Coasters and Craft Brews 2020

[warfelg]

OMG I'm 100% not going since "NO" is winning. Basically tells me some of the basic things to stay safe isn't likely to be followed.

 

[WDWRLD]

Her tweets are interesting, tables blocked off? Its a food event....hopfully there are still plenty of tables to sit and eat. I hope they have just as many if not more tables but just spread them out over all of the open areas of the park not just at places like Trappers.Will also be interesting how they keep up cleaning those tables. If it was normal meals people would sit on one place longer but a food event means it culd be tastings which means you will only sit briefly but many more times than just eating one meal.

 

[Memles]

OMG I'm 100% not going since "NO" is winning. Basically tells me some of the basic things to stay safe isn't likely to be followed.

I'm fascinated that this is how you're reading the poll. Why do you think people voting "no" implies that people who DO visit the park will not respect the rules in place? I'm not following your logic here. I'm reading "No" as people who would not visit the park because they are unwilling to take the risk.

As for the event as a whole, a couple of tidbits from the news stories that are showing up this evening.

From the Richmond Times-Dispatch, two notes:

As Busch Gardens Williamsburg plans to reopen Thursday with a limited capacity special event, the park president said masks will be required by employees and patrons - even while outdoors.

I love how they emphasize the outdoors, which frames the park as moving beyond state guidelines, and carries the park's water in terms of messaging that the park is safer than other public spaces as a result. I wonder if this was something that park PR folks were emphasizing and wanted to make sure it got into stories. (It made the headline here).

And as for sales, and Member offerings:

Tickets are still available for this week for general admission "but demand has been strong and steady," he said. He didn't provide specific sales figures.

Some of reservations for those holding annual membership passes - which gives patrons free admission - have been sold out. "We are looking at opportunities to expand the event and give members additional opportunities," he said.

Still vague on sales so far, so no clarity as to how they divided up the 1000-people per time period. But note another emphasis on potentially expanding the event for members—perhaps additional member-only days? I suppose a lot will depend on where they see the profit margins on Wednesday night in terms of food/merch.

 

[warfelg]

I'm fascinated that this is how you're reading the poll. Why do you think people voting "no" implies that people who DO visit the park will not respect the rules in place? I'm not following your logic here. I'm reading "No" as people who would not visit the park because they are unwilling to take the risk.

I'm reading it in that they feel measures to keep customers safe is oppressive.

Then again I'll say I think a binary choice in the way it's worded is poor. I would have gone:
~Yes, I'll visit regardless
~Yea, I feel safer with restrictions
~No, I wouldn't visit any way
~No, I won't visit with restrictions

 

[Memles]

Her tweets are interesting, tables blocked off? Its a food event....hopfully there are still plenty of tables to sit and eat. I hope they have just as many if not more tables but just spread them out over all of the open areas of the park not just at places like Trappers.Will also be interesting how they keep up cleaning those tables. If it was normal meals people would sit on one place longer but a food event means it culd be tastings which means you will only sit briefly but many more times than just eating one meal.

Here's what Trapper's Looks like, per the WTKR report:

 

[horsesboy]

Her tweets are interesting, tables blocked off? Its a food event....hopfully there are still plenty of tables to sit and eat. I hope they have just as many if not more tables but just spread them out over all of the open areas of the park not just at places like Trappers.Will also be interesting how they keep up cleaning those tables. If it was normal meals people would sit on one place longer but a food event means it culd be tastings which means you will only sit briefly but many more times than just eating one meal.

If I remember correctly some of the tables in the eating patio between Royal Palace and Smoke house are stationary so this might be for location that they can not really move them.

 

[vacoasterfanatic]

It appears as if bgw had a small media day today or yesterday for the event as iomgeek has made a video in the park.

 

[jornor]

Yikes... Not sure where to post this, this hurricane is ripping right through BGW it looks like.. Everyone in the area(s) affected be safe, and I hope the park doesn't receive any substantial damage. Everyone be safe.

 

[Memles]

Yikes... Not sure where to post this, this hurricane is ripping right through BGW it looks like.. Everyone in the area(s) affected be safe, and I hope the park doesn't receive any substantial damage. Everyone be safe.

View attachment 20955

The good news is that it will be moving through quickly, meaning that they're going to have all day Tuesday to clean up any debris and re-do any work that might have been undone by the story.

The bad news is that, yes, it's pretty much barreling right at the park.

 

[BGWnut]

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.

I think this could have made sense with old passes when BGW closed in October but with the time period that they are closed now I don't think it makes much sense to only sell passes for a season. They are open 10 months out of the year. It would ultimately decrease pass sales because after a certain point there is less incentive to purchase a pass for that season.

I'm fascinated that this is how you're reading the poll. Why do you think people voting "no" implies that people who DO visit the park will not respect the rules in place? I'm not following your logic here. I'm reading "No" as people who would not visit the park because they are unwilling to take the risk.

As for the event as a whole, a couple of tidbits from the news stories that are showing up this evening.

From the Richmond Times-Dispatch, two notes:



I love how they emphasize the outdoors, which frames the park as moving beyond state guidelines, and carries the park's water in terms of messaging that the park is safer than other public spaces as a result. I wonder if this was something that park PR folks were emphasizing and wanted to make sure it got into stories. (It made the headline here).

And as for sales, and Member offerings:



Still vague on sales so far, so no clarity as to how they divided up the 1000-people per time period. But note another emphasis on potentially expanding the event for members—perhaps additional member-only days? I suppose a lot will depend on where they see the profit margins on Wednesday night in terms of food/merch.

I do think that the PR department wants that to be heavily emphasized. I think there are three reasons for this.

1. It is different than what most outdoor places require. Normally outdoors people aren't required to where a mask everywhere they go, so they want people to make sure that they understand the requirement.

2. They want to do as you said and show to people that they are safer in relation to other activities

3. I think this is an important one but they want to show the governor that they are serious and that they are following through. They need to prove it that they can reopen and do it safely. Then the governor might lessen the capacity restrictions and allow them have 5000 people and they can reopen the whole park.

 

[Memles]

3. I think this is an important one but they want to show the governor that they are serious and that they are following through. They need to prove it that they can reopen and do it safely. Then the governor might lessen the capacity restrictions and allow them have 5000 people and they can reopen the whole park.

I'm really curious what conversations their lobbyists/Lembke have had with Richmond about whether this is even on the table given the current state of things. Given that Northam has publicly tied the opening of the parks to people following guidelines, it seems like it would take significant shifts in the data for them to budge on that, and so I'm pretty sure the state would be content to say "we're glad you're making 1000 at a time work for you, let's see how we're doing in March 2021."

 

[BGWnut]

I'm really curious what conversations their lobbyists/Lembke have had with Richmond about whether this is even on the table given the current state of things. Given that Northam has publicly tied the opening of the parks to people following guidelines, it seems like it would take significant shifts in the data for them to budge on that, and so I'm pretty sure the state would be content to say "we're glad you're making 1000 at a time work for you, let's see how we're doing in March 2021."

I think it's actually pretty likely, they just need to show that they are able to open without cases spiking in the area. If they can do that then they can put more pressure on the governor's office. When they have actual data about it it can be much more convincing.

 

[Eric]

With the super low capacity of this event and the fact that they made it free to (presumably) most people visiting, I am really surprised by the lack of upgrades available for the event. figured that maybe they could've done some animal or rollercoaster tours, even if it was in that 2 hour window between the afternoon and evening group of guests.

Btw, hope you all are safe right now, I know there are reported tornadoes in the area at the moment

 

[Memles]

I think it's actually pretty likely, they just need to show that they are able to open without cases spiking in the area. If they can do that then they can put more pressure on the governor's office. When they have actual data about it it can be much more convincing.

But what does evidence look like? Is the park going to actively contact trace visitors to confirm they don't have the virus? The reality of the current state of contact tracing is that it's not trustworthy: some people refuse to reveal where they've been, while even those who participate may leave out certain details out of shame or pride or something else entirely. I see what you're saying, but I just don't think there's going to be discrete data that the park could turn to in this case.

I do think you're right that a proof of concept is going to be important, and I imagine they're inviting folks from the Health Department to see what they're working on. Will be keeping my eye out for anyone who seems to be observing when I'm in the park.

 

[horsesboy]

With the super low capacity of this event and the fact that they made it free to (presumably) most people visiting, I am really surprised by the lack of upgrades available for the event. figured that maybe they could've done some animal or rollercoaster tours, even if it was in that 2 hour window between the afternoon and evening group of guests.

Btw, hope you all are safe right now, I know there are reported tornadoes in the area at the moment

I heard that it was about only about 250 slots were saved for a combination of fun cards, and the different passes. If true 25 percent to pass members seems responsible and also means that the vast majority are paying for tickets.

Also I am not sure how feasible tours would be given that they are going to be hard to social distance in many cases. Not offering them seems wise to me.

Also drove past on my way into work and saw no signs of damage but wasn't exactly focused on the park. Will look again on my way home this afternoon.

 

[horsesboy]

I'm really curious what conversations their lobbyists/Lembke have had with Richmond about whether this is even on the table given the current state of things. Given that Northam has publicly tied the opening of the parks to people following guidelines, it seems like it would take significant shifts in the data for them to budge on that, and so I'm pretty sure the state would be content to say "we're glad you're making 1000 at a time work for you, let's see how we're doing in March 2021."

At some point there is a significant likelihood that it will not be his call. I heard a very detailed legal analysts that said that by their very nature emergency orders are to be temporarily. There seems to be some legal grey area as to how long you can keep an emergency order in place but according to this very good lawyer there could be a very good chance that with us hitting the six month mark that the courts would say that he has to go through the legislature to keep them.

 

[Memles]

Also drove past on my way into work and saw no signs of damage but wasn't exactly focused on the park. Will look again on my way home this afternoon.

I was just randomly revisiting some past social media posts and realized I was at Busch in the days after Michael came through in 2018, which is what they compared this storm to. Biggest issue there was debris in New France, which was closed the day before I went, and Invadr wasn't up and running until after lunch the day I was there.

At some point there is a significant likelihood that it will not be his call. I heard a very detailed legal analysts that said that by their very nature emergency orders are to be temporarily. There seems to be some legal grey area as to how long you can keep an emergency order in place but according to this very good lawyer there could be a very good chance that with us hitting the six month mark that the courts would say that he has to go through the legislature to keep them.

VA's legislature will (rightfully) extend them.

 

[rswashdc]

I heard that it was about only about 250 slots were saved for a combination of fun cards, and the different passes. If true 25 percent to pass members seems responsible and also means that the vast majority are paying for tickets.

If there were only 250 slots then they should have done some kind of lottery system or only allowed members to sign up for one or two days at a time. Alexandria did something to that effect with their outdoor pools for families who wanted to do free swim understanding that demand far exceeded supply. They've come up with a pretty fair system for allocating spaces, and definitely far better than people going in and reserving everything available.

 

[VikingvadR]

Yes, and you will have to leave in between most likely—good chance you will need to leave property all together.

We’re booked on member night and both Sunday slots so we will share our experience trying the “full day” thing then.

I’ll be there Sunday 5 to 9 pm

 

[BGWnut]

If there were only 250 slots then they should have done some kind of lottery system or only allowed members to sign up for one or two days at a time. Alexandria did something to that effect with their outdoor pools for families who wanted to do free swim understanding that demand far exceeded supply. They've come up with a pretty fair system for allocating spaces, and definitely far better than people going in and reserving everything available.

The 250 slot number is not accurate. I can't say what the actual number was but the majority of reservations were allotted for members.