Reading this since it was posted, and am going to echo my favorites that I've spotted, along with a little reasoning for the want, and maybe the benefit for the park (in my eyes).
Pass member entrance(s). It could even be a reward for the employees, as pass members are likely to be more ready to enter the park and make for an easier shift. It would be the 'cake' duty of the day. Obviously the Pass Membership benefit is a quicker moving line. This could be for cars as well as people. Separate park entrance or just separate lanes, it would be a major win, IMO.
PM Lounge. Wow, wouldn't that be nice. Free soda or not (see below), some air conditioning/heat, a quick charge on the phone, and the opportunity to talk to someone about Wine on the Rhine tonight at 7 pm would be be great. Have a few department heads walk through randomly throughout each day and touch tables to get a pulse on what's going right. Almost instant feedback from those that understand the difference between a bad employee and a bad day, would be able to affect customer service pretty quickly. And for me to give team member Suzy a compliment without waiting in the line at customer service in England at the end of the day...
Throw those used-up coaster wheels on the wall for art.
Another idea here - thinking of adding a new menu item? We know it's already been decided, but have samples of that new boat of fries, juniper fudge, chicken croquet in the lounge for a week, get more feedback for serving size vs purchase price. Display the serving, but sample with a bite-sized piece for the flavor profiling. Provides the pass member lounge as another opportunity to talk to management.
Hard plastic member cards. My first [day] pass has Nessie on it. I upgraded that afternoon to an annual pass. A year or two later we left our passes at home (five hours away) and had reprints done. The green background and coaster tree is the only card now, so I've kept the Nessie card in front - kind of a badge of honor? If there was the ability to get a plastic card for $5, my choice of 5/7/10 designs (only available to pass members, of course), I would buy one. No questions asked. Coaster cards and hamlet lanyards? A Griffon card on an Ireland lanyard will be around my neck. I don't need to advertise that I've been a member for 52 years, and I certainly don't want every ride attendant to be expected to thank me for that. Please, check to make sure my lap bar is correctly engaged, and ignore my pass.
I like the idea of a cupless drink plan. Admittedly we typically drink beer and tap water, but there are times I want a ginger ale (looking at you, Alpie and Verbolten) or a Coke. I don't want the souvenir cup/anchor, especially since I won't end up using it on 10 of my 12 visits in 2018. But when I really want that ginger ale, I see that $3.29 price and wince. Sure, $7.58 for two sodas is less than $25 for an annual cupless 'cup', but I'll spend the $25 for the convenience of not carrying around the anchor when I'm pretty sure I won't need/want it.
Early/Late access days more than twice a season. It's already been mentioned about offering limited access to the park (only open Pompeii, but 30 minutes before general public gets in on Saturday morning). Universal Orlando was opening only the Harry Potter world, an hour or two early (daily) for a long time. Staff just made sure no one wandered off the path as they walked to the very back of the park. Yes, there's a definite labor cost associated with guarding property through to Griffon or Alpengeist, but...
Annual dining plan. Tampa does it...
Reward items like a free pretzel after you've purchased ten at Beste Brezeln would be inexpensive and easy to track via the card being scanned for the discount. Even if I can't use it the day I get my tenth pretzel due to databases needing to synchronize or the data mining to be completed, I'll have it tomorrow.
I've tried to not make entries that seem like money-grabs (sure, I'd _love_ to get an unlimited HOS QQ for every visit I make during the event), but things that add value without adding a ton of cost. I realize that as a pass member I become a consumer - potentially using more park than my admission fee covers. That said, we have two steins in the Festhaus; we spend a full day in the park for two or three consecutive days per visit, so we eat at least one big meal (usually two) plus snacks each day; we suck up souvenirs like Christmas ornaments, t-shirts, etc. There's a fair bit of profit in each of those individual items, even with our discount. I don't think pass members need to have the world thrown at us, we're a pretty loyal bunch. Heck, I am not sure we SHOULD get anything that every other guest doesn't also get. But, being a member makes me feel special. When the parks treat me as someone that _is_ a little more special (along with the other 100,000 pass members), it makes me weak in the knees.
A huge thank you to the park for making this forum a part of this discussion. It's great to see the park continue to be interested in what its fans have to say, and hopefully implement some of the ideas for everyone to benefit. There are many great ideas in this thread, these are the ones that I feel would benefit my family more directly, or are more reasonable for the park to implement. I also understand that we may not see more than one or two implemented in 2018/2019. That's OK, we're all marathoners here - I think.
Pass member entrance(s). It could even be a reward for the employees, as pass members are likely to be more ready to enter the park and make for an easier shift. It would be the 'cake' duty of the day. Obviously the Pass Membership benefit is a quicker moving line. This could be for cars as well as people. Separate park entrance or just separate lanes, it would be a major win, IMO.
PM Lounge. Wow, wouldn't that be nice. Free soda or not (see below), some air conditioning/heat, a quick charge on the phone, and the opportunity to talk to someone about Wine on the Rhine tonight at 7 pm would be be great. Have a few department heads walk through randomly throughout each day and touch tables to get a pulse on what's going right. Almost instant feedback from those that understand the difference between a bad employee and a bad day, would be able to affect customer service pretty quickly. And for me to give team member Suzy a compliment without waiting in the line at customer service in England at the end of the day...
Throw those used-up coaster wheels on the wall for art.
Another idea here - thinking of adding a new menu item? We know it's already been decided, but have samples of that new boat of fries, juniper fudge, chicken croquet in the lounge for a week, get more feedback for serving size vs purchase price. Display the serving, but sample with a bite-sized piece for the flavor profiling. Provides the pass member lounge as another opportunity to talk to management.
Hard plastic member cards. My first [day] pass has Nessie on it. I upgraded that afternoon to an annual pass. A year or two later we left our passes at home (five hours away) and had reprints done. The green background and coaster tree is the only card now, so I've kept the Nessie card in front - kind of a badge of honor? If there was the ability to get a plastic card for $5, my choice of 5/7/10 designs (only available to pass members, of course), I would buy one. No questions asked. Coaster cards and hamlet lanyards? A Griffon card on an Ireland lanyard will be around my neck. I don't need to advertise that I've been a member for 52 years, and I certainly don't want every ride attendant to be expected to thank me for that. Please, check to make sure my lap bar is correctly engaged, and ignore my pass.
I like the idea of a cupless drink plan. Admittedly we typically drink beer and tap water, but there are times I want a ginger ale (looking at you, Alpie and Verbolten) or a Coke. I don't want the souvenir cup/anchor, especially since I won't end up using it on 10 of my 12 visits in 2018. But when I really want that ginger ale, I see that $3.29 price and wince. Sure, $7.58 for two sodas is less than $25 for an annual cupless 'cup', but I'll spend the $25 for the convenience of not carrying around the anchor when I'm pretty sure I won't need/want it.
Early/Late access days more than twice a season. It's already been mentioned about offering limited access to the park (only open Pompeii, but 30 minutes before general public gets in on Saturday morning). Universal Orlando was opening only the Harry Potter world, an hour or two early (daily) for a long time. Staff just made sure no one wandered off the path as they walked to the very back of the park. Yes, there's a definite labor cost associated with guarding property through to Griffon or Alpengeist, but...
Annual dining plan. Tampa does it...
Reward items like a free pretzel after you've purchased ten at Beste Brezeln would be inexpensive and easy to track via the card being scanned for the discount. Even if I can't use it the day I get my tenth pretzel due to databases needing to synchronize or the data mining to be completed, I'll have it tomorrow.
I've tried to not make entries that seem like money-grabs (sure, I'd _love_ to get an unlimited HOS QQ for every visit I make during the event), but things that add value without adding a ton of cost. I realize that as a pass member I become a consumer - potentially using more park than my admission fee covers. That said, we have two steins in the Festhaus; we spend a full day in the park for two or three consecutive days per visit, so we eat at least one big meal (usually two) plus snacks each day; we suck up souvenirs like Christmas ornaments, t-shirts, etc. There's a fair bit of profit in each of those individual items, even with our discount. I don't think pass members need to have the world thrown at us, we're a pretty loyal bunch. Heck, I am not sure we SHOULD get anything that every other guest doesn't also get. But, being a member makes me feel special. When the parks treat me as someone that _is_ a little more special (along with the other 100,000 pass members), it makes me weak in the knees.
A huge thank you to the park for making this forum a part of this discussion. It's great to see the park continue to be interested in what its fans have to say, and hopefully implement some of the ideas for everyone to benefit. There are many great ideas in this thread, these are the ones that I feel would benefit my family more directly, or are more reasonable for the park to implement. I also understand that we may not see more than one or two implemented in 2018/2019. That's OK, we're all marathoners here - I think.
