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?
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.
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?*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.
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.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.
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....you have to wonder when more folks in VA or FL switch and start buying SWSA passes.
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