Parks Find New Ways to be Creative

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originally posted on 11/23/2020

Photo: Courtesy Cedar Fair. View full-sized image.

2020 has been the year of creativity, but sadly, it has nothing to do with a new way to offer us new flips, spins or drops that we usually relate to amusement park industry creativity. In response to the pandemic, parks have had to think outside their normal entertainment offerings and develop their own creativity to offer COVID-19 safe entertainment options to ensure some income this year. We as coaster-enthusiasts have been forced to find appreciation to simply visiting a park, perhaps not taking a single ride.

How do you balance safety with the need for entertainment options in a pandemic? That creativity started with at-home entertainment including games, crosswords and recipes to entertain us. Missed the fun – check them out on Pinterest. Once some parks were able to begin opening, we saw exclusive visiting opportunities like never before, but as the season continued, invention and creativity became the key to survival.

A few parks like Indiana Beach and Dollywood were able to open with business as usual because of their fortunate location, but most functioned with limited operation and the creativity shined. The initial question seemed to be - how to entertain park goers while keeping them contained in their personal vehicles.

Six Flags Great Adventure, Six Flags Discovery Kingdom and Sea World San Diego all leveraged their animal experiences to offer visitors the opportunity for a change of scenery, smiles and special memories. At Six Flags Great Adventure, the drive-thru safari returned temporarily to keep guests safely confined to their cars. Knott’s Berry Farm offered multiple food festivals, truly appropriate since that is where it all started for the park.

Wild Adventures and Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk hosted drive-in movie nights, Busch Gardens Williamsburg launched a beer festival that offered a limited number of operating rides with reservations for a specified time period for a visit. Six Flags Great America hosted a drive-in concert in its parking lot. Six Flags Great America was able to open its Hurricane Harbor waterpark, but not the thrill park for visitors to enjoy. Del Grosso’s Park went straight to the heart of their patrons by offering take out of their famous foods. Patrons order online and pick it up for lunch or dinner. You can even still enjoy their pizza!

Photo: Courtesy Del Grosso's. View full-sized image.

When fall arrived, many parks saw the end of hopes to open in 2020. For those that were open, more festival offerings allowed park goers entertainment without rides. SeaWorld San Antonio hosted its first ever Fiesta Del Mar that celebrated Hispanic Heritage with music, décor, Mexican inspired food and beverage offerings. Busch Gardens Williamsburg expanded its special event to include food samplings and more rides. The strategy for ride offerings has been to rotate which roller coasters are featured during each event — a great strategy to keep visitors coming back and a dream come true for coaster enthusiasts looking for a different ride experience. Fall transitioned to Halloween. When park guests look for the in-your-face frightening experiences that are usually indoors, parks went back to rethinking the experience and a rebranding of their usual Halloween event. Six Flags introduced an extensive, new safety protocol to keep its guests and team members safe. This meant that the traditional, in-your-face Fright Fest would have to be temporarily replaced by a less amped, more eerie HallowFest.

Kristen Fitzgerald, communications manager at Six Flags Great Adventure, shared that park management was determined to maintain the world-class look of its zombies during its new HallowFest event while protecting the health and safety of its artistic team, scare actors and guests. Six Flags Special Effects Makeup Supervisor Andrea Kovalik met the challenge by putting a new twist on an old Halloween tradition.

“We pride ourselves on the seamless, authentic ghoul look that we’ve created over the years,” Kovalik said. “Our new latex mask covers provide a covering for half the face, and we’re able to blend the mask into the rest of the face as seamlessly as possible. The end result maintains our high Six Flags standard, and some say the look is even scarier.”

In addition to roaming characters and mazes, decorations and lighting have been added throughout the park to enhance the HallowFest and ride experience.

Sesame Place is offering visitors family thrills from their car with its Not-To-Spooky Halloween Drive-Thru with a special soundtrack, costumed characters and millions of lights. "This is an exciting new way for families to experience Halloween at Sesame Place as we look to provide options with enhanced health and safety measures to visit our park," said Sesame Place Park President Cathy Valeriano.

Photo: Courtesy Sesame Place. View full-sized image.

Across the country, Halloween looks very different at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom where they continue to focus on their animals because safety protocols have not allowed rides to reopen. Boo 2020! features family fun like a funnel cake made with Snickers and other special food options, a trick-or-treat trail, outdoor animals shows, more opportunities to meet and learn about animals and a costume parade.

Now that the holidays are around the corner, fans are beginning to get a look at what new experiences will be available. Six Flags Great America will open for the first time in 2020 to host their third-annual Holiday in the Park, but safety restrictions continue to mandate that no rides will operate. The event will focus on the holidays with special edible treats, two and half million lights, open-air entertainment and photo opportunities with costumed characters.

Knoebels Amusement Park is expanding its season with the new Joy Through The Grove – A Christmas Light Spectacular that will take visitors through a portion of the park near Impulse and throughout much of the campground. The new experience will feature 400 light-up pieces and miles of string lights.

Don’t count a park out for 2020 yet! Carowinds will be opening for the season just in time for the holidays on November 21st for their all new Taste of the Season festival. The festival will feature holiday food and beverage treats, holiday décor, shopping opportunities, outdoor seasonal shows. Best of all coaster enthusiasts can catch a ride on Afterburn, Copperhead Strike, and Ricochet! Plus, Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk will hopefully be opening in a few weeks with approximately 8-12 rides open. Marq Lipton, Vice President of Marketing and Sales shares that they are currently unsure which rides will open, but expects at least one coaster to be operational. The carousel and four dark rides are expected to remain closed.

Although we have observed a detrimental impact to the amusement park industry and its team members from COVD-19, this new invention and creativity are bound to have a long-term positive impact on the experiences we will enjoy in parks for years to come that complement the roller coasters that we love.