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Apr 22, 2019
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Not sure where to put this, so I'll put it here. KD has closed early an unprecedented number of times this season. They closed early again yesterday, ostensibly because of "weather', but often the weather does not seem bad when they do this. Is attendance way down this season and so they are closing early because of low attendance or what?
 
Not sure where to put this, so I'll put it here. KD has closed early an unprecedented number of times this season. They closed early again yesterday, ostensibly because of "weather', but often the weather does not seem bad when they do this. Is attendance way down this season and so they are closing early because of low attendance or what?

It is weather driven. Even if attendance was low they would stay open if it weren’t raining. With weather like that you have to account for rides that can’t operate; electrical activity; how heavy the rain is.
 
Thanks for moving this to the right thread! KD closing for actual weather is one thing, but last year they kept rides open and stayed open in rain unless it was severe. This year they close for even the lightest of rain. It seems like an excuse. They cancelled pass holder ERT night on Friday when not only didn't it rain much, but by 8 PM the chance of rain was to be basically 0%.
 
Of course it's because of low attendance. If the weather was crap, but the park was packed with people spending money, they'd for sure stay open. But, if the weather's crap, and there's nobody there, they're losing money. So, they close due to weather. Yes, they're really closing due to lack of profit, but that is caused, of course, by the weather.
 
It's a combination of both. I can only speak of how BGW handles it but it has nothing to do with rain and more to do with thunder and lightning. Rain has no effect on rides operating but if there is lightning or thunder detected in a certain radius they close the rides. This is why sometimes rides can be closed for weather when it isn't raining.

As far as closing early there are a lot of factors that go into it. Most of them involve the weather. Take Friday for instance. There was prolonged flash flood warnings all afternoon along with heavy rain. Did the rain subside around 8? Yes but it wouldn't have been safe to expect anyone to come up there for the event in the hours preceding.

Attendance does factor into the closing early. If the weather is so poor that no one is there and based on when the storm clears it will be too late for people to come then it just makes sense to close the park early.
 
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Regarding the Friday passholder night, they should have rescheduled rather than just cancelling it, especially since they've said each one will have different rides open. But that's a different issue.
 
Looks like my response wasn’t moved but everyone has hit at it. Between electrical activity, rides that need to close in the rain, and lack of guests, parks closing early isn’t a statement on lack of guests. I would bet if they could last minute stay open an extra hour on nice days they would easily do it.
 
The park closed early at 7 instead of 8. It quite litterally rained all day. I don't see the problem. Tickets dated for yesterday can be used again once through the rest of summer.

^ This. We're not at last year levels where the park was closing at 4pm 4 days out of the week for half the month.
 
Admin Note: I am moderating between meetings, so I didn't get a chance to say that I created this thread. I think warfelg's initial response came in while I was moving the OP. I have moved it, as well, now. Sorry for any confusion.
 
No rain until 7 and they close at 3. That only means one thing. They are closing for low attendance. This is why I longer travel to this park. It’s not worth the risk of when they constantly close for low attendance.

This is exactly why their attendance is so low despite prime location. 568C3605-D750-4721-A4FD-B20CF8B60E13.png
 
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Perhaps waiting until prime season may be in order if you think they're going to shut down early?
 
Nasty storms were forecast yesterday and everyone was aware of it. From a business perspective if attendance is low and there are nasty storms coming which will prevent attendance to begin with it makes sense to shut down for the day. KDs problem is that it has strong competition and supports a metropolitan area with not that many people directly and the huge one the other way requires interacting with the traffic apocalypse that is I-95 between Fredericksburg and DC. Otherwise I think the park does fine attendance wise. Go on a Saturday in the summer I can't really imagine walking away from the place thinking its struggling after seeing it that busy.
 
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The weather was really unpredictable yesterday. In NOVA the forecast was a little bit of light showers and it absolutely poured for a couple hours.
 
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The National Weather Service in Wakefield placed the Hanover area under a TORNADO WATCH from 5-9 yesterday afternoon. Closing two hours before that seems wise to allow guest to start to leave the area and not get caught if the storm moved faster then expected.
 
Most of these closures are 100% attendance related. They have done it so much that they have now chased away their customers on these less than ideal days.

They should just not open at all if there is rain forecast at this point. Their reputation is destroyed already. KD is a low attendance park. They don’t get major attractions anymore. They have dug this ditch themselves.

I have been burnt by this park multiple times after traveling. I won’t be going back much. Especially with their short hours.

What a shame a park with so much potential in prime location is run like this. Pinching pennies ends up costing dollars at the gate.
 
Most of these closures are 100% attendance related. They have done it so much that they have now chased away their customers on these less than ideal days.

They should just not open at all if there is rain forecast at this point. Their reputation is destroyed already. KD is a low attendance park. They don’t get major attractions anymore. They have dug this ditch themselves.

I have been burnt by this park multiple times after traveling. I won’t be going back much. Especially with their short hours.

What a shame a park with so much potential in prime location is run like this. Pinching pennies ends up costing dollars at the gate.
So wait I want to make sure I understand this the park is in bad shape because they gave you 4 hours of enjoyment instead of the ZERO that they would have given you by closing? So if they had ca n canceled the whole day you wouldn't be on here screaming about how KD closed when weather wasn't expected to be an issue till 5 or 7 that evening?

I 100% support KD's decision on the matter on Thursday. A few points for why this was the right call. As U said before the area was under a Tornado watch starting at 5. On top of that Thursday's storms were almost identical to the ones a week before which Watches rapidly became warnings when those storms spond at least two funnel clouds within probably 10 miles if KD. Thankfully those did not touch down. It's also worth noting that parks don't just shutdown and close there is a huge amount of shutdown work that is required especially with weather like that approaching. KD did tge right thing by allowing enough time for their guest to leave before it potentially got dangerous. And again did the right thing by allowing enough time for their staff to close and get out and to a safe place. The worst possible situation would have been them waiting and people getting caught on the roads if this thing started spinning of Tornados. I mean where are you going to go on 95 if one is coming at you?
 
Most of these closures are 100% attendance related. They have done it so much that they have now chased away their customers on these less than ideal days.

They should just not open at all if there is rain forecast at this point. Their reputation is destroyed already. KD is a low attendance park. They don’t get major attractions anymore. They have dug this ditch themselves.

I have been burnt by this park multiple times after traveling. I won’t be going back much. Especially with their short hours.

What a shame a park with so much potential in prime location is run like this. Pinching pennies ends up costing dollars at the gate.

Do you have any data to back any of these claims?

How do you know what percentage of early closures are a result of attendance versus weather? I think there is a fair likelihood that low attendance is very often the result of current or forecasted weather. So, the two issues are probably inextricably linked. If people don’t visit the park, because of temperatures or rain, or if people leave en masse because of storms or tornadoes, is the park closing for weather or attendance?

I certainly hope the park values the safety of its guests and staff above remaining open in dangerous weather conditions, regardless.

Additionally, as a business I’m not sure they should stay open, when the number of people in the park becomes too low to justify the expense of paying staff and running rides/stores/restaurants/etc. Does it suck? Sure. But irresponsible business decisions are a direct path to a degraded park experience in the long run. I’m not saying that they should close when there aren’t huge crowds. I’m defending the logic of shutting down, when weather (or whatever) has driven most guests away.

I‘m sorry you have had some bad experiences, but I’m not sure how they lead you to believe: “Their reputation is destroyed already. KD is a low attendance park. They don’t get major attractions anymore. They have dug this ditch themselves.”

They are literally in the process of a major area retheme, and my understanding is that there will be a replacement for Volcano relatively soon. Do you have some evidence that they reputation is getting worse? Do you have statistics on their daily attendance levels? On what are you basing any of these accusations?

As has already been suggested, if you are traveling from a long distance, maybe you shouldn’t pick days when there is a predictable threat of weather closures.
 
Started raining in F'burg earlier than that, I was considering going as the worst of it was supposed to go through around 5, but never did get exactly good. Note the crowds were not exactly evidence in support of the 8PM close on either Sunday or Friday (it was great).

Nasty storms were forecast yesterday and everyone was aware of it. From a business perspective if attendance is low and there are nasty storms coming which will prevent attendance to begin with it makes sense to shut down for the day. KDs problem is that it has strong competition and supports a metropolitan area with not that many people directly and the huge one the other way requires interacting with the traffic apocalypse that is I-95 between Fredericksburg and DC. Otherwise I think the park does fine attendance wise. Go on a Saturday in the summer I can't really imagine walking away from the place thinking its struggling after seeing it that busy.
I've been to KD so many times when there were more cars in the employee lot than the guest's. Of course that's what I'm trying for, but not going to complain (much) doesn't always work. Most people aren't going to complain because they're NOT THERE. So glad the park also makes money sometimes. Nature of the business.

I've seen them close early, but also stay open until close with no real hope of rides reopening for the last 1.5 hours. There's probably a formula.
 
If there is a tornado watch and KD has time to close and evacuate the park, they would be potentially negligent trying to keep the park open. There are some storm shelters in the park, but they are largely above ground and only provide basic protection from a tornado.

While the park may save a little money on operations shutting down early, the safety factor is a much bigger consideration as I doubt the park can safely protect thousands of guests in the unfortunate scenario that a tornado actually did roll through.
 
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