Reviews

Review Details

• Review fromLinda M

  Date: 12/18/2023

  1 star
  For Christmastown, Busch Gardens allows way too many people in on Sat, 12/09, it was horrible. Even before dusk we stood in line forever for shows only to be informed it was full, lines for every ride were worse than the lines in July at park.The crowds were so bad, you were surrounded on every side and were actually being touched & bumped into constantly. Those with disabilities were not being let into the flow of the crowd, and if they were let it, it was not safe. People w/strollers like us were being pressed on every side, we keep losing the rest of our party & not due to a lack of effort, due to the overcrowdedness. People were horrible at allowing people into the flow.
  We got fed up at 7 pm, we could not see the lights or decorations due to the crowds, it took us 45 mins to get from outside of Germany to the front of the park, to assure our entire party with several minors were all together. As we left park they were still allowing people to come into the park, the lines were back to up to the preferred parking lot to get in. Parking lot was worse, People coming into park were driving aggressively to try to get a parking space, which was dangerous & made getting out of your parking space& trying to exit the park a nightmare. When we started to exit the lot at 8:50 there were cars upon cars coming into the park, the lines were backed up to the parking lot entrance. The park closed at 10 am & I doubt those trapped in the lines to enter made it into the park.
  I didn't feel safe, if there was an accident or incident where people would need to be evacuated, the crowd would trample each other. Busch Gardens shouldn't allow that many people into park, which is partially closed during Christmastown, & care about the experience of each guest & not the amount of money they can make in a day. Park as also now gone cashless. Some food locations only offer mobile app ordering. Another inconveniences for those who pay w/cash.
  It was stressful & I so disappointing.

• Review fromGary H

  Date: 12/18/2023

  1 star
  Ride attendants did not take in effect of special needs children. Attendant directed special needs child against Parental warning and helped a special need kid to exit without parent and child ran off.

• Review fromEric S.

  Date: 08/09/2023

  1 star
  Me and my family are fun card holders at Busch Gardens Williamsburg. We visit the park at least 10 times a year and up to this point 8/6/23 my experiences have been great. On 8/6/23 me and my family visited the park as we like to do , me and my 7 year old daughter were in line to ride front row on Apollo’s Charriot while my wife and two other daughters were waiting for us at the exit of the ride. Once seated an employee by the name of Eric asked my daughter to go with him for a height check which is normal protocol and I thought nothing of it being my daughter had ridden this ride numerous times over our many visits. On this day 8/6/23 at about 12PM Eric came back to me and told me she wasn’t tall enough. I was baffled and I told him she has ridden this ride and been measured every time with no problem. As she’s able to ride every 52inch ride in the park. Then an employee name Tanya came over and said loudly“SIR SHE CAN’T RIDE”I repeated myself again saying shes been checked for height many many times and was able to ride and also able to ride and had ridden numerous others at the park with the 52 inch height limit and that there needs to be some transparency with this between management and employees. She ignored me and told me and my daughter to move from the platform causing my daughter to break out in tears. My wife who was waiting by the exit asked why she was crying and I explained. She then took my daughter back and asked the employee (TANYA)to recheck her height and that she’s been checked many times and is tall enough. She then checked her height again and said oh yeah she is tall enough and proceeded to let her and my wife ride but said I couldn’t ride with my daughter because I WAS RUDE! But in essence she was wrong and her and Eric started and escalated the situation. They were rude and improperly trained.And also to be clear with this review my wife is white and Im am black.Not saying race was the cause. But anyway our day was ruined by these employees

• Review fromandy r.

  Date: 07/28/2023

  1 star
  I am another customer who has been hit with the Busch Gardens / Water Country Auto-Renewal Scam.
  I purchased the upgraded Season's Pass in 2022 to Water Country, to be able to get the Free Parking. I did not plan to get a pass again in 2023 and I did not even know it was an auto-renewal option.
  Then in June 2023, Water Country sent me an email letting me know that my membership was going to be auto-renewed and my credit card was going to be charged. At first, I thought this was some scam because I didn't know that my pass was an auto-renew pass. I then logged into the Water Country website and sure enough, it said that my credit card would be charged **** automatically in a few days.
  I then clicked the Cancel Auto-Renew button on their site, but nothing told me for sure that it was canceled. So I then called their help support phone number. Their phone support is setup to keep you on hold for a long time until you finally drop off. That particular day I held on for over 60 minutes, then got frustrated and hung up. I then sent their Auto-Renewal email a response to NOT CHARGE my credit card or renew my membership. Guess what? They did it anyways.
  Now, they won't refund my $**** They say it's after my 30-day processing.
  This is a HUGE SCAM! Steer clear.

• Review fromThomas M

  Date: 07/14/2023

  1 star
  Same as a lot of the responses below. I canceled my membership, but they keep trying to charge my card. I’ve called 3 different numbers and tried online chat and have not been able to talk to someone. I figured if my credit card company kept denying the charge they would stop, but no, they tried 4 times to charge it. I have finally reported the charge as fraud and I’m getting a new CC.

• Review fromHarry B

  Date: 07/12/2023

  1 star
  Busch Gardens failed to honor Veteran free ticket offer. Claimed free tickets only offered to active duty military. Arrived in Williamsburg, paid parking and half price for ticket for spouse. Guest relations filed request for refund refund denied. Offered replacement tickets, but as I am 83 years old I do not plan a return trip to Williamsburg,

• Review fromAmanda L

  Date: 07/04/2023

  1 star
  My annual season passes were purchased July 4th 2022 during the promotional period o* **** I was sent an email to notify me that the passes were coming up for auto renewal. Last week, the end of June I follow the prompt and canceled the membership but was not given an email or a reference number or transaction ID. You do have to be logged in to canceled the auto renewal. We went to the park one last time before the passes would end this week.
  Today, on July 4th at 7:16am I was charged ******* for THREE sesson passes. Today, the Busch Garden in Williamsburg is running the same special o* **% off all guests passes. However, despite myself requesting a cancelation of the renewal I was charged FULL PRICE while a special is running of *** off (which does not say previous pass holders are not eligible), but that aside... I logged back into the account and requested to cancel this round of season passes I can see for next year of 2024. I have called three different numbers for Busch Gardens this morning with being left on hold for over 30 minutes before requesting to be called back while they 'hold your place in line' on the phone call. That was over an hour ago and I still have not been able to make contact with the company.
  I request that Busch Gardens of Williamsburg refund the unused service of seasonal annual passes in the full amount and contact me at their earliest convenience. This is poor business practice and by the other individuals posting on the *** website, I would consider this a widespread issue for the company. Thank you for your time. Please consider that many of your patrons are fully capable of renewing their memberships independently of your auto renew system and at this point, I do not believe this should be a difficult your guest want to go through and it likely the cause of patrons no longer willing to visit the park.

• Review fromTeresa M

  Date: 07/03/2023

  1 star
  Be ware of the bait and switch on the all day meal package—50 percent of the eligible places to get a meal were closed and guest services could not /would not help. We ate lunch at the Fest Haus and then walked around the park from 1 pm to 7 pm—during which time we could have had 4 more meals—but could not find an open place to use the meal benefit. The plan does not work on snacks or ice cream.
  There was no manager on site in Guest Services to help.

• Review fromShelonda T

  Date: 06/20/2023

  1 star
  It is ridiculous that they have their policy in place and will only provide you with a refund if supervisor says so. I called and spoke to someone because I have medical condition and it was changing our vacation plans. We spent over *** for my family to come to the park. We decided we would make the best of it and now the weather forecast is raining all week. I am so disappointed because we are unable to enjoy our vacation spent all our money purchasing tickets they won’t provide a refund. We have not use the tickets and do not plan to return back to this area for vacation.
  Please refund my order I have a family of 7 we can not afford to travel back

• Review fromNatesha J

  Date: 06/19/2023

  1 star
  I would like for someone in management to reach back out to me about why it is that I paid for all day dining passes for your establishment and was only able to utilise my pass once at the one restaurant that was available today, Trappers. I was able to get my food after spending over two hours waiting in line (your park is not open that long for anyone to spend that much time waiting to get food) and when I came back I was told that the restaurant was closed and right after me the employee allowed other customers to enter. To say that I am upset is an understatement as I do not get many vacations with my family being in the position that I’m in and so much of my time has been wasted today due to the limited restaurants open. I need to know why all day passes are being sold with only one restaurant and one line open for it and I’d like to know what is going to be done to rectify this situation as the young lady from customer service when I called earlier while in line seemed to know very little and could not do anything to help. You’re in the customer service business and this is not good customer service having people pay close to $500 for a day to not be able to fully use what they’ve spent their hard earned money on. I am a Director of Finance so I am not accustomed to poor customer service or my funds or time being wasted and would like a response ASAP. Your company had a sale on tickets that day therefore knowing that you would have a large crowd and intentionally sold all day meal passes knowing that you did not have enough full service restaurants staffed in preparation for the event. Absolutely despicable customer service and I will be filing an official BBB complaint as well for the lack of integrity in stealing customers money via false advertisement. This had also been emailed to customer service with no response. Smh.