All the things people currently in the parks have been reporting on the past few days has been excellent!
"Excellent" isn't the word I'd use. My bar for excellence at the moment is very high. As someone who was there, I'd use the words "good" and "reasonable" to describe the measures I experienced. The rest of this post isn't an answer to the QP above, but it was a nice segue into some of my thoughts and reflections on WDW's reopening weekend. I apologize in advance that this will probably break the record for my longest post.
I allowed myself to indulge in the rose-colored glasses for a bit since it had been my longest stretch in quite some time without visiting a Disney Park. Walking into MK again felt great. Something I've come to realize over the last few months is just how much we take escapism and leisure for granted. Whether that be a trip to Disney World or just a trip to the movies, there is something innate in all of us, I think, that craves those moments when we can "check out" of reality and allow our stresses and even awareness of the "real world" to momentarily fade away. I hadn't experienced that sort of "check out" since at least March and for that brief moment when I "rocketing through the galaxy" on Space Mountain, I experienced it again. For a brief moment, I forgot that I was wearing a mask, that we were in the midst of a pandemic, and all of the stresses and anxieties of the last few months. That was an absolutely wonderful feeling, but more on that in a moment.
I also wanted to make a point to take a more nuanced look at the various policies and procedures, their implementations, and how Guests were reacting to them. Given that mostly everyone I've talked to outside of this thread and TWDC (and not even everyone in those two groups is in complete agreement) have been skeptical -- to put it lightly -- that this reopening would do more good than harm, I did my best to go in with a completely open mind (not hitting Disney for just reopening but also not placing a disproportionate level of trust in them more so than I would place in any business). Here are my thoughts:
Attraction Operations - I won't go into too much detail since so many sites have done thorough step-by-step breakdowns of each attraction's new procedures. I will say I felt very safe on every attraction (within reason of course) I experienced. Only two come to mind where I think there could be some challenges. There had been some reports that Splash had dialed down its water effects (as it often does in the winter). That doesn't appear to be the case. I got wetter on Splash Mountain on Saturday than I had in quite some time, and unfortunately, my "face covering" got pretty wet too. I had another to put on, but carrying around a wet "face covering" wasn't ideal. I'd suggest maybe bringing a disposable mask for Splash, just in case. The other thing I didn't consider was that when your face gets wait, you have this natural reflex to wipe away the water, so I ended up touching my face after I had touched the lap bar. Not ideal, but just need to be more aware next time. I also thought that the barriers set up on KS seemed a little inadequate. A young girl seated behind me was playing with it and sticking her hands under it; I wouldn't be surprised if at some point they start seating KS every other row. I've been told that there is no plan for that at this time though. Beyond those two experiences, I was impressed and had some really cool moments on a few Attractions too. I was on Under the Sea - Journey of the Little Mermaid and realized that I was in the only filled clamshell in the entire Ursula room. I had my own "module" (don't know what else to call it) during FoP. I will say that these experiences all happened after 2pm, so I'd recommend sticking around later in the day.
Attraction exits - These were the biggest "chokepoints" I experienced. Even though parties in each vehicle are spaced out, there's still that "mad dash" to the next attraction sometimes. This is further complicated by the fact that most exits only have one or two hand sanitizer stations at the exit, sometimes creating a line in an already tight space. The only thing Disney could do here is to potentially add more hand sanitizer stations at the exit. My recommendation would be to just stay aware of those around you as you exit an attraction vehicle and perhaps just wait an extra few seconds to exit the vehicle if you see some crowding. I'd also avoid that sanitizer station at the exit of the attraction unless you see no wait. There were almost always a few more stations after the exit, and if not, you could find one nearby.
"Face covering" compliance - In the theme parks, I was shocked (in a good way) by how many Guests were wearing "face coverings" and wearing them properly. A source reminded me that Disney is not requiring "masks" but rather "face coverings," so I'm going to try to use the correct language here. If I had to guess, I'd say that compliance ranged around 95% with the other 5% being those who were snacking or drinking. I did witness one altercation with an INCREDI-SQUAD CM where the Guest was insistent (to put it mildly) that he was still drinking his (mostly empty) bottle of water. He was asked to step to the side to finish his drink. I think that would be a good policy if it's enforced, but I did see many Guests eating and drinking in the middle of pathways. As a reminder, blocking pathways is never courteous and even less so in the middle of a pandemic. At MK, the "face covering" and heat didn't bother me at all, however at DAK, my "face covering" was not fun (it was the same one; I had washed it in my villa Saturday night). If you're visiting this summer, I might consider a shorter park day and pairing it with pool time. Most rides at DAK were walk-ons and there are only 8 attractions there (and most guests would only be interested in five or six of them).
Dehydration - This is the most important point I'll make. I found that the "face covering" disincentivized more frequent hydration. I've dealt with Florida summers routinely for many, many years and have been out and about in the parks when the "Real Feel" was 110 degrees, but I've never come as close to being dehydrated as I did on Saturday. I would make a conscience effort to pay attention to how much time goes by in between drinks of water. Most (though not all) QS locations will allow you to enter to get a free iced water. Those that won't (like Cosmic Ray's) will direct you to a nearby QS that offers free water. At Cosmic Ray's, they sent me to Auntie Gravity's for example. I wouldn't be surprised if (especially given the brutal heat Orlando is experiencing right now) Disney sees a sizable increase in dehydrated guests showing up to First Aid.
QS Dining - The area where I was most surprised. They have taken dining rooms which amounted to semi-controlled chaos and turned them into spaced-out, organized experiences. As has been reported, to enter most QS restaurants, you first must place a mobile order and then your order must be called. You will be directed to a specific station. The procedures vary from location to location, but I was shocked that --in the middle of a thunderstorm none the less -- the usually bustling Cosmic Ray's maintained every other table vacant and every guest was seated at a distanced. I was shocked and very impressed. These are the types of changes (or components of these changes) I wouldn't be surprised to see WDW stick with even post-COVID.
Rope drop - As we discussed on Saturday, reports from park open at MK on 7/11 were not good at all. As I said in a previous post, several CMs (both at Poly and MK) used words like "crazy," "uneven," and "a lot" to describe rope drop that morning. Disney surely knew that would happen and they should've prepared much better. I wouldn't fault them for a hiccup like this during previews, as previews are inherently designed to iron out kinks like this (as we've seen today, there's stuff they're learning during the previews and making adjustments on the fly). For example, I was told that the parking/Park Arrival procedures at MK changed four times the morning of the first CM previews. That said, this certainly isn't their first rodeo with the "I wanna be first" crew, and they clearly knew it was coming, which is why sent those voicemails to resort guests encouraging them to delay their arrival. Anyways, on Saturday, I was told they were already coming up with a plan to address the rope drop situation, and we found out that plan this morning.
Afternoon waits - Building on my last point, I'd advise you avoid park opening at all costs if physical distancing is important to you or if you'd rather not start your day with a (needless imo) stressful experience. At MK, I arrived just before 10:30am and did everything I had initially planned on doing by 3pm. The longest wait I experienced was maybe 15 minutes long (for 7DMT). At DAK, I arrived much later and still got everything done in three hours basically. Because there's no "incentive" for people to stay late (i.e. fireworks), I found that the parks are also experiencing the "Universal pattern" where guests leave hours before official park closing. In fact, based on my experiences at DAK and MK, you might find shorter wait times in the last three hours of park operation than in the first three. I cannot strongly recommend enough that people wait until an hour or two after park opening to arrive (if not later). It will make your experience so much more enjoyable. If there were ever a time to sleep in on a WDW vacation, now's the time. I think 8 hours is more than enough time at MK at the moment (and especially if you're visiting MK on multiple days), and 5 hours is probably more than enough for DAK.
Operational challenges - Four months can feel like an eternity in this new world we're living in. I can tell you that I had forgotten about the discussions we had earlier this year about the "rough" condition that some of the attractions were in. Some of the weekend's delays can be chalked up to the systems being out of regular use for the last four months, but there are also still many attractions that need more long-term care. TTA has not reopened and *should* be back sometime this week. JC and PotC had some difficulties this weekend. HM had even more. Splash and Everest also are still falling victim to their usual difficulties. Unfortunately, don't expect any major fixes anytime soon.
Disney Springs - Yikes. Disney Springs was a different story. Not a lot of mask compliance there. Not a lot of physical distancing there either. The Boathouse is officially operating at 75% capacity right now, but they seem to be seating tables in clusters, giving you no more than two or three feet of space between you and another party. Perhaps Disney has focused more so on the parks and let DS fall to the back burner but it seemed like a typical weekend night there.
Now to the question that I'm sure is one everyone's mind: What's next? The answer to that is complicated. What we've seen and will see over the next week seems like how it's going to be for some time. Everything I (and others) have heard suggests that, while there will be some tweaks and adjustments here and there (and maybe slight changes in capacity), the current plan is to keep things mostly as is until the fall. Initially, Disney had a pretty aggressive reopening plan, but with 15k+ new cases being reported, it's apparent that has changed the calculation. The relatively low crowds have also seemed to change the calculation.
I've been told that we might not see fireworks until "late fall"
maybe. With the exception of Epcot, the park hours don't allow for it at the moment, given that MK, DHS, and DAK all close before sunset. Those are the set hours until October at the moment. Those certainly could change if crowds do start to pick up, but so long as they have to social distance on busses (which I don't see not happening for a long time), park opens and closes must be staggered. Perhaps at some point we'll see MK 9-8, HS 10-10, DAK 8-7, and Epcot stay at 11-9, but that's just a personal guess. In the short term, I wouldn't expect much of a change on that front right now. Most indoor shows don't seem to be coming back until the performers' union can come to some kind of agreement with Disney. The CP may not be back until Fall of next year (maybe Fall Advantage). The water parks are anyone's guess right now.
You can see that Disney has "Please Stand Here" markers for crowds well beyond what is needed at the moment, and while I think they'll try to bump out "official" capacity, it's worth noting that on both days I was in the parks, any regular guest could've walked up bought a ticket and made a reservation. For "day guests" and resort guests, the only park where they seems to be some level of difficulty obtaining a reservation is DHS. And while I think they may try to bring on a few more shops and restaurants to increase capacity a bit, I don't see a way they start filling in more seats on rides for example for quite some time. Of course, some of this seems to be by design. Disney could always open up those available spots to AP holders and I'm sure they'd be gone in hours, but I also think it's interesting that they so far haven't done that. More to the point, they've paused AP sales again. A "friend of a friend" in GR said that had to do with "alleviating" availability issues for current AP holders, but that information is second-hand so take it for what you will. If availability starts to change for AP holders, I'd take that as a sign that crowds aren't what they were hoping for. Until that happens, it's anyone's guess if this was what top execs were planning.
Overall, I was impressed with what I saw at the parks and resorts. There are some kinks that need to be ironed out, but I think Disney did everything within reason to make the parks as safe as they could. Could they have done more? Yes, but at a certain point, so many precautions and restrictions makes operating more difficult and expensive than staying closed so it's a balancing act: managing risk vs. managing logistics/profits. That brings me to my most important point. Disney magic cannot make the virus disappear. There is still an inherent risk in visiting at the moment. No, Disney is not the safest place in Florida. No, going to Disney is not the same thing as the grocery store. There are fundemtnal parts of the experience that are high-touch and involve large groups of people. With the numbers in Florida, statistically speaking, someone at some point is going to walk into one of the parks with COVID-19. Am I saying don't go? Not at all. I did and enjoyed it, but everyone is entitled to make their own decision about what is best for their situation. I do think it's important that we, as fans, recognize that Disney isn't going to magically make COVID-19 disappear. The risk is there. They have signs at the entrance to remind you and it's important that all of us who visit right now acknowledge that risk and take it seriously. This means taking all the precautions possible when you are there. This means quarantining or getting tested when returning home. I say this not to harp on people but as someone who really would love to see the parks stay open and CMs keep their jobs, but if people catch it at WDW, go home and spread it in their communities, there's going to be huge problems for WDW and its CMs.
As I've said, my feelings on their reopening are still very mixed. From a health perspective, I'm a little neurotic. Now that I'm home, I got tested this morning and will quarantine until I get my results. We'll see. But in a larger sense, my feelings are sort of mixed for other reasons. I know there's been much discussion today about the crowds. There's no way around it: the crowds are historically low. I visited after 9/11 and can't remember it being quite as quiet as it was at 6pm on Main Street on Saturday. While I love the shorter waits at attractions, it feels like there is something missing. It's not that there are no fireworks, parades, or character greetings; it's something intangible that's missing. It's almost like that special sense of occasion that has come to define WDW isn't there right now. Even when I've traveled alone before, there is this communal sense of experience, like (whether we're speaking to each other or not) everyone is enjoying this special place together (both the highs and lows of it), but there were parts of this weekend that felt somewhat isolating. I don't really go to WDW to be away from people. There are barriers with most CMs. Guest, for obvious reasons, don't really seem to want to talk with other parties. Certainly if you just visit WDW every year to ride all the rides, then you'll be in heaven, but as someone who is fortunate enough to visit many times each year, WDW becomes less about the individual components that make up the experience (rides, restaurants, characters, fireworks, etc...) and more about the feelings that exist there. It is an emotional reprieve from a chaotic world we all live in; it's an escape.
If I had to put my finger on something tangible, that would be it. When you enter
Disneyland, there is that famous plaque that reads, "Here You Leave Today And Enter The World Of Yesterday, Tomorrow And Fantasy." Right now, there is no leaving today at WDW. There are reminders everywhere of it, and while you may momentarily enjoy those feelings of genuine escape like I did on Space Mountain, those moments are bookended by many reminders that we are still in the midst of something quite serious. There is no more checking your worries at the gate -- at least for the time being. Even after 9/11, an incredibly scary time in our nation's history, once you passed the new bag checks, all of the enhanced safety measures were out of view. Certain experiences may have been closed, but that feeling was still there. There was still that sense of occasion, that almost communal sense of relief that you had permission to smile today, but there were no smiles to be seen at WDW this weekend.
I had this idea in my head at the start of the closure that Saturday would be akin to Tokyo Disneyland's reopening after the 2011 earthquake, almost like a homecoming and a cultural signal that it is time to move on. Even well before Saturday, I knew that was not going to be the tone of Saturday, but I suppose there was still a small part of my subconscious that thought that it might be different, that we may finally be approaching "normal" again. Whether you want to admit it or not, I think all of us have that inside a small part of us right now, even if it's not about Disney. For me, I think this weekend was a big step in a grieving process -- hopefully a temporary one -- and an acknowledgment that literally everything is going to be different in some way for a while. I'm not sure many people have fully completed that grieving process; I haven't.
I want to be crystal clear that I'm not complaining, quite the opposite in fact. I applaud Disney for taking the necessary precautions to promote the health and safety of its Guests and CMs, even if that means fundamentally changing the experience. It's the right thing to do, and as a fan, I wouldn't want it any other way, but I'm also trying to be honest not just with all of you but also with myself. Is there still magic there? Yes of course. Will I go back before any of these restrictions are lifted? Probably (though we'll have to see how my test comes back), but just like I think everyone going right now should be aware of the risk there, every Disney fan going should understand that it is a fundamentally different experience right now, not because there are no fireworks or characters but because of much greater loss. In all of the rush of the reopening coverage amongst Disney blogs and the like, I think (ironically enough) that loss been lost. I think once the shine starts to wear off and there aren't new stories to report on around every corner, many fans may start to sit with these types of feelings and begin what I hope is a temporary grieving process. I do firmly believe that there is a great big beautiful tomorrow. In the meantime, stay safe and stay healthy. If you have any questions about my experiences, please let me know. I'm happy to answer them.
