Over the course of the last month, Derrick & I (and the kiddos, of course) have been to 7 different amusement parks across 5 different states. We have visited Dollywood, Holiday World, Kentucky Kingdom, King’s Island, Hersheypark, Cedar Point, and of course, our home park: Kennywood.
While each park has somewhat varied in the minor details of how they are operating right now, every single park has had some major things in common. If you are heading out to an amusement park for the first time this year – here is what we found you can pretty much expect – across the board.
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Masks
Even though you will be outside most of your day at an amusement park, wearing a mask will be required.
Is it bothersome? Yes.
Will you lose your mask on the rides? Most likely, no.
We found that masks with a little bit of structure to them worked best thru the long, hot days we spent in amusement parks (the disposable ones we got have a piece of wire at the top so you can bend it around your nose – those were way easier to breath thru than the floppy cloth ones we got at Target).
Unless you are going to Disney World, most parks do not have stipulations on what type of mask you wear – they just want you covering your mouth & nose with something (and no, pulling your shirt up over your mouth will not count).
PRO TIP: bring at least one extra mask per person – you just never know what will happen!
Temperature Checks & Health Screenings
Before you enter any park, you will be asked a series of “health screening” questions – some will be as simple as “Are you experiencing any COVID-19 symptoms?” while other parks asked a whole list of questions. Some parks even required you to do a health screening on their app before arriving at the park for the day (so definitely check into that before your trip).
In addition to the questions, your temperature will be taken. Depending on the park, we experienced our temperatures being taken in a variety of ways: from a person pointing a thermometer at our foreheads & getting a reading, to standing & looking into a monitor that read our temperature, to simply walking thru a full-body scanner that instantly read our temps (and I didn’t even realize we’d walked through it).
Between the temperature check & the health screening, you can expect it to take a little extra time to get into the park. This is precisely the reason that some parks require you to reserve a specific time for you to arrive – that way, their health screening people aren’t overwhelmed by the crowd.
Hand Sanitizing
Every park had signs up, encouraging their guests to wash and sanitize their hands often throughout the day. Most parks also required you to use hand sanitizer before getting on a ride.
Dollywood seemed to have the best solutions to making it easy, fast, and painless to wash your hands. They had actual hand-washing stations set up all around the park where you could wash your hands with water & soap. Additionally, team members, physically holding bottles, squirted hand sanitizer into each person’s hand as they were getting on a ride. This was efficient & seemed safest for 2 reasons: 1. every single person had clean hands as they were getting on a ride & 2. it was completely touchless – a team member squirted sanitizer directly into their guests’ hands (instead of everyone touching the same hand sanitizer machine prior to getting on a ride).
While Dollywood seemed to have their system down the best, every park has some sort of hand sanitizing protocols set up prior to getting on a ride.
Social Distancing
You’ve been to the store & seen lines on the floor reminding people to stay 6 feet apart? Parks have stickers/tape/markings everywhere. Every ride queue, every food stand, even the bathrooms have lines reminding people to social distance. And, if you don’t really feel like you’ve experienced good quality social distancing at the store – just wait until you’ve gone to an amusement park! It actually goes against your nature to stand so far apart from people in lines – but it kind of turns into a game & makes standing in a queue a little more entertaining.
Extended Wait Times
Not only will you be wearing a mask, washing your hands compulsively, and social distancing in lines, but you’ll be social distancing on rides as well. Most rides are only running at 1/2 or 1/3 capacity – meaning, every other or every 3 rows have been blocked off & aren’t useable. As you can imagine – this means that wait times can be double or triple what they would be on a normal day (thankfully, parks aren’t maxing out their attendance numbers – otherwise, you’d never be able to ride anything).
Additionally, don’t be surprised to see rides running thru cycles with completely empty trains – a lot of parks are disinfecting the trains every 30-60 minutes & then running them thru a cycle to dry them off. Again, this means longer wait times – so, just be prepared.
New Ride Procedures
Speaking of long lines: a lot of parks are trying out new ways to keep people out of long lines. Whether it’s thru virtual queues (like at Holiday World) or handing out access-passes (like at King’s Island & Cedar Point) – the goal is to cut down on the amount of people all huddled together, waiting in line. Unfortunately, these new queue ideas definitely have some bugs to work out & the systems aren’t perfect – some of these new policies are just downright confusing. So, do yourself a favor & do your research before you go so you have an idea of what to expect.
You Will Feel Safe
I write this post, not to scare you away from going to an amusement park, but to encourage you – GO! Yes, there are a lot of new policies & procedures in place, but overall, we felt safer in the amusement parks we went to then going to the grocery store.
You are outside, everyone has on masks & is social distancing, surfaces are constantly getting wiped down – it just feels like a safe environment. Could you get sick from going to an amusement park? Sure! The risk is there! But we take calculated risks every single day of our lives – it’s a risk just to drive to the park – but with all of the precautions parks are taking, the risk definitely feels low. Trust me: the last thing an amusement park wants is to have an outbreak traced back to them. Parks are doing absolutely everything they can to keep their guests safe & you can really feel that when you’re there.
So, are you considering a trip to an amusement park this summer? GO! Enjoy it! The park will likely be less busy than usual & you will have a fabulous time – go & have fun!
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