COVID-19’s Impacts on BGW

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rswashdc said:
Half the problem is KD isn’t open to pull in some of the crowds. Effectively BGW is getting more demand than they probably projected for.
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Sorry but that not an excuse at this point. KD'S sedchule has been know for months which should have been plenty of time to adjust their estimates for no competition. Point two is they know exactly what capacity they are letting into the park and are not currently equipped to address that number that is THEIR choice.
 
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horsesboy said:
Sorry but that not an excuse at this point. KD'S sedchule has been know for months which should have been plenty of time to adjust their estimates for no competition. Point two is they know exactly what capacity they are letting into the park and are not currently equipped to address that number that is THEIR choice.
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BGW doesn’t have KDs stats on where their spring break crowd necessarily comes from, and how much of that crowd would drive the extra hour to BGW versus doing other activities. They can make educated guesses, but thats about it.

Regarding point two, it is absolutely inexcusable not to be able to staff operations when they have a reservation system telling them almost exactly how many people are coming to the park on any given day.
 
When were in the queue to get through the parking tollbooths we looked at cars and vans. Most were not local tags. We were seeing families from PA, NJ and NC almost as much or more than VA tags. The backup to get into the parking lot was as close to what a normal day would look like as I have seen. Saw Lempke walking through the park so he had to be well aware of what the crowds were like. We were wondering if they oversold the park to prove to the Governor or somebody that they could handle a bigger crowd. If that was the case it was a major fail. I would say for sure the crowd was over 7500.
 
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Rothbury said:
We were wondering if they oversold the park to prove to the Governor or somebody that they could handle a bigger crowd. If that was the case it was a major fail. I would say for sure the crowd was over 7500.
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To me, if the point is safety for the governor, then the judgement isn't about ride capacity and throughput vs guest satisfaction. They could have nothing open with the same crowds and as long as they continue to consistently enforce masking, distancing, and disinfecting surfaces then it'd potentially prove the point, regardless of how many guests were pissed off at not being able to enjoy their experience.
 
I want to echo everyone else—the park was a disaster today. They were woefully unprepared and understaffed for the number of guests they had. Every line was enormous—people were waiting 45+ minutes FOR THE RAILROAD. Le Catapult's line was out in the old InvadR extended queue. Verbolten's extended queue was overflowing out into the path. The park managed to open fewer restaurants, stores, and rides today than they've been opening on weekends.

The park experience really does feel unacceptably bad right now. You could stand anywhere today and just eavesdrop on passersbys and hear for yourself how unhappy people were. The park has clearly failed to inform all of these often out of state, often first time visitors that the majority of the park remains closed right now.

BGW needs to bring every last amenity they can online yesterday. It's out of control.
 
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I think the craziest part about this to me is they knew exactly how many guests could come through today, because they have to with the reservation system. It will literally give them an exact number. Projections and market analyses are dribble when you have a concrete number of people who signed up to come to your park on a given day, and that's what makes this absolutely mind boggling.
 
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Rothbury said:
Have to agree with Horseboy about today. Was there from 11 to 6 and some places were absolutely crazy. How do you justify releasing/selling that many reservations and the only place to eat was the Festhaus? It's 7:45 now and I bet there were people in the queue for food at the Festhaus who never made it inside before the park closed. At one point we walked through New France and the line for Invader was all the way out to the pottery and completely blocked the walkway. Everywhere we went/looked there were lines. One food line open at the Festhaus and 3 employees working one food line. At the same time probably 50 -75 people in the queue outside waiting to even enter the building. The line was from the food line all the way to the side entrance they are using for the Festhaus. I saw more people in line for every open ride than I ever saw on a normal day. The swing line was all the way back to the shop in Ireland. They were so unprepared everywhere we went. If this is what the next 4 weekdays this week and 5 days next week are going to be like I'm just not sure I want to go back.
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That's weird, I went in the Festhaus around 4 and it wasn't bad but they closed the smaller food line when I was there. I ate Frites a little later no wait. Pretzel World was insane though earlier.

I agree though, I'm not going back without some reason to expect a difference, like less seasonally awesome weather. Also could have used a show during the worst part of the day.

I did see 2 cleanings on Griffon and one on Apollo. Stand in line with me and you'll see them haha. (also saw Pantheon go from Apollo's line and the 0g winder from a teacup.)
 
I think today is a fairly simple explanation: they took a number of reservations comparable to their weekends, but never managed to hire enough staff to match the same level of staffing for weekends, and the resulting lineup was by all accounts a disaster. I definitely don’t think they did this on purpose: right now, with guest hesitancy already a potential concern about the park’s summer, to have huge Spring Break crowds that go home with bad word of mouth about the park is NOT something they would ever want, and so I don’t think they would be consciously choosing to under-staff to this degree.

As for the fact that people from out of state aren’t aware that the park is still running a limited set of offerings, I admittedly need to say that I don’t feel the park is liable on this. I won’t defend most of the park’s communications strategies, but the website is very explicit about what’s open during any given event, and if people aren’t reading that then I don’t necessarily feel like the park is liable for their confusion (the extra closures today withstanding).
 
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Memles said:
As for the fact that people from out of state aren’t aware that the park is still running a limited set of offerings, I admittedly need to say that I don’t feel the park is liable on this. I won’t defend most of the park’s communications strategies, but the website is very explicit about what’s open during any given event, and if people aren’t reading that then I don’t necessarily feel like the park is liable for their confusion (the extra closures today withstanding).
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I actually really have to disagree with this. Nowhere that I see on the front page of the website does the park suggest that the entire park isn't open. Going to the ticket purchasing page, there is again no suggestion that the park is selling you a ticket for a fraction of the normal experience. I'm sure Frontpage -> Ticket Purchase is a very typical navigation flow for folks planning to visit the park.

Yes, someone could go into the menu system under Things to Do and find the attractions page to see a list of what is operating, but without an indication that they should even be concerned about it in the first place, I'm positive many visitors aren't even considering so much of the park could possibly be closed.
 
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Zachary said:
Yes, someone could go into the menu system under Things to Do and find the attractions page to see a list of what is operating, but without an indication that they should even be concerned about it in the first place, I'm positive many visitors aren't even considering so much of the park could possibly be closed.
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That’s fair. I think I’m applying my own standard of research to a ticket purchase of this nature to others who...are less likely to do that. I find it hard to imagine someone driving hours and booking hotels without doing cursory research on the experience, but you’re right that the park isn‘t being as active in advertising available attractions as they were during the original limited event season.
 
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Memles said:
I think today is a fairly simple explanation: they took a number of reservations comparable to their weekends, but never managed to hire enough staff to match the same level of staffing for weekends, and the resulting lineup was by all accounts a disaster. I definitely don’t think they did this on purpose: right now, with guest hesitancy already a potential concern about the park’s summer, to have huge Spring Break crowds that go home with bad word of mouth about the park is NOT something they would ever want, and so I don’t think they would be consciously choosing to under-staff to this degree.

As for the fact that people from out of state aren’t aware that the park is still running a limited set of offerings, I admittedly need to say that I don’t feel the park is liable on this. I won’t defend most of the park’s communications strategies, but the website is very explicit about what’s open during any given event, and if people aren’t reading that then I don’t necessarily feel like the park is liable for their confusion (the extra closures today withstanding).
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I don't think what was scheduled to be open was understaffed, certainly not as much as what was scheduled was insufficient. In some respects it was fine, as it was a pleasant time to just be outside, and I've seen worse. I overheard someone saying "great day!" on the way out.
 
dawno said:
I’m over two weeks post second shot, and after reading the last few posts, I’m not sure I want to visit anymore. ?
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Honestly I would advise anyone who has to make any decent distance trip even if they ate not concerned about the virus to put it on hold. The lines were just simply horrific yesterday an 1hr plus to get into Fest House and then another 45 minutes to get food once in the building was one story I heard. 30 plus minutes lines at the Pretzel shop and long lines at Lefrites were also things I heard. Ride lines were visibly put of queues even for small flats and the train. Unless you are coming for Pantheon viewing I just don't see it as a fun trip. Hopefully next week with more Virginia schools out the situation might be better but I am not counting on it.

To the point I am see negative comments and post popping up on FB groups that usually are positive about the park experience so the disappointment and anger appears wide spread right now.
 
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Along with everything else I've already said; I wanted to add that at one point the line for LeFrites was back to the railroad crossing. In all of my years of walking through that area of the park I have never seen the line like that. We were to meet some friends later in the afternoon so we went to Big Ben to wait. There were literally more people leaving the park than coming in at that point. The biggest complaint we overheard throughout the day was the lack of places to get something to eat or drink. There wasn't even popcorn available. We heard one person irate over the fact he had bought the refillable drink cup and there was no place to fill it without waiting for a 45+ minute line. He was complaining he had bought it earlier during the day and with free refills on the day of purchase he felt it was a waste of his money. He wasn't happy.
 
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And I thought the wait at Marco Polo earlier this month was unbearable (spilling out of the building) and cut my visit short due to hunger. Looks like they've greatly oversold spring break, and I won't be returning until Pantheon opens.

Reminds me of an RCT3 scenario where I had to make $X,000 on ride tickets, and I was making more than that on food and drink. One hungry peep in the group meant the entire group was eating instead of riding. Shutting down all the food and drink got those peeps riding rides again and pushed me over the goal. Except BGW is pay-at-gate, not pay-per-ride.
 
this all makes me kind of sad. I was thinking of going on Sunday to get a Pantheon viewing in. But I am guessing not so much now.
 
Hopefully these are just growing pains. With hiring, management adjustments, and more park opening (someday) the crowds may be more manageable.

Sounds like an exciting summer ahead for BGW’s wallet. ?
 
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Wow. Reading those posts makes me glad I haven't gone this week. Went last Friday and the lines were pretty long then. Fortunately being my home park, I've done everything dozens of times, but I feel for people who travel from several hours away and only get to go maybe once a year or every few years. It'd be like if I were to go to BGT or SW and have this kind of experience, I'd be pretty disappointed/annoyed.
 
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