and Universal.
Maybe this means the park is looking to opening the park for year round operations?
Also maybe its just me but if they really wanna keep the blackout dates, they might as well revert back to the fun card system for their lowest tier pass and let those who buy in choose what time of year they want to visit.
Outside of peak HOS/CT, some concert weekends and August crunch, I've never really seen the park crowded to the point where they need to add blackout dates. If anything the park wants more of those crowded days so they can turn a profit. Most parks that do have blackouts are usually year round destination parks like Disney and Universal.
Maybe this means the park is looking to opening the park for year round operations?
Also maybe its just me but if they really wanna keep the blackout dates, they might as well revert back to the fun card system for their lowest tier pass and let those who buy in choose what time of year they want to visit.