Park Surveys

Register or Login to Hide This Ad for Free!
Zachary said:
Food used to be a major driving force for many people to frequent BGW. It's not surprising to me at all that the decimation of culinary has lead to a reduction in visitation. I think I can even say it has impacted my visitation, in fact.

It's fine if it's not a priority for you, but people have all manner of valid reasons to find value in a theme park—and BGW has been neglecting many of those for years now.
Click to expand...
Food being a nail in the coffin to not go to busch no more is just wild to me. I feel like of thats what does it for you then you really never enjoyed going to the park to begin with or you're just bad at weighing the positives and negatives or things. No park has gormet food. Even disney has some shitty items. Busch has gone downhill in food yes but it's all very edible.

Bad operations, shitty staff, broken rides, ect sure thats completly out of my hands and would make me end my membership. I can control what food I can eat as a cuatomer if park food isint up to my standards for some amusment park food. Yes that a jerky nudge im aware. But hey Im not gonna tell someone what to do with their money. I don't understand it though
 
  • Eye-Roll
  • Dislike
  • Like
Reactions: cricket, jonfin826, Nicole and 1 other person
BTW, I'm not cheering about how good the food at BGW is. I think that a free all day dining pass would be a cool perk though. Visit June and get a free all day dining deal in July? One of those costs more than what I pay per month and would be an easy way for somebody to try some food items... and maybe, just maybe, I'll find something I like in the park and I'll fork the money on that item next time I go?

This could be Six Flags and it would still be an awesome perk. The food at BGW isn't that bad. Some of it is a big shadow of its former self, sure, but its edible, and some of it is still quite good, smaller serving sizes aside.

I find it hard to believe that members would complain about getting an all day dining pass just for visiting the park once in June. A really cool perk idea IMO.
 
  • Like
Reactions: outhikn, cricket, filter and 9 others
MrBradferd said:
Food being a nail in the coffin to not go to busch no more is just wild to me. I feel like of thats what does it for you then you really never enjoyed going to the park to begin with or you're just bad at weighing the positives and negatives or things. No park has gormet food. Even disney has some shitty items. Busch has gone downhill in food yes but it's all very edible.

Bad operations, shitty staff, broken rides, ect sure thats completly out of my hands and would make me end my membership. I can control what food I can eat as a cuatomer if park food isint up to my standards for some amusment park food. Yes that a jerky nudge im aware. But hey Im not gonna tell someone what to do with their money. I don't understand it though
Click to expand...

I'll just say this, my old neighbor's family used to go to Busch semi-regularly literally only to eat dinner at the Festhaus. They weren't coaster people at all, they may have done some other stuff too, I'm not sure, but I know literally 99% of their reason for visiting was just the food. To absolutely no ones surprise, they stopped visiting a few years ago. Sure it's only 1 family, but I know there are definitely many other people who went to Busch specifically for their food, or were strongly enticed to go to the park because of it.

Coasters may be your reason for going, shows, food, water rides, skyride/railroad, atmosphere, or park beauty (+ many other things) could be other peoples reasonings. Not really fair to say that "it's wild that food was the nail in the coffin for some people".
 
  • Like
Reactions: outhikn, dawno, PasokonDeacon and 11 others
rollercoastercoaster said:
I'll just say this, my old neighbor's family used to go to Busch semi-regularly literally only to eat dinner at the Festhaus. They weren't coaster people at all, they may have done some other stuff too, I'm not sure, but I know literally 99% of their reason for visiting was just the food. To absolutely no ones surprise, they stopped visiting a few years ago. Sure it's only 1 family, but I know there are definitely many other people who went to Busch specifically for their food, or were strongly enticed to go to the park because of it.

Coasters may be your reason for going, shows, food, water rides, skyride/railroad, atmosphere, or park beauty (+ many other things) could be other peoples reasonings. Not really fair to say that "it's wild that food was the nail in the coffin for some people".
Click to expand...
Even in glory days Busch food was nothing magical special. So people (extremely very few) who only go to busch for food. Are paying monthly memberships and paying high park food prices ontop back then to still eat park food. You can save that money and eat top food at a restraunt... so even as that as a concept is wild to me. To each their own i guess.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Mwe BGW
mtpelepele said:
I have to ask... how old are you? What do you consider Busch's "glory days"?
Click to expand...
Why does that matter if everyones opinion on glory days is different. Glory days to me is before inbev took over. Whenever AB was the owner before people seemed to complain about the park going "down hill" I assume thats what people mean when they say the food used to be best.
I have no opinion on glory days. Im just happy to pay $20 a month to have endless fun 20min away and get a shit ton of free rewards to go along with it.
Busch would have to massively fuck up for me to not justify the price. Even if they canned HOS and CT id still think a pass is worth it 🤷‍♂️
Im 28
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Coasternerd and RollyCoaster
Nicole said:
OK. But what you consider “fun” is different than other people. They don’t call your preferences out as “wild.”
Click to expand...
Maybe because I go to parks as a average park goer and have fun and enjoy everything? Vs only going for a bite to eat. So what is someone going to even consider wild on my take of how I enjoy a park? Am i supposed to believe theres a community of people out there who go to movies for the sole purpose of the way their food tastes? Or a casino that serves food just to eat the food? Were talking like 0.001% of people who go to those locations who MIGHT do that just to make me looks like a asshole on this subject. Literal straw grasping
 
Last edited:
  • Eye-Roll
  • Like
  • Haha
Reactions: cricket, filter, dsdl and 3 others
Zachary said:
Food used to be a major driving force for many people to frequent BGW. It's not surprising to me at all that the decimation of culinary has lead to a reduction in visitation. I think I can even say it has impacted my visitation, in fact.

It's fine if it's not a priority for you, but people have all manner of valid reasons to find value in a theme park—and BGW has been neglecting many of those for years now.
Click to expand...
I agree. Different people like Busch Gardens for different reasons. That’s an area that this park has traditionally had an advantage over Kings Dominion for the last 30 years. There is more of a variety of things to do and the park appeals to more than just thrill riders.


It’s not just the quality of the food that’s chasing off people that like to eat there. It’s also the extreme pricing. It feels like one is being extorted any time one purchase his food there. It’s just not a good feeling to buy anything there anymore.
 
  • Like
Reactions: tursiops and jscll
I’m not one to try and go off topic of the thread but I do want to chip in my 2 cents on the whole “reason for visiting” discussion. Part of the reason I started going to KD a lot more before I moved away was: the food improved MASSIVELY (and was also cheaper! I ended up with the all season dining as a result), the overall operation of the park felt more consistent, and the vibes were better. Compared to the same timeframe at BGW where good quality has rapidly DECLINED, overall park operation has gotten worse, and the vibes just aren’t anywhere near as good as they used to be.

Back to the surveys part—a free one day all day dining as a pass perk would be a great deal in my opinion, as it’s not exactly the cheapest item out there and I’d be more inclined to eat there if I had it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Nicole, tursiops, outhikn and 2 others
MrBradferd said:
You don't find a lousy $14 a month of fun at Busch besides bad food? Thats what keeps you from getting a pass?
Click to expand...
The food going downhill was just the final nail in the coffin. I had 2 then 3 platinum passes starting in 2019 and now I need 4 passes of some level. I'm a family of four and we will spend money. I lost track of which visit, maybe sometime in 2023, operations across most departments were so bad that my wife and I were both saying this isn't worth it. We couldn't even spend money in the park on food/beverages. Both water country and BGW were let downs.

I was at the park on 6/16 and minus the food, some things have improved but I think it being a lite crowd day helped the experience. Ride operations are still far too slow, The park felt a bit cleaner except for the bathrooms that absolutely smell disgusting.

Back to surveys. The lack of family rides was a HUGE problem for me and not at just BGW. BGT and SWO were not fun for my kids. My oldest can now ride everything but my youngest is just at 48" now. My youngest also isn't the biggest thrill seeker yet. When 2 flats that he was recently able to ride get removed, that made his day a little worse.

Don't get me started on the technology stack the park is still utilizing. Photopass was a disaster with the new (to me) unmanned photo stations not letting me link up to my purchased photo pass. I don't like having to stop on the way out to have stuff like this fixed.

Lousy 14 a month? A trip for me costs a lot more money than that. I can do the day trips from time to time, but generally we stay a night. I'm equal distance to Hershey. My kids want something new. Kings dominion is an hour less as well and the waterpark is an option while there too. I'm often not just feeding money into the park when I go, I put money back into other restaurants while there. We used to do a 2 night stay and that meant multiple times eating outside of the park.

So if I'm not riding and not sitting at a show, food matters. I'm getting older and the rides are starting to matter less to me.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Nicole, SLC Headache, tursiops and 9 others
mikes said:
The food going downhill was just the final nail in the coffin. I had 2 then 3 platinum passes starting in 2019 and now I need 4 passes of some level. I'm a family of four and we will spend money. I lost track of which visit, maybe sometime in 2023, operations across most departments were so bad that my wife and I were both saying this isn't worth it. We couldn't even spend money in the park on food/beverages. Both water country and BGW were let downs.

I was at the park on 6/16 and minus the food, some things have improved but I think it being a lite crowd day helped the experience. Ride operations are still far too slow, The park felt a bit cleaner except for the bathrooms that absolutely smell disgusting.

Back to surveys. The lack of family rides was a HUGE problem for me and not at just BGW. BGT and SWO were not fun for my kids. My oldest can now ride everything but my youngest is just at 48" now. My youngest also isn't the biggest thrill seeker yet. When 2 flats that he was recently able to ride get removed, that made his day a little worse.

Don't get me started on the technology stack the park is still utilizing. Photopass was a disaster with the new (to me) unmanned photo stations not letting me link up to my purchased photo pass. I don't like having to stop on the way out to have stuff like this fixed.

Lousy 14 a month? A trip for me costs a lot more money than that. I can do the day trips from time to time, but generally we stay a night. I'm equal distance to Hershey. My kids want something new. Kings dominion is an hour less as well and the waterpark is an option while there too. I'm often not just feeding money into the park when I go, I put money back into other restaurants while there. We used to do a 2 night stay and that meant multiple times eating outside of the park.

So if I'm not riding and not sitting at a show, food matters. I'm getting older and the rides are starting to matter less to me.
Click to expand...
I assumed you were a local so yea if youre far from the park and need travel then it fully makes sense it's not cheap
 
I know we need to move on from this conversation, but quality food is a HUGE part of public perception of parks and can upgrade a place like BGW to a "high brow" vacation destination (as much as I hate that phrase in this context). Epcot is usually considered the highest brow of the Orlando Disney parks, in large part bc of the World Showcase and the food/drinks. Some people are more likely to come to BGW and share that on social media if it can be considered a foodie experience instead of just an amusement or theme park, which might be looked down on.

Making your park a social media destination that's brag-worthy and not low-brow/trashy/etc is a huge part of attracting a portion of Gen Z, unfortunately. It's elitist but people wanna present themselves a certain way. Think of the amount of rich NoVa wannabe influencer kids at UVA or W&M who would make trips to BGW to make TikToks about the food if it became known for that.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Nicole, Mamunia, PasokonDeacon and 1 other person
I'll start by saying I am now 74. My wife and I have visited the park for the entire 50 years, since we live here. I don't remember the exact year that season passes started but I have ours all the way back to 1983, I believe. Our most recent pass level was premier. They were 2 park passes even though we hadn't been to WC in probably 25 years, if then. Because of age I can no longer ride the rollercoasters. They literally give me vertigo when I get off. Don't worry! If you make it to 70+ you will appreciate what I'm saying. A typical visit for us now is to meet friends and hangout at Grogan's or the Bierhaus. With the beer club, a beer would cost $8. Sometimes we would eat a meal or snack.
A number of years ago BGW had an all season dining pass. I think it lasted for 1 year, maybe 2. On cooler days we would go to the park as late as 4 or 5 o'clock and yes, we would eat dinner. Our favorite place was the old Italy and not San Marco. Even Squires had a fish & chips that could compete with local restaurants. Up until the year they had created a beer club which was originally called the Stein Club and at the end of the season you took home a nice-looking beer stein. After we retired BGW started a program called Soaring Eagles for those 60 and older. They would give us a really nice Christmas party with food and gifts at no cost to us.
Now, coming up to the current state of the park. Now a beer cost is $16, even a Coke is $6, and a cheeseburger is $20. I'm not going to list what every meal costs. Most of you probably already know. That's just not economical for us to go often enough to justify the pass. Again, when you are living on retirement income you will start to realize where the money goes.
So, after 50 years and 1 month we cancelled our passes this past Monday. It just became unsustainable for us to continue. I'm sure we can find another use for the money we will save. We're going to miss long time employees that we would always say hello to and got to know some pretty well. We'll miss friends that we made on our visits that we won't see anymore. I'll miss posting here because I can no longer comment on things I don't know about anymore. I guess you will understand one of these days.
 
  • Sad
  • Like
Reactions: Great Adventurer, Nicole, Mamunia and 13 others
Zachary said:
Anyone get any surveys re: new entertainment and special event concepts?

Some screenshots:

View attachment 39505View attachment 39506View attachment 39507View attachment 39508View attachment 39509View attachment 39510
Click to expand...
#1 seems interesting and would be worth checking out - especially if they could keep the artisan booths on theme per region.

#2 seems cool, kinda like KI's 50th Celebration but with actual buildings to projection map onto. I would hope they would do different projections onto each building in different sections to encourage repeat viewing.

#3 seems like fun....I didn't even realize that there were that many types of pizza.

#4 would serve as a clear indicator of what times that I should not visit the park (trying to be positive😉)

#5 sounds awesome and would definitely drive me to visit the park.

#6 is absolutely incredible in concept, especially the roaming glow-fairies filled the entire park.

I thoroughly endorse most of these.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Ziva, dplough, cricket and 3 others
You must log in or register to reply here.
Consider Donating to Hide This Ad