Zoombezi Bay is preparing to welcome guests for the summer, but the waterpark will look a little different to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
Season pass holders and gold members can return to the water park on June 19. All other guests can come beginning June 22.
“There’s going to be increased signage and increased monitoring by our staff, not just our lifeguards, but Zoombezi Bay staff in general to encourage groups of folks, parties of folks to just stay separated from one another and maintain that distancing inside the pools,” says Zoombezi Bay president Anthony Sabo.
Sabo says parties of up to 10 people can enter together and stay with their group while they're splashing in the pools at Zoombezi Bay.
He explains that to avoid a rush, guests will have to plan their trip ahead of time using their website.
“For both our day guests and our season pass holders and members, you will have to have a dated time ticket,” Sabo says.
Sabo says the park highly encourages guests to wear face masks in the common areas, like the concrete decks and restrooms, but the masks should not go in the pools for safety reasons.
Al staff members will wear face masks, and cleaning crews will be present throughout the grounds.
“In our common areas, we have a couple different teams, our grounds maintenance team, and our dedicated clean team that are going to go throughout the park throughout the day and disinfecting common surfaces like restrooms, tables, lounge chairs and railings,” Sabo says.
He says the venue can earn up to $1.5 million a week, so the four-week delay to open because of the coronavirus pandemic has hurt financially.
“It has been extremely difficult on our business,” Sabo says. “You know, we are reliant upon about 100 days every year in the hot summer season to achieve our results for the entire year. “
The opening of entertainment venues throughout the state comes as free testing for COVID-19 is available at 10 Columbus Public Health sites. CVS Health has opened 43 drive-thru testing sites in Ohio.
Sabo says according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), COVID-19 cannot spread to humans through pools and hot tubs. He says the water in all Zoombezi Bay attractions are double treated with chlorination and ultraviolet light to remove harmful organisms.
“Safety is imperative to us when we entertain thousands of guests a year,” Sabo says. “It’s a new safety routine that we’re going to have to get into and protect our guests with, but it’s something that we’re going to accept the challenge of and continue to keep our guests safe.”
