Coronavirus Impacting Theme Parks

[bjcolglazier]

11 minutes ago, King Ding Dong said:

None at all.  At best I would call the tweet sloppy.  

Edit: Perhaps one may try to understand how a member of the media feels about that term and the historical significance  of “enemy of the people”.  The two are almost always used in the same sentence and interchangeably.

Strange times. You are my favorite KI Central member no matter what...lol. But I actually mean it!  :-)

[KIghostguy]

45 minutes ago, King Ding Dong said:

I am truly astounded a PR professional for CF would align themselves with such a controversial political ideology publicly, especially at this moment.   I mean truly astounded.  
 

I have had liberal and conservative friends refer to various topics as “fake news.” It has no significance in regards to political spectrum. I think it was an attempt to be funny/sound relevant, nothing deeper than that.

[silver2005]

I'm also curious as to how this will affect the designers/manufactures. 

[bjcolglazier]

9 minutes ago, silver2005 said:

I'm also curious as to how this will affect the designers/manufactures. 

Right now? Today? They are probably hoping they have a job tomorrow. Once this is over they are back in business full-throttle I'm guessing. Depends how long this goes on though.

Ford, Chrysler, Fiat, Honda all shutting down. So I doubt coaster designers/manufacturing is much in demand.

[gforce1994]

 

In all seriousness, why would people think the military would be in Mason, Ohio? They would likely be in New Rochelle, Cambridge, Seattle, or SF.

[SonofBaconator]

As long as no one calls out Chad on his tweet, I as a KIC member, don't care how Chad decides to conduct his work.

Its inappropriate to call out park staff on how they chose to post. That's stuff a certain banned member used to do.

Fake news has moved beyond one political party. Its used a lot in tons of different situations that aren't even political.

[bjcolglazier]

1 minute ago, gforce1994 said:

 

In all seriousness, why would people think the military would be in Mason, Ohio? They would likely be in New Rochelle, Cambridge, Seattle, or SF.

I don't know. Might have something to do with Governor DeWine calling up the Ohio National Guard. Perhaps. Just a random guess.

[BeeastFarmer]

Doesn't one branch conduct some kind of training at KI during the off season?

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

[bjcolglazier]

Folks, the National Guard in just about every state is being called up right now. So you might see them in your town soon, doing something, somewhere. And they kinda look like the military because THEY ARE THE MILITARY.

[gforce1994]

30 minutes ago, SonofBaconator said:

Its inappropriate to call out park staff on how they chose to post. That's stuff a certain banned member used to do.

Agreed. I thought they got the message out about the baseless rumor pretty quickly and efficiently.

[Hawaiian Coasters 325]

My main question is what would the national guard be doing at Kings Island? Is it to make sure nobody sets foot on property? 

[King Ding Dong]

31 minutes ago, gforce1994 said:

Agreed. I thought they got the message out about the baseless rumor pretty quickly and efficiently.

What a mature and appropriate choice of language.  Thank you.  

[Waltny]

13 minutes ago, Hawaiian Coasters 325 said:

My main question is what would the national guard be doing at Kings Island? Is it to make sure nobody sets foot on property? 

They use the drop off parking lot for staging, checking the gear before getting back on the highway. Ive met a few there that followed me on IG during The Vortex removal. 

 

As for the military, I did 14 years active duty between the Marine Corp and Army. In my time in the the Army, I worked in the medical field as a medical equipment repairer. I got to work at the highest level at the US Army depot in Utah and it was what I did there that is important to the story at hand. Most NG and AR do not have organic medical repair'er and when we ramped up for OEF and OIF those unit deployed heavily and we sent contact teams out over 22 midwestern and mountain west states. I can tell you that there are well trained members that are sitting on 100+ bed hospitals that could go up in a day and be fully operational. I also know that there are multiple stored hospitals that sit ready in connex boxes ready to go(well save an inservice inspection and the consumables brought up to date) that could rival some country hospitals for what they could offer. IF.... IF the NG or AR were to be called up for reasons such as this you should consider yourself blessed that we have resources to do it with and most of these folks already work that profession in their regular life...

As for Chad calling out that tweet as #fakenews? Good. The hysteria needs to be ratcheted down a few notches as she was throwing gas on those flames over in the KISPH group among others. I got a few messages as "one of the currently most active KI enthusiast" on what I might have seen over there. I know as of 1pm there were none on site and I wouldnt expect them to be... 

[gforce1994]

On 3/18/2020 at 11:18 PM, Hawaiian Coasters 325 said:

My main question is what would the national guard be doing at Kings Island? Is it to make sure nobody sets foot on property? 

 

Sign up booths. You see loads of them at College Game Day.

[Driver8rws]

 

YEA...there isn't going to be ANY talk of REFUNDS for season passes...

 

"In the past MONTH Cedar Fair, which drew 25.9 million visitors in 2018, dropped from $53.97 a share to $17.34 — a 68 percent loss."  - Theme Park Insider

 

 

[Benjamin22]

^ I don’t think anyone expected there to be a refund, but if the park is closed for a substantial amount of time I’d expect some sort of compensation, perhaps discounted 2021 passes.

[gforce1994]

The NYT has released a story stating that the US Govt. has issued a report that indicates they expect this to last 18 months.

 

Link via Yahoo: https://www.yahoo.com/news/u-virus-plan-anticipates-18-190626012.html

[malem]

When you buy any pass or ticket in advance, you are essentially providing an unsecured loan to the park. Cedar Fair generally makes up for the risk by offering healthy discounts and bonus perks for renewing early. In exchange, they get revenue to pay expenses over the off-season. Refunding everyone's pass would not be possible; that money has already been spent.

Even if all my 2020 season pass products end up being completely worthless, I would have saved a lot more over the years between discounts and perks (eg. Fast Lane Plus wristbands, ERT nights, bring-a-friend) than I would lose this year.

That said, to promote good customer service and communicate the great value offered by season passes, I expect most seasonal parks to "make it right" to the extent possible.

[King Ding Dong]

38 minutes ago, gforce1994 said:

The NYT has released a story stating that the US Govt. has issued a report that indicates they expect this to last 18 months.

 

Link via Yahoo: https://www.yahoo.com/news/u-virus-plan-anticipates-18-190626012.html

Has it officially been issued?  The 104 page pdf was posted last night night on what appeared to be a nytimes server, it was not classified, but clearly labeled “not for public release”.  I have a copy or can point you in the right direction if interested.  

[SnakePlissken]

4 hours ago, Benjamin22 said:

^ I don’t think anyone expected there to be a refund, but if the park is closed for a substantial amount of time I’d expect some sort of compensation, perhaps discounted 2021 passes.

People will give me **** for my opinions again but here it is. If the park stays closed till say Aug. We could have just skipped a year and not bought passes and got the mid season bonus in theory. Now with that thought in mind if it goes that long than anything less than extending our passes/plans for the entire 2021 season is unacceptable. Its also looking like tickets bought for events like Coasterstock and hotel costs may be a waste now too. This is when the park needs to stop being silent and inform the public on what they intend on doing regarding any extensions and or refunds. I am considering calling my bank and stopping my monthly payments for my pass. Everybody else should consider this too. 

[Pagoda Gift Shop]

I choose to be patient and see how things play out in the current unprecedented situation.  No current Kings Island pass holder has lost any "benefit" so far, and won't until after April 9th.

[MDMC01]

44 minutes ago, SnakePlissken said:

People will give me **** for my opinions again but here it is. If the park stays closed till say Aug. We could have just skipped a year and not bought passes and got the mid season bonus in theory. Now with that thought in mind if it goes that long than anything less than extending our passes/plans for the entire 2021 season is unacceptable. Its also looking like tickets bought for events like Coasterstock and hotel costs may be a waste now too. This is when the park needs to stop being silent and inform the public on what they intend on doing regarding any extensions and or refunds. I am considering calling my bank and stopping my monthly payments for my pass. Everybody else should consider this too. 

I'm curious if Coasterstock will even be happening; only time will tell...

[SnakePlissken]

45 minutes ago, Pagoda Gift Shop said:

I choose to be patient and see how things play out in the current unprecedented situation.  No current Kings Island pass holder has lost any "benefit" so far, and won't until after April 9th.

Then define King's Island Pass.  If you have Platinum and travel then what you say is not true. 

[LovinMeSomeBanshee]

If the park is closed for 2020, I expect my PAID 2020 Gold Pass to be converted to a 2021 Gold Pass.  I won't accept anything less and neither should anyone else here.

[medford]

13 hours ago, bjcolglazier said:

There's another thread for this, but the market is an interesting thing. As of today, I would value the Amusement Park industry at basically $0. Their business is shot, and even their major assets aren't worth much of anything. Of course, over time that will change. Roller-coaster-market for sure right now!

Not true at all.  While they may not be able to generate income atm, they are not worth $0.  The land that the own, the buildings, the rides, etc... all have value, their assets are worth something, even if KI could never open again the land they sit on, trade marks, intrinsic value and steel they own are worth a significant amount of money.

[disco2000]

4 hours ago, SnakePlissken said:

This is when the park needs to stop being silent and inform the public on what they intend on doing regarding any extensions and or refunds.

Speaking of silent and to slightly change the subject to something more important and more pressing...how many of you students or parents with students have been officially notified by your school what their actual plan is moving forward the rest of the school year?  And a vague we will continue learning remotely is not detailed....that could mean anything..

Back to theme parks...I suspect for KI we will not hear any statement until closer to the actual opening day...and I think any communication will be vague until everyone gets a handle on this situation...

The other option if people demand an answer now is to just scrap the season now and say "sorry folks, all our parks are closed this year.  Beagle out front should have told you.". Until they are ready to do that it implies they are hoping to salvage part of the season...

[King Ding Dong]

22 minutes ago, medford said:

Not true at all.  While they may not be able to generate income atm, they are not worth $0.  The land that the own, the buildings, the rides, etc... all have value, their assets are worth something, even if KI could never open again the land they sit on, trade marks, intrinsic value and steel they own are worth a significant amount of money.

How much is the debt worth?  It has been many years since my finance and accounting classes so I am really rusty on reading balance sheets. However Assets minus Liabilities = Net Worth seems to strike a bell.  I may have that wrong, but assuming that is correct and this Yahoo Finance balance sheet is correct.

Assets: 2,581,145

Liabilities: 2,591,111

As usual the numbers are in thousands.  It appears you are correct they are not worth $0, they are worth less than $0.

 

[Hawaiian Coasters 325]

5 minutes ago, disco2000 said:

The other option is to just scrap the season now and say "sorry folks, all our parks are closed this year.  Beagle out front should have told you.". Until they are ready to do that it implies they are hoping to salvage part of the season...

I believe they are going to do whatever they can to be able to open this year especially with the big debut of their most anticipated new coaster in a long time. 

[medford]

20 minutes ago, King Ding Dong said:

How much is the debt worth?

Been too long since I've really dived into a balance sheet, so don't count me as an expert, but:

 

They list long term debt as 2.6 Bil

They list property and infrastructure value @ 3.7 Bil

Someone smarter than I can break it down further, but I'm fairly certain that if they declared brankruptcy they would fetch a good amount of money for the land and buildings, steel, etc... that they own.

 

This will sting and hurt their bottom line, no doubt about that, I expect their dividend will be cut, if not eliminated soon.  However, at some point this will pass.  While many are hurting in a bad way, there are many that are sitting at home not spending money on anything, they will be looking for places like KI to not only spend that money, but to get the kids and family out of the house and doing something "normal" and fun again.  I'd even venture to say, that if every park in the US opened back up June 1st, that a place like KI would see an immediate effect much quicker than a place like Disney.  Disney is the kind of place many plan a year plus for, KI most just do on a "whim".  While Disney will recover quicker in the long run, CF could do better in the immediate short run depending on when things open back up.  At some point, businesses will open back up, even if Covid-19 isn't fully expunged, there is only so long that people can sit around not being productive.

[Kenban]

2 hours ago, SnakePlissken said:

Then define King's Island Pass.  If you have Platinum and travel then what you say is not true. 

Cedar Fair does not issue annual passes.  You must purchase a platinum pass from a single park, for the purposes of the pass that is your home park, and that park is the issuer of the pass.  When you get a platinum pass from Kings Island your buying a Kings Island pass which has the privilege of visiting any other Cedar Fair park during a public operating day.

It was not that many years ago only your home park was able to issue you a pass and if you lost your pass you had to return to your home park to replace it.  I remember one year I purchased a platinum pass but I did not have a platinum pass the previous year and when I visited Knott's before Kings Island opened for the season I found out that new passes even if they were processed and you had your plastic card did not activate until your home park opened for the season, customer service at Knott's issued me a complimentary ticket to let me into the park for the day.

No one including Cedar Fair, Kings Island, and none of us know how or when this will end.  No one can say for certain if the park will open at all this year, and if it does open how much of the season will be effected.  It just seems really premature to discuss compensation when opening day has not even been missed yet.

I do not feel like platinum pass holders are due anything extra at this time just because Knott's is closed and a handful of other parks had to move their opening.  My feelings might change depending on how the year goes, but again it seems premature.  The entire situation is rapidly evolving and its very likely anything that is announced now will likely have to change.  It really is a lot more simplistic when dealing with passes which are good for a year from the date of purchase instead of a season, its a lot easier to just move the expiration back by however many days the park was closed.