‘Do we try to do it or not?’ Worlds of Fun fan reacts to new COVID-19 safety rules
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Amusement parks are opening
Worlds of Fun joins other amusement parks carefully opening with COVID-19 restrictions.
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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. Like amusement parks nationwide, Worlds of Fun will have COVID-19 safety measures in place when it opens only to season ticket holders like Fugate on Monday.
This year, everyone must wear a mask. Visitors must make reservations because the park will be kept to under 50% capacity.
“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, Florida 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.”
Fugate, 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 18, 2020 at 3:51 PM.
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