Updated throughout. Remember a few weeks ago, when Disneyland and other theme parks in California were lobbying Governor Gavin Newsom for permission to reopen in the state's Covid-19 Tier 3? It's crickets on that front now, as the state has pushed almost all of its counties back to the most restrictive Tier 1 and announced a new, region-based stay-at-home order.
Outdoor dining, bars, personal care services (e.g. barbershops and nail salons), zoos, museums and aquariums will be closed in regions where ICU capacity drops below 15 percent, and retail will be limited to 20 percent capacity under the new order. "Nonessential travel" also is restricted statewide.
You can read the new guidelines on the state's website. The Southern California region has an ICU capacity at about 20 percent right now, but that is expected to fall enough to trigger the new stay-at-home order within days. The order goes into effect 24 hours after the trigger is met.
Even by the most optimistic estimates now, theme parks in California might not reopen their rides and shows until well into the new year, perhaps when vaccine distribution becomes widespread enough to help bring infection rates down close to zero.
Let's look at what parks were planning to welcome customers, make money and keep workers employed until the pandemic recedes in California and state officials agree that the parks can operate safely — and what they might be able to do now.
Magic Mountain appeared determined to continue its drive-through experiences in the new year. I have heard from readers that the park has been surveying guests about several options, including an extension of the Holiday in the Park drive-through for a month beyond January 3, as well as a Lunar New Year event, a street performer event, and even a Halloween-themed event. A horror drive-through might be an odd fit in the first months of the year — especially with a pandemic raging, but a Lunar New Year drive-through looks like it could be a winner with Chinese Lantern displays and maybe pick-up food orders, similar to what the park is doing with its holiday event.
Drive-throughs remain perhaps the safest way for parks to open, as keeping households in their cars prevents mixing with others. The state is allowing out-of-home recreation so long as people do not mix with other households, so that might help Six Flags' case. There's nothing that explicitly bans car parades under the new order, but nothing explicitly permits them, either. Stay tuned.
Universal is the only big park in California that has not opened its gates at all to fans since the pandemic hit. CityWalk is open for business, though now only for take-out and delivery service pick-up at the restaurants. But Universal has opened a "Wizarding World" pop-up serving Butterbeer to give fans a literal taste of one of the park's most popular lands.
Wait a minute, does this mean I can DoorDash a Butterbeer in LA now? Someone who lives closer to USH than I do should try this and comment.
Anyway, even though Universal is not open to theme park guests, that does not mean the facility is completely closed to business. Remember that Universal Studios Hollywood includes movie and television production facilities, and not having tour trams driving through creates more flexibility for physical distancing on the lot for productions that have been allowed to resume. USH also is the only Universal park around the world that is closed at this point, and the company is about to open a huge new park in Beijing, whose attendance and revenue should dwarf whatever a limited-capacity USH could earn. So I would not have been surprised if Universal continued to keep the Hollywood park itself closed to guests until it can reopen fully, even before the new order made it tougher to find a way to open on a limited basis.
The state's new regional stay-at-home order limits retail capacity to 20 percent. But if a business can open more retail space, it can serve the same number of customers while complying with stricter capacity limits, as Disney effectively did by expanding Downtown Disney into California Adventure. The new order means the temporary end to the Carthay Circle Alfresco dining experience and would force other restaurants to pack all meals to go when it takes effect. But Disneyland if can keep Downtown Disney open, it could expand its retail space again by extending Downtown Disney into Paradise Park and opening more retail and takeaway food locations. And there's always the original park across the esplanade to give the resort even more room to expand, too.
So long as the state is willing to consider Knott's food festivals as take-out rather than outdoor dining, the park could be able to continue its line-up of food events into the new year. But that likely would require packing everything to go and putting away all the tables in the park. Forget about any entertainment elements, too, since they're now clearly banned. The question is whether Knott's wants to proceed under those rules. If it does — and would be able to — the next question would be which themes Knott's would select for future events. In normal operation, next up would be the Peanuts Celebration, followed by the Boysenberry Festival. But Knott's could throw in a Lunar New Year event, too — again, if it can continue to operate at all.
Legoland California and SeaWorld San Diego
The new rules will eliminate the zoo rules that SeaWorld has used to operate, and limitations on hotel occupancy (they're now supposed to be only for essential workers as leisure travel is banned) would cut into Legoland's limited operation. Without adjacent shopping districts or plans for drive-through events, these parks might not have much flexibility to move forward even with limited operations.
* * *
We wanted you to read this article before we make our newsletter pitch, unlike so many other websites. If you appreciate that — and our approach to covering theme park news — please sign up for our free, three-times-a-week email newsletter. Thank you.
Apparently, Gov. Newsom's regional stay-at-home order requires museums, zoos, and aquariums (as well as theme parks) to close once the 15% ICU capacity threshold is reached , so it doesn't seem that a park like Sea World that is operating as a de facto aquarium will be allowed to stay open.
Wouldn't a ban on outdoor dining affect food events like Knott's tasting events and California Adventure's outdoor seating for restaurants?
Like I said, it all depends on whether the state sees food booths as take-out or outdoor dining. I think parks that want to stay open would do well to remove tables if they want to argue that they are take-out.
Six Flags Magic Mountain is in a unique situation where they might be able to remain open even under the new guidelines as their event has virtually no interaction between guests and employees. However, their current operation is a bit of a gray area where they don't fit well into any of the officially defined categories.
As for the rest, I don't foresee them continuing operation if the new order is activated. Disney and Universal could maybe remain operational as strictly retail, but at 20% capacity it may not be worth it. Knott's will definitely be forced to close as it sounds like no dining is allowed on premises under the order, which makes their type of event completely impractical.
What should parks do? For the moment, keep operating as they are, and if forced to close then do so. If they close, however, I'd rather see them remain closed then attempt another limited reopening, as I've got a feeling such events take pressure off the state somewhat to allow them to operate properly, and with cases on the rise now is not the time to make that fight. However, once the wave passes in a couple months and the state starts allowing tourism to resume, theme parks need to come out with guns blazing and be prepared to fight to the death for an immediate return to proper operation under the protocols accepted elsewhere, both for their own good and for the good of the community. I've already heard whispers one or two chains are starting to investigate exit strategies from the California market for certain properties, and if parks are closed for the majority of 2021 as well, even the destination players may not be immune from such consideration.
And sadly we see more businesses close and more much safer ways for friends and family to meet up outdoors, socially distanced from others, and often with masks made illegal all while our economy tanks and psych issues rise. Let's face it theme parks since June in the US are not areas where cases have been found. Continued CV cases of our state are social interactions indoors without masks... not at a Knotts' food festival, not essential shopping, not voting in person, not getting fast food, eating outdoors, going to the beach or hiking outdoors (without masks), or getting hair or nails done inches away and indoors if stylists and clients both properly wear masks. We really need political leaders to speak with scientific data about postponing or cancelling all indoor meet ups without masks in homes, to keep staff rooms at work places well ventilated, sanitized and socially distanced if peeps eat there. We are so missing the mark here... I know so many new cases and it was simply family and/ or friends meeting up indoors, hugging, chatting away, so missing one another as they were shamed to want to see each other and not given smart and safer ways to meet up. Many politicians on both sides of the aisle have looked like hypocrites too... dining out indoors, with larger parties (more than 6 peeps), going to Hawaii, not wearing masks when out and about, having the same paycheck & perks, being able to send their kids and grandkids to privates that are open, etc. that I really think they have hurt relaying a message about common sense, wearing masks (correctly), economics, and physical and mental health. BTW I have worked almost every day of this pandemic amongst co-workers and am not only my home's by my work's essential shopper... 0 cases of CV amongst 30 of us PLUS our spouses, partners, kids, etc. I have also gone to Sea World San Diego once and the Knott's food festival 3 times.... I get tested weekly and had one antibody test this summer and 0 signs of CV. Any how, very sad for all these workers, our state, and our youth who are stuck with virtual learning with no end in sight past Fall 2021 at best.
With all we know about the virus there is no reason for it to be spreading like this, I hope the people responsible are proud of themselves. For example I personally know two families on two different sides of the country that both went to weddings, not wearing masks, doing all the stereotypical stuff, and both families got covid as those weddings were super spreader events. Meanwhile a couple months ago the two same families came to a wedding here in Orlando where we were enforcing masks and social distancing and neither of them got covid - nobody at this wedding got it. This is not difficult it's just pure irresponsibility, and that includes the jerkoff governor of California having a birthday party of with no masks or social distancing. And in Napa of all places, could you be any more of a douchebag?
Also seeing this pictures from the California theme parks i'm extremely perplexed why these parks were allowed to be open (but not open) to begin with. DLR, Knotts, and SFDK have literally been open the only difference is the rides aren't running...like somehow waiting in line for rides is going to spread covid but waiting in line for food and merchandise is not? Makes no sense at all to me.
I agree with AJ regarding parks' strategies moving forward. Most parks would be stupid right now to try to fight increasing restrictions, because not only would it not do any good, but trying to point out the hypocrisy of California allowing the current limited operations (such as Sea World's zoo operations and Knott's Food Festivals) could result in the courts recognizing the hypocrisy and actually shutting these operations down.
Given that LA County looks to be moving towards a full-on lockdown in the very near future, and surrounding counties examining similar restrictions through the end of the year, parks should collect whatever revenue they can over the next week or 2 while preparing for hibernation through at least the end of January. However, the notion that any of the major theme parks would pick up and move their operations permanently out of California is a pretty ridiculous and extreme idea. I do think parks will struggle with state and local officials early next year to get semi-normal operations up and running (i.e. rides and attractions), but I think eventually they will break the impasse either through the courts or through public pressure. Of all the major theme parks in California, I think there's only 3 that could conceivably leave the state - SFMM, SFDK, and Great America. One of those parks moving to Nevada (Las Vegas/Henderson) or Arizona (Phoenix/Tempe/Scottsdale/Glendale) would make some sense, but the other major SoCal theme parks are so entrenched that relocating would either be too expensive financially or too costly in terms of recognition/fanbase to provide any benefit over just staying closed until California officials start using their brains.
FWIW, I don't know how Knott's can claim that their food festivals could be categorized as "take-out". The whole setup of their events necessitates eating food in the park (outdoor dining) or eating while strolling around the park, not walking around and collecting items off the tasting card and returning home to eat food that's been sitting in a container for over an hour from the time it takes to get in and out of the park along with all the line waiting to pick up the items.
I am amused at the "parks should leave" line as if a massive place like Six Flags is like a carnival that can just be packed up and moved to another state easily.
@MikeW - It's actually not as difficult or expensive as you think to pack up and move even custom-designed roller coasters. Six Flags and Cedar Fair have moved coasters around the country for the past 20 years to avoid having to purchase new rides while advertising the re-located coasters as "new". Now, to pick up and re-locate an entire theme park, you'd be looking at a pretty massive financial outlay, not to mention the costs of purchasing land for the re-located park (unless of course the attractions were just divested across the chain), but a theme park like SFMM probably generates somewhere @$100 million/year under normal conditions. So if you can buy a plot of land for $10 million and move the attractions for @$50 million, you could recoup that investment within a couple of years. It's not as crazy as it sounds, particularly for parks that already felt like they were on the outs with local officials like Great America.
I agree that it sounds pretty far-fetched, and probably more of worst-case scenario than a likely outcome, but if California officials don't take these threats seriously, that worst-case scenario may come to fruition.
@Russel Meyer : "...So if you can buy a plot of land for $10 million and move the attractions for @$50 million..."
Is land really almost for free, in the USA ?
Is labor ("moving") so much underpaid ?
Is the complete new landscaping, service building, parking lots and access roads, utilities and power station.. etc given by father Xmas for free ?
.....
By the way, when a park 'generates' $100M/year, then that's revenue, not profit...
All one has to do is read the tales of how even the easiest theme park attractions can go massively over budget to see how moving or starting a park from scratch is not going to be "make it back in a few years." For proof, look how long it took for Euro Disney to finally turn a profit.
If parks leave California, it would not be relocating a park as is. Instead, the parent company would likely relocate valuable assets to other parks in the chain to market them as new capital, then the rest would be sold off. I don't think anyone wants this, but the reality is that with all operators struggling, it might be more beneficial to them to cannibalize a park that cannot operate in order to keep the whole chain afloat, particularly if it sits on valuable land or is in a location where further expansion is challenging. Of all the parks in California, I'd say California's Great America would be most likely to meet this fate, though I'd say both Six Flags parks and SeaWorld San Diego are likely at risk as well, and in an extreme case (closures lasting into 2022) could even see Knott's Berry Farm closing. It's not a scenario anyone wants to think about, but the longer something is closed, the less likely it is to come back.
If outdoor dining is banned at Orange County, that’s the end of Knott’s Taste of Merry Farm. Over at Citywalk at Universal Studios Hollywood, most of the restaurants are closed and the very few that are open, they’re telling guests to either take it out to their car or home: No eating or drinking is allowed at Citywalk.
Now which of these rules apply to operations at The French Laundry?
TH Creative +1
Unfortunately, restrictions take a broad brush approach that could be more balanced and refined if they cared to take the effort. The problem with outdoor dining is close proximity to other parties. Prior to these restrictions, I've walked through the 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica and Main Street in Huntington Beach where the restaurants and bars have extended their outdoor seating into the streets, but the tables are very close together. Also I could see that interaction with the wait staff could be problematic. So instead of banning all outdoor dining, they should ban only outdoor table service. Dining at Knott's festivals IMO is very safe, because the food is pick up and go, and the outdoor tables are spaced apart. It's not necessary to make people take the food and eat in their cars or at home. Taking the food to eat at an outdoor, spaced table is just as safe. The same could be done at Buena Vista Street. The same could be done at other restaurants that want to remain open.
Robert Niles, have you gone anywhere during these shutdowns past it reads you went to Magic Mountain's drive-thru? I really think there should be a review whether AJ goes again or you do, of someone reporting for this website who visits opened or partially open amusement parks, their restaurants, uses their new apps to pay and get wait times and reservations, and even stays at their resort hotels. We can all go around in circles about what we think of the closures, but I think the average reader of theme park insider wants to read what it is like visiting theme parks that are open now and any new sitings at the parks whether things to do or construction. Like did it feel safe, photos of how it is hopefully sanitized, wait times in rides, what eating at them was like, how one felt hour 8 of wearing a mask all day, how did the associated hotel feel? I have personally re-booked my originally-scheduled during Thanksgiving week Orlando stay to the week of late February/ early March of 2021 as I have friends who live both in FL who have gone to theme parks, and now 3 sets of friends who flew to Orlando and stayed at WDW, Universal, and one stayed at a place called Margaritaville and visited WDW, Sea World, Universal, and Discovery Cove during their two week stay, and all came home happy they went. Any how, would love to read about what theme parks are like now with detailed descriptions, photos of Christmas, and so on.
This article has been archived and is no longer accepting comments.
Well, I told you so. The end is in sight, lets do the right thing, eliminate the "stupid deaths" that don't have to happen, and plan next year.