We figured during this downtime for theme parks we'd share some pics of Islands of Adventure, one of our absolute favorite parks. The park turns 21 today and is officially old to get a drink at Mythos, or Miss Oats as our kids called it during our first visit to the park in 2006. 

​And that's where we'll start our look back at the park today. Enjoy!! - Gregg 

For the second part, we move over to the Islands of Adventure of today, well, a few years ago, just before Dragon Challenge closed.

​The park sure has changed over the years. Check out these amazing pics from Matt. 

And lastly, we'll leave you with the future, some pics of the yet unannounced Jurassic Park/World coaster. These were taken just before the parks shut down in early March. Thanks to Nicholas for sharing this pics with us. 

We hope you enjoyed this quick look back at IOA. We can't wait to get back to the adventuring soon. 

With the well-being of our Guests, Crew Members and Cast Members our top priority, and in line with direction from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Disney Cruise Line has suspended all-new departures through Monday, July 27, 2020.

Guests currently booked on affected sailings will be offered the choice of a cruise credit to be used for a future sailing within 15 months of their original sail date, or a full refund. These Guests and travel agents will receive an email from Disney Cruise Line outlining details and next steps.
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Guests who booked their reservation through a travel agent should contact them directly with any questions. Those who booked directly with Disney Cruise Line and have questions after receiving their email should call us at (866) 325-6685 or (407) 566-7797.
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Below is a list of impacted sailings:

Disney Cruise Line Coronavirus (COVID-19) Additional Information

Disney Cruise Line consistently receives among the highest public health inspection scores and has health and safety protocols in place. We also have a comprehensive plan that outlines protocols for managing illness and closely follow the guidance of public health officials. In light of COVID-19, Disney Cruise Line is operating at elevated cleaning and sanitation levels. Among the procedures currently in place include:

• Training for all of our Crew Members on how best to prevent the spread of illness on board.
• A health screening completed by all Guests and Crew Members to check for illness before they board the ship.
• Extensive cleaning and sanitation of high-traffic areas (e.g., handrails, doorknobs and elevator buttons) and children’s facilities.
• Cleaning of all staterooms twice a day and additional disinfection when necessary.
• Discontinuing self-service at buffet locations.
• Regular communication with Guests and Crew Members regarding how to prevent illness.
• Hand-washing stations and sanitizing wipes conveniently located throughout our ships.
• Medical clinics on our ships staffed with experienced doctors and nurses and stocked with supplies and medications to treat a variety of illnesses.

According to public health authorities, Guests can also help prevent the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19) and many other illnesses by frequently washing their hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds, especially after using the restroom and before eating. Parents can supervise their children to ensure they wash their hands thoroughly. Guests are also advised to cover their nose and mouth with a tissue (or upper sleeve) when sneezing, and avoid sneezing or coughing into their hands or without covering their nose and mouth. Guests or Crew Members who show any symptoms of illness are advised to contact their ship’s Medical Center immediately.

​MIAMI, May 4, 2020 – Carnival Cruise Line advised guests and travel agents today of our plan to phase in a resumption in our North American service this summer, beginning on August 1 with a total of eight ships from Miami, Port Canaveral and Galveston.  In connection with this plan, our pause in operations will be extended in all other North American and Australian markets through August 31.

The key elements of this plan include:

• All North American cruises from June 27 to July 31 will be cancelled.
• Beginning August 1, we plan to resume cruises on the following ships:
  • Galveston:  Carnival Dream, Carnival Freedom and Carnival Vista
  • Miami:  Carnival Horizon, Carnival Magic and Carnival Sensation
  • Port Canaveral:  Carnival Breeze and Carnival Elation.
• Other than the above referenced service from Galveston, Miami, and Port Canaveral, all other North American and Australian homeport cruises will be cancelled through August 31.
• All Carnival Spirit Alaskan cruises from Seattle will be cancelled, as well as the Carnival Spirit Vancouver-Honolulu cruise on September 25 and the Honolulu-Brisbane transpacific cruise on October 6.
• All Carnival Splendor cruises in Australia from June 19 to August 31 will be cancelled.

 
Impacted guests and their travel advisors are being notified by email, including options for a combined future cruise credit (FCC) and onboard credit (OBC) package, or a full refund.  Booked guests can make their selection online, alleviating the need to contact Carnival’s customer service center, which is still operating in a work-from-home status due to locally-imposed office closures in South Florida.

We are committed to supporting all public health efforts to manage the COVID-19 situation. We are taking a measured approach, focusing our return to service on a select number of homeports where we have more significant operations that are easily accessible by car for the majority of our guests. 
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We will use this additional time to continue to engage experts, government officials and stakeholders on additional protocols and procedures to protect the health and safety of our guests, crew and the communities we serve.  We appreciate the understanding and support of our guests and travel agent partners and look forward to welcoming them on board as the environment for travel and tourism improves.

Update 5/20/2020: California Theme Parks

Governor Gavin Newsom signed an executive order on May 6th. This order states that if you report to your employer's worksite between March 19th and July 5th, and get COVID-19, you can file a workers compensation claim. 

So what do I think this means? The VERY EARLIEST parks could open in California would be July 15th. Why do I say that? Because you have to get the parks up and running. And with this order parks aren't going to want to bring in staff to train/get the parks ready until at least July 6th. Workers compensation claims aren't easy or cheap to file. 

You can see all of the details about this executive order here. 

Be sure to check out the rest of my opinions about theme parks opening from April below. 

Imminent: ready to take place - happening soon

Even if parks in (insert state here) got the go ahead to start reopening today there is still a laundry list of things that must be done before they could actually open. 

Rehiring of staff: 
Staff has been furloughed in many cases, let go in others. Anybody with any kind of HR experience will tell you that it's much quicker to tell people to leave than to get them to come back. Some employees may be sick. Some may have gone home to stay with parents (WDW College Program anybody?). Some employees may simply feel that it's not safe for them to do so. 

Hiring of new staff to replace staff that aren't coming back: 
There will be some staff that aren't coming back. Some may have found other work. Others may just choose to stay away. That means hiring new people. Including background checks. Drug testing. You want to know how much stress medical labs are under right now? You think drug testing is their highest priority? 

Retraining of existing staff: 
Do you really want people coming back to work without having done that job for 2 months? What about the new guidelines they'll have to follow in order to actually reopen. That requires training. That means being in close contact with each other before the parks even open. And this doesn't even take into consideration training for the plethora of new attractions that are ready to open. 

Training of new staff: 
In addition to the retraining of existing staff, you have to train all of your new staff. But what if all of your trainers are busy training the existing staff in their new guidelines? Not a whole lot of time to do this. 

Food: 
You want to eat right? Food orders must be placed. But wait, food distribution for commercial businesses needs to restart too. I'm sure you've all seen the reports of crops being pretty much destroyed right now because there is no place to send this stuff. Or of the massive outbreaks of Covid-19 at meat processing plants. That's not something that is just going to ramp up quickly. 

Testing of Rides: 
Depending on the state, and how long the parks have been closed, some may require state inspection. Do you know how many inspectors there are? Are they going to actually be back at work? And what about those new rides? They must go through all of their testing and inspection guidelines prior to opening. 

Minimum Capacity: 
Right now the "preliminary" guidelines that came out for Florida parks are talking about 50% capacity in the parks. Do you know many businesses that can actually survive on 50% of their income? While paying all of their employees? And all of the other utilities that come along with running a theme park? Will it even be worth it for parks to open at reduced capacity? 

Outbreak traced back to theme parks: 
We've gone this far down and haven't even talked about the elephant in the room yet. What if, after let's say, Magic Kingdom opens and a mass outbreak is traced back to them. That is bad for the ENTIRE Theme Park industry. Consumer confidence is low right now. You get bad news out of a theme park and it goes even lower. Theme park companies know this. 

So when do I think parks are going to open? When we start getting emails from parks with dates they will open. That's when. Anything more than that right now is speculation. 

​But even when parks get the go-ahead to open, it doesn't mean they are going to open the next day. There is going to be a delay even then. And I think we all need to be prepared for that. 

Share your thoughts below. Am I totally off-base here or am I making even a little bit of sense? 

I've only been to Indiana Beach once, and it was on a quiet, overcast day back in May 2018. Even with chilly weather and empty midways, the park was still a memorable place with fun and unique attractions. I never wrote a trip report from that visit, so I'm writing this retrospective as I look forward to returning again when the sun is out and the Fascination parlor is full. 

​Written by Andrew Cunningham

One of the park entrances involves walking across a suspension bridge over Lake Shafer. Hoosier Hurricane, one of the parks three wooden coasters, greets you as you make your way towards the midway. 

As you walk across the bridge and under the coaster, the park's crazy layout makes itself apparent. Rides are built all on top of each other, with many being constructed over the water when there was no space left on land.  

As one of the two major wooden coasters at Indiana Beach, Hoosier Hurricane was my less favorite of the two. However, with its out and back layout stretching up and down the park's main midway, it offers the coolest views and photo ops. 

Apologies to the coaster pic purists, however. I couldn't get any shots with a train running since I was pretty much the only person there at the time. 

Seriously, I was the only passenger on pretty much any coaster that day!

This was the station for Cornball Express, the park's other wooden coaster. The ride operators gladly let me take as many rides as I wanted.

Where to start with Cornball Express?

While Hoosier Hurricane stretches up and down the park, Cornball sits in a back corner with a fairly compact layout that weaves in between other rides. I have to say, I had heard many good things about this coaster, but I still walked away with my expectations blown. You can see in the photo above that there was some fresh track on the ride at the time, so the overall experience was smooth, fast, and loaded with airtime. 

While newer models from RMC and Intamin have really pushed the envelope of what a wooden coaster can do, Cornball Express is easily one of my favorite traditional wood coaster. 

After checking out the two marquee coasters, I took a walk up and down the main midway. Above, you can see the view up and down in both directions, rides scattered to both sides. 

Sadly, the Fascination parlor had not yet opened for the season, but I look forward to coming back and spending a good bit of time here. Did you know that Indiana Beach has one of the eight remaining Fascination parlors left in operation? If you haven't spent time with friends in one of these classic game parlors, I suggest that you do sometime soon! Darien Lake and Knoebels are other notable parks that still have Fascination. 

There also appeared to be a rooftop bar that was closed while I was there. Although, from the photo, I'm confused that it is only listed as open for 1 hour? I imagine they meant 12pm ;-)

I could see this being a really fun spot on a summer night! Anyone who's travelled with me knows that I'm not one to turn down a beer at a theme park. 

Moving back down the midway... what do we have here?

Apparently the World's Best Taco resides in Indiana, and it sits under the supports of what may be strangest roller coaster I've ever been on. But let's start with this taco shack...

For only $2.49 the world's best taco can be yours! 

I had to check it out, so I grabbed a taco and a walking taco. 

Behold! The world's best taco and a walking taco! 

I joke, but honestly it was pretty great theme park food. 

Of course, after leaving I had to go find this episode! 

Ok, ok... Moving on from the tacos...

Right next door (and partially built over) the Taco Shop is Lost Coaster of Superstition Mountain. 

So, apologies that I don't have a ton of photos, but this thing was a challenge to get on! The park does not allow the coaster to run with just one person on it, and as you may have gathered from my photos there weren't a ton of people around. After waiting around for a while, I was able to find some kind strangers who would ride this with me. 

So how to describe Lost Coaster of Superstition Mountain? Well, it's a wooden coaster where you sit in a tiny ride vehicle that has a cage around it. Half the seats face forward, and half face backwards. You start off with an elevator lift up a mineshaft, and then drop into a series of abrupt hills and insanely tight hairpin turns. Given the seating configuration in the cage, it's very difficult to see whats coming ahead and to brace yourself, so you are pretty much tossed around like a rag doll for two minutes or so. 

It was maybe the weirdest coaster I've ever been on.  I love weird rides though, so I'm happy to hear that this thing may live on to keep the chiropractor industry in Indiana thriving. 

And with that, it was time to back across the suspension bridge and back to my car!

Despite the poor weather and low crowds, the park was staffed and I did manage to ride all of the coasters in this visit. I really enjoyed this weird, wonderful place, and I hope that the new owners find success in bringing it back to life! I'll certainly be back soon!

One last look on the way home. Thanks again for reading! 

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