Jump to content
  TPR Home | Parks | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube | Instagram 

ZeroGravity55

Members
  • Posts

    1,717
  • Joined

  • Last visited

About ZeroGravity55

  • Birthday 02/26/1994

Recent Profile Visitors

The recent visitors block is disabled and is not being shown to other users.

ZeroGravity55's Achievements

Mentor

Mentor (12/14)

  • First Post
  • Collaborator
  • Posting Machine Rare
  • Conversation Starter
  • Week One Done

Recent Badges

0

Reputation

  1. I was there yesterday for the first time since masks being required. Much more people wearing them, but of course there’s still those who choose to see how much they can get away with. The adults working there have no problem enforcing the policies. The 14-18 year old range that work there are a mixed bag. Unfortunately they’re in the awkward position of trying to make adults much older than them wear masks and socially distance. Some of them try and some of them shy away afraid they’re gonna yelled at or just don’t care. I do wanna give HW kudos to how they’ve handled and treated their season pass holders this year. While most parks made the simple decision to either extend this years season passes for a month or 2 next year or for the whole season next year, they gave us the option to either roll it over to next year if you didn’t use it or they added a ton of extra perks if you did use it. I was able to get 2 bring a friend days which at full value is $108. We also had 6 bring a friend days for $25 which is $174 saved off general admission if you used them. They gave us $40 to spend in the park on anything we wanted. They also gave us 25% off food and 10% off merchandise. If you used your pass this year you can renew it for $75 dollars through the last operating day. I paid $164 for my platinum pass last August and so far not counting the discounts, HW is essentially in hole $60 on me so far. But they’ve also had me in the park, spending money, which is smart financially. Money that may not have been spent if they just told us our passes were good this year and next year as I probably would have only visited once or twice this year if that was a option. They put a mask on her lol
  2. I know the reasons why they didn’t mandate masks at the park. Those are they weren’t required required by the state at the time, the majority of their patrons are stubborn/kinda ignorant ( I’ll show you what I mean later) and they don’t have the staffing numbers to actually enforce it. With that said, it would have been easier to take the precaution even tho it wasn’t required by the state and enforce it from the beginning of the season instead of waiting until it was mandated and having to change your policies and signage in the park again. I always where mine in the dry park and I’m looking into finding one to wear in the waterpark. These are some screenshots of the season pass holder group I’m in. These are just ones from today. HW usually deletes the really bad posts or comments before I even think about screenshoting it. Last week someone posted in the group asking if they could start a petition to get the employees out of wearing a mask because it’s too hot outside.
  3. I do too, but the majority of people who go to HW don’t really care for it from what I can tell outside of enthusiasts and the season pass holders who frequent the park and understand how it works. If they advertise it as a skip the line or fast pass option, people will be more receptive of it IMO.
  4. I’m sure they had some type of new ride planned, but it’s probably been pushed back a year or two now. HW is a very financially well ran park. My guess would be that the capital investment budget for 2021 was mostly set prior to COVID-19, but they’ve probably now allocated that money to purchasing the virtual queuing system and having that money to fall back on for this year if they operate at a loss this season (which is very likely they will). Honestly, if things return to normal next season, I think it might be smart of them to take this virtual queuing system and turn it into a upgrade to act as a fast pass reservation system. Doing this they don’t have to create a new queue for fast passes and can just use the rides exits. The more I think about it, I think that’s their big investment. Expanding their virtual queuing system (to cover the waterpark too) and monetizing it. They’ve gotta recoup and make up for their losses somewhere.
  5. They board by the group. There are no single riders or boarding 2 separate groups in the same raft. In the dry park, your seated by the group on the coasters and then they separate the groups by a row. Thunderbird is the only ride running at full capacity because each row is at least 6 feet apart. The only thing different they do would be not allowing single riders to ride together in the same row. They also assign seats at each coaster. Boarding by groups is how they do it on all their attractions and then they socially distance you from the other groups. Honestly I like their way how they’re running ride operations better than most parks are doing it. The only down fall is it’s causing them to allocate staff in places they wouldn’t normally do it. I personally think it would be better for them to block off rows on Raven and Legend so they can pull the person assigning rows up to check restraints and be able to run 2 trains and decrease the wait for those rides.
  6. Waterpark was less crowded yesterday. Longest wait was 30 mins for Cheetah Chase. Mammoth and Wildebeest were both 15 mins. There’s enough room in the lines to social distance as long as other people are trying to do so as well. I found that if you make it known you’re trying to social distance, people tend to respect that and give you your space for the most part. There was enough room in the wave pool and lazy river to social distance. My group floated in the lazy river with 2 extra rafts to help distance are selfs from other people when we felt like we were getting too close. We made sure there were enough rafts floating around before we did that. If there hadn’t been, we wouldn’t have gotten in.
  7. Was at the park today, again. For the park, I’m really glad to see attendance up. They’re really getting good at operating with the procedures they have in place. Security checks and admissions moves much faster today. Waterpark is fully operational outside of Kima Bay. Staffing is still an issue. Not all Food Stands are open. Raven and Legend only running with one train and two person crews. My gut feeling is there won’t be two train operation on either ride all year. Really took advantage of inline reservation today. Grabbed some fudge and sat in air conditioning while waiting for The Legend. Checked in line for The Voyage right after I scanned for Legend and basically waited in two lines at once, since the actual queue of Legend was moving slow with one train. When I got off Legend, my 25 min wait for Voyage was over and with 2 trains there, I walked right on to the ride. Also grabbed a quick lunch while waiting 40 mins for Thunderbird. Last time I was there, I had a hotel in Jasper. I left around 3 to go check in. We left to come back to the park at 7 and there was an hour wait for Thunderbird and I reserved a spot as we left. Drove 30 mins back to the park and by the time we got there and walked back to Thunderbird, it was time to ride. Also checked right into Voyage as we checked in for Thunderbird that night as that line was an hour long too. I was able to secure a night ride while also grabbing some dippin dots and sitting at a bench waiting for 30 mins. I’m really starting to see why a lot of people in the industry thing virtual queuing is the future. It’s a much more productive way of managing your time and securing the rides you want to ride. If only the majority of the gp were more accepting of new technology..
  8. While I was at guest relations Saturday, I witnessed a family of like 4 or 5 walk right through the middle of a line of people without saying excuse me or anything. Some girl in the line said something to them and told them they’re supposed to be social distancing and the mom of the group turned around and told the girl who said something to “shut the hell up about that nonsense”. On another note, if you do go on a Saturday, get there early before opening. It’s not a free for all at the front gate and security anymore. They only let one group at a time at each metal detector and admissions gate. So it take a while to fish through all of that. The line to get in was over an hour long at noon on Saturday.
  9. I was there on the 4th of July. Easily the busiest day they've had since they opened. There was around 15,000 people there. They didn't use virtual queues in the waterpark. They do plan on using it on the major water attractions soon. They're trying their best to encourage guests to social distance, but no one listens or cares. They're having trouble staffing the park. Raven and Legend only have enough staff for one train ops. They're still hiring and training lifeguards. 4 of their water attractions were closed. They were using the lazy river to train staff most of the day, but it did open later. Cheetah Chase is really fun and focuses on speed, but is third best water coaster in the park. I was able to score a night ride on Voyage and it was running unbelievable and absolutely out of control. They've definitely got some kinks to work out on busier days. My advice to everyone, avoid Saturday's and go any other day. That will be the only day of the week they're busy. Crowds have been really light this year besides the 4th. They've closed the park early due to low attendance at least 2 days I know of. They're gonna ride out the rest of the summer hoping the waterpark draws better crowds and cut their losses and close September 27th.
  10. HW has officially canceled their Halloween event and will be closing at the end of September.
  11. Part of the reason the waterpark isn’t open yet. They have to figure out how they’re going to operate the attractions.
  12. I had the pleasure of attending the Platinum Season Pass Preview day at Holiday World this past Sunday. A couple of things to note before I get this trip report started. Indiana has a pretty aggressive plan to reopen their economy and are pretty lax on their social distancing guidelines and masks. The state just entered phase 4 of reopening and wearing masks is not a requirement anymore. Therefore, Holiday World does NOT require a mask to attend, but they're strongly encouraging their guests to wear one. They're requiring all of their staff members to wear one. As of now, Holiday World will be operating at 50% capacity and will be allowed to go up to 75% capacity on July 4th in the state's plan. So how has HW changed now that they're operating in a pandemic? The first change you'll notice is as you walk up to the front gate. They've installed a ton of switchbacks that have feet marking every 6 feet leading up the security check. They'll ask your group to keep it at 2 people per marking. Instead of bag search's this year, they've installed metal detectors so there's less contact between their security staff and guests. After the security check, they installed another round of switchbacks with the social distancing markers that lead to the admissions area. Once you've had your ticket scanned, and go through the entrance gate, you'll be handed a wristband for their new inLine Reservation System for virtual queuing which will be used on all of their attractions. It's the same kind of wristbands you used for their lockers if you're familiar with them. The instructions on how to use it are on the wristband. You'll set it up on your smartphone by going to HolidayWorld.com/inLine. You'll have to setup an account on your phone with an email and password. You can use a fake email too and it's a one step simple process. I suggest setting it up before your visit so you don't have to worry about it once you get there. When your account is setup, you'll have to register your wristband by entering the QR code on it. You can do this for multiple people on one account. Once you've registered your QR code, you're able to start reserving rides and riding. Once you select a ride, it'll give you a 15 second count off before your entered into the virtual queue. You will have to keep track of your time. It'll give you a countdown bases off how long the queue is. So if Thunderbird is a 15 min wait, it'll have a 15 min countdown clock and once those 15 mins are up, you will then have 15 mins to report to the queue or you will lose your reservation. Once you arrive at the attraction, their will be a ride host standing behind a Plexiglas stand at the entrance with a phone. They'll take a picture of the QR code on your wrist with that phone and it will then pop up on their screen on if you had a reservation for that time and how many people are in your group. They'll then tell you can enter the queue. All the queues have social distancing foot markers 6 feet apart. It appears that the parts of queues they're utilizing will be the same all year long. They'll ask you to keep to 2 people per marker in your group. At the ride, there will be another host who will ask you how many people are in your group and if you need a basket to put your belongings in. They will then assign you a seat. All rides are like this now. They will keep your group together. On the roller coasters, once they assign you a row, you'll enter the station and see social distancing markers that are placed 6 feet away from the train at the gates. You have to stand behind these markers and they were enforcing it. The woodies will be hurt the most on capacity. They're not blocking off any rows, so they can allow groups to ride together, but they will space a row in between groups. The most they'll be able to get on one train is probably 20 people depending on the group sizes. Thunderbird will actually be able to operate at full capacity because the span between seats on the wing coaster trains are actually 6 feet. Periodically throughout the day, they will shut down attractions to do a complete deep clean on them. They went as far on Voyage at one point to deep clean the train, then transfer on the second train and take off the train they just cleaned, and then deep clean the new train before opening it back up. There is hand sanitizer or as the park is calling it "Santatizer" available throughout the park. It's available at all restrooms, drink stands, and the entrances of restaurants and food stands. It's also available at the exit of most attractions although it seemed the employees at the bottles pulled more toward where they were working most of the time. There are also social distancing markers in what seem to be high traffic area's, but none really at all in the rest of the park. Pros about my visit: First of all it wasn't busy at all and we were able to ride everything multiple times. I loved the new inLine Reservation system. It worked without a single issue for me and I really enjoyed being able to plan my day. I'm curious though to see how works when there are more people in the park, There was a strong upper-management presence in the park ALL day. I talked to a couple of VP's, saw one of the owners at least 4-5 times walking around and observing how things were operating throughout the park. I also saw the park president and CEO doing the same a couple of times. Everyone was as friendly as ever and happy to see guests again. The park looked GREAT with all it's landscaping and it didn't look like they cut anything out of the budget because of Covid-19. They were enforcing all of the social distancing policies they've put in place to the best of their abilities. Cons about my visit: Food service is going to be an absolute nightmare this year. Their two biggest and only indoor restaurants are setup to be run cafeteria style. That doesn't really work in a pandemic. They've tried to come up with the best solution they can. At Santa's Merry Market Place, you'll go in follow the signs to the food.They're limiting their menu options this year. They've put in a makeshift order stand. There will be employees there that will write down your order on sided thermal paper. They'll hand you paper copy and give the thermal copy to a host, who is going to go get your food. You'll walk to the pickup area and wait for them to bring it over there. They'll hand the trays over to the hosts at the pickup area and they'll call all your ticket number and give you your food and then you go pay. This idea seems good on paper, but people getting the food kept getting confused and mixing up tickets. Their gonna have to figure out a better plan or smooth out the one they've got, because will be a disaster if this continues once more people are in the park. Most of HW's clientele have no regard for anything to do with social distancing or CDC guidelines. Counting my group, I probably only saw 10 people wearing masks. The majority also spent most of their time complaining about the new inLine Reservation system while they let there kids walk as close as humanly possible to other people. The number one complaint I heard several times and have seen several times online "Why should I have to reserve a spot if no one is standing in line and they have empty seats on trains" . I also found it hilarious at the amount of Karen's who are complaining because they just can't let their kids run off and do what they want anymore. Now they have to sit with them and make reservations for them to ride rides and actually watch them instead of letting the park do it for them. Simply, HW had to implement this system or none of their guests would have ever socially distanced. Some other notes to pass along coming from a VP: The inLine reservation system WILL be used in the waterpark and they expect all attractions to be open in the park. They're still trying to figure out how they're going to use inLine in the waterpark, which is why they haven't made an official announcement yet. He also thinks this is the future of the industry and it's here to stay at HW. The waterpark WILL be open by July 4th. Cheetah Chase will open with the waterpark and one of the VP's I talked to has ridden it and says it the best ride in the water park which is some pretty high praise. Final parting thoughts: First, I wanna give a shout out to HW's maintenance and the people at PTC. PTC wasn't able to go back to work in Pennsylvania until this past Monday and Voyage's trains were still there awaiting final assembly and shipment. PTC got the trains finished and sent to HW by midweek. HW was able to get them on, connect all of them and have all the test laps complected for certification by state by Saturday. All coasters were riding good. You can really tell the difference in the work they've done on Voyage over the last 2 years. I think they've finally found a solution using IPE wood as the top running boards. It was good to finally get out and go to a park again and ride roller coasters. I'll be back on opening day and I'm curious to see how everything works with a bigger crowd. People are gonna moan and groan, but it's going to be the new normal.
  13. It's not supposed to be a reservation system. HW doesn't do reservations for rides. It's a virtual queue that's being treated like a real line. You wouldn't be able to leave the real line to go ride another ride. They're trying to keep things as normal as possible. So find a bench, enjoy unlimited free soft drinks and wait your turn. It's only being used for the dry park. They only have 4 coasters and couple of decent flats. They'll be operating at 50% capacity. Waiting really shouldn't be an issue if Thunderbird and Voyage run 2 trains. On a side note, I'm guessing ride ops at HW will no longer collect bags from guests standing in line and store them for you. That's gonna slow up operations a bit. I just processed my season pass online and will be going on June 14th. I'll do a trip report about all the changes and how operations seem to be effected by them.
  14. The park is now hiring 250 more employee's on top of the 2000 they've already hired to help with the virtual queue system and new cleaning and sanitation procedures they've implemented. https://www.wdrb.com/news/holiday-world-hiring-250-extra-workers-as-park-prepares-for-june-opening/article_58f2d664-9aa7-11ea-a6be-130966dfc170.html
  15. ^ Probably not giving a date until they know for sure that the states plans aren't going to change and when they know Voyage's trains will finally be delivered from PTC.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Terms of Use https://themeparkreview.com/forum/topic/116-terms-of-service-please-read/