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Coronavirus: Impact on Theme Parks

Will

Strata Poster
Ooh, so maybe, just maybe, that flight will happen on May 29! Though I do notice everything is preceded by a 'no earlier than' disclaimer.

I'm still slightly amused that my Mum sent me a text to let me know as soon as this was announced. A little annoyed that it's a Monday, but that's not to say I don't totally understand the logic.

Now, it seems we wait for theme park websites to catch up so the mayhem of booking tickets can begin - may still ask work how they'd feel about letting me take Apr 12 off ;)

(In slightly unrelated, but annoying news, I have a gig ticket for 20 June. The day BEFORE all limits are scrapped (if all goes to plan))
 

JoshC.

Strata Poster
I guess hoping I might be able to do a park on my birthday of 6th April was a little bit optimistic after all...

Earliest day for international travel - or what we as a group are collectively likely to call Kondaa Day - is May 17th. 🤞
Last one on Skyscanner is a rotten egg! 😛

Kondaa Day sounds great, butttttt I'm going to give it a miss so I can get The Ride to Happiness done in the same trip (curse you Plopsaland for opening rides in July)


On the UK note that, it will be interesting to see how the parks operate assuming they reopen on the 12th. Obviously when they reopened last time, they were among the last things to reopen. Now, they're opening before indoor restaurants and indoor entertainment, and hotels. Obviously it means no indoor attractions (which is how the Merlin parks started out anyways). But some interesting questions:

-How will the parks cope without the ability to offer indoor, sit down restaurants? Will that reflect the number of people they choose to let in?
-What will the rules be for rides with indoor stations / that are partially indoors? See, for example, Smiler: will that be allowed to operate? If so, what conditions?
-Being open is great, but how will some parks (Towers, Blackpool and Flamingo specifically) fare whilst hotels are closed?

Whilst I doubt that these will impact the openings of the parks outright, I certainly think that that first month of opening will be different to how the parks felt last year.
 

Matt N

CF Legend
My birthday’s on 31st July.

The positive of this; parks should be open and restrictions should almost definitely be substantially eased by then.

The negative of this; I miss the initial vaccine rollout for adults... by one day. My 18th birthday is on the day when Boris aims to have vaccinated every adult in the country, presumably marking the end of wave 1 of vaccinations.
 

Hixee

Flojector
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Great time of year to have a birthday tho. (Mine's April 5th 😁)
Couldn't agree more - mine's also 6th April. ;)

Yeah I mean this is good news. I'll be interested to see what the other country's situations are like by then too though - this whole international travel thing goes both ways.
 

JoshC.

Strata Poster
Didn't realise there were so many cool April birthday peeps on here! ;)

The negative of this; I miss the initial vaccine rollout for adults... by one day. My 18th birthday is on the day when Boris aims to have vaccinated every adult in the country, presumably marking the end of wave 1 of vaccinations.

This is something which I've been curious about for a little while: what will the plan be for those who turn 18? It's something I've heard nothing about, so I don't know if there's any public information about it? But going forward, could we be looking at 18 year olds being offered the vaccine shortly after their birthday. Certainly something to keep an eye on..
 

DelPiero

Strata Poster
Couldn't agree more - mine's also 6th April. ;)

Yeah I mean this is good news. I'll be interested to see what the other country's situations are like by then too though - this whole international travel thing goes both ways.
4th here. That's weird. Really weird.
giphy.gif



Still not planning anything major but will look at a trip to Paultons with the kids once things open up.
 

Will

Strata Poster
All being well, we'll actually be able to have some sort of meet-ups again around July, though I can see everywhere being rather busy this Summer!
 

witchfinder

Hyper Poster
Par-tay?
I vote for a BBQ at Delly P's. 😁

As long as only 6 of you attend and it's outside then I think you're good to go :D

Happy that restrictions are being eased mid-April as I have a UK holiday booked for the end of that month. The big date I'll be keeping an eye on is May 17th though - I'll be fully vaccinated by then and if other countries will let me in (and their parks are open) then I can see some flights being booked for not long after that.

This all seems like something to finally be excited about and yet there's still the nagging feeling that it will all get f**ked up somehow and I'll spend the rest of the year stuck in my house...
 

DelPiero

Strata Poster
Par-tay?
I vote for a BBQ at Delly P's. 😁

I wish, sounds like our birthdays are all coming a bit early for being able to meet up. All done on purpose by the government to avoid everyone getting hammered over the Easter weekend of course.
 
I wish, sounds like our birthdays are all coming a bit early for being able to meet up. All done on purpose by the government to avoid everyone getting hammered over the Easter weekend of course.
Completely correct although probably to avoid a post Christmaslike spike in hospital admissions rather than to be kill joys....
 

DelPiero

Strata Poster
Completely correct although probably to avoid a post Christmaslike spike in hospital admissions rather than to be kill joys....
Oh I totally agree with you, it's the right course of action, we don't need another Christmas spike. Although I think the vaccine being in circulation would translate to a lot less hospitalisations and deaths, even if the volume of new infections did spike.

Best to err on the side of caution though.
 

Matt N

CF Legend
My birthday’s on 31st July.

The positive of this; parks should be open and restrictions should almost definitely be substantially eased by then.

The negative of this; I miss the initial vaccine rollout for adults... by one day. My 18th birthday is on the day when Boris aims to have vaccinated every adult in the country, presumably marking the end of wave 1 of vaccinations.
Well, this got interesting! Despite thinking I was too young to have the vaccine, I today had a phonecall from my GP asking me to book a coronavirus vaccination.

I’m not entirely sure what qualifies me for a COVID vaccine, I’ll admit, as I’m young and I don’t have any apparent health problems; based on some other people’s stories, I think it might be that the fact I have autism means I’m in JCVI priority group 6 (people aged 16-64 with underlying health conditions), but I wouldn’t like to be 100% sure. I think it might be my autism that’s qualified me, as I’ve heard other fellow autistics say that they’ve had calls to book vaccine appointments despite having no apparent health problems.

Regardless, I’ve now got an appointment booked to have my first dose on Monday 8th March. I’m not sure which vaccine, but based on the schedule on my local vaccination centre’s website, I think it might be the Oxford/AstraZeneca one.

I’ve got mixed emotions, I’ll be honest. On one hand, I’m looking forward to having a fairly substantial level of protection from COVID fairly soon, and being able to do things without quite so much worry (I wasn’t particularly worried anyway, but you get my drift), but I’m also a little nervous too, and I also feel a little guilty, because even though I’ve been offered one, I feel like I’m taking a vaccine from someone else who would be way more in need of one; I feel like there are others who are far more deserving of a vaccine than me.

Regardless, I suppose anyone having a jab should help normality to return sooner for all of us, I suppose!
P.S. Sorry if this is a bit off-topic; I thought you might be interested to know.

EDIT: I’ve had a further look, and it turns out, I probably have to have the Pfizer one, because the AstraZeneca one is only licensed for use on over-18s, while the Pfizer one is licensed for use on over-16s.
 
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cookie

Giga Poster
To get slightly back on topic ;) - German theme parks re-opening from March 27, by the look of things :)
That's when Phantasialand and Heide Park plan to re-open, but I can't find anything on parks actually being allowed to re-open by then. Europa Park seems to think they can open as early as the 20th, but that's very much subject to change.
 

CSLKennyNI

Giga Poster
That's when Phantasialand and Heide Park plan to re-open, but I can't find anything on parks actually being allowed to re-open by then. Europa Park seems to think they can open as early as the 20th, but that's very much subject to change.
Precisely these are the normal planned season start dates. In reality it looks extremely unlikely they will be allowed to open by then. Germany is targeting to get their 7 day incidence number under 35 before reopening public life and that's not happening any time soon.
 

CSLKennyNI

Giga Poster
Article on the current situation for Europa Park.
Roland Mack's frustration with the current situation can be heard. In clear, precise words, he describes Europa-Park's situation for Tourism Minister Guido Wolf and CDU member of the state parliament Marion Gentges at a virtual meeting of the CDU Ettenheim.
Employees return: Several hundred employees were brought back from furlough on Monday. Thousands of additional seasonal workers need to be recruited and trained so that they can be there quickly when the store opens. But all of these measures are based purely on suspicion, complains Mack: "At the moment we have no information whatsoever as to which time periods can be expected."

There is no perspective: the fact that one does not know under what conditions one can expect an opening again is what concerns the park most at the moment. Mack is therefore appealing to the Minister of Tourism to give the hotel and catering industry lead time. "We have to know where we are. I think that in Berlin you don't even know what it means to suddenly stop an operation the size of Europa-Park - and, if necessary, restart it," explains Mack.

Still no help: In November, operations had to be stopped within four days. However, the promised aid failed to materialise. "At the moment we cannot even submit an application for this - I would have hoped for more from politics," the entrepreneur makes clear.
Investments on hold: As long as the money is lacking, the park burns "equity in the six-digit range every day. It's a very, very difficult situation, we can only speak of luck that we have done well in recent years," summarizes Mack. In order to remain liquid, construction sites have to be closed and investments postponed. "There are now double-digit million amounts," emphasizes Mack.

Community under pressure: This money is not only missing from the park, as a look at the community shows: until a few months ago, Rust had reserves of ten million euros. Because the income from business tax collapses and large investments are pending, one must reckon with 20 million debts by 2022. "Europa-Park should not only be seen as a company in itself, the entire area is dependent on the catering and hotel industry. The whole region suffers," said Roland Mack.

Wolf shows understanding: "The situation is dramatic," agreed Gentges and Wolf. Large companies need just as much support in a crisis as small and medium-sized ones. Wolf: "We also want these companies to survive and grow. So I can share Roland Mack's displeasure that the November and December aid have not yet arrived - that is a loss of confidence."

Catering industry on the ground: The mood in the hotel and tourism industry is down, the nerves are on edge, Mack describes his impression from discussions with industry representatives: "Now politicians have to send out signals so that there is still a little courage, also for this year ", which starts almost even worse than 2021.
Politicians promise help: "We are in talks with European and federal politicians. One has the impression that there is no lack of good will, but the solution is still a long time coming - and that affects people. We are trying to stay tuned - there must something will happen, "Wolf promised.

Lower VAT again: Mack has a few ideas about what needs to happen: "The health of our guests is very important, but I believe that with the hygiene measures that are currently being implemented in the hotel and catering industry, one can also be responsible for one or the other . " In addition, he asked Wolf to advocate maintaining the VAT cut: "Basically, the catering and hotel industry has to foot the bill so that the economy and industry can continue to operate. They urgently need this VAT advantage." With this demand he ran open doors to the tourism minister. The state CDU wants the VAT cut to be extended until the end of the year, reported Wolf. "Looking to the future, a permanent reduction would be the best funding program for the industry that could be achieved."
Source
 
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