COVID-19’s Impacts on BGW
- Thread starter WDWRLD
- Start date
SEAS most certainly competes with Disney/Universal in both Florida and Southern California. The days that guests spend at Disney and Universal parks are days they aren't spending at SEAS parks, though it's not entirely a zero sum game. If Disney had built a park in Northern VA, that would have had a huge impact on BGW's market base. Being smaller doesn't change the reality of the competitive landscape.
It makes sense for SEAS to outsource some IT that is not part of their core business such as accounting, payroll, HR, etc. The amusement park part of their business is the core of their business and the digital part of that experience can be a competitive advantage/disadvantage between parks. Simply outsourcing that part of your IT means you give up all capability to differentiate with competitors, and SEAS has serious competitors in their markets.
Just read this from an Orlando TV Station:
www.wftv.com
After furloughing 90% of employees, SeaWorld interim CEO provides update on how long park could sustain closure
SeaWorld is a ghost town these days as ticket lines are empty and no one outside of a few employees have been inside the park in more than a month.
www.wftv.com
I agree that the company could be at a disadvantage, however it really depends on how their vendor agreements are structured. SEAS still has to give the vendor some direction on what they want, the question is how much leeway does the vendor have.
For the pass purchasing systems, that could be wholly the vendor's modules sitting on top of the park websites. When you think about it, it's not too uncommon to get a specialist vendor for payment systems vs building in-house.
Ok, it appears no one knows whether the ticket/pass holder software is inhouse or not. So just a lot of conjecture here. However, the bottom line (whether it's inhouse or not) it's still SEAS responsibility to make sure it works as they intended.
To me, what we're seeing is one of two things - (1) they haven't decided how to handle it or (2) they have decided to run it as is (for cash flow) and will figure out something later. Either way, yet another failing by the Marketing/PR Department in effectively communicating to it's core customers.
To me, what we're seeing is one of two things - (1) they haven't decided how to handle it or (2) they have decided to run it as is (for cash flow) and will figure out something later. Either way, yet another failing by the Marketing/PR Department in effectively communicating to it's core customers.
UPDATE: Virginia COVID-19 cases increase by 989, deaths up by 23
The Virginia Department of Health reported Monday that the state has 25,070 COVID-19 cases, an increase of 989 over the 24,081 reported Sunday .
If it's outsourced it's only licensed software operated and serviced by internal teams, pretty sure.
Part of the problems SEAS IT has (e.g. when your redemption don't work when trying to buy food) is because the multiple internal software and databases don't have enough staff to support them properly.
Reassuring that they can last until 2021. Looking at how things are going I can't see them opening at all this year...
Just speculation at this point but hypothetically, let's say they don't open this season. It would be interesting to see and know how they plan to address members with the dining plan and stein club. We've already seen they don't have a good plan for the EZ pay passes. I'm already out about 6 or 7 weeks of the dining plan and stein club membership. Not even figuring the pass lost money.
I am going to assume that you won’t be denied of anything that you have paid for. If they are charging people for a season of dining/stein and only give two months, they would have lawsuits all over the place. I’m sure that everyone will be compensated fairly in the end. There’s just no reason to think they are out to steal everyone’s money.
I would also say that while it’s frustrating from an customer POV there is so much more as a company that they are worried about like staying open, funding animal care, what the quick passing bills mean for them, as well as the state guidelines. That’s not including what are operations going to look like when they can reopen, what that means financially, and what that means for staffing. While it sucks to hear the customers being taken care OC isn’t the first thing they did, I think in these times we should be somewhat understanding. Especially since most of our employers are likely doing the exact same thing.
You’re right. There are much more important things for them to worry about right now. But honestly, that’s no excuse to keep taking peoples money without an explanation of how that will benefit them later. I cannot approve of how the park is handling this situation, but also can’t help feeling like it will all work out just fine for everyone.
I don’t see this as a one person is right and the other is wrong. There’s quite a bit going on and it massively changes daily or weekly. Who knows in 2 weeks they might have to call off the season and just return everyone’s payments for the year. Maybe they open on 2 weeks in some capacity and just expands everyone’s pass is extended by 2 months in 2021. Who knows.
I didn’t say it’s not a problem. Just acknowledging that there’s a lot of unknown for quite a few businesses and things like how to extend add ones that’s likely not a huge percent of the memberships or just how to extend the memberships in general.
I'm glad that KD and all of Cedar Fair figured it out so fast and actually communicated to guests what they were doing. And it's applied automatically. That's how you show your guests they are the core of what you're doing.
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