Cruise and Theme Park Operational Updates due to Coronavirus

[TheMaxRebo]

I’m not a numbers person but can I play?

I say pleasantly surprised!

I think they very first week will be tough to get reservations but after that I agree that (other than system issues) people will find it relatively ok to find reservations

 

[Tjddis]

I just dont know why Disney would recall all those cast members if it was even a thought

Oh I don’t disagree they will forge ahead. At this point for sure
I do wonder what effect it may have on people’s desire to travel. We shall aee

 

[gottalovepluto]

It is possible it was on the list in error..not that it was changed. So, I think whoever was doing the proofreading messed up...not that Disney decided it after it went out.

Pretty sure if there is one thing we’ve learned over the last few weeks it’s that Disney isn’t paying anyone to fill that position right now.

 

[Jjbbllfrg]

Any word on the Dapper Dans yet? I think they would be pretty cool to see up on the train station balcony or similar.

Dappers will be there on Main Street singing per the Disney parks blog released today!

 

[CastAStone]

Um the post I post I listed/quoted offsite resorts that were also getting access to park reservation system, or is that incorrect

There are 10 offsite hotels that I have seen someone confirm will get Reservation access on Monday. They are the Swan, Dolphin, Four Seasons and the 7 hotels that make up the Disney Springs hotels - which to be clear, is not every hotel near Disney springs.

Others may be included, but I haven’t seen it confirmed. I will tell you this,for someone to have any chance or getting in on Monday, I’d book that reservation by midnight Eastern tonight. Linking reservations from these hotels to MDE is not an automated process and it sometimes takes a day or more for the number you need to link the reservation to be generated.

 

[gottalovepluto]

Yes, I said in a previous post that I was very surprised they're already talking about moving December reservations. I didn't expect it at this point, and it makes more sense to me as an outsider for them to wait on those until August or September.

I spoke with my TA a bit today; I asked her if Disney confirmed to them that POFQ will not open this year,or if there was a chance POFQ could actually open before December - and if so, could we have our POFQ room back at our current rate since they're planning to move us Monday. She said all they can go on right now is what Disney is telling them, and that's that as of now, their plan is to only open DVC & Fort Wilderness this year, but obviously anything could happen between now and then.

I was just passing on what I was told, since that's all anyone really has to go on until Disney actually comes out and says something.

Disney wouldn’t have rebooked that one Agency’s large group from BC to Poly (non-DVC section) if they only intended to open DVC + FW.

Also, not opening any hotels would most likely mean furloughing all hotel employees brought on for the NBA and shutting down facilities they have already put into run mode.

 

[Jrb1979]

Oh I don’t disagree they will forge ahead. At this point for sure
I do wonder what effect it may have on people’s desire to travel. We shall aee

I agree they will still open as planned. I am fully expecting all social distancing measures in place now will be for the foreseeable future. I doubt we see any changes to capacity for awhile either. There is a reason the have setup reservations til next year.

 

[JBeaty0507]

There are 10 offsite hotels that I have seen someone confirm will get Reservation access on Monday. They are the Swan, Dolphin, Four Seasons and the 7 hotels that make up the Disney Springs hotels - which to be clear, is not every hotel near Disney springs.

Others may be included, but I haven’t seen it confirmed. I will tell you this,for someone to have any chance or getting in on Monday, I’d book that reservation by midnight Eastern tonight. Linking reservations from these hotels to MDE is not an automated process and it sometimes takes a day or more for the number you need to link the reservation to be generated.

I still haven’t been able to link the Doubletree I got Friday afternoon. I’m hoping it comes through tomorrow, but with it being a weekend, I have my doubts. Unfortunately no one is actually at the hotel right now to answer the phone as they don’t open until July 1.

 

[bernina]

I still haven’t been able to link the Doubletree I got Friday afternoon. I’m hoping it comes through tomorrow, but with it being a weekend, I have my doubts. Unfortunately no one is actually at the hotel right now to answer the phone as they don’t open until July 1.

I booked the DS holiday inn last night and was able to link using the holiday inn reservation number around noon today (tried earlier but kept getting an error).

 

[gottalovepluto]

We have a trip planned for Aug7-17....looking forward to booking park reservations on Monday....Disney seems to be be putting all plans into motion and Desantis is insisting things will not be shut down again.

Please forgive me if this has been asked before....but with the numbers rising in Florida, what does everyone think is the likelihood that Disney may just scrap this whole plan and shut it all back down again until further notice. They definitely don't seem to be going in that direction but wondering if that is even a consideration.

Considering the amount of folks asking this question you definitely don’t need to ask for forgiveness! You aren’t alone

Personally I think Disney is opening unless hospitalization numbers in OC reach a crisis (like a literal it looks like we won’t have enough beds this time next week level).

 

[only hope]

I think this is it exactly - and also why I never understood the idea that they would substantially use virtual queues. The queues absorb a lot of crowds. Without people in the queues, the park would still seem crowded in most other areas. At, say, 25% capacity, if few people are in line for rides, you might have 15-20k people wondering about the hub and Main Street and other common areas. While it's certainly worrisome that people won't abide by distancing in the queues (and even more worrisome, use that time out of sight of more of the CMs to not follow mask rules), for better or worse, Disney seems to be trusting people to follow the distancing markers in the queues so as not to have a lot of crowds throughout the park where it's harder for people to follow distancing because everyone's just milling about and going different ways. Think about Main Street and the Hub with crowds, it's a bit chaotic.

With regards to Virtual Queue, it’s easier for them to keep you in the standby line and then have you wondering around the parks. There are no M&G, large shows for you to occupy your VQ wait time. Plus reduced seating at dining.

At Universal virtual queues aren’t being used as a way to keep wait times low. They’re mostly being used to prevent the socially distanced queues from overflowing. When the queue gets too close to being full, they turn on the virtual queue. The attractions that had vq before the closing still do. Hagrids is so popular that vq is on starting shortly after park open.

I’m surprised Disney isn’t doing the same thing. What is their plan for when the distanced queues reach the ride entrance? Just tell people to come back later?

 

[Disneydude81]

Booked our B resort Disney Springs reservation yesterday and had to call today to get the reservation linked to MDE this afternoon. All good to go now for Monday morning.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

At Universal virtual queues aren’t being used as a way to keep wait times low. They’re mostly being used to prevent the socially distanced queues from overflowing. When the queue gets too close to being full, they turn on the virtual queue. The attractions that had vq before the closing still do. Hagrids is so popular that vq is on starting shortly after park open.

I’m surprised Disney isn’t doing the same thing. What is their plan for when the distanced queues reach the ride entrance? Just tell people to come back later?

I believe so. I believe they also will be using the FO queues as additional queue space so the popular rides really should be able to handle quite a lot of people even with social distancing ... Keeping in mind how low they will have capacity

 

[JacknSally]

Disney wouldn’t have rebooked that one Agency’s large group from BC to Poly (non-DVC section) if they only intended to open DVC + FW.

Also, not opening any hotels would most likely mean furloughing all hotel employees brought on for the NBA and shutting down facilities they have already put into run mode.

I'm not sure what agency group you're referencing - I've missed a ton of pages in this thread in the last few weeks.

Your other point makes sense, though two of the 3 NBA resorts have DVC sides, so maybe they'd just move CMs from Gran Destino around after the NBA is done there? No clue on that one. EDIT: Nevermind, I thought Yacht Club also had a DVC component, but it looks like it doesn't. My bad!

Like I've said, I'm just sharing what my Dreams Unlimited TA is telling me. Not saying she's the be-all, end-all authority on this; for all I know, she's completely misunderstanding and my December reservation isn't even involved yet and we'll find out in a few days that POFQ will be up-and-going in a month. She's just telling me that as of right now, we're being moved to a DVC resort Monday, and we won't be staying at POFQ in December. Even she said things could change between now and December, though. They just don't know yet anything beyond what Disney has told them, and according to her, Disney has told them they only have plans to reopen DVC and FW, so that's all I have to go on at this point.

I think it's weird if they're moving December reservations now, because who knows what will happen in 5 months. I'd prefer they do them in August or September, but maybe they can't wait for whatever reason.

Honestly, I'll be happy if she's wrong - we want to stay at POFQ.

We're just all in the dark until Disney finally comes out and gives up some actual information about the resorts. Really, really hoping that happens ...soon.

 

[Rxdr2013]

Disney wouldn’t have rebooked that one Agency’s large group from BC to Poly (non-DVC section) if they only intended to open DVC + FW.

Also, not opening any hotels would most likely mean furloughing all hotel employees brought on for the NBA and shutting down facilities they have already put into run mode.

I was surprised to already have my labor day weekend reservation moved to Poly from BC. We are booked with that TA. Guess Poly will be open after all atleast end of august. I would like the non DVC sections would be next to open.

 

[xuxa777]

Anyone looking at these FL spikes, DeSantis walking back talk of numbers being testing alone and wondering if Disney may be thinking it may not happen? That with the FDH not recommending gathering of more than 50 in today's statement that the data may be stacking against the decision?

What is going to cause them to move/delay opening is if the hospitalization gets out of hand in the next week or so, if it does get out of hand they will delay for sure and should. It doesn't look like it will but bears watching.

 

[Mit88]

After seeing the latest picture from bioreconstruct.... I love the new castle colors, and I’ll die on that hill. I bet it looks amazing in person

 

[Anna_Sh]

I read classic Hellblazer every night to put myself to sleep. But I'm not crazy.

If you can't log on tomorrow because of work or because you don't know, then you might end up finding your Disney vacation consists of pool days and days at EPCOT. I'm sure this is going to result in a lot of people calling up this week to cancel.

I’m getting the feeling that it’s good that the only park I want to go to for a while is EPCOT. It seems like my chances of getting my dates may be higher than for MK in particular.

 

[kylenne]

Desantis went to great lengths today in his press conference to show that the rise in cases is due to young, heavily asymptomatic patients

Not for nothing but this is the exact demographic I’m seeing in people’s theme park vlogs right now not wearing masks or observing social distancing.

Vaya con Mickey I guess

I booked the DS holiday inn last night and was able to link using the holiday inn reservation number around noon today (tried earlier but kept getting an error).

Seems like they’re being really fast with linking non-Disney resorts for the most part. I booked the Dolphin fairly late last night and was able to link around the same time today also. I wonder what’s up with Doubletree?

 

[SaintsManiac]

Not sure if this was posted already? Just got alerted to it on Twitter.