Night Time Coaster Tours

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Aww, no worries. I just could not miss the chance to quote Dieter from the Saturday Night Live Skit, Sprockets.

Like I said... Queen of Useless Information I am.

I am heading off to sleep, have a good night and get some rest.

Oh before I go... I just watched a movie called Mitchell on an old Mystery Science Theater 3000 a few days ago. Now that was a bad movie... but oh so much fun to laugh at. MST3K is so funny; that episode is classic.
 
[split] Coasters at Night Tour

Ok, this is what I have discovered so far. The format has changed apparently and very recently at that. The Daytime tours will include: Loch, Griffon, and Alpengeist. The Night Tour will include Loch, Griffon, and Apollo's. Only three coasters per tour. The rest of the packages stay the same including the photo CD and Quick Que pass on all the coasters.

Not only that but per the marketing rep I spoke to, now the minimum ticket purchase has to be two tickets for either tour!!

So now you have to buy two tickets at least and only get to see three coasters no matter what tour you take.

They did not give me a reason, but I would assume that all four coaster maintenance areas are hard to fit in in the allotted time. This new format is really bumming me out.

Franco, perhaps you an I have had the pleasure of one of the last tours (day or night) with seeing all four coasters.

As Stewie once said on Family Guy: The outrages I have suffered today will not be soon forgotten! This weekend on the tour; I will get the final scoop on these outrages. Ridiculous ploy to make you buy two tickets. Boo.

I had a friend who wanted to come with me, and in order for her to get a ticket- I had to get my old order canceled and then they recharged me for three tickets instead of two. I had to put all three on my credit card and the other folks going with me will now have to pay me back.

Not only that, but the online order page does not even state "Minimum purchase amount is two tickets!" Boooo! One thing that gets me all riled up is when something is unfair. The last tour I went on had a guy that drove all the way from Ohio by himself JUST to take the tour. This poor guy wouldn't even been able to buy a ticket in this new format! It is wrong; plain wrong. Also, online daytime insider tour description is incorrect.. there are for sure - three coaster stops; not two. They need to fix the website.

You know, even the gal I spoke to was shocked at the information she found out and had never heard of the change. She actually put me on hold to find someone from operations to verify this info!

:mad:
 
RE: Coasters at Night Tour

That is seriously messed up. There goes my chances of ever taking the tour. Bad move Busch Gardens, very bad move. :mad:
 
RE: Coasters at Night Tour

Well, as for the 2-ticket minimum, that was started about a month and a half ago. The reason being a couple tours were being set up with only one person. That is - one person total. So you can imagine the work that goes in to a tour, just to only have one person going on it. So a meeting was held and the ideal was changed to a two-ticket minimum to ensure that the monies paid is higher than the time spent on the BGW side. Now keep in mind, the two tickets purchased have to be the same-type ticket. You can't get one participant and one observer ticket. They both have to be one or the other.

Now, I know you're thinking "wtf - what if a father/daughter want to go and only the daughter wants to go to the top of Griffon?". Unfortunately, the way the internet system is devised, the only way to account for "two" tickets is to be the same type. Which goes back to the other problem I just mentioned. Until the system is updated (the latter half of next year, along with all the Seaworld Parks' websites infrastructure [YAY!], there's just no way to do it without a LOT of back and forth with the Park Ops team and Guest Services.

Personally, I don't agree with this new structure (I even made that known on a couple occasions), but I see why it's in place. It's just not cost-effective to have a top-of-the-line tour (such as the Rollercoaster Insider Tour) and only have one person on the tour. But, for now at least, that's how it is until the system is updated or the top brass decide to go back to the old system and swallow any possible losses that result.
 
RE: Coasters at Night Tour

Thanks LoveDoc. That is what I was thinking; that the park needed more than just one person per tour... but still!! Even when I called to book a seat for my friend and explained the situation- no one could add her to my purchase. She would have had to buy two tickets to go - even over the phone. I can understand online; but over the phone too? Otherwise you have to go in the park to buy a tour and that seems highly unreasonable. The staff over the phone were so nice and did all they could and in fact, credited my purchase in order for me to buy an additional ticket for my friend; otherwise we would have had to buy four tickets!

On my original purchase, I was under the impression I had to buy two tickets because no one had booked the tour and they needed at least a two person minimum. That I could understand, and therefore- since I was already planning on going with someone.. I went ahead and got two tickets. Then, my other friend then told me that she also wanted to go... and she was FURIOUS when the park would not let her buy one ticket. She called me... I called the park... and one thing led to another. :dodgy:

You are right, this HAS to be changed to at least allow people to order one ticket over the phone if possible. Does anyone know Disney's tour policy in this regard? I guarantee a park somewhere has a great plan to solve these issues.

Regardless, the website needs to be updated and stated clearly (not in the small print) that there is a two ticket minimum. :mad: False Advertising.. Boo. Boo. Rubbish. Filth. Slime. Muck. Boo. Boo. Boo. (Princess Bride) and to reference another classic Princess Bride Quotes that fit here:

Life is pain, Highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something.
While you're at it, why don't you give me a nice paper cut and pour lemon juice on it?
 
RE: Coasters at Night Tour

Nora ... I have to say. You and I would be some kinda good friends, I tell ya. Your quoting skills make me all kookie!

Now back to the story .. I think we left off with Humperdink getting married!

But seriously a sec, yeah ... the policy is a pain in the butt and even if you made the tour purchase in-park at the Information and Reservation Center, the same rule would apply. It's just how the system is. There's no way for the system to account for previous purchases and/or one participant/observer combination. It's just simply not in the code of the program. Now, like I said before, late next year there will be an updated infrastructure that should allow for changes like this to go on the fly, but as it is right now, changes just take entirely too long to proceed with - and that's assuming the programming allows for it.

Sigh ... thing'sll get better soon, I promise. :)
 
RE: Coasters at Night Tour

I hope this "update" will also contain some way for people to only buy only one ticket. If I took one (which I would really like to), it would only be me going. Though I understand the problem, there must be a way to fix it. Here is my idea:

The first person to sign up for the tour will have to buy at least two tickets. A calendar on the site will display what days already have people signed up. If you select one of those days for your tour, you will only need to buy one ticket to join the tour that has already been scheduled. This will ensure there are enough people on the tour to pay for the expenses. If needed, a discount system (say $5 - $10 per ticket) could be given to the people who book the day first. This would provide an incentive for people to start new days other than everyone jumping into the same tour.

I really hope that made some kind of sense.

Also, I still think it is a little messed up that all of the coasters aren't included in at least one of the tours. It makes me feel like the park is trying to grab every last dollar they can from me (this is not a good feeling).

NOTE: The last part might be because of my trip to Holiday World. Whenever I go anywhere now I always feel like I'm being "Dollar-ed to Death".
 
RE: Coasters at Night Tour

Your idea makes perfect sense, Swift but as it currently stands, the system isn't that "smart" to understand the different between "1" ticket and "2+" tickets as far as sold status for each tour. The computer just basically knows 10-20 people per tour .. 'x' many tickets sold and 'x' many tickets left available. Outside of that, the system really is pretty basic. The system wouldn't understand that the first person would have to purchase 2+ tickets and the rest could be one. In theory, the next system will be able to do more complex calculations (faster) then the current system. But, honestly, being about a year away from that, there's really no point getting into those details cause I'm sure half of what I could say would be changing or already has. :-/
 
RE: Coasters at Night Tour

I understand that it isn't currently possible but it needs to be made possible sometime in the very near future. The fact that I can't buy one ticket for myself is just plain wrong. Until this changes, I don't see myself on the tour.

Note: My anger/disappointment are in no way directed at you, LoveDoc. It's just that I know other people read this forum as well.
 
RE: Coasters at Night Tour

Oh, I know it's not directed at me, so no worries there at all. I just wish I had a better answer for you (and other people) ... it's just not in the cards right now. A-B didn't create the most robust system for use 6 years with minimal updates. So now a new system is on the way, just a matter of time to make it happen. ;\
 
RE: Coasters at Night Tour

LoveDoc143 said:
A-B didn't create the most robust system for use 6 years with minimal updates. So now a new system is on the way, just a matter of time to make it happen. ;\
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Ha! I bet! But I do know that many of the POS computers in the park are being updated which is a good sign. However, my rule of thumb is in order to fix any computer problem when one cannot upgrade to a better product; give the task to a person to do.

Do the tour booking manually- by hand until the computer system is fixed. After a person buys a ticket, their info is entered in the computer by an employee and a confirmation is printed out. The only change really is that the person buying the tour cannot enter in their data themselves and that employee has the power to add names to each tour depending on how sales are going. You could still get e-mail confirmations, but a person will be seeing how many spots are on the tour and therefore, could make a "human" decision on how many tickets are sold!

Ok- continuing on: A person goes online and sees if the days have tours.. and underneath it says you have to call 800-343-7946 (if that is the actual number to the park, if I remember correctly.. I really am an uber nerd).

Once you call the number a person can then look into the computer to see how many tickets have sold. On the day with no sales, the representative can steer them to a day that does. Get it; for example: "I'm sorry, Sunday is not available, but Saturday's tour is open at this time." It's kind of shady yes, but more customer oriented. It would probably solve the one person coaster tour problem anyway. Consider it more of an actual "booking" of a tour through an agent.

The only drawback is that people have to buy between 9am to 5pm Monday - Friday or 9am until 1pm on Saturday and Sunday. (Yes- uber nerd here). That and you could only buy a ticket at the park or over the phone. It puts the power back in the parks hands and allows them to be more in control of when people purchase tours.

Although, I understand that the computers are outdated and the system of tour purchases is currently flawed; I cannot concede to leaving things as they are until next year. The fact is, that there is always a solution if people sit down and come up with one. I volunteer to go in an sit with the people in charge and look at their computer and see what solutions I can come up with.

I'm good with solutions and even better at figuring out how to implement them. It is my nerdy super power. :blush: That and remembering obscure movie lines.
 
RE: Coasters at Night Tour

What is this "paper" that you speak of? Is it some magical futuristic thing you expect us to be able to use? Pfft.. whatever.


Yeah, I agree with you 200%, but what you're suggesting is just a logistic nightmare. It sounds fine on paper, but to get from the call center (it IS a bit scary you know the number and times of operation, by the way :D) to the park ops people in charge of the actual tours would just be near-impossible to do successfully each day, multiple times per day. It's a guaranteed loss of paperwork that would lead to too many, "we can't find your reservation, I'm sorry" - which either holds up the tour or even forces a reschedule. Doing the "calling up to book" via the call center computer goes back to what was said before - the computer can't distinguish between this and that right now. Even the call center isn't able to book a single-ticket tour (with or without other tickets sold). The website "cart" and the CC "cart" are nearly identical except for access to back-end account information.

Bah - I'm babbling now. Be careful what you ask for, Nora ... I'm sure if you wish it hard enough, you just might get it. :)

"It is so nice when you can sit with someone and not have to talk."
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-Random movie quote o' d' day.
 
RE: Coasters at Night Tour

You posted before I deleted that part. The reason being is that on paper- was to allude to going back to the basics- but not really on paper. Employees would still be entering the data in on the computer. It would be working with the same system, just giving the park the power to determine where people can purchase tickets in order to keep the tours booked properly.

Maybe reread my edited version above and it will make more sense.

There would be no web cart at all- no tickets could be purchased online - only over the phone and in the park. The representative can see how many spots have sold and therefore could steer purchasers to dates better suited for the park. The employee enters in the data and not the person buying the tickets (who cannot see what the employees are looking at anyway).

To be honest, you would loose less sales than they are now. When I was buying my ticket and it said quantity not available, I thought, the tour is sold out. But me, being determined when the chips are down, called the park and asked to make sure... (thus finding out about the two ticket minimum). When my friend tried to book her tour - her thought - THEY SOLD OUT. She gave up. I called for her to find out why since I already bought two tickets, why she could not also buy one. That is when I found out that no matter what - it is ALWAYS a two ticket minimum. OK- unfairness alarm went off and I stayed on the phone with the rep until we figured out a way to book her on the tour individually; which came out to be at my expense. And you can believe I am not pleased with how hard the representative and myself had to work to get something accomplished.. I mean for Pete's Sake I am waving money around and no one was taking it. Not a good way to run a business.

How many people have not booked a tour, thinking they have sold out? I guess we will never know.

The other issue is closing off the tour earlier than the day before. With a system that allows 24 hours to purchase, the park has to make sure an employee can actually give the tour. And if there is no one that has booked a tour for that date, the employee needs to be notified in adequate time that the tour has been canceled due to no sign ups.

I would say at least 48 hours would be best.

Oh and LoveDoc, here is a line that is great for this discussion. The Joe Fox character is BGW and Kathleen Kelly would be me in this situation. My all time favorite quote that I say whenever I run into a "big Business" situation that looses sight of what is important.

Joe Fox: It wasn't... personal.
Kathleen Kelly: What is that supposed to mean? I am so sick of that. All that means is that it wasn't personal to you. But it was personal to me. It's *personal* to a lot of people. And what's so wrong with being personal, anyway?
Joe Fox: Uh, nothing.
Kathleen Kelly: Whatever else anything is, it ought to begin by being personal.

Oh and if I really could see the process you mentioned that the park is in.. I grant you, I could figure it out. I am relentless until I find a solution. Never give up- never surrender! Galaxy Quest
 
RE: Coasters at Night Tour

I can't keep up with you today, Nora! :D

I see what you're saying (after reading both posts twice now!), and lemme see if I can figure something out here.
"When I was buying my ticket and it said quantity not available"
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Well, it says "Reservation: Cannot accommodate party size.", but I understand what you meant. It's not the clearest of error messages and I'm sure it will be mentioned in some form at the next meeting, Monday.

As for the tour guide allotment, that's taken care of a week in advance. Most tours have a guide set for them specifically on the schedule. If they're not needed, they can be utilized elsewhere. Of course, there are some exceptions to that rule, like the Gardening Insider Tour. That tour is staffed by a member of the botanical team. If there's a tour purchased for the day, a member of the team goes and gives the tour. If there isn't a tour for the day, then the daily plans go on as scheduled as far as growing, pruning, etc.. Twenty-Four hours is just in place to deter people from trying to purchase a "same day tour" online. If they want that, they'd have to go to the Information and Reservations desk or Guest Relations to book the tour(s). The VIP tour, as you probably know, has to be booked over the phone in advance. $1200 ($300 X 4) gets a dedicated tour guide for the day, but that's another thread all together. I'm sure you know all this already, but I was going a bit into detail for the general populace reading this. :)

I can't get into your, "You've Got Mail" reference.... it makes me cry that somebody would ever reference that movie. *chuckle*

If I had a way of showing you what you wanted to see, I'd love to be able to. (Administration, Call Center and Costume Department Insider Tour, anyone?) BGW, as a whole, knows things can be improved upon. From Summer entertainment (look at this years' line-up compared to previous years), to events (Illuminights) to improvements to the Howl-O-Scream and ChristmasTown experiences to offering new and inventive ways to get people involved with the park (Insider tours, Holiday tours, Dining, Pass material upgrade (via donation to the Conservatory Fund), etc.). Each piece is a step in the right direction (in my opinion, of course) towards a better park for everybody. New infrastructure, new events and whatnot to look forward to over the next two years and other things that go on that nobody outside of top brass even knows about.

I know most of us know this (especially you, Nora!), but things take time to work out. Sure the guest experience might drop a bit during certain times for certain reasons. BGW can only hope to apologize and be forgiven while people wait to see (possibly) why there was a decline in service. Again, let me reiterate, it's not in ANY way part of a plan to drop customer satisfaction. For any company to do so is just pure committal suicide. But sometimes it's an unwanted by-product of the means to get to the end. A good example would be closing Big Bad Wolf. It upset a lot of people, including many people who frequent this very website. There's no visible substitute readily available and some guests feel "cheated" out of a part of their experience. People make their voice heard, BGW apologizes and does what's possible to appease the situation. Of course, nobody can snap their fingers and *poof* a new ride appears, but they'll do what they can to make that "low" a bit higher.

I know, I know - I'm babbling now. I've been doing that a lot lately it seems. I vote the stress of Summer and it being Monday. I always blam ..... wait, it's not Monday? @#$%^&*

I blame Friday, for Friday always causes these problem with me. :dodgy: :huh: :dodgy:

The Instigation - out!

[EDIT]

I think we semi-derailed this thread a bit. Sorry. :( Is it possible to merge part of this thread with the, "Night Time Coaster Tours" thread in the News section above? At least keep things on-point and where they should be? I dunno, just a thought. :-/

[Done. See next post. ~Swiftman]
 
Hey Swiftman, YOU ARE AWESOME MY FRIEND! :D Chris, Swiftie~ if you want to give me a crash course lesson in how to manage a forum, I would be glad to help out in such a way.. and do it myself instead of calling upon the aid of others. I am a quick learner- I promise.

Also, thanks LoveDoc for your great lesson of behind the scenes operations. The phrase: Reservation: "Cannot accommodate party size" gives the allusion that with even one person- there is not a space available and there is no mention of minimum purchase must be two tickets. Bah! Sounds like a bunch of lawyers hijacked the computer system and now "it all depends on what the definition of is is."

I wish I could be there for that meeting on Monday; I would be a great negotiator between viewpoints. I love brainstorming meetings anyway.

As far as the VIP tour; I secretly want to be a tour guide. That would be so much fun. You all (at least most of you) have never seen me in ultimate theme park glee when I walk around the park and spout off historical information to friends and family. I would love the VIP tour because it includes all of the park and not just the coasters. For me, the whole park is what I love most - down to the smallest detail. Coasters are great, but so is the cleanliness, the landscaping, the park planning and layout, the environmental and safety protocols, the FOOD, entertainment... etc...etc.. I :heart: Busch Gardens.

So yes, when I see unfairness like the ticket change to a program (insider tours) that once elevated the park in customer service go in a downward crashing spiral, I shout STOP! Don't Do this. Back up and rethink what you are doing. Don't ruin a good thing! I may get angry and strike out with emotion first; but then I calm down and begin the thinking process of how to fix it. Which is why I stated before that I never write a complaint without offering a solution. I want to help; it is my nature to do so.

I am confident there can be a temporary solution until the park gets their new website and computer systems. It just takes the will to do so.

What you said about the BBW made me all choked up. It took me awhile to understand the motivation behind closing the ride and for me to find peace in the ride being torn down. I know the people who signed on the dotted line to tear it down had to know how the public would react. That has to be tough. But I do think being a little more forthcoming in public would be beneficial.

Someone from the park coming out on film making a statement of: "The Big Bad Wolf is a well loved classic coaster and removing it from the park was one of the most difficult decisions we had to make. Please understand that many factors led our end decision. We are currently looking into another project in lieu of the Big Bad Wolf. Unfortunately, we cannot go into detail what this project is, but we are confident that we will provide our guests with another quality thrill ride we are known for. Thank you for understanding and again, we are sorry for having to remove such a treasured ride." That would have meant the world to me in my time of grief. What was stated in the newspapers and online was just not adequate for what was done.

But you know, I always though people could snap their fingers and **Poof** a new coaster appears like magic.. just kidding. Ah~ sarcasm - just another service I offer. ;)

Awww don't down You've got Mail. Eh~ what can I say... I just like movies with quirky dialogue. :rolleyes:

Quote: Administration, Call Center and Costume Department Insider Tour, anyone?

Yes please! That would be awesome!

I hope you have a good Friday LoveDoc. Hang in there. I have to work tomorrow and, since I too work in a tourist attraction, tomorrow is a very busy day for me. Thanks as always, for your input. If I can be of any "unofficial" assistance; let me know.

Cheers!
 
Nora said:
As far as the VIP tour; I secretly want to be a tour guide. That would be so much fun. You all (at least most of you) have never seen me in ultimate theme park glee when I walk around the park and spout off historical information to friends and family.
Click to expand...

It's funny you should say that. My wife and I were just talking about how cool it would be to have a "Park History" tour. Like what used to be in this area and that, the timeline for different changes, little info about street shows or characters and such, etc. That would be awesome. Since we are new to the area and have only been going to the park since last year, we are intrigued by park history. My son would love it. He's always asking questions about how the park "used to be."

If you ever host a tour Nora, sign us up :)
 
Don't get your hopes up, everybody .. she still hasn't given me that tour she promised three months ago. ;)

By the way, a 'Park History' tour was talked about in the past. Via surveys mailed out and at the end of the day, it was determined that there simply wasn't enough of a desire for the tour at all.

Maybe between a few of us here, we could come up with our own tour of the park. You know, spend a few hours not going on the rides (GASP!) - okay okay, maybe a few rides, but talk about the parks history, plans and what we've "wanted" for a while. We have more than enough knowledgeable people and I'm sure if we picked a good enough day, there might be some interest as well?

Hmm - copy pasta-ing this to new thread. :idea:
 
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