COVID-19 Impacts on Kings Dominion

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Kings Dominion has updated its COVID-19 protocols on its website.

Kings Dominion Reopening Plan | Health & Safety | Kings Dominion

We have missed you! Now its time to have some fun--safely! Learn more about Kings Dominion's reopening and Health & Safety plans by visiting our website!
www.kingsdominion.com www.kingsdominion.com

Kings Dominion Fanatics has summarized the important bits:

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mtorange said:
Kings Dominion has updated its COVID-19 protocols on its website.

Kings Dominion Reopening Plan | Health & Safety | Kings Dominion

We have missed you! Now its time to have some fun--safely! Learn more about Kings Dominion's reopening and Health & Safety plans by visiting our website!
www.kingsdominion.com www.kingsdominion.com

Kings Dominion Fanatics has summarized the important bits:

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.
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Someone at KD should work on writing style for that first bullet item. I had to re-read it a couple times to understand what the policy actually is.
 
rswashdc said:
Someone at KD should work on writing style for that first bullet item. I had to re-read it a couple times to understand what the policy actually is.
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Those aren’t KD’s words. Talk to KD Fanatics about it! ?

Also the last bullet point they summarize is actually incorrect. If you buy a single day ticket you do not need a reservation. The ticket is your reservation. Reservation is only needed for season pass holders.
 
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rswashdc said:
That's verbatim off KDs site not rewritten by KD Fanatics.
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I had to search for it, but yeah, I stand corrected. It is there. Just wasn't where I was looking. The part I saw was above that where it says, "Unless fully vaccinated, face coverings are required indoors except while eating or drinking, and outdoors when social distancing cannot be maintained".
 
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Did everyone hear the news. Virginia lifted covid restrictions yesterday. How will this effect the park? Will they drop the reservation system?
 
I hope they drop this reservations system SOON. We bought our passes for Winterfest 2019. We are appreciative of what KD is trying to do but their reservations system just simply is not working as intended. I have sent two emails, messaged on FB, tried to get through on the phone and NOTHING. We have been trying to modify our reservations and it will not let us select new dates for the existing reservations. They either need to fix this system or ditch it altogether. We live three hours away and have to plan our trips out in advance. Only being able to select 4 dates at a time is also not helping us. I regret getting these passes and we will not be renewing for next year as long as any of these restrictions are still in place. Any suggestions? A DIRECT number to actually get someone?
 
They probably will drop reservations, but right now the park is at high demand and reduced efficiency. Even so, they only ran out opening day, which was also a Saturday. Use it to your advantage: if they fill up don't go, it will be bad. If you have to reserve days more than a week in advance, it will be really bad. But any reasonable plan should work out. Tying up reservations is a bigger problem. If you couldn't cancel that's just their problem.

If your situation was marginal for getting passes before Covid, that is unfortunate. Otherwise, it should still be worth it in the end, even if not everything you paid for.
 
I'm curious with the continued reductions in restrictions what capacity the reservations are calculated at - they still going off 50% this weekend or whole hog?
 
BTS202 said:
We have been trying to modify our reservations and it will not let us select new dates for the existing reservations. They either need to fix this system or ditch it altogether.
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I agree that their existing reservation system can use some serious improvements.

However to modify your reservations... when on the KD site, select the Manage Existing Reservations link, then lookup your reservation. You should get a calendar on the right-hand side of the page, with your existing reservation date highlighted. From that calendar, you should then be able to either select a new date (for that same month), or advance to the next month. Once a new date is selected, a Save/Update button then becomes active (for me at least), which allowed me to start a checkout process.

So hopefully this may help.
 
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^^-- yes

My advice 3 posts above is based on a false assumption. This Sunday afternoon I tried to make a reservation. It showed the date but wouldn't let me put it in the cart (for reasons that may or not have been running out). So, unlike other systems, dates may not drop off the calendar and must be verified one date at a time. This only puts the date in the cart and you still don't have to check out.

I took my own advice and blamed the crowd not the reservation system. Then queue-times started looking even worse. At 3:30, I-305 showed 70 mins!, that soon dropped to a steady 45 mins but everything else kept going up, and of course they were only open until 7. Late Sunday was good but I didn't make enough time; should have known Monday would be bad. Note that despite the reported mobs, BGW showed avail. reservations for pass holders, but they were open until 10 so it probably did get somewhat better.
 
outhikn said:
I agree that their existing reservation system can use some serious improvements.

However to modify your reservations... when on the KD site, select the Manage Existing Reservations link, then lookup your reservation. You should get a calendar on the right-hand side of the page, with your existing reservation date highlighted. From that calendar, you should then be able to either select a new date (for that same month), or advance to the next month. Once a new date is selected, a Save/Update button then becomes active (for me at least), which allowed me to start a checkout process.

So hopefully this may help.
Click to expand...
Thank you for this but this is exactly what I tried to do. It would not let me move past selecting ANY new dates. We tried several different dates. Tried 2 different devices and three different browsers.
 
Is KD's current staffing issue, the reason why the park still has the reservation system? Without the reservation system; more guest would be permitted in the park. But if the park does not have enough staff, they may not be able to manage the entire park. My next visit is already booked for 4th of July. Happy to see the park closing at 9pm, which should permit a few night rides.
 
MikeLovesKD said:
Without the reservation system; more guest would be permitted in the park.
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There's no reason to believe that the reservation system is limiting attendance and without it attendance wouldn't be limited. They are two entirely separate things.

Many parks are keeping reservation systems in place despite dropping attendance caps because the reservation systems are super useful for park operations (predicting attendance for staffing and the like especially).

Conversely, many parks that never had a reservation system also had/still do have lower attendance caps than normal—they simply turn guests away at the gates.

Basically neither of these things necessarily lead to the other and the removal of either of these things does not necessarily lead to the removal of the other.
 
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I think reservation systems are going to be a new norm. Never understood anyways the ability to buy a ticket and show up whenever. On demand pricing can happen, they can make F-Sa-Su more expensive as well, they can know better staffing, and they can better adjust ordering in an F&B and Merch Capacity if they better understand trends.
 
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I really hope they are able to figure out their operational needs consistently with such a system when you factor in no-shows, walk-ups, and local events/weather that may impact attendance.
 
Opening day, almost reminded me of KD's original weekend atmosphere. Yes, it was a big difference from the Winterfest and Taste of Season visits. But you can still tell that the capacity number is still limited. The parking lot shows it. There is a decent number of people in the park to justify late evening hours and Fast Lane Plus. Good thing is, they are still able to run our favorite coasters. Depending on the staffing number; I'd say that by July we should see them drop the reservation system. Hershey Park has already dropped theirs.
 
Reservation systems seem inherently problematic due to the possibility (the liklihiood) of people not showing up, while the opposite can't happen. Especially true if the weather isn't great. That can only hurt the bottom line, right? It seems to me that parks are going to want to drop reservations systems as soon as possible.
 
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Crunchewy said:
Reservation systems seem inherently problematic due to the possibility (the liklihiood) of people not showing up, while the opposite can't happen. Especially true if the weather isn't great. That can only hurt the bottom line, right? It seems to me that parks are going to want to drop reservations systems as soon as possible.
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True.

I remember seeing this happen on opening day when I pulled up to the parking booths. It seemed as if there were people who were debating with the parking attendant and then turned the SUV around to head back out to the interstate. I could only assume these were people who did not realize that the park was taking the reservation system serious.

Here is my current hypothesis. The park has said there is a low number of staff. Their current focus is probably making sure there are enough staff members to keep the rides running. Second, comes dining. Are there enough places to eat? For the most part there are. Most of the parks popular dining venues are open. Now; what happens when the park decides to drop the reservation system? It is likely that in July, more people will flood the park. What do these extra guest care more about? Every dining venue being open; or there being enough staff to man the rides? I'd say rides. But this is all subject to how the park decides to staff. Will they employ; more dining staff or ride attendants and janitorial? When it comes to food; I attend to eat small things. I always enjoyed going to Apple Bee's after the park closes.

To extend my hypothesis; I'd say the park is planning for a July attendance increase. The first weekend of July, will throw guest dead smack into the 4th of July atmosphere. Currently, there are still plenty of open reservations for the month of July. I am surprised that it's not already filled up. There could be a few reasons why. A lot of people went during the end of May. Now that state restrictions across our country have been lifted; there are a few more people who are traveling. I could be wrong, but I think I'm right. After being in the house for year; I'd assume you'd want to do something bit more special than KD.
 
MikeLovesKD said:
True.

I remember seeing this happen on opening day when I pulled up to the parking booths. It seemed as if there were people who were debating with the parking attendant and then turned the SUV around to head back out to the interstate. I could only assume these were people who did not realize that the park was taking the reservation system serious.

Here is my current hypothesis. The park has said there is a low number of staff. Their current focus is probably making sure there are enough staff members to keep the rides running. Second, comes dining. Are there enough places to eat? For the most part there are. Most of the parks popular dining venues are open. Now; what happens when the park decides to drop the reservation system? It is likely that in July, more people will flood the park. What do these extra guest care more about? Every dining venue being open; or there being enough staff to man the rides? I'd say rides. But this is all subject to how the park decides to staff. Will they employ; more dining staff or ride attendants and janitorial? When it comes to food; I attend to eat small things. I always enjoyed going to Apple Bee's after the park closes.

To extend my hypothesis; I'd say the park is planning for a July attendance increase. The first weekend of July, will throw guest dead smack into the 4th of July atmosphere. Currently, there are still plenty of open reservations for the month of July. I am surprised that it's not already filled up. There could be a few reasons why. A lot of people went during the end of May. Now that state restrictions across our country have been lifted; there are a few more people who are traveling. I could be wrong, but I think I'm right. After being in the house for year; I'd assume you'd want to do something bit more special than KD.
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KD is putting quite a bit of focus on dining this year. Their web page has many job openings for culinary positions that are full-time, year round positions. Up until this year, most food related jobs offers were seasonal positions.

What I find interesting is the fact that the park is having a hard time finding life guards for the waterpark this year. In years past, it appeared the park had no problem filling life guard positions. I always thought the water park was better staffed than the dry park during the prime summer season. Many times I saw life guards working the dry side of the park before and after the water parks scheduled operating days.
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Yes, COVID has thrown a major wrench into filling job positions across all industries and businesses. But, the related restrictions and closures seem to be having a far deeper inpact on the US workforce and what work conditions folks want to accept before taking a job. Whether or not this is temporary or permanent remains to be seen.
 
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