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Post COVID-19 Operations.


The Master

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The effects and fears of COVID-19 are likely to continue to effect park operations after they finally open. It is pretty certain that GAdv will role out new measures as well as cut backs. Screamscape linked to a blog post by Lance Hart who predicts that many parks will likely only operate their outdoor rides at first, cut out parades and night shows, reduce ride capacity, multi stage queueing, and even mandatory virtual queueing. 

 

For GAdv, I predict that indoor rides will likely remain closed for awhile, especially JL. At some point they may reopen JL and give people wipes for cleaning the guns. I expect indoor restaurants to be closed, or at least indoor seating will remain closed for awhile. Of course there will be new hand sanitation stations installed around the park. 

 

Not sure about the many indoor shops. Its possible they may only have a few open, and only allow a limited number of guests in at any one time. 

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I think it call depends on when they open back up. I assume they will want to open up asap, but if they wait until the virus is completely under control with basically no new cases appearing anywhere, there probably won't be many limitations. 

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They will have to implement some safety features just for show to help reattract and reassure guests, similar to "security threater." One more thing I thought of is that  the park will likely suspend packing rides to full capacity. Such as assigning strangers to share and fill a log on the flume. 

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On 3/27/2020 at 11:26 PM, The Master said:

They will have to implement some safety features just for show to help reattract and reassure guests, similar to "security threater." One more thing I thought of is that  the park will likely suspend packing rides to full capacity. Such as assigning strangers to share and fill a log on the flume. 

Good. I hate sharing the log flume with strangers anyways. There is usally 3 of us, so we almost always get stuck with one/some.

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^ Also what they may do about the bottle racks in the ride stations. Perhaps they may increase the distance between the bottle holes? 

 

The tea cups may not operate due to guests grabbing the center wheel to spin the cup. I haven't touch tea cup wheels in years over hygine concerns. Besides handling guns on JL, I forgot about the 3D glasses, so that ride will likely be delayed. Both Superman and GL may have delayed opening due to their higher contact restraint systems. 

 

Guests may be asked not to touch or fasten ride restraints and instead allow ride ops to do so to limit contamination. I can see them removing turnstyles to reduce contact surfaces. 

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That would slow down operations. Another issue is that because of lingering fears, the parks may have a harder time than normal hiring staff. We may see more ride closures due to understaffing. Also with many water parks using forign lifeguards in recent years, they may have trouble bringing them in this year because of fears and travel restrictions. Likely the park will not have characters out for meet and greets. 

Edited by The Master
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There are a couple of things other parks are doing which GAdv may copy. Holiday World announced that when they reopen, they will have rolling temporary ride closures throughout the day to sanitize rides. Disney is raising its prices which would not surprise me if GAdv follows suit. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Bob Iger has been talking about installing body temp scanners at the Disney parks. I hope other parks do not follow suit. Something else I hope does not come to pass is parks copying Home Depot and only allow a person in after another leaves. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

https://www.sixflags.com/greatadventure/plan-your-visit/park-operating-schedule

 

"IMPORTANT: ALL VISITORS (INCLUDING PASS HOLDERS AND MEMBERS) MUST MAKE ADVANCE RESERVATIONS TO VISIT THE PARK.To meet state social distancing guidelines and ensure the health and safety of our guests, all visits to the park must be pre-scheduled using our online reservation system. Check back here for details."

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58 minutes ago, Yoshi said:

https://www.sixflags.com/greatadventure/plan-your-visit/park-operating-schedule

 

"IMPORTANT: ALL VISITORS (INCLUDING PASS HOLDERS AND MEMBERS) MUST MAKE ADVANCE RESERVATIONS TO VISIT THE PARK.To meet state social distancing guidelines and ensure the health and safety of our guests, all visits to the park must be pre-scheduled using our online reservation system. Check back here for details."

That's crazy it makes sense tho. Safer to have less people in the park at a time. It means shorter lines too

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54 minutes ago, Yoshi said:

https://www.sixflags.com/greatadventure/plan-your-visit/park-operating-schedule

 

"IMPORTANT: ALL VISITORS (INCLUDING PASS HOLDERS AND MEMBERS) MUST MAKE ADVANCE RESERVATIONS TO VISIT THE PARK.To meet state social distancing guidelines and ensure the health and safety of our guests, all visits to the park must be pre-scheduled using our online reservation system. Check back here for details."

It looks like that is for all Six Flags parks.  With the parks operating at a maximum 25% capacity, they will avoid turning away angry customers at the gate by making sure people are pre-scheduled for each day.

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On 5/4/2020 at 2:32 PM, ZachMan said:

That's crazy it makes sense tho. Safer to have less people in the park at a time. It means shorter lines too

They would probably do reduced capacity on trains though too (1 per row for 2 seaters and 2 per row for 4 seaters I would think) so due to that the lines will probably take about as long. 

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I am going to guess this will mean no more park reentery. Probably when the park first reopens the operations will be a bigger mess than usually for when it first reopens. Not sure how they can enforce socal distancing as most stores now are not even trying to maintain it. Most shoppers completely ignore current safety measures such as maintaining safe distances, especially at checkout. I doubt SF will be more sucessful with park guests. The sad fact is that if they have to enact measures like limited capacity and visit reservations, it indicates that conditions are not really safe enough for them to reopen or for customers to go there. There may be no longer a place for theme parks in the new normal of widespread foreign diseases, and this could be start of a long slow death for the industry.

 

Personally, I think this plan will be a disaster. How many park guests will bother to check out websites before going? People who would hoard reservations, people who drove 3 hours to the park only to be turned away because they don't have a reservation, etc. The park even better build a fence along 537 to discourage drop offs there who would walk through the woods, as well as no pedestrian signs along the entrance driveway and overpass. Lots of parents just drop their kids off along 537 in front of the park. 

Edited by The Master
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Doesn't sound like I'll be at the park this year, but it's probably impossible to get a refund. 

 

It's not the parks fault and there's no easy way to handle these things. But between this and the loose articles policies, unfortunately it just keeps getting harder to enjoy a day at the park. I'm assuming I'd have to waste a vacation day at work just to find a reservation day open (During a time when anybody is lucky to have work period).

Edited by mkj3322
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On 5/5/2020 at 12:10 PM, jdc12192 said:

Sadly this is going to be the new normal for a lot of places, Not just themeparks. 

It will only be the new normal for any business that can operate profitably doing business this way.  Many businesses, sadly, will disappear if they can not adopt to operating this way.  That is why I believe if governments mandate this type of operation, you will see many different industries disappear because they can not operate at a profit.

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9 hours ago, The Master said:

I agree, between the lockdown and mandated new operations the economy is dangerously close to becoming FUBAR. 

something tells me this is going to be the recession of 2008/2009 all over again

Edited by harry2004
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