Coasters and Craft Brews 2020

[horsesboy]

The reality is there was no answer that wasn't going to create issues. For example if you so pass members get a discount but have to pay there would have been outrage that I honestly don't feel would be unwarranted that you took money from people over the course of the shutdown and then are asking them to pay at the end to go. I understand the position that the park is in on heeding to limit use so that they can be profitable. Maybe they should have considered things like limiting ot to one pass use per a week from each person or only booking one week at a time for members to spread it out more and provide a better chance for everyone. Heck maybe 24 hours out if it's not sold out you open the remaining slots for last minute pass resveration. But in general I think they chose what they saw as the least bad plan.

 

[Crunchewy]

I'm confused how you say that there isn't a limit in place because there is. They are only allowing a finite amount of reservations. There are still some reservations available for purchase and they have already adjusted amount that was available for members. Regardless they are only allowing so many reservations. When they do what was described they are effectively taking away a reservation from the amount allotted for purchased tickets. The park is honestly probably doing less than 1000 tickets for the express purpose of not going over 1000 people somehow.

I didn't know that subtlety. So it sounds like they are not allowing too many reservations - I thought the story here was that they were allowing more people in than intended. I was mistaken.

 

[Buschfan777]

A slight update has been made to the shopping section of the Coasters and Craft Brews page. Im sure youll know what it is(I put it in bold anyways)

"Commemorate your return to the park and treat yourself to a souvenir (or two) at Emerald Isle Gifts and Toy’s O’ The Leprechaun located in Ireland, La Belle Shop in France, Trapper Dave’s General Store found in New France, and The Emporium in England."

Cool! Glad England is going to be open

 

[Pretzel Kaiser]

Yay pins!

 

[jornor]

Good news! Looks like BGW is allowing you to easily change or cancel your reservation now here. If you have mistakenly picked the wrong date, or just cant go on the date(or one of the dates) you have chosen, you don't have to wait for who knows how long on the phone now. Hopefully, this will free up some space for more passmembers/holders.

Thanks so much for sharing this!

 

[UncleDuncan]

LoLz.

So now that most of you all have paid, or are paying, for passes you can't use, now you're in a pool separate from the public which limits how many people can go to the park at the same time? Fuck.That.Noise.

"Thanks for scratching BGW's back but we have new itches, so please go stand over there. Here's a toaster oven. There's only one so you lot can fight over it. ???"

I'm not saying the park should let in everyone who already has season passes before everyone else... Wait. Yes I am.

This shit is full 'mask off' behavior.

 

[Nibbins]

LoLz.

So now that most of you all have paid, or are paying, for passes you can't use, now you're in a pool separate from the public which limits how many people can go to the park at the same time? Fuck.That.Noise.

"Thanks for scratching BGW's back but we have new itches, so please go stand over there. Here's a toaster oven. There's only one so you lot can fight over it. ???"

I'm not saying the park should let in everyone who already has season passes before everyone else... Wait. Yes I am.

This shit is full 'mask off' behavior.

That wouldn't really achieve anything either. The park still would sell out and plenty of people with membership still wouldn't be able to get in and be pissed.

At the same time the park wouldn't make enough money to justify opening and would cancel the whole thing and then no one gets to go...


If anything they should have limited the reservations to 1 per member for this limited event. That way more people would have been able to get a chance to get in. Looks like there are plenty of members who booked several days or even both slots in one day.

 

[Memles]

If anything they should have limited the reservations to 1 per member for this limited event. That way more people would have been able to get a chance to get in. Looks like there are plenty of members who booked several days or even both slots in one day.

The fact is that nothing would have resolved the tension in a partial, reservation-based, limited opening. If you limit reservations, local members are upset their "visit anytime I want" privileges aren't being met, while less local members not being able to book two slots in one day would likely see it as making the trip to get to the park a waste of time for only four hours.

The idea of the current system as "best worst case" is as accurate as it gets, combining the profit feasibility factor with the need to appease members. The reality is they're operating blind here as to how workable this is, and I do think that it's a fact-finding mission. If they find that member retention was threatened, they might adjust the math a bit, for example, and if the general public was more or less interested than they thought they will adjust accordingly.

The reality is that if not for this convoluted, not fair to everyone plan, the park would not be opening at all. And I do think that a significant portion of the member base would rather rescue at least a piece of this season than let the park sit empty simply because there's no perfect solution that wouldn't represent a (greater) threat to public health.

 

[UncleDuncan]

At the same time the park wouldn't make enough money to justify opening and would cancel the whole thing and then no one gets to go...

I'm not arguing over how BGW should handle this (I think it's a dick move all the way around; not a new look for BGW with regards to how they treat passholders). My initial inclination is that they shouldn't open at all. But that's just me. Others are entitled to their opinion.

What I find mildly concerning and/or disgusting is, people are paying for services they're not allowed to enjoy/consume/extract because somehow the money they spent in the past is not as valid as the money a non-passholder will spend presently or in the near future.

So. My question is, what are they doing with passholder money then?

 

[Zachary]

While I agree that the “forced loan” strategy SEAS has implemented is AWFUL, I separate that from the decisions BGW has made around this reopening. I can be mad at SEAS for taking my money on the prosmise that they’ll return it eventually while also thinking that the right way to try reopening under the 1k guest cap is to not give free admission to anyone.

 

[WDWRLD]

I think Covid will have themeparks and other places reconsidering annual passes and memberships that nexer expire. If BGWs system was yearly there would be no real issue. Everyones pases would have expired at the close of the final day of the 2019-2020 season.Everyone would have needed to buy a 2020-2021 pass and none of those would have ever been used. The park could have then canceled all of them and refunded thats years money. Then when they reopened for 2021 everyone would have been forced to purchase at the current price. Thay also could have sold 2020 passes at what ever rate and what ever limits they though would work best for the park if and when they could open. The multi year crap that BGW uses is absolutely the dumbest possible thing they could do. Now with this special beers event they are stuck because they have already sold memberships and annual passes where as if the didnt they could strictly sell this event one day at a time and made way more money.

 

[warfelg]

Whew, a few things to unpack here:
@UncleDuncan the point @Nibbins made is what I'm thinking too, and @Zachary pointed out, the continuation of this event seems set on how well does it do for the park. As I type this @Memles responded too, and paints the picture of how hard it is to really get something like this right.

Overall I think the post from FB @Zachary put on here shows how shitty overall BGW is. They are so afraid of someone saying something bad about them or one family cancelling a pass because they don't get their way, that BGW is willing to break their own rules. That's what really pisses me off. They did this when they switched to memberships and then grandfathered passes because people complained because they would end up having to pay market rate rather than 1980's/1990's pricing. Then they did it AGAIN just ONE YEAR LATER when they changed their own price structure. Then it happened AGAIN when now as a potential platinum member, I get the same exact benefits at $27/month that someone on a grandfathered pass that's been upgraded gets but paying only $12/month.

I mean, to me this is more the problematic horseshit from BGW/SEAS of being unable to draw a line in the sand and standing their ground than the limiting the number of members allowed a day to ensure this plan can help the bottom line a bit.

@WDWRLD The issues I see there is (1) Do you prorate the 2 months off when someone lets it expire and reps in March? Or do you up their monthly rate based on paying 12 months of the pass in 10 months? (2) The programing needed for 12 months of a membership is far easier than setting it up to recalculate amounts to pay and the mess that comes with that.

 

[Memles]

Two trains on Griffin, per this reporter's interview with operations.

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[UncleDuncan]

While I agree that the “forced loan” strategy SEAS has implemented is AWFUL, I separate that from the decisions BGW has made around this reopening. I can be mad at SEAS for taking my money on the prosmise that they’ll return it eventually while also thinking that the right way to try reopening under the 1k guest cap is to not give free admission to anyone.

I mean we could derail the thread and talk about all the theoretical ways they should reopen. But the way you envision or hope they reopen is not what's going on. If I was a passholder making payments, I'd be pissed. If I was a passholder trying to book days and being told, "sorry all full - feel free to pay full price" I would be even more upset. And they weren't even smart enough to make a system that shuts out shifty passholders booking redundant days.

I think some people in this thread are turning a bit of a blind eye because of the EXCITEMENT surrounding their favorite park opening. I get that - it's relevant. But I don't really give 2 shits about BGW and I openly question what's the point of all these programs that extract money from your wallet to theirs if you're not getting anything out of it except back of the line privileges.

By the way, since I don't feel like responding to everyone individually I'll just say the following: I fully endorsed the price hike BGW unveiled recently. I also understand BGW is trying to figure out how to operate in the new normal. None of this is easy. All that being said, it's obvious the approach to this event is, BGW already has passholder money but they obviously crave that sweet full retail revenue. Therefore, passholders have the prestige of fighting over predetermined crumbs.

If you all are cool with that - keep on keepin' on. Personally, if I was a passholder, I'd be pissed. We can agree to disagree. However, I'm pretty happy with my decision to stay a non-passholder. And, I think you all deserve better. If this is the way they operate, I'd rather they stay closed.

 

[WDWRLD]

I think they need to sell passes based on seasons, So to go to BGW in 2021 you must take action by purchasing a 2021 pass. You can purchase in January and make 12 even payments, purchase in March and you pay Jan, Feb, March as a down payment right then, afyer that you pay monthly untill december when you pay off the pass or you pay outright for the pass all at once. Then the following year same thing. There is no prorating, you pay what ever it is for that years pass reguardless when you buy it. It will piss some people off and some people will not think its worth the cost, so what. BGW oversells membeships and season passes and they need to curb that anyhow. At the end of every season all passes reset so if theres a price increase everyone pays it. and if they want to change something about the passes thats their chance to do it before they start selling the next seasons pass.

Edited to add.....for passes for something like what has happened this season they could either have the option of a full refund and yourpass canceled for that ear of you have not used it yet or in the case of a partial year open offer a voucher good for ever how many months they were closed towards thepurchase of the following years pass.

 

[rswashdc]

I'm thinking with such a huge demand for limited tickets, they should have gone to some kind of a lottery for members or limit it to one visit per member during the initial reservations. Getting a reservation shouldn't have been dependent on getting an email or noticing the event on social media and then making immediate plans within a couple hours of release.

 

[warfelg]

I'm thinking with such a huge demand for limited tickets, they should have gone to some kind of a lottery for members or limit it to one visit per member during the initial reservations. Getting a reservation shouldn't have been dependent on getting an email or noticing the event on social media and then making immediate plans within a couple hours of release.

Or just allow 2 reservations per pass at a time.

 

[Memles]

I think some people in this thread are turning a bit of a blind eye because of the EXCITEMENT surrounding their favorite park opening. I get that - it's relevant. But I don't really give 2 shits about BGW and I openly question what's the point of all these programs that extract money from your wallet to theirs if you're not getting anything out of it except back of the line privileges.

It's been really fascinating to watch the conversations around this play out on Facebook. I'm certainly not in the "I'm happy to keep giving them money to care for the animals" camp, which strikes me as a fairly naive understanding of corporate finances, but I'm also maybe too new to the park to feel the level of frustration that others have accumulated through the various membership/pass changeovers, which I completely understand. I've been fortunate not to be affected too much financially by the pandemic, and therefore have not been concerned about effectively pre-paying for next year's park access, but using that as a default has been a real test of their perceived brand loyalty.

I think the primary issue for SEAS has been communication, more than anything. They technically offered to defer payments, but I doubt that message got to everyone who needed it, and the customer service situation has by all accounts been a mess to deal with trying to resolve things after the fact.

 

[Buschfan777]

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[Memles]

Interesting informal polling of the general public in this reporter's Twitter feed, where she outlined the various safety precautious and then asked her followers if they would be willing to visit the park:

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