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Coronavirus: Impact on Theme Parks

Currently at Towers. All the life is gone from the park. I have never experienced a place so soulless and depressing.
And I know depressing :confused:
Things need to change soon or the entire UK park industry is dead I fear.
 
^
At least you're not at Thorpe ;)

I feel a bit less sad about being on the sofa with the family today, but aside from poor ride reliability, can you go into any more detail on what's quite so bad or give a rough guess how many people are on park compared to a normal July Saturday?

Anyone else at parks today?
 
Video from the first day in Walibi Belgium after the coronacrisis:

kanaalz.knack.be

Walibi heropent op een kwart van z'n capaciteit

Zwembaden, wellnesscentra, pretparken, binnenspeeltuinen, congreszalen, speelhallen en casino's mogen vanaf vandaag opnieuw de deuren openen. Wij gingen een kijkje nemen bij Walibi, dat op een kwart van z'n normale capaciteit opgestart is. De coronacrisis hakt er zwaar in de inkomsten.
kanaalz.knack.be kanaalz.knack.be

Some news from this video:

* Walibi Belgium had a loss of 15.000.000 EUR during the coronacrisis.
* The megacoaster, with a pricetag of 25.000.000 EUR will open in April next year.
* Compagnie des Alpes got a 200 million corona loan.
* The 100.000.000 EUR investmentplan, revealed in 2017 is slown down. The end date of the transformation is now postponed to 2025, instead of 2023.

Source: Kanaal Z
 
KristofWB said:
Video from the first day in Walibi Belgium after the coronacrisis:

kanaalz.knack.be

Walibi heropent op een kwart van z'n capaciteit

Zwembaden, wellnesscentra, pretparken, binnenspeeltuinen, congreszalen, speelhallen en casino's mogen vanaf vandaag opnieuw de deuren openen. Wij gingen een kijkje nemen bij Walibi, dat op een kwart van z'n normale capaciteit opgestart is. De coronacrisis hakt er zwaar in de inkomsten.
kanaalz.knack.be kanaalz.knack.be

Some news from this video:

* Walibi Belgium had a loss of 15.000.000 EUR during the coronacrisis.
* The megacoaster, with a pricetag of 25.000.000 EUR will open in April next year.
* Compagnie des Alpes got a 200 million corona loan.
* The 100.000.000 EUR investmentplan, revealed in 2017 is slown down. The end date of the transformation is now postponed to 2025, instead of 2023.

Source: Kanaal Z
Click to expand...
According to RCDB the relocation of Coccinelle had been pushed back to 2022. You know the status on that?
 
Will said:
^
At least you're not at Thorpe ;)

I feel a bit less sad about being on the sofa with the family today, but aside from poor ride reliability, can you go into any more detail on what's quite so bad or give a rough guess how many people are on park compared to a normal July Saturday?

Anyone else at parks today?
Click to expand...
If I’d been at Throp I would have topped myself I think.
Towers seamed empty of people.
The rides were on and off like a yo-yo
Dark forest I don’t think ever opened
Every other row on Wickerman not used
Smiler waiting to get on had to wait to get off row by row. Hence a 120m queue time
Walking around park was a complete farce. No social distancing what so ever.

A park I’ve loved for over 3 decades felt very sad to be there

They must have made a bit on express parking tho as that and the coach park were full as they not running the monorail
 
:(
Sorry to hear it was quite that poor - I've just checked a couple of sites and even ventured onto Twitter and you're far from being the only dissatisfied customer. I shall adjust my expectations for Tuesday accordingly, unless I decide to say 'sod it'.

Find a pub that doesn't want you to fill out a ****ing census and go cheer yourself up :)
 
To be sat on Towers Street at midday on a Saturday in July and to not have the sounds hundreds of kids running around screaming and having fun is so odd

TBF I hate all kids, they are an abomination and need to be destroyed. However they do bring a sense of life to the park. And not let it feel like you are at your grandmothers wake ?
 
I honestly don't know what some of you expected at the parks? Of course they're not going to be anywhere near as good, I'm confused as to why this is frustrating people? It's a pandemic?
 
Cheer up, it's only Day 1! I think things will gradually get back to normal over the rest of the season.

This is the longest I've gone without riding a coaster for 17 years, going to head down to Clarence Pier tomorrow to (hopefully) to break my duck.
 
Ethan said:
I honestly don't know what some of you expected at the parks? Of course they're not going to be anywhere near as good, I'm confused as to why this is frustrating people? It's a pandemic?
Click to expand...
I would have been expecting them to be something like in France, Germany or Holland...

Truth is though, Merlin have said themselves that they’ll be starting with extremely low visitor numbers, and gradually increasing... So there’s time for them yet...

I’ll say it again though sd and theme parks dont work
 
^
Likewise, Peet. 256 days and counting since last coaster - that may well be my longest gap since the 90s.

Ethan said:
Of course they're not going to be anywhere near as good, I'm confused as to why this is frustrating people? It's a pandemic?
Click to expand...
It's been a pandemic for some time now, so there's been plenty of time to prepare.
I'll grudgingly tolerate masks, pre-booking, contactless payments and cowering in fear of strangers - struggling to find an excuse for anything else.
 
Glad I've stayed well clear of merlin parks today, they seem to have been a mess across the board, more rides closed than open too.

Blackpool looked a bit better from the limited amount ive seen today. Was anyone there? Ride availability seemed much better in comparison to merlin but just going by what I've heard so far today.
 
JammyH said:
Glad I've stayed well clear of merlin parks today, they seem to have been a mess across the board, more rides closed than open too.

Blackpool looked a bit better from the limited amount ive seen today. Was anyone there? Ride availability seemed much better in comparison to merlin but just going by what I've heard so far today.
Click to expand...
you are more wise than me, Went back to Towers today... it cant be any worse than yesterday was my thinking .... Oh how wrong I was ?
Wish I'd brought a BPB pass in the sale last winter now :oops:
 
Blackpool today was bloody lovely.
Ten to thirty minute queues for the coasters.
Easy entrance to the park, no queue at the bar!
All the measures worked well, without problems or issues.
All punters behaved, masks worn by all indoors and on the coasters.
Only got caught by the cleaning routine once, ten minute delay on the National.
Wind meant no Big One... no great loss in the circumstances, and we get next season for forty quid if we renew our passes soon apparently.
In the challenging circumstances, a definite 9 out of 10.
Edit...telling fibs again ...renew at £48.
 
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rob666 said:
Blackpool today was bloody lovely.
Ten to thirty minute queues for the coasters.
Easy entrance to the park, no queue at the bar!
All the measures worked well, without problems or issues.
All punters behaved, masks worn by all indoors and on the coasters.
Only got caught by the cleaning routine once, ten minute delay on the National.
Wind meant no Big One... no great loss in the circumstances, and we get next season for forty quid if we renew our passes soon apparently.
In the challenging circumstances, a definite 9 out of 10.
Click to expand...

I’ve only heard good things from Blackpool so far, and bad things from towers. I’ll definitely add blackpool to my list for this summer.

Drayton manor has apparently been very quiet too, but they don’t open fully until the 18th July.
 
I've spent the day at Thorpe but unfortunately I was left feeling disappointed by the experience. In some areas they've done very well, there are plenty of hand sanitisers around the park and clear signage explaining the procedures they've put in place. The retail areas were also well looked after, with one way systems and the appropriate protection for staff.

That's about it though, the rest of the park felt like a bit of a mess. Social distancing in queues such as Saw and Nemesis Inferno is near impossible, with guests spending much of their time in poorly marked cattle pens. While the majority of guests tried to be respectful of the rules I frequently had to remind younger groups that they should be standing on the queue markers, not a few inches behind me. Staff would often pull smaller groups of guests through the queue to fill empty seats, something I felt was an unnecessary risk to the people they had to pass.

Despite the park having a capped capacity the rides had long waits due to the large amount off attractions still not ready to open for the season. Operations were also a let down. The staff on Saw were happy filling trains with guests from different groups while larger rides like Nemesis Inferno were leaving rows empty between riders. I understand they have set operating procedures, but some felt backwards.

Other negatives included unclean toilets (As well as the lack of toilets open) and poor park maintenance.

I've been a fan of Thorpe for many years, but i wont be going back for a while.
 
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