Done with BGW
It's sad to say, but I'm not renewing for 2027, and I'm not sure when I'll be back once howl o scream is over.
This was my favorite park anywhere for a long time, but I just don't enjoy it anymore. They've got great coasters, many unique aspects such as the ceramic crafts in Canada, and it's still a park with a nice setting, but everything else is failing.
Right off the bat, we're now having to dig up photo ID to get into the park and use the discount, even through the pass is on the app. Maybe they can just have give us a card again with our faces on it if you're so worried about someone impersonating someone else to get in for free??
Next, I'm trying to claim my quick queue perk for pantheon, but the app is not working (the checkout for it is disabled). Staff erroneously tells me to go find a kiosk all the way out by the entrance to Italy. That didn't work. Meanwhile I had spent $50 at the locker kiosk for a quick queue which didn't print the damn receipt! Had to wait for a supervisor to come which took almost as long as it would have taken to just wait in the line we were trying to skip. The teenage supervisor had no idea how to resolve the situation, directing me to first services in the front of the park....
Art this point we were scrambling to try and get to the Celtic show, which I saw on the app schedule earlier in the day, only to find out it's closed for the season!
Then we went to the aviary and it was kind of sad, way less birds, none interested in people. The landscape behind it, which used to be absolutely gorgeous, was not especially well kept, which was noticeable in a lot of other parts of the park, almost as though they've done very little landscaping since the season began.
Oh, and I'll concur that Bier Fest was absurdly lame. I saw the wtf post before going today to temper my expectations and avoiding the $80 I would've otherwise spent on the sampler card, but even with those low expectations it was pathetic. Not many great beer options. Found myself going to the hideaway in Germany to try and score a good beer and they had, I shit you not, yuengling, bud, mich ultra, some mango thing and high noon. Food was ok but of course not at all what it used to be.
But the thing that really was the last straw for me was that I learned that corporate had implemented new disciplinary policies that has resulted in as many as 50 of their most experienced scare actors being left out of howl o scream. This place is just poorly managed at this point, and from the sounds of it BGW's problems are just being ignored by disconnected executives while, at the same time, mettling with broad policies that aren't doing anything but adding to those problems.
It's a damn shame, because this place could easily be a great park still, but instead they seem headed towards the SFA trajectory.
Not a total loss. We rode the parks 4 best coasters and had nice afternoon in the craft store,