Local amusement parks

[Skywalker3]

Our local park is Dollywood and we are season pass holders. Dollywood has extended 2020 season passes into June of 2021. They opened the park on June 15th. We went on Thursday. I felt a little uneasy about going but we went with our 4 kids and for the most part had an enjoyable time. That said I don’t believe we will go back until things significantly calm down.

The park has never looked better. Very clean and the decor throughout the park for the Flower and Garden festival is impressive. I truly believe they are doing everything they can to keep attendees as safe as possible. They do temperature checks before you ever get on the tram in the parking lot. The admission process is touchless. They are operating at a max of 50% capacity. You have to reserve your daily admission through their website in advance and produce your confirmed reservation at the gate along with your passes or pre purchased tickets.

From the tram ride to the roller coaster cars everything is distanced every other row. Hand sanitizer is squirted on your hands by the team member before you get on any ride. Numerous temporary outdoor hand washing stations have been installed throughout the park. Self serve hand sanitizing stations are readily seen all over the park. All indoor show venues are closed. Lines at eating areas and attractions are clearly marked for six foot social distancing.

The crowd was pretty much devoid of elderly patrons which is a good thing. Many senior groups come to Dollywood for the shows but the entertainment offerings are scaled down currently. Masks are required of all guests over the age of 3. I would venture to say that 50% of patrons were wearing their masks properly over the nose. Many children under the age of 5 or 6 were not wearing them at all. At no time during the day did I feel a sense of being crowded. The biggest issue for my wife and I are the kids climbing all over the railings and bars while waiting in line and then possibly touching their mouth. All day you’re thinking ‘ I hope this is clean’. You kind of get in the mindset of just hoping to get through this and get home. While riding the rides are fun and the park is beautiful it’s hard to totally relax.

To me wearing the mask, while important as it is, would be a deal breaker in attempting to battle 100+ degree heat indexes at Disney in Orlando. Kids are not going to keep them on. If going I would attempt to invest in the most breathable mask I could find because to me it’s just not worth it to spend high dollars to wear a mask at a theme park in the heat for hours. It erodes the value of the experience tremendously. That and the inability to totally enjoy yourself are the reasons we will wait until a different time for our next theme park visit.

Thanks for the Dollywood Info. That's our 'local' park too (well, about 4 hours away, but the closest.) We were considering maybe doing a few days there, MAYBE going to Wilderness in the Smokes, but just not sure at this time. We just went to Panama City beach, and while the beach was nice, and you could social distance, there was absolutely little to NO mask wearing , or social distancing going on inside of the hotel, very little in restaurants. (we did take out, but could see the crowds close together, waitng for tables) I felt like you do. I just couldn't wait to get home. If we could've stayed in a house, never passing people in an elevator or whatever, that would've been better.
I'd love to see the Flower/garden topiaries at Dollywood. we like to go during their special events. the BBQ and International fests were so fun, and Pumpkinfest. we might go ahead and get APs, and try to go in the fall/at Christmas, but we'll see. If people aren't wearing masks properly, I don't know. Also, waiting for rides can be tedious on a good day, and if they're skipping rows, etc. just wondering how long it'll take to get on Lightning rod or Mystery Mine....
Thanks again for the info.
One day we hope to get to Cedar point, and all of those great coaster parks....

 

[fab1976]

When they do open here so would go to a park as our numbers province wide has been very good. My concern has always been opening parks where cases are skyrocketing.

If your local park is open, the best people can do is support it.

My local park is Canada’s Wonderland and we will not be going this summer. Ontario numbers may be declining but it’s still out there. I have no desire to be in lines with people, even waiting in line to get into or to pay at my local Loblaws puts me on edge. Is Wonderland your local one as well? Will you be going? I’ve heard rumors it has opening plans in place ready to go for phase 3.

 

[Jrb1979]

My local park is Canada’s Wonderland and we will not be going this summer. Ontario numbers may be declining but it’s still out there. I have no desire to be in lines with people, even waiting in line to get into or to pay at my local Loblaws puts me on edge. Is Wonderland your local one as well? Will you be going? I’ve heard rumors it has opening plans in place ready to go for phase 3.

I live closer to Marineland. I would feel safe going there as without the US tourists it shouldn't be as busy. Toronto numbers are still to high for me to go to Wonderland.

 

[bavaria]

I am not comfortable in going to parks in any of the states that have high case numbers. If the parks open here I would be ok with going. If I could cross the border I would feel the same for N.Y. parks.

What I was getting at is those that are comfortable in traveling to Disney why not also support your local park too. People want to support their local economy and your local park is part of that.

So, if I may clarify, you would not go yourself to the very parks you encourage people to visit? And you want them to visit those parks so that they will still be in business once you feel ready to visit? So you are encouraging behaviour you feel is reckless?

I'm not even certain if the term 'selfish' applies here, considering that it is not only about your desires, but about you encouraging others to behave recklessly for you own benefit.

 

[SirDuff]

I thought that this was interesting - Europa Park (Germany) has a "distance radar" that can tell people how well they are doing at social distancing. There is motivation to use it - the chance to win priority access to selected attractions (though details of how many of these are available and how often they are given out don't appear to be stated).

https://www.europapark.de/en/new-distance-radar

 

[DisneyJamieCA]

So, if I may clarify, you would not go yourself to the very parks you encourage people to visit? And you want them to visit those parks so that they will still be in business once you feel ready to visit? So you are encouraging behaviour you feel is reckless?

I'm not even certain if the term 'selfish' applies here, considering that it is not only about your desires, but about you encouraging others to behave recklessly for you own benefit.

In two weeks of these round and round conversations, yes that is what I’ve concluded this poster wants. All of us to risk our lives to keep the parks open for when he deems it safe to go. Or Canada allows him across the border.

But at the same time America is dumb for opening anything up. Or even allowing parking at our beaches.

So I guess it’s only ok to open things if it’s a place the poster wants to go to.

 

[Jrb1979]

So, if I may clarify, you would not go yourself to the very parks you encourage people to visit? And you want them to visit those parks so that they will still be in business once you feel ready to visit? So you are encouraging behaviour you feel is reckless?

I'm not even certain if the term 'selfish' applies here, considering that it is not only about your desires, but about you encouraging others to behave recklessly for you own benefit.

I like how you only bolded the first part of my post. The key part I was getting at was THAT THOSE WHO FEEL COMFORTABLE TO GO TO DISNEY WHY NOT ALSO SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL PARK IF ITS OPEN.

Either way I'm done with this place. I joined this site as I love amusement parks including Disney and Universal. I came here hoping to spread my love for all parks. Instead any thread I make about other parks gets looked down on or ignored.

All I want is for all parks to open safely and when cases are under control. At this point there are a few parks I would feel safe going to if I could go. King's Island, Cedar Point and when the ones here open I would feel safe going. I would have no interest in going to any Florida park til it gets under control.

 

[bavaria]

I thought that this was interesting - Europa Park (Germany) has a "distance radar" that can tell people how well they are doing at social distancing. There is motivation to use it - the chance to win priority access to selected attractions (though details of how many of these are available and how often they are given out don't appear to be stated).

https://www.europapark.de/en/new-distance-radar

HA that is funny. I usually just delete their promo emails, although they do some interesting things.

This actually makes sense.

When I was a child, 'Europa Park' was just a deer park. The Mack family was one of the first ever to build amusement park rides in the world (they claim back to 1780) They wanted a way to showcase the rides that they sell to amusement parks all over the world, so they built their own park. Every year they create one new attraction for the season. They are also adding themed hotels every few years and do a good job at seasonal events. Disney and Universal are customers.

However I'm sure that the OP knows this, as an amusement park 'expert'. I'm not sure why they don't just go there, as it's in Germany, which has managed the pandemic far better than Ontario, (and Canada as a whole, but again Ontario makes Canada look bad) Canadians can travel to Germany now without restriction, so would be the best solution I think.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

We barely ever go to the amusement park when there's NOT a pandemic. Our local park is currently planning on opening next week. I doubt we will attend. Then again, we don't even plan on going to WDW until next year sometime (this was true before the pandemic)

 

[bavaria]

Either way I'm done with this place. I joined this site as I love amusement parks including Disney and Universal. I came here hoping to spread my love for all parks. Instead any thread I make about other parks gets looked down on or ignored.

This has nothing to do with other parks. Many of us like or even prefer non-Disney parks. My favourites are Ba Na Hills, and Europa Park. I'm not sure if I am ever going back to a Disney park in the US at any point, as a preference.

The issue is that you have been denigrating and insulting Americans on various threads, for what seems to be your own personal benefit.

People are dying. Many people are dying. People are dying from COVID, and people are dying from starvation because of COVID. And people will die because COVID opened the door to the national security law. It seems so callous to keep posting about how you want to ride roller coasters, and that you want people to jeopardize their health to let that happen.

I want to be healthy. I want to be with my personal relationship. I don't want to be where I am right now because it's the 'wrong' spot. I want to be flying, like I normally do 3-4x a week. I want I want I want. But you know what? There is a pandemic going on, and right now what I want cannot be achieved.

My suggestion is that you take some time to reflect on what people are saying here to you, as kindly as possible. We have all had to adjust our lives and our habits. Many people are struggling with mental health issues, and that is understandable.

 

[Jrb1979]

This has nothing to do with other parks. Many of us like or even prefer non-Disney parks. My favourites are Ba Na Hills, and Europa Park. I'm not sure if I am ever going back to a Disney park in the US at any point, as a preference.

The issue is that you have been denigrating and insulting Americans on various threads, for what seems to be your own personal benefit.

People are dying. Many people are dying. People are dying from COVID, and people are dying from starvation because of COVID. And people will die because COVID opened the door to the national security law. It seems so callous to keep posting about how you want to ride roller coasters, and that you want people to jeopardize their health to let that happen.

I want to be healthy. I want to be with my personal relationship. I don't want to be where I am right now because it's the 'wrong' spot. I want to be flying, like I normally do 3-4x a week. I want I want I want. But you know what? There is a pandemic going on, and right now what I want cannot be achieved.

My suggestion is that you take some time to reflect on what people are saying here to you, as kindly as possible. We have all had to adjust our lives and our habits. Many people are struggling with mental health issues, and that is understandable.

I agree with you. I'm sorry I have come off that way. Yes our deaths have been bad here in Ontario. I also do know that we are in a pandemic. I have adjusted my life and spend most of days off at my trailer. I do know how serious this is. My wife had it and had a hard time breathing for a few weeks. It saddens me to see so many downplay Covid-19.

My frustration comes from the many who keep finding ways to make numbers look better to justify parks opening. My other issue is those who feel it's safe to go to Disney right now but won't support their local park if it's open.

 

[SaintsManiac]

Our local amusement park is incredibly crappy and I would not trust them to clean anything or have any safety protocols. Never been there and have no intention of ever going there.

 

[DisneyJamieCA]

I agree with you. I'm sorry I have come off that way. Yes our deaths have been bad here in Ontario. I also do know that we are in a pandemic. I have adjusted my life and spend most of days off at my trailer. I do know how serious this is. My wife had it and had a hard time breathing for a few weeks. It saddens me to see so many downplay Covid-19.

My frustration comes from the many who keep finding ways to make numbers look better to justify parks opening. My other issue is those who feel it's safe to go to Disney right now but won't support their local park if it's open.

Bolding is mine. This is where your problem lies. You keep saying this, but the people you continue to quote, like me, do NOT believe amusement parks should be open. I am also not spinning any numbers to make anything look better. There is no spinning numbers - I am taking actual numbers from actual county/state dashboards. Just because I choose to look further then just positive cases, doesn’t mean I’m spinning a thing. But I will unapologetically continue to look at the COMPLETE picture. Nothing I have posted regarding numbers has been a lie or a spin.

 

[disny_luvr]

I live five minutes from Hersheypark and am a season pass holder. HP opened to season pass holders on Monday and Tuesday and opened to the public on Wednesday. We were out of town earlier in the week, so we didn’t get to attend the season pass holder days, but we do have a reservation to go tomorrow. Everything I’ve seen on social media has been very positive. Quite a few of my friends visited HP earlier this week and had a great time. They all felt very safe and comfortable with the new safety measures put into place. We know our experience will be totally different than past years, but we are looking forward to visiting HP, even if it’s just for a few hours a couple of times this season. It’ll be nice to have something different to do.

 

[bavaria]

Bolding is mine. This is where your problem lies. You keep saying this, but the people you continue to quote, like me, do NOT believe amusement parks should be open. I am also not spinning any numbers to make anything look better. There is no spinning numbers - I am taking actual numbers from actual county/state dashboards. Just because I choose to look further then just positive cases, doesn’t mean I’m spinning a thing. But I will unapologetically continue to look at the COMPLETE picture. Nothing I have posted regarding numbers has been a lie or a spin.

In fact the only spin I've seen is hiding the Ontario numbers within Canada as a whole and claiming that ontario did well. As shown, their numbers are bad but are offset by the rest of the country having stellar results.

Toronto was held back from opening and the premier isn't sure when the province will move to the next phase. Nor do the Atlantic provinces allow them to enter.

 

[SirDuff]

In fact the only spin I've seen is hiding the Ontario numbers within Canada as a whole and claiming that ontario did well. As shown, their numbers are bad but are offset by the rest of the country having stellar results.

The thing is, you don't necessarily have to purposefully spin numbers to be misleading (though, of course, that does happen). Sometimes, people misinterpret numbers with the best of intentions:

• Using national/regional values that hide important sub-national/sub-regional differences (it is important to note that health care in Canada is a provincial matter - there is no such thing as the "Canadian health care system");
• Confusing mortality rate (deaths per 100.000 population) with the case-fatality rate (deaths per 100 diagnosed cases) with the infected-fatality rate (deaths per 100 actual infected people);
• Recently, on another thread, two people arguing that they had the correct values for the percentage of people with COVID-19 who required hospitalization. However, one of them was actually using the number of COVID related hospitalizations per 100,000 population (which, of course, is much lower);
• Comparing mortality rates (or CFR or IFR) without doing age standardization ;
• Comparting mortality rates (or CFR or IFR) without considering where countries are in terms of the progression of the disease;
• Comparting mortality rates (or CFR or IFR) without considering testing rates or how deaths are coded. An interesting point here is that I was doing some analysis and Belgium showed a CFR of something like 17%. When I spoke with people there about it, they pointed out that many countries are only counting deaths that occur in hospitals since many deaths in longterm care homes (where we know a lot of deaths are occurring) cannot be confirmed as being due to COVID (lack of testing); while, in Belgium, they are including deaths in LTC that are suspected of being due to COVID.

I'm sure that there are others, but those are off the top of my head. Personally, in my work (I'm looking at disruption of essential services), we are focussing on excess deaths (while, of course, also looking at things like the number of cases, number of deaths, CFR, type of transmission, etc - really on a single number is not a good idea).

 

[Colleen27]

My frustration comes from the many who keep finding ways to make numbers look better to justify parks opening. My other issue is those who feel it's safe to go to Disney right now but won't support their local park if it's open.

But why would you expect people to support/visit a place that many of them don't find attractive at the best of times? Just because people like Disney enough to feel it is a risk worth taking and/or trust the Disney brand enough to believe they'll do a good job in creating a safe park experience doesn't mean they automatically feel that same enthusiasm for and trust in other amusement park brands.

 

[Jrb1979]

But why would you expect people to support/visit a place that many of them don't find attractive at the best of times? Just because people like Disney enough to feel it is a risk worth taking and/or trust the Disney brand enough to believe they'll do a good job in creating a safe park experience doesn't mean they automatically feel that same enthusiasm for and trust in other amusement park brands.

My favorite park is Cedar Point which is 5 hrs from me. Since I can't get there often even in the best of times, I go to my local park for my ride fix. Right now I feel safe in visiting my local park if and when they open.

 

[WDWJDS]

My local park is Clementon Park and Splashworld. Clementon is an older park, and not brilliant on upkeep. I think it'd be foolish to go there if it were open. Which is isn't.

hi neighbor!

 

[3threebabies]

Surprisingly, even though derivative, this thread is a break from the echo chamber that seems to be endemic in the community board. A lot of wisdom has been shared here. Thank you posters.

@Jrb1979 I truly believe posters have your well-being in mind with their feedback. Please take the feedback as a lesson, and write your future Covid posts through a new rubric. While there are posters on the DIS who chose to denigrate and mock those with differing opinions, I thinks yours are probably a misdirect and not in bad faith. In the beginning, I remember your worries for your wife, and that definitely skewed your opinion on Covid policy. It does not matter what or how much news one consumes; your impression of reality does not replaced lived experience. I have hope the park industry will weather this storm, and I hope you can return to your favorites sooner rather than later.