I am vacationing with my family in San Antonio. If I get the Platinum Pass there, I know I get into BGW, but do I get the free parking and food/merch discounts at BGW?
Resolved Platinum Pass
- Thread starter kmccarthy27
- Start date
Your best bet would be to buy the pass from Busch Gardens online and use it there. Some of the benefits like the annual photokey, bring a friend tickets, etc are exclusive to your home park. I could be wrong but I think that also includes things like the monthly member benefits and the platinum parking. I believe you only get general parking and the discount on food/merch but nothing else at BGW.
I am getting it at SWSA when we go in April because ultimately its cheaper for us to get the Season Pass. My wife and daughter want to do the penguin animal encounter and the Season Pass there comes with the Free Animal Encounter so when you add in a park ticket plus that its roughly the same. Its just the added benefit of us going to BGW every year bundled with us possibly going to Sesame Place with my wife's family.
I am a season pass holder for San Antonio as well as bgw, my bgw will run out in a few months. Here are my two cents:
Your San Antonio pass will get you access to the parks, and preferred parking if available. While the discounts were for a short time based on the pass, it is now based on the park. I live in Fl and I got the discount for f/m at 20% for a bit before they updated it to %15 percent. You should get the percentage for platinum at any park you visit based on the home rate.
Other benefits are hit or miss, mostly miss. Christmas town is bgw exclusive, if you want that, you need a bgw pass. Bgt howloscream has a free preview that I’ve gotten into with bgw and swsa plats. Anything you should redeem at a kiosk or online is a no go, flash the pass type deals are all inclusive(ie free beer at SeaWorld in Jan, ride again etc.) I have not tried ride again at bgw.
Ultimately the best price option is probably half swsa half bgw, and use the free tix for Christmas town and some friends over the regular season. If you’re only buying one, you need to determine how much photo key, Christmas town, and the local offers matter. If all you want is access to all the parks with a decent f/m discount, San Antonio is a good option. I would even recommend getting just one in a family for the preferred parking. It’s nice to go on days like the 4th of July and not bother with the trams.
Hope this helps!
Your San Antonio pass will get you access to the parks, and preferred parking if available. While the discounts were for a short time based on the pass, it is now based on the park. I live in Fl and I got the discount for f/m at 20% for a bit before they updated it to %15 percent. You should get the percentage for platinum at any park you visit based on the home rate.
Other benefits are hit or miss, mostly miss. Christmas town is bgw exclusive, if you want that, you need a bgw pass. Bgt howloscream has a free preview that I’ve gotten into with bgw and swsa plats. Anything you should redeem at a kiosk or online is a no go, flash the pass type deals are all inclusive(ie free beer at SeaWorld in Jan, ride again etc.) I have not tried ride again at bgw.
Ultimately the best price option is probably half swsa half bgw, and use the free tix for Christmas town and some friends over the regular season. If you’re only buying one, you need to determine how much photo key, Christmas town, and the local offers matter. If all you want is access to all the parks with a decent f/m discount, San Antonio is a good option. I would even recommend getting just one in a family for the preferred parking. It’s nice to go on days like the 4th of July and not bother with the trams.
Hope this helps!
Bumping this thread to make sure all of this still works. Right now SWSA has platinum passes for 199. BGW is 399. We are going to BGW in June and the FL parks in November. Does anyone know if I can purchase the SWSA pass and get admittance to BGW first? They don't have to be redeemed at the home park before use at another park correct? I'm sure we wouldn't get all of the benefits, but I mainly care about admission (duh), free parking (dont really care if its not preferred), and food/merch discounts. I just don't want to show up to BGW and learn that I wasted 400
*technically* it shouldn’t, *but* I’ve never had an issue redeeming them at other parks. Sesame place got activated at Guest Services in Williamsburg and SWSD got activated at Busch Tampa. I just let them know this is the first park I’m visiting with my platinum pass.
Yeah, it's like why not, but also, why would they price them differently and why wouldn't more people "shop around" and save 50% if they didn't care about home park benefits? I also see that they have a digital copy on the app, no redemption required, so I should be able to just go to any park as soon as I buy them on my phone, right?
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So update, I called the SWSA call center and they did confirm that you can buy a platinum pass and then immediately use them at any SEAS park. I would guess that the amount of people who buy these because they're cheaper is so little it would be a waste of time and money to make it a requirement to use at the home park first and that simply making all platinum passes the same price across all parks would significantly reduce the amount of platinum pass holders in areas with less SEAS parks. Platinum passes would then be a better value for those around more parks, who would in theory visit those parks more often, then say those in San Antonio that would mostly visit only 2 parks and would only get the platinum pass for the added benefits.
Six Flags and Cedar Fair also offer lower prices on passes for their "lesser parks" (e.g. Darien Lake), but the price differential is nowhere close to what you see with SEAS, and on top of it you have the home park activation to deal with. I still think SEAS is able to get away with itheir pricing differential due to their Florida properties, but as more people learn about not needing to activate passes at a home park, you have to wonder when more folks in VA or FL switch and start buying SWSA passes.
It does make you wonder, but at the same time, officially, the only perks that carry over between the regions are admission and parking, per the chat I had this afternoon. For us, dropping the rest of the perks isn't a huge deal, as in reality, this basically replaces a multi-day pass for Williamsburg and a multi-day pass for FL. For local residents, the local perks are much more worth it. We're not going to use any guest passes, monthly member rewards, or the photokey. The QQ and discounts would be nice, but they're not deal-breakers. Definitely not worth $200 a person for 5 total visits over the next year.
So quick followup. Went to the williamsburg park today. Was able to get Preferred parking and admission as promised. Did get 30% discount on food/merch despite not officially listed as a perk. Was able to redeem guest passes... for San Antonio. Curious if the free animal experience carries over. It did not say specifically San Antonio when I scanned my pass at the park.