Explaining the NEW Busch Gardens Membership Season Passes

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of the new Busch Gardens Williamsburg Annual Passes/Memberships.

The good news right off the bat is all passes now include Christmas Town! Also if you  are unhappy with the changes and paid with EZ pay, then you don’t have anything to worry about. Just keep your account paying automatically which makes it “Active” and nothing changes.  This is true for both Season Pass holders and Membership holders. Many of these changes have occurred because the public wasn’t happy with the roll out that happened in February. So the park tried to revamp things to make everyone happy.

These changes therefore are for those who paid in full, people interested in changing to membership or those who haven’t opted for a pass yet.  So if you are on the EZ Pay then it doesn’t matter if you are happy with what you have. If you aren’t happy you can pick a new plan at any time. 

This article will detail the changes, the original ones in February and the current plans that changed on October 1^st. This way you can review what you may have and what you want to do. If you have never had a membership, or do understand what you have fully, then skip to the section marked October.

Now Including Christmas Town

Annual Passes before the new memberships.

In case you missed it, the park changed from the Season pass model that has been going on for a long time to “Memberships” at the beginning of 2018 February/ (October 1 they were changed again see next section for the most up to date information)

Originally there were season passes.  1 park pass, 2 park pass  (BGW and Water Country)and an All Discovery Parks Platinum pass which included Busch Gardens Williamsburg, Tampa and their respective Water parks, all 3 SeaWorlds , SeaWorld water parks Aquatica and Sesame Place, giving 11 parks total.

All passes were pretty self-explanatory in what parks they include. All include parking, with the platinum one including preferred parking at your home park. All passes included discounted and free tickets and a 10% discount (30% at Sesame Place) on merchandise and food. All of this remains the same for those who still hold season passes and have not opted to switch.

February New Membership Rollout

So in February the new memberships were announced. Basic, unlimited and Premier memberships (still a season pass in essence) pretty much the same deal mentioned above.  The one big difference now is pass member days, such as preview days for opening and HowlOScream and after-hours access for select rides are only for memberships.  And all the new memberships now include Christmas Town, which was previously a separate ticketed or fun card event. Memberships (and not season passes) also receive a few perks/gifts through the year. This included free tickets (no longer you would get those on the original season passes, but still receive  discounted ones), Cocoa Cola Swag,  free ornaments for Christmas Town, and one month they gave $10 Busch Gardens bucks which is what it sounds like, a coupon that can be used on anything in the park.

The costs depending when you switched or purchased was $10-12 for Basic (which had a many black out days, pretty much all Saturdays and holiday weeks were blacked out) but did include water country; $15-17 for Unlimited 2 park pass with no black out days, or $20-22 for Premier which included all the parks like the platinum passes.

So if you signed up for this any time before October 1^st, and you are happy with it, you can keep it. If its on EZ pay you don’t have to do anything but keep paying it. If you paid in full, read on and decide what you want to do. You can talk to park customer relations and most likely keep what you have.

This change occurred because many guests had 2 main complaints with this original system (besides the price hike for those who have had their passes a long time). They didn’t like so many black out days and having Water country if they didn’t want it.

 October Newer New membership (what you can get now)

Announced on Oct 1 there are now 4 levels.

This includes Basic, Unlimited, Premier and Platinum

Same deal applies as before, if you are on EZ pay and pay monthly you can keep your stuff as it is whether it’s a new membership or season pass. However if you paid in full, then you have to figure out what you want to do. The biggest change is Premier did include all the parks, and now you will have to upgrade to Platinum to receive that and it is a large increase.

Otherwise the costs aren’t really different; customers wanted the option to not include Water Country, if you want it, its $2 more, so the prices and details are as follows.

Basic $10-12 (or annually $120 or $144)

Basic Membership being $10 for the one park or $12 for both is an ok deal, and hasn’t really changed much. It is like an upgraded version of a fun card since fun cards do not include discounts or parking discounts. The new Basic includes more days, so there are less black out days then there were originally. But there still are black out days mostly just holidays and a few Saturdays during Howl O Scream and Christmas Town. This makes a lot of sense for people who have been to the park when it is extremely crowded. You still get a discount and parking is 50% off.  This new version is better than the original one rolled out in February.  Fun cards are per season and usually cost the same as a ticket ($90) so this is a better deal for folks who visit throughout the year a few times, but not regular park visitors who may come weekly or bi-weekly.

 Unlimited $15-17 (annually $180 or $204)

 Unlimited is an upgraded basic membership, and if you opt for the extra 2 dollars a month is similar to the original 2 park pass.  Unlimited, means no black out days.  It comes with a discount of 10% off, just as before, and free regular parking. You get 2 free bring a friend tickets.

Premier $20-$22 (annually $240-$288)

Premier passes are the exact same thing as unlimited passes with a larger discount of 15% off, having Preferred parking over general and 1 extra free friend ticket.  (3 total). The changes to this from February is the largest and seem to be the most confusing/upsetting to those who paid in full. (NOT on EZ pay, if you pay EZ pay monthly you are fine all stays the same in price and perks.) This previously included 11 parks, and now it is just for BGW, the extra $2 a month gets you Water Country.  People who select this option would be those who are planning on enjoying the Preferred parking as they will pay an extra $60 a year to have it

Platinum $29 or Annually $347.88

This is a new level. Previously you had the Premier pass which got all 11 parks, or the good old Platinum Season passes (Which is what we have). You get everything mentioned in all the other passes, but all the parks, ride again access on 4 coasters (Alpengeist, Apollo’s Chariot, Griffon, Lockness Monster)and a Photokey Membership.  

Water Country Only $70 a year for Basic, or $90 for Unlimited, follows same rules and benefits mentioned above.

Because all the memberships include Christmas Town, (which previously was $30-$50 dollars a year for the funcard) most guests can understand the applicable increase.

People being a bit upset or confused is understandable as these changes happened suddenly twice this year. And though some of it seems a good deal, especially for new guests, some of it punishes the most loyal.  I will use ourselves as an example, to keep the same level of pass if I switched to a membership so I could have a bigger discount and access to member stuff it would cost the 3 of us an extra $600 a year ($200 per pass) which is a hefty price tag and makes no sense.  A more acceptable price increase for us would have been a total of $150 for the year or $50 per pass to include Christmas town.  We have been paying for our passes for 8 years which is $3600, not including all the money we spend on merchandise and food. This is a lot of loyalty. So I don’t expect to be penalized for that. We have opted to keep our passes as they are. Because I write as a blogger I get passes to get us into the member’s only events, and though I love those events as they are not very crowded, I can’t see spending the increase. I actually couldn’t afford it even if I wanted to.

Premier members should voice their concerns if they paid in full as this change took place in the same year. As to keep all the parks they just paid for (people who paid in full only, EZ Pay is the same) it will cost them about an additional $100 a year.

Looking over all the changes, it seems that most of these changes do benefit probably the least interested of guests so I can understand people being upset who paid in full on the higher level. But the increased discount is nice Your average $40 meal is now $34, but in reality that is just $2 less than it was before. People like us though eat at the park often (so far 19 times this year). So take that information as you will. The new perks with free items are fun! And it seems they genuinely want to make it more family like and rewarding. 

If should also be noted in the 2019 season there will be a new swing ride in Ireland and a new water coaster at Water Country.  Generally speaking there has been a new ride or upgraded attraction nearly every year since 2010 that I can verify.  This includes The Mach Tower, Verbolten, Tempesto, InvadR, Colossal Curl, Battle for Eire and a major upgrade of the Globe theater in England.

So like all things in life, there are some pros and some cons, but it will vary from family to family, person to person. 

You can take care of any concerns at the park, which I would recommend doing before your year is up if you paid in full. Especially for the Premier membership if want to keep going to all the parks. 

The park itself does have terrific customer service, so at the end of the day, they will do what they can to keep you happy and as a customer. It is the main reason all of this happened (and happened again) to begin with. Just keep that in mind when talking to someone. If they can fix it for you, they will.

All and all, a membership /annual pass to Busch Gardens has been a great joy for our family and we have never regretted it. Its a lovely place to visit and its nice to just go without having to buy tickets every time we go, which would mean going a lot less. Sometimes we go there just to eat and visit the animals. With a membership/pass you can do things like that if you live in the area.


Christmas Town 2018 Review