Kenban

This year was basically Eastern Pennsylvania, Hersheypark, Dorney, Knoebels. Next year was supposed to be Cedar Point, and it sounds like they are pushing this year to next year so I guess Cedar Point is now 2022.

If anyone wants another example here is one about a call center in South Korea. 43% of the people on a single floor ended up being infected. This is part of the reason having everyone wearing a face mask when possible is so important. A mask does not prevent you from getting sick, although it might assist in keeping you safe. What a mask is good at is helping slow the spread from infected individuals, especially the people who do not know they are sick. Even a simple cloth covering will prevent the majority of droplets from traveling away from a person. In Asian countries its normal to wear a mask when an individual feels sick in an effort to protect others, often cheap and disposable. The idea here is the same but now that we appear to have confirmation that the majority of infected individuals never have symptoms it is more important that everyone wear a mask. The faster we can slow the spread of the disease, and the better we are at keeping the spread down, the faster we can get back to work, and back to the parks.

The United States is currently running a fatality rate of 5.6%, 837k cases, 47k dead, and 76k confirmed recovered. The fatality rate is likely high but all three numbers are low, for instance more and more evidence is showing that just about every country is under counting the deaths. 28,000 missing deaths, plus we have the issue with the fact that not every confirmed case has recovered. People who are not sick enough to get tested or have seemingly no symptoms is throwing off the number of confirmed cases, and the number of people who recovered at home is also not included in those figures. Getting accurate numbers in the middle of an outbreak like this is difficult. But we already know this is a multitude more deadly than the flu. Even cutting the fatality rate in half to 2.8% we are left with a figure that is 28x higher then the flu which only kills around 0.1% of the people who become infected.

So I heard from a friend that Universal had started sending out surveys asking guests about how they would feel about different measures. It sounds like they want to see how comfortable guests would be with different mitigation measures. I did a quick search trying to find a copy of the survey, while I was given screenshots of some of the questions, I would prefer to see it myself. But it turns out Theme Park Insider has already written an article about the survey. So questions include Require face masks of guests/team members, temperature checks, eliminate self service food/drink, wipe down ride vehicles between rides, limit park capacity to 75/50/25%, virtual line for all rides, no indoor attractions, no shows, no parades, no nighttime shows. The one that bothers me is they asked about requiring a rapid covid test to enter the park. The issue is it would be effectively impossible to implement. The cost of performing the test is too high to be able to implement, assuming enough equipment could be purchased. Virtual lines for everything sounds great, except where are the guests going to go between rides? It works on a handful of attractions but trying to convert everything just seems unworkable. No indoor attractions, and no shows leaves me thinking there would not be much open in a Universal park.

Scratch that, I was totally wrong. I do know the month, and they are already all labeled. The issue is its in the filename I uploaded them with. You can click through to the original photo, or at least on my browser it displays the filename in the lower left corner of the screen when I mouse over it. If you do this on the photo with The Racer turn around, and a portion of The Vortex station, and The Vortex lift, you should see somewhere in the address KingIsland216_87.jpg, the picture before it of the Eiffel Tower contains KingsIsland206_87.jpg and afterwards is KingsIsland2210_90.jpg. Basically it is XXMM_YY.jpg, the X is the picture number just an automated item from the scanning, the MM is the month and might be only a single digit like the 216_87 and the 206_87 examples above, in those cases they should be from June of 1987, while the 2210_90 is from October of 1990, looking at the photos from October I can see trees changing color so good chance the month is accurate.

Looks like the sale went through. Indiana Beach has updated their Facebook page with this photo. Best news I have heard in a little while.

No need to violate policy to get more than a thousand people in a Walmart, the average size for one of their super stores is 180k square feet, they even come larger the biggest is in New York and is 250-260k square feet. Which means 1250 customers, even the average store is 900 people.

In short, no, I posted these photos 3 years ago. The thread got bumped, and I am happy that this is giving people a second chance to see the photos, but doubt I have the original slides any longer. I do not believe they were ever marked with more information then the location and the year. At this point even if they were sadly I would have no access to that information any longer.

While it is not being built on top of where Possessed is located, and the two rides could coexist, it seems pretty likely its being removed. Planning Commission Notice Here is the important piece, "The plan proposes to remove an existing attraction, construct a new attraction, associated walkways and access drives, and relocate a portion of the existing Zephyr train ride." It flat out states there will be an existing attraction being removed. Site Layout Looking at the site layout it becomes pretty obvious the plan is to remove Possessed. The ride is completely missing, and it is small enough to fit the entire ride into that layout. The circle at the lower right corner of this PDF is the seating for a food stand which is just beyond the spike. Making it more obvious they mark the location where the sign is currently located as being saw cut and then filled with concrete. The station for Possessed should be directly to the right of the Mechanical building and I believe the new landing and stairs for access to the building would be inside of the station for Possessed. I am not 100% certain on the distances but I think that Infiltration Pond on the layout would also be inside the queue for Possessed, just having trouble figuring out if its where the queue is currently located or if its the grass in between the fence and the queue.

Somewhat, in the planning commission notice it lists the height as 106 ft tall. While Switchback at ZDT is only 64 feet tall. So this would be a much larger version of the ride.

Here is the bad news something is missing on the plan. It appears Possessed might be getting removed. It was not just forgotten off the design, the issue is you can see where the plans show saw cut lines and new concrete being poured where the sign for Possessed is currently located.

https://investors.sixflags.com/news-and-events/press-releases/2020/04-08-2020-211458352 Six Flags put out an investor update. They have enough liquidity that they believe they can last until opening of the 2021 season, even if the parks do not open this year. They did cancel $40-50 million dollars of projects intended for 2020, no details on exactly what was cut. But people have been putting together some clues, SFDK for instance has deleted the pages from their website associated with the new ride that was supposed to open this year.

The quickest way to move on would be to build herd immunity quickly. If we were to round up younger individuals and put them in internment camps with the intention that everyone who goes to the camps gets the disease. About a week after it can be confirmed that they have gotten sick, and recovered, they can be released, because we need to make sure they are not released until after they can no longer spread the disease, the average stay would likely be around a month. Once about half of the country has gotten sick, and recovered we will basically have reached herd immunity and the spread will largely slow to a manageable rate. At that point we should be able to go back to normal. We can choose if we just let it spread like wildfire through the camps or if we infect them on purpose as they are put into the camp. But either way we need to make sure that everyone gets sick. These are the individuals who face the least risk from the disease and by doing it this way we can keep the elderly and those at risk separated. Rounding up those at risk and trying to protect them would put them at more risk because it will basically be impossible to keep the disease from spreading in those groups. Either that or we can just wait until the spread dies down, and implement mitigations which should help slow the spread. Like face masks, and testing to find infected individuals, and then have individuals they have had contact with get tested.

I took advantage of the free FLP deal, and the exchange rate and renewed my platinum pass through Canada's Wonderland last year. Your pass becomes a pass of whatever park you renew through. I stopped getting the King's Island pass holder emails and now receive the pass holder emails for Canada's Wonderland. The different park apps show it as a Canada's Wonderland pass now, even through the actual card still says Kings Island. Here's the crazy part of this whole thing. If you go on Knott's website the passes they are selling right now including the platinum pass are being advertised as 2020-2021 passes which expire Dec 31, 2021. This includes the platinum pass, which Cedar Fair lets you buy the platinum pass through any of their websites and process it at any of their parks. So if you buy a Knott's pass what happens if you process it at Kings Island?

Universal Singapore already closed a few days ago. Also at least two of the parks in Japan which only reopened less than 3 weeks ago are closed again, both Fuji-Q and Nagashima Spa Land are closed with no indication of when they will reopen. Do not put much faith in the park staying open, even if it does open this year. Everything is in flux, and likely to change quickly.

There are two parks in South Korea which are still operating and have actually not closed at all due to this outbreak. Here is the guidelines from Everland in South Korea. Would the average guest be willing to follow these guidelines? Temperature check to enter the park, no parades, no shows, no indoor rides, I believe no water park either. If the park does open this year, its not going to be normal operation.

Kennywood has already announced there will be discounts to extend the pass through the rest of the season next year, so we know that it will not be full price. But how big of a discount will it be? Enough to justify buying one to fill the gap? Currently my thinking is, your 2020 pass is good through June, 2022 passes will likely go on sale in August with the rest of the season free. Just skip going to the park in July and get 2 and half years for the price of 2. If I was in management I would offer a combo 2021/2022 pass to 2020 pass holders at a slight up charge over what a one year pass would typically cost. But this is all still very fluid, we have no idea when the parks will open this year. It is very possible, and maybe even likely this is not the last time this changes.

Six Flags has already announced they are doing something similar for pass holders. Basically however long your home park is closed this year you can use your 2020 pass through the end of that month in 2021. If anything it is the Six Flags members getting screwed, they are continuing to charge the monthly fee, and giving free months at the end of your membership, which means after you cancel. The upside for members is they are getting the next tier benefits for the rest of the year, but at the same time that means a lot more customers will get free skip the line passes every visit. Just an FYI if anyone ever sees Six Flags offer free months on memberships, that is the same deal, you get the months after you cancel. I am expecting Cedar Fair will come to the same conclusion once they have to move the opening date far enough it will not be possible to add enough days to the operating calendar. I am expecting 2020 annual passes will work for a portion of 2021, and there will be heavily discounted upgrade options to finish off 2021. The big problem is most parks are now giving the end of the season for free if they buy a pass for the next year, it might not make much sense to upgrade to a full 2021 annual pass if you already are getting half the season due to having a 2020 annual pass.

This is a new park which was not planning on opening until July. Last time I saw a video of the location there was still a lot of work left to do. If construction shuts down for a month or two there would be no way the park could open at a reasonable time this year.

Virginia has just extended their stay at home order until June 10th. So that is basically Kings Dominion and Busch Gardens Williamsburg. I have my doubts that off season maintenance is finished, and all the rides tested. Plus the parks need time to hire and train employees. Assuming the order ends on the 10th as currently scheduled, would it be possible for the parks to open before July? Also there is no way to add that many days to the 2020 season.

I thought this was interesting. Warning this is a preprint medical article and has not been peer reviewed. Stability of the virus on surfaces and at different temperatures, in short at 4c (39f) the virus is basically stable and most of the culture was still alive after 2 weeks, at 22c (99f) the virus is undetectable after 2 days, and at the extreme of 70c (158f) not detectable after 5 minutes. It also tests several surfaces, for instance on paper its not detectable after 3 hours, but on Plastic or Stainless Steel it takes more than 4 days.

This is a misunderstanding of what warmer weather means to the spread of a virus. Warmer weather brings an end to the cold and flu season, but it does not mean you cannot get the cold or flu in the summer, just that it is less likely. A virus can and will still spread, just more slowly. Anyways the number of cases in a location is meaningless on its own. You have to examine where the person was infected, how many people did they infect, etc. Australia is still a prime example of how warmer weather is likely to slow the spread of covid-19. The Australian Department of Health has statistics on how every known case was acquired. Here is their nice little graph, most of which is purple, which as it states on the graph means the individual was infected overseas. There is community spread, but currently it is very slow.

No, because I care more about it being a good ride then if its a clone. There are tons of rides I would be very happy to see cloned and show up at Kings Island. Hangtime at Knott's Berry Farm for instance, its fun, decent but not amazing capacity, and compact. I love watching the lighting on the ride at night as well. It would be a very easy ride to clone. Sticking with Knott's, Sierra Sidewinder, another compact easy to clone ride, which is why there are two copies, one in Dubai, and one in England. I hate terrible cheap clones, like the Vekoma SLC models. Also clones reduce my desire to travel, when a park installs a ton of clones why spend a bunch of time and money visiting the park if I have already ridden all the rides somewhere else. But if you want to see a clone done right look at Dragonflier at Dollywood, its a stock model from Vekoma. It is also the only copy in North America and its a good ride. Its not like Kings Island does not already have clones, Invertigo, Flight of Fear, Backlot Stunt Coaster, Flying Ace Aerial Chase , Woodstock Express and the Great Pumpkin Coaster are all clones. If you add in rides which are the same basic layout like Racer and Bat, more than half of the coasters at Kings Island are clones or have been cloned. The park only has six coasters with totally unique layouts.

Unless something has changed the kdfans website claims to have seen documents which suggest that the S&S Free Spin is a custom layout. No idea how custom the design would be, but it does at least sound like it will not be the same ride as what you have seen or ridden at Six Flags parks. If the clone is on the other side of the planet does it matter? Also there is a giant difference between building two and building twenty. I really see no issue with getting a copy of a ride when the original is in China, almost no one in the US would even know it exists, let alone ride both. While Raptor is the original, a clone was built a few years after it opened in Japan, since then it has been relocated to France. I do not look at the ride any differently just because a second copy exists. I cannot say the same for the Batman ride which exists at so many Six Flags parks.

Total lockdown, closed all businesses except those that are actually essential. Only allowed to leave your home in the event of an emergency. Sent doctors, and nurses from around the country to the effected area. Implemented good quarantine practices among workers at the hospitals, basically two layers of protective barriers, swapped the outer layer between patients, with specific designated areas where they removed the protective barriers. Ramped up production of needed medical supplies and made sure hospitals were fully stocked with whatever was needed. They also tested a lot of people. China is lifting restrictions, and sending the health care workers home. You might not trust the numbers but it’s obvious they consider the outbreak contained.