Something tells me that has already been considered by a park that has been in business for over 40 years...
Staffing Cutbacks
- Thread starter horsesboy
- Start date
That doesn't mean it was considered right. And it's more like 7-10 years that they have been publically traded or owned by souless overlords. Not the same company at all as when Busch was running things, and their considerations nowadays have little to do with guest satisfaction...so no, not 40 years
Sure. But the parks were vanity projects. The company didn't depend on them making money, or at least wasn't as dependent on their success as SEAS is now.
This reminds me of all the chatter I heard in Las Vegas of "the place was better when the mob ran it". It may have been a "vanity" project, but they still watched the bottom line.
No but day guests that are paying the same ticket price as any other day should
get what they are paying for. The park today is moderately busy yet many things are closed and most of the food places have fairly long lines. The train is running at about 40 minutes round trip with one train running, no sky ride, no pompeii, no flume, most snack stands aren’t open, the food line at Smokhouse had one line open and the queue went back and fourth. I feel there should be more transparency on what will and will not be open on slower days. I’m here all the time but for a family that this is their one day a year here on vacation during spring break, a busy travel time and yet some of the popular things to do aren’t open.
Actually, my understanding is that the parks were some kind of write-off for AB. They apparently had a fairly loose budgets. I have also heard a theory that part of their problem, when they were first sold was a management chain that was unused to working within tight, profit-driven budgets.
This reminds me of a discussion I had with my wife. At the time we were there, lots of things weren't running... Griffin, Tempesto, Pompeii, Mach Tower, Skyride, Rapids. And yet the quick queue price didn't change. I'm looking at it and thinking that I would be paying all that money for quick queue and half the rides aren't even up.
Some of which isn't a staffing issue. Pompeii is down for maintenance, I believe that there is issues with the green train and the blue one is of course down. In addition this is s hard time of year for all the parks to staff. Like it or not if you don't have the people you can't open everything it's that simple.
I would think (but have no idea) that the maintenance staff is mostly full-time year round? It may have just been bad luck. I'm guessing with Tempesto down so much that was due to some part they were waiting for. Griffin was certainly a breakdown and they got that back up within a day. They usually claim skyride and mach tower are down for wind, but skyride was down for the entire week I was there so I'm thinking probably staff. And mach tower was up and down the time I was there so it may have been staff too. And I understand that since many potential employees are still in school. It's pretty obvious the train ride is due to staffing (although that doesn't explain going 1mph and sitting in a station for 20 minutes)
My only complaint about spring break that I know could have been prevented was them mostly running 1 train on Invadr and 2 on Verbolten, resulting in unnecessary lines. Let people sit a bit waiting to enter the station...its still better than sitting an extra 30 minutes in line for the ride and it would not have required additional staff
My only complaint about spring break that I know could have been prevented was them mostly running 1 train on Invadr and 2 on Verbolten, resulting in unnecessary lines. Let people sit a bit waiting to enter the station...its still better than sitting an extra 30 minutes in line for the ride and it would not have required additional staff
Exactly, but when people come and today is their big day they buy in thinking it will help them get everything done but some times in reality it’s a waste of money.
Pompeii is down because of repairs but day guests don’t know that, the family behind me on the train the father said “oh the water rides must all be closed today because it’s too cold”. The train they just take too long doing everything. Load the train and get moving, they kept reopening the gate for stragglers coming up to the queue house and the one guy was talking to every family.
Side note, someone on the train also said that the “fences” along the train in Festa by the stables were from when they used to have giraffes......
Something to consider, since school is still in session for the year, a fair percentage of their staff is not available.
This doesn't seem to be a BGW-specific problem. Look at KD's current list of ride closures.
At least soak city doesn't have any scheduled ride closures...
It is nice that KD has a webpage and you can decide before you come. With BGW, I think I saw a board near the ticket booth that said Pompeii was down. That was it. Nothing on their website, on the park map, in the app, on facebook, on twitter, etc. even though for example, Tempesto and Skyride were down for days
EDIT: Glad that I didn't go to KD this year. Every time I think about it, I weigh it against BGW and just go to BGW
EDIT: Glad that I didn't go to KD this year. Every time I think about it, I weigh it against BGW and just go to BGW
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This is a good point though.. bgw/bgt have this park app like most parks do. It would not be difficult to digitally tell us about ride closures in the app.
With the track record BGW's Social Media "Dept" (I swear it's gotta be an intern), that probably asking too much.
On Twitter (tweets)-
4/19 (3) - Egg found, Spring Savings, Closing Early
4/20 - (1) Easter fun
4/22 - (1) Earth Day
4/23 - (1) Membership sales
4/25 - (1) Elmo Weekend
So, by Twitter, ain't a lot happenin' in VA.
By contrast BGT tweeted 14 times today only.