Thanks for clarifying. Wonder is it was just an honest mismarked tag. Or some ass thought it was funny. Shoulda price checked.
The State of the Park: Busch Gardens Williamsburg
- Thread starter CoasterTalkBob
- Start date
I know it was hot as heck yesterday but the park was really lite in attendance. We were coming from my daughter's softball game to get the extra Busch Bucks and rewards. TONS of parking spots available. Inside the park you could tell how it wasn't busy. Maybe all the crowds went to Water Country.
Using the bucks we got dinner at Marco's and the smell coming out of the restaurant was god awful. I don't know if was the people near the soda machine or what but DAMN!
And I'm all in favor of adding a Festhaus train stop.
Using the bucks we got dinner at Marco's and the smell coming out of the restaurant was god awful. I don't know if was the people near the soda machine or what but DAMN!
And I'm all in favor of adding a Festhaus train stop.
I have noticed that recently to it seems to be coming from the floor drain that runs the front on the soda fountain area.
That’s the experience I had two Sundays ago as well. It was fairly hot but not horrible, but the park was a ghost town. Even Pantheon was a near walk-on all day. Despite only two lines being open at the Festhaus, there wasn’t a wait for either of them even during peak lunch time.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen BGW so sparse on a weekend, and my experience is just yet another one to add to the list of observations of crowds being light lately.
The smell in front of that drinks area is atrocious. I don't know why it is a repeat issue, but I wonder if it has something to do with their grease trap ventilation or something. Regardless it is something I have noticed multiple times and am shocked they haven't addressed it.
It just seems things wrong at BGW just keep piling up. The heat index this afternoon was something like 103. Went to fill my drink mug with ice and the ice machine was covered and not working. Moved to one of the drink machines.....NO ICE!! What is wrong with these people. You could buy beer everywhere but getting ice took some effort. When the heat index gets this high it becomes a health risk. Not just an inconvenience. Sure, you could get water, but it wasn't cold.
In their defense….our AC broke at my center and the replacement motor is 10 weeks backordered.
Ice machine at the burger joint next door busted and they said it will be 16 weeks for a replacement part.
I think the thing with the ice machines is this isn't the first I have noticed this happening where it is impossible to get ice. I have remembered numerous times back in the England snack hut and the one in Scotland where every machine was either covered or didn't spit out any ice. I don't think this comes down to supply issues (considering I have noticed many companies actually were prepared this time around and stocked excess inventory for this summer's spike in parts, hence how I got my AC fully replaced in a day) but just the park doing what they always have done, dogshit logistic management.
Oh, let me clarify that I’m not saying it’s purely that. But we’re in an unprecedented prolonged heat wave, and while those things should work, it’s putting a major stress on these systems.
On the other part: commercial and residential issues are handled so differently from each other. Because of the broad scope of the brants, sizes, power levels of commercial units, many places purchase items on an “as needed” basis rather than hold inventory. For example I needed an FRS-R-40 fuse. It’s not all that common and multiple electricians have told me it’s not something they keep because it has no residential uses.
So if the choices are stress the system causing it to break to create half melted ice OR just shut it off for periods at a time, I see why they went with that. The criticism I have is they don’t have any way to create ice outside of those machines.
I agree with your point to commercial AC versus residential, I just feel that ice machines are something that can be spared for rather simply either at the ice-machine-company level or BGW level.
They should have excess ice machines, ice storage, or simply be buying large amounts of ice as temporary solutions to the problem to avoid the negative impact of customer dissatisfaction. My problem that I have echoed throughout multiple threads for a long time now is they clearly value the dollars lost of "customer dissatisfaction" severely less than they value an investment in a backup ice program that has been a problem for many years. Hell, stock the parts that frequently break at the park so replacement is easy and can be done in house. It is like they have never heard of sparing. This has been an issue for years and repeatedly they have chosen "nah fuck em" when it comes to guests getting ice instead of figuring out how to avoid the issue long term.
They should have excess ice machines, ice storage, or simply be buying large amounts of ice as temporary solutions to the problem to avoid the negative impact of customer dissatisfaction. My problem that I have echoed throughout multiple threads for a long time now is they clearly value the dollars lost of "customer dissatisfaction" severely less than they value an investment in a backup ice program that has been a problem for many years. Hell, stock the parts that frequently break at the park so replacement is easy and can be done in house. It is like they have never heard of sparing. This has been an issue for years and repeatedly they have chosen "nah fuck em" when it comes to guests getting ice instead of figuring out how to avoid the issue long term.
Oh I agree.
I’m curious if those are not serviced by them though. We had one in our family bakery and at one restaurant I worked at and they were serviced by Coca Cola and PepsiCo. So unless they got someone out to fix it, we could lose our contract by trying to fix it ourselves.
Maybe my point isn’t coming across right. It’s not ok to have ice machines down. They need to run. They need to have ice for medical emergencies. It’s needs to be available for heat exhaustion. But, without knowing why they are down I’m not going to jump to the conclusions of greed or anything like that.
I am jumping to conclusions purely because this is an issue that has occurred for a long time, this isn't an isolated incident. If something is a repeat issue at your business and nothing is being done to address it, it is the businesses' fault, regardless of the various complications surrounding the issue.
Yet another symptom of the company putting a $0 valuation on the guest experience. I could write an entire thesis at this point on what metrics SEAS probably operates on and which ones they ignore based solely off of the decisions they have made over the past 5+ years. EVERYTHING goes with itself, it is all in the same vein. It is shocking how one dimensional they are running.
Yet another symptom of the company putting a $0 valuation on the guest experience. I could write an entire thesis at this point on what metrics SEAS probably operates on and which ones they ignore based solely off of the decisions they have made over the past 5+ years. EVERYTHING goes with itself, it is all in the same vein. It is shocking how one dimensional they are running.
Appears that parks like Dollywood (hot there), Kings Dominion (hot there too), and Hershey (hot, still) are not having ice machine/AC problems on this scale, and are comparable parks to BGW.
That should tell you something. And if they are having issues, it's not hitting the general public's interests in the way its affecting Busch's. It all comes down to priorities, and I am worried by the odd fluctuations in crowd size during traditional peak summer times that perhaps reports of poor experiences are making their rounds by word of mouth, and people are likely taking notice. Inflation is a thing all its own, but inflation + a subpar experience for the price = what we are seeing right now...
Also, I will not be calling Miss Cleo's ghost in Jamaica for Guest Services complaints.
That should tell you something. And if they are having issues, it's not hitting the general public's interests in the way its affecting Busch's. It all comes down to priorities, and I am worried by the odd fluctuations in crowd size during traditional peak summer times that perhaps reports of poor experiences are making their rounds by word of mouth, and people are likely taking notice. Inflation is a thing all its own, but inflation + a subpar experience for the price = what we are seeing right now...
Also, I will not be calling Miss Cleo's ghost in Jamaica for Guest Services complaints.
I completely see your point, I am not disagreeing with you. I just think this can easily be assigned as another example of SEAS having terrible logistic management as it relates to the guest experience because of the reasons I laid out with this being a recurring issue. If there were things in place 4 or 5 seasons ago that prevented them from keeping their ice machines in running condition to a standard they desired, necessary steps could have been taken to change how it runs now. Same issues now, nothing has changed, therefore their "standard" for this specific thing is being met, it is just a hilariously low standard.
And if you give them the benefit of the doubt and still think possibly their standard for guest experience is higher they just haven't managed to meet that standard in years due to issues outside of their control, that is even more pitiful for a company as large as this.
And if you give them the benefit of the doubt and still think possibly their standard for guest experience is higher they just haven't managed to meet that standard in years due to issues outside of their control, that is even more pitiful for a company as large as this.
Four or five years ago, if they needed a part, they went and bought it. There was no reason to have spares. Your car may need brake pads, belts, a starter, whatever. Do you keep all of that on hand in your garage? Probably not, because it's fast and easy to get it from Advance. There was no need whatsoever to keep all of those parts on hand at the park, because it used to be that easy for them too. Until now. The current supply chain breakdown was unforeseeable. I blame Busch for a lot of dumb things they do, but that ain't one of them.
We know they have the capability to make ice backstage. They had tubs of drinks at every F&W booth. They fill the ice in the drink machines in the Festhuas with buckets. They could easily bring back machines that need to be filled manually until they can get the automated machines working. The ice at Marco Polo has not been working since as least June. BG spent money of the speakeasy for ice machines and the ability to create slushy drinks, but yet they cannot find an operating ice machine for Marco Polo. Clearly they have their budgets and priorities in the wrong places.