Holiday World Spokesperson Says Opening Day May Be Delayed For 2020 Season Due to COVID-19

FROM LOCAL SOURCES

SANTA CLAUS -- Holiday World in Santa Claus may not open on time this year as opening day is now just 6 weeks out.  

If the local theme park has to delay Opening Day, it would be the first time its happened in more than 20 years.

In a statement, park officials say they’re monitoring the situation but aren’t able to share a potential opening date with any certainty.  They do say, however, they will rise to the occasion when opening day does finally arrive, adding its important now to follow the recommendations from the CDC and state government to beat the virus and have the best summer ever.

Read the full statement from Holiday World below....

During his twenty-some years serving Holiday World & Splashin’ Safari as park president, my dad—Will Koch Jr.—never missed an opening day. Especially not when a new attraction was on the line. We do everything in our power to uphold his same standard—though circumstances beyond our control may intervene.

I hate to say, but we may not be able to welcome Guests through our gates on our scheduled opening day this year.

We’re around six weeks out from our scheduled opening—and our maintenance team is still on track for May 2. But this year we’re up against forces stronger than most years.

We’re watching reports about COVID-19 from the Center for Disease Control and the World Health Organization carefully and consulting with our colleagues at other parks to find out when it will be safe for both our Guests and Team Members to open. At this time, we can’t share a date with any certainty.

But our opening day is coming. We’re going to do our best to make sure the Platinum Season Passholder event goes on, and we’ll reschedule every other event we can if we’re not able to open in time.

When we reopen, we’ll have changed our operations in ways you may or may not notice. We’ve had our kitchens professionally cleaned this year, and we’re working on getting hand sanitizer readily available all over the park. You may even have to deal with some temporary closures while we sanitize our rides throughout the day.

The important thing that you should know is that we’re ready to rise to the occasion when opening day comes.

What can we say? We’ve been the cleanest park in the world for two decades. You’ve developed high standards, and we plan to continue to exceed them.

What’s important now is that we all follow the recommendations of the CDC and our state governments so we can beat this virus and have the best summer ever.

-Leah Koch,

Fourth-Generation Owner and Director of Communications on behalf of the Koch Family