GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – Last summer, COVID-19 turned Bay Beach Amusement Park into a ghost town.
That’s not the case this time around. Bay Beach welcomed back guests Saturday morning.
Masks outdoors, capacity limits and lone riders, no more. Slowly but surely, Bay Beach Amusement Park is looking like itself again.
But some things won’t change, as manager Jason Arnoldi tells FOX 11….
“All of the picnic tables are back on the ground, so we welcome people to bring their picnics, but what has remained the same is we’re still following pretty high sanitation standards. The rides are being sanitized on a regular basis, indoors are being sanitized, tables and such, immediately after folks get up.”
Jackie Unti and her kids have missed Bay Beach.
“We came here every summer, multiple times a week,” she said. “I can’t wait for our kids to experience that! It didn’t feel the same last summer, without coming to Bay Beach.”
And Bay Beach has sure missed them.
The local amusement park banked in over $3 million in 2019, but took a significant financial blow due to the pandemic.
“We made about a quarter of what we normally make in a year last summer, so it really hit us pretty hard,” said Arnoldi.
Now, Arnoldi says things are looking up.
“We’re hoping to rebound this year, and then we can get back to adding more rides, and more attractions and more fun for everyone.”
On opening day, people were just excited to get back to the normal swing of things.
“We are so excited!” said Unti. “We were here right at 10, ready to go!”
And Unti’s not the only one ready to plunge into the “new normal.”
“What more can you do, you know?” said Chris Almeida. “You sanitize your hands, you know, and go about your life. That’s all you can really do.”
All but two rides – the Giant Slide and the Sea Dragon – were open Saturday.
Managers say, the temporary closures have nothing to do with staffing issues and say they’re just waiting for additional equipment to open them up.
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