Coronavirus Impacting Theme Parks

[medford]

Until the state officially releases their restart guidelines on theme parks I don't think we'll get an answer.  With the friday announcement, I would have thought those would have been published prior to today, but as is the case in the past, seems like it takes 2-3 business days to post the guidelines.

Which makes no sense, if they are based upon the restart committees (of which CF has 2 employees on that committee) it would stand to reason that prior to DeWine's friday announcement that those protocols had already been agreed upon and all they had to do was push them to their web to make them official.  I assume KI knows what they are, I don't know why they aren't published the same day as they are announced.

[IceePirate]

2 hours ago, Snowball said:

1. Not sure

2. When the park is closed it doesn’t really matter where you take a break in my experience. (As long as you’re normally permitted to be in that area.)

3. No, the music doesn’t play when the park is closed unless they’re testing things that need music.

4. I think they feed off of algae. Either that or someone feeds them every day.

It's actually pretty nice to be in the park in the morning before it opens. Music doesn't start playing until roughly an hour before open, so until then, everything is nice and peaceful. It's quite the experience. Same goes with about an hour after close too when the music shuts off

[ThrillKingsFitzy]

2 hours ago, PatchesC said:

Indoor dining areas closed *ouch*

So you can still get food and eat outside though?

[PatchesC]

8 minutes ago, ThrillKingsFitzy said:

So you can still get food and eat outside though?

Indoors is a bit of a break from the heat, so while Hurricane Bay is closed it's not much relief.

[dbackdreams]

19 minutes ago, PatchesC said:

Indoors is a bit of a break from the heat, so while Hurricane Bay is closed it's not much relief.

I thotht It was soac City at Kings Isalnd?  Did they rename it to Hurricans Bay?

[IndyGuy4KI]

3 minutes ago, dbackdreams said:

I thotht It was soac City at Kings Isalnd?  Did they rename it to Hurricans Bay?

They are talking about Kentucky Kingdom in that discussion.

[SnakePlissken]

45 minutes ago, PatchesC said:

Indoors is a bit of a break from the heat, so while Hurricane Bay is closed it's not much relief.

Hurricane Bay is opening July 3rd. If you go before then you still have Raging Rapids which is lousy at getting you wet for some reason, Mile High Falls which looks like Congo but gets you soaked and the 5D theater if its open.

[ThrillKingsFitzy]

1 hour ago, PatchesC said:

Indoors is a bit of a break from the heat, so while Hurricane Bay is closed it's not much relief.

I’m going in July so I’m good.

[PatchesC]

Can anyone confirm this to be true from other sources? This is the first article I've seen that implies not all the ride inspectors were furloughed as previously thought.

https://www.dispatch.com/news/20200608/coronavirus-how-can-ohio-amusement-parks-reopen-with-some-state-ride-inspectors-laid-off

[sar02061012]

If KI requires masks my family will not be there, even though we have already paid for our passes. We can go to Holiday world or Zoombezi bay!

[flightoffear1996]

1 hour ago, sar02061012 said:

If KI requires masks my family will not be there, even though we have already paid for our passes. We can go to Holiday world or Zoombezi bay!

I dont disagree with you on that one.  My 7 year old wants nothing to with them.  I will likely take a few trips with me and wife and maybe one with the kids just so we can get our yearly picture with them.  

[Hawaiian Coasters 325]

Here's an Instagram post about Knott's marketplace. 

 

[gad198]

Just saw this pop up a few hours ago.  This has enormous implications if true:

https://www.businessinsider.com/who-its-rare-for-asymptomatic-people-to-spread-the-coronavirus-2020-6

Quote

The World Health Organization said Monday that the threat of coronavirus spread from people who look and feel healthy is very low.

"It still seems to be rare that an asymptomatic person actually transmits onward," epidemiologist Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO's technical lead for the coronavirus, told reporters on a call. 

"We are constantly looking at this data, and we're trying to get more information from countries to truly answer this question," Van Kerkhove said on the call. "We have a number of reports from countries who are doing very detailed contact tracing. They're following asymptomatic cases, they're following contacts, and they're not finding secondary transmission onward. It's very rare. And much of that is not published in the literature."

Either way, Van Kerkhove seemed confident that by strictly isolating the people who are feeling sick, the world would do much better at stopping the spread of COVID-19.

"I would love to be able to give a proportion of how much transmission we would actually stop, but it would be a drastic reduction in transmission," she said. "From the data we have, it still seems to be rare that an asymptomatic person actually transmits onward to a secondary individual.

I bolded what I believe is the key takeaway.  Asymptomatic is just another way of saying "healthy person".  If healthy people aren't spreading coronavirus, that has immediate trickle-down effects - the mask debate is largely rendered moot (which would be a huge relief to nearly all of us), the continuation of social distancing, on down the line.

[FUN&ONLY!]

5 minutes ago, gad198 said:

Just saw this pop up a few hours ago.  This has enormous implications if true:

https://www.businessinsider.com/who-its-rare-for-asymptomatic-people-to-spread-the-coronavirus-2020-6

I bolded what I believe is the key takeaway.  Asymptomatic is just another way of saying "healthy person".  If healthy people aren't spreading coronavirus, that has immediate trickle-down effects - the mask debate is largely rendered moot (which would be a huge relief to nearly all of us), the continuation of social distancing, on down the line.

If this is true, does that mean basic temperature checks would likely completely filter out those who have COVID-19?

[IceePirate]

4 minutes ago, Hawaiian Coasters 325 said:

Here's an Instagram post about Knott's marketplace. 

 

Neat, so it looks like masks will be required at Cedar Fair properties for the time being. They may relax the policy later in the season, we will have to see. I'm slightly dreading working at Orion if I have to enforce these guidelines with it being new and all. Oh well, it'll be fine. Should be a good time for most if not all nonetheless

[FUN&ONLY!]

2 minutes ago, IceePirate said:

Neat, so it looks like masks will be required at Cedar Fair properties for the time being. They may relax the policy later in the season, we will have to see. I'm slightly dreading working at Orion if I have to enforce these guidelines with it being new and all. Oh well, it'll be fine. Should be a good time for most if not all nonetheless

You are working Orion? Pretty cool!

[IceePirate]

Just now, FUN&ONLY! said:

You are working Orion? Pretty cool!

Yeah, just found out a bit ago. Seemed like the most appealing one of the options I was given. Being a first year ride op and whatnot. You'll all have to come by and say hi lol

[Hawaiian Coasters 325]

4 minutes ago, IceePirate said:

Yeah, just found out a bit ago. Seemed like the most appealing one of the options I was given. Being a first year ride op and whatnot. You'll all have to come by and say hi lol

I'm working at the park in rides this year too. This is also my first season. I was hired back in February before this whole shutdown hit and there were only a few areas available and not one of them was a big rollercoaster. I chose the Eiffel Tower since it sounded like a good start for me since I am highly interactive lol. 

[gad198]

6 minutes ago, FUN&ONLY! said:

If this is true, does that mean basic temperature checks would likely completely filter out those who have COVID-19?

I would argue even that question is moot if healthy people aren't spreading it.  High temperature is just one of a few symptoms if you have the virus, so temperature checks probably aren't going to screen out everyone who is symptomatic.  The other thing to consider is this...do you remember the last time you had a really high temperature?  I do, and the last place I want to be is running around at an amusement park when I'm running a fever!

[IceePirate]

1 minute ago, Hawaiian Coasters 325 said:

I'm working at the park in rides this year too. This is also my first season. I was hired back in February before this whole shutdown hit and there were only a few areas available and not one of them was a big rollercoaster. I chose the Eiffel Tower since it sounded like a good start for me since I am highly interactive lol. 

Yeah, I was only offered coasters and snoopy. Wonder if my past experience at the park had anything to do with it. Or my age lol

[King Ding Dong]

2 hours ago, gad198 said:

Just saw this pop up a few hours ago.  This has enormous implications if true:

https://www.businessinsider.com/who-its-rare-for-asymptomatic-people-to-spread-the-coronavirus-2020-6

I bolded what I believe is the key takeaway.  Asymptomatic is just another way of saying "healthy person".  If healthy people aren't spreading coronavirus, that has immediate trickle-down effects - the mask debate is largely rendered moot (which would be a huge relief to nearly all of us), the continuation of social distancing, on down the line.

What they are talking about is nuanced.   Asymptomatic are people that have the virus but show no symptoms and do not develop symptoms in the future.  The other “healthy” group are presymptomatic, those that have the virus, show no symptoms but then later do develop symptoms.  That group does shed the virus efficiently and can be highly contagious in the presymptomatic stage.  The problem is they are indistinguishable. 

This is more about looking back at the data and not a prescription about what to do going forward.  
 

Regardless of your view on face masks or temperature checks, presymptomatic and symptomatic individuals are the ones to be concerned about. Temperature checks may screen out symptomatic (if they have a fever and not all do at all times) but will do nothing to screen out presymptomatics that are shedding the virus. Thus the the need for social distancing and face coverings for those individuals. The only way to identify them is testing and that isn’t perfect either.  (yet)

The good news is the WHO believes there are less people that can spread than we may have previously thought.  The bad news is it doesn’t really change anything, especially from the perspective mitigating risk to others, which is the park’s primary concern.  

Edit: Another thing that needs clarification is this statement "Either way, Van Kerkhove seemed confident that by strictly isolating the people who are feeling sick, the world would do much better at stopping the spread of COVID-19."  Yes this is very important and it is important to understand what she means by strictly isolating. That means Total Isolation, not sending people home to their family even if they are mildly sick so they can pass it on to family members that can then become presymptomatic and continue the spread.  This is something we do not do as a widespread practice in the United States.  Singapore specifically has isolation centers for those that are sick but do not require hospitalization.   This is how they avoided problems and were able to stay open for so long, along with robust contact tracing.  However they did not initially apply the same practices to the large migrant population they have in barrack centers that do much of the manual labor and also interact with the general population, so naturally things went south.

 

[gad198]

I agree with the portion about testing.  To me, this is pretty cut and dry.  If I test negative then there's very little reason for me wearing a face mask.  If I don't have the virus that means by definition I can't transmit it.

The other thing that the article references is what essentially constitutes an admission that this disease is mild for the overwhelming majority of the population.  According to this website (which draws the data directly from each countries health reporting agency), less than 2% of those who contract the virus have symptoms that are considered serious or critical, and that's across all age groups:

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/coronavirus-cases/

From the CDC::

Quote

Cumulative COVID-19-associated hospitalization rates since March 1, 2020, are updated weekly. The overall cumulative COVID-19 hospitalization rate is 82.0 per 100,000, with the highest rates in people aged 65 years and older (254.7 per 100,000) and 50-64 years (126.2 per 100,000).

Put another way, the odds of me needing to go to the hospital with this virus if I live in the US is 82 out of 100,000, or 0.082%, or 8.2 times out of 10,000.

A lot of bad things need to happen for me to have a bad outcome with this virus.  First, I need to catch it.  According to the same CDC website, 6% of tests are coming back positive.  Let's assume triple that are actually positive.  That's a 18% chance I catch it (with odds falling with each week that passes).  I then have to show symptoms severe enough for me to require hospitalization.  I'll use the 2% number above as it's more conservative.  Now we're at 18% * 2% = 0.036%, which is 3.6 times out of 10,000, which matches pretty closely to the number I referenced above. 

For reference, the coronavirus mortality rate as a percentage of the Ohio population right now is 2,500 out of approximately 10,000,000, 0.025% (or 2.5 times out of 10,000).  At least 90% of deaths being classified as related to coronavirus around the world had co-morbidities associated with them (hypertension and diabetes are two biggies).  Coronavirus makes pre-existing conditions worse, but that 90% co-morbidity number is significant.  It means that a lot of people happen to be dying with coronavirus than dying from it.  That's one of the reasons why healthy people aren't particularly at risk regardless of age, and the numbers overwhelmingly bear that out. 

You're absolutely right in that a lot of this data is looking backward.  We didn't know much about this virus when the various restrictions were first imposed, but we have a lot more data now.  Decisions about this need to be made sensibly with reliable information as it currently stands.  We've learned a lot in the last few months, and it's time to start putting some common sense back into how we move forward.     

[King Ding Dong]

7 minutes ago, gad198 said:

I agree with the portion about testing.  To me, this is pretty cut and dry.  If I test negative then there's very little reason for me wearing a face mask.  If I don't have the virus that means by definition I can't transmit it.

That is true.  So if you are tested on Monday and the test is negative you do not have the virus, however that does not mean you do not have the virus on Tuesday or at any point after that test.  A test tells us about the past, not the future. Testing is a key component, and but unfortunately is not widely available in all parts of the US.  It is still common practice in many areas to only give tests if you are showing symptoms.

Hey, @flightoffear1996 how long did it take for you to receive your test results?

[PatchesC]

5 hours ago, Hawaiian Coasters 325 said:

I'm working at the park in rides this year too. This is also my first season. I was hired back in February before this whole shutdown hit and there were only a few areas available and not one of them was a big rollercoaster. I chose the Eiffel Tower since it sounded like a good start for me since I am highly interactive lol. 

 

5 hours ago, IceePirate said:

Yeah, just found out a bit ago. Seemed like the most appealing one of the options I was given. Being a first year ride op and whatnot. You'll all have to come by and say hi lol

I can't wait to see ops again. If you happen to have a little girl offer an "air hug" that's my daughter lol 

[Gplez90]

Just got a notification for WKYC out of Cleveland that Kings Island plans to open July 2nd and Cedar Point plans on opening July 9th. 

[Winterfestguy]

Key Park Opening Dates:

• Park Open to Season Passholders: July 2 – 11
• Park Open to Season Passholders and Daily Ticketholders: Beginning Sunday, July 12

[chibul]

When can we place reservations?

[Winterfestguy]

New protocols to create a safe and clean environment include: 

• A new online reservation system; each guest is required to have a reservation prior to their visit to enable capacity management;
• A requirement to complete a pre-visit health screening declaration 24 hours prior to admission; 
• A touchless temperature screening prior to entering the facility for both guests and associates;
• Requirements for all guests, associates and vendors to wear masks as directed by the protocols
• Social distancing markers throughout the park, including ride queue lines; 
• Limited guest/associate contact;
• Enhanced cleaning procedures, including additional deep cleaning and sanitization of restrooms, dining facilities and other busy areas; 
• Additional hand sanitization stations; and
• Capacity management throughout the park. 

[Imperial79]

Here is the link to the site. 

https://www.wkyc.com/article/entertainment/places/cedar-point/cedar-point-reopening-2020-season/95-fa6c3e4f-2716-405f-a707-b59a87f2baa1?fbclid=IwAR3fDbpsC5VB-R30hWy6F-zjlX9g3hcEFMjzAMAaaSRn9fDck28ONbKVoPM

A new park update has just been posted,  link to that also.

https://www.visitkingsisland.com/park-update

[chibul]

https://www.visitkingsisland.com/park-update