I'm not sure this level of performance would be happening if KD was open and running decent operations. Right now BGW is the only game in town, so poor performance isn't really being penalized in a way that would drive urgent changes.
COVID-19’s Impacts on BGW
- Thread starter WDWRLD
- Start date
I don't feel like that quite happens to the level you are making out to be.
Six Flags America is exhibit A on how poor to mediocre experiences can drive customers away to competitors. Not saying BGW is there yet, but keep it up long enough and it can be hard to turn perceptions around.
Thats years of a reputation vs a few weeks at the tail end (hopefully) of a pandemic. I feel like that’s and important distinction to make here.
It’s been going on for several weeks now and shows no sign of improvement, in fact the problems seem to be getting worse. If BGW turns this around in a couple weeks, then the damage will probably be minimal to none. If operations continues to struggle into summer that could start having some real long term effects, particularly with less frequent visitors who may never come back and tell their friends the same.
For comparison, HP had some similar challenges reopening last summer, but you could see the do everything possible to fix it attitude they took, often with major improvements in a week or two, whereas BGW doesn’t seem to have that same urgency.
We‘ve been traveling from the northeast to visit BGW for 40+ years and have never once even considered stopping at KD. I can’t say anything bad about it as I’ve never been, but I’ve also never wanted to go there. I’m sure it’s great with fun rides, but we go to VA for BGW. ?
So, you are predicting future performance and saying it will have a negative impact?
I feel like this has been done so much over the past year that we would learn to get past all this assuming what the reaction will be. Given what sounds like good operations from BGW early on, I would guess they got hit by the perfect storm of nice spring break, event, lack of staff, and (IMO) the usual ineptitude of taking a stand. Given the remarks by some of cars continually pouring in, being able to get last second reservations, I would not be shocked if this problem were more the fact that they are letting in people without reservations and the park is "over capacity" with the added effect of lack of staff to open enough places. Honestly the way this is run it seems like they would rather it be a F&W version of Coasters and Brews they did in the fall and miscalculated.
There's no question that the last two weeks have been a disaster for the park's reputation, particularly among out-of-town visitors, along with in-town members who were promised a member-favorite event and are getting a compromised experience where their member benefits are either erased (preferred parking) or compromised (long food lines making it harder to use Food and Wine coupons, Festhaus as the only meal plan venue open, etc.).
But it's also true that the reason for the huge gap between staffing and attendance is a direct byproduct of Spring Breaks, which are over as of the week ahead. There's no reason to think BGW shouldn't be back in a more comfortable equilibrium until we approach the end of May, and college students returning home will be looking for work as of May, which should help a bit with the staffing crunch. These SHOULD be the conditions needed for them to get this in order, but I certainly feel like we would all collectively appreciate an acknowledgment of what went wrong and a plan to do better. (Opening Alpie today was a good audible.)
But it's also true that the reason for the huge gap between staffing and attendance is a direct byproduct of Spring Breaks, which are over as of the week ahead. There's no reason to think BGW shouldn't be back in a more comfortable equilibrium until we approach the end of May, and college students returning home will be looking for work as of May, which should help a bit with the staffing crunch. These SHOULD be the conditions needed for them to get this in order, but I certainly feel like we would all collectively appreciate an acknowledgment of what went wrong and a plan to do better. (Opening Alpie today was a good audible.)
The park was starting to break down near the end of St Patrick’s with long food lines and terrible COVID enforcement. Food and wine has gotten worse with even bigger crowds, to the point where visiting the park is really off-putting until they get their act together.
The long waits for rides is annoying, but understandable. However the long waits for food is just beyond me. I couldn’t even imagine trying to deal with the sampler tickets when I can’t even get through the free ones I get from the memberships. That’s money the park is just leaving on the table making it an absolute pain to buy food or drinks.
The long waits for rides is annoying, but understandable. However the long waits for food is just beyond me. I couldn’t even imagine trying to deal with the sampler tickets when I can’t even get through the free ones I get from the memberships. That’s money the park is just leaving on the table making it an absolute pain to buy food or drinks.
I visited the park with some friends for the evening reservation session this evening and the park wasn't as bad as I expected. After reading all the comments here, my expectations were extremely low, but the park was... fine, I guess. If you knew going in that lots of things would be closed (which I did, of course, and made sure my friends knew too), it wasn't much different from the park's other COVID events.
Mask-wearing in the queues was definitely spottier than it was for the park's previous events, and social distancing in the queues was virtually nonexistent — as was any attempt at enforcing social distancing. Maybe this didn't bother my group as much because all of us have contracted COVID already or recently been vaccinated, so we took it in stride, but I can definitely understand why someone who is still worried about the risk COVID poses to their personal health would feel cheated by the park here.
I thought ride ops were doing a great job of keeping the lines moving though. They were moving quickly, which was great to see. The longest line we waited in all evening was probably 20 minutes for Alpengeist, despite the queue stretching from the station all the way out the entrance (no extended queue). My biggest complaints were that Verbolten was only running one station and only one line was open in the Festhaus.
The park also definitely felt a little crowded at times (especially near the entrance), but even if I weren't semi-immune to COVID now, I probably would have felt I could have easily avoided extended exposure to others, for the most part.
Like I said earlier, I thought what I saw today was more or less on par with the park's previous COVID events. Compared to a normal park experience, the park is definitely sad — it's very obvious that you're still visiting a partially closed park during a pandemic. The park does not feel like Busch Gardens Williamsburg as we know and love it. But if you know what you're getting into, and are used to the park operating at such a bare-bones level, the event is pretty much what should be expected. I don't think it's worth close to the $85 ticket price they're charging (thank goodness for bring-a-friend tickets), but the my experience today was "okay," and that's more than what I think a lot of folks on here have experienced lately.
I think the experience could be improved greatly and easily if they did two things: 1) Be better about enforcing social distancing. I get that it's only going to get harder to get people to cover their noses with their masks this late in the game, but come on. Telling people to follow the green dots and not stand five inches away from the next group shouldn't be that hard. And I think it would make the event feel a lot safer. 2) Be clearer about how the event is advertised. My friends only knew how much of the park would be closed because I told them myself. It is not clear on the park's website that this is a very limited COVID event and not the full park with a few minor changes. I think if people had a more accurate sense of what the park is offering, they wouldn't be so disappointed when they see it firsthand. (I guess the question is whether the park is intentionally trying to deceive people into buying tickets, or if their marketing team is just bad at their job.)
tl;dr the park experience somewhat exceeded my expectations but only because those expectations were very, very low.
Mask-wearing in the queues was definitely spottier than it was for the park's previous events, and social distancing in the queues was virtually nonexistent — as was any attempt at enforcing social distancing. Maybe this didn't bother my group as much because all of us have contracted COVID already or recently been vaccinated, so we took it in stride, but I can definitely understand why someone who is still worried about the risk COVID poses to their personal health would feel cheated by the park here.
I thought ride ops were doing a great job of keeping the lines moving though. They were moving quickly, which was great to see. The longest line we waited in all evening was probably 20 minutes for Alpengeist, despite the queue stretching from the station all the way out the entrance (no extended queue). My biggest complaints were that Verbolten was only running one station and only one line was open in the Festhaus.
The park also definitely felt a little crowded at times (especially near the entrance), but even if I weren't semi-immune to COVID now, I probably would have felt I could have easily avoided extended exposure to others, for the most part.
Like I said earlier, I thought what I saw today was more or less on par with the park's previous COVID events. Compared to a normal park experience, the park is definitely sad — it's very obvious that you're still visiting a partially closed park during a pandemic. The park does not feel like Busch Gardens Williamsburg as we know and love it. But if you know what you're getting into, and are used to the park operating at such a bare-bones level, the event is pretty much what should be expected. I don't think it's worth close to the $85 ticket price they're charging (thank goodness for bring-a-friend tickets), but the my experience today was "okay," and that's more than what I think a lot of folks on here have experienced lately.
I think the experience could be improved greatly and easily if they did two things: 1) Be better about enforcing social distancing. I get that it's only going to get harder to get people to cover their noses with their masks this late in the game, but come on. Telling people to follow the green dots and not stand five inches away from the next group shouldn't be that hard. And I think it would make the event feel a lot safer. 2) Be clearer about how the event is advertised. My friends only knew how much of the park would be closed because I told them myself. It is not clear on the park's website that this is a very limited COVID event and not the full park with a few minor changes. I think if people had a more accurate sense of what the park is offering, they wouldn't be so disappointed when they see it firsthand. (I guess the question is whether the park is intentionally trying to deceive people into buying tickets, or if their marketing team is just bad at their job.)
tl;dr the park experience somewhat exceeded my expectations but only because those expectations were very, very low.
The night session definitely wasn’t as bad. It wasn’t as crowded and the sun wasn’t beaming as bad as it was. Was an okay night, though I’m still not impressed with how the park is operating at the moment.
Today has been without a doubt the worst experience I have ever had in the covid era at Busch Gardens. I will write up a full report once I leave the park which will be very soon... I have never come and left the park within 2 hours and I'm about to do that...
I'd like to summarize my thoughts with just a few bullet points:
1) though the park most likely was within the restriction set by the governor and the health department, the operations of the park did not meet what was necessary to ensure that people attending to park were getting their money's worth.
2) the food and wine festival in previous years has operated as an extended of it beyond the normal operations of the park. At no point has the park indicated that this year's food and wine festival is any different. This event however was very different. Almost none of the large capacity restaurants were open. The Festhaus was the exception. The only places where food could be acquired in the park or at the food and wine specified food locations, each of which was operated by minimum staff requirements of two to three per booth. The average line was approximately 30 to 50 people per location. The line for the festhaus was closer to 100 (and that was a line just to get in). Trapper's smokehouse...closed, Marco Polo's marketplace...closed, practically every large scale food establishment was closed. Now I point this out for a very specific health reason. Today's temperature at the park was at 84° with a heat index around 89. It was hot. And because of covid protocols every single water fountain around the park with the exception of the first aid station was turned off. So you're telling me if I need water (just a free cup of water mind you) I have to wait in a line that will probably take me 30 minutes? Where are the water cup stations if they're not going to be able to operate water fountains? This is a legitimate health risk especially with increasing temperatures with the oncoming summer.
3) enforcement of covid protocols were nil. With the exception being the already placed signage and the routine speaker reminders, no employees were actively engaging in covid protocol enforcement. and at this point, the employees don't really have any other choice but to just ignore them. Yes, the governor has enabled the park to open to 50% capacity, but the park is not enabled its own operations to be able to function with 50% capacity in the park. I would argue that today was barely 30% capacity and yet everything had a line at least 30 minutes in length.
4) the biggest issue that I see here is one of two problems. Either Busch gardens is so desperate for money that they are willing to operate on a shoestring budget and not hire people to properly operate the park or they simply cannot hire people to work. They need more bodies to work that Park; they don't have enough. It's why tempesto has its train on the track and it's just standing but not operating... It's probably why it's taking so long for them to get Pantheon up and running.
5) I know that Park management probably has no control over this as this is probably a company policy which they have been told to follow. (I wouldn't put it past any company that is based in Florida). I hope bush is interested in making their customer experience better or otherwise they're going to start losing people. Word of mouth is going to get bad. One thing I can tell you, is that I saw a lot of people who were entering the park with me at 2:45, leaving at 4:15...
Time will only tell if the park will actually be willing to listen to what we have to say. Based on some of the things I heard some of the employees tell me today, they aren't interested in listening. I'm bringing this up with the health department they need to know what's going on.
I really do think it's the latter: they would have more staff if they could find them, but no one currently working for work seems to desire working in an environment like the one you describe, perhaps for obvious reasons. As more people become vaccinated, and as kids return home from college/finish the high school year, I expect we'll see staffing improve.
And while you're right the park is eliding the fact that they've closed all regular food locations for Food and Wine, I will note that we predicted this problem when they first announced the event and revealed the limited dining options that were going to be available. They've buried it on the website, but they did technically disclose this plan when the event was announced.
I really feel that there are many things at play. Yes kids are still in school but Busch has to deal with that every year at this time. Yes the job market isn't as hit as it could be with stimulus payments and unemployment enhancements out there. But there are still a ton of people looking for work and you can definitely hire employees right now. On top of that as I have said before I know people that were laid off last year that Busch has never reached out to try to get them to come back. I think two big is come into play. One based on what I can find it doesn't appear that Busch actively tried to hire up to the beginning of March which would be tight for spring break in s regular year and is horrible late to try to do it in the current environment. Another key thing to look at is Busch doesn't appear to have added a pay raise like KD is currently doing. That leads me to believe that Busch likely under orders from corporate to try to hire cheap. All of those combined lead me to think that Busch's staffing issues likely won't end in the coming weeks but will Haunt them for a while.
Busch has finally reacted and has started to raise pay rates, ride operators were at $9.00 a little bit ago and are now being raised to $10.50 . Same for most other departments.
Last edited:
High school me would have loved to have been an op at any price, especially if I could hit the buttons in the tower.
However, anyone actually scoping work out - you can possibly get paid more as a server in a restaurant from tips for the same amount of guest abuse and physical toll on your body with the added benefit of not having a major emergency on your hands if someone decided to grossly ignore your directions (such as a cell phone to someone else's face resulting in a broken skull, that dude one step from death by wiggling out of restraints, etc.) although you will probably have someone neglect to mention allergies, a potential for choking, and that one guy who ignores you when you tell them their plate is hot so they don't burn themselves.
However, if there's a lot more opportunity for promotion and it's not like you're eager and willing to drive to KD on the regular for a similar position, then this may still be a good deal.
However, anyone actually scoping work out - you can possibly get paid more as a server in a restaurant from tips for the same amount of guest abuse and physical toll on your body with the added benefit of not having a major emergency on your hands if someone decided to grossly ignore your directions (such as a cell phone to someone else's face resulting in a broken skull, that dude one step from death by wiggling out of restraints, etc.) although you will probably have someone neglect to mention allergies, a potential for choking, and that one guy who ignores you when you tell them their plate is hot so they don't burn themselves.
However, if there's a lot more opportunity for promotion and it's not like you're eager and willing to drive to KD on the regular for a similar position, then this may still be a good deal.
As someone who was a server I would have taken a ride ops job hands down. Being talked down to because you are a server really tried my patience.