Food and Wine Festival 2019

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Honestly, when I made the suggestion I was thinking along the lines of it being confusing for a lot of people what counts for the lanyard and what doesn't.

We're bringing a couple groups at a couple different time this year and have fielded questions from both parties along these lines.

Basically a lot of it comes down to "wine tasting" vs "wine sample"; where tasting does not apply and sample does.

Other questions I've fielded are along the lines of what counts as a cocktail and such.

Unless you're familiar with the park outside of F&W season I think it can definitely be a bit confusing. Visitors might not realize that the wine tastings don't count because they aren't distinctly part of F&W as the park has them year-round.

For the most part I've suggested to my parties to buy one lanyard and share it (none of them drink heavily) for beer/wine and pay for food a-la-carte.
 
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Oh! Sorry! I guess that didn’t occur to me, since I labeled everything “food,” “beer,” “wine,” “cocktails,” or “specialty non-alcoholic.”

I am happy to annotate everything, but as I implied, I wouldn’t suggest that people should use the Samplers on everything they can.
 
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I'm spending next weekend in Williamsburg with my folks. They are going to Yorktown and Jamestown while I'll be at Busch Gardens. Thinking about getting the Basic Sampler pass if I could find 10 items I want to get It's usually not that many. I do need my Gamba fritters and banana foster cheesecake.
 
So if I understand this right, members get their standard discount on all food and wine items. But members do not get the same discount on a food and wine lanyard?

That makes absolutely 0 sense.
 
It is no different than the rules at the 70% off store and other specially-discounted items. The park's position is that they are already giving you a discount with the lanyard, so they are not going to give you an additional discount on top of that.

I don't really object to the logic. I would contest, however, the underlying assumption. If you look at the spreadsheet, there are dishes that actually cost more with the lanyard than with the pass discount. In fact, with a Friends & Family pass the only things worth buying with the lanyard are beer and wine.
 
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I've been 3 other festivals this spring from SEAS. SWO gave you a 20 punch lanyard for the same $65 as the 15 punch as a passmember exclusive, no discount.

SWSA gave you 20% off all the lanyards using the in park discount and also gave you a free 3 punch lanyard with the 15.

Tampa gave you 3 free with the purchase of a 12 item sampler.

BGW seems to be not only much more pricey but also more stingy with the discounts.

FWI the break even for the SeaWorld Parks was 2.67 per item at SWSA and 3.25 per item at SWO...So yeah, bgw is $$$.
 
Nicole said:
It is no different than the rules at the 70% off store and other specially-discounted items. The park's position is that they are already giving you a discount with the lanyard, so they are not going to give you an additional discount on top of that.

I don't really object to the logic. I would contest, however, the underlying assumption. If you look at the spreadsheet, there are dishes that actually cost more with the lanyard than with the pass discount. In fact, with a Friends & Family pass the only things worth buying with the lanyard are beer and wine.
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This is absolutely correct. It's the same logic as to why members don't get a discount on multiple souvenir cups or all day dining. It's a product that is already discounted. Like Nicole said though look at the prices. You can really get a lot of value out of the lanyards and your free food and wine item every day. You just need to know the break even point and only use the lanyard for items that are above the break even.
 
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Nicole said:
BGW is also the most mature event. Additionally, I would point out that BGW gives pass holders one free item per visit.
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It might be the most mature, but I think that BGT and SWO have it beat in scale. I can't speak to quality because I wont get the chance to go to Va this year, but I haven't had any complaints down here.

For example, SWO had 36 booths(some drink only). I counted 73 food items as well. The one item per visit is a very nice perk for local visitors, but requires multiple visits to bring the cost down significantly. Shame they don't have a pass-member lanyard.

One last note, at SWSA they will give you a free dessert if you get stamps when purchasing from all of the (~7) food booths through the park. The stamps go in the guide booklet and you get a stamp on the first page of the book when you redeem it.
 
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I noticed BGW’s official Twitter/Instagram have both posted today that F&WF starts Saturday, but the calendar on the website has it starting Friday. Can anyone clarify?
 
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Sloth_Fan said:
I noticed BGW’s official Twitter/Instagram have both posted today that F&WF starts Saturday, but the calendar on the website has it starting Friday. Can anyone clarify?
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I would definitely lean towards mistype. All of the signage in the park says it starts on Friday
 
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