For those unhappy with BGWs policies, I’ve been seeing some comments on Facebook from Hershey pass holders that due to visits to ZooAmerica in the winter they won’t have their passes extended into 2021 season.
COVID-19’s Impacts on BGW
- Thread starter WDWRLD
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Busch presented their reopening plans to JCC today 5,000 is their minimum to reopen. They were very critical of the 1,000 limit.
wydaily.com
It’s going to be Phase 3, but still hazy for Busch Gardens Williamsburg | Williamsburg Yorktown Daily
Gov. Ralph Northam has officially announced plans to move into Phase 3 reopening July 1, but some local leaders are unhappy with what this means for Busch Gardens. Under Phase 3 guidelines…
wydaily.com
Thanks for the article link ^^^^^^
Sad for BG and the Historic Triangle economy. I do, however, appreciate the snarky comments the local politicians made. Hopefully they get the governor's office to reconsider.
Also, interesting how they calculated the sq. ft. per person assuming no one was on an attraction, queue, store or eatery. Also, did they assume all guests were solo guests? A family of 4 would need less square footage for social distancing than 4 solo visitors.
If appeals for on death ears, I do hope they consider a law suit. Lumping theme parks like BG with bowling allies, and not the beach, is arbitrary, capricious, and without rational basis.
Sad for BG and the Historic Triangle economy. I do, however, appreciate the snarky comments the local politicians made. Hopefully they get the governor's office to reconsider.
Also, interesting how they calculated the sq. ft. per person assuming no one was on an attraction, queue, store or eatery. Also, did they assume all guests were solo guests? A family of 4 would need less square footage for social distancing than 4 solo visitors.
If appeals for on death ears, I do hope they consider a law suit. Lumping theme parks like BG with bowling allies, and not the beach, is arbitrary, capricious, and without rational basis.
There are a lot of other big venues in that category as well - concert venues, stadiums, race tracks, etc. What’s crazy is you could have a huge indoor establishment with over 1k occupancy that is classified as a restaurant or gym (e.g. a big wedding venue), and have over 1,000 people in there while being in compliance with the phase 3 guidelines.
Counterpoint: Density isn't the only name of the game here. There is something to reducing the overall total pool of potentially infected people at any given time (read: justification for the 1000 limit). Contact tracing is essentially impossible when the potential exposure for a single confirmed case numbers in the thousands. A larger pool of potential exposure can turn one case into a serious community outbreak over the course of a single day.
I have serious issues with what I see as inconsistent enforcement of these policies and I support BGW suing to have them corrected or at least explained, but I also don't believe that the entire concept of the policy, as it is printed, is insane. If it were enforced equally across the board (looking at you packed beaches, busy ticketed nature parks, popular gated botanical gardens, etc), I wouldn't be so frustrated.
I have serious issues with what I see as inconsistent enforcement of these policies and I support BGW suing to have them corrected or at least explained, but I also don't believe that the entire concept of the policy, as it is printed, is insane. If it were enforced equally across the board (looking at you packed beaches, busy ticketed nature parks, popular gated botanical gardens, etc), I wouldn't be so frustrated.
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Contact tracing is MUCH easier at BG than beaches, botanical gardens, etc. At BG, they (theoretically) have contact info for every single guest.
Also, regarding the number of potential exposures; here's another counterpoint:
People are going to be finding things to do on nice summer days. In my area, I'm seeing lots of people starting to gather in groups without social distancing and masks. Whether BG is opened or closed, the people will be out and about.
If you have 5k-7k people at BG, that's less potential people at the beach, shopping malls, etc. The more high capacity venues we have open, the more spread out people will be, overall.
And, at BG, you have staff and signs encouraging social distancing. I'd rather have those people at BG, where social distancing will be (at the minimum) encouraged and high potential for contact tracing, than have those people at the beach and such, which will not have the same potential for social distancing enforcement and contact tracing.
P.S. this is a sad day for our family. Our HOA just announced they plan on keeping the pool closed the entire summer because they are worried about law suits.
I totally agree with you RE: contact tracing and social distancing opportunities at a theme park compared to beaches and the like. Frankly, I haven't seen a good justification for why we're allowing huge crowds of tourists to hit our beaches every day. I'm no doctor, but by my eye, that looks a ton more dangerous than visiting an amusement park. Hence, my frustration with the seemingly inequitable enforcement of these policies.
This is where things are about to get really sticky for BGW. They are still taking peoples $$$, and have the ability to open (per the Governor), but are now not opening for financial / profit reasons. Its a different situation and should ethically change their approach to passes, refunds, benefits, extensions, etc. I get it, there is a point where it doesn't make sense to open / reopen, but you can't just keep taking automatic payments when the BUSINESS made that decision (for financial reasons) versus the government making decisions (for safety reasons). Will be interesting...
I would agree with this if 50% capacity and 1000 person limits were across the board regardless of business. IMO the idea of letting bars open indoors with no capacity restrictions beyond the one imposed by the fire marshal is insane, particularly when there are spread events occurring at bars in other states in the news.
I think BGW or KDs lawsuit argument is pretty easy to make as there seems to be little consistency with how the guidelines are put out and I'd bet there's little if any justification behind the guidelines besides using round numbers that sound good.
Problem with theme parks are touch points, confined areas (pre-shows, indoor rides, etc.), queuing, food supply, and literally people yelling / screaming.
I think this may be the year we ALL go on hiatus from the park. Not by choice though ?
why can’t we be more like florida and have a plan fo opening up???
ooh yea....
ooh yea....
I just realized what a wonderfully quiet summer this must be for the residents of Kingsmill! They must be very happy.
Zero chance thanks to the governor
Not really I mean technically they could be open 12 months a year but are not yet they still take payments 12 months a year. I am not saying it's right for them to keep taking payment while not opening or that it's a good PR move just that I don't see an argument for them not to be able to do so.
Not really. If they open with a 1000 person cap, they would need to severely limit the number of times each person could come to allow equal opportunity to all members/passholders. This limit would be so small that no one would get an equitable value of visits for the price of the pass. The result is basically the same as if they don't open at all.
Kingsmill created the coronavirus.
And is this the result of theme parks or beaches?
Given the lead time between exposure and testing... I would say they should open BGW and close Virginia Beach!
I think it's too early to know the impact of park reopenings in FL too. That said, the numbers out of FL CLEARLY show they are doing something VERY wrong so it probably behooves VA to only follow in any of their footsteps with extreme caution.