Yes, but you'll still get turned away if the park is at capacity, as I understand it.
Busch Gardens Williamsburg Membership Program
- Thread starter Nicole
- Start date
We went to SeaWorld Orlando last week and were given Preferred parking, admission, and discounts with our current Premier membership. On the site we are listed as "BGW/WCW 2P1Y EZPay Premier Membership Redemption"
I will still likely end up upgrading to the Platinum but was glad that it at least still worked for our recent visit.
I will still likely end up upgrading to the Platinum but was glad that it at least still worked for our recent visit.
On all my visits to Christmas Town I have witnessed one or more group trying to use their old system passes at the gate. They were all turned away as they should have been. But this seems like needless confusion I really wish that they had gone with just one system.
They have reintroduced a 2-Park fun card I may be mistaken but I thought they were doing away
with the fun cards?
with the fun cards?
It's a fun card, not a real membership. We all know its really not a good deal. It does have a place, but only when paired with someone who has a membership.
We live almost 3 hours away, so we either all go as a family or not at all. A $70 2 park pass, I'm going to have to consider getting those, and cancelling the memberships for 4/5 of us, and keep the membership for just 1 of us.
With $54 CT fun cards (weren't they supposed to be MUCH higher this year?), 2 park fun card + CT = $124. Memberships are $15/month = $180.
Worth keeping the 1 membership for discounts + parking.
Read carefully the fun cards have traditionally been seasonal meaning you might need one for spring summer and fall. I haven't looked at the details on this offer so I am not sure exactly what they are valid date wise but I would be surprised if they are good for more then spring and summer at the most.
Thanks for the warning, but spring and summer would be good. With little ones + almost a three hour drive, HOS just isn't worth the drive for us, even with included tickets. If they are including water country, they have to be including summer. I guess I'd have to make sure spring is included.
UPDATE: Black Friday fun cards are good for spring and summer, and expire Sept 8. Assuming they don't come out with a 2 park fun card in the spring, this is a $80 discount on purchasing the fun cards separately (plus, the BG only fun card expires Sept 2).
I'm thinking Membership sales aren't nearly as popular as they predicted they would be, and they need people to commit to the park for next year.
Last edited:
Fun Cards have been around for ages and ages, 2-park fun cards have been around for the past several years all with special discounts typically at the beginning of the year, they just happen to push their special back to Black friday instead
clearly there is no hidden motive in this deal
clearly there is no hidden motive in this deal
But, if they are enticing people (such as myself) to dump their memberships for the fun card, they are losing quite a bit of money. While they are getting money up front, they are losing the monthly revenue, which is also a benefit to them.
It seems to me that concerns of membership cancellations wouldn't be an issue if there weren't as many memberships as they predicted/need.
It seems to me that concerns of membership cancellations wouldn't be an issue if there weren't as many memberships as they predicted/need.
This is just a way to boost overall income in a typically slow quarter. They aren’t trying to entice anyone to do anything.
I’m not complaining about the fun cards. In fact, if we assume a $60 2019 CT fun card (that would be over a 10% increase from this year), I’ll be saving $200 by switching four family members from memberships to fun cards.
What I am saying is that you don’t heavily discount a product that is selling well.
They must know people would switch from memberships to fun cards with this type of sale, and they are doing it anyway. To me, that says the (more expensive) memberships did not sell nearly as well as they hoped/expected.
Weren’t memberships supposed to be part of their goal of moving away from dirt cheap admissions? Getting people to give up the cheap ez pay passes? Not buying fun cards? (Fun cards went up in price last year quite a bit, to get people to purchase memberships instead).
Now they are back to cheap fun cards.
My conclusions from all this is that the memberships are not selling as they hoped/excepted.
What I am saying is that you don’t heavily discount a product that is selling well.
They must know people would switch from memberships to fun cards with this type of sale, and they are doing it anyway. To me, that says the (more expensive) memberships did not sell nearly as well as they hoped/expected.
Weren’t memberships supposed to be part of their goal of moving away from dirt cheap admissions? Getting people to give up the cheap ez pay passes? Not buying fun cards? (Fun cards went up in price last year quite a bit, to get people to purchase memberships instead).
Now they are back to cheap fun cards.
My conclusions from all this is that the memberships are not selling as they hoped/excepted.
I mean to me I read this as they want to find a way to bring in a greater number of people.
2 individual tickets to BGW/WCUSA = $85 at the absolute cheapest.
1 Fun pass for 3 days = $70.
Hit up the right families in the area that were 1 day-ing (if that) it to BGW get this card, maybe they enjoy themselves, become a full member because they tire of paying for everything else.
For members, this really isn't enticing. I got the Platinum for 2019. $347.88 is what I'll pay over the year. Doing some simple math based on what I've done in 2018:
15 visits to BGW, 5 to WCUSA, 2 to BGT, 2 HOS visits, 3 planned CT visits
So if I had the Fun Pass:
$70 for the pass
Parking Fee $15-20 per time, let's say I cheap it every time: $300 parking $370 running total
BGT Tickets are ~$80 each, $120 for the 2 day (IIRC) $490 running total
Let's say I manage to find HOS tickets discounted to $40 a pop $570 running total and another $30 for parking $630 running total
And my 3 CT visits, $25 per day based on what I paid for my mom last year: $705 running total.
And I don't get any discounts or perks that you get from having the membership. Not to mention potential blackout dates, not getting in on member only days, no extra passes for friends, no discounts for friends......to me the Fun Card makes sense if you are a family with young enough kids that they can't do a ton in FoF and don't want to ride too many big rides and you can go on non-blackout dates. Also makes sense if you live far away and are only getting in 2 or 3 trips in season.
But for a majority of people that have memberships to BGW, getting the Fun Card isn't an alternative that would entice me at that price.
2 individual tickets to BGW/WCUSA = $85 at the absolute cheapest.
1 Fun pass for 3 days = $70.
Hit up the right families in the area that were 1 day-ing (if that) it to BGW get this card, maybe they enjoy themselves, become a full member because they tire of paying for everything else.
For members, this really isn't enticing. I got the Platinum for 2019. $347.88 is what I'll pay over the year. Doing some simple math based on what I've done in 2018:
15 visits to BGW, 5 to WCUSA, 2 to BGT, 2 HOS visits, 3 planned CT visits
So if I had the Fun Pass:
$70 for the pass
Parking Fee $15-20 per time, let's say I cheap it every time: $300 parking $370 running total
BGT Tickets are ~$80 each, $120 for the 2 day (IIRC) $490 running total
Let's say I manage to find HOS tickets discounted to $40 a pop $570 running total and another $30 for parking $630 running total
And my 3 CT visits, $25 per day based on what I paid for my mom last year: $705 running total.
And I don't get any discounts or perks that you get from having the membership. Not to mention potential blackout dates, not getting in on member only days, no extra passes for friends, no discounts for friends......to me the Fun Card makes sense if you are a family with young enough kids that they can't do a ton in FoF and don't want to ride too many big rides and you can go on non-blackout dates. Also makes sense if you live far away and are only getting in 2 or 3 trips in season.
But for a majority of people that have memberships to BGW, getting the Fun Card isn't an alternative that would entice me at that price.
Yes, for a single individual, the fun card is not a good value, compared to memberships.
For a family, the fun card can be a great value, if 1 person gets the membership, and the rest of the family gets the fun card. The family still gets all the parking and discounts as if they all had memberships. The only caveat is if the family wants to visit all 3 seasons, then the fun card is not worth it. If they visit for 1 or 2 seasons, then yes. Maybe we’re very atypical, but we are saving about $200 next year by switching to fun cards.
To me, it seems like the 3rd changup BGW threw at it’s customers in the past 9 months
1. The original change to memberships
2. The revamping in October
3. The reintroduction of cheap fun cards
As per Nicole above, this could be the result of change of top management, and not a reaction to lack of sales. Either way, three such turnarounds in a short period is not good.
For a family, the fun card can be a great value, if 1 person gets the membership, and the rest of the family gets the fun card. The family still gets all the parking and discounts as if they all had memberships. The only caveat is if the family wants to visit all 3 seasons, then the fun card is not worth it. If they visit for 1 or 2 seasons, then yes. Maybe we’re very atypical, but we are saving about $200 next year by switching to fun cards.
To me, it seems like the 3rd changup BGW threw at it’s customers in the past 9 months
1. The original change to memberships
2. The revamping in October
3. The reintroduction of cheap fun cards
As per Nicole above, this could be the result of change of top management, and not a reaction to lack of sales. Either way, three such turnarounds in a short period is not good.
Yes the fun card could be good for families and have one person get the membership. To me there's still some downsides. Like that person always has to go for the membership benefits to apply. If you are coming from far enough that you always come as a whole family, don't plan on being at any other SEAS parks, and assuming there are enough non-blackout days that you can take advantage.
I wouldn't agree that all these turnarounds are a bad thing because we don't know what's driving it. New people in charge? SEAS Corporate telling them no? Public pushback?
I don't think the Fun Card is going to be this big hit to memberships or a big seller like you think it might be.
In the end I think it's still just a way for BGW to boost some sales in a typically slow quarter and to have some type of deal without ticking off people that already bought Memberships. Just think the reaction if you already bought your membership, and you saw like "One month free" or "15% off if purchased up front" on a membership? I would be calling raising all kinds of hell. In fact, I wouldn't be shocked if they ran a similar deal mid way through December and right before Christmas. Having the Fun Card around is a way to have some sort of ticket to sell with a discount in holiday season without annoying a majority of people.
I wouldn't agree that all these turnarounds are a bad thing because we don't know what's driving it. New people in charge? SEAS Corporate telling them no? Public pushback?
I don't think the Fun Card is going to be this big hit to memberships or a big seller like you think it might be.
In the end I think it's still just a way for BGW to boost some sales in a typically slow quarter and to have some type of deal without ticking off people that already bought Memberships. Just think the reaction if you already bought your membership, and you saw like "One month free" or "15% off if purchased up front" on a membership? I would be calling raising all kinds of hell. In fact, I wouldn't be shocked if they ran a similar deal mid way through December and right before Christmas. Having the Fun Card around is a way to have some sort of ticket to sell with a discount in holiday season without annoying a majority of people.
FWIW BGT has a deal going on with their 1 day ticket, 2 day SWO/BGT ticket, and BGT Fun Card.
SWSA has a discount on memberships. Their Platinum is discounted from $15 a month to $11 a month. Less than half of ours.
SWSD is doing buy one get one half off on their lowest 2 membership tiers.
SWO only has discounts on single day and two day tickets.
Sesame Place discounted annual passes (memberships) 25%.
Keeping it in perspective: SWO and BGW got the two 'worst' Black Friday deals when you take into account the BGT Fun Card is almost a year long fun card.
SWSA has a discount on memberships. Their Platinum is discounted from $15 a month to $11 a month. Less than half of ours.
SWSD is doing buy one get one half off on their lowest 2 membership tiers.
SWO only has discounts on single day and two day tickets.
Sesame Place discounted annual passes (memberships) 25%.
Keeping it in perspective: SWO and BGW got the two 'worst' Black Friday deals when you take into account the BGT Fun Card is almost a year long fun card.