teacherkim

And historically, these types of events tend to be remembered as the human race overcoming tragedy and being stronger and better for it. Remember how kind everyone was to each other for months after 9/11. Most holocaust survivors (NOT to say this compares to the magnitude of that event in any way) went on to live normal lives, perspectives changed, but normal lives which is amazing when you think about it. They should have all come out of that situation as severely damaged individuals bent on revenge and murder of their assailants. Most did not. My point being that while the idiots make the most noise, most people, the vast majority; will get through this just fine, be a little more grateful of what they have, and perhaps appreciate the fun and freedoms they will enjoy again a little more. OK, done being the teacher for the day, I gotta go post some lessons on Valley Forge on line and see how many 7th graders are going to actually do them And get back to wondering if there is ANY chance in hell we will still get coasterstock since that is supposed to be my son's birthday present.

I heard about the mid-May open. Crud. I wonder what that means for Coasterstock which is on my son's birthday and is supposed to be his present.

I'm across the river from Zach in the western STL burbs. I've been to two different grocery stores in 24 hours to get everything I wanted. Now I say want, not need because not every item I bought was an absolute necessity, no I wasn't hoarding, just getting specific food items to make certain recipes. So, we aren't quite as bad as what he described but it did take some effort. Both grocery stores were rationing milk and meat. Also, both were very low on fresh meat and of course out of tp and cleaning stuff. One of the stores was completely out of bread while the other had plenty. One out of carrots, one out of bananas......just weird stuff like that. There was still plenty of cheese, eggs, frozen stuff in both, supplies of those items were lower than normal but still plenty to be had. The two stores are about 4 miles apart. Now keep in mind that Zach and I are somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 miles apart on opposite sides of the Mississippi. But that is a pretty big difference in conditions for what are essentially two suburbs of the same metro area. I am about 20 miles southwest of that big Arch, and he's about 20 miles northeast. I think how this is remembered will vary immensely depending on where you are in the USA since it is such a vast country. And I wonder how much that will affect opening dates for the parks. Some areas might be able to open in a month, some might be a lot longer.

Zach, if you want to eat out get over here quick. All St Louis city and county (and St Charles, Jefferson, Franklin counties) restaurants are banned from having dine in after midnight tomorrow. Carry out only at that point. And several places have gone ahead and pulled the plug. We're going to try the grocery store later and see how that goes. No panic buying, we are just out of food. I can tell you that the liquor store was hopping at about noon today though I imagine that in the next few weeks you will have a lot more domestic calls and I also imagine there will be a whole lotta Christmas babies this year.

I bought Cedar Fair passes for the first time. Our original plans made it well worth while, now I'm not so sure. Hopefully, the summer season will be salvaged. Since we had to cancel the Texas trip the next thing on our agenda is Coasterstock in mid May. Guess all we can do now is wait and see. Frustrating.

Well I'm trying to be positive and hope they are giving dates longer than they think they need, just to be safe, and of course it will be a lot easier and a lot less likely to get you lynched by the peasants if you shorten a closure rather than have to extend it. On the other hand I was still being positive last Friday at lunch time thinking I could still get the Texas trip in There has not been an order YET in St Louis to close restaurants although several are already doing it, or going to take out only. However, all restaurants and bars in all of Illinois have been ordered to close.

Yeah, but they just said on the news that the 50 person ban doesn't apply to businesses. They mentioned casinos and gyms can stay open. I agree they may not be ready by April 4, but I don't think it will be due to the ban. I do know that they were supposed to have another weekend of training today and yesterday for ride ops that didn't happen. I kind of wondered if they might reschedule that for the first weekend in April and try to open Easter weekend. But it might be after that. Meanwhile, I would normally be ecstatic over the unexpected 3 weeks off I'm now having; but with so much closing,abd I suspect there will be more tomorrow, there's no where to go and nothing to do. Bummer.

Good to know,maybe if they stick to that we will make an overnight trip down to soften the blow of losing Texas a bit! I'll keep an eye on it. Well, there's a good reason I hedged that with "at least for now." SDC is delaying opening day until March 28. https://amp.news-leader.com/amp/5030588002 Rats. Well I had high hopes for an hour or two.

Good to know,maybe if they stick to that we will make an overnight trip down to soften the blow of losing Texas a bit! I'll keep an eye on it.

Yeah, most of the schools around here will be on Spring Break next week and we are all speculating that it will get extended by at least a week. I think they may just try to force a two week quarantine on everyone. Apparently AMC is now selling only 50% of seats in each theater, not sure if that is local or nationwide.

Teacherkim feels really bad for Teacherkim too. I just cancelled my air and hotel. Thankfully no hassles about cancelling but this sucks, was really looking forward to some warmer weather. To rub salt into the wound it's going to be a high of 40 here tomorrow with a rain/snow mix. As some of you know my son is a ride ops at SFSTl. Not only are they delaying park opening but employees were informed no training for the next two weeks. That being said not I would consider an April 4 opening day extremely tentative.

A little ride ops birdie returned from training a few hours ago and told me that Excalibur has been testing. I could never in a million years ride that particular barf machine without disastrous results for those below me but know some of you will be very excited

Ok, ok I get it, didn't mean to start a war over line jumping with an off hand (and perhaps not well thought out comment) let's just move on. The original point to my post was about being able to get through the coasters if we only were in the park the last 4-5 hours. It seems the consensus is yes, easily with quick queue but keep your eye on the new coaster, as usual. It does look like a fun little coaster.

No, I would ride too, if that's what you are asking. Never really seen anyone have a problem when 1 person joins their party in line; not that we do that on a regular basis. But I will keep that in mind if it's a problem for people, don't want to get the masses angry.

I figured as much. If necessary Mom is willing to stand in line for Stingray while the boy rides some of the other coasters and gets his count up. The things we do for kids!

We will be there on Sun 3/15, hoping to beat the Sunday church crowd but I'm willing to get a fastpass if necessary with only one day available. Looking forward to it since I have heard such nice things about this park and some warmer weather would be nice. I am so sick of the cold and we have at least another 5 weeks or so up here in St Lou. Bert! I hope we see you and Nick that day!

Glad to see an open date. My son and I are taking quick little coaster trip over Spring Break but have a limited set of days we can be there. Flying into San Antonio on Sat 3/14. We will go to Fiesta on Sun and then have a day to sightsee and head up to Dallas (via a quick stop at ZDT's) and go to Over Texas on Wed. Fly home on Thurs 3/19. Which means we only have Sat night that we get in to stop at Seaworld. Our plane is due in at 2:50 and we will grab our car and go straight there....hoping with a fastpass we can get on everything by closing at 9. It might sound crazy but it's our only shot so we are going for it! Now I just gotta hope for no weird airport delays.

Wow. Less than 24 hours. We really had fun last year. I am really grateful to the heads up on the sale time/date here. With work and life I could easily have missed it.

Well I got the Coasterstock tickets today since it's on the boy's birthday. So, we will be on it the first morning of the event which is Fri 5/15. It kind of cracks me up that they are even gonna have other rides open during the morning ert of the first day. I can't imagine too many of the Coasterstock crowd are gonna go to the antique cars (even though they are very well done) over Orion that morning. On the other hand I guess they have to have something for those that are stuck going but don't do coasters.

Thanks for the heads up!!

Thanks! That was what I was assuming but hadn't seen anything. I'll keep my eye on the website for the sale date. My son's bday is May 16 and this is his requested present, of course he knows he will get a day out of school if we go

Just to help you with planning/decision making......we attended HHN last year, first weekend in Oct. Now we did have fastpasses for the haunts because I think Halloween events are stupid in the daylight (my thing, no judgement) This allowed us to wait and go around 8 or 8:30. In 3 1/2 to 4 hours we were easily able to get in half the houses, one show, half the scare zones and ride all the available rides, each night. And we were with teens who could never go to the bathroom at the same time, stopped every other booth for a snack, looked at every t-shirt stand, etc....so we weren't exactly fast (worse than having little kids actually) I think if we started right at opening and didn't have fastpasses we could have done them all in one night, the stay and scream would have helped in that regard. I only saw one really long standby line, Stranger Things which was 75 min, most of the others were under an hour. If you are trying to decide between Howl-o-scream and HHN, keep this in mind: HHN is more of a party atmosphere in my opinion and a little light on the "spooky" atmosphere. I thought the scare zones were a little disappointing, other than Zombieland and some of that was more the humor from the movie. Most of the houses are back on the sound stages and there in NO theming while you are waiting in line, just lots of flood light and lots of concrete. Also, the crowds are so big you have to go through the houses conga line style. Not bad, but different from most other Halloween events I have been too. Now the props and actors were absolutely top notch, best I've seen. In fact I wanted to go through the Nightingales house again not because it was so scary but to look more closely at the Ancient Rome theming. Yes, it was that good and yes I am that much of a history nerd. I have not been to BGT Halloween event but having seen it on youtube it looks more like most other parks. So, consider what kind of event your group will enjoy more plus factoring in the cost, etc. Oh and we were there on a Sat and Sun night and I notice no difference in crowds whatsoever at the event. City walk was definitely more crowded on Sat night but inside HHN the wait times and crowds were indistinguishable between the two nights.

Ok, I may have missed this because I haven't read the whole thread (last 4 or 5 pages though) Has anyone heard anything about Coasterstock yet? If it's the same weekend as last year it should fall on my son's birthday so I've been checking. Last year tickets went on sale Feb 1, so uhh kinda getting close. We bought CF platinum passes this year and were definitely planning on going.

I think staffing could be a serious issue as well if they tried to do year round here, because of the inconsistency of the weather. There are lots of days during the current HITP that staff is sent home after just a couple hours because of weather and/or low crowds. While obviously somewhat inevitable it's a real drag to get ready for work, drive in, potentially spend 5 or 6 bucks at the employee cafeteria and only work long enough to make $20. While that is alright for a month at the end of the season, I'm not sure it's viable for the entire winter. Of course staff makes no money for about 2 and a half months as it currently stands, they at least know that when hired and can plan accordingly. Also, with less rides available and no draw of holiday lights, shows, food, etc.....will the people even come. Cold weather is kind of cute in December when everyone is in the Christmas mood but gets old real quick by mid January. Add to that the issue of ride maintenance and I don't see it happening.

Feel free to PM me or send me an email anytime. I'm happy to help out.