As more theme parks prepare for their return, Cedar Fair today announced an expansion of its parks' mobile apps to support new admission procedures.
"Our more robust suite of mobile technologies not only strengthens the safety measures recommended by health officials, but also offers exciting, guest-friendly alternatives that could very well enhance the overall guest experience for the long term," Cedar Fair CEO Richard Zimmerman said.
The new app versions will allow visitors to make a required advance reservations for a specific date and time to visit a Cedar Fair park, which include Knott's Berry Farm, Cedar Point, Canada's Wonderland, and Kings Island among North America's most-visited parks. Visitors will need to show their timed entry voucher on the app in order to get into the park. The app also will allow visitors to complete much of the health survey that Cedar Fair will be requiring visitors to fill out upon entry.
Guests also will be able to process season passes through the app, rather than having to visit a processing center in person.
Cedar Fair also will be using the apps to roll out mobile food ordering to more parks in 2020, to support the use of touch-free payments and minimize queuing. The company also will use the app to try to manage crowd flow within the parks, to promote social distancing.
"The mobile app’s mapping and wayfinding modules, which already allow guests to easily find things like restrooms and phone charging stations, are being leveraged to monitor potential overcrowding in various areas of the park throughout the day; this will help determine where to deploy crowd control measures and enable appropriate social distancing. These modules will also direct guests to the closest hand sanitizing stations," Cedar Fair said in a press release.
Cedar Fair has not yet announced reopening dates for any of its theme parks.
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Let's see how Universal solves this problem, since they're opening next week. The metal detector/locker issue really started there and Cedar Fair borrowed it (though they chose not to use free lockers like at Universal). However, Cedar Fair did make some operational changes at the end of last year to rides that prohibited smart phones in pockets, which was to give guests found with those devices as the metal detectors a card that was handed to the restraint checker. The checker than had to verify the person placed their smart phone in a zippered pouch near their seat. FWIW, Busch Gardens Williamsburg was using fanny packs for the same purpose. The problem with either method though is that it means guests have to hold/handle something (either a laminated card or fanny pack) that would then need to be sterilized after every single use. Many locales are already forcing restaurants to eliminate laminated/reusable menus, so handing out laminated cards or fanny packs to guests might now fly in some places.
Smart phones in theme parks is something guests and operators struggle with on a daily basis, and will continue to anguish over for the foreseeable future. At some point, I do think we will reach a happy medium though.
How is it that I there is not an epidemic of cell phone falling out of people's pockets at disney, even on their most wild rides. I know not as wild as six and fun, but still at mummy level where they don't allow cell phones. I really think people can be allowed to keep their cell phones in their pockets now. People would have to touch the hard surface of the locker every time. I think the one in a million idiot who drops their cell phone or small purchased item is the least of our worries now
Robert, I don’t suppose you’ve heard any murmurings about the Merlin parks, or the UK Independents (Blackpool, Drayton Manor), I’m wondering if a late summer (rail)road trip might be a good idea.
I was thinking about DLP but the rumours are now France won’t be exempted from our expected quarantine
>> I really think people can be allowed to keep their cell phones in their pockets now.
Unless you got a zip, or an inside pocket, I say no. I’ve had a phone call out of my pocket whilst motorcycling to the ground, bounce to waist height and then fall.
Strangely it was perfectly fine. It was in a cheap case.
@davedisney - Have you ever ridden on an RMC? It's a very legitimate concern about objects falling out of pockets given those coasters' propensity for rapid and extreme changes in G forces. The forces on Rock N Rollercoaster are child's play compared to Steel Vengeance. I do think, however, that guests should be trusted to ride with their cell phones if the devices are in a buttoned or zippered pants pocket. Cargo pants/shorts used to be more or less the uniform of the typical roller coaster aficionado (and/or a fanny pack before parks started outlawing them), but as with most rules, they must be made for the lowest common denominator, and a few morons wearing cargo pants would be seen trying to take on-ride videos with their cell phones or hand-held cameras. A couple of idiots ruined it for everyone, and now we must all suffer for their incompetence and selfishness.
But if everyone’s standing six feet apart, there’s less chance of a flying cell phone hitting anyone, right? /s
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additional information....
"Please remember, our policy of no cell phones and no portable charging batteries will be allowed on your person while you ride. But you are now required to have your smart phone for all of these different new procedures? No worries! We have new (paid) lockers at every single ride experience so you can safely store your smart phone for the duration of your ride. How will you pay for this locker? No worries! It's a touchless/tap payment system using your smart phone to pay for your locker. But you just put your smart phone in the locker? No worries! Oh wait, we were wrong there.....we're still stuck on this one."
AAAAAAHHHHHHHHH! I'll wait to go until this is all over.