Virus Impact on CP

I went to KI on a Tuesday and it was dead. I also just got back from 2 days at Knoebels and it was really dead.
I can’t imagine this is sustainable. In fact, in Knoebels’ case, I know it’s not.
Many parks, after the initial rush, have experienced the same thing. Several places have cancelled the reservation policy because they’ve found it’s just not necessary to force reduction in capacity.

Hmm... it's almost like there's a global pandemic and a global recession and schools aren't opening and millions are out of work...

Seems so.
My prediction that all parks everywhere would just stay shuttered seems to have missed.

^My prediction was if things weren't open by July 4th, they prob weren't going to open at all. Still not sure if things will remain open.

It's been an unusual summer.

We have trip booked in mid-August, and are from NY. Our governor recently added Ohio to a list of about 20 other states on a travel ban list. If you're from NY, and travel to any of the states on the list, and come home; you MUST quarantine for 14 days unpaid. The list does get updated, as Delaware was removed from the list. So fingers crossed Ohio is removed as well. We still have it booked in case things clear up

Unless people start changing their behavior within the next few days, I don't foresee Ohio being in better shape in a few weeks. But who knows?

In our local area, everyone is following the mask suggestion (for the majority). We did go out of town for an event this past weekend and I would estimate about 200/225 people total. could count on one hand those that had a mask. Adults, Kids, babies.

Out of curiosity, we compared our county and their county (both rural/farm areas) numbers....their county had almost 3X the confirmed cases....so, seems maybe the masks do make a difference. I try not to be a worrier, but, admit it did make me very nervous (this was an indoor enclosed event).

Would be interesting to know the mix of passholders versus single day ticket buyers. And how that holds up through the season. At this point, passholders, meal/drink plans, etc are good for whatever season they have this year and next season as well. So this season ends up being something of a bonus for majority of passholders/plan holders.

From the park's perspective, the more passholders/plan holders are in the park (or at least the fewer people buying tickets, food, drinks, etc.), the less being open on a limited basis makes sense. On the one extreme, everyone in the park is a passholder with a meal/drink plan so $0 is the additional revenue from being open that day. Wouldn't make sense to continue on that basis. Obviously there are people in the park paying for tickets, food, drinks, etc. But the mix will impact the number of rides open and entertainment offered and days park is open.

On the way home from the park on Saturday, my daughter and I talked about the wealth of info the park has on attendance/spending in terms of a number of factors (weather, day of week, economic conditions in region, etc) collected over decades of operation. They should have a pretty good idea of park spend on given days based on those factors. But with the current situation, they do not have a lot of data to use. Though they are gathering it as the season moves forward (but at the same time, the landscape is changing in terms of the impact of Covid-19 which changes usefullness of data).

Saturday made me think of the end of snow ski season each year. The last weekend or two often has only passholders so resort is making little in the way of cash. Its a matter of delivering value to passholders. If season has been a good one, seems to me there is a tendency to cut short by a weekend a season. If weather has made skiing tough, there is a tendency to hold on for another weekend.

jimmyburke said:

^What was HGIH VOLTAGE? Was it a misspelled sign from days past somewhere in the park?

It was a misspelling on a sign in the Disaster Transport queue. It was quickly fixed shortly after opening day the year that it happened.

Even if the park is operating at a manageable loss primarily filled with passholders, is it still worth it not only to show the stockholders (and the locals) that "hey, we're open and we can open safely" but also to show it to the passholders (including all those shiny new gold passes) and deliver some kind of park experience so they'll be more apt to renew when times improve?

Absolutely (though key is defining what is a "manageable loss"). But its all a balance. With unemployment numbers right now, the park likely could find employees to run additional rides. Lots of performers are out of work right now for additional shows in the park. But you don't do that if it doesn't make business sense. The park currently is showing they are open (though based on attendance -- particularly on a beautiful Saturday in mide July -- its not clear how many people actually know that) and operating safely (from everything I saw that appears to be the case though it will take some time to see how true that is). But I expect that how profitable the park is with the limited operations will determine how long it stays open this season and what levels of rides/entertainment are offered. And that may not align with expectations of certain people who post here.

I suspect restarting season pass payments also went into this equation. There is a pretty good chunk revenue there just for opening. Granted they would likely get that next year if they held off, but any cash flow they can get this year has to be extremely helpful for the balance sheet (and likely FUN units)

For an unscientific attendance comparison, this: my son & I have done 8 visits thus far. Upon leaving the park around 2:30pm each time, the main parking lot has been very sparse, afew rows short of that middle scaffold. Past years, several rows past the scaffold was a slow day. Plus, nobody is parking at CP Shores and no tour busses.

If (and every day this looks like a bigger if) we are able to get some sort of control over the virus numbers in a month or two and the park offers "Fall Fun" weekends and gets lucky with the kind of fall weather Ohio had last year, things could potentially pick up if people feel more comfortable going out in a few months.

According to the CP website, reservations are no longer required.

If more rides and restaurants don't open, and capacity is going up with no reservations, things are about to get bad. Those wait times are about to triple.

I think they are only dropping reservation requirements as they parks just hasn't seen the traffic aside from the first couple of days to justify the need for it.

I'm curious to see if the demand stays low or goes up now that people don't need a reservation though.

No reservations may make it a bit easier for me to try going. It eliminates trying to predict my son's schedule, whether or not the weather has the potential to be bearable in a mask as far as heat and humidity and my anxiety level on any given day and chances of being able to wear the mask for any extended period without having to leave because of just not being able to do it. I think there are enough people out there that currently have the attitude that CP is a petri dish that is going to kill us all that the crowds may stay small even with no reservations.

I was looking at reservation availability yesterday (checking for yesterday and today) and there were thousands available at many different times. I'm pretty sure not requiring reservations has more to do with lack of demand then increasing capacity.

That exactly. They maybe had 50% reservations accounted for on any one day over the next 4 days I'm planning on being at the park. And I'm pretty sure my mental math highballed that a lot.