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Coronavirus Impacting Theme Parks


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2 hours ago, flightoffear1996 said:

We all know the effect of this is going to hard on the parks for this year but I wonder how much this is going to delay the development of future rides and attractions. 

I'm wondering what the state of the economy will be like after this is all said and done. This is just affecting parks, but just about every business except food, sanitizer and toilet paper industries. I think that alone will slow progression of park expansions. 

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Well, the election is not happening in Ohio. Also, he is calling for finishing the school year at home. Not sure how I feel about that or how it will be done, practically. I know that there is a way students can do things online, but are they ready to be able to do that on such short notice? Then again, with schools already having kids doing their school work at home for the next 3 weeks, it may give them time to have online lessons ready to finish the year.

I heard on local news that Trump is saying that this could extend well into late summer. That could be bad news for theme parks and regional parks. Very bad news for people in general. Think about all of the service related jobs there are, should there be a national or even all states decide to quarantine. It not only affects their ability to earn, but also any company that they are indebted to would be affected. Such as, banks (mortgages, car loans, personal loans, credit card debts), insurance company that provide insurance on homes, property and cars. I'm sure I'm leaving out several other related issues that would be affected.

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This is going to go on well into july or august....Honestly, CF needs to address this elephant in the room before we start stopping our payment plans.

At this point I'm already $400+ in...money I could really use now for more important things...so is it wise to let it keep pouring out? I've accepted that this month's payment is going out...but really at this point Cedar Fair needs to tell me what it is I'm purchasing before I let anymore go out.

Sorry if this makes me come off like an ass, but I'm sure I'm not the only one...

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29 minutes ago, raggedman07 said:

This is going to go on well into july or august....Honestly, CF needs to address this elephant in the room before we start stopping our payment plans.

At this point I'm already $400+ in...money I could really use now for more important things...so is it wise to let it keep pouring out? I've accepted that this month's payment is going out...but really at this point Cedar Fair needs to tell me what it is I'm purchasing before I let anymore go out.

Sorry if this makes me come off like an ass, but I'm sure I'm not the only one...

This is uncharted territory for sure, there is just no way CF is going to spew the "no rainchecks, no refund" line on all the season pass holders, basically half their customer base.  That would be corporate suicide and they know it. It could take decades to get that customer base back.

I would highly caution against putting a stop payment order on the payment plan.  For one banks and going to charge you for that and second it breaks the credit agreement.  That will be reported to the credit agencies.  If you are KI Gold pass holder KI has not broken the agreement at all at this point.  If you are desperate then do what you have to do to protect your family, but this is all moving so fast, give CF a little time to come up with a strategy for this.  See my previous post in this thread about what they did for my wife's Platinum Pass the season she could not attend at all. 

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8 minutes ago, flightoffear1996 said:

We will continue to pay in hopes the parks open or Cedar Fair does the right thing. We were planning on traveling to all Cedar Fair parks this summer and trying for a new baby next year. We are putting a backup plan in case. 

Maybe you should try for the baby this year with all your free time now and visit the parks next year :P 

Imagine the new set of baby boomers being born in the next 9-12 months...

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6 minutes ago, Phantom Theater said:

I definitely didn't think that CF should need to do any kind of refunds or other compensation for a delayed opening, but if the opening is delayed by more than a month then I definitely agree that they should do something for passholders. 

Knotts is closed, if they are closed for at least 3 months that effects the platinum passholder instead of the Kings Island gold passholder.

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What the hell are you talking about?
Even if a "national lockdown" or ordered closure of non-essential businesses occurs, we're a far way from martial law—let alone the national guard gunning people down in the streets.
That's not even occurring in other nations.  

He asked how it would be enforced. I just shared a possibility. Not saying they would do that in this situation. Lol


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1 hour ago, raggedman07 said:

This is going to go on well into july or august....Honestly, CF needs to address this elephant in the room before we start stopping our payment plans.

At this point I'm already $400+ in...money I could really use now for more important things...so is it wise to let it keep pouring out? I've accepted that this month's payment is going out...but really at this point Cedar Fair needs to tell me what it is I'm purchasing before I let anymore go out.

Sorry if this makes me come off like an ass, but I'm sure I'm not the only one...

 

28 minutes ago, Phantom Theater said:

I definitely didn't think that CF should need to do any kind of refunds or other compensation for a delayed opening, but if the opening is delayed by more than a month then I definitely agree that they should do something for passholders. 

 

Since we know the park reads this forums, maybe a poll needs to be started so that we can provide input on this situation and give our opinions on things such as:

  • How long is too long of a delayed opening before you would like to see a pro-rated refund?
  • How long into the season would they have to go before you would feel it is best to simply scrap this season and make the 2020 passes good for 2021?  Is it a July opening, August opening, earlier or later?
  • Would you like to be offered a refund instead of a partial season?
  • Would you accept payment plans to stop without penalty?
  • Can those that purchased platinum be credited back to revert to gold if the travelling to other parks now doesn't work for you?
  • Are you ok with a "our policy is no refunds" and sorry for your luck?
  • Any other thoughts on how CF should consider addressing the situation
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I would not expect refunds of passes to be possible anywhere in the industry except maybe Disney, as most of the money earned on prepaid season pass products has likely been spent. Depending on how long this goes on, we might see amusement parks lengthening the validity of passes or offering special discounts on renewals.

Looking at the Cedar Fair job site, it appears that Kings Island positions are no longer available to apply for as of this afternoon. This is a change from last night. This would be expected, since it's impossible to offer a job without a known start date, and the CDC recommendations covering mass gatherings stretch beyond the scheduled Opening Day.

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22 minutes ago, malem said:

I would not expect refunds of passes to be possible anywhere in the industry except maybe Disney, as most of the money earned on prepaid season pass products has likely been spent. Depending on how long this goes on, we might see amusement parks lengthening the validity of passes or offering special discounts on renewals.

Looking at the Cedar Fair job site, it appears that Kings Island positions are no longer available to apply for as of this afternoon. This is a change from last night. This would be expected, since it's impossible to offer a job without a known start date, and the CDC recommendations covering mass gatherings stretch beyond the scheduled Opening Day.

I still saw jobs available on the KI website. 

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@FlightofFear123 Hopefully you used a credit and not debit card. I personally would call your CC issuer and initiate a chargeback. Rarely will a business fight it as it is just not worth the effort.  Good Luck.
 

I rarely will book a hotel room that does not offer free cancelation unless it is a super good deal.  It is worth a little extra to have that insurance, especially with kids.  There is nothing worse than being away from home with a child loosing fluids from one or both ends.  Been there a few times.  

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If the hotel is closed or if you have good reason to believe they won't honor your reservation, a chargeback may be appropriate. At this point, though, many hotels are still open and would win a credit card dispute.

Most hotels are independently owned and operated, even if they carry a national brand. Whether refunds are offered in extenuating circumstances often depends on the property owner. With all the cancellations due to COVID-19, hotels might not have enough cash on hand to offer refunds no matter how much they would like to.

In these trying times, it's hard to put blame on most businesses in the midst of a 100-year pandemic.

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5 minutes ago, malem said:

If the hotel is closed or if you have good reason to believe they won't honor your reservation, a chargeback may be appropriate. At this point, though, many hotels are still open and would win a credit card dispute.

Most hotels are independently owned and operated, even if they carry a national brand. Whether refunds are offered in extenuating circumstances often depends on the property owner. With all the cancellations due to COVID-19, hotels might not have enough cash on hand to offer refunds no matter how much they would like to.

In these trying times, it's hard to put blame on most businesses in the midst of a 100-year pandemic.

And this is exactly why I posted earlier in the thread that this isn't like the Chipotle food poisoning scare or the Jack in the Box situation where those companies HAD to offer discounts and freebies and promotions to win people back and I do not expect Cedar Fair or other companies to be in position to make such offerings...

If Cedar Fair or other companies I patronize offer anything, well then I can be pleasantly surprised, but if this prevents parks from opening up this year, I think they will have such interest in people wanting to attend in 2021 that they will not need to offer incentives to bring people back...

Many people took shots at my comments and said companies will have to give incentives to win people back...time will tell who is right.... 

I suspect we will both be right - some companies will be able to offer incentives, but I think many will not have the cash on hand to get through this and will be banking on people being so willing to patronize their establishment because of cabin fever and not being able to do anything for so long.

If this was an incident that only affected one park in the chain, then yes absolutely I think Cedar Fair would offer incentives to get people to visit that park, but this isn't a Cedar Fair issue that needs addressed, the entire world and every business sector is impacted.  That makes a big difference on what companies will be able to do and offer...

Cedar Fair is certainly within their legal right to point to the all sales are final and operating schedule is subject to change provisions...A lot of people purchased their season pass before the operating schedule was made public...  And someone at CF will go thru the math and projections and say for every pass holder that gets ticked and doesn't come back, X number will buy a pass because they were tired of being cooped up all year.  Time will tell what their "crystal ball" tells them to do from a business perspective...

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