I tended to always go to Trappers or Marco Polo for the pizza. I never really felt like it was much. Maybe a handful of fries, meat or pizza that was cold by the time I sat down. If you look at my past comments I’m mostly of the stance that park food isn’t that great.
The State of the Park: Busch Gardens Williamsburg
- Thread starter CoasterTalkBob
- Start date
The massive and multiple price increases this year plus the surcharge is a slap in the face. Yet, BG still offers dramatically reduced ticket prices (for example, the current Halloscream 3 for $35 each) just minimizes our memberships. Portions have been reduced as well as options. Trappers, for example, no longer has baby back ribs. They offer spare ribs instead for way more. Beer prices have taken a massive jump from $10 to almost $14, all while reducing the selections. Trappers used to be great food and now I am extremely disappointed.
My take... The food used to be much better than other parks, and I dare say better than Universal/Disney. Was Trappers comparable to ZZQ in Scott"s Addition? Heck no, but it was good BBQ for a theme park.
Now? The food is still better than Six Flags, but not distinct anymore when compared to other parks.
So poorer quality, smaller portions, higher prices, AND surcharges? Way to go SEAS on checking all the boxes!
Now? The food is still better than Six Flags, but not distinct anymore when compared to other parks.
So poorer quality, smaller portions, higher prices, AND surcharges? Way to go SEAS on checking all the boxes!
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I practically grew up in the park, and it saddens me to know that the mile high sandwich, which used to be massive and tasty (I think I remember hearing the culinary team cured their own brisket for corned beef, made their own bread, etc), inherently must be a shell of itself these days if it exists at all.
And yes, rose tinted glasses mixed with youthful indifference for park food, but I also remember the pizza in Das Festhaus being fantastic - baked with freshly made dough and sauce instead of pulled out of Sysco's back catalog.
Of course, that was square in the middle of AB ownership and not a hint of what came later.
And yes, rose tinted glasses mixed with youthful indifference for park food, but I also remember the pizza in Das Festhaus being fantastic - baked with freshly made dough and sauce instead of pulled out of Sysco's back catalog.
Of course, that was square in the middle of AB ownership and not a hint of what came later.
Same here. To me, Busch will always be my home. I’m pretty sure I spent almost as much awake time there as in my own house, and I just wish there was something I could do to help facilitate change. I care so much but I feel like e-mail complaints and calls will just be acknowledged with generic replies, if acknowledged at all.
Hopefully whomever gets this job actually gets to guide strategy instead of being pushed aside:
I ordered and ate SO many mile high Festhaus corned beef sandwichs from the mid-2000s through to the mid-2010s. They used to be dependably great with quality corned beef, great sourkraut, fresh bread, and incredibly generous, filling, often-unfinishable portions.
When they shrunk the portions the first few times, I was fine with it. The price increases that accompanied those portion reductions? Fine. Yeah, it was a little more expensive and yeah, I couldn't split one sandwich with a friend for lunch anymore and be happy, but that's fine—even at half their former size it was enough food. That said, by the late 2010s, the meat began to take an absolute nosedive in quality to the point where I was served multiple corned beef sandwiches that I legitimately wouldn't want to finish even though the size was now down to the point where doing so was an easy task for most anyone. After a few instances of being served just unimaginably gristly, gross corned beef, I swore off one of my once-loved BGW menu items entirely.
I could deal with the ballooning price, the literally like 75% reduction in meat, etc, but the absolute decimation of the quality of the food is what made me finally stop ordering the corned beef sandwiches at Festhaus. This experience has been repeated elsewhere in the park too. Yeah, Trapper's prices have skyrocketed while the portions have been reduced, but nuking the actual quality of the ingredients and preparation is what has largely kept me from meals at Trapper's since COVID.
The 5% surcharge was just basically adding insult to injury for me. By the time it was imposed, I had already largely stopped eating meals at BGW. Now though, with the 5% surcharge, I look at park restaurants with spite. I now intentionally eat before and after the park because I feel as though the park shifted from just basic greed into far more malicious territory.
For me, over the last five years, food at BGW has moved from one of its main selling points, to something that frequently disappointed me to, this season, something that actively pisses me off.
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I went to BGW for my first time ever about two weeks ago, and even I noticed the nickel and diming. The 5% surcharge of course has been talked about extensively on here, but I was also surprised at the land-by-land opening and closing, which I'm sure is done because it's more expensive to run everything at once. The Skyride only operated for about one hour out of the two days I was there, again likely because it's a more expensive ride to run. Most rides ran one or two trains. Enough has been said on here about Pantheon's lack of care/theming/placemaking, and it's very much correct. Employees were generally rude and unpleasant. Such a shame because it's such a beautiful park, and you can clearly tell that it was deeply cared for and loved for most of its history. Sadly, it doesn't seem like it is anymore.
I had a much more enjoyable time at Kings Dominion. I felt like it was a park that was deeply loved and cared for by its management team. I'm not saying KD was perfect, there's still a lot to improve upon. Just that it was a much better experience than the way that BGW was run. And no scummy 5% surcharge is always nice, too!
I honestly should have just shut up after @Nicole answered with what I was looking to understand.
I'm not sure why you'd take everyone else's opinions so personally, but I'm pretty sure people here are mostly disappointed for positive reasons if that makes any difference.
For so many people on this forum BGW is a place that used to be something special for us. It was a place that really embodied what a regional theme park could be. A place that has a killer combination of a handful of great rides, good tasting food, good shows, beautiful scenery,and excellent customer service. When AB got bought out and the park was sold things changed, but there was still some effort put into maintaining that image. Ever since the stock rebound and when they started focusing on "something new every year" the parks became even more off balance with things such as slashing zoo dept and new additions having no theming budget whatsoever.
2021 has been an even crazier jump where all the choices made seem to point to customers as cogs that don't matter. Experience isn't something the parks are focusing on and it really shows.
I would say that maybe it's nostalgia but I don't think so and here's why: I've visited other parks in the last 5 years and they have the things I miss about BGW, still front and center. Knobels, Silver Dollar City, Liseburg, and now even KD seem to be doing what BGW used to do.
I'm sure esp for those of us that grew up with the park it hurts all that much more. I'm making a concerted effort not to spend money at these parks, and I hope other consumers feel the same way as I feel that is the only way SEAS will get the message. Still, I'm not optimistic as comsuner willpower is generally pretty pathetic when it comes to these type of things.
That said, with all the stuff that has happened, I would hope it would piss people off beyond the point of the blackfish days, but it's hard to tell.
I’m not taking anything personally. I feel like I’m being “put down” for not feeling the same way as everyone else.
Like I said in response to @Nicole, I became a member in 2017. Between then and my visit now, the park has felt remarkably similar.
Hence why I say that. It seems as though a lot of comparisons are coming from what it was like before my time. I don’t have that as reference.
My membership length of BGW experience is rides that are randomly closed, food that is straight up over salted frozen foods, ride ops who don’t really care, and shows (other than …blanking on the show in Ireland) that aren’t all that great.
But to me….I don’t let those things change my opinion too much on the park. I don’t expect every ride to be open every visit. I don’t expect great food at high volume eateries. Unless the ride ops are doing something really unsafe, I understand it isn’t a career for them and employee attitudes in general are shifting in non career jobs. I try to enjoy shows for what they are because I don’t know what was before.
Maybe the issue here is I enjoy parks (both theme and amusement) differently from others. My alternative is to sit at home and do nothing. So it’s relaxing to me to be there. Take my time walking around. Sit and people watch. Enjoy the ride.
Like I’ve seen plenty of complaints on the lack of Pantheon theming. But to me….while it would be nice…at the end of the day it has no impact on my end feeling of the ride. It’s not like I’m going to say that one ride is better than another because of the theming.
Do I want the things that many people around here want for the park? Absolutely. But I feel my opinion on how to get there would be wildly disliked on here.
I guess it's just the difference of expectations walking in the door - yours seemed to have started kind of low compared to those of us who have much higher expectations because of the way it used to be.
We know it can be better because we've seen it better, not because it's fun to nit-pick... Though I'm sure some folks have fun being persnickety.
We know it can be better because we've seen it better, not because it's fun to nit-pick... Though I'm sure some folks have fun being persnickety.
I was just thinking about that some. It's like there's a lot on here that saw the park at a 95/100 and drop to a 70/100; meanwhile I saw it drop from a 75/100 to a 70/100.
My family and I have been visiting the park since 1980 and I've been a pass member since 2004. Do I miss the way it used to be? Absolutely! But, I can still walk into the park and feel my blood pressure drop. I still get excited waiting in line for Apollo. I have my favorite place in the park to sit and people watch. There are certain smells that I only, and will forever, associate with Busch Gardens. It is my happy place and I have not one bit of shame stating that.
I want the park to be the absolute best it can be because I want it to be open for a very long time to come. But I wont stop loving it because things arent the best right now.
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It’s basically exactly as I mentioned. I walked into what was an empty Festhaus bathroom where I was greeted by an employee on his phone standing next to a mop bucket with the mop propped against the wall. He asked me to mop after myself when I was done using the stall and handed the mop to me. Confused, I gave it back to him and walked into an empty (clean) stall without saying a word. The same guy proceeded to wheel the entire mop bucket next to my stall and left it there, knocking on the door once implying that I needed to mop the stall when I was done. When I exited to stall the team member was nowhere to be found while the mop bucket was still sitting there, with the handle of the mop resting on the stall door that I was using.
Absolutely humiliating.
Sounds like either a prank or a disgruntled employee walking out the door.
If I were a pissed off employee, I don't think that'd be my go-to. There's really no good explanation for that either way.
This sounds like something straight out of a comedy movie. Never, ever, would I expect an experience like that to happen at Busch
. So sorry that happened
Yeah I feel comfortable taking my platinum membership down to a 1 park unlimited when it expires next year at this rate, I don't think I can hold off from BGWs lineup as a whole but can gladly reduce how much money they get from me. Plus platinum is kind of a pain in VA because our next closest parks are literally in FL (ignoring Sesame Place as it has to be hilariously convenient for me to stop in there). But I agree that has to be a disgruntled employee and man did he make the park look bad.
My 10 year old asked me to cancel his BGW membership yesterday because he doesn't want to go there anymore.