Social distancing...
Between the social distancing and 50 people capacity limits it's taking a lot of the fun out of this. Working at a mere 12 Lane facility means only 6 Lanes at a time max.
That pretty much kills company parties, birthday parties and any live music or comedy show events. It totally screwed up the leagues too. Now they have to be split in half to be every other week. 1 team per pair. 🙄 Also, no food or drink sold after 11 pm. It's quite complicated until the restrictions get lifted. At least we're open again, I hope it stays that way.
Our local center is now open both earlier in the day and closing an hour later. They have also dropped taking temperatures of those entering the building. However they have made the mask policy stricter, requiring masks to be worn all the time except for when you are actively eating or drinking, or on the approach. While I think the new policy makes more sense, I’m glad I don’t have to enforce it.
John
In upstate N.Y. we have been wearing masks the whole season with plastic between the pairs and settee area. Just went from 10 pm to 11 pm close. Normal 2 teams per pair has been all season. Not sure on open bowling situation this is a 32 lane house. Steve
Current arsenal...Roto Grip Nuclear Cell, Hustle PBR, Roto Grip Gem, Idle Helios and Own It Spare. 300 rev rate, 16 mph off hand, 13.3 tilt,61 degrees rotation pap 4 9/16 over 1 1/8 up.
In Wisconsin, you'd be hard pressed to know there was a pandemic. Our league has every 3rd pair open, which might be because we don't have enough teams to cover 20 lanes. Our team is just about the only ones you'll see wearing masks. They have the obligatory hand sanitizer out, and the girls do wipe everything down after bowling, but that seems to be it. We're not hearing of anyone getting sick at this time. Three of my teammates got it back in October, and all got over it without any drama.
Old guy with power (15.5-16; 325). Current arsenal--Storm Summit, RotoGrip Idol Helios, Storm Phaze III, Storm SureLock (retired), Storm IQ Tour Nano and Motiv Rebel tank (spare/dry). High sanctioned game - 300 (5). High sanctioned series - 856. A.V. 300-s - 8. Longest string - 25.
2024/2025 YTD highs--High game-248; high series-674
Yeah, the mask thing is the same here. Everyone seems to comply without being told.Originally Posted by J Anderson
Cleaning rules are a lot stricter but I have no problem with it. It's not like the place is TOO clean.
The business hours is the biggest change. We now open no earlier than 2pm. We always opened at 9 or 10am before. It's not worth it opening that early anymore. It's a ghost town.
The PM hours is where we're losing out. Having to close at 11pm sucks. Our liquor license is good until 4am. We used to close pretty much whenever we wanted as long as it was at least until the posted hours. Most of the time of the place was hopping we'd stay as late as it was profitable. I remember coming home at 3:30am many times with a huge wad of tips. Those days are gone until things get back to normal.
They never put up any plastic dividers between lanes at our center. Heck they aren't even at the counter or bar. I didn't even think about that until now.
It is pretty much a free for all here now. Virtually no one wears masks. The non-senior adult leagues are 2 teams per pair, no empty lanes in between. No plastic dividers between lanes. Business in the bar is hopping. People are bringing in food (candy, home baked goods, etc.), sharing it with others, high fiving, hugging, and shaking hands. Essentially as if there was no pandemic. The staff tries to clean lanes in between bowlers, but it doesn't always happen. Business is picking back up to pre-pandemic levels, which is great for the bowling center.
I understand that people just want the pandemic over and to go back to normal, but there are still a lot of unnecessary risks being taken. It is possible to be safe and still enjoy bowling. It just means staying vigilant with cleaning and distancing and the proper social behaviors.
Each state seems to be still handing restrictions differently as they pretty much have since the start. Here, quite a few businesses ignored the restrictions without consequence. There's a local pub that was packed to the gills every night. On the other side of it, everyone else is following them to the letter.
Since the owner of our bowling center also owns at least a dozen movie theaters that they still can't open, he's making sure the one place he can make something on is complying.
I personally have no wish to catch Covid. The numbers may be dwindling but the threat is still real. We've personally lost friends and family to it and not interested in losing more. We continue to take precautions as we have since the start in our home.
We have restrictions still here too, but the center is very selective in which ones they follow. If it is cheap, and doesn't risk losing customers they will do it. If it is something that would potentially cause them to have to enforce rules the customers wouldn't like, they simply make it "optional" and look the other way. They have said several times that they are not the covid police and can't be expected to monitor all of the customers all of the time.
Everyone at my center seems to be complying thus far, employees and customers alike. I haven't had any real issues. The only thing I've seen was people putting the house balls back on the rack they got them from instead of the ones we have marked for cleaning. Mainly out of force of habit.
I'm sure down the road we'll see people ignoring the rules out of "Covid fatigue" or "Hey I got vaccinated so I don't have to do that anymore" Trust me, it's coming.
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