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‘It’s going to be a new world’

Theme park leaders mull opening, returning to ‘normal’ with new safety and hygiene measures

Courtesy of The Capital Wheel Pictured is the Capital Wheel in National Harbor, Md. which has been closed since March due to COVID-19.

Ogden Newspapers

Attractions and theme parks around the world are closed due to the COVID-19 outbreak, which in turn has made the industry set aside the traditional start of roller coaster season.

It began in January, when Shanghai Disneyland closed due to the pandemic, and that started a chain of events no one considered months before. It was March 17 when both Disney parks in Anaheim, Calif., and Orlando, Fla., closed, and those closures included all the company’s hotels and resorts as well.

Six Flags Magic Mountain in California announced at the end of March that it temporarily suspended operations, with plans to open in mid-May. Owners for Valleyfair in Shakopee, Minn., announced in April that they were preparing to open the park when it is safe to do so. Raul Rehnborg, Valleyfair’s vice president and general manager, said in a statement that all 2020 season pass holders will be extended to 2021 while monthly billing has been suspended for as long as the park is closed.

Cedar Fair Entertainment Co., which owns Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio, as well as Valleyfair, has begun cost-reduction measures as the parks remain closed.

“As we work to ensure the safety and well-being of our employees, guests and business partners from the effects of COVID-19, it’s important we also embrace measures that will ensure our financial flexibility through this difficult period,” said Richard Zimmerman, president and CEO of Cedar Fair, in a prepared statement. “After social distancing recommendations by the authorities are lifted, we look forward to opening our parks as soon as reasonably possible.”

In the wake of the outbreak, nearly all seasonal and part-time labor costs have been eliminated until the parks open. Zimmerman’s base salary was also cut by 40 percent due to the pandemic.

Hersheypark in Hershey, Pennsylvania, is set to open in June, along with ZooAmerica. Park officials said they are researching and implementing preventive measures, along with rigorous cleaning procedures, to ensure safety once the parks open.

On April 1, leaders at Kennywood Park, located near Pittsburgh, Pa., announced they would not be opening on the first Saturday of May and could not provide a solid date for when it would open. As a result, season passes have been extended to the end of June 2021.

“Kennywood is committed to reopening as soon as safely possible,” said Nick Paradise, interim director of sales and marketing. “At the present time, however, it is too soon to provide a definitive opening date for the park. Our highest priority remains the health and safety of all of our guests and team members. We are preparing protocols and procedures to address social distancing, disinfection, guest education, hand sanitization, respiratory hygiene, and other health and safety factors.

“We will continue to closely follow the guidelines set forth by local, state and federal government officials and health experts as we prepare to resume operations,” he added. “We look forward to once again providing a place for families to create lasting memories at Kennywood.”

Dennis Speigel, CEO of International Theme Parks Services, a company that does consulting work with the theme park industry, said he started keeping an eye on COVID-19 shortly after it was discovered in China.

“We have really been putting together a summary of top-line considerations to accommodate the guests and make the parks safe,” he said. “We’re shooting for, of course, to get some parks open for the season. We have to see what we’re up against with the implementation of these new programs.

“You’re going to see face masks, temperatures being taken, thermal imaging, distancing. The new best friend of every theme park goer is going to be hand sanitizer. There’s going to be hand sanitizer everywhere you turn around in the parks.”

When asked if he saw any parks opening this summer, Speigel said that’s the question everyone is pondering.

He then went on to explain that he expects to see some parks testing operations in June and he has been watching the practices of other parks in Asia, Europe and South America to see what their practices are as a template. In the meantime, parks will experience a reduced capacity to help keep people properly spaced throughout the park, he noted.

“Some (safety measures) are here to stay, while some are here for a short term and will go away,” he said. … “From our standpoint, it’s going to be hygienic. I think our industry for the next two to three years is going to see the impact.”

He said if the parks would reopen, and were forced to close again due to a resurgence of COVID-19, it “would be horrible.”

“We’re a very resilient industry, we bounce back quickly from catastrophic events,” he said. “It’ll take a bit of time because it’s new, but we will make it safe and secure for people to come back.”

The Capital Wheel and Carousel at National Harbor along the Potomac River in Maryland faces some different challenges compared with other attractions, as it relies on restaurants and shops near it to bring in customers.

Curtis Parks, a managing partner at ICON Attractions, which owns and operates the wheel, said the company was starting the year off well, but it had to shut down March 18, despite typically being open all year.

“It’s very interesting how one day you have all this activity and the next, you have nothing,” Parks said. “It really is going to be a dramatic change from when we were just normally operating in March.”

With the downtime, several projects have been completed while leaders have been waiting for word from local and state authorities to reopen.

“We’ve ordered all new signage, we’ve ordered all new personal protective equipment,” Parks said. “We have new training programs that we’ve written and put into place for when employees get back on the property to ensure that they are adhering to the new social distancing guidelines and the new cleaning and disinfecting standards.

“We’ll be taking employee temperatures,” he added. “We’ll have a health declaration application that they’ll have to complete each day before they actually get on the property. It’s gonna be a new world.”

Parks said organizers plan to use online ticketing only and no longer handle cash. They will also require employees to wear masks, have touchless hand sanitizer dispensers and clean the carousels after each ride. He believes it could be the new normal until a vaccine is widely available.

“We are hopeful that people see that we are going above and beyond with our safety protocol, and that will give them some peace of mind,” Parks said. “They will be able to go and enjoy the attractions. We want these people to come back and create their treasured memories with their families and try to return to some sort of normalcy.”

The St. Louis Aquarium opened on Christmas day and operated for three months before being forced to close due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Tammi Brown, executive director of the aquarium, said in March they started limiting the number of tickets available to increase social distancing. She then said that every weekend, up to and including the last day they were open, they sold out.

While keeping the animals fed and happy, the aquarium has been busy online with live events and presentations about animals that call the aquarium home. As COVID-19 can’t be transmitted through water when the aquarium opens, they will be able to keep interactive pools open.

“We have touch pools, so you’re able to touch everything from stingrays and small sharks to these little guys called doctor fish that come over and just nibble on any dry skin on your hand,” Brown said. “We have an entire collection of ambassador animals that come out for presentations and interaction, which ranges from a 1-year-old sloth to an African gray parrot to hissing cockroaches. We’ll be continuing to present those animals to our guests.”

Brown said the aquarium will continue to reduce the number of tickets available, disinfecting items after each use and require employees to have a health screening before working. They will also be required to wear face masks.

“There are going to be some operational changes that everybody will see and some of those honestly will be a little inconvenient,” she said. “But I hope that everybody understands that these changes are meant to keep both the team and the guests healthy and that everybody has a little bit of patience for those changes.”

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