Can theme parks stay both fun and safe amid COVID-19? Here’s how they’re going to try
This will be the first clue that COVID-19 has changed your trip to Worlds of Fun this season: You need a reservation to get in. Pick a time slot.
Here’s your second clue: You have to wear a mask.
Worlds of Fun opens on Monday, but until early July only people with season passes can get in. There is no opening date set yet for Oceans of Fun.
Most amusement parks in the country are reopening this month or by mid-July, though a few opened Memorial Day weekend.
If mask-wearing riders on the Mamba — spaced out every other row — aren’t enough of a reminder that you are at Worlds of Fun during a pandemic, the plethora of hand sanitizer dispensers, Plexiglas barriers and signs reminding you to stay a safe six feet away from other guests surely will.
Another sign of the times: The park has suspended its live variety shows to avoid crowds inside theaters.
Worlds of Fun, run by Cedar Fair Entertainment, has adopted safety protocols used by amusement parks nationwide. Parks are reminding visitors of the inherent danger of being exposed to COVID-19 in public places, and telling them they voluntarily assume that risk.
COVID-19 has created a unique challenge for the industry: Maintain the fun atmosphere while keeping visitors safe from a highly infectious disease.
“That’s a little tough to do, to be honest with you,” said Worlds of Fun general manager Tony Carovillano. “We’ve been planning for months now, and as we’re starting to put signs up in the park and distancing markers and reminders … it’s necessary to let folks know.
“You don’t want it to be in your face, but you can’t avoid it in this day and age …
“You’re going to see signage. You’re going to see ambassadors walking around answering questions. You’re going to see restrooms with an attendant. And obviously, frequent cleaning is going to happen.”
Many parks are requiring reservations, which means visitors can’t just show up and buy a ticket. “It’s going to be different,” said Carovillano. “We’re learning that as we go.”
Worlds of Fun is following the city of Kansas City’s emergency orders, in effect until at least July 5, that businesses operate at no more than 50% capacity. The park, sprawled across more than 235 acres, will open at well under that. The park doesn’t disclose attendance numbers.
“We’re going to start off small, small crowds, and then graduate up … work our way up to that 50% over the next 30 days,” said Carovillano. “We could ramp up or down, that’s the benefit of the reservation system. It allows us some flexibility. But we fully intend to get to 50% capacity.”
‘Do we try to do it’?
Charles Fugate has been a regular at Worlds of Fun since it opened in 1973. He grew up in Jefferson City and his parents would take him every summer.
Now he and his husband have season passes. The self-described “roller coaster nerds” travel to other parks across the country, too — they’re big Disney fans — and visit Worlds of Fun two or three times a season.
But they haven’t decided whether they’ll go this year because the coronavirus is still infecting the country.
“We’re at the point where we’re (thinking) do we try to do it or not?” said Fugate of Overland Park, a bookkeeper for a landscaping company and a well-known actor in Kansas City theater circles.
“I’m not as afraid of the virus as I was, because we know a little bit more about it and we know a little bit more about the preventive measures that can help alleviate it.
“But at the same time it’s still there. It’s not gone away. So I can wear a mask and I can keep my distance and I can wash my hands a lot, but … we’re still in the decision-making phase about whether or not we’re going to go within the next month or so, or not.”
They might skip a planned trip to Disney World, too, which is set to reopen in July.
“I don’t expect we will try to go to Disney this year,” said Fugate. “Worlds of Fun will be a nice testing ground for that, just to see how they do before we would spend the money to go to California or Orlando and check those out.”
In early March, Fugate and his husband, Joseph O’Malley, who works for Saint Luke’s Health System, were in Orlando for O’Malley’s business trip. They were on a side trip at Disney’s Magic Kingdom when they began hearing about the nation heading for lockdown because of this new, highly contagious virus.
Fugate remembers looking at the throngs of people around them at the park and thinking, “Wow, this is going to be big.”
He began to think it “would be ages, years” before they could ever be in a crowded amusement park again.
Fugate has watched the video on the Worlds of Fun website explaining the new safety procedures, “and those do give me more confidence about going,” he said.
“If I decide to make a trip and I see that their staff are not wiping everything down when they should and if I’m not seeing Worlds of Fun adherence to those things, I’m probably going to head back to the gate.”
Masks and thermometers
When visitors make a reservation to go to Worlds of Fun — it can be done on the park’s free mobile app — they will answer questions based on Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines. For instance: In the past 14 days have you or anyone in your party been in direct contact with someone diagnosed with COVID-19?
They’ll be reminded to pack a mask. “Those guests who don’t have one … we will have them here for purchase,” Carovillano said.
The mask requirement came after consulting health experts — including Kansas City’s health department — and others in the amusement park industry, Carovillano said. The CDC currently recommends that everyone wear at least a cloth mask in public.
“Safety was our primary position,” said Carovillano. “And you’ll see that across the amusement park industry. Universal, Disney. Six Flags. All of us are using the same protocol requirements.”
(One fan on the Worlds of Fun Facebook page asked what happens if someone’s mask flies off while they’re on a ride. The park said it would give that visitor a complimentary mask.)
Visitors will have their temperatures taken at the entrance. If it’s higher than 100.4 — a red flag according to the CDC — they have to reschedule their visit.
Larger parks like Disney are considering ways to let people queue up for rides online, but Worlds of Fun hasn’t made that switch. But lines will be set up “so that folks aren’t congregating directly adjacent to one another,” Carovillano said.
Parents will be asked to help their children on and off rides if necessary.
Ride operators are generally “hands-off,” said Carovillano. But, “because of all the precautions and procedures that we put in place we’re asking parents that would normally allow their kid to do it, that they actually assist as well,” which will help ride operators stay a safe distance from visitors, he said.
“We’re trying to eliminate contact and go contact-less almost everywhere. That’s why you’ll see Plexiglas barriers up on all our restaurant counters, all our retail counters, guest services. We’ve invested quite a bit in Plexiglas barriers.”
One of the most difficult restrictions for Carovillano was suspending the live entertainment.
“We’ve kind of founded ourselves on entertainment and that’s been one of the biggest decisions, to remove those type of things indoors,” he said. “It pains us to do it.”
A world view
Some Americans may bristle at the new COVID-19 rules at amusement parks that require them to wear masks.
At least they won’t be told not to scream on the roller coasters.
That’s one of the new safety measures from a group of theme park operators in Japan, who encourage guests to avoid shouting on rides to keep from shooting their germs into the air.
It’s one of the more unusual guidelines to pop up as amusement parks open — slowly at first with limited crowds — while reminding visitors that COVID-19 is still a health threat.
This notice on the website of Jolly Roger Park in Ocean City, Maryland, is similar to what parks everywhere are telling their guests: “Any interaction with the general public poses an inherent risk of exposure to COVID-19. … By visiting Jolly Roger Parks you voluntarily assume all risks related to exposure to COVID-19.”
Silverwood Theme Park in Utah suggests that guests who “are in one of the vulnerable categories due to age or health considerations … postpone your visit to the park this season and wait for more secure times.”
Social distancing protocols mean your favorite roller coaster might be only half full — and your wait time in line could be longer as a result.
Other changes:
▪ Walt Disney World Resort in Florida is reopening Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom on July 11. But it will temporarily halt fireworks shows, parades and “meet and greets” with Disney characters, which draw crowds, The Associated Press reported.
▪ Six Flags parks are using new touch-free bag checks with walk-through machines — like going through security at the airport — which means “no stopping, no emptying of pockets or removing bags.”
▪ Universal Orlando Resort, which lets people get in line for certain rides using an app, also allows guests to pre-order some meals for pickup or have them delivered directly to the table.
▪ Dollywood in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, has switched buffet-style restaurants to cafeteria setups.
Masks are required in many, but not all, parks on anyone over the age of 2. Even parks that don’t require guests to wear them have made them required for employees.
Missouri’s Silver Dollar City, which opened to the public this past week, is requiring masks. Spokeswoman Lisa Rau told The Star that most visitors are following the rules.
Just because amusement parks are opening doesn’t mean they will remain open. An outbreak could scuttle the best of plans.
Arnolds Park Amusement Park in Iowa opened on June 3, and announced nine days later that it was temporarily shutting down because COVID-19 cases had spiked in the county.
“I do want to stress temporary,” the park’s CEO, Jeff Vierkant, said in a Facebook video. “We have seen a little bit of an increase in the virus cases locally, and we’ve chosen to just take a short pause with the opening of the park and the museums, in the interest of the health and safety of our team members and our guests.”
Rau wouldn’t say whether Silver Dollar City had plans to close if the number of cases were to spike in the area.
Carovillano of Worlds of Fun seemed reluctant to entertain that possibility, too.
“We hate to consider that, but we always have to be prepared,” he said.
Fugate of Overland Park, who enjoys the atmosphere of the parks as much as the rides, thinks it will be a challenge for Disney and everyone else to “keep the spirit” alive right now.
“But you know? I think they’ll do it. I think they’ll do it and I think with luck we’re only in this boat for — it seems like a long time — a year or two years maybe until hopefully a vaccine is available and things can start to go a little bit back to normal.”
This story was originally published June 20, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
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