Free WCUSA Pass With BGW Fun Card Purchase

[Party Rocker]

Just as we have both witnessed quite a handful of members here not visit the park more than five times in a year.

I have physically seen in person many members of these forums in the park more than 5 separate days. i don't care what others may say on here, I see them physically in person and that is good enough for me.

i will advise you to re-read my previous post as I have done an extensive edit to it.

 

[Applesauce]

PR, I have a pass, and I'm lucky if I go more than twice a year. So just because, there are those who got more than 5 times, doesn't mean there aren't passholders who don't go as often as they'd like to.

So when I see non-passholders get offered deals like this, it's a bit insulting. I have a 1 park pass, and I don't really care about WCUSA, I'm not big on going to water parks. But, it does bother me when somebody who is not a passholder, is offered a deal that's essentially better than my pass. Free parking and in-park discounts or not.

They may not get a weekend after Labor Day and HOS, but they're getting another park pass, at the same price as a single day ticket at BG.

 

[Party Rocker]

Like I said I understand that there is a balance of things. There are some that do and some that don't. What is primary seemingly focused in this thread are those that don't. Yes, if there is something that is stopping you from going more than five days, you are loosing out. I fully understand that, but I am also saying think about those that do make the most of their passes as well as those that can't.

If you look at admission alone, no parking involved, one visit to each park is $122. The pass is $168 and the card is $72. The pass saves you $76 after visiting each park twice, the card saves you $172, an near $100 difference for only 1 month and 1 month only. Without the deal, the card would be $97 saving you $147, the difference being the approximate cost of a single day at BGW. Taking all this into account basically means just cancel your pass and get the 2-Park Fun Card irregardless of the deal or not and save the money, if you don't factor in discounts, parking, Howl-o-Scream, and Christmas Town. So just so you know, the Fun Card will always be the better deal if you don't care about the benefits I just listed in the previous sentence.

So I guess if you really want to look at it, how much do those benefits mean to you and how much can you get to the park?

 

[Nicole]

To me it is about more than straight numbers.  If I invest in a Platinum Pass, I expect to get the best deals.  That is the concept behind tiered benefits packages.  Deals like these undermine that system.

 

[Youhow2]

Wow. 

Just, wow. 

This is absolutely ludicrous. I just found out about this.

The only thing I can think of this as, is a deliberate money grab from parking. This is a pure act of desperation... It has to be, because this makes absolutely no sense at all. This is a cash grab.

 

[Party Rocker]

To me it is about more than straight numbers.  If I invest in a Platinum Pass, I expect to get the best deals.  That is the concept behind tiered benefits packages.  Deals like these undermine that system.

That is very true, but numbers help to show what deals are actually deals. For example, you expect more savings the high up the tier you go. You would expect more savings from the passes than the Fun Cards. But because of the very nature and marketability of the Fun Card, it ruins the system. It breaks the very concise understanding of what is truly the better deal.

Fun Cards are just troublesome things. They give people the admission without the benefits. If you rely on admission alone, the Fun Card is the obvious deal always no competition. However, that is when you have to really evaluate the benefits and what they are worth to you. The best way I can think of is looking at the BGW Fun Card and a 1-Park pass. The Fun Card being $72, the 1-park pass being $120. Are your benefits worth $48? Because that is the difference between the pass and Fun Card.

So when you look at the 2-park Fun Card at $92 and the 2-park pass at $168, that means those benefits are worth $76. Now since the price of the 2-Park Fun Card is $72 are those benefits worth $96 to you?

Those benefits are what you have to carefully evaluate and what their worth is to you. So please explain what are your benefits worth, because depending on what they are worth to you, the pass can be the best deal. For me personally, those benefits are worth a lot which is why it doesn't bother me as much. But if you think your benefits are worth less, then I fully understand why you think this is a crappy deal.

Looking at benefits I would say I break down mine like so:

Concerts: $50 per concert
HoS/F&WF/CT: $50 per each whole event
Parking: $40 for the year
Discounts: $40 for the year

Total: At least $230 worth of value in benefits for me.

The benefits are different for each person, I legitimately broke down how much certain benefits are worth for me. It varies person to person and like I said, some people think that they are worth less. Think of adding CT to the pass. If it is a $30 add-on, that means the value of that perk is $30, personally I feel it is more than that.

So as I have been asking, how much are these benefits worth to you?

 

[Jrbgwfan06]

I have physically seen in person many members of these forums in the park more than 5 separate days.

Key-words, PR, key-words.

My whole family has Platinum passes, they only went twice to the park this year. 3, but they had to pay for that other visit because it was at CT. There is no way they got anywhere near what their pass is worth, and then the park decides to go and rip them off in a whole other way! You can't argue with that, it's just ridiculous!

 

[Youhow2]

PR. Let me make this simple for you. Your calculations are wrong.

Everytime you go to the park with your regular season pass, tack on the cost of an additional ticket to WCUSA. Because that's the value of the funcard now.

 

[Nicole]

PR,

We are going to have agree to disagree.

 

[pandorazboxx]

certainly interesting that you're essentially getting a two park pass with no parking included and no howl o scream. I think last year I went two or three times during the regular season and twice during Howl-O-Scream. So, this deal wouldn't necessarily benefit me per say. 

There are still some nice benefits for passmembers. The occasional bring a friend for free, the free parking, 10% discount, and howl-o-scream are enough to keep me a pass member for now.

 

[Party Rocker]

Just to make you all so peachy happy, I will definitely spend more time crunching the numbers. In my defense most f my posts in this thread were based on quick general calculations and opinions because I was and slightly still am preoccupied with other things. Essentially, what I am trying to get across is there is no plain black and white picture of is this a great deal or is this a terrible deal. There are shades of grey that people fail to acknowledge exist. Due to my preoccupation currently, I can't prove my thought process right away, give me some time to work things out.

 

[Zachary]

Essentially, what I am trying to get across is there is no plain black and white picture of is this a great deal or is this a terrible deal.

Oh, it's a great deal- I don't think anyone is questioning that- I think that's where your arguments are falling a bit flat. The deal is fantastic- insane in fact. The problem is that it is a slap in the face to pass members and it is probably a very bad sign of how things stand inside the park. It's really not about numbers- It's about a group of people who pay a premium getting, comparatively, less than they were before. The numbers don't matter. It's what it looks and feels like that matters and, well, it looks and feels really, really sour.

 

[Shane]

I'm going to nip this in the bud right here.  Stop, please.  Party Rocker, your opinion has been expressed and we all understand your view (whether we agree or not). However, let us just say that the majority here disagree over most of what you have said. There is no use in trying to convert the masses.   

 

[Griff]

I still think that platinum passes are the best deal for me (free platinum parking and the occasional trip to Orlando) but the fact is, when we bought the tickets, we payed for unlimited admission to a park that cost upwards of $50 dollars a day. That's what we payed for. Now we are going to be paying the same amount for a park that costs $70 a season. It may still be the best deal, but it's certainly not what we payed for.

 

[BGW Family]

Not to throw this off topic (and unsure where to mention it), did anyone see the new Disney prices? 1 day is now 99$.

CNN    NY Post

With the norm these days of one business gets away with hikes others jump on the hikes bandwagon, would BGW consider price hikes? Certainly a different caliper of park, but this Fun Card deal would look pretty attractive to anyone considering a Disney trip, in my humble opinion.

 

[Zachary]

Wouldn't the normal fun card look remarkably attractive as well? Wouldn't lowering ticket prices to $60 and cutting the fun card entirely tempt even more people away from Disney? How about a week for $99? Get a week at Busch Gardens for the same price for one day at Disney? Seems like a pretty strong proposition for people coming from the north.

 

[netdvn]

As long as people are willing to pay gate price for admission, the park will continue jacking the gate price up until they see a significant decline in turnstile clicks. That's why Orlando can get away with charging $90-$100 /pop for admission.

That being said, the park already offers the flex/bounce packages. Why not just scrap the Fun Card package and expand on those instead? The Flex cards are just weeklong fun cards and the Bounce cards are just Flex cards with CW admission anyway. 

My guess for having a deal like this is the really park wants to push fun card sales. Assuming they don't spend as much money or time in the parks as Plat/Season passholders, I don't understand why they'd want to do this.

Outside of the main perks (discounts, free stuff with purchase, preview/appreciation weekend, parking, and CT), the park does hold random passholder discounts, plus they introduced ERT nights in 2012. Tampa can get away with appreciation month because they're open year round and the time period between New Years and Spring Break is generally slow. A special event like that will attract people to the park.

I will say the park should introduce more perks for passholders to offset this whole controversy. It can't be that hard to give its loyal customers free stuff.

 

[Party Rocker]

I think the reasoning for pushing for Fun Card sales is they spend less on admission so they spend more in the park, at least that it the logic I think they may be trying to use.

 

[Zachary]

I don't want to say it's always the case, but in my experience the reality is exactly the opposite of that. Everyone I know with a fun card doesn't eat at the park, has never been on a tour, couldn't possibly care less about merch, etc.

 

[Party Rocker]

Well I never said it was accurate logic. Just logic they may think works