teacherkim

I'm really not sure water parks are any more dangerous as far as virus spread than the regular parks. There are no indoor attractions (unless you maybe count enclosed slides) and there is enough chlorine in the water to choke a horse. I mean you kind of bath in disinfectant on each ride, lol. And I agree that masks would present somewhat of a drowning hazard in places where you might be completely submerged.

Going to play devil's advocate here, as I so often find myself doing. While I get that it is desirable for masks to be worn initially as we start rolling out the reopenings and I agree some park has to be the guinea pig.......I don't know that allowing them to be optional by phase 4 is that awful. I mean the point of doing it in phases is to slowly test the waters, if something goes wonky in phase 1, 2, or 3 those will get extended so, theoretically, by phase 4 results will be favorable. And just like you cannot keep quarantine going for years, neither can you keep people in masks indefinitely. It just won't happen. Remember a vaccine may come; or it may not. I am happy to hear some parks are finally announcing actual dates. Seems like they were playing a bit of a game of chicken as to who would be the first to get in the water after the shark was sighted. My son is still waiting to hear from SFSTl on when employees will restart training. They need to make some decisions because right now on the web site and app it is listing May 18 as opening date

I agree with you Bill, you cannot sue a business because you leave the house and catch an infectious disease. It was your choice. That would never stand in court, most lawyers will tell you so, and that is why it doesn't happen every year with flu, colds, whatever.

I am sure along with the copious amounts of hand sanitizer stations around the parks; there will be lots of new signage with instructions about social distancing, hand washing, not touching your face, etc etc. Which will serve the same purpose as all those signs in every ride line about not riding with certain health conditions that are complete overkill. They are there way more for protection of the park than for the consumer.

I do not believe that would hold up in court. You voluntarily chose to enter the park. The only way I think you could bring a successful lawsuit would be to prove the park knowingly withheld information pertaining to your safety. I think most parks are lawyered up enough to cover that. On the other hand I can totally see them having the waivers as a just in case. Which I personally would have no problem signing. And I have watched droves of parents sign waivers for their children for things like zip lining, white water rafting, virtual reality, ropes courses, snow skiing and tubing, and other number of activities that could cause impending death. If you are willing to plan a trip, the waiver probably won't stop you.

There was some discussion of this on the SFSTl thread in regards to their new ride, Catwoman Whip. A poster who I am pretty sure is a maintenance person at the park posted that there are no plans to scrap already announced rides. Now, I am a little nervous about next year's plan. It will be SFSTl 50th anniv and there was some hint we would be getting something to celebrate. It was one of the original 3 built from scratch Six Flags. And as Bert knows we have a nice empty spot where Tidal Wave was. Not sure how this closure might affect that.

Hey Bert! I am very tentatively thinking the first full week of August but of course that will depend on how the parks are doing in the next couple of months. I don't think there will be any issue getting a flight or hotel a little later than normal. Guessing travel will be lower than normal all summer. I will for sure check dates with you before I book.

So, with our original Texas trip in March cancelled, Coasterstock in May cancelled, and CCon in June cancelled........and things very slowly starting to open back up with unsure success/results; I am thinking/hoping that we may get to reschedule the Texas trip for maybe early August?!? Will be checking in to see what the locals are posting about operations once things do open up again. I know as of yesterday there was still no word to employees of SFSTl about restarting training but businesses around the park are starting back up so expect to hear something soon. Got $400 worth of travel funds with SW burning a hole in my pocket

Yeah I think the "limited capacity" thing is all about making the public feel more comfortable, it will be very easy to manipulate. Same with the employees wearing facemasks, more about optics than anything else. Sanitizing will be the most effective thing.

So, just for purposes of keeping everyone up to date on all the happenings; ACE has cancelled CoasterCon. Although more accurately they are postponing the entire thing one year. I think a lot of the parks will be open by the end of June but with restrictions in place, large events will probably be difficult for awhile. On the good news front it appears Disney and Universal are eyeballing an early June opening, again with the aforementioned restrictions in place. Some Orlando youtubers have stated that they have heard from employees that training will start back up in May. And where those two parks go I suspect the rest will follow. Hoping we can reschedule our cancelled Texas trip for later in the summer and make the (for us) more local HW,KK,KI, CP run. I may finally get to use those CF platinum passes.

Yeah I am guessing that is a big cultural difference..... I cannot see American kids doing it.

That photo of the family in masks cracks me up, not because I'm disrespecting the virus or making fun of things, but there is NO way you are going to keep a mask on kids that young all day. Nope. Nada. Never. Not gonna happen. And they will constantly be pulling at it, pulling it down to pick their nose, touching things with their hands and then touching the masks etc, etc.

Well getting back to the parks sooner rather than later is one thing we can all agree we want to do! The real bottom line is we are all making educated guesses on what will happen based on rumors and very small bits of info leaking out from many many sources and biased by what we want to happen and our personality traits leaning toward glass half full or glass half empty. Hate to resort to old adages but "only time will tell"

AND unlike fairs, theme parks can, and I have no doubt will, have jugs of hand sanitizer at every ride, restaurant, store, and bathroom entrance. Fairs tend to be much more temporary so that will be harder to do, as well as limiting capacity like you said. I meant May in general for businesses not necessarily theme parks. Does seem though some are starting to target June 1 as a possibility.

Apparently Universal has sent out surveys to passholders asking about different measures like; masks, lowering park capacity, virtual queues, wiping down rides between riders, temp taken, etc etc. Which would indicate they are at least working on ways to open. Will be curious to see if CF and SF do something similar. Although everyone is going to have such different opinions on that I'm not sure it's practical to even bother with a survey. They will just have to make a decision and then see if people show up. I think the reopening plans are being worked on but for the most part they are not publicizing much yet because it makes people jump to conclusions. And I find it very unlikely if the rest of the states start opening up that CA will be able to stay shutdown.......just not practical. Coronavirus is not going away entirely and staying shut down until when or if a vaccine is available is also not practical. I'm guessing things will start to open up in May and it will come down to the feelings of the individual. If you are still nervous or feel at risk then don't go. The million dollar question will be how many people stay away by choice if they don't have to. I tend to think people will come (whether they should or not) but of course I could be totally wrong, lol.

That's great news! Hope it works out alright and other parks can target June 1.

Well never did get an email, lol, BUT did get the refund and cancelled my hotel. Drat.

Coasterstock at KI is officially cancelled. While I no longer had any expectation that it was going to happen on the original date I was really hoping they might reschedule but I guess that was just too difficult since they do not have a firm opening date yet. Money has been automatically refunded. I guess we could put that toward a HW,KK,KI,CP run later in the summer. At this point now waiting to see about CCon. Just read that Pennsylvania is planning to start opening up things slowly after May 8th.......which may cut it awfully close for late June and theme parks. However, hope springs eternal and so back to the wait and see mode. Meanwhile our not yet been used CF platinum passes are sitting on the shelf, mocking me

Hmmmm........didn't get the email yet and we are registered attendees. Will keep an eye out for it and my refund. Hope I can put that money toward a HW, KI, CP run maybe later in the summer.

Damn. There goes the boy's birthday present. Not surprising of course but I was really hoping they would be able to reschedule. Did you get an email or just have advanced knowledge? I haven't gotten any communication yet and nothing posted on their facebook or website. Although I do see on the website that it isn't listed under events anymore with the next thing being Carnivale starting June 6........maybe there is some hope they will be open by then?

Wouldn't that be a bitch if we were finally getting something really good for next year's anniversary and then it gets delayed due to Coronavirus cutbacks. I feel cursed.

Lol, I was thinking exactly the same thing but didn't want to complain about a new coaster. Hopefully, it will get filled in over time.

The Missouri governor announced yesterday that the stay at home order will go until May 3rd but starting on May4th businesses will be allowed to start re opening. There will be future announcements as to what exactly that looks like, there is a task force working on it. We have had curbside pick up at most restaurants the whole time. Agree it will place more responsibility on the individual but there is no way to keep a stay at home order in place for a year or whatever until a vaccine or treatment is in place. The bad guys always try to get clever (even though they seldom are) don't they? Also choosing to be cautiously optimistic.

That's good news. This from from the FAQ on the Carowinds site answered my most pressing question (that had not been addressed in previous updates): 2020 Platinum Passes will be valid at all Cedar Fair parks through the 2021 Season. I'm really glad to hear that as we bought Platinum passes for the first time last fall and hadn't even gotten to use them yet. Thought maybe Kharma was out to get me. On the other hand I wonder if that is in anticipation of many of the parks maybe not being able to open until later in the summer.

Andrew, I teach in exactly the same type of district although it is very small and our secondary students have been one on one for awhile now