The State of the Park: Busch Gardens Williamsburg
- Thread starter CoasterTalkBob
- Start date
I thought merch had price increases but not an extra surcharge.
Either way, scummy shit by whomever thought that was a good idea.
Either way, scummy shit by whomever thought that was a good idea.
Honestly, this is very sad. I have no idea why they are going this route. But they are going to get some backlash or something of the matter and I hope, they do. Because this is just wrong. I wish, someone would purge or change the way corporate is done. This is just depressing me. I heard that the stuff in the main shop in England, the guy Harvey and simply southern is at a reasonable price while Busch garden merch is over 100$ plus. I...I need a chocolate milkshake. 
I can tell you that with a 10% park discount, a Powerade is a whopping $6.27 as of today….
That is ludicrous. If you want to circumvent that, pick up the Gatorade/Powerade powder at the grocery store, come to BGW and ask for your free cup of water, and then proceed to make your own sports drink.
On a positive note, for the first that I can recall in years maybe, there were two sides open at Roman Frieze and both cash registers were staffed, as well. We actually got out of there without our ice cream completely melting.
On the other hand, my brother ordered Dole Whip and the server seemed genuinely irritated that he wanted it in a pineapple. She actually scowled at him.
On the other hand, my brother ordered Dole Whip and the server seemed genuinely irritated that he wanted it in a pineapple. She actually scowled at him.
That's the quality of employees I've grown accustomed to at BGW. I actually had a pretty nice day at water country yesterday. All my interactions were good.
FYI if you used to use your Busch Bucks in single transaction for the family dinner, we were told that we can't do that anymore. It needs to be separate transactions. So got hit with surcharge four times. The math still checks out but doing several transactions sucks.
Yea, I got hit with that too. My family and I have seasons passes. I was gonna use $30 in Busch bucks, to get the vintage Old Country tshirt. I couldn’t do it. So, I got three nice wooden Christmas ornaments instead. I even got $1.02 in change back for each.
You got change back??Yea, I got hit with that too. My family and I have seasons passes. I was gonna use $30 in Busch bucks, to get the vintage Old Country tshirt. I couldn’t do it. So, I got three nice wooden Christmas ornaments instead. I even got $1.02 in change back for each.
Yep, sometimes employee training is so bad these days that I've gotten cash back too.
I know people will give a thumbs down, but I have no to little issue with them stopping the stacking of Busch Bucks.
To me it makes sense for it to be a "not valid with any other offer" thing like most places do coupons effectively. Whole point is to encourage transactions, spreading over multiple is just logical.
When it comes to merchandise, maybe. Food it's just silly and will slow the line down when I turn one transaction into 3 or 4
Mystery stains on the ceiling of Brauhaus. Going on a few months since I first noticed them.
Also, almost every credit card transaction from yesterday is showing up multiple times on my online statement. They mentioned that system was running slow, but this seems to be something else entirely. What should have been a little over $200 is now over $900!
Really random thought on a few things that I’m going to connect here with staffing, state of the park, and how I think they can turn around both.
I think BGW needs to start with repairing the backstage and working condition area. And instead of just fixing things, they should give some of the full time employees the budget to make the changes, that way what gets fixed is what employees want fixed. By giving the full time (aka year round) employees this task, it would likely make it much more comfortable for even part time because the people who use it all the time would get those things done right since they spend the most time there.
Next, BGW should close for a 3 week period in the spring. Promise every employee full time work over those three weeks. And in their assigned ares make them more responsible for cleaning nad minor fixes that need to happen. Dust, scrub, replace bulbs, touch up paint, things like that. Let them make some minor updates to their own little areas that they want for their own comfort. In this time have more skilled trades workers rotate around to everywhere to help with the more technical fixes that need to happen.
If you start there you now make the working conditions better. Employees would care more because the place is worth caring for. And they putt in the work to clean/fix everything, so they feel ownership. They would now feel a sense of responsibility for their space and want to take care of it.
Then you can start offering to pay more. People come into working in better spaces and care because they want their space to stay nice. So they get paid a bit more and have better working conditions they will want their friends to come work with them. You give recruiting bonuses that are larger for employees who have been there longer and kick in after the new hire has been there a certain amount of time. Give guaranteed pay raises for the first 3 years. Along with guaranteed year 3 position advancement. It encourages people to come to work, keep working, and bring people in to work with us.
Final arm would be to hire about 20% more than you think. This would allow people to take off when they want/need to. Put in a few “required” days (2 of Memorial/Labor/4th, and have to put in a Friday or Saturday weekly). I would also guarantee every employee a minimum hours worked per week, with it increasing for every year you have been with the company.
So basic tenants of improving the state of park/employees:
~ Use down time and employees to improve working conditions.
~ Have full time year round employees take ownership in the employee BOH areas.
~ Improve pay and recruitment efforts with time employees benefits.
~ Overhire with guaranteed minimums that improve over employed time.
I think BGW needs to start with repairing the backstage and working condition area. And instead of just fixing things, they should give some of the full time employees the budget to make the changes, that way what gets fixed is what employees want fixed. By giving the full time (aka year round) employees this task, it would likely make it much more comfortable for even part time because the people who use it all the time would get those things done right since they spend the most time there.
Next, BGW should close for a 3 week period in the spring. Promise every employee full time work over those three weeks. And in their assigned ares make them more responsible for cleaning nad minor fixes that need to happen. Dust, scrub, replace bulbs, touch up paint, things like that. Let them make some minor updates to their own little areas that they want for their own comfort. In this time have more skilled trades workers rotate around to everywhere to help with the more technical fixes that need to happen.
If you start there you now make the working conditions better. Employees would care more because the place is worth caring for. And they putt in the work to clean/fix everything, so they feel ownership. They would now feel a sense of responsibility for their space and want to take care of it.
Then you can start offering to pay more. People come into working in better spaces and care because they want their space to stay nice. So they get paid a bit more and have better working conditions they will want their friends to come work with them. You give recruiting bonuses that are larger for employees who have been there longer and kick in after the new hire has been there a certain amount of time. Give guaranteed pay raises for the first 3 years. Along with guaranteed year 3 position advancement. It encourages people to come to work, keep working, and bring people in to work with us.
Final arm would be to hire about 20% more than you think. This would allow people to take off when they want/need to. Put in a few “required” days (2 of Memorial/Labor/4th, and have to put in a Friday or Saturday weekly). I would also guarantee every employee a minimum hours worked per week, with it increasing for every year you have been with the company.
So basic tenants of improving the state of park/employees:
~ Use down time and employees to improve working conditions.
~ Have full time year round employees take ownership in the employee BOH areas.
~ Improve pay and recruitment efforts with time employees benefits.
~ Overhire with guaranteed minimums that improve over employed time.