• ℹ️ Heads up...

    This is a popular topic that is fast moving Guest - before posting, please ensure that you check out the first post in the topic for a quick reminder of guidelines, and importantly a summary of the known facts and information so far. Thanks.

What changes to operations should we expect post Covid-19?

skyscraper said:
I would hope that the social distancing rules are removed by then. :p
Seriously though, those restrictions cannot stay for much longer, as some businesses simply cannot operate with social distancing in place. I'd expect it to be lifted by the end of this year.
Click to expand...

The virus will still be here so unless we have some unexpected breakthrough the situation won’t have changed.
 
Hopefully we'll have a vaccine or superior treatment drugs. That or herd immunity, nobody knows when or how, we'll just have to take one day at a time.
 
Judging by recent developments, I think a vaccine will likely be widely available or at very least identified by 2021.

However, I’m not sure if distancing will necessarily last in its current form until a vaccine arrives. China apparently halved the distance to 1m fairly recently, so we may see something similar happen here if cases continue to drop over the coming weeks.
 
I think the biggest problem the park and many others also is social media and the press. Some guests may not social distance and if they get photographed or filmed it will go on social media sites and the press will run a story about it.
 
Themeparksandy1981 said:
I think the biggest problem the park and many others also is social media and the press. Some guests may not social distance and if they get photographed or filmed it will go on social media sites and the press will run a story about it.
Click to expand...
Whilst true, that's not something that's at all isolated to theme parks - same's going to be true for any institution that reopens really. For example look at the news stories surrounding queues of traffic to get to McDonald's drivethrus etc.
 
Islander said:
Whilst true, that's not something that's at all isolated to theme parks - same's going to be true for any institution that reopens really. For example look at the news stories surrounding queues of traffic to get to McDonald's drivethrus etc.
Click to expand...

I know that but wanted to just keep it on topic but you can also say the same in the bars in the hotel and on resort I know a lot of people have been drinking a lot more been stuck inside for the 8th week now and the 1st thing most people will do is go to pub with friends and have a session and I know after a few drinks 2m will become hugging and standing by each other and maybe even fights if someone who is just for a pint or 2 reacts to someone who gets within 1m of him.
I watched a Disney Springs video and when walking people were keeping there distance but in the queues to get into the shops they were next to each other. Will UK parks take your temperature before you enter the parks?
 
Social distancing is already showing signs of failure. We all know people who are breaking the rules and if you don't then you can't know a lot of people.

Did you see the pictures from the beach yesterday? People are getting less and less worried about it by the day.

My family is still taking precautions but if loads of people aren't it's all a bit pointless.
 
Benjsh said:
Social distancing is already showing signs of failure. We all know people who are breaking the rules and if you don't then you can't know a lot of people.

Did you see the pictures from the beach yesterday? People are getting less and less worried about it by the day.

My family is still taking precautions but if loads of people aren't it's all a bit pointless.
Click to expand...
Someone pointed out on Facebook that, actually, it'll be a lot easier to ensure social distancing in a ticketed, controlled area like a theme park, where maximum capacity can be controlled, rather than an open public area such as a beach - it's a very good point.
 
15 pages odd since I last read this thread, so sorry if I'm going over covered ground.

There's been a lot of mention of whether it is financially viable to open with a significantly reduced capacity. I think when you consider that services day runs with a sub £20 ticket price, a gate heavily capped (in the mid single figure thousands I believe, certainly minimal queues when there's no availability diasters) and no fastrack or parking sales to supplement the income, with both Towers and Blue Light Card making a profit on the day (it's not a charity event), then clearly it is very much worth them opening financially. I can imagine social distancing being entirely possible with the numbers those days usually run at.

I hope, and this probably won't be popular, that they take the opportunity to position themselves as a not cheap but quality day out. Representing good value for money and experience at an increased but at a fair and single price seems to he the obvious response. Come to towers, it'll cost you this much, we won't screw you for parking or fastrack but there'll be so few of you on park you'll get more for your money. With that message clearly communicated I can imagine it working well. It'd be a huge change in direction though, the end of vouchers, give away APs, hidden costs and fastrack. What a wonderful place that could be.
 
So pretty much everything we expected, I’m doubting it will be worthwhile going to any parks for the rest of the year.
 
How long do we think these measures will be in place for? I personally think they’ll only be needed for the remainder of the 2020 season, but I also don’t think it’s out of the question to expect them to be potentially needed for a small part of 2021.
 
Matt N said:
How long do we think these measures will be in place for? I personally think they’ll only be needed for the remainder of the 2020 season, but I also don’t think it’s out of the question to expect them to be potentially needed for a small part of 2021.
Click to expand...
Don't think that's something Merlin will control at all, will depend on how long social distancing is implemented across the rest of the country.
 
Islander said:
Don't think that's something Merlin will control at all, will depend on how long social distancing is implemented across the rest of the country.
Click to expand...
I personally think it will be phased out by 2021, potentially mid 2021 at the very latest. Vaccine development is looking very promising for a late 2020 to early 2021 availability, and cases may well end up petering out to controllable levels before a vaccine arrives. We don’t really know; we progressed very quickly into this situation, so who knows how we’ll exit it.

An estimate in late March from the medical officers was that stringent distancing would be needed for “up to 6 months”, but who knows what the estimate is now. The government’s current plan is to have fans back in football stadiums by October (i.e. mass gatherings allowed again) provided cases remain low, so I’d suggest that that may signal the end of (or at very least, substantial easing of) social distancing.
 
Last edited:
I wouldn’t be surprised if we see certain things kept, obviously social distancing on ride isn't a long term thing but the protective screens, one way systems & cleaning aspects etc.

like in the shops those protective screens round the checkouts - it reduces the risk of robbery, keeps a barrier from customers who might have a cold (reducing the risk of staff catching it) which then could reduce staff absence.

Some of this stuff really will be the new normal
 
ringo said:
I wouldn’t be surprised if we see certain things kept, obviously social distancing on ride isn't a long term thing but the protective screens, one way systems & cleaning aspects etc.

like in the shops those protective screens round the checkouts - it reduces the risk of robbery, keeps a barrier from customers who might have a cold (reducing the risk of staff catching it) which then could reduce staff absence.

Some of this stuff really will be the new normal
Click to expand...
I agree with you in that we could see some things potentially retained; for example, I think non-invasive temperature checks could stay in a similar way to how bag checks stayed after 9/11. However, I think most of the measures are temporary; I definitely don’t see the requirement to stand 2m apart in queues or leave ride rows empty staying beyond when they have to. Personally, I see most of the measures being temporary.
 
Matt N said:
I personally think it will be phased out by 2021, potentially mid 2021 at the very latest. Vaccine development is looking very promising for a late 2020 to early 2021 availabilitysocial distancing.
Click to expand...

You need to stop putting any time frame on a vaccine. Until it exists there isn't one, there may never be one, there may be one in 10 days, there may be one in 10 years. Social distancing will remain until there's a vaccine, there's an effective treatment, the virus potency reduces naturally, or everyone at risk is dead anyway...

It is a nonsense to put a time frame on parks returning to normal based on the implementation of something which does not exist.
 
I’m not sure Merlin will make the best of a bad situation as I just don’t trust the company but there are some potential positives that might come out of Covid. Primarily these are:

- Theme parks become pre-booked venues. I have always felt that pre-booking has many benefits so long as the system used allows for last minute changes (last minute being more than 24hrs and less than 48hrs). This would prevent over crowding but also prevent under resourcing. It’s pretty common to go to a theme park on a hot mid-week day and find the park busier than they where planning to be and severely struggling.

- Solutions to the queue. It’s the biggest issue in theme park design. You spend often over 50% of your day in a queue. Maybe parks will work with technology to produce ways to prevent queueing more than 20 minutes (and spend money elsewhere).

Anyway we can hope
 
Dave said:
Solutions to the queue. It’s the biggest issue in theme park design. You spend often over 50% of your day in a queue. Maybe parks will work with technology to produce ways to prevent queueing more than 20 minutes (and spend money elsewhere).

Anyway we can hope
Click to expand...

Proper queue management would be good but Varney & co wouldn’t have that, no need to Fastrack... they’d have to try and recoup that loss and add it to everything else, no free parking :eek:
 
Matt N said:
I agree with you in that we could see some things potentially retained; for example, I think non-invasive temperature checks could stay in a similar way to how bag checks stayed after 9/11. However, I think most of the measures are temporary; I definitely don’t see the requirement to stand 2m apart in queues or leave ride rows empty staying beyond when they have to. Personally, I see most of the measures being temporary.
Click to expand...

I appreciate your optimism Matt. But all I hear from you these days is vaccine this and vaccine that.

This is working on the assumption that the vaccine works. We do not know that it will yet. It is all well and good saying it appears to be going well. They are always going to say it is going well even when it isnt. You need to get in tune with the real world sometimes. I'm not saying don't be optimistic however!

It also does not matter how well it could be going now. Bioengineering essentially is extremely complex. There could me a million and one things that could pop up during the development and testing which could futher delay things.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top