Cruise and Theme Park Operational Updates due to Coronavirus

[Jrb1979]

How can you disagree that raising the capacity to 35% is a good idea, but also say that they can operate safely at 35%?

I'm saying raising capacity anymore then 35% is not safe. There is already spots where very little social distancing is happening and many queues spilling out to walkways.

 

[Mit88]

I'm saying raising capacity anymore then 35% is not safe. There is already spots where very little social distancing is happening and many queues spilling out to walkways.

Oh, of course. I wasn’t suggesting they raise it again right now, I was just saying when they did raise it to 35% that it was only a matter of time. Eventually they will raise it again, but I don’t envision that occurring until the spring, and even that depends on the current situation at that time

 

[Farro]

I was thinking this and also that there are different experiences being had now as well. I see reports form different people from the same park the same day and one says they had crazy long lines everywhere and the another, from maybe just a different hour of the day, etc, said lines were short and no waits more than 20 mins - things fluctuate and are not constant

I think it is clear there are more people there now than there were several months ago and there is likely less social distancing now than in the past and certainly some people who may have felt safe before may be more likely to encounter sitautions that would make them feel less safe - but that is differen than "OMG the parks are a disaster and 100% unsafe!"

I will say what is confusing - are people complaining about crowds due to safety reasons - as in it's a less crowded experience, but too crowded for social distancing? Or are they complaining about crowds due to long lines and a general, overall crowded day that feels like it used to when it was super crowded?
Or both?

Not that it matters, but just wondering for my spring trip what I'm looking at. If it's feeling too close for comfort for safety reasons, that could still mean the overall crowd level is still lower than normal.

I'm sure I'm not making sense at this point.

 

[Eeyore daily]

I will say what is confusing - are people complaining about crowds due to safety reasons - as in it's a less crowded experience, but too crowded for social distancing? Or are they complaining about crowds due to long lines and a general, overall crowded day that feels like it used to when it was super crowded?
Or both?

Not that it matters, but just wondering for my spring trip what I'm looking at. If it's feeling too close for comfort for safety reasons, that could still mean the overall crowd level is still lower than normal.

I'm sure I'm not making sense at this point.

For us it was both. There was too many people crowding areas that you couldn’t distance from and honestly it felt like a normal park day, especially yesterday at the Magic Kingdom. The long lines were annoying but we could avoid those. The crowds not so much. I’m more apprehensive and cautious than my boyfriend but even he felt unsafe with the crowd level this weekend.

 

[figmentfinesse]

I do wonder if they will still be hitting their 35% once the holidays are over.

 

[Farro]

I do wonder if they will still be hitting their 35% once the holidays are over.

I don't think they will again until spring break or just plain old spring starts.

 

[Mit88]

I do wonder if they will still be hitting their 35% once the holidays are over.

Very doubtful. But then again, I didn’t expect them to hit capacity this weekend. 35% just shows that you don’t need much of a resort presence when locals are coming in droves

 

[DGsAtBLT]

Not to state the obvious, but if you believed people like myself who posted online months ago (and took it at face value) that it felt very safe and comfortable, then I’m not sure why all of a sudden you’d be skeptical of reports from others online saying that that wasn’t the case this weekend.

Aside from those who just have different standards for what feels safe or unsafe, there are some (not limited to this thread or board obviously, before people start explaining why this doesn’t apply to them) who are not concerned with Covid, take precautions they are forced to, but would be hard pressed to find a situation they’d call unsafe.

 

[xuxa777]

Aside from those who just have different standards for what feels safe or unsafe, there are some (not limited to this thread or board obviously, before people start explaining why this doesn’t apply to them) who are not concerned with Covid, take precautions they are forced to, but would be hard pressed to find a situation they’d call unsafe.

I find driving I-4 from the airport not safe

 

[mshanson3121]

I also think reopening fast pass line would help as well!

To be honest, I don't understand why FP+ had to go away for Covid?

 

[Jrb1979]

To be honest, I don't understand why FP+ had to go away for Covid?

Outside of attractions there is not a lot of things for people to do. Having people get in attractions quickly and having them fill walkways is not what's needed right now. If they had parades and meet and greets to keep people busy while not on attractions FP+ could work.

 

[yulilin3]

To be honest, I don't understand why FP+ had to go away for Covid?

Because of ride capacity. Fp allotment with the current ride capacity would be small, very hard to get and then most people would still have to do standby with even longer wait times since the fp line would be open

 

[mshanson3121]

I will say what is confusing - are people complaining about crowds due to safety reasons - as in it's a less crowded experience, but too crowded for social distancing? Or are they complaining about crowds due to long lines and a general, overall crowded day that feels like it used to when it was super crowded?
Or both?

Not that it matters, but just wondering for my spring trip what I'm looking at. If it's feeling too close for comfort for safety reasons, that could still mean the overall crowd level is still lower than normal.

I'm sure I'm not making sense at this point.

I've seen both. Mostly the "safety" factor, but some complaining about the long lines, feeling busy etc...

 

[hereforthechurros]

I’ve been seeing the parks are full, annoyingly so compared to what people hoped for, but only a few claiming “unsafe”. and pics/complaints of choke points do not prove evidence of unsafe.

This is an important point. I’m wondering what happens if/when a breakout from wdw occurs. Would WDW change anything?

 

[hereforthechurros]

it won’t. i used to think so but some nice folks here explained what FP actually does and now I understand. Basically FP makes lines longer. FP increases some guests satisfaction by assuring some guests get fast access to some rides. The cost is guests waiting in the lines of those rides have to be held in line while FP people are let through. This makes lines longer. Longer lines is something Disney absolutely does not need.

But wouldn’t it take a good amount of people out of the current standby lines that are snaking into the walkways and put them elsewhere?

Not pretending I know better just trying to understand!

 

[DGsAtBLT]

This is an important point. However I’m wondering what happens if/when a breakout from wdw occurs. Would WDW change anything?

In my province contact tracing has gotten completely overwhelmed and has basically been rendered useless. There is a lot of suspicion and concern that schools are driving our spread, good reason to believe it, but no hard evidence provided by contact tracing.

Saying this not to go OT and discuss that, but to illustrate why I think it will be quite difficult for any outbreak to be pinned on WDW when I would have to assume much of the people who go there are also going various other places, traveling to get there, contact tracing isn’t happening, etc.

 

[abs1978]

I just hope we can all agree it’s time for MSEP to die it’s slow painful death.

Excuse me. This hurts my child of the 80's soul. This year has been hard enough. There is no reason for saying such rude things....

 

[andyman8]

I think we need to stop taking pictures at face value. That DHS picture yesterday made it look Hollywood Blvd was 10 ft long with the angle they took the picture, so of course a crowd of people would look like it was congested.

It was only a matter of time before capacity was raised, and they weren’t going to do it unless they were sure they could handle it. More people in the parks = more money for Disney which hopefully results in the entertainment we’re angry that was taken away, will return. They can’t operate a profiting theme park industry with it looking and feeling like an exclusive experience.

Oh, of course. I wasn’t suggesting they raise it again right now, I was just saying when they did raise it to 35% that it was only a matter of time. Eventually they will raise it again, but I don’t envision that occurring until the spring, and even that depends on the current situation at that time

It's often forgotten that when Bob Chapek discussed the 35% capacity number, he explicitly said that the industrial engineering team concluded that they could raise it from 25% to 35% and still maintain the CDC-recommended physical distancing guidelines, based on reopening certain shuttered areas and utilizing certain backstage facilities for queues and the like. According to Disney, it wasn't an arbitrary decision. Way back right after the closure started, Touring Plans estimated what park capacity would have to capped out to ensure each Guest got roughly six feet of space and they estimated capacity would be around 1/3, so the 35% number doesn't surprise me.

That said, in my experience (when the parks do actually "sell out," which isn't happening as frequently as people think it is), they're pushing it. And that's based on my own experiences, not any pictures. The problem is that there are many days when Disney can't "sell out" the parks, because there's not adequate demand. Your average Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays are still looking strikingly different than weekends and holidays. That's a big departure for WDW and one of the many reasons you're seeing them still try to "scale down" the operation for the time being. WDW's not built for those types of traffic patterns.

 

[Eric Smith]

I also think reopening fast pass line would help as well!

Adding fast pass would just make the waits longer. Fast pass makes the standby line substantially longer.

 

[andyman8]

This is an important point. I’m wondering what happens if/when a breakout from wdw occurs. Would WDW change anything?

In my province contact tracing has gotten completely overwhelmed and has basically been rendered useless. There is a lot of suspicion and concern that schools are driving our spread, good reason to believe it, but no hard evidence provided by contact tracing.

Saying this not to go OT and discuss that, but to illustrate why I think it will be quite difficult for any outbreak to be pinned on WDW when I would have to assume much of the people who go there are also going various other places, traveling to get there, contact tracing isn’t happening, etc.

Disney isn't officially doing any contact tracing. If you ask people at Disney, they'll tell you that there just aren't enough out-of-staters traveling to WDW right now to really warrant any special attention paid to it. My understanding is the metric they're using to guide their decisions is local hospital capacity (though nobody has been able to define "local" for me). Theoretically, if hospital capacity dipped below a certain point, they're saying they'd consider a voluntary shutdown (likely out of fear of a public backlash), but again, they're not defining local. Tampa Bay could be local, and while I haven't researched this thoroughly, those I talk to don't seem worried about hospital capacity and don't see this as an even remotely likely scenario.