Busch Gardens Williamsburg Cuts

[bkroz]

This is very important and worth watching.

Not too long ago, SeaWorld and Busch Gardens parks were owned by Anheuser Busch. After Anheuser Busch was sold in its entirety to a German manufacturer, the parks division (then Busch Entertainment) was put on the market and sold to the Blackstone Group, a private company who also held stake in Universal's theme park division and Merlin's. No jobs were lost (in fact, many were added) and under the new name SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment, the parks continued to be highly invested in.

SeaWorld Parks went public this spring.

Now, major cuts are occurring across all of the company's park. Hours are being shortened, positions cut, and schedules rearranged, supposedly due to the new need to answer to shareholders.

No park has been hit harder than Busch Gardens Williamsburg (the company's only major park that isn't open all year round).

In June, the park's Europe in the Air simulator ride - their new addition for 2011 - closed with no explanation, simply a message that it would remain closed for the rest of the season.

In the entertainment division, contracts weren't extended into the Halloween and Christmas season (which had been an unspoken and reliable benefit to working at Busch Gardens over nearby Kings Dominion) and a series of public firings of veteran performers lead to walk-outs. As a result, entire shows were cancelled, and the park is without a cast for the shows that it intended to run through the end of the season. Most shows had already been ended for the year, anyway.

Today, the park unexpectedly announced that all of the water rides in the park would cease operation tomorrow, even the ones that had historically continued to operate into the warm, muggy Virginia autumn in every year before.

So, for the rest of 2013, it appears that Busch Gardens will have no shows (keeping in mind that this park is known for its quality entertainment, usually with four or five really grand spectacle shows), no water rides, no simulator, and no 4D movie (the venue was closed earlier this summer to be converted into a live stage show venue for next year). The park's five roller coasters are basically all it has left for 2013.

I don't know the answers, but it's worth considering that in SeaWorld's case (trading under the symbol SEAS) it may not have been a wise choice to take the company public, even though expectations were high leading into it - and why shouldn't they have been? SeaWorld Parks offers a high quality product, doesn't it? I don't know. It's just worth thinking about, and worth wondering what changes we'll see at SeaWorld Orlando, Discovery Cove, Busch Gardens Tampa, and the rest of the parks besides cut hours and reduced special events that we've already seen....

[fanofFirehawk]

It really is a shame.

A company that looks strong can be ruined going public and once you've gone public it is very hard to go back.

[The Interpreter]

Going private can be worse. Blackstone still owns much of SEA. This is probably part of an attempt to dress up the balance sheet.

See also CBS and Paramount Parks in Q1 and Q2, 2006.

[Dieseltech20]

Sounds like I really need to set up a visit to this park next season.

Wonder what the odds are of them closing their one seasonal park?

[The Interpreter]

Slim to none.

[TTD-120-420]

I'll stay out of this one.

[Dieseltech20]

Slim to none.

I figured as much but one can never be too sure of anything these days.

[milesharrison]

Sounds like the report/post has been retracted about the water rides being closed for the remainder of the season.

See here:

https://www.facebook.com/BuschGardens/posts/10151636411463315

[TTD-120-420]

This video was released earlier today showing plans for something coming in 2014.

(Really makes you appreciate Don, doesn't it?)

While Water Country is getting that next summer, there is something bigger planned for 2015. A few weeks ago, BGW filed a permit for something 156 feet tall. Sight balloons were used in Festa Italia in early August, and soil tests were conducted during Hallowscream. For more info, go here: http://bgwfans.com/2013/festa-italia-expansion/

Whatever these attractions are I'm excited for something new to look at every day.

[Captain Picard]

Going public just let you see what you couldn't before. I remember posting years ago about how back when Busch still owned it they wasn't happy with the parks. I recall I was responding to post about Busch buying Paramount Parks. I said Busch would be selling the ones they had before buying more.

From what I was told there is only one or two parks in the chain that makes money.

[KIBOB]

I'm sorry about the post.

*Please remove this.

[The Interpreter]

You can believe that if you want to.

That isn't the reason for the cuts. Not even remotely.

[jcgoble3]

And faeriewench might have a few things to say about that...

[faeriewench]

The true cause of these cuts may be more related to a decline in attendance; perhaps even an informal boycott. For those who have not seen it:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2545118/?ref_=nv_sr_1

Personally, I am not too happy with SeaWorld after seeing this film. That's my personal opinion though. This poor treatment of animals makes me really glad that Cedar Fair doesn't use animals. I'm not exactly sure how well Kings Island handled its animals, but I would assume the Cincinnati Zoo provided some assistance (please correct me if I am wrong).

And while people are praising and watching this, 7 orcas have been captured from Russia waters for Asian aquariums over the past month and being held with another capture from a year ago in a small sea pen. The people responsible for Blackfish as well as other animal rights extremist aren't even batting an eye to the newly captured orcas just because SeaWorld's apparent horrid name isn't connected. People really disgust me and should be ashamed of themselves, those orcas actually need help. I have my issues with Blackfish. They went with interviewing older (and couple cases fired careless employees) for this film as opposed to newer folks. All the footage been shown in other documentaries and/or been on Youtube for years so nothing really new. Tillikum himself is barely shown at all, they use other SW whales (like Kasatka who is a female) to play "Tillikum" throughout the film. Of course, people who have no idea that there are other "shamu's" or know nothing of the history of captive orcas, this will certainly put something in their heads.

[TombRaiderFTW]

And faeriewench might have a few things to say about that...

...Yup, I think faeriewench had a few things to say about it.

[TTD-120-420]

That documentary also has little to no impact on the Busch Gardens branded parks. Very few members of the general public realize Busch Gardens and SeaWorld are under the same company.

[TTD-120-420]

Another teaser video.

[faeriewench]

Something else I want to point out that was brought up to me, the argument of Tillikum being kept alone since the attack. Very false. He DID have his primary female companion as usual following the attack till her death when she died from labor complications that summer. Currently Tillikum's grandson spends a lot of time with him (backstage and show) as it should be, its important for male orcas to have access to other males.... to relieve tension that would probably otherwise drive females busy with the youngsters nuts. Tillikum himself however actually prefers to be alone at times as he does get impatient with too much exposure to other orcas, so when he is seen alone generally he chose to be. So no he is not purposely kept alone all hours of the day every day.

[faeriewench]

aaaagh delete this post lol I posted in the wrong thread.

[TTD-120-420]

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/os-seaworld-chairman-sells-shares-20131106,0,7324085.story

SeaWorld chairman sells off $1.3 million in company shares

[TTD-120-420]

They finally released the ride. First of it's kind in the U.S.

[TTD-120-420]

Ugh. The 2015 plans.

http://bgwfans.com/2014/busch-gardens-williamsburgs-project-2015-revealed-part-2/

[The Interpreter]

It appears SeaWorld is on what Jeff Seibert referred to (during the CBS years) as a "cheap and cheerful" phase.

Grunge carnival?

At beautiful BGW?

Really?

Sad.

Busch Gardens Williamsburg cuts, indeed.

Sigh.

[CedarPointer]

That has to be a joke. Or sabotage.

[bkroz]

The park's Festa Italia section has always been the most disliked by fans. While the rest of the park's hamlets are supposed to be authentic historic recreations of "the old country," Festa Italia (not to be confused with the park's Italy hamlet, which is beautiful and charming) is really just a cheap cover for the required carnival-games-and-family-flat-rides land that every park seems to need. For what it is, it's fine. They even tried to loosely tie it to a celebration sending Marco Polo on his way, with royal purple tents and ancient Roman theming bringing it all together.

Obviously that's out the window now. Yeesh.

Sad, but not surprising. Europe in the Air was the first to toss the park's prior commitment to authentic attractions based on legends and myths of the old country. Mach Tower continued to shift away from Busch Gardens' usual reverent storytelling and attention-to-detail. Even though I love it, Verbolten is very thoroughly "modern" in a park that's otherwise based on timeless legends.

In 2014, the plan was for the park's entry hamlet (a Victorian era England) to be re-themed to a modern rock-and-roll London. Thank god, only a new show called "London Rocks" made the (literal) cut, bringing with it some obnoxious decorations that detract heavily from the once-charming land.

This is more than just "modern." It's obnoxious. Yikes.

Originally, I'd heard that the ride may be named "Tempesta" (Italian for "Storm") which could at least be a reference to the Marco Polo storyline, and could be nearly dressed in Roman columns and fog. Seems that's been tossed... And then some.

Anyone know the theoretical capacity of these rides? I'm guessing mid-hundreds?

[bkroz]

By the way, here is a capture of the SEAS stock trading price over the last two years.

The white hand cursor with the blue dot corresponds to the same blue dot in the image I posted in the original post almost a year ago. In other words, things are NOT necessarily looking up.

Oh, and Blackfish was released in large scale on July 19, 2013. Take a look at that time frame in the image above.

Just sayin'.

[The Interpreter]

Probably far more importantly, Blackstone has diluted the shares, greatly reduced its own exposure and bled out large amounts of cash to recoup its own investment. That's what private equity does.

Just imagine if Dick Kinzel had gotten by with his plan to make the unitholders sell Cedar Fair to Apollo, while retaining a huge chunk and a golden parachute for himself, his kin and his kindred.

[vortexfan]

Looking over those 2015 plans, I couldn't help but be reminded of Animal Kingdom's Dinoland USA. Eugh...

[TTD-120-420]

In 2014, the plan was for the park's entry hamlet (a Victorian era England) to be re-themed to a modern rock-and-roll London. Thank god, only a new show called "London Rocks" made the (literal) cut, bringing with it some obnoxious decorations that detract heavily from the once-charming land.

You are being too nice. The England area looks horrific. Awful. Picture the worst English stereotypes from the worst Austin Powers movie and that is the theme of once was a great welcoming country.

[Sebastien6221]

I plan on taking a trip to BGW in October, I will upload a trip report for all of you afterwards if we do end up actually going.