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Coronavirus: Impact on Theme Parks

Pokemaniac

Mountain monkey
Staff member
Administrator
Moderator
It looks like amusement parks in Norway can open in early June. Saturday, June 6 will probably be the first day of the season for Tusenfryd and Hunderfossen. It looks like no food outlets may be open, though, and the pool areas are closed as well. And they'll have a system for virtual queuing.

Interestingly, the article says Tusenfryd has a visitor cap of 7000 per day with these restrictions. That's a number they've been struggling to reach outside of a select few days during peak season anyway.

If the coronavirus trend in Norway continues, this might be a pretty good season for the parks after all. Currently, families all over Norway tend to go to Denmark for amusement parks in summer, but that's not an option this year.
 

SimonProD

Mega Poster
EP opening park and hotels on May 29th.

All tickets have to be bought online. Masks are mandatory in rides, ride queue areas and in line for food. All visitors need to use the EP app for virtual qeueuing - the app will also include a "distancing radar" that will go off if you come too close to others. How this will affect ride capacity wil be detailed later.
 

BlueSonicHD

Mega Poster
EP opening park and hotels on May 29th.

All tickets have to be bought online. Masks are mandatory in rides, ride queue areas and in line for food. All visitors need to use the EP app for virtual qeueuing - the app will also include a "distancing radar" that will go off if you come too close to others. How this will affect ride capacity wil be detailed later.
? on park and everyones phone pinging and beeping at them as they are too close to one another, everyone running around trying to get way from people but finding they end up too close to someone else in doing so
Beep Beep Beep ?
 

UP87

Mega Poster
Especially since there is no technology in our phones to reliably measure distance to other phones. Most of these technologies are going to use Bluetooth. But there's only one Bluetooth antenna in our phones which leads to it being highly directional and the same signal strength being either really close or quite a bit away.
 

BlueSonicHD

Mega Poster
? all these parks opening, and in the UK we are still sat on a Thursday night with nothing to do but bang pots and pans

Theme park coaster withdraw is kicking in big time



can these apps get your GPS location, isnt that a bit more accurate
 

JammyH

Hyper Poster
? all these parks opening, and in the UK we are still sat on a Thursday night with nothing to do but bang pots and pans

Due to the initial slow (to say the least) UK government response to this pandemic, it means we will suffer in the long run.

As we were so late to impose restrictions it will take a lot longer to get the economy back up and running again. This poses a real threat on UK theme parks and we can already see that dreamland are no longer able to operate for the 2020 season. Unfortunately, with the current state of things in this county it looks like more parks may be heading down that pathway.
 

Professor

Previously AndrewRollercoaster
First of all: Happy VE Day!

Walibi Holland opening 25th of May.

Efteling Opening 20th of May

------
I'm actually surprised as I thought it would be Disneyland Paris which would open first in Europe but I guess in France they also haven't smelled the coffee yet, like here in the UK so Disney's hands are tied.

Providing it is possible, I will probably try to get to Holland for around the week of 6th of June when I should have been in the States if parks in the UK are still closed at least. The ferry travel still seems fine to Hoek V holland. As long as the parks are open in The Netherlands and it is possible to get on some rides despite social distancing I think the trip would be worth it. I assume Toverland will be open at that point too. Just need to check online ticket availability I guess.

To me it seems the seriousness of this virus at this point is exaggerated if we take a step back and look at things from a different perspective. We are well over the peak in the UK. Hospital admissions, the figure that only ever mattered in relation to WHY we had lockdown in the first place is never published in the media. You have to ask yourself why that is.

Screenshot 2020-05-08 at 13.27.38.png

That figure now literally means there is less than 1 Covid 19 patient admitted to each UK hospital per day on average. The figure in fact is not far off the daily alcohol related admissions to UK hospitals now (150,000-200,000 per year).

We have totally no indication that social distancing - lockdown had a significant effect, it is all speculation. A hotspot where one would catch the virus (underground - supermarket - DIY stores) are all open whilst figures are still going down. But outside zoos or theme parks are more dangerous? I don't buy that suggestion at all. Sure, supermarkets are more important to people, so they rightfully should have been open earlier / stayed open. Well they were and the virus numbers are still decreasing so what is the next step? Just more of the same, why?

Oh and don't bother looking at number of daily infections as it is somewhat meaningless obviously when you ramp up testing (another factor the media does not point out btw). The important conclusion to draw from that if hospital admissions are still going down but quite a number of infections are found is that the virus is most likely far less deadly than was assumed.

Protecting the NHS has slowly turned into mass hysteria, afraid of catching this virus. I think the conditioning of fear has had a lot to do with it. Outdoor activity, going for a swim, to a gym and Vitamin D take in is probably the best defence we have at the moment, yet we are somewhat discouraged from all that or it is still not possible. Let's just wait on a vaccine is the "expert" answer. Sigh....

The media will continue the fear mongering as long as people lap it up, then not be held accountable for any ridiculous headline it published ("Worse than the Blitz", "Black people 4 times more likely to die from Covid 19" --completely racist clickbaiting if you ask me) and move onto the next scary thing late Summer, if not sooner.

Now I'm NOT saying the virus isn't dangerous. Don't get me wrong. It sure is serious. It killed a 38 year old man in my street and that is devastating for the family and his friends. But another family also had a drunk driver ran straight into their dining room around the corner from me. If it had been around dinner time the entire family might have been wiped out. A similar incident happened to my neighbour's house in the previous estate where I lived.
With regards to the media's hysteria you have to ask yourself what is more likely: danger in traffic or danger in a roller coaster. And which one does the media like to report most? Remember the Smiler? I see somewhat the same thing going on with Covid 19. The media never went into hysterical overdrive over traffic deaths, flu deaths, cancer deaths or heart disease related deaths (on average 350,000+ per year in total in the UK)

Time to ease lockdown and if more activity does not increase hospital admissions - which doesn't seem to be happening elsewhere, obviously lockdown and social distancing should be scrapped altogether. If lockdown is not eased on Sunday I will be surprised but also disappointed as I just don't think it is necessary to continue with this as it means so many people will lose their jobs and ability to enjoy their favourite pass times. Heck, people can't even say hi to their grand parents.

Hope everyone stays healthy, but also gets on their favourite coaster soon. Enjoy the weekend as much as you can.
 
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UP87

Mega Poster
can these apps get your GPS location, isnt that a bit more accurate
Not at all. Indoors (where the data would be the most valuable) it's completely useless and outdoors phones won't get accurate GPS data while in a pocket but they sure use a lot of energy!
 

Nicky Borrill

Strata Poster
? all these parks opening, and in the UK we are still sat on a Thursday night with nothing to do but bang pots and pans

Theme park coaster withdraw is kicking in big time



can these apps get your GPS location, isnt that a bit more accurate
Due to the initial slow (to say the least) UK government response to this pandemic, it means we will suffer in the long run.

As we were so late to impose restrictions it will take a lot longer to get the economy back up and running again. This poses a real threat on UK theme parks and we can already see that dreamland are no longer able to operate for the 2020 season. Unfortunately, with the current state of things in this county it looks like more parks may be heading down that pathway.

We were also said to be 1 to 2 weeks behind other countries in mainland Europe, so can’t really complain or expect anything to open until mid June...
 

Matt N

CF Legend
I'd say that June/July sounds plausible, but a number of sources are saying that pubs and restaurants won't be allowed to open until September at the earliest as Boris wants "maximum caution". I'd assume that parks fall under this category at the very least; the final phase is in October and includes letting football fans go back to matches, so I'd suggest that the government is not letting anything truly high risk happen for a while if this is true.

However, this is all just speculation at the moment, so I guess we'll just have to wait for the announcement on Sunday!
 

Nicky Borrill

Strata Poster
I'd say that June/July sounds plausible, but a number of sources are saying that pubs and restaurants won't be allowed to open until September at the earliest as Boris wants "maximum caution". I'd assume that parks fall under this category at the very least; the final phase is in October and includes letting football fans go back to matches, so I'd suggest that the government is not letting anything truly high risk happen for a while if this is true.

However, this is all just speculation at the moment, so I guess we'll just have to wait for the announcement on Sunday!
Be very cautious about believing what you read in the papers. Every report I’ve read that mentions these timelines have all admitted that they are just hypothesising. There doesn’t seem to be any clear insider information, beyond what Boris and others have said regarding the changes this week being minimal and outdoor focused. Some reports have even said pubs / restaurants with outdoor areas will be allowed to open much sooner, possibly July, this would surely be no earlier than outdoor theme parks.

Tl;dr might be true, might not, we’ll find out Sunday evening...
 

Matt N

CF Legend
I must admit, given the Conservatives' apparently economically driven political strategies, I'd be slightly surprised if the government made a business sector as pivotal as restaurants shut until September, but I suppose they probably want to be cautious.
 

Heth

Mega Poster
This is the same government who believes giving key worker a round of applause will make up for years of cuts, so frankly who knows.

It's encouraging to see parks open elsewhere, but it really doesn't feel like it's time to do the same in the UK yet since it's notable worse here.
 

Hyde

Matt SR
Staff member
Moderator
Social Media Team
Latest update from Cedar Point: https://www.cedarpoint.com/park-update

  • No opening date (in-line with still no direction from the state of Ohio for opening camp grounds, parks, etc.)
  • 150th Anniversary events postponed to 2021 (including Snake River Expedition ride)
  • Delay of Coastermania and other special events to 2021
 

Rach

Giga Poster
For any of those that are thinking about travelling over to Europe from the UK with some of their theme parks starting to re-open, may want to take a look at this:


Looks like we’re catching up and making everyone quarantine for 14 days on arrival in the UK effective “at the end of this month” with a currently unknown end date.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Nitefly

Hyper Poster
For any of those that are thinking about travelling over to Europe from the UK with some of their theme parks starting to re-open, may want to take a look at this:


Looks like we’re catching up and making everyone quarantine for 14 days on arrival in the UK effective “at the end of this month” with a currently unknown end date.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
This seems ridiculously ‘too late’.

The absolute ideal is testing before people are allowed onto flights. Perhaps not feasible but at least people will be able to travel if they are well.
 

VonRolland

Hyper Poster
For any of those that are thinking about travelling over to Europe from the UK with some of their theme parks starting to re-open, may want to take a look at this:


Looks like we’re catching up and making everyone quarantine for 14 days on arrival in the UK effective “at the end of this month” with a currently unknown end date.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Best make you're future trip worth it!
 
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