I'm very anti-Pre-K Pass in general, but I too think the age limit should be raised by a year next season to allow the kids who would have gotten it this year to use it next year. Many people plan admission purchases around the existance of that product. Not compensating it seems unacceptable in my opinion.
COVID-19’s Impacts on BGW
- Thread starter WDWRLD
- Start date
With the CDC finally acknowledging aerosol transmission, I’m curious if this changes any of the ways SEAS is interpreting the science of COVID. My general sense is that it doesn’t, although I do wonder if this changes the risk assessment of opening Festhaus for the Christmas event.
Maybe the wrong thread, but today at Yankee Candle Village in Williamsburg there’s a sign up front with the maximum limited capacity listed at 1,200 during this time. Looking at the Pandora section, a kind older lady started talking about how they have had over 1,000 people in the shops the past few Saturdays during peak times. Apparently they were given permission to operate at 1,200.... So if 1,200 people are allowed inside of a medium sized building, why can’t more than 1,000 people be spread out across acres and acres at BGW?
This is more of a rant and I’m not expecting any replies. I’m so annoyed for all parks in VA right now. Where are these numbers coming from smh... sigh
This is more of a rant and I’m not expecting any replies. I’m so annoyed for all parks in VA right now. Where are these numbers coming from smh... sigh
The sign on their building says the max they can have in the building is 1200 people at a given time. They operate under the guidelines for retail stores which, I believe, allows them to have 50% of their official capacity.
To the point that @VAparkLover makes, this is something where I cannot make any sense of the guidelines that VA has. It simply makes 0 sense that a large indoor location can operate at a higher capacity than a substantially larger outdoor location.
Edit: I updated some grammar because it's, apparently, difficult to do it properly when you are half asleep. Who knew?
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I never thought I would see the day where Yankee Candle is pulling in more people and money(possibly) than Busch Gardens. (Although that Yankee Candle is really nice and unique)
For a comparison, Yankee Candle is just under 50,000 sq ft. Festhaus alone is just over 60,000.
I can't imagine even a few hundred people in there at once before the pandemic, let alone over a thousand now.... Sheesh
if they consider Festhaus a restaurant boom It can open at 50% capacity. Just have it separate from the coasters.
They'd have to create Festhaus as a legal separate company and create legal agreements between BGW and Festhaus for operations. It's a lot of legal and HR work for a policy that should go away at some point.
I know there’s a lot of discussion right now on the Halloween and Christmas limited capacity events this year, but I’m started to get curious on what strategy the park is likely beginning to discuss internally about 2021. Yes, there’s a great deal of uncertainty with Covid surges, the election, and a vaccine. But I’m particularly curious on a few things to consider:
1- Could the park do a new limited capacity event in February themed to Valentine’s Day? Yes, it would be cold but it would be outside and with many other entertainment venues like movie theaters bring closed and a lack of in person sporting events, it may make sense for the park to try something in February which is usually a month where the park is closed and doing annual maintenance.
2- Could the park just wait until late Spring and lobby the hell out of the State government for loosened restrictions to open fully back up? Assuming of course a vaccine is readily available. I say this because I think the industry is going to put a lot more pressure on state and local governments next year assuming their is a vaccine, to operate their business in a less restrictive environment than this year. We are starting to see this now in California with Disney and their Governor.
The theme park business (especially seasonal parks) generally lose money in Q1 of every year given the colder weather in normal times (no pandemic). 2021 could be the year where it makes sense to get creative again to keep some revenue coming in.
Any thoughts here? I’d love to be a fly in the wall for the planning of the 2021 season. Unfortunately, 2021 likely won’t be a normal year given the lingering effects of this pandemic, but it should be a better environment for the theme park business than this year. How it all turns out is the biggest question right now.
1- Could the park do a new limited capacity event in February themed to Valentine’s Day? Yes, it would be cold but it would be outside and with many other entertainment venues like movie theaters bring closed and a lack of in person sporting events, it may make sense for the park to try something in February which is usually a month where the park is closed and doing annual maintenance.
2- Could the park just wait until late Spring and lobby the hell out of the State government for loosened restrictions to open fully back up? Assuming of course a vaccine is readily available. I say this because I think the industry is going to put a lot more pressure on state and local governments next year assuming their is a vaccine, to operate their business in a less restrictive environment than this year. We are starting to see this now in California with Disney and their Governor.
The theme park business (especially seasonal parks) generally lose money in Q1 of every year given the colder weather in normal times (no pandemic). 2021 could be the year where it makes sense to get creative again to keep some revenue coming in.
Any thoughts here? I’d love to be a fly in the wall for the planning of the 2021 season. Unfortunately, 2021 likely won’t be a normal year given the lingering effects of this pandemic, but it should be a better environment for the theme park business than this year. How it all turns out is the biggest question right now.
I definitely think the idea has to be on the table: it’s untested, and would be weather dependent obviously, but Valentine’s would have appeal to younger kids (a heart scavenger hunt like the pumpkin one) and obviously a lot of what these events have been trying to pitch is a socially distanced outdoors date night option. I’m guessing they might do some surveying of members to see if they would come out for it, beyond those of us who would show up just to see the progress on Pantheon.
Obviously, the park is hoping that between a vaccine, the possibility of nationwide mandates that curb the spread of the virus, and Virginia remaining on the right side of national trends, they might be able to operate closer to the 5-7k number they had originally wanted to open at. But that is completely out of their hands at this point, and in some ways they lost their leverage to do anything about that in the short term by choosing to open in a limited capacity.
But Cedar Fair will be joining the lobbying effort come March, meaning that there will be a different kind of pressure. Given current trends, I think there’s a very real possibility that BGW could be running limited events through April, with the goal being (as it was this year) to open at a higher capacity in time for Memorial Day, aka the start of the season and likely a target for Pantheon’s opening.
I do think the idea for them to do something in January and February has some merit. Without giving anything away stay tuned. ?
Beyond that I think that the park would be very disappointed if they were not operating at least at 30% capacity when they open in March.
The following I'm saying without really knowing but honestly it wouldn't surprise me, if the capacity restrictions didn't change in VA by March that SEAS and CF could jointly sue the state to increase their capacity. CF already did this in Ohio. It seems even more likely to me, if the governor doesn't loosen restrictions given that we know that there are places currently operating at a higher capacity than BGW (see earlier in the thread about Yankee Candle).
www.ketv.com
Beyond that I think that the park would be very disappointed if they were not operating at least at 30% capacity when they open in March.
The following I'm saying without really knowing but honestly it wouldn't surprise me, if the capacity restrictions didn't change in VA by March that SEAS and CF could jointly sue the state to increase their capacity. CF already did this in Ohio. It seems even more likely to me, if the governor doesn't loosen restrictions given that we know that there are places currently operating at a higher capacity than BGW (see earlier in the thread about Yankee Candle).
After Ohio theme park files lawsuit to demand reopening, governor sets reopening date
A day after Kings Island filed a lawsuit seeking to reopen, Gov. Mike DeWine announced a reopening date for Ohio's casinos, racinos, amusement parks and water parks.
www.ketv.com
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I do think the idea for them do something in January and February has some merit. Without giving anything away stay tuned. ?
Beyond that I think that the park would be very disappointed if they were not operating at least at 30% capacity when they open in March.
The following I'm saying without really knowing but honestly it wouldn't surprise us the capacity restrictions didn't change in VA by March that SEAS and CF could jointly sue the state to increase their capacity. CF already did this in Ohio. It seems even more likely to me, if the governor doesn't loosen restrictions given that we know that there are places currently operating at a higher capacity than BGW (see earlier in the thread about Yankee Candle).
After Ohio theme park files lawsuit to demand reopening, governor sets reopening date
A day after Kings Island filed a lawsuit seeking to reopen, Gov. Mike DeWine announced a reopening date for Ohio's casinos, racinos, amusement parks and water parks.
I definitely could see one if they 'have the receipts' so to speak of indoor businesses being at the same capacity in addition to 6 months of safe operations. And at that point I think it would be an easy win for the parks to go for pushing capacity because at that point they have proved to be safe, played by every rule, and could say the science doesn't support why one business can have 1500 people indoors but another can only have the same number in 100x the space outdoors.
The receipts should be easy enough to get. Under the current restrictions if you are a retail store it looks like they can operate at 50% of their capacity. From there they just need to look at the records for what the fire marshal deems their capacity. Should be simple enough to prove that there are smaller locations with more people
Unless COVID spikes again, as experts are predicting, and those other locations turn into hotspots.
The inconsistency in business treatment was a big part of the PA lawsuit and the State really didn’t have much of a response to why one business type was treated different than another. I’d assume it would be similar in VA if a lawsuit came up.
Hmmm she’s dead!? From one of the ride queue videos.
