Carousel Stop: Quarantine
This will probably be one of the oddest carousel stops ever.
Typically, they’ll consist of excursions and happening in the theme/amusement park, circus, carnival world. And while this will remain on those subjects, there’s not much happening at the moment for a traditional post. If you haven’t been hiding out in a bunker for the past half year, then you know why everything is on hold at the moment. As such, here’s a stop to kick off the ride. But just know this isn’t going to be a conventional one.
In The Midst
We could waste time on how everything’s been impacted and shut down in large. But instead, let’s look to the less dreary aspects of our current reality. Just for a dose of a little positivity and optimism.
For starters, anyone that has a season pass to {quintessentially} any park; odds are more likely than not, your pass is being extended. SeaWorld Parks and Cedar Fair have announced this for their lots, Disney and Universal have currently stopped charging for their passes, and Six Flags has modified policies for their’s. The parks probably won’t be able to go all out to make up for the closure, but odds are they’ll still want to throw a few perks to compensate.
Something to enjoy from the parks while at home, at the moment, are a number of material they’re released for everyone. Recipes, coloring books, puzzle-like models to build, games to play, and other activities.
Furthermore for Busch, they’re doing a spotlight series on the park’s wildlife. This includes general information, a video series, a teacher toolbox with activities, fact sheets, and sound bytes for each species that’s featured. They also have new nanocoasters so you can build your own replica of your favorite coaster. Clothes, mugs, pins, ornaments, artwork, plushes, and other merch in their online store. In the company’s blog, they’ve added virtual backgrounds for all of their parks (for more BGW specific ones). And then they’ve got their coloring pages & puzzles here.
Kings Dominion has a number of things to enjoy at home too. One component of that being all of the recipes they’re releasing as a part of their Foodie Friday: Spicy Pico de Gallo, Blue Ice Cream Milkshake, Soft Pretzels, and Funnel Cake. They’ve teamed up with Richmond’s MathScience and Innovation Center for their Kings Dominion STEM activities elementary workbook that can be downloaded. Other activities include a word search, bingos, coloring books, and more. They also have a number of backgrounds here.
Disney, the powerhouse it is, also has a surplus of fun quarantine stuff. Honestly, there’s so much that my best suggestion is to just keep tabs on their blog and social medias. I’ll try to list a few things, but it’d be impossible to cover them all without turning this post from a novel to a saga. The Epcot Mariachi Cobre did a performance from home, the recipe for the beloved Canadian Cheese Soup from the France pavilion has been posted, and they have added a virtual viewing of Illuminations from Disneyland Paris. There truly is so much more on Disney’s end; more recipes, virtual performances, virtual viewings, backgrounds, and else what that they add on a daily basis.
Next Up
It’s really anyone’s guess as to what the future hold’s at this point. It changes everyday. So when exactly the parks will reopen? I couldn’t tell you.
Once the parks do reopen; inevitably Busch will more likely be the first, or maybe I should say next, stop. Kings Dominion will then probably follow suit and hopefully Atlantic Fun Park too.
It’ll be interesting to see, not just when, but also where things pick back up at. Certain festivals/events the parks have are undoubtedly out of luck for this year. But other’s, will they still go on? If so, how will new restrictions and guidelines modify them? Will they opt to just reopen as “regular season/status quo” so to speak? And so forth.
At the moment, there’s no concrete date for anything. So until then, this carousel will resume spinning endlessly… forever… and ever… and ever…
For more ways to theme park at home, you can also check out:
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