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.
It is with a little sadness, but much hope that I can share that we are now planning to open in early June.
You may have a lot of questions, and we’re going to do our best to answer them below, but just know that if this alters your plans, we’re going to take care of you.
We’re still watching reports about COVID-19 from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization carefully and consulting with our colleagues at other parks to figure out how to keep our Team Members and Guests safe when we do reopen.
We’re also changing our operations in ways you may or may not notice. We’ve had our kitchens professionally cleaned this year, and we’re going to have hand sanitizer readily available all over the park. We may even have some temporary closures while we sanitize our rides throughout the day.
We’re still planning to hold the Platinum Season Passholder event–even if we don’t have a finalized date just yet, and we’ll reschedule every other event we possibly can if we’re not able to open in time (please see our question below on HoliWood Nights).
In the meantime, we’re continuing to hire seasonal employees and we’re doing our best to train people online.
The important thing that you should know is that our small-but-mighty team is working hard from home right now. As a family-owned park, we’re feeling the pressure, but we’re also proving how mighty we are when we work together. We may not have the resources of other parks, but we’re ready to fire on all cylinders once we’re back.
And opening day is coming.
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.
We can’t emphasize the importance of following CDC recommendations enough right now. If we’re going to have the best summer ever, we all have to do our part. So please, stay home, continue social distancing, and wash your hands. Help us save summer 2020.
See you in June, friends.
-Leah Koch,
Fourth-Generation Owner and Director of Communications on behalf of the Koch Family
