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Coronavirus Impacting Theme Parks


Hawaiian Coasters 325

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You have to understand that Knott's is a year round park. They are losing a lot more days right now than most seasonal parks. If KI were to by miracle open up in mid May like they hope, they would only have missed a few days since April was weekend only operations. Now if we have to open in mid to late June or even July, that's a different story. CF isn't doing that chain wide since they haven't gotten to that point yet. They'll cross that bridge when they get there. 

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1 minute ago, Hawaiian Coasters 325 said:

You have to understand that Knott's is a year round park. 

To be fair, this is why I said "as expected" and why I also I speculated that KI's wording would be different because KBF is a year-round park a few pages ago. 

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Also note if you want to keep making payments or pay it off fully that is still an option but requires doing it manually through the portal.  

1 minute ago, flightoffear1996 said:

What about those with platinum passes Who has planned to go to Knotts. 

They may not address these kinds of issues until parks start announcing planned opening dates.  

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23 minutes ago, disco2000 said:

For those that missed it on page 44, or didn't bother to read it because you only have a KI gold pass so it wasn't applicable to you yet, here is a summary of my thoughts on what this means and a potential unintended consequence, disparity in the works....

Since they did not announce a chain-wide offer that Knott's provided, that could mean CF believes that the remaining parks could still potentially open with enough days left in the year to make up for missed days!  Or it could simply mean that Cedar Fair is a publicly traded company and that affects the type and timing of their communication...and after enough days will be missed than cannot be made up, we get the announcement...

IF for some reason CF is able to open their parks this year and not have to extend season park gold and regular passes through the 2021 season, they have potentially just created unintended consequences of their Knott's announcement...

What are these unintended consequences you may be asking yourself?  Well, a platinum pass is a platinum pass.  So Knott's announced platinum passes are now good thru the 2021 season.  If the Knott's announcement doesn't go chain-wide, that now creates a disparity since your gold pass for KI is only valid for 2020, yet your friend that bought a platinum pass same day as you now gets in for 2021 as well...

One could argue CF could say that a 2020 platinum pass is only valid for 2021 season at Knott's or the 2021 season is only valid to platinum passes purchased at Knott's, but that then opens up a whole new set of issues associated with a platinum pass, from internal legacy admissions software issues that may not be able to deal with this issue, to creating a disparity based on where one purchases a platinum pass, etc...in this case not all platinum passes are created equal...

Plus, what about Knotts Platinum passholders who may have taken a trip to Carolina this summer and renewed there? Should they get their passes carried over to the 2021 season.

Furthermore, I used my pass this season at a CF resort in January, what does that mean for me as I have technically using my pass all season, just like Knott’s guests.

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29 minutes ago, flightoffear1996 said:

What about those with platinum passes Who has planned to go to Knotts. 

We don't know yet. Everything is speculation at this point. Here is Knott's original statement regarding the passes.

Quote
  • Additionally, 2020 Regular, Gold and Platinum Season Passes (as well as purchased 2020 Season Pass Add-On Products) will remain valid through the 2021 Season, ending December 31, 2021. 
  • For 2020 Passholders participating in our Easy Pay Program, we have automatically suspended monthly billing as of today, April 4, 2020, and will continue to do so while the park is closed.  When the park reopens, billing will resume.  Passholders will need to be current on payments in order to receive both 2020 and 2021 Season Pass admission and associated benefits.

The wording in the second paragraph does suggest Easy Pay will be bumped. However, at this time, KI's wording doesn't include 2021. 

Quote

Given the uncertainty around our park opening, we want to share that for 2020 Season Passholders participating in our Easy Pay Program, we have automatically suspended monthly billing as of April 8, 2020, and will continue to do so while the park is closed. Once the park has opened for the season, billing will resume. Passholders will need to be current on payments in order to receive 2020 Season Pass admission and associated benefits. 

This is all the information we have at this time. Regarding how this affects Platinum Passholders with Easy Pay payments, pending any further updates from the park, I would suggest reading what Disco has to say on the matter, as he has been commenting on this very matter for a few pages now. 

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And to muddy the wording even more, they state "Once the park has opened for the season, billing will resume. Passholders will need to be current on payments in order to receive 2020 Season Pass admission and associated benefits."

"Passholders will need to be current" could mean two different things? 

It could mean if you were current when they suspended payments, then you are current once it resumes and your payment plan is simply extended for however many months the suspension was....or it could mean that if payments are suspended for example 3 months, that you would need to pay for all 3 months when payment resumes in order to be current...

They haven't specified if this suspension is moving your ending payment date by the number of months the plans are suspended or if your ending payment date stays the same and you lump sum pay for the months missed while the plan was suspended...

Some banks are doing this...homeowners say Wells Fargo, Bank of America and Chase have told them they have to repay those postponed payments – known as forbearance – in a lump sum. It's an unexpected demand they fear could put them deeper in debt as millions are laid off and watching their retirement savings plunge with the stock market.

This is a big difference and has serious implications depending on what their intent is...

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1 minute ago, disco2000 said:

This is a big difference and has serious implications depending on what their intent was...

Hopefully they will be more specific on their next update. There is too much room for speculation and guesswork in its current form. 

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33 minutes ago, disco2000 said:

And to muddy the wording even more, they state "Once the park has opened for the season, billing will resume. Passholders will need to be current on payments in order to receive 2020 Season Pass admission and associated benefits."

"Passholders will need to be current" could mean two different things? 

It could mean if you were current when they suspended payments, then you are current once it resumes and your payment plan is simply extended for however many months the suspension was....or it could mean that if payments are suspended for example 3 months, that you would need to pay for all 3 months when payment resumes in order to be current...

They haven't specified if this suspension is moving your ending payment date by the number of months the plans are suspended or if your ending payment date stays the same and you lump sum pay for the months missed while the plan was suspended...

Some banks are doing this...homeowners say Wells Fargo, Bank of America and Chase have told them they have to repay those postponed payments – known as forbearance – in a lump sum. It's an unexpected demand they fear could put them deeper in debt as millions are laid off and watching their retirement savings plunge with the stock market.

This is a big difference and has serious implications depending on what their intent is...

I read it as, let’s say they open June 1. If they resume billing June 1st and it declines. You wouldn’t have access to the park until it’s resolved. 
 

But we still have the festering question... if those payments are forgiven, what about those who paid in full?

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6 minutes ago, BoddaH1994 said:

I read it as, let’s say they open June 1. If they resume billing June 1st and it declines. You wouldn’t have access to the park until it’s resolved. 
 

But we still have the festering question... if those payments are forgiven, what about those who paid in full?

Where are you picking up anything about “forgiven” payments?  They clearly state suspended.  

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7 minutes ago, jimlaheyscar said:

They are just pausing the payments. They will return and extend however long they were paused.  You are still going to pay the same price. You will not owe a bunch when it's unpaused to get in the park...just your next payment.

That has not been made clear...they could do as some banks are...until they issue a clarification statement, we do not know if they are pushing your payment plan end date by however many months they are suspended or if you will have to "get current" and your payment end date remains the same...and let's hope they don't go the route of the banks and charge interest for this "loan" during the suspension...

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2 minutes ago, disco2000 said:

That has not been made clear...they could do as some banks are...until they issue a clarification statement, we do not know if they are pushing your payment plan end date by however many months they are suspended or if you will have to "get current" and your payment end date remains the same...

You're right that it wasn't made explicitly clear in the release. But from my reading of it, it seems like this is most likely what they are doing. (Starting normal payments when billing resumes, and not requiring one big catch-up payment.)

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Just now, MoreFogPlease said:

You're right that it wasn't made explicitly clear in the release. But from my reading of it, it seems like this is most likely what they are doing. (Starting normal payments when billing resumes, and not requiring one big catch-up payment.)

An argument can be made for either case...and one's life experiences and job experiences and dealing with these types of things can certainly play into one's bias on what the interpretation is.  A banker or anyone working in an associated line of business will believe the interpretation is as the banks are doing...

The right approach is probably just suspend and push the end date....BUT if they do not extend the passes good thru 2021, then potentially this opens up where someone has two monthly payments come August - one for the 2020 pass they are still paying on for however many months AND a new payment plan for renewing for 2021...

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16 minutes ago, King Ding Dong said:

 

Where are you picking up anything about “forgiven” payments?  They clearly state suspended.  

I’m saying like in a similar model to Six Flags, Disney, Universal, etc... even Knott’s with their annual memberships have suspended membership payments, with, what it seems, no requirement to retroactively pay it back. 
 

I understand that we are talking about a 6 month payment plan vs a perpetual 12 month cycle,  it we are still in the territory of paying a monthly fee for a park which is presumed to be open this time of year but isn’t. 

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4 minutes ago, BoddaH1994 said:

I’m saying like in a similar model to Six Flags, Disney, Universal, etc... even Knott’s with their annual memberships have suspended membership payments, with, what it seems, no requirement to retroactively pay it back. 
 

I understand that we are talking about a 6 month payment plan vs a perpetual 12 month cycle,  it we are still in the territory of paying a monthly fee for a park which is presumed to be open this time of year but isn’t. 

You're reading way to much into this IMO.

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1 hour ago, jimlaheyscar said:

They are just pausing the payments. They will return and extend however long they were paused.  You are still going to pay the same price. You will not owe a bunch when it's unpaused to get in the park...just your next payment.

 

1 hour ago, disco2000 said:

That has not been made clear...they could do as some banks are...until they issue a clarification statement, we do not know if they are pushing your payment plan end date by however many months they are suspended or if you will have to "get current" and your payment end date remains the same...and let's hope they don't go the route of the banks and charge interest for this "loan" during the suspension...

 

40 minutes ago, coaster sally said:

You're reading way to much into this IMO.

I will just leave these here...current changes on Knott's webpage...

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2 hours ago, disco2000 said:

 

 

I will just leave these here...current changes on Knott's webpage...

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Thanks, as I stated on the other thread, definitely confusing and a bit concerning.  As we're pretty much in "wait and see" mode for everything, I guess that's the ultimate answer.  But I think that one of the absolute BEST things any company could do for its customers right now is to offer as much clarity as they possibly can about the way forward.  And, maybe it's just me, but I feel like they could offer more clarity about this.  Or, they shouldn't have announced yet. We're already missing out on Orion First Riders, most likely Coasterstock, and our summer vacation included CP and MA, so the uncertainty stings a little more, I think.  Also, we purchased drink and meal plans, and every day we don't get to go and our pass is not extended is a day of value lost on that add-on.  When you think of the add-ons in terms of the Platinum Passes, any disparity in which park-specific Platinum passholders get the benefits is a huge issue in my mind--I paid more for my meal plan to be valid across all the parks all year. 

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55 minutes ago, Thabto said:

https://coronavirus.ohio.gov/wps/portal/gov/covid-19/dashboards/forecast-model/

This is the new projection model from the Ohio Health Department for Ohio. The number of projected cases has dropped by a significant margin.

Looks better than the alternative, but still projects 57 new cases on May 31st with "Strict Social Distancing" measures still in place. It's only a projection, but if correct that's still way too many to open the park in June. However, it's only a model, and they are changing daily as we learn more.

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And as we have seen over the last couple of weeks things can and do change rather quickly.  Remember, that a couple weeks ago, they were projecting nearly 10,000 new cases a day.  With the stay at home order and strict social distancing the peak daily new cases is now projected at 1,800.  That is a substantial reduction.  Things can and will change.  Hopefully things keep trending for the better.

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I heard a really great argument on how things like sports and amusement parks should open back up and the pressure they're under.  Not only do they have the pressure of re-opening, but they're essentially hoping for a silver bullet of a situation.  They have to do it the right way, a way where they won't get scrutiny for a bad decision which leads to more people getting sick.  The consequences of getting their re-opens wrong is actually being without them until next year/whenever the virus subsides.  

I for one hope all these entities take their time re-opening, do it right, and make sure the decision to open back up is the right one.  Whatever form that takes, I'm game. 

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13 minutes ago, silver2005 said:

I heard a really great argument on how things like sports and amusement parks should open back up and the pressure they're under.  Not only do they have the pressure of re-opening, but they're essentially hoping for a silver bullet of a situation.  They have to do it the right way, a way where they won't get scrutiny for a bad decision which leads to more people getting sick.  The consequences of getting their re-opens wrong is actually being without them until next year/whenever the virus subsides.  

I for one hope all these entities take their time re-opening, do it right, and make sure the decision to open back up is the right one.  Whatever form that takes, I'm game. 

I agree with everything you wrote, but just want to point out that I don't think the entities themselves will be making these decisions. We're to the point that only State governor's will be making these decisions. Sports and KI are pretty similar as far as large crowds go. The Reds nor KI will "play" in Ohio until the governor gives the "okay".

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1 hour ago, gforce1994 said:

Holiday World now projects June opening. That opening date would be past Holiwood Nights event.

"We know that all of our coaster fans come to HoliWood Nights for insane night rides with The Voyage without trim brakes, and we’re going to make sure that happens. This likely means rescheduling the event, but we’re waiting to finalize our opening date and waiting to find out when our Voyage trains will arrive to be certain."

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