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I can attest, in 4+ seasons, I never heard that big of a number. Low 30's it's even a tough number to achieve

@warfelg Having worked for decades in property management I'm well aware of mandated parking ratios. I believe I quoted the JCC ratio somewhere in the Sesame Place thread when parking garages were being suggested.

Just an aside, I wonder how the BGW ratio works in that the overflow lots are located in York County with the park and main lots in JCC.

Well once you factor in employee parking, we are roughly at a 1:1700 ration parking:sqft. But that’s based on property owned since I don’t have a good measure of the park itself.

Using a mapping program the rough area of the actual park is 5,500,000 squarefeet, giving 1 spot per 720 square feet.

For parking, the number of spots is run through JCC (from what I understood in reading) with the zoning for the lots through York County, with JCC understanding that not all parking is in their county. I’ve worked on a project like it before, typically the counties do some type of trade off with each other, so maybe elsewhere JCC did something like rezone something from single family dwellings to multi family for a town center right on the county line so the developer has an expansion plot.

EDIT: In general there's going to be less parking per square foot based on anticipating on a certain number of busses, multiple families in one car, and other large groups in non-busses. Also there's shuttles from hotels, but you would anticipate that to be much bigger in certain parks than other ones. (Anticipation that BGW would be on the low end of that spectrum, and WDW on the high end). That all plays into it, but generally you can use it to give a good guidance. I'd also say keep in mind because there's an overflow lot doesn't mean you can hit what the park should hold and still be using it. If you got more busses than anticipated you could not use all the parking and be at that top end. I'd say that most likely they figured the max parking spots by assuming minimal bus groups.
 
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It's my understanding that BGW has never reached 40K admissions in a single day—let alone 40K in the park at the same time.

I have heard it before, and it has also been explained to me that, once the park reaches these high numbers, they stop recording the actual in park numbers for legal reasons. The numbers still get added into the total, just not by the hour.

The park hasn't reached these numbers in a while, admittedly. The last I heard these numbers were during a Howl-o-Scream a few years ago.
 
It needs to be figured using a attendance number near the maxium of the park capacity then figure a percentage of that. Then the park can drop that number even more if they see fit, but the park definately dosent want to short themselves by the numbers.

Sorry but disagree on how you are getting there.

@Zachary is spot on that it starts by how much staff is there. Parks are going to get to their number by #1 and government regulations. But if they are to open on their own, the thing they need to start with is what can open and what can't. Closing rides, indoor theaters, dining areas all means that there's less staff, so that's going to cut into the maximum number of people they can have in the park.

Just to make some math easy here, lets say a random park has everything offer and figures the most number people they can allow in with everything running is 50,000.
Then they decide that 30% of the attractions and indoor areas. That reduction would already cut the number of people allowed in by a close to comparable amount, to say 35,000.
They might then decide that based on that, they need a reduction to only allow 30% of that in. That would be 10,500 in the park.
A severe reduction based on the theoretical 50% or 25% max.
 
I see what your saying. But I just dont think parks want to back themselves in a corner with numbers. What if a park lists the max capacity much lower than what it was precovid, then they must stay under 25% for now by law(just guessing). Then in a few weeks they are operating good and decide they want to slowly allow more and more guests in daily because the park isnt having any issues but are barely breaking even money wise. Now they are stuck with that 25% cap of a lower capacity. I just think that a park would want to list the highest possible capacity they can to then leave it up to them on how many they let in. Also, god forbid something happens and there is a outbreak at a park, it would look much better on them saying they were only letting in 10% even though the law allowed 25% they were taking stricter measures than what was required.
 
So your getting into why it could be ugly for parks to even fudge numbers at all here. The looks don't matter in the court of law should something happen, because this is mostly being done on raw numbers. Yea sure 10% could look great on paper, but if that 10% in raw numbers is more than 25% in raw numbers, the percent becomes meaningless.

Hence most the guidance is going to come from the government levels IMO for larger scale places at least. There's also going to be great restrictions when groups need to be 6 feet apart in a queue even if they to virtual, removal of some seating, and things like that. By the time all the guidelines are set, the state/local government would effectively end up setting the number for parks.
 
Meanwhile Tokyo Disneyland goes TBD on opening and their expansion opening as well. (Attached is in English)

 
Lake Compounce made an announcement today:
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It should also be noted, they offer two admission types. You can purchase a full-day admission or you can purchase an afternoon admission valid after 2pm. Another thing to look at is how the system works, as so many people here had concerns about it. There is obviously a disclaimer message at the top of the website advising guests about social distancing and limited capacity. No exact numbers or any specifics. The system allows you to select the number of guests and a date. If a date is sold out, the date will be greyed out and unable to select.

While all full day admissions for the first three days have sold out, there are still half day admissions for every day.
 
Cedar Fair has launched an update for all Cedar Fair Parks. Here are some highlights.
  1. It looks like all new 2020 attractions are still scheduled to open on time. Construction has resumed on these projects.
  2. All Grand Carnivale celebrations will be postponed to 2021.
  3. Knott’s Berry Farm and Cedar Point have postponed their 100th and 150th Anniversary Celebrations to 2021.
  4. Carowinds, Dorney Park, Kings Island, and Worlds of Fun are postponing their Summer Nights festivals to 2021.
  5. Monster Jam Thunder Alley is ready to go at Carowinds when the park reopens, but it will NOT be going to California’s Great America or Valleyfair this season. There is no word on if these parks will get this event in 2021.
  6. Some parks have postponed their Run and Ride to 2021 while Kings Dominion has made the decision to make their race a virtual one.
  7. Valleyfair has postponed its Peanuts Celebration to 2021.
  8. Memorial Day events have been postponed to 2021.
 
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Amusement Parks will NOT open during Phase One of Virginia’s reopening plan. Not really a surprise there. It is currently unknown if they will open during Phase Two or Three.
 
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So I just watched the video from Shanghi Disneyland and it left me thinking there zero chance that will work in US parks. Look at rope drops and the pushing for SWGE, there is no way people would stop for those blocked off areas. Granted crowd size will be lower but americans still have the mindset from before. Basically go to ant Walmart and look at the floor markings, no one follows the floor arrows and when people do stand on the 6ft marks at the registers people try and get in front of them. We are trained to fill the space and its going to be hard to break that. Also about the masks, there are a number of Tweets saying that masks there arent being enforced and is being encouraged to be removed for photos despite the media footage provided by the park.
 
So I just watched the video from Shanghi Disneyland and it left me thinking there zero chance that will work in US parks. Look at rope drops and the pushing for SWGE, there is no way people would stop for those blocked off areas. Granted crowd size will be lower but americans still have the mindset from before. Basically go to ant Walmart and look at the floor markings, no one follows the floor arrows and when people do stand on the 6ft marks at the registers people try and get in front of them. We are trained to fill the space and its going to be hard to break that. Also about the masks, there are a number of Tweets saying that masks there arent being enforced and is being encouraged to be removed for photos despite the media footage provided by the park.
My thought is the lower attendance should encourage better behavior on its own. IME when the parks aren't busy, people tend to be more courteous and less competitive as everyone is going to get on the rides they want with minimal waits. It's when the parks are packed and people get inpatient that the crowding and competition starts getting worse.

Taking off masks for photos or when socially distanced is not a risk. Masks are for when social distancing is not possible or for indoors where the virus spread is significantly more likely from droplets not dissipating.
 
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