Coronavirus and theme parks

[Brad2912]

correct. 
and at 1.5m you are looking at 

1 person per train on Scooby 

Is there 1.5m between rows on SE and DCR? Probably not, so that’s only 3 people per train. 
 

[red dragin]

You don't have to socially distance yourself from your own family members. So you can get more than one person per car. 

Restaurants are having to take a guest list, so I'd expect that to be part of the process, so if someone is sick, they can identify everyone that was there that day. 

[Levithian]

All this stuff creates more hassle and more overheads (cost) for parks. Its a further nail in the coffin of opening early. 

And all this is before you even think about what people are actuallu prepared to spend. Its not good enough to have the potential to open your gates if consumer spending is still very low, unemployment is still very high and people are feeling the stress of just paying all their bills. 

And lets not forget that everyone is forecasting a bump in infection numbers and clusters to form as we head into winter with relaxed restrictions. 

What would it mean if a cluster formed centered around a park, either started by a guest or even staff? How much damage would that cause your business as its a guaranteed national headline, so does it mean you need to look at screening all guests before they come into the park? 

Still seems like a lot of unknowns with the government just expecting businesses to take on all the risk.

Now theres already talk about having to extend the job keeper and job seeker payments past september as businesses are not going to recover in a few months and people will need further income support too. 

I Imagine its a very complex decision you dont want to get wrong and go too early. 

Edited May 10, 2020 by Levithian

[Brad2912]

4 hours ago, red dragin said:

You don't have to socially distance yourself from your own family members. So you can get more than one person per car. 

Restaurants are having to take a guest list, so I'd expect that to be part of the process, so if someone is sick, they can identify everyone that was there that day. 

How do you prove the person you visiting with is a family household member vs a friend? 

at restaurants everyone visiting must register name, address & phone number.

you can’t do that for every cycle on the ride. 
registering 10 people every hour or so in a restaurant is simple. 

it’s just not possible in a theme park 

Edited May 10, 2020 by Brad2912

[red dragin]

2 minutes ago, Brad2912 said:

How do you prove the person you visiting with is a family household member vs a friend? 

at restaurants everyone visiting must register name, address & phone number.

you can’t do that for every cycle on the ride. 
registering 10 people every hour or so in a restaurant is simple. 

it’s just not possible in a theme park 

They take your word for it, like they have been in public. A mate was stopped in town, asking what he was doing. Answered grabbed a coffee, heading back to the office. Off he went to the office. 

Should have been a bit clearer on the register, I meant at the gate, not at the rides. 

The risk is really low, and should be lower again by July.

I will be interested to see how they handle it, as we'll need to apply some procedures for a similar situation. 

[Jpw25111]

1 hour ago, Brad2912 said:

How do you prove the person you visiting with is a family household member vs a friend? 

at restaurants everyone visiting must register name, address & phone number.

you can’t do that for every cycle on the ride. 
registering 10 people every hour or so in a restaurant is simple. 

it’s just not possible in a theme park 

Medicare card?

[westical]

RIP Single Rider

[Zac Beckwith]

2 hours ago, westical said:

RIP Single Rider

yeah, there is no way that single rider will be able to come up, as long as they can seperate groups from other groups then it could just work

[Brad2912]

1 hour ago, Zac Beckwith said:

yeah, there is no way that single rider will be able to come up, as long as they can seperate groups from other groups then it could just work

If the groups are not living in the same household (ie a bunch of friends/mates) then they cannot be within 1.5m of each other, so they can not ride next to each other. 

 

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

On 08/05/2020 at 3:48 PM, Brad2912 said:

my initial thought would be the park from entry gate onwards can only have 20 in stage 2 which wouldn’t make opening even considerable.

...And the ludicrousness of that thought is exactly why that's not going to be the expectation for the parks, one way or the other.

On 09/05/2020 at 1:22 AM, Brad2912 said:

and I agree, even with a limit of 100 people, the parks can’t reopen as there would be not far off that in staffing alone. so at this point there really is no re-opening date for theme parks.

If you take a look at the rules for the restaurants recently announced, it was specific to say '20 patrons' permitted, so the limits \ numbers didn't count staff. Likely that that would apply to the parks as well, and the population count would only apply to guests.

Still doesn't make it viable, but the staff count is almost certainly not included.

On 09/05/2020 at 10:35 AM, Brad2912 said:

Or do we just keep paying job keeper to our permanent staff which costs us nothing until mid sept ?

That may not be an option. Granted I heard it second hand, but the word I heard on friday was that ScoMo was suggesting Job Keeper could be scaled back as early as the end of May if reopenings go well. And that makes sense - the gov indicated september when the forecast was a 6 month lockdown, but now here we are 2 months in and we're already relaxing things? maybe we can save some money by ending the assistance early?

[Brad2912]

2 hours ago, AlexB said:

...And the ludicrousness of that thought is exactly why that's not going to be the expectation for the parks, one way or the other.

If you take a look at the rules for the restaurants recently announced, it was specific to say '20 patrons' permitted, so the limits \ numbers didn't count staff. Likely that that would apply to the parks as well, and the population count would only apply to guests.

Still doesn't make it viable, but the staff count is almost certainly not included.

That may not be an option. Granted I heard it second hand, but the word I heard on friday was that ScoMo was suggesting Job Keeper could be scaled back as early as the end of May if reopenings go well. And that makes sense - the gov indicated september when the forecast was a 6 month lockdown, but now here we are 2 months in and we're already relaxing things? maybe we can save some money by ending the assistance early?

Mate I’m just going off the info provided by govt. At this stage there is no exemptions so that would be the rule. Ludicrous is thinking the government will allow thousands into a theme park while only letting 10-20 at an outdoor wedding, or 30 to an outdoor funeral. The general public would be up in arms. 
 

I can’t speak for other states, but QLD didn’t specifically say patrons in their capacity estimates. I do know however that the pre-lockdown capacity limits DID include staff. Maybe post-lockdowns don’t but that’s hasn’t been made fully clear as yet. 
 

I have also just read today about JobKeeper potentially be wound back, altered or only paid to those in specified industries (of which hospitality and tourism would certainly be included). JobSeeker doubling may also be dropped, which I can understand from and expense point of view, but doing so will not assist with restarting the economy with people spending in local stores or travelling local. 

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

3 hours ago, Brad2912 said:

At this stage there is no exemptions

Errr... the info provided by the government clearly shows there are exemptions. And it appears you completely understand that...

On 09/05/2020 at 10:35 AM, Brad2912 said:

i completely understand the asterisk concept and that situationally more people will be considered if you have a watertight plan. 

 

3 hours ago, Brad2912 said:

I can’t speak for other states, but QLD didn’t specifically say patrons in their capacity estimates.

Anastasia Palaszczuk MP (facebook account) posted on 8 May at 14:08 the 'Roadmap to easing Queensland's Restrictions'. In the text of her post, she stated:

Quote

...

Dining in at restaurants, pubs, clubs, RSLs and cafes for a maximum of 10 patrons at one time as part of a gradual re-opening (no bars or gaming).

 

[Brad2912]

Fair enough, it doesn’t present that way in the official roadmap that was distributed by QLD. I haven’t read all the text. But as you said, be it 10, 20, 100 even with staff additional it’s not feasible. 

[Jdude95]

Also the 3 stage roadmap has been updated twice since it first got released so they are obviously still figuring out the best way to go about reopening. Things could easily change. Hell, for all we know, this could lead to round 2 and even worse lockdowns than the first round.

[Levithian]

Id like to see the political fallout if scomo pushes to repealing the income support payments. 

Do you think they are prepared to put their careers at risk when they were predicting 10% unemployment? Especially if it carries through until next year like predicted. 

Wonder what it would do to those effevtively already defaulting on mortgages and only surviving on the payments + suspending their loan repayments.

Edited May 11, 2020 by Levithian

[red dragin]

Remember with JobKeeper, business are only eligible once they have a 30% decrease year on year. Once things pick up, they will loose eligibility for JobKeeper (unless they fudge their books). 

I saw today, they are concerned about 'zombie' companies, ones that are dead but exist only to claim the subsidy. I suspect that some are keeping the old company alive on JobKeeper whilst starting another business doing the exact same thing and turning a profit (or at least that is the government's concern). 

[Park Addict 93]

Some political posturing on the news tonight from Bikash. I feel as though this is simply trying to put pressure on the state government to allow a reasonable number in park.

[Brad2912]

Snippet of an article just published..

Tourism bosses fear the State Government’s restrictions surrounding theme parks will hamper the Gold Coast’s ability to recover from the COVID-19 crisis.

Theme park operators on the Gold Coast have indicated they are likely to remain shut even once restrictions start easing.

Under the plan, theme parks would be able to reopen in Stage Two in June, but only with a maximum of 20 people at a time.

That number will increase to 100 as part of Stage Three in July.

But Village Roadshow Theme Parks Chief Operating Officer  Bikash Randhawa insist that’s still not financially viable and wants a clearer framework from the State Government.

“We need to have, at a minimum, 5000 people here before it makes any commercial sense or financial sense” Mr Randhawa told Seven.

Mr Randhawa also warned it would take up to four weeks before the parks would be in a position to reopen.

Destination Gold Coast CEO Annaliese Battista says the theme parks are a crucial part of the city’s tourism offering.

“We know that theme parks are in the top five reasons people visit the Gold Coast, they’re particularly important to the drive market and we certainly hope the theme parks are back online as soon as it’s safe and feasible to do so,” Ms Battista said.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

15 hours ago, Jordan M. said:

Some political posturing on the news tonight from Bikash. I feel as though this is simply trying to put pressure on the state government to allow a reasonable number in park.

I saw a comment from someone last night that made a really good point - rather than whining that the limits aren't high enough for them to be profitable, they should be leading by example - collaborating with the government on what measures and what steps they could take that would allow them to open to a profitable capacity level.

All levels of government have indicated that a larger number of patrons is allowable with an appropriate covid management plan, so maybe the parks need to come up with a plan on how they'll manage large numbers - then they can have as many people in the park as they determine they can  safely manage under the plan, and if they can't get the number they need to be profitable, then they've shown why the government won't let them have a big number.

Just because you're a big business, doesn't mean you should be exempt from the rules... but it does mean you are better equipped, and more able to afford to put in a management plan that would allow you to trade with larger numbers. So stop whining, and actually lead the business you're paid millions of dollars a year to lead.

[themagician]

Couldn’t agree more @AlexB. Look at what Disney are doing with Shanghai. They are one of the biggest businesses in the world, but they have clearly stated what they have put in place, even if that means their profits won’t be anywhere near as high as usual. They’ve said they will cut down to 30%, and they’ve shown how queues will work and how trains will be loaded. It ensures people know what to expect if they do decide to go back. Obviously the scale of a Disney vs VRTP is no where what the same and we won’t be expecting crowds to be anywhere near the same, but as Alex says, they need to showcase to the government what they would do and how they would do it. Bikash says they would need at least 5000 people capacity, but in reality, I doubt they will reach those numbers, not until at least the summer holidays (unless I’m not realising how many people want to go back to theme parks). 

[New display name]

1 hour ago, AlexB said:

rather than whining

He came across that he didn't care if guest ended up infected as long as he can get his 5000 guest through the gate.  

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

1 hour ago, Skeeta said:

He came across that he didn't care if guest ended up infected as long as he can get his 5000 guest through the gate.  

"I'll infect 5000 people a day before I let this company die"

[joz]

He could do with some external media training, he comes across a bit cold on TV interviews.

[New display name]

On 12/05/2020 at 1:21 PM, joz said:

he comes across a bit cold on TV interviews.

That's because you can never see his eyes.

[Jdude95]

On 12/05/2020 at 1:21 PM, joz said:

He could do with some external media training, he comes across a bit cold on TV interviews.

To be fair, his media interviews are still more sane and reasonable than his Facebook rants