They can’t open until the state gives them approval. With cases increasing across the state, the chances of the state allowing them to reopen are dwindling by the day.
coasterfanatic wrote:They can’t open until the state gives them approval. With cases increasing across the state, the chances of the state allowing them to reopen are dwindling by the day.
See you in 2021!
I presume they could open the park with no rides if they wanted to - if they can open a water park, and zoos and botanic gardens and stuff like that can open, I can't see any argument that they couldn't open the park with no rides. I just can't imagine who would ever go to that...
They got approval from the state to open the water park. They’d still need approval. And I just don’t see the state adding any additional closed business to the reopening. They will likely close things first.
coasterfanatic wrote:They got approval from the state to open the water park. They’d still need approval. And I just don’t see the state adding any additional closed business to the reopening. They will likely close things first.
I don't think they actually needed approval from the state (and I haven't seen anything the I can find confirming they actually got it) - Water Parks were explicitly included in phase 4. It's not like every restaurant and barber shop and clothing store that opened in Phase 3 or 4 needed to ask the state for approval, they just did it. And keep in mind that they basically so have a decent amount of the dry part open even now, on the pathway to HH. I don't really think the state would be able to justify outdoor botanic gardens and zoos (without rides) but not an outdoor Amusement Park (without rides).
I'm not going to argue it further though, since it seems rather unlikely to me they'd even bother. Although Knott's Berry Farm is doing some sort of Food Festival thing, so I guess it wouldn't be that different.
That’s what I mean by state approval. Water parks were allowed to open in Phase 4. Amusement parks are not allowed til Phase 5. So if they want to open in Phase 4, then need state approval. Businesses opened once they were allowed too if they were included in that Phase reopening.
So yes, indoor dining (at 25%) is allowed in Phase 4. So they don’t need approval once we hit Phase 4. But amusement parks aren’t allowed til Phase 5. Thus they’d need approval to open before we get to Phase 5.
coasterfanatic wrote:That’s what I mean by state approval. Water parks were allowed to open in Phase 4. Amusement parks are not allowed til Phase 5. So if they want to open in Phase 4, then need state approval. Businesses opened once they were allowed too if they were included in that Phase reopening.
So yes, indoor dining (at 25%) is allowed in Phase 4. So they don’t need approval once we hit Phase 4. But amusement parks aren’t allowed til Phase 5. Thus they’d need approval to open before we get to Phase 5.
But if they have no rides open... Are they an amusement park? Put in a small petting zoo. Keep one waterslide open. Put in some pretty landscaping. There, they're a combination water park/zoo/botanic garden. Phase 4, no problem.
coasterfanatic wrote:That’s what I mean by state approval. Water parks were allowed to open in Phase 4. Amusement parks are not allowed til Phase 5. So if they want to open in Phase 4, then need state approval. Businesses opened once they were allowed too if they were included in that Phase reopening.
So yes, indoor dining (at 25%) is allowed in Phase 4. So they don’t need approval once we hit Phase 4. But amusement parks aren’t allowed til Phase 5. Thus they’d need approval to open before we get to Phase 5.
But if they have no rides open... Are they an amusement park? Put in a small petting zoo. Keep one waterslide open. Put in some pretty landscaping. There, they're a combination water park/zoo/botanic garden. Phase 4, no problem.
coasterfanatic wrote:That’s what I mean by state approval. Water parks were allowed to open in Phase 4. Amusement parks are not allowed til Phase 5. So if they want to open in Phase 4, then need state approval. Businesses opened once they were allowed too if they were included in that Phase reopening.
So yes, indoor dining (at 25%) is allowed in Phase 4. So they don’t need approval once we hit Phase 4. But amusement parks aren’t allowed til Phase 5. Thus they’d need approval to open before we get to Phase 5.
But if they have no rides open... Are they an amusement park? Put in a small petting zoo. Keep one waterslide open. Put in some pretty landscaping. There, they're a combination water park/zoo/botanic garden. Phase 4, no problem.
I doubt they'd do that because I don't think people would come. They're not filling the waterpark even at reduced capacity so I don't think they'll open the park to let like 100 people mill around and probably not buy much. Talks with the state have been hush hush if anything but management is liking to put up "potential" opening dates and push them back if necessary; rn that's the 10th.
They say there isn't a spot in the park where rusting metal or peeling paint is at least 15 feet away from you.
I agree that they're not going to do it. I just don't think the state would be able to make a plausible argument that botanic gardens, zoos, water parks, baseball games (the state allows them, and they're doing it in Rosemont, it's Chicago that won't), indoor malls, and indoor museums are fine, but an outdoor place that fits every requirement for any of those places (including no rides) isn't.
But equally silly is the idea the park is keeps setting dates a few weeks in the future as some sort of realistic target (not saying it's not happening, just that it's silly that they'd be doing it). Cases are up again and I think we're a lot more likely to slide back to phase 3 than to move to allowing Theme Parks to open.
anewman35 wrote:I agree that they're not going to do it. I just don't think the state would be able to make a plausible argument that botanic gardens, zoos, water parks, baseball games (the state allows them, and they're doing it in Rosemont, it's Chicago that won't), indoor malls, and indoor museums are fine, but an outdoor place that fits every requirement for any of those places (including no rides) isn't.
But equally silly is the idea the park is keeps setting dates a few weeks in the future as some sort of realistic target (not saying it's not happening, just that it's silly that they'd be doing it). Cases are up again and I think we're a lot more likely to slide back to phase 3 than to move to allowing Theme Parks to open.
Agreed! I’ve heard some grumbling that they some team members that they had working to prepare park for a potential opening are now being told to go home, which would indicate that they are starting to have doubts again.
We shall see. The CEO said they are still planning on doing FF and HITP this year across the chain so anything can happen if things improve in the fall.
coasterfanatic wrote:That’s what I mean by state approval. Water parks were allowed to open in Phase 4. Amusement parks are not allowed til Phase 5. So if they want to open in Phase 4, then need state approval. Businesses opened once they were allowed too if they were included in that Phase reopening.
So yes, indoor dining (at 25%) is allowed in Phase 4. So they don’t need approval once we hit Phase 4. But amusement parks aren’t allowed til Phase 5. Thus they’d need approval to open before we get to Phase 5.
But if they have no rides open... Are they an amusement park? Put in a small petting zoo. Keep one waterslide open. Put in some pretty landscaping. There, they're a combination water park/zoo/botanic garden. Phase 4, no problem.
I doubt they'd do that because I don't think people would come. They're not filling the waterpark even at reduced capacity so I don't think they'll open the park to let like 100 people mill around and probably not buy much. Talks with the state have been hush hush if anything but management is liking to put up "potential" opening dates and push them back if necessary; rn that's the 10th.
still aiming for 10th or did it get punted further?
got2havefun wrote:still aiming for 10th or did it get punted further?
The park has given no indication that it will open on the 10th as many employees who were working on dry park have been sent home. Nor has there been any indication that the state will allow them to reopen especially with the increase in cases statewide! I believe they said that the Lake County region has a higher rate of infection than the city of Chicago.
Looks like Six Flags is replacing Fright Fest chainwide with Hallowfest for this year, which seems... Basically just like Fright Fest but with obvious changes like masks and Social Distancing and no indoor shows or haunted houses or anything.
Probably worth noting that all the open parks seem to have updated their webpages to reflect it, but closed parks didn't and still talk about Fright Fest...
The beta version of the new Six Flags website lists Hurricane Harbor as a separate park from Great America and a new site is being setup for Hurricane Harbor Chicago.
staticshadows wrote:The beta version of the new Six Flags website lists Hurricane Harbor as a separate park from Great America and a new site is being setup for Hurricane Harbor Chicago.
Kinda low key (for obvious reasons), but 2021 season passes are available on the website. They're not referring to it as a Flash sale and it doesn't have quite as many 'extras' as the Flash Sale deal does, but it is cheap (like $60 each if you buy two). Also found it interesting that they refer to "Hallowfest" and not 'Fright Fest" (as you'd expect it to go back to normal in 2021, probably), but that's probably just a find and replace thing so probably doesn't mean too much. Hard to imagine they're gonna sell too many right now, people either already had ones this year (and won't need to buy them) or won't want to buy one having no idea when the park will even open...
anewman35 wrote:Kinda low key (for obvious reasons), but 2021 season passes are available on the website. They're not referring to it as a Flash sale and it doesn't have quite as many 'extras' as the Flash Sale deal does, but it is cheap (like $60 each if you buy two). Also found it interesting that they refer to "Hallowfest" and not 'Fright Fest" (as you'd expect it to go back to normal in 2021, probably), but that's probably just a find and replace thing so probably doesn't mean too much. Hard to imagine they're gonna sell too many right now, people either already had ones this year (and won't need to buy them) or won't want to buy one having no idea when the park will even open...
I was confused by this. 2021 passes only apply to parks that opened this year. I emailed SF through the website and got an immediate reply confirming 2020 passes will be honored in 2021 for all the days the park was closed this season. So yeah, 2021 passes are still irrelevant to current SFGAM pass holders. You never know with SF.
ernstwhere wrote:I was confused by this. 2021 passes only apply to parks that opened this year. I emailed SF through the website and got an immediate reply confirming 2020 passes will be honored in 2021 for all the days the park was closed this season. So yeah, 2021 passes are still irrelevant to current SFGAM pass holders. You never know with SF.
Correct, but not everybody has a 2020 pass. For example, my family skipped the flash sale last year for various reasons, we were considering doing a membership at some point in the season but that didn't happen.
In theory I'd consider a 2021 SFGAm pass (even not knowing when I could actually use it), if it had come in incredibly low or came with some great bonus deal. It didn't, so I won't, but it's not impossible that somebody might make a different decision.
anewman35 wrote:Kinda low key (for obvious reasons), but 2021 season passes are available on the website. They're not referring to it as a Flash sale and it doesn't have quite as many 'extras' as the Flash Sale deal does, but it is cheap (like $60 each if you buy two). Also found it interesting that they refer to "Hallowfest" and not 'Fright Fest" (as you'd expect it to go back to normal in 2021, probably), but that's probably just a find and replace thing so probably doesn't mean too much. Hard to imagine they're gonna sell too many right now, people either already had ones this year (and won't need to buy them) or won't want to buy one having no idea when the park will even open...
Comparing to last year Flash Sale the Gold Passes (buying 1) was $69 & is $70 for 2021. There was a $10 increase for pass dining plans from from $40 basic & $80 deluxe( w/ free premium upgrade) up to $50 & $90 respectively for 2021. SF has stuck with the universal pricing for pass dining plans which they started last year.
The best deal seems to be on the all season Platinum Flash Pass which is $199 compared to $229 last year and $399 the year before. SF must not be getting a lot of demand for the all season Flash Pass as they keep dropping the prices yearly. In contrast Cedar Fair Fast Lane pricing has been holding steady at worst and increasing at most parks.