Effects of Coronavirus (COVID-19) On Entertainment & Tourism Industry

[Parkscope Joe]

I don’t follow your comparison on HHN and MNSSHP. Current evidence shows covid lingers in the air and the spread is greatly exacerbated by being indoors generally and AC specifically. It doesn’t spread as readily via surfaces or outdoors. Disney’s event - focusing on outdoor activities - should be inherently safer then Universals, which is entirely dependent on being indoors in tight, heavily ACed environments. And it shouldn’t be harder to enforce social distance at a parade or fireworks - where guests are sedentary and can be constantly monitored - then it is in a dark maze.

A HHN maze is an indoor queue. Disney and Universal have indoor queues open.

This year sucks, and I want a redo.

We all do.

 

[Mad Dog]

Is there any enforcement of this? I know when we were not allowing tourist from Northern Hotspots back in March/Aprill there was very minor enforcement. There was some, but people still traveled.

Not really, more a scare tactic. The closest to enforcement is that they publicly notified employers to have employees returning from vacation out of state to quarantine for 14 days. Large employers like UPMC will probably adhere to that but i'd guess most small businesses would probably not.

 

[Kevin38]

Because Universal just went three months with no revenue,the next few months with very reduced revenue(due to reduced guests) Plus almost no renewals for Annual Passes (due too + 3 months) They already announced layoffs ,New Park put on hold,What other cuts and /or reductions do you see happening ? HHN Canceled /dates reduced ? Closing on on a few weekdays Tues/Thurs ? If they start losing revenue will they close again "For our Safety " .If it costs more to be open now than being closed did.While I enjoy short lines how long can they stay open with no international guests or even airplane guests .So far all I have heard of is Locals and Car driving guests

 

[Frank Drackman]

Cancelling their Halloween event? Opening later (they shouldn’t be opening at all, but...)? Possibly not intending to open for even longer until they were blindsided by Universal reopening earlier then expected?

Look, WDW drove me away with years of neglect, poor choices, price increases, and stagnation. Universal, with its steady improvements, and especially HHN, were a wonderful thing, and I became a huge fan. But right now Universal is behaving irresponsibly.

I get a lot of what you are saying about pre COVID life. My family, we were priced out by WDW. I only felt the need for one Company's pass as we lived 200 miles away. WDW was catering to the once in a lifetime vacationer, I think they wanted the long range Floridians once every five years. We no longer saw value, our last trip was the day Snow White's Scary Adventure closed.

We were UOR passholders until about two years ago. I enjoyed all our vacations to UOR as we stayed on site each time. I parked the car and then never saw it again until we left. I walked everywhere, I planned nothing, just did what we wanted, took it slow and easy.

The world is different now. Disney has a lot more people it owes stuff to, DVC folks have space/rooms tied up for 50 years, I bet WDW has tons more AP folks who paid but now can't even hope parks, must schedule park/day. I do not think WDW is even considering opening for me this year (as we do not have 2020 tickets.

UOR kept people on payroll longer, they are trying to give people some sense of fun in all this I imagine. But what is safe, normal, safe for who, employee, customer?

A lot of stuff to thing of. You follow the CDC, the state and federal government rules, suggestions, you try and manage for both your employees and your customers, but one can not say and one Company is doing a better job, just different in my opinion.

 

[Jerroddragon]

Because Universal just went three months with no revenue,the next few months with very reduced revenue(due to reduced guests) Plus almost no renewals for Annual Passes (due too + 3 months) They already announced layoffs ,New Park put on hold,What other cuts and /or reductions do you see happening ? HHN Canceled /dates reduced ? Closing on on a few weekdays Tues/Thurs ? If they start losing revenue will they close again "For our Safety " .If it costs more to be open now than being closed did.While I enjoy short lines how long can they stay open with no international guests or even airplane guests .So far all I have heard of is Locals and Car driving guests

Florida is a different story, so can't comment on that but think people over her in CA are ready to do ANYTHING and some have more money now then before because they can't go out to drink/vacation. Many locals will be down to go to Universal/Disneyland and AP's I'm sure will keep at least weekends pretty packed on the west coast.

I could be wrong but the fact I can't do much else (like muesums and theaters closed) I could go to Universal more because why not? Not like i can do much else like before.
But it's hard to know the impact over here because ZERO parks besides some zoo's opened but not even Six Flags or Sea World opened here.

 

[Legacy]

Florida is a different story, so can't comment on that but think people over her in CA are ready to do ANYTHING and some have more money now then before because they can't go out to drink/vacation. Many locals will be down to go to Universal/Disneyland and AP's I'm sure will keep at least weekends pretty packed on the west coast.

I could be wrong but the fact I can't do much else (like muesums and theaters closed) I could go to Universal more because why not? Not like i can do much else like before.
But it's hard to know the impact over here because ZERO parks besides some zoo's opened but not even Six Flags or Sea World opened here.

The unemployment rate in California went from 3.9% in February to 16.3% in May. LA is at about 20%. Just because you have the money to go, it doesn’t mean everyone does.

 

[Jerroddragon]

The unemployment rate in California went from 3.9% in February to 16.3% in May. LA is at about 20%. Just because you have the money to go, it doesn’t mean everyone does.

Capacity will be limited
Universal AP's are under 200 bucks
Many AP's were going before and will have time left still to go
Some (not all) of those people are making more now then they were at their jobs (which is insane, and another topic of how many people are under paid)

But not letting it open, we will not know the impact. So unless bars and gym's can't open during this, I don't what makes a theme parks worst? Theme parks are 50% outdoors and when I went to city walk saw over 12 people cleaning through out the area's not including the staff inside shops cleaning after transactions.

 

[Legacy]

Capacity will be limited
Universal AP's are under 200 bucks
Many AP's were going before and will have time left still to go
Some (not all) of those people are making more now then they were at their jobs (which is insane, and another topic of how many people are under paid)

But not letting it open, we will not know the impact. So unless bars and gym's can't open during this, I don't what makes a theme parks worst? Theme parks are 50% outdoors and when I went to city walk saw over 12 people cleaning through out the area's not including the staff inside shops cleaning after transactions.

The MAX unemployment benefit in California is $450 a week (minimum $40). It’s based on your income from the last job, and is meant to cover between 50-70% of the highest amount of wages you earned in month (up to $450. With the CARES act, that max becomes $1,050 a week, or $4,200 a month. Seems like a lot.

The average annual salary in California is about $80k a year. That $4,200 a month, if received for 12 months, is only $54k. That’s 70% of the average salary. If you made less, the unemployment amount decreases proportionally. If you made MORE than 80k a year, tough. You’re getting $4,200 a month.

Because the base unemployment benefit amount is scalable, in order to be making “more on unemployment” with the CARES bonus, the employed salary would has to be lower than $650 a month ($600 + $50 base for wages <$928.99). If you’re making that little in employed wages, your not wasting that unemployment money on theme parks, you’re using it on survival.

 

[UNIrd]

Surprised that HHN would continue on without looking very different. Save the big IPs for next year and stick to originals, open air haunts, wide open spaces, actors no closer than 6ft from you.. Scary? Probably not... but this is NOT the year for the same ol'. I just don't see us being 2 months away from anywhere near a normal HHN.

 

[Jerroddragon]

The MAX unemployment benefit in California is $450 a week (minimum $40). It’s based on your income from the last job, and is meant to cover between 50-70% of the highest amount of wages you earned in month (up to $450. With the CARES act, that max becomes $1,050 a week, or $4,200 a month. Seems like a lot.

The average annual salary in California is about $80k a year. That $4,200 a month, if received for 12 months, is only $54k. That’s 70% of the average salary. If you made less, the unemployment amount decreases proportionally. If you made MORE than 80k a year, tough. You’re getting $4,200 a month.

Because the base unemployment benefit amount is scalable, in order to be making “more on unemployment” with the CARES bonus, the employed salary would has to be lower than $650 a month ($600 + $50 base for wages <$928.99). If you’re making that little in employed wages, your not wasting that unemployment money on theme parks, you’re using it on survival.

I think your forgetting most Americans don't have 500 bucks to their name, the amount of people living as BF/Family and overall lack of financial responsibility in the states. These day's many are in debt yet find a way to get a new car they don't need or vacation when they should be saving up.

Once again won't know if no one is willing to come until they open and see if the millions of locals are bored enough to risk the virus for the parks.

 

[Parkscope Joe]

I think your forgetting most Americans don't have 500 bucks to their name, the amount of people living as BF/Family and overall lack of financial responsibility in the states. These day's many are in debt yet find a way to get a new car they don't need or vacation when they should be saving up.

Once again won't know if no one is willing to come until they open and see if the millions of locals are bored enough to risk the virus for the parks.

Not to derail but lack of savings is more about increases in cost of living and a stagnating average median income than “lack of fiscal responsibility”. /tangent

 

[TheDecemberists]

Surprised that HHN would continue on without looking very different. Save the big IPs for next year and stick to originals, open air haunts, wide open spaces, actors no closer than 6ft from you.. Scary? Probably not... but this is NOT the year for the same ol'. I just don't see us being 2 months away from anywhere near a normal HHN.

They could use more puppets and face masks, but still... It's gonna be different! The only way to make it enjoyable and safe will be to cut it down to 20% capacity of previous years and ditch the season pass. Reservation only. Virtual queues. And send in individual groups every 30 seconds.

My county just created a face mask mandate starting on Friday. If you're caught in a business without a mask you'll face a $50 fine or potentially jail time. The entire country needs to enforce this if we want things to get better.

 

[Jerroddragon]

Not to derail but lack of savings is more about increases in cost of living and a stagnating average median income than “lack of fiscal responsibility”. /tangent

Point is people before this when people didn't have the money that should be going to theme parks still were.

Mainly because it's a cheap option Six Flags is 20-30 bucks a month with free parking and free food. That's nothing compared to flying pretty much anywhere.
I have hope that theme parks have purpose to serve right now in CA which would be cheap vacations or things to do on the weekends for APs.

On NPR morning show they said just making masks mandatory everywhere would dramatically reduce the cases, so after we can get more of a universal message of you must wear these to go out then hopefully places can start to reopen again.

 

[Legacy]

I think your forgetting most Americans don't have 500 bucks to their name, the amount of people living as BF/Family and overall lack of financial responsibility in the states. These day's many are in debt yet find a way to get a new car they don't need or vacation when they should be saving up.

Once again won't know if no one is willing to come until they open and see if the millions of locals are bored enough to risk the virus for the parks.

They do it by racking up more debt.

For most people, being on unemployment is a terrifying, stressful experience. It’s a ticking clock. Unemployment doesn’t run in perpetuity. When you hit the 49th week, that’s it. You’re done (unless federal extensions get authorized like they were in 2008/2009). The mindset is different. You spend what you have to, and squirrel away what you can because, especially in a situation like this, people don’t know when or if their job is ever coming back. And relying on roommates and families to support you through it is depressing as hell. Most don’t like being a burden on the people they love.

At the same time you’re digging into people for “a lack of financial responsibility” you’re pushing for them to spend money on theme parks. I get it. You want to get out of the house and ride some rides. But, like I said before, just because you can afford it doesn’t mean others can. Just because you want to spend money on theme parks doesn’t mean others are able to.

 

[Jerroddragon]

They do it by racking up more debt.

For most people, being on unemployment is a terrifying, stressful experience. It’s a ticking clock. Unemployment doesn’t run in perpetuity. When you hit the 49th week, that’s it. You’re done (unless federal extensions get authorized like they were in 2008/2009). The mindset is different. You spend what you have to, and squirrel away what you can because, especially in a situation like this, people don’t know when or if their job is ever coming back. And relying on roommates and families to support you through it is depressing as hell. Most don’t like being a burden on the people they love.

At the same you’re digging into people for “a lack of financial responsibility” you’re pushing for them to spend money on theme parks. I get it. You want to get out of the house and ride some rides. But, like I said before, just because you can afford it doesn’t mean others can. Just because you want to spend money on theme parks doesn’t mean others are able to.

I'm not trying to dig into them it's just what Western culture has become....buy that new car or 1,000 dollar iphone, get into student debt its fine because you live in America and one day you will be rich.
Just right now how it is, and if you had an AP before this (like I did) it doesn't cost any more than gas and food to go enjoy a day off, which many people want.

I know many here seem to think keeping the parks closed is the best idea, but I just disagree which is fine unless people here just want to post about how we all agree I'm fine with thinking many want to go back to the parks and some of the staff I'm sure wants to work again (not everyone). I mainly don't have concerns about going back because of going to city walk and props to everyone there doing such a good job, I see it as one of the safer things you can go out and do.

 

[Legacy]

And the irony is that it feels safer because fewer people are going. If the place gets mobbed, that security lessens. And the catch is the more things open, the more people show up. Eventually, there’s too many guests for employees to effectively maintain protocol and their whole purpose is lost.

Objectively, limiting exposure to potential vectors is the whole purpose of these lockdowns. That’s a major way to prevent spread. A theme park, even at reduced capacity, is thousands of people in “one space.” Statistically, there’s someone with COVID in that group. It might be 1, but one can become 5 real quick, and that five becomes 25, then 200. And when it reaches 200, someone (who probably didn’t even go to the park) is potentially dying. That’s why they need to remain closed. Their sheer volume make transmission likely despite every mitigation. Your local Wal-Mart, even at full capacity, doesn’t compare volume-wise, which makes transmission (as a whole number) far less likely.

 

[RevFreako]

Spooky Empire just canceled both events for the year. I think this bodes very badly for HHN.

 

[Parkscope Joe]

Spooky Empire just canceled both events for the year. I think this bodes very badly for HHN.

HHN isn’t a convention.

 

[RevFreako]

HHN isn’t a convention.

No, it's not, and my stated prediction is that HHN will happen unless the park shuts back down. That said, and I recognize this is an unpopular thing to say around here, dominoes are falling, and we ignore them at our peril.

 

[Journey_On]

Forgive me if this is naive or obvious, but since it hasn't been specifically mentioned - should Patrick's position being eliminated from Universal concern us regarding HHN? I am ready for/accepting whatever decision they make, but I was curious.