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Coronavirus: Impact on Theme Parks

Thekingin64

Strata Poster
May be wrong here but I believe M&Ds started as a travelling fairground and the park was used as a base for their travelling rides. At least I know their observation wheel was still travelling as seen it in Cardiff a few times. While it is disappointing the park itself has shut, I wouldn't be surprised to see a return to the travelling circuit for most rides.

Doubt Tornado will be saved though, making it even more annoying that on my singular visit to M&Ds, it was down for maintenance...
 

Nicky Borrill

Strata Poster
I'm sure the Mack's would prop that up for Mandy if the **** hit the fan
The Macks will have their own propping up to do, nobody is invincible to the economic hardship this will cause, the Macks will not only have lost park, hotel and waterpark guests... They’ll also be losing potential hardware orders, both in terms of full rides and parts!!!
 

Matt N

CF Legend
In some more positive news, Italian media has reported that Italy will begin gradually easing its lockdown over the next 4 weeks: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...ase-lockdown-four-weeks-local-media-says.html

The final stage listed is things like bars, restaurants and hairdressers reopening on 18th May, so is there a chance that we could see Italian theme parks like Gardaland, Mirabilandia, Movieland and Etnaland begin to reopen their doors at some point in May?(albeit with social distancing in place, of course)
 

Nicky Borrill

Strata Poster
In some more positive news, Italian media has reported that Italy will begin gradually easing its lockdown over the next 4 weeks: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...ase-lockdown-four-weeks-local-media-says.html

The final stage listed is things like bars, restaurants and hairdressers reopening on 18th May, so is there a chance that we could see Italian theme parks like Gardaland, Mirabilandia, Movieland and Etnaland begin to reopen their doors at some point in May?(albeit with social distancing in place, of course)

I don’t believe that Matt... it’s not government confirmed and a staggered opening only makes sense if there’s time enough between each stage to gauge the impact the previous stage has had, 2 weeks minimum (possibly 3.) I don’t think a week is enough to gauge the impact.
 

Matt N

CF Legend
I don’t believe that Matt... it’s not government confirmed and a staggered opening only makes sense if there’s time enough between each stage to gauge the impact the previous stage has had, 2 weeks minimum (possibly 3.) I don’t think a week is enough to gauge the impact.
If that's the case, maybe some point in mid-June sounds more plausible?
 

JammyH

Hyper Poster
If that's the case, maybe some point in mid-June sounds more plausible?
I guess it's too soon to call at this stage. At this point, June seems plausible but remember that each government in each country is handling the outbreak differently and one mistake by that respective government can send the country straight back to lockdown aka. square one.

Many other aspects of the country have to be up and running before theme parks can be considered to open however if countries can get the economy up and running without bringing the R0 to above 1, then theme parks stand a better chance of opening.

It's just a waiting game at the moment unfortunately.
 

VonRolland

Hyper Poster
The Macks will have their own propping up to do, nobody is invincible to the economic hardship this will cause, the Macks will not only have lost park, hotel and waterpark guests... They’ll also be losing potential hardware orders, both in terms of full rides and parts!!!
Indeed they do however Mandy is has an extremely strong relationship with all the Mack's and as much as there loosing out there strong enough to be able to lend a hand for godsake

As for park reopening's Belgian parks have hinted at opening June 8th so I cant see it out of the ordinary that the UK follows suit shortly after, as for the USA there so late to the game opening anytime soon is gonna go t*ts up
 

Professor

Previously AndrewRollercoaster
"China rejects calls for independent virus investigation."

Chen Wen, China’s deputy ambassador to London said: “The independent inquiry is politically motivated. We are fighting the virus at the moment, we are concentrating all our efforts on fighting against the virus. Why talk about an investigation into this?"

I thought China single handedly beat the virus already and any new cases now are only from bastard foreigners, no? ?
 

CSLKennyNI

Giga Poster
Indeed they do however Mandy is has an extremely strong relationship with all the Mack's and as much as there loosing out there strong enough to be able to lend a hand for godsake
You know they are strong enough how? But yeah they are friendly; they're friendly with many parks through their time in IAAPA, doesn't mean they'll be handing out money to them. That's a ridiculous suggestion. Additionally they are in the midst of some years of heavy investment around EP and Rulantica (the first season for which has been cut short). They'll be very much focussed on their own survival and stability.
 

Nicky Borrill

Strata Poster
If that's the case, maybe some point in mid-June sounds more plausible?
I guess it's too soon to call at this stage. At this point, June seems plausible but remember that each government in each country is handling the outbreak differently and one mistake by that respective government can send the country straight back to lockdown aka. square one.

Many other aspects of the country have to be up and running before theme parks can be considered to open however if countries can get the economy up and running without bringing the R0 to above 1, then theme parks stand a better chance of opening.

It's just a waiting game at the moment unfortunately.
Have been expecting June / July all along in the UK, but tbh I’m getting a bit nervous about the rate of our reduction in daily cases and daily deaths. I had us a little further along by now, not much further, I expected us to be seeing around 500 deaths a day consistently, yet we keep getting the odd 700 day...

I’m hoping it’s because deaths being reported now could have happened well over a week ago, which we know is often the case. And I’m staying hopeful on the new cases front too, and putting that down to our ever increasing testing...

Fingers crossed but I am starting to get a little nervous.
 

Professor

Previously AndrewRollercoaster
Very interesting:

"All points that we are chasing the wrong organ; it is not the lungs; it is a blood problem."

So if true we don't need ventilators at all, but could use our unused planes and pressurising at double atmosphere as part of the treatment of patients.
 

Professor

Previously AndrewRollercoaster
Just had a press conference about easing the lockdown in Belgium. Belgian themeparks can open again, if everything goes right, on June 8th. Lets keep our fingers crossed.
I believe the Channel Tunnel is still open?

*Scrap that, according to website one can only travel to France for a small set of reasons:
  • Going home to a main residence
  • Essential work in France
  • Medical staff
 

Matt N

CF Legend
Disney parks worldwide are not going to open in 2020, but in 2021... :oops:
That's not yet known for certain as far as I'm aware; that's only what one model predicted. There's another one that said it could open as soon as June, and Disney themselves have reportedly said in an internal memo to employees at the start of April that they anticipate a closure of no more than 6 months.

Add to that also that there's now a huge task force to "reopen Florida", which Disney, Universal and SeaWorld are all part of, and I could definitely see Walt Disney World at least reopening at some point in 2020.
Have been expecting June / July all along in the UK, but tbh I’m getting a bit nervous about the rate of our reduction in daily cases and daily deaths. I had us a little further along by now, not much further, I expected us to be seeing around 500 deaths a day consistently, yet we keep getting the odd 700 day...

I’m hoping it’s because deaths being reported now could have happened well over a week ago, which we know is often the case. And I’m staying hopeful on the new cases front too, and putting that down to our ever increasing testing...

Fingers crossed but I am starting to get a little nervous.
The government seems optimistic; cases are definitely falling, and deaths are starting to fall too, so I could see things getting better over the next few weeks.
 

Nicky Borrill

Strata Poster
The government seems optimistic; cases are definitely falling, and deaths are starting to fall too, so I could see things getting better over the next few weeks.
I’ve done a bit more research since I posted that, and not so worried now. The numbers of new cases when we hit our peak were all from what they call testing pillar 1, that is just people seriously ill in hospital. Since then numbers of tests have been increasing in Pillars 2 (key workers) and 4 (serology tests) and these are keeping our new cases high... In fact numbers of positive tests from pillar 1 have fallen dramatically to around 3k a day... That is the only fair comparison as it’s the only numbers we were reporting a couple of weeks ago :)

I hope that makes sense ??

Anyway tl:dr I can confirm that new cases are dropping, and it’s just increased testing that’s skewing numbers.
 

cookie

Giga Poster
Don't know if it's been posted, but Kolmården is set to re-open to the public on May 1st in a limited capacity (it's only been open to hotel guests before this). Furuvik is also set to open on May 16th, but Gröna Lund, like Liseberg, will remain closed indefinitely.

Sources (in swedish):
https://www.kolmarden.com/vioppnar (English site hasn't been updated yet)

Apparently, because Kolmården and Furuvik are classified as zoos rather than amusement parks, they fall under different regulations from the government. Wildfire will even be running while the other rides are closed, also due to differing regulations (Wildfire doesn't seem to fall within the spaces of the park they classify as "amusement areas"), but they'll only allow 50 guests into the queue area at a time.

At Furuvik all rides will remain closed and only the open-air animal exhibits will be open for the public.
 
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