Quiet attractions, bars and restaurants?

[shakingstevensfan]

I am wondering if anyone else has seen this?
After the last lockdown was lifted bars, restaurants and attractions were full of people. I have noticed though in the last week or two that everything seems to have got much quieter.
For example, we went to an outdoor attraction yesterday. It was busy, but not that busy. We went to the very well renowned cafe at lunchtime and got a table no problem. Normally you would be lucky to get a table.
We have seen this replicated everywhere we have been very recently. Nowhere is dead. But places are not as busy as they would have been before the pandemic. Even the local gym had half the number of people in that it would usually have.

It has surprised me and I wonder if this is a situation that others have seen? We are going out and about, but it made me wonder if there are still lots of people who are wary?

Or maybe as it is half term people are away elsewhere on holiday?
Maybe the gym has halved attending numbers for reasons?

No there are limits, but the gym can have double the amount of people in it than it has. And normally it is busy unless for obvious reasons like a World Cup final or the days before Christmas. I was shocked to see it so quiet for the last few weeks.
We drove to an attraction yesterday. More people are in the UK now than normal, rather than going abroad. I would have expected places to be busier than they normally would, not less.

So seems I am the only one noticing this?

I think a lot of people are wary still, but also a lot of people are just out of the habit - there is a thread just above yours in Chat that is about people feeling like they've forgotten how to have days out, feeling overwhelmed or "peopled out" just going out for a bit, so they're not doing as much just yet or starting slowly with re-entering the world.

I am in Cornwall for half term and the places enforcing social distancing with timed entry are quieter than usual - they are full to capacity, but that capacity is much smaller if that makes sense! Beaches and shops and queues for cafes or fish and chips are absolutely heaving, it's actually lovely to see lots of businesses trading so briskly as I know a lot have been so hurt by the lockdowns.

@Xiaoxiong good that they are heaving. The places I have been have not been full and I would have expected them to be. I am scared about all the talk about another possible lockdown, so we are getting out while we can.

shaking I think another factor is that people still aren't planning ahead for attractions and restaurants - it's like they've clicked back into pre-pandemic mode so they aren't planning ahead, and have forgotten we still have some restrictions, I guess. Yesterday I overheard as I waited in a queue a lot of people miffed that they couldn't get into some gardens because they hadn't pre-booked an entry time, even though they had bought a multi-entry ticket the day before. Also people fuming that places like pubs which never needed reservations before were requiring timed reservations even for the outdoor terrace. So there might be that factor at play as well - things still aren't quite back to normal and you can't play things by ear!

I’m still wary and I’m purposely choosing to go places off-peak because it’ll be less busy. I knew yesterday would be packed so we stayed at home, and we booked today off work to have our “bank holiday day out” on a quieter day.

We were at the sealife centre Saturday and it wasn't that busy. Scarbough it's self seemed quiet despite reasonable weather. Many might have just got used to sitting in their gardens having family round and a bbq.

@Xiaoxiong Interesting. Nothing we went to at the weekend needed to be pre-booked.

Manchester dead, everyone on holiday. Friends in the Lakes, Cornwall, Whitby, Blackpool tell me it's heaving beyond belief.

It’s crazy some places here, and quiet in others. We didn’t need to pre book a pub table on Saturday which is really unusual, but the parks are heaving, and a local funfair caused two hours of traffic jams.

Novelty gone, money spent before the end of the month, warm weather means people off to the coast. No surprise at all.

@ZenNudist well Pep Guardiola's tactics meant nothing to celebrate over the weekend!