Virus Impact on CP

well, Disney land is closing. Wonder if the Orlando parks will follow?

Carowinds planned/scheduled opening is next weekend so we have a week for Cedar Fair to announce something.

Cargo Shorts said:

If the k-12s do close, been trying to think of ways I can contribute....

Anyone have ideas or plans of their own?

So here in Louisville, a lot of the local churches, the YMCA, the Rotary Club, a handful of local businesses are rallying together to help out families and some of the kids who depend on the school for basic needs. The main need is going to be parents whose jobs simply don't allow them (or make it easy) to suddenly be at home for the better part of a month.

There goes Disney World.

And there goes Universal

And Disney Paris follows

Dolly said it didn't feel right to go through with the major announcement but the park is still opening tomorrow.

I don't envy the decision these executives have to make. The risk of opening and having a major community spread traced to the park causing damaging publicity versus significant damage to the financials.

Here in Ohio it looks like DeWine will ultimately make the decision for them.

Here in Orlando it's interesting because it came in advance of any recommendations of Orange County or the state. We don't actually have a case yet in OC, which is insanely shocking (but wait until tomorrow).

^^ It may be harder for the execs of self-insured operations to make, but Business Interruption insurance is very common and reimburses for losses incurred while a business is closed. Self-insured businesses are allowed to self-insure because the government has concluded that they have so much cash reserve or readily available liquid assets that they can cover very large losses on their own (without having to purchase very expensive insurance policies, saving them very very large amounts over years and years.)

Employees laid-off receive unemployment insurance benefits and continued coverage for insurances, so they will be taken care of. The companies can also extend payrolls and benefits to help them while the sloth-like government agencies do their processing of claims.

So the concerns of the execs would likely focus on guest/employee safety and public perception in managing this. And secondly how to 'make guests whole' that have reservations, vacations planned, excursions, accommodations, prepaid tickets/passes, etc...

That's regarding the large corps with executives in charge making these decisions-

In the markets with businesses that rely on the tourism of the large parks- The local mid and small sized businesses (which are the largest employers in this country) have much harder decisions to make. Business interruption insurance would not apply as they are not forced to close for public health concerns. They will have to continue to pay their distributors/suppliers, address payrolls, pay their insurance policies, etc....

So I wouldn't really lose any sleep over what Bob Chapek has to implement, as the corporate policies to govern these scenarios should have been in place for decades and certainly since 9/11.

Jeff said:

If there's a cost for testing, humans won't get tested, and they'll unknowingly spread the disease. This is not hard math.

I don't often agree with you, but I think you're right about this as there's a lot of evidence to show you're correct. Sadly.

XS NightClub said:

^^ It may be harder for the execs of self-insured operations to make, but Business Interruption insurance is very common and reimburses for losses incurred while a business is closed. Self-insured businesses are allowed to self-insure because the government has concluded that they have so much cash reserve or readily available liquid assets that they can cover very large losses on their own (without having to purchase very expensive insurance policies, saving them very very large amounts over years and years.)

Employees laid-off receive unemployment insurance benefits and continued coverage for insurances, so they will be taken care of. The companies can also extend payrolls and benefits to help them while the sloth-like government agencies do their processing of claims.

So the concerns of the execs would likely focus on guest/employee safety and public perception in managing this. And secondly how to 'make guests whole' that have reservations, vacations planned, excursions, accommodations, prepaid tickets/passes, etc...

That's regarding the large corps with executives in charge making these decisions-

In the markets with businesses that rely on the tourism of the large parks- The local mid and small sized businesses (which are the largest employers in this country) have much harder decisions to make. Business interruption insurance would not apply as they are not forced to close for public health concerns. They will have to continue to pay their distributors/suppliers, address payrolls, pay their insurance policies, etc....

So I wouldn't really lose any sleep over what Bob Chapek has to implement, as the corporate policies to govern these scenarios should have been in place for decades and certainly since 9/11.

Well stated.

I am concerned about the myriad of small operations that live week to week. Hopefully, the government steps in to help make most of them whole. It will cost a lot but so will a mondo-depression.

Jeff said:

Here in Orlando it's interesting because it came in advance of any recommendations of Orange County or the state. We don't actually have a case yet in OC, which is insanely shocking (but wait until tomorrow).

Getting in front of this is probably an overreaction. But it's a smart overreaction. I hate to see a business close but I hate to see people get sick/die even more.

What a mess.

I would speculate that Sandusky will wait for a while until they make an announcement. The spread may well decline due to all of the various isolation methods as it has in Red China.

If Sandusky closes, they, in my opinion, will flip all of the passes to next year and have the "150" celebrations in '21.

Anyway, I hope the park opens.

I can't imagine any decision would be made on Cedar Point until the first week of May. That is lightyears away based on the last 48 hours

I just purchased a $40 round trip airfare to Orlando thanks to the virus. It's for late April. If things are still bad or worse almost a month and a half from now then at the worst case I'm out $40.

But it was too good of a deal not to jump on it.

I am hoping things settle down by May if not June. And I think Point will open, maybe with more sanitizer stations set up. More cleaning. Etc.

Just remember to be kind if you go to the park. Don't be an a**hole who complains of slow dispatches if they're sanitizing between dispatches, or there are more frequent shutdowns due to hygiene, disinfection, or other cleaning procedures we haven't seen in the past. At the end of the day remember you chose to go to the park through all this if they open.

But this is truly turning into one interesting year so far.

So will the ride-ops shut down the ride and let me find my bottle of hand sanitizer if the ride forces it out of my unzipped pocket?

The first domino falls. Knotts Berry Farm is closing.

^Agreed, although for now only through the end of the month. I assume the company is going to take a "wait and see" approach for the coming weeks, and evaluate where things are at by the time April rolls around. Hopefully by then all these actions will have made an impact on reducing the spread of the virus.

April Fools Day is going to be lit this year.

2 more dominoes have fallen. Carowinds and Kings Dominion opening day is delayed until April 3.