It should be a simple system. Scan season pass and get a reward. But they purposely complicate it with the extra step of getting a ticket at these outdated kiosks. Probably intentionally do they give out less rewards.
The State of the Park: Busch Gardens Williamsburg
- Thread starter CoasterTalkBob
- Start date
I mean both Cedar Fair and Six Flags can figure out how to issue reward just off scanning a pass and if Six Flags can do it that means it's not that hard.
SWO had similar issues but just replaced them all at the front gate, so hoepfully this is a cmpany wide upgrade.
Sometimes even automatically. At KD I have had park $ just added to my pass whenever I met the criteria (attendance on certain days etc). No extra action required.
I would argue the “reward ticket” system is a blatant violation of SeaWorld’s …(United Parks 
) commitment to conservation and protecting the environment. Wasteful use of plastics.
) commitment to conservation and protecting the environment. Wasteful use of plastics.
State of the Park… Guests
We saw this in the VIP lot today. It is just revolting and inexcusable behavior.
We saw this in the VIP lot today. It is just revolting and inexcusable behavior.
I can’t stand littering. There is no excuse to ever litter!!!
It is so sad and just horrible. We have been seeing it begin to happen everywhere we go this year.
We noticed a lot of trash inside the park that wasn't being picked up, too. I don't know if it was because of the heat alert but we never saw a sweeper picking up trash. It was especially bad at Josephine's. When we walked out to the preferred lot some of the trash cans had missing garbage bags and the tops were just left open. Even if an employee had seen the person dropping the trash they wouldn't have done anything. It's just like where that drop off lane is by the cemetery in the preferred lot. cars were parked in that lane making it impossible for cars to travel through the lot. While we were getting in our car security drove by and just kept going. Had there been an emergency I guess they would have just stood around and shrugged their shoulders. The attention to and in the park was the worst I had seen yesterday.
I go to the parks multiple times a week, and I can say that every time we see the same workers picking up trash. They cover 1-2 hamlets, and the worker in Ireland is especially great at his job.
From what I understand, area hosts (or whatever BGW calls them now) have been cut back dramatically over the last handful of years. It wasn't that long ago that each hamlet had at least one dedicated area host at all times—and that was in addition to overnight and morning cleaning and upkeep crews. Nowadays there are far fewer area hosts, they cover MUCH larger areas of the park, are on shorter hours, and overnight and morning crews have been cut entirely. The park closes dirty, opens dirty, and stays dirty. There are a few custodial staff left in the park and I know at least some of them are trying to do their best, but they're ill-equipped, dramatically understaffed, under-supported, underpaid, and overworked.
This is one area where robotics can help parks - (NOT) as a sole reliance - but as a support system when staffing is unable to make the grade for small areas of refuse. People need to change their wasteful behaviors at heart, but until then, we may need to look more technologically to assist the human side.
It's being done in a few areas of Japan and NYC, and while BGW is not going for this anytime soon, some parks need to look into it, IMO.
www.popsci.com
"Busch Bins" would be a great name...
It's being done in a few areas of Japan and NYC, and while BGW is not going for this anytime soon, some parks need to look into it, IMO.
Robot trash cans have survived a New York City field test
In a recent test in New York City, two adorable trash can bots on wheels interacted with the general public. Here's how it went.
www.popsci.com
"Busch Bins" would be a great name...
When I was a Rides/AH lead in 2010, my team for Italy (not Festa, just Italy) on a high volume day for peak hours was:
- 3 for Pavilion (trash, sweep, trays, clean tables)
- 1 for San Marco paths (trash, sweep, mulch)
- 1 for Gardens through Pompeii paths (trash, sweep, mulch)
- 2 for bathrooms (trash, mop, wipe counter/mirrors, clean toilets)
That's 7 people actively working for one village.
Gives you an idea of the budget for Area Hosts in the old days.
- 3 for Pavilion (trash, sweep, trays, clean tables)
- 1 for San Marco paths (trash, sweep, mulch)
- 1 for Gardens through Pompeii paths (trash, sweep, mulch)
- 2 for bathrooms (trash, mop, wipe counter/mirrors, clean toilets)
That's 7 people actively working for one village.
Gives you an idea of the budget for Area Hosts in the old days.
And for anyone following along at home, "the old days" here means 2 years post InBev sale.
Similar staffing levels continued for a fair while after 2010 too. Sanitation cuts really started hitting the guest experience hard 2018/2019-ish in my opinion. And then, of course, COVID and the dramatic, permanent cuts that followed.
Also speaking as a former lead for Italy Rides (there isn’t supposed to be an AH Lead, the part time supervisors are supposed to do that job), and working with my friend and colleague who was the AH Lead for Italy at the time, on a good day they were lucky to have 3 people working. Let alone at the same time. It’s not uncommon to see other leads filling in, but that’s more due to *some people* (ambassadors) not wanting to do their jobs. I would frequently help my friend as their team members wouldn’t do their job or they just didn’t have many people to do the job. They and I were some of the only people who kept Italy Pavilion (Marco Polo seating) areas clean. That includes pulling trash, sweeping, pulling trays, and cleaning.
It's quite sad as that's a decent capacity/high turnover venue when there's a crowd - between that and the bathrooms could take a rotating team of 3 alone to keep it spotless when it's busy. And I'd guess that the staffing expense would be more than offset by the F&B sales.
If they have ice. On Saturday it seemed like they didn’t have ice anywhere.
They have ice but keeping ice machines full in summer is an issue at EVERY park I have visited.
BGT had Vanilla Ice not too long ago