Kings Dominion Returns to Seasonal Operations in 2024

[Zachary]

According to the tea leaves I've been reading lately, it's my impression that Kings Dominion is unlikely to continue year-round operations in 2024. Given the light crowds we saw last season at Kings Dominion during January and early February operations, this probably isn't a huge surprise. Unfortunate, but probably inevitable.

Given that Busch Gardens Williamsburg pulled the plug on their year-round schedule last year (removing most all of January from their 2023 calendar), Kings Dominion seems to have learned a similar lesson from their 2023 experience as BGW did in '22.

If Kings Dominion is deprecating their year-round plans, I do hope that they will at least continue to experiment with late February and early March operations. On good weather days during that period this year, it did look like the park was doing fairly well for a period with a notably limited ride lineup. Fingers crossed they don't opt to throw out the baby with the bathwater.

 

[Thriller]

Definitely not a surprise. The winter operations were such a poor attempt. Half of the park was closed, no indoor shows, short hours, etc. Add in the parks “stellar” reputation for closing the entire park if crowds and it’s no wonder nobody showed up.

It wasn’t worth the risk of traveling to for out of town customers, do all it did was attract a small number of locals that were most likely season pass holders anyway.

The park doesn’t have the infrastructure with enough indoor show venues and attractions and transport rides to operate year round anyhow. They tried winter
operations with no investment.

 

[EdK]

Personally I liked having the parks closed in January, February and half of March. Opening weekend was always something to look forward to.

 

[rswashdc]

This would be unfortunate. Having the park open was a nice afternoon outdoor activity during a time of year where things are more limited.

 

[Thrills & Chills WQAQ]

Personally I liked having the parks closed in January, February and half of March. Opening weekend was always something to look forward to.

Absolutely, my first opening day experience ever was Adventureland Long Island this year and got the first public train on turbulence this season. It was really fun seeing everyone pile in for the reopening

 

[warfelg]

The weather is so unpredictable that I think this was inevitable.

I'll be honest I was never on board with the reasoning that any money earned was better than losing money. That offseason expenditures was baked into the budget anyways, it added a ton of costs for the F&B to be open, along with the employees you needed in there.

I think both BGW and KD learned expanding the season a little was helpful but it wasn't worth it to be year round.

 

[Zachary]

it added a ton of costs for the F&B to be open

I honestly think the meal plan may be to blame for year-long operations not working at Kings Dominion. The fact that the meal plan actively, financially deincentivizes the park from operating during periods in which the majority of their attendance is likely to come from only their most passionate audience is very, very perverse. My guess is that the ratio of meal-plan-holding guests to non-meal-plan-holding guests piqued sharply in January and February—almost certainly resulting in a rough looking balance sheet for culinary during those months.

The short hours during that period of the year actually act to discourage non-meal-plan guests from buying food to begin with as well. Most guests are only spending a couple of hours in the park making eating before and after outside the gates trivial.

I do think there is A LOT of truth to the idea that, given how many employees are being paid during the off-season anyway, finding some way to utilize the park's facilities to reduce losses is a good, reasonable endeavor. That said, without some offering to tap into a massive non-standard audience or some sort of justification for suspending the meal plan during the low season, Kings Dominion is unable to rely on the most natural, most obvious, most standard generator in this industry of in-park revenue: culinary.

 

[horsesboy]

The food and beverage events seemed to have a decent draw I hope that they look at ways to build on those for February and March rather then just scrap the whole idea.

 

[warfelg]

@Zachary not a bad deduction there. I’d also be curious in how much waste there would be as well to that impacting it. Because, I feel, if that alone were the issue then they could alter the meal plan to not be eligible in that time or make it worth a discount.

I like the suggestion that @horsesboy brings and maybe a F&B event for International Street can be done with no rides available.

 

[Mushroom]

almost certainly resulting in a rough looking balance sheet for culinary during those months.

Slight correction here, not because your sentiment is wrong but just because I think this is an interesting fact to share. F&B actually does get “paid” every time a dining plan is used.

When a dining plan is first purchased, that revenue is allocated to Marketing — along with revenue for tickets, season passes, and most other add-ons. Whenever a guest uses their dining plan, money is transferred from Marketing to F&B. If you have a dining plan and ask for a receipt after you get a meal, you’ll notice an initial charge for something like $10.25 which is then taken off. That’s because F&B is credited $10.25 (basically a discounted price of a meal) from Marketing’s budget.

The same is true with the drink plan. Ask for a receipt and you’ll see a mysterious $2 or so charge for your drink that’s then taken off. It’s basically Marketing footing the bill you owe to F&B.

As someone who always wondered how the profitability of the dining plan was calculated, I thought learning this was helpful. It’s two different departments with two different budgets and two different goals. Marketing wants to sell as many dining plans as possible. F&B benefits every time the dining plan gets redeemed. And as long as Marketing has dining plan money left over after all the bills to F&B have been paid, the park makes money. As a marketing and business person, I think it’s fascinating.

So @Zachary is still 100% correct about the dynamics of what happened, in my opinion. Every time a dining plan is used, it still costs the park money. I just thought this was an interesting fact to share because I think it sheds some light on the back end of how the dining plan works for the park financially.

Back on topic- RIP year-round operations. I’m sure the 10 people who attended in January and February will be disappointed.

 

[warfelg]

Slight correction here, not because your sentiment is wrong but just because I think this is an interesting fact to share. F&B actually does get “paid” every time a dining plan is used.

When a dining plan is first purchased, that revenue is allocated to Marketing — along with revenue for tickets, season passes, and most other add-ons. Whenever a guest uses their dining plan, money is transferred from Marketing to F&B. If you have a dining plan and ask for a receipt after you get a meal, you’ll notice an initial charge for something like $10.25 which is then taken off. That’s because F&B is credited $10.25 (basically a discounted price of a meal) from Marketing’s budget.

The same is true with the drink plan. Ask for a receipt and you’ll see a mysterious $2 or so charge for your drink that’s then taken off. It’s basically Marketing footing the bill you owe to F&B.

As someone who always wondered how the profitability of the dining plan was calculated, I thought learning this was helpful. It’s two different departments with two different budgets and two different goals. Marketing wants to sell as many dining plans as possible. F&B benefits every time the dining plan gets redeemed. And as long as Marketing has dining plan money left over after all the bills to F&B have been paid, the park makes money. As a marketing and business person, I think it’s fascinating.

So @Zachary is still 100% correct about the dynamics of what happened, in my opinion. Every time a dining plan is used, it still costs the park money. I just thought this was an interesting fact to share because I think it sheds some light on the back end of how the dining plan works for the park financially.

Back on topic- RIP year-round operations. I’m sure the 10 people who attended in January and February will be disappointed.

Rather interesting aspect. I wonder why they do it that way?

The skeptic in me says it’s to make F&B look more profitable.

But I guess it’s really smart to treat marketing, responsible for selling the plans, as basically a savings account and draw when used to know how big of a drain it is more directly than dinging F&Bs profitability. M

Does anyone know is the $10.25 and $2 is KDs actual costs or is that just the base cost of those products?

I wonder how that impacts marketing’s budget too. Do they get more for selling more to cover costs or is there a pull back number on marketing?

Sorry, just fascinated by this.

 

[Jonesta6]

From having attended a sales event the other year ago, the plan was to sell restaurant and patio space for company meetings/retreats where they could convert the restaurant spaces to support meetings and cover/heat the patios as needed.

I guess that idea fizzled out, but then again who wants to trek up to KD in the cold season for work without the warm season ambiance let alone attractions... and I'd bet most companies wouldn't want to opt for an open bar either.

 

[rswashdc]

The easy alternative with dining plans is either limit the number of uses or the season(s) they can be used (HP does this). Dining plans alone shouldn't be driving bigger park decisions.

 

[Mushroom]

Rather interesting aspect. I wonder why they do it that way?

The skeptic in me says it’s to make F&B look more profitable.

But I guess it’s really smart to treat marketing, responsible for selling the plans, as basically a savings account and draw when used to know how big of a drain it is more directly than dinging F&Bs profitability. M

Does anyone know is the $10.25 and $2 is KDs actual costs or is that just the base cost of those products?

I wonder how that impacts marketing’s budget too. Do they get more for selling more to cover costs or is there a pull back number on marketing?

Sorry, just fascinated by this.

Great questions; I’m fascinated by it too. (Maybe this deserves its own thread.)

I think it’s just a budget allocation thing. It makes it easier to check the books and see exactly how profitable the dining plans were.

It also helps align incentives. Marketing wants to sell as many dining plans as possible. F&B wants to sell as much food as possible. Each department’s goals remain clear and consistent. Imagine how complicated it would get if F&B got dinged every time they gave food to a dining plan guest. Suddenly instead of just being focused on selling as much food as possible, they have competing goals of wanting to maximize regular food sales while minimizing dining plan redemptions.

To your question about the $10.25 and $2,
I think those both still include a decent margin for F&B. The cost of goods sold on a cup filled with soda is less than a quarter, for example.

As for whether Marketing has a pull-back number, my understanding is they don’t. Marketing really does want to sell as many dining plans as they possibly can. It may seem surprising, but the dining plans are ridiculously profitable. For every guest that uses the dining plan enough times for Marketing to lose all their money on that dining plan, there are dozens more guests who don’t. More plans, more profit.

 

[Jonesta6]

For every guest that uses the dining plan enough times for Marketing to lose all their money on that dining plan, there are dozens more guests who don’t. More plans, more profit.

So basically like a gym membership?

 

[Gavin]

There's also tax reasons to do this, whether it's them accounting for the expenses to write off their taxes and/or to ensure that proper local taxes are paid.

 

[guy305]

If everyone used the dining plan like me, they would definitely be operating at a loss lol. But it’s good to hear it’s pretty lucrative and very interesting to know the accounting behind it.

I was there pretty much every operating day from Jan-March, and it really felt like I was the only one on the midway on some days. But there were a lot of warm, 60 degree days where the park felt very packed, especially since only 1/4 of it was operating. Impossible to predict the weather but I feel like they should try to open for special events like Wine & Bites on February weekends. Sell an optional upcharge attraction/event for the passholders to offset the dining plan.

 

[EdK]

Also, separating the initial buy ins from actual expenditures would make it easy to see how much Marketing profits from unused plans. Then they can adjust marketing expenditures accordingly or adjust the overall costs of the plans.

 

[Crunchewy]

They could simply make the meal plan not applicable during this period. Though then maybe hardly anyone would come.

 

[Zachary]

I think it would be really difficult to justify/communicate disconnecting season pass dining plan validity from the season pass itself. If you can use the pass to enter the park, it seems like you need to be able to use the addon you bought during the same period.