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SFGAm Now Open at 25% Capacity, Bridge Phase May 14th

Talk about anything that has to do with Six Flags Great America and Hurricane Harbor here.
Postby JackGlass on February 21st, 2021, 2:21 pm
I just watched the Nocoaster con video (it's on Great Americas facebook page) At the end of the video, there were two people with what looked like blue prints overlooking Buccaneer Battle.
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Postby anewman35 on February 21st, 2021, 2:51 pm
JackGlass wrote:I just watched the Nocoaster con video (it's on Great Americas facebook page) At the end of the video, there were two people with what looked like blue prints overlooking Buccaneer Battle.


It's on Instagram too.

Keep in mind though that this video also had a bunch of jokes about removing the Whizzer right beforehand and was aimed at a audience that presumably they expected to get the jokes (and hate BB), so it's hard to say if anything in the video was actually meant as any sort of tease or it was all just a joke.
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Postby Coaster Justin on February 21st, 2021, 6:18 pm
I would argue to SFGAm Marketing is almost as trolling as Tony Clark.

At least Tony answers questions and reveals stuff about food. Great America doesn't even do that much anymore. They couldn't announce a Hot Dog Stand last year?
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Postby anewman35 on February 21st, 2021, 8:28 pm
Coaster Justin wrote:I would argue to SFGAm Marketing is almost as trolling as Tony Clark.

At least Tony answers questions and reveals stuff about food. Great America doesn't even do that much anymore. They couldn't announce a Hot Dog Stand last year?


Forgot to mention there was also a tease of them doing something to the Eagle. Again, especialt given the audience, I think it was much more a joke than a hint...
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Postby BCarroll on February 28th, 2021, 6:35 pm
Assuming the park opens on April 24th as planned, do you think Justice League could remain closed? I know other parks have been able to "safely" open theirs, but with Illinois tight guidelines I don't have a strong feeling JL will be opening this season. Same can be said with Sky Trek Tower. STT was seldom open during the 2019 season and it seems highly unlikely they would be able to fit people in that cabin to allow for social distancing. Also, given that the cabin is such a small space, there is no air filtration system in there. If STT is allowed to open, I just don't see it being worth while to do so.
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Postby rctfr on March 1st, 2021, 11:18 am
BCarroll wrote:Assuming the park opens on April 24th as planned, do you think Justice League could remain closed? I know other parks have been able to "safely" open theirs, but with Illinois tight guidelines I don't have a strong feeling JL will be opening this season. Same can be said with Sky Trek Tower. STT was seldom open during the 2019 season and it seems highly unlikely they would be able to fit people in that cabin to allow for social distancing. Also, given that the cabin is such a small space, there is no air filtration system in there. If STT is allowed to open, I just don't see it being worth while to do so.

Good point. I had a similar concern for Batman's staircase and hallway leading to the station. I think there's a couple fans and vents in there, but that tight enclosed space gets really hot in the summer for a reason. I may dodge Batman this season unless it's a walk-on or station-wait, which (luckily) is fairly common these days. I'd be interested to know how other Batman clones that operated last season may have dealt with this (if at all).
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Postby momlovescoasters on March 1st, 2021, 9:00 pm
I’ve been to Busch Gardens, Disney and Universal since Oct. People should have a choice. If you are scared, don’t go. People that want to enjoy the park should be able to go. Employees that need the job should be able to work.
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Postby CoasterRiderSC on March 8th, 2021, 4:15 pm
momlovescoasters wrote:I’ve been to Busch Gardens, Disney and Universal since Oct. People should have a choice. If you are scared, don’t go. People that want to enjoy the park should be able to go. Employees that need the job should be able to work.



AMEN !!! We're going to Disney parks and probably Universal Islands of Adv and Sea World (ORL) in June. I'm really hoping they're open for full capacity.
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Postby anewman35 on March 15th, 2021, 5:05 pm
Governor is supposed to be announcing some new steps in-between phases four and five in the next few days. Will be interesting to see if any of them impact the park, because under current guidelines they still wouldn't be allowed to open rides.
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Postby RobSFGAm on March 15th, 2021, 6:09 pm
Wonder how much California change in regards to park being able to open in CA on April 1 might help IL (if at all) as California was many times higher than IL.
I think with the vaccine, Chicago allowing large events in the summer (lalapalooza, Summerfest, etc.j could help as well.
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Postby anewman35 on March 15th, 2021, 6:47 pm
RobSFGAm wrote:Wonder how much California change in regards to park being able to open in CA on April 1 might help IL (if at all) as California was many times higher than IL.
I think with the vaccine, Chicago allowing large events in the summer (lalapalooza, Summerfest, etc.j could help as well.


I'm sure they'd say they don't care what any other state does, but I'm sure they actually do. Now that the other major states are allowing parks to open, I fully do believe they'll allow Great America to open, but it'll probably be pretty restricted in capacity. Similar thing happened with MLB games, Chicago was the last city that agreed to allow some attendence, once everybody else was allowing it to happen it became harder to be out on an island.

Still personally wouldn't expect things like Lollapalooza, because the planning for something like that has to happen so far in advance (when things are still a little uncertain), and the limits are likely to be so limited (even with the vaccine) to the point where they couldn't make the money they would need to be worth it, so I doubt we see many people trying to pull off anything this summer. Time will tell.
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Postby DejaVu2001 on March 16th, 2021, 5:38 am
https://wgntv.com/news/coronavirus/prit ... WVtKm_tiv4

Latest news on COVID restrictions in Illinois.
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Postby DejaVu2001 on March 18th, 2021, 4:36 am
Governor JB Pritzker is expected to make an announcement at 11:30am today regarding expanded vaccine eligibility and new reopening guidelines.
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Postby anewman35 on March 18th, 2021, 7:13 am
DejaVu2001 wrote:Governor JB Pritzker is expected to make an announcement at 11:30am today regarding expanded vaccine eligibility and new reopening guidelines.


It seems highly likely that whatever he says will allow the park to open, just hope he explicitly explains amusement parks this time instead of just making people read between the lines based on other catagories and trying to figure out what he means...
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Postby coasterfanatic on March 18th, 2021, 11:54 am
Image


This is document that details the phases in IL. According to this, amusement parks are allowed to open at 25% capacity in Phase 4. And expand to 60% in bridge phase!!!!!


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Postby anewman35 on March 18th, 2021, 12:04 pm
As I hoped, they did call out Amusement Parks this time. They're saying 25% capacity in Phase 4 (i.e. now) and 60% capacity in the 'Bridge' phase which comes when 70% of 65+ people get vaccines (we're currently at 58%). So seems like it's officially on

(Edit - found the details, the * is just saying it's a change, so we're good...)

(Edit 2: just noticed that people who have had the vaccine or a negative test don't count against the capacity limits, so technically they can do more than 25%, but I doubt they'll want to bother with confirming vaccine or Covid status...)
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Postby DejaVu2001 on March 18th, 2021, 12:17 pm
Here is the link with the complete guidelines for amusement parks. Highlights will be listed below

https://dceocovid19resources.com/restor ... ent-parks/

Park capacity is limited to 25% in Phase 4, 60% in the Bridge Phase


Visitors from outside the state or country should receive a negative COVID-19 test within 72 hours of their visit to the park
I have no idea how they expect this to be enforced, or if they even realize how big an issue this is given SFGAm's proximity to the Wisconsin border

Ensure at least 6-ft between seats on rides occupied by park guests that are not members of the same household or party
So while other parks fortunately are relaxing distancing ON rides, SFGAm's ride capacity will be absolutely decimated

Amusement park rides should be sanitized after every ride cycle
Again, ride capacity will be horrible
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Postby anewman35 on March 18th, 2021, 4:16 pm
This seems worth noting:. This Bridge Phase will begin when 70-percent of Illinois residents 65 and up have received at least one vaccine dose. If numbers stay on track relative to current statistics, this phase would begin in 12-14 days (between March 30 and April 1). This would then initiate a 28-day monitoring period where if metrics continue to move in a positive direction, the State can then move to Phase 5, which means all businesses can fully reopen along with schools and normal recreation operations with new safety guidance. Large events, including festivals and conventions, would also be able to take place.

(So, long story short, by the time the park opens we might already be at 60%, and shortly after opening it might get to Phase 5, which means almost all restrictions go away...)
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Postby DejaVu2001 on March 18th, 2021, 4:21 pm
^Don't forget to factor in that the overall 16+ population must reach 50% vaccination as well to move to Phase 5.
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Postby anewman35 on March 18th, 2021, 5:02 pm
DejaVu2001 wrote:^Don't forget to factor in that the overall 16+ population must reach 50% vaccination as well to move to Phase 5.


Yeah, I was just coming to update that, the source I was copying from hasn't included that and I didn't realize it. So it probably pushes the timeline back a bit, but it still seems fairly safe to say we should be in Phase 5 in mid summer by the latest, barring any setbacks.
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Postby coasterfanatic on March 18th, 2021, 5:05 pm
Park has just confirmed that they will open on April 24th as planned!!!!!!!


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Postby RobSFGAm on March 18th, 2021, 5:58 pm
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Postby DejaVu2001 on March 18th, 2021, 8:34 pm
Looking through the guidelines again, looks like Justice League and Dark Knight will have to remain closed until Phase 5. Capacity for indoor rides in Phase 4 is lesser of 50 people or 50% capacity, and the bridge phase only increases that to 100 people.
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Postby Carlo on March 18th, 2021, 8:58 pm
Also there seems to be a lot of rules they have to follow. From what I understand a employee can not change rides for the entire shift. You can only work one ride for entire shift. I wonder if they are going to temporary close rides in the middle of the day for lunch and/or breaks.
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Postby RobSFGAm on March 19th, 2021, 10:27 am
Having Hurricane Harbor as a separate gate should help as if it was lumped in with the park, they could not distinguish dry and water park guest easily. This way guest will have too make two separate reservations (one for each park) and if they are only going to one or the other the odd not lose the capacity count. I believe HH can accommodate 8000 guest, so at 25% that allows 2000 distinct water park guest that are actually using the water park. In addition, those 2000 would NOT be counted against the dry park either.
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