Park closure

SW just adjusted the date for Electric Ocean on the website (it was supposed to start on May 22nd, but now it's listed as TBD)
 
Busch Gardens and Sesame Place have revised calendars to show closed all of May. I'm surprised Sea World hasn't.
 


I have a feeling SW will be closed through May (they are just adjusting their calendar more slowly)
 
I have a feeling SW will be closed through May (they are just adjusting their calendar more slowly)
I agree. I could see Tampa opening up before Orlando because it doesn't draw the international crowd Orlando does. I wonder though if SW would open animal viewings yet not rides, operating as a zoo/aquarium.
There are so many things we just don't think of, like the seat belts and ride vehicles as well as the queue areas.
 


Sigh. While I knew it was coming, it still stinks to see it extended :(
 
SeaWorld had an investor call on Friday. These are some items from the call related directly to the closure that I thought might be interesting. These are direct quotes from the call transcript but only from company people (not analysts), mostly the acting CEO. Nothing below this first paragraph is my words or my thoughts -


Prior to the temporary park closures, we had made significant progress on the construction of our 2020 lineup of new rides and attractions. We completed almost 90% of the construction on these new rides for 2020. In fact, two of our new rides located in Texas opened just prior to the park closures. Depending on when we are allowed to reopen, we will make the decision as to whether or not the unfinished projects are completed for the 2020 season or pushed into 2021.


With respect to reopening, while we don't have any park opening dates to announce today, we are in regular contact with local, state, and federal authorities and we sincerely look forward to opening our parks and welcoming back our guests as soon as it is safe and permitted to do so. To that end, we have a dedicated team working with our Park Presidents, focused on finalizing plans to reopen our parks including enhanced health and safety protocols that will meet and/or exceed government guidelines and provide the safe and clean environment our guests and ambassadors expect. We will be providing more information on our enhanced health and safety protocols in the coming days, so our guests can clearly see the extraordinary efforts we are making and the seriousness of our commitment to the safety and well-being of everyone who visits or works in our parks.


As Marc mentioned, we had a couple of rides, which opened before the park closures in Texas and a few of our lives in other parks were within weeks of opening before we were forced to close our parks. Almost 90% of the construction for 2020 attraction was completed prior to the park closures. Looking ahead, our capital expenditure outlay for the remainder of the year will depend on when we are permitted to reopen the parks.


Yeah. So, one thing we've been doing obviously as we've been in touch, obviously with the local and state authorities and federal authorities. And so in Florida and specifically there's a local task force. And then, the governor has rolled out his plan. So we're going to obviously stay close to that and see what exactly that means for us. Obviously, our number one priority is opening in a safe manner. And so we want to do – we want to open when it's safe. We don't have any specific dates for Florida. If you kind of follow – because I'm sure we'll kind of get this question but if you kind of follow the news, if you will and you kind of think across our parks I think where we're hopeful is in Texas. We'll see – we got to get through the phases there obviously, but I think we have some hope that that might be one of the first locations that would open. Again, don't have a time line and certainly things could change.
And then I would say after Texas, I think we're next most hopeful is in Florida, but again no specific time line. We're obviously going to follow all the regulations and we're going to make sure we're in line. I would say, the other nice thing the industry tends to come together pretty well in difficult situations. And so I think I don't want to comment on when anybody else is going to open or when we're going to open, because none of us probably know. But I think we're going to open when it makes sense for us. And when we're given – assuming that's within the greenlight period obviously. So we're staying close and hopefully that's helpful.


But obviously, we're going to have enhanced sanitation. We're going to have masks for our employees. We're going to have temperature checks for employees. We're going to have a lot of cleanliness. We're going to have social distancing all the things that people expect and we want to make sure we provide a safe environment. So there's certainly additional cost to doing all that. And again, it's the right thing to do and we're happy to do that. What I would go back to is a little bit of what I was – I mentioned in Steve's question is we've done a lot of work during this closure period to really look at our organization to look at our cost structure. Cost that maybe we used to think were essential, we might look at a little bit differently now. And the way, we structure our parks our corporate functions things like that, we're really again have probably more visibility than ever into those things because we strip them down to the most essential level. So I'm optimistic that we'll find other efficiencies as we reopen. That will help to offset some of these cost of kind of additional safety and whatnot.


And I think by phased openings like what I would tell you there is I think certainly our parks across the country will most likely perhaps open at different times. We're not targeting to have one specific date for all our parks. Within the actual individual parks yes there could be some different ways we operate the park how we think about it. But the idea is we're still going to provide a very good guest experience. And if you take some of our shows, for example, we can still have those shows and there's ways that we can space people every other row-type of seating.


So, we'll -- we are certainly working on exactly what you described. So everything from a reservation system to things, like mobile ordering. And look these things have varying levels of time to complete. But obviously some will be sooner than others. But when they're complete, we'll roll them out. And so yeah, we're definitely looking at that. Our IT group has been engaged in looking at exactly some of those things I mentioned.


And my observations are, there's a lot of signage, there's a lot of markers and we'll do the same thing. So we can still social distance people with signage and markers and ambassadors directing people. So the technology will help, but certainly not a requirement, as we look at it.
And then, as far as the lead time, I think, most of the -- as we look at some of the phases that some of the states have rolled out, in our view, a lot of them appear to have several weeks in between the different phases. And so, we'll -- we think, if we get the green light, we think it's a couple of weeks, three four weeks -- two to three weeks, somewhere in there to get the park reopened. So I think we'll -- I think that lines up pretty closely with kind of the notice we expect to get. And so, we'll -- I think we feel pretty good about our ability to get open.
 
The Florida Governor has said that theme parks can submit reopening plans to the state -

"Parks can submit reopening plans to the state," the governor said today during a press conference. "They should identify the date certain that they believe that they could resume safe operations. They have to provide how they're going to do it: how they're going to accommodate the guests, how they're going to protect the staff, and then they need to have an endorsement from the relevant official in their locality - Orange County Mayor, wherever you're wherever you're talking about."



At the same time the Texas Governor earlier this week made a change (according to a local parks website). Previously theme parks were going to be part of Phase 2 which means they could open as early as May 18. This park planned on opening May 22, but a few days ago they posted -

We are sad to report that the Governor has excluded Amusement Parks in Phase Two of Reopen Texas. As far as we know now, no proposed future date has been set. We will keep everyone posted as we are informed.


I am sure that the comments from the SeaWorld investor call about reopening Texas first and then Orlando was based on parks being part of Phase 2. Now that they are delayed the question will be why did SeaWorld want Texas to open first. Was it strictly since Texas was allowing them to, or did they want to open Texas as a test (slightly smaller park in terms of total employees, guest base probably more local compared to Orlando which would tend to be multi-state and international in a higher ratio, their 2020 new rides are already open).
 
There is a theme park industry website that has pictures showing testing on both Mako and Kraken over the past few days. Looks like the video was taken outside the park along I Drive. All riders have masks and they are sitting on the outside seats only, with the 2 inside seats empty, at least for the first 3 rows. After that it looks like they use the inside seats. The back row actually had 3 people in it (maybe a family unit were the 2 together?). At least some of the people have been pointed out as park employees.

I am guessing they were seeing if masks stayed on, but the fact that they are running rides with masked testers has to mean they are coming up with a plan on reopening sooner rather than later,
 
There was a segment on the news discussing the reopening of theme parks. someone from SW said they hope to reopen in June (my guess, probably around mid-June or so)
 
That would be the interim CEO, from a local newscaster tweet (can't find it now but somewhere I saw that they were shooting for late June) -

The interim CEO for @SeaWorld said they hope to open at some point in June. He made that comment during a roundtable discussion with @GovRonDeSantis and @Mike_Pence
 
SeaWorld is set to present to the Orange County Task Force on Wednesday May 27 sometime between 11 and 12 (same time frame as Disney) meaning we should be hearing a projected open date shortly after noon.
 
SW submitted their reopening plan. If all goes well, they will reopen June 11th!
 
And state approved! SeaWorld, Discovery Cove, and Aquatica will be reopening June 11th. So excited, and just 13 days to go!
 
the park calendar has been adjusted for June. It looks like the park will be closed on Tues/Thurs for awhile (as it is shown that way until mid December), plus the hours are different
 
Busch Gardens and Aquatica have updated their calendars too. BG will be closed on Tue/Wed, and AQ will be closed on Mon/Wed
 

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