Busch Gardens Williamsburg — Attraction in Williamsburg

There are so many GREAT things about B.G., but a couple rather large no-no's that made me give it 4-stars. THE GOOD: The theme of different European countries here is fantastic (stolen by Epcot in 1982). The food and decor of each country are wonderful. Some of the structures are HUGE! Germany's Festhaus is breathtaking, and their show was fabulous! I've ridden over 50 coasters. There are 10 big rollercoasters here, and 8 of them are very exciting. The other 2 were closed. The 8 that I got to ride were all fun and had many unexpected twists, turns, drops, backward motion, tunnels, etc. We had a blast on each one. Alpengeist and Pantheon were our favorites. The lines were so short here mid-week in July. I am used to Cedar Point's 2-hour lines, so we were astonished that we could practically walk on to some of the coasters here, especially in the first 2 hours. We were able to ride all of the open coasters (8 out of 10) in the FIRST ROW in a single day before 4:30 pm! That's remarkable! The Eat-All-Day deal is a steal! It costs $30 each online. You can eat an entree, side or dessert, and drink every 90 minutes. It does have a downside (see below), but if you eat at any of the restaurants even once, you'll save money. Hot day? There is plenty of shade and giant fans everywhere. THE BAD: I was just at Kennywood in Pgh. a few weeks ago (a fabulous park, btw). Parking is free and V.I.P. parking is $25. At Busch Gardens, the cheapest parking available is $35! I think V.I.P. parking was $55! Wow! For me, that parking fee alone is a reason to give it 4 stars. The 2 newest rides in the park, The Wolf's Revenge and DarKoaster, were both closed. Busch Gardens has been advertising its new ride, "The Wolf's Revenge," all season. It has a long path of 1/4 mile that leads to the ride. We walked the whole way to get to it, only to find out that it was shut down. There is no indication at the entrance 1/4 back that it was closed. We came back later in the day and found out that it was now open. We waited for 35 minutes in line, and it broke down again just before we were to get on. We waited another 20 minutes for them to get it back up and running, but it never reopened. I hate all the sensors and compuerized crap on new rides. The old rides never break down. Btw, the B.G. app does not specify that these rides were shut down. That would be so helpful! Even the DarKoaster, which never opened all day, was not listed on the app as being closed. Frustrating! As I stated above, the Eat-All-Day option is a huge money saver, but it encourages TONS of waste, and I HATE to throw food away. I suspect that most guests are like me and eat 1 or 2 big meals all day and maybe a couple of snacks. I think that's what the plan should be, and it would have saved me money and saved lots of food thrown away. We arrived early and, by noon, craved a snack, like ice cream. Nope. It's not covered under the Eat-All-Day plan. So, we got a gigantic entree, dessert, and drink at Trapper's Smokehouse. That's what the plan encourages. Each of us only ate half or less of our meals and had to throw it away. 2 hours later, we were at Festhaus waiting for the next show. I again wanted a snack, but most weren't covered, so I again got a gigantic meal, picked at it during the show, and ended up throwing most of it away.  A few hours later, I just wanted a pretzel. Nope. You can get a giant Turkey pretzel sandwich with fries and a drink, but no pretzel. You've got to pay for it. That kind of thing happened all day. If people just want a small snack, why not let them choose that instead of a 2500 calorie meal? It would save food waste and the park money. Wherever we ate all day, the tables were disgusting. They were covered in ketchup, which I got all over me, or super sticky. Nobody at Festhaus or anywhere else was cleaning tables. We saw one worker in Italy sweeping the floor with his broom and then sweeping off the tables with the same broom! Ick!

Overall, B.G. is a great park, but bring disinfectant wipes and look into free...

LOGISTICS - VIP parking, QuickQueue, and the Meal Plan carry ZERO VALUE. They detect for metal. Bring what will fit in your pocket. Your very small bag needs to fit in/on a 5”x10” cubbie/shelf. Riders leave these items (fountain drinks, purses) on the outgoing side of the rides…. PARKING - If the park opens at 10, by 9:30 there might be only 5 cars in the car lines to share 20,000 parking spots. By showing up early you get to have the best parking spot even with the cheapest ticket. You can go back and forth to your car with a hand-stamp. QUICK-QUEUE only worked against us! In the general lines, there are ways to “pick” your seats, so just use the app to see short wait-time opportunities. Maybe go on a day calling for rain and there won’t be many lines and the outcome would be exponentially better than using QQ. QuickQueue folks are absolutely “held back” as to keep them from desirable front seats, and slowed down making it hard for even just 2 people to get seats together. QQ folks are barred from the front row of the new ride THE BIG BAD WOLF. Lastly, they hide the QuickQueue, so by the time you’ve walked 37 zigzags, you realize you should have entered the exit. MEAL PLAN - Especially on your first visit do not upgrade anything. The chances of you getting $45 worth of food between ~noon, when they actually open most of the restaurants, and the time you want to get out of there = 0%. I ordered a CHICKEN TENDER WRAP that was cold and the main ingredient was off-smelling grated cheddar cheese. I would recommend ordering food that will come HOT. I like to eat the absolute most healthy meals at all times, but at Busch Gardens it is appropriate time to prioritize freshness, and recently-cooked, over everything else. Our salad was brown and the dressing was nasty. Our fries were cold and floppy. The meal plan profits must be amazing as the more you eat the more you hate the food. Bring some sandwiches. CARNIVAL GAMES - Tell your kids the games are going to make them sad, angry, & poor, and if they abstain :-) you’ll let them spend $50 on candy at FoodLion and $50 on a caricature, and you’ll be a modern American hero. The carnival games were largely played free (by my 9 year old) he said he didn’t want any prizes whatsoever and his dad said no. The basketballs don’t fit, the back boards are foam. The last block you are trying to knock down is magnetic. The lever that replaces the knocked over birds also keeps them from falling, so as not to allow anyone to win when they are close, the grabby games are zero-chance-to-win as the items are weighted/anchored to the base, and the grabbers don’t grab. You will see exactly 0 people walking around with the large prizes which makes sense, they get in the way and are inflatables wrapped in a polyester sock, merely rewarding someone would completely undermine the appeal of it. All of that is a decorative money trap. Preemptive avoidance required. BUSYNESS - we went on Father’s Day (was an overcast Sunday) and the park was tame, but half the rides were closed and about 40% of the refreshment places were open, meaning they employ way fewer people when it’s slow as to make it more profitable, this is fair, but you are not going to walk right in at 10:00am and see anyone vending so you might as well run to the back of the park and work your way to the front and get your brains beaten a few times before 11:00am. RIDES - My 9 years old is a beast, he loved the Big Bad Wolf and hated Verbolten and Apollo’s Chariot for some reason. Our favorite part of the experience was the SkyRide gondola rides. They form a triangle to help people get around easily and relax. I am guessing people “take their breaks” on these rides as they can be away from the crowds. THE CROWDS - everyone is nice at BG, the staff, the employees, and the patrons. You don’t need to avoid the crowds, you just need to relax and admit you are the crowd, you are all trapped together, and there is no way to get out with wasting hundreds upon hundreds of dollars, and in general people enjoy wasting...

I love to leave good reviews. So when I have to leave a bad one …it was bad. Tonight- *Rude -Bias staff *lying to customers *Denying entry to a show to separate a family *Leaving a child in the cold without a coat.

If you want to read what happened - See below.

This did not just happen to my family but at least 2 others.

I’ve been a season pass holder for 6 people/ passes for the past 3 years. That’s over $700 per year just to go to the parks. Not the mention what we spend when we are there. I will not be buying passes next year because of how the staff was so horrible today. There were of course good people that were doing their jobs well in a very busy park. Today though, Overall I had more bad staff experiences than good. The older the staff members, the BETTER the service. The entire trip was filled with CLEARLY unhappy employees who seemed more burdened to be there. I found myself being more pleasant to attempt to get half decent service. This guy ( photos attached) takes the cake. His name is Elijah. He was the nastiness person that night.

My family and I went to see the LAST Scrooge show of the night. We got there early so I went to grab food for my kids( in the building RIGHT NEXT DOOR) when my husband, kids and father in law stayed inside. Our seats were RIGHT in front. I was back 10 mins before the show started. I went into the building you can see in my photo behind the guy with the clock tower above it. That is how close I was. Another lady did the same. She grabbed some nuggets and fries for her kid. When we both got back there was a line to enter. She went to the front of the line as he saw she had food and he let her walk in. I followed behind her, doing the SAME thing she just did and he told me to get back in line. I was confused it, as my ENTIRE family was in the show and he JUST let a lady in with food like I had. I stated my husband and kids were in there and I just went to grab them food before the show stared. He said I can’t let you in, get back in line. I said you just let the lady in front of me walk in with food for her kids, but I have to get back in line, my husband and family are inside. He said well he shouldn’t have held a seat for you. I said he wasn’t it was already my seat. Then a young lady walked up and announced no one can come in because they are at capacity. Another lady stepped up and said her kids were in the show with her friend and she has her friend’s kids. She ask could they swap kids. The man said no I’m sorry we are at capacity. The lady then said again… We don’t want to enter I just want my kids and to give my Friend her kids. The little girl said I just want my coat please. The girl had on NO COAT as her mom had her coat. He still refused. She also said her friend told her there was an entire eight EMPTY seats in front of her. This means beside myself, he didn’t have to turn away ALLL those people he made wait in line before the show started with plenty of empty seats. He made them Wait in the cold and then told them they were “ at capacity” because he held them until the show started. My husband went to the usher inside and asked if could he come get me. By that time the show had started and she said they were no longer allowed to let anyone in. This BOY ARGUED with customers for no reason for 10 mins. He went out of his way to be rude to me, give bad customer service to all the people waiting in line and made a CHILD stand in the cold for 30 mins waiting on her mother without a jacket. No one ever said if you step out of the theater to walk NEXT DOOR before the show starts that you can’t re-enter. If this was a rule, why was the other lady allowed to come into the theater? His actions were icing on the bad customer service cake. He took pleasure in the little bit of power he thought he had to turn people away from a free show. My husband and kids left the show to find me. They didn’t want me waiting outside in the cold alone. All this because I went to get my kids some food before the show started which there are no posted...