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Which theme parks are you most worried about during Covid-19 lockdown?

Which theme parks are you most worried about in this time?

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    45
Islander said:
There no suggestion anywhere that parks will have to run at such a ludicrously reduced capacity. Generally seems it’ll be in the region of 40-50% - the most conservative estimates are around 30%


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Even still most parks will be running at capacity around 4-6000. So during the summer months when they are normally sold out or close to capacity they are not cut to almost nothing. Would a small independent park be able to run and pay all over costs with that amount?. The only parks that have pledged to open so far are the ones who are run with decent financial backing. Most parks have lost the important Easter and school trip season so all they have left is late July/August.
 
Pretty sure Lightwater would be absolutely chuffed with 4k every day!

Surprised that Paultons Park haven’t given an indication of opening on 4th July yet.
 
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Mr Pearse said:
Even still most parks will be running at capacity around 4-6000. So during the summer months when they are normally sold out or close to capacity they are not cut to almost nothing. Would a small independent park be able to run and pay all over costs with that amount?. The only parks that have pledged to open so far are the ones who are run with decent financial backing. Most parks have lost the important Easter and school trip season so all they have left is late July/August.
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According to the TEA report last year, Alton Towers got 2.1million visitors in 2018, assuming they operate for about 200 days (mid-March to early November less a few closed weekdays), thats about 10,000 a day as an average, I think capacity is about 30k, so only alllowing 30% of normal capacity isn't too bad.

Also they hardly ever reach capacity in the summer, some weekend days can be very busy, but its ScareFest that draws in more people. Also Easter and half term can be busier than the summer holidays if the weather is good.
 
As I said before the bigger parks with better financial backing will be fine. So the merlin parks and blackpool are safe for this year atleast. It’s always going to be the smaller parks that will struggle anyway with reopening. I think by the end of July we will have a good indication of who has been able to reopen and who hasn’t.
 
Alton’s capacity was listed as 28,000 in 2014, for some idea of reference, so 30% would be roughly 8,000-9,000, which seems like an average weekend at Towers these days.
 
I think you’re focusing too heavily on a restriction on capacities that are very rarely reached, except on a handful of days each season. It may be unfortunate and frustrating for them, but not sure it’s the park killer you make it out to be.

Intrigued that you see Merlin and Blackpool’s announcements as signs of healthy parks, rather than a sign of them attempting to apply a little pressure to the government to ensure they can actually open ASAP in phase 3.
 
MiserableMonkey said:
I think you’re focusing too heavily on a restriction on capacities that are very rarely reached, except on a handful of days each season. It may be unfortunate and frustrating for them, but not sure it’s the park killer you make it out to be.

Intrigued that you see Merlin and Blackpool’s announcements as signs of healthy parks, rather than a sign of them attempting to apply a little pressure to the government to ensure they can actually open ASAP in phase 3.
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I think in my personal opinion it does for some parks come down to attendance over the July-August months. It depends on what to the park was forecast to expect to do in these months. Obviously the lockdown can be classed as a park killer for some parks, as I said above once you lose Easter and school trip season then some parks can feel the pinch. But no one knows what’s actually going on behind the scenes to know how much it’s actually affecting them.

Merlin and Blackpool have pushed the government the start phase 3 because they are feeling the pinch but they have to ability to do that because everyone knows of atleast one merlin park or Blackpool it’s the way they come across. If a small park said they are opening on July 4th apart from the local news no one would batter an eyelid but when merlin announced the intentions to open it was in every regional newspaper possible. They and every other park is desperate for income but it’s the ones who know they can do it has announced they plan to reopen.
 
Hopefully with the closure and I assume paused construction on Valhalla some of pleasure beaches day to day running costs should be offset quite a bit


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@kurtis.99 raises a good point; I know the refurbishment will cost a lot of money, but Valhalla’s closure must surely be a good cost saver for BPB!
 
Wicksteed is unusual in that it is both a company and a charity, the company has gone into administration but the charity is still going and is currently doing a Just giving fundraiser. The press release also says that a group of employees have set up a new company to "safeguard the future of the park"
 
It’d be a great shame if Wicksteed Park did close entirely. Spent many happy days there in my youth!

kurtis.99 said:
Hopefully with the closure and I assume paused construction on Valhalla some of pleasure beaches day to day running costs should be offset quite a bit.
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Call me a pessimist but the skeptic in me has always expected Valhalla to reopen and be much of the same, and it turn out to be an excuse to close their most expensive ride for a year whilst doing some essential large scale maintenance.

With rumours of Icon and the Boulevard not doing anywhere near as well as expected, then PB announcing a full season refurb for Valhalla... just had me tinfoil hat twitching. Afterall, if I was operating a park like this, I’d like to think I’d refurb Valhalla Sep to June, for example.
 
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The only potential clause I can see with the Valhalla refurbishment is that it could open in 2022 instead of 2021 if the park is really hard up post-COVID, thus delaying their payments until they recover, or something has messed up their timelines. For example, I’d imagine that lockdown must have scuppered them to some extent, and if the park needs to order parts from abroad (e.g. from Intamin), then that may be problematic.
 
I suppose it depends on when the work has been planned for, if the majority of the work was due to take place Autumn, through the close season, and early 2021 they might be able to still get it ready on time.

Can't see anything else the park planning being effected too much, probably a couple of on park events during the season and a 125th birthday merch range.
 
Matt N said:
I wasn’t sure where to put this, but Marcus Gaines of Coaster Touring just put this on Twitter (he does have industry connections, so I’d say he’s quite a reliable source):

I wonder which park it could be? I did see someone suggest Oakwood, as that park apparently has 30 rides, but I guess we can’t be too sure!
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As it turns out, this park was later confirmed to be Wicksteed Park, as they do have 30 rides.
 
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