Coasters and Craft Brews 2020
- Thread starter Gavin
- Start date
Ah yes, Hemingway's famous response to the challenge of writing a five-word story about the triumph of mankind and true Nirvana.
I guess Tuesday was a bridge too far this late into the event. I feel like they could pull it off towards the start of the next event(s), but I can see where the number of people dedicated enough to go on a Tuesday night have already gotten their fill of Coasters & Craft Brews.
Went today for the 11-3 slot. Left at around 2. And wow mask enforcement was like non-existent. So bad that we dropped a complaint at guest services as well. There were a lot of people not wearing masks, not even just like holding drinks (and there were A LOT MORE OF THOSE. Just walking around with drinks in their hands with no mask on), but there was just a lot of peeking noses, and a number of bare faces. Including talking to employees. On our way out we ended up behind an employee in the wild reserve and we walked past at least 10 people with either no mask or not properly wearing one.
It absolutely does not make me want to go back. Even if Le Scoot was a good and important addition.
It absolutely does not make me want to go back. Even if Le Scoot was a good and important addition.
compared to a lot of major theme parks that have reopened under these harsh conditions for the amusement industry i would give bgw a b+ to an a- on sanitization and cleanliness as well as mask enforcement, i was at the 11-3 time slot yesterday and it was perfectly fine, the only time people don’t have masks is when they are sitting down eating or just have a drink that they are actively drinking, and i think it’s fair to like take off your mask for a few seconds and air out because it was 91 degrees when i went yesterday and when i was within a decent distance of ppl i would just take a breath for a few seconds, not everyone will abide by the set of rules laid down by bgw and that shouldn’t be the parks fault for people’s negligence, and i’ve seen my fair share of people getting asked by park employees to put on their masks
I was too and I definitely disagree with this. Around rides, things are markably better, but through some of the larger, unmonitored areas (read: Heatherdowns and the Wild Reserve) I saw a ton of blatant mask violations—sometimes being entirely ignored by employees.
Yesterday morning was the worst I’ve seen BGW. It is the park’s responsibility to keep guests safe and hence, during COVID, that means it is the park’s responsibility to keep people masked and distanced.
I was there from 5 to 9 and I only saw about 2 people without masks and they were riding the log flume
I took my mask off around 5 times but only for less than 5 seconds to wipe the sweat off my face.
EDIT: Looking back on this, I was definitely in the wrong here and I shouldn’t have done it because I put myself at risk and others at risk.
Don't call yourself in the wrong there. You need to be able to do things like that. Just be smart about doing it like stepping off to the side and facing away from people.
I had my gaiter and I lifted it up above my mouth so my neck could breathe a little. Virginia heat is no joke!
I ditched my gaiter when research came out how bad it was because the fabric is so fine and thin that it actually helps particles stay in the air. But moving your mask here and there is fine. Research is really linking exposure, airflow, and time together. The longer you are exposed with no protection in an inclosed space the likelier you are to transmit or receive the virus. Moving the mask for a few seconds when outside shouldn't be that high of an impact unless you do it right in the face of someone not wearing a mask.
Yeah, I always have another face mask on me so if I’m told I can’t wear the gaiter I have the other one.
Point blank, I don't care if you have a drink in your hand, if you are not actively taking a drink, you should NOT be walking around with you mask around your chin, or hanging off your ear. Which is what I largely saw. People just holding drinks walking through with their masks on their chins just talking. Making it from Ireland, to near the train tracks with a full cup of beer (I'm talking to the brim here), and your mask around your chin is inexcusable. And yet I watched as two women passed by me while doing so.
People who are stopped to eat or drink with their masks off are not the issue I was pointing out. Nor are the people stopped to the side to wipe sweat or adjust themselves.
It's the man in front of invadr with his mask around his chin, yelling to his daughter at the entrance of invadr, who also has her mask around her chin. It's the woman in the larger group taking up the most space inside the le scoot queue pulling down her mask just to turn and talk to her friends. Is the large gathering of not socially distance people inside the wild reserve watching the wolves get fed, completely filling in all available space, with a number of their noses exposed. It's the man in a group of friends with his mask around his chin, with no drink in his hand, walking past two chatting employees after exiting Griffon. And I can continue on about the amount of violations I saw yesterday.
If it was one or two violations, sure whatever, they're assholes for doing it. But what I witnessed yesterday was not just one or two assholes. It was the lack of enforcement.
What's clear from this conversation is that people are defining enforcement/compliance in different ways, based on their expectations.
If you expect everyone to be wearing their masks correctly 100% of the time (which I'd argue is not an unreasonable expectation given how easy it is, even if it is a futile one), then the park is 100% failing. But most of us have set our own personal standards of what we expect in terms of compliance, and those vary: some of us have become numb to no-nosers, or used to expecting people not bothering with the "unmask, drink, remask" dance, and not shocked when people are inexplicably moving down their mask to talk as though whatever it is they have to say needs to be heard marginally better at that moment. For some of us, it's possible that just knowing the person in question has a mask at all—I've seen one adult person total who didn't have a mask either on his chin or in his hands on a park pathway—is enough to make us feel safer than in other public areas.
But ultimately, our individual perspectives might vary, but where the problem lies is that the PARK'S perspective needs to be consistent with the rules they set out. And so three weeks into the event, it's a bit unnerving to me that the park hasn't realized that the nature reserve in particular is like entering a gauntlet, unsure of what's going to face you as you race to the other side. So many people coming out of Ireland with drinks, or on their way out of the park—both directions are a mess, and that path is too narrow to give everyone as much space as you ultimately want. Yes, you're still outside. Yes, you're unlikely to be close to anyone for any amount of time. But it's less about actual risk and more about the message it sends about BGW's commitment to enforcement.
Last night I watched the guy running Le Catapult let the ride keep going after a woman on the ride took off her mask once it started, and then completely ignored a no-noser on the next run as he was locking doors. And if people are able to "get away" with things like this, their actions throughout the park—particularly in lines for rides and food, which are really the only space where you will be in contact long enough to have a significant chance of infection—will only get worse.
I do think people need to investigate the manufacture of their neck gaiter and hear more about how it's been engineered. It's not that the study was wrong: it was that it was inconclusive, but raised questions that people should be investigating the answers to. Additionally, I would note that Disney/Universal banned neck gaiters BEFORE that study, so there is a larger concern related to single-layer face coverings that is independent from the headline-friendly research.
If you expect everyone to be wearing their masks correctly 100% of the time (which I'd argue is not an unreasonable expectation given how easy it is, even if it is a futile one), then the park is 100% failing. But most of us have set our own personal standards of what we expect in terms of compliance, and those vary: some of us have become numb to no-nosers, or used to expecting people not bothering with the "unmask, drink, remask" dance, and not shocked when people are inexplicably moving down their mask to talk as though whatever it is they have to say needs to be heard marginally better at that moment. For some of us, it's possible that just knowing the person in question has a mask at all—I've seen one adult person total who didn't have a mask either on his chin or in his hands on a park pathway—is enough to make us feel safer than in other public areas.
But ultimately, our individual perspectives might vary, but where the problem lies is that the PARK'S perspective needs to be consistent with the rules they set out. And so three weeks into the event, it's a bit unnerving to me that the park hasn't realized that the nature reserve in particular is like entering a gauntlet, unsure of what's going to face you as you race to the other side. So many people coming out of Ireland with drinks, or on their way out of the park—both directions are a mess, and that path is too narrow to give everyone as much space as you ultimately want. Yes, you're still outside. Yes, you're unlikely to be close to anyone for any amount of time. But it's less about actual risk and more about the message it sends about BGW's commitment to enforcement.
Last night I watched the guy running Le Catapult let the ride keep going after a woman on the ride took off her mask once it started, and then completely ignored a no-noser on the next run as he was locking doors. And if people are able to "get away" with things like this, their actions throughout the park—particularly in lines for rides and food, which are really the only space where you will be in contact long enough to have a significant chance of infection—will only get worse.
I do think people need to investigate the manufacture of their neck gaiter and hear more about how it's been engineered. It's not that the study was wrong: it was that it was inconclusive, but raised questions that people should be investigating the answers to. Additionally, I would note that Disney/Universal banned neck gaiters BEFORE that study, so there is a larger concern related to single-layer face coverings that is independent from the headline-friendly research.
Bingo. At Universal and Disney I honestly saw very little enforcement—but that's not because the parks were lazy or disinterested—it's because constant enforcement was not needed—consistent enforcement was the key. Customers complied with the rules essentially universally not because they were reprimanded for a violation ten minutes ago, but because their friend was reprimanded within moments of pulling their mask below their nose hours ago. It is my impression that the park doesn't need to have a ton of people parading around policing masks—they just need to make sure all employees are remaining vigilant to forcefully correct violations as soon as they occur. People pull down their masks when they see other people getting away with it. If the park creates a culture of compliance, social pressures will go a long way to fixing the larger issues.
This is also why BGW NEEDS to adopt Disney's rules on drinks. If someone who is hot, sweaty, and selfish passes by a group of people in the Wild Reserve carrying beers with their masks around their chins, what is that selfish person without a drink going to do? That mask is coming off. The people around them aren't protecting them, why should they suffer for the good of those people? That's the thought process that brings people to violate park policies and that's how a culture of mask disinterest quickly overtakes a park.
Disney and Universal are both operating with mask usage damn near 100%, not because every two minutes someone is yelling at a guest to put their mask back on, but because EVERYONE is wearing masks and, in the rare instance that someone does step out of line, the first employee within view is quick to correct the behavior. BGW needs that culture of compliance and enforcement desperately. I'm very worried about what will happen when demographics shift to younger, more selfish adults come October if the park doesn't get a grip on this issue now.
Last edited:
It boggles my mind as to why the park hasn’t set up a socially distant beer garden. There’s a few outdoor breweries in Richmond with tables that are slammed on the weekend. Converting some seating in the park like the Black Forest Picnic Pavilion or the tables near Griffon in New France would be a brilliant move. Have some live music, a temporary bar nearby, and some shade and the park would be printing money. Really hoping they can pull something off like this as the event grows and changes.
I haven’t been to the park since 8/9 and have only seen two types of repeat anti-mask offenders:
1. Soccer moms in the queue. You know exactly what I’m talking about. It’s 8:47pm, you’re in line for Finn’s, the ride just shut down for cleaning. You look across the queue to see a disgruntled Karen with her mask dipping below her nose. Fear sets in. Her daughter asks her for the 99th time, “Is Forest of Fun open?” All hell breaks loose. Mask is off, child is crying, now Karen’s mask is off. The dad is trying to tell them to put it back on, Karen doesn’t listen. Tired underpaid, still enthusiastic BGW employee tries to tell them to put it on, she begrudgingly puts it back on. Then as soon as they break eye contact she turns back around pulls the mask just below her nose and goes back to scrolling through facebook.
2. The classic, “Well, if no ones stopping me might as well start walking around with this beer!” guy. He’s a little overweight, probably been going to BGW since 82’, loves the park, is probably wearing some Oakelys and cargo pants, maybe khaki shorts. On his trek from Ireland to France he stops by the wolf exhibit and then proudly exclaims “Do you remember when they used to do that wolf scare zone back here? They don’t do HOS like they used to!” His Platinum lanyard is proudly displayed around his neck, he runs this place. No one is going to tell this guy to put on his mask as he makes his trek from Grogan’s to Griffon.
I think the best way to eliminate these two scenarios is to just ban drinking/eating while walking. If there were rules in place informing guests they had to be consuming something or in a relaxation area I could almost guarantee people would be buying more food and beverage throughout the event. This also eliminates the image of guests walking around maskless throughout the park, it forces a statue quo that guest are required to wear face coverings at all time and intimidates people to follow the rules or be forced to leave. However, as summer fades and the temperature slowly cools, the lack of mask wearing will slowly become less of an issue.
I haven’t been to the park since 8/9 and have only seen two types of repeat anti-mask offenders:
1. Soccer moms in the queue. You know exactly what I’m talking about. It’s 8:47pm, you’re in line for Finn’s, the ride just shut down for cleaning. You look across the queue to see a disgruntled Karen with her mask dipping below her nose. Fear sets in. Her daughter asks her for the 99th time, “Is Forest of Fun open?” All hell breaks loose. Mask is off, child is crying, now Karen’s mask is off. The dad is trying to tell them to put it back on, Karen doesn’t listen. Tired underpaid, still enthusiastic BGW employee tries to tell them to put it on, she begrudgingly puts it back on. Then as soon as they break eye contact she turns back around pulls the mask just below her nose and goes back to scrolling through facebook.
2. The classic, “Well, if no ones stopping me might as well start walking around with this beer!” guy. He’s a little overweight, probably been going to BGW since 82’, loves the park, is probably wearing some Oakelys and cargo pants, maybe khaki shorts. On his trek from Ireland to France he stops by the wolf exhibit and then proudly exclaims “Do you remember when they used to do that wolf scare zone back here? They don’t do HOS like they used to!” His Platinum lanyard is proudly displayed around his neck, he runs this place. No one is going to tell this guy to put on his mask as he makes his trek from Grogan’s to Griffon.
I think the best way to eliminate these two scenarios is to just ban drinking/eating while walking. If there were rules in place informing guests they had to be consuming something or in a relaxation area I could almost guarantee people would be buying more food and beverage throughout the event. This also eliminates the image of guests walking around maskless throughout the park, it forces a statue quo that guest are required to wear face coverings at all time and intimidates people to follow the rules or be forced to leave. However, as summer fades and the temperature slowly cools, the lack of mask wearing will slowly become less of an issue.
So it would appear that they are prognosticating that Hurricane Laura to boomerang and hit Virginia saturday. I feel like this even has had some seriously bad luck when it comes to weather