A.J.

I also find it hilarious that parents are upset that they actually have to be parents now.

The U.S. Government has basically left any and all procedures regarding COVID-19 to the individual states, only offering (limited) recommendations as to how they should proceed. The President has threatened to "step in" if he feels that a state is not opening as fast as he thinks it should, though analysts have concluded that he may not have the legal authority to do so and he has not done so yet, for any state. Florida's government is very pro-business and has always wanted to see things close later and open sooner. The Governor, a noted ally to the President, is attributing the increase in COVID cases in the state to an increase in overall testing, though some outlets have reported that the increases are due to premature re-openings and / or inconsistent mask and distancing enforcement throughout the state, as well as a potential under-reporting of confirmed cases. Based on the fact that their plan was approved because of the supposed mask / distancing enforcement, I wouldn't be surprised if Orange County had the ability to penalize them as part of the agreement. Though, the county stepping in and doing so may draw political backlash that they might not to deal with, not just from citizens doing civil disobedience, but potentially from the state government as well. I've read some reports from other coaster people that part of the reason why SeaWorld and Busch Gardens acted the way they did was because they were just completely unprepared for their openings, though I can't confirm that myself. I have reservations coming up so I'm interested in seeing if things change after they've been opened for a few weeks. Disclaimer for those who read this later: My attempted neutral analysis doesn't change the fact that mask wearing is not a political issue and shouldn't be treated as one. Wear your mask. Please.

I wasn't comfortable getting into it either but now that you have, I can say that I've also been noticing that, and it IS weird! Some people I know actually kind of frown on me for having a SeaWorld pass for that reason.

That is awful. Not only are those people littering on natural landscape, they're also preventing someone who would actually use the mask from having it. I'm getting tired of head-ranting every time I read something like this.

Oof, that is ROUGH. I already knew of restricted capacities on Mako and Kraken but that long of dispatches for Manta is just awful. Were they running double station on Manta? You'd think they would want to do it that way... Split the crowds in half, be able to disinfect and load while the other train is on the circuit... The "issue" for people is that the instructions / recommendations for face masks came from local and / or state governments and that people are seeing it as a restriction of their own personal freedoms. There is also the same "don't be a wuss" camp that you'd hear from as a kid when you'd be pressured into doing something dangerous. To those people, wearing a face covering is an admission of fear and a knock on their pride. No one seems to understand that face covering requirements are supposed to be a sign of mutual respect for your fellow person's needs - instead, it's a political and ideological issue. What's worse is that people see this stuff and instead of saying, "oh, I need to protect myself MORE when I go", it's "oh, I can get away with it because no one else cares".

It's quite fascinating... The only turntable movement that you can deliberately feel is at the very beginning and the end, when turntable movement actually happens in the story. For the entire ride, you're basically clueless to the movements of the turntable because there's just so much else going on.

The whole point of calling it and theming it "Splash Mountain" was to incorporate the animated characters on their own without the baggage of the film. If I'm reading correctly, a big sticking point with supporters of the petition is the dialect used by the character voices during the ride, which I don't disagree with. While I adore The Princess and the Frog, that theme doesn't make sense in Magic Kingdom's Frontierland. But, to be fair, neither does Splash Mountain's current theme, so... Like others have said, Disneyland can get away with it because New Orleans Square is in very close proximity to Critter Country. Though, it would require a pretty big reconstruction of the entrance, exit, and queue to align with New Orleans Square. Or, perhaps they could use it as an excuse for just a blanket re-do of Critter Country into something else.

Agreed. I've basically given up on Carowinds at this point and will likely only do Dollywood this year. Unless something more interesting comes up... That being said, now that Cedar Point is opening, I'm actually considering it, as I've never been there (ironically), and an Autumn season day might make for a not-awful experience despite the circumstances.

Anyone that's been having problems with reservations - it's finally started working for me. Looking forward to going back at the end of the month.

Still dingus for me... When I use the bar code from my proof of purchase I'm told to "use the latest bar code" but when I use the barcode on my pass itself I'm told it's expired / invalid. I bought my pass in October of 2019, so it shouldn't be expired.

I'll be visiting, but I'll be waiting until a few weeks after they open so they can iron out all the bugs and make sure their procedures are working.

Right, the only reason I can think of is that they waited until now to process everyone's pass upgrades and all current pass barcodes were "expired" as a result. I still have my original proof of purchase so I'm not too worried about it now.

So far, so not so good for some passholders... They're wrongly showing my pass as expired, and apparently I'm not the only one. I'm sure it'll work out eventually but I'm pretty disappointed.

Six Flags is in a very awkward position right now after having bought back the parks it dumped before the previous recession, much like Disney's awkward position having just purchased 20th Century Fox. Six Flags has no reason to consolidate their parks right now. They have very little regional overlap between parks. Parks like Over Texas / Fiesta Texas, Great Escape / Darien Lake, and America / Great Adventure are certainly within a day's drive of each other, but I don't believe they overlap enough for Six Flags to want to dump one over the other - despite the lack of investment in a few of those mentioned. A normal park-goer considers even a three-hour drive to a park to be a bit of a stretch.

Never said that they were struggling. They weren't then, they weren't up until this point, and I believe they will eventually bounce back. And you're right! Themed entertainment was in a growth period! I said that they were facing trouble, to be clearer, that the threat was looming, as at-home media has grown in popularity. Theme parks have always gotten and will still always get those people looking for that specific type of experience, whether it be a roller coaster or a character greeting. But for the folks who are just looking for blanket forms of "entertainment", the destination theme park, and all its logistics and fanfare, just became a much harder proposition. Whether it's the financial stress from the cost, or the mental stress of all that planning... That kind of stuff is probably the last thing that the general park-goer wants to even think about right now and into the near future. Local stuff, well, that's still to be determined. Just going off of my own experience, there are a lot of people from my hometown (small city in central rural Pennsyl-tucky) that only ever go to Knoebels, Hersheypark, and / or Dutch Wonderland on a regular basis because they're satisfied by those places. And themed entertainment goes beyond theme parks - it includes stuff like museums, escape rooms, and the like. Those have issues of their own that good people in the business attempting to work their way around.

We're already seeing the negative impacts in the short term. Any expansion project that wasn't already far along in construction is, generally, either put off until the 2021 season or shelved indefinitely. So parks aren't just dealing with capacity limits now - once those limits are lifted they won't have anything new or exciting to draw guests back in. No one is more aware of this than those in the design / planning business like myself - I've seen a lot of my own work drop off with no idea when (and if) it will start up again. The themed entertainment industry (which includes live entertainment) and the cinema industry were already facing trouble from the rise of at-home entertainment such as streaming media, and now that problem has become a whole lot worse because more people than back in 2008 are suddenly having to make hard choices about how they spend their money. The point about loss of consumer confidence in themed entertainment is a big one. The parks that succeed are going to be the ones that can prove to their guests that a day or two of entertainment is worth the cost of an entire year of Netflix, and that they do not have to be afraid of going to what used to be their favorite places. As for particular closures... I don't think we'll see any right away from the five big chains (Six Flags, Cedar Fair, SeaWorld, Disney, and Universal) as each chain doesn't have much geographical overlap within the chain. Indie parks are a different story - off the top of my head I would think that both Denver parks are in trouble, along with Lakemont in Pennsylvania, maybe Playland in New York too. I'd also keep an eye on Funtown Splashtown in Maine and Delgrosso's in Pennsylvania, who will both me missing the 2020 season in its entirety. This is also a pessimistic thought but I fear that destination theme park prices are going to go way up in an attempt to recoup profits - so much so that a week's vacation at a park is going to become a luxury item.

Everything, everywhere is cancelled and / or postponed.

Oof, that Facebook comments section makes my stomach crawl. EDIT: In fact, I think maybe I'm going to commit to my October trip now to support them.

Also true, though Kings Dominion's was different enough and marketed as a a different experience. Theirs lasted longer because of, well, physics, I presume. Firefall probably gave us Talocan, so I'm sure that makes a lot of European guests happy.

I'm curious as to why Kings Dominion got a budget version of the Italian Job Stunt Track compared to the other two.

This is actually pretty common at the Disney parks here in the U.S., and even before the pandemic, they've always simply told you to push up on the bar / harness or pull on the seat belt's yellow strap. Seems like every park has gotten to exercise their graphic design muscles as of late, which as a graphics professional myself, I appreciate.

Same, probably a week or two after the initial opening for me. We'll know how good the prospects are once random internet people start posting photos / video of Iron Gwazi testing again. Here's hoping!

If the guidelines for restricted capacity in our area are based on average attendance, they may want to "free up" some capacity for the weekends to keep their average in check. But that begs the question... Why stay open Wednesday? Forgive me, but with a lack of vacationers, and local workplaces beginning to open back up on a Monday through Friday basis, who's even going to be at the park on a Wednesday?

Thanks, I'm looking forward to getting on Manta, Mako, and Kraken again.

Andy, A.J., Andrew, and... Goldberg. You've forced my hand!