Even a trip to the restrooms at SeaWorld San Antonio reminds visitors the COVID-19 pandemic isn’t over.
The theme park has plastered signs on lavatory walls, at restaurant entrances and other indoor venues issuing a warning: “You are entering an indoor area. Face coverings are recommended for all people.”
An image of a head with a face mask is an added touch to remind visitors the delta variant is spreading and causing illness at an alarming rate.
The signs went up after the Centers for Disease Control last week reversed course on its mid-May guidance that masks were no longer necessary in most cases for those who’ve been vaccinated against coronavirus. The new guidance says even vaccinated people should “wear a mask indoors in public if you are in an area of substantial or high transmission” — like San Antonio.
Nonetheless, nearly every SeaWorld visitor is ignoring the message and going maskless indoors. And unlike the days before mid-May when SeaWorld employees confronted maskless visitors, they’re now going unchallenged.
The CDC’s new guidance is testing theme parks and other tourist attractions on how to react to the challenges of the delta variant without scaring away guests. They don’t want a repeat of last summer, when fears of COVID-19 hammered attendance once they reopened after government-mandated shutdowns.
This summer is different, with visitor counts nearing pre-pandemic levels in some cases. Still — even in red-state Texas where Gov. Greg Abbott has outlawed government mask mandates — theme parks are private businesses. They have the power to put new rules in place, said Carissa Baker, an assistant professor at the University of Central Florida’s Rosen College of Hospitality Management.
But Baker, whose specialty is theme parks, said she wouldn’t count on them doing it. Theme parks want to encourage guests to visit without worries — and mask requirements are a bad memory of the pandemic.
“There’s just no doubt that guests are pretty fatigued with mask wearing and the pandemic in general,” she said.
Signs posted at SeaWorld inform guests that masks are recommended.
Randy Diamond /Staff photographerSeaWorld Sea Antonio President Byron Surrett said his park is simply being prudent with its recommended mask policy.
“We are following the CDC guidance,” he said. “They are only recommending indoor mask use.”
Six Flags’ approach
Just 15.7 miles away, San Antonio’s other theme park has an entirely different message, one ignoring the new CDC guidance on masks. Instead, Six Flags Fiesta Texas is promoting the policy it announced after the CDC’s late May announcement relieving people of masks in most cases.
The pronouncement on the park’s website Wednesday: “COVID-19 Protocol Update — No More Masks Required if Vaccinated.”
A sign in front of the theme park’s entrance also tells vaccinated individuals no masks are required. The announcement and signage does indicate that mask wearing is recommended for unvaccinated guests.
A park spokesman said new guidelines could were possible.
“We are evaluating the newest CDC recommendations and will make updates as needed with the health and safety of our guests and team members top of mind and consistent with applicable law,” he said.
Much of Six Flags Fiesta Texas and SeaWorld San Antonio are outdoors. But Six Flags has two indoor rides, indoor restaurants, gift shops and a large indoor theater with more than 3,000 seats. Sea World has more numerous indoor spaces including aquarium exhibits, indoor restaurants, gift shops and an indoor theater with more than 500 seats.
‘People don’t want to’
More than 400 people — almost all of them unmasked — crammed into the indoor Sea Star Theater at SeaWorld last Saturday to see Elmo, Cookie Monster, and other furry friends from Sesame Street sing and dance in a children’s musical review. The crowd included several hundred children.
“People don’t want to wear masks anymore,” said one employee at the Sea Star Theater after the fourth and final Sesame Street show of the day July 31.
In fact, it was hard to find a masked visitor anywhere in the 250-acre park, from the indoor aquarium exhibits and restaurants to the lavatories.
Theme park expert Martin Lewison, an associate professor of business management at Farmingdale State College in New York, said he wasn’t surprised few visitors were wearing masks at SeaWorld — even in a crowded theater.
“It’s not like there is poison gas in the area and you are going to drop dead for not wearing a mask inside a theater,” he said.
In contrast to Texas, Six Flags and SeaWorld parks in California are requiring mask wearing in compliance with new state orders to reduce the spread of COVID-19. SeaWorld in Orlando, Florida, has adopted the same policy recommending masks indoors as in San Antonio. Six Flags has no parks in Florida.
Lewison said Texas politicians’ anti-regulation approach could figure in Six Flags and SeaWorld looking the other way in terms of mask rules.
“So, there may be an attitude about government regulations in general that may lead to not standing at attention,” he said.
Disney’s culture
The operator responding most strictly to the CDC’s new recommendations is the Walt Disney Co. Its flagship set of parks, Walt Disney World in Central Florida, announced the next day that all visitors, regardless of vaccine status, must wear masks indoors.
The Disneyland Resort in Southern California also put mask rules in place in indoor venues, though they were also mandated by California authorities.
“Disney has a certain culture of behavior for guests,” said Lewison. “And if Disney says here’s the rule, people are likely to follow the rules.”
Baker, who was at Walt Disney World last week, said nearly 100 percent of guests were wearing masks in compliance with the new Disney rules. Ride attendants at indoor attractions were gently reminding visitors to put on their masks.
Said SeaWorld’s Surrett: “Disney is the outlier.”
Other major theme park companies are doing what SeaWorld is doing in light of the new CDC guidelines and recommending masks for guests when they’re indoors, he said.
Mario Gonzalez-Fuentes, an associate professor of marketing at Trinity University’s department of business administration, said the San Antonio theme parks’ reluctance to embrace tougher rules is understandable. Requiring guests to wear masks again could increase fears about the pandemic and cut into attendance, which is still recovering.
“People may think if everyone has to wear a mask, maybe it’s not safe and I should cancel that trip to SeaWorld or Six Flags,” he said.
If the delta variant surge continues, Baker said, Texas theme park operators may have no option but to return not just to mandatory masking but also to social distancing and capacity limits.
“This has been one of the most difficult periods for this industry in its whole history and I think that we’ve already seen the industry reel once and we don’t want it again,“ she said. “But I do think it’s a cautious wait-and-see approach and we can just hope that it doesn’t need to go beyond the current guidelines.”
randy.diamond@express-news.net
