Cruise and Theme Park Operational Updates due to Coronavirus

[tink2424]

This. 6' of distance between parties means longer lines, but not necessarily longer time waiting: those are two distinctly different things, but a lot of folks don't seem to be separating them. I've heard so many friends talk about how "crowded" the parks are because they saw a line stretching far longer than usual - but they totally missed the fact that it was continually moving and was all of a 15-minute wait. And there's also the fact that on continuous loaders, like HM for example, 6' between parties means not being able to efficiently load every ride vehicle - that means rides operating at reduced capacity, which further extends lines and may increase wait times. And then you also have attractions not operating at peak efficiency because that requires more labor, which WDW is trying to reduce to save on costs: if only one side of Space is running, that reduces the number of Guests who can ride per hour.

I've been visiting the WDW parks since the late 70s and regularly for 3 decades now, so I've pretty much seen it all: from the emptiest of empty days, to the most crowded of holidays, from ride tickets to all-day passes and no FP, to OG FP to FP+, and everything in between. The group psychology of theme park visitors is endlessly fascinating! In the days before FP, hour-long waits for rides was common - that was why FP was met with such enthusiasm! On a very slow day in the Olden Days, I'd ride every ride with no real wait and backtrack to do some rides multiple times, but on busy days, I might only experience half the attractions. My first times riding Space and Splash involved 3-hour waits in line. That's just the way it was and if we wanted to ride something, we dealt with the wait. FP reduced wait times, making it easier to do more in less time. FP+ continued that trend. It seems to me we now have a big group of WDW visitors who have never known life before FP and their expectations (created by Disney, to be clear) are entirely at odds with how a park works without FP. I completely understand why to many of them, the current situation feels too busy, too crowded, too little value for the output of time and money. For me, it's full circle: it's 1995 again and if I want to visit on a busier day, I know I'll have to choose between waiting a while or skipping some rides, or I can opt for a slower day and wait less, do more.

I mostly agree with you but I was at the parks at the beginning of October and not all of the lines are super fast moving and some waits are what the wait time says. I don't think we can just say that ALL the wait times are inflated. It is likely to be hit or miss.

Overall I think Disney did a good job. The worst park was DHS for all the reasons that have already been stated as the lines were consistently 60+ for most of the rides. The only real thing I think Disney can and should do is to increase the opening hours so that if the lines are longer people can get more done and still be able to stop and eat or to just rest. We had an extra hour on our MK day and it made a big difference in being able to get everything done and we had arrived an hour before scheduled opening.

 

[SarahC97]

I mostly agree with you but I was at the parks at the beginning of October and not all of the lines are super fast moving and some waits are what the wait time says. I don't think we can just say that ALL the wait times are inflated. It is likely to be hit or miss.

Overall I think Disney did a good job. The worst park was DHS for all the reasons that have already been stated as the lines were consistently 60+ for most of the rides. The only real thing I think Disney can and should do is to increase the opening hours so that if the lines are longer people can get more done and still be able to stop and eat or to just rest. We had an extra hour on our MK day and it made a big difference in being able to get everything done and we had arrived an hour before scheduled opening.

I really don't understand why they're extending park hours for other parks on the weekends but not DHS.

 

[Farro]

I really don't understand why they're extending park hours for other parks on the weekends but not DHS.

Perhaps to discourage more people from coming to the park on a day without extended hrs and encourage people to go to the other parks with extended hrs.

 

[SarahC97]

Perhaps to discourage more people from coming to the park on a day without extended hrs and encourage people to go to the other parks with extended hrs.

I thought that too, but it's still the most crowded park. I don't see how the hours really discouraging people when they don't seem to be extending them at all there, even over this weekend when it was holiday crowds. Would be nice if it was open as long as some of the others.

 

[SaintsManiac]

I thought that too, but it's still the most crowded park. I don't see how the hours really discouraging people when they don't seem to be extending them at all there, even over this weekend when it was holiday crowds. Would be nice if it was open as long as some of the others.

My theory is because of the ongoing issues with Rise BGs.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

My theory is because of the ongoing issues with Rise BGs.

I think it is Rise related ... I also understand that ride takes a lot of prep time to get it up and running, so already more CM hours are needed for it to operate with the shortened hours (obviously just speculation though)

 

[Sarahslay]

The biggest complaint I was reading about was long lines and ME issues. Sure a mask off here or there, but most were reporting good compliance.

Regardless, I think Newsom has his mind made up and whatever they saw or didn't see isn't going to change it.

Or being who I am, we can stay positive and maybe he is feeling more pressure to open and will use this visit as an excuse to reverse course a little and open with less restrictions than he previously stated.

My friends said the same thing, but one has gone multiple times since opening and he said this was the first time he felt uncomfortable with crowds. I already have my expectations set for our thanksgiving trip, I know the crowds will be up, but if you’ve been hearing about low crowds and that’s not what you experience it can be off putting for sure.

 

[PrincessV]

I mostly agree with you but I was at the parks at the beginning of October and not all of the lines are super fast moving and some waits are what the wait time says. I don't think we can just say that ALL the wait times are inflated.

Absolutely, and I specifically did not say that "all wait times are inflated." I never mentioned actual wait times vs. posted wait times, actually. I'm saying that just because a line looks "long," that doesn't necessarily mean it will also take a long time to wait in it: those are two different things. Sometimes a line looks long and takes a long time to wait in, but there are also times when a line looks like it could take hours to get through, but only takes 20 minutes.

 

[Mit88]

I’m just glad I was able to get this shot before the crowds came back. Idk if the parks will ever be that empty again

 

[JacknSally]

If Genie showed up right now and asked me for my first wish it would be to end the mask debate.

Wish for COVID to go away - two birds, one wish!

 

[rteetz]

 

[SaintsManiac]

Listening to WDW Prep Patron podcast and they said the lines at the MK yesterday were insane. Obviously social distancing plays a part in that, but I am trying to imagine HM being almost to Country Bears. It's wild to visualize that!

 

[xuxa777]

Perhaps to discourage more people from coming to the park on a day without extended hrs and encourage people to go to the other parks with extended hrs.

But wouldn't that be easily controlled with the park reservations.

 

[focusondisney]

Perhaps to discourage more people from coming to the park on a day without extended hrs and encourage people to go to the other parks with extended hrs.

Except they have capacity limits on admission. From what I see, DHS seems to be at capacity every day anyway. They could extend hours without increasing capacity. So that guests can experience the attractions in that park over a longer period of time and have more reasonable wait times.

 

[Spaceguy55]

I just want to ride SDD when it's dark to enjoy all the lights when I go at the end of the month..

 

[SarahC97]

Except they have capacity limits on admission. From what I see, DHS seems to be at capacity every day anyway. They could extend hours without increasing capacity. So that guests can experience the attractions in that park over a longer period of time and have more reasonable wait times.

Exactly! But I do think others made good points that maybe the amount of time and manpower it takes to set up and run ROTR is what is impacting park hours there. Otherwise, it just doesn't make sense that they're extending park hours everywhere else but not in their busiest park!

 

[rteetz]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1316057998788354049

 

[DGsAtBLT]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1316057998788354049

Well I hope nobody ever says they aren’t treating APs right again!

 

[rpb718]

This. 6' of distance between parties means longer lines, but not necessarily longer time waiting: those are two distinctly different things, but a lot of folks don't seem to be separating them. I've heard so many friends talk about how "crowded" the parks are because they saw a line stretching far longer than usual - but they totally missed the fact that it was continually moving and was all of a 15-minute wait. And there's also the fact that on continuous loaders, like HM for example, 6' between parties means not being able to efficiently load every ride vehicle - that means rides operating at reduced capacity, which further extends lines and may increase wait times. And then you also have attractions not operating at peak efficiency because that requires more labor, which WDW is trying to reduce to save on costs: if only one side of Space is running, that reduces the number of Guests who can ride per hour.

I've been visiting the WDW parks since the late 70s and regularly for 3 decades now, so I've pretty much seen it all: from the emptiest of empty days, to the most crowded of holidays, from ride tickets to all-day passes and no FP, to OG FP to FP+, and everything in between. The group psychology of theme park visitors is endlessly fascinating! In the days before FP, hour-long waits for rides was common - that was why FP was met with such enthusiasm! On a very slow day in the Olden Days, I'd ride every ride with no real wait and backtrack to do some rides multiple times, but on busy days, I might only experience half the attractions. My first times riding Space and Splash involved 3-hour waits in line. That's just the way it was and if we wanted to ride something, we dealt with the wait. FP reduced wait times, making it easier to do more in less time. FP+ continued that trend. It seems to me we now have a big group of WDW visitors who have never known life before FP and their expectations (created by Disney, to be clear) are entirely at odds with how a park works without FP. I completely understand why to many of them, the current situation feels too busy, too crowded, too little value for the output of time and money. For me, it's full circle: it's 1995 again and if I want to visit on a busier day, I know I'll have to choose between waiting a while or skipping some rides, or I can opt for a slower day and wait less, do more.

I'm sure WDW has been aware for a while of issues surrounding FP+, or in some cases some communication failures regarding FP+. We've all heard anecdotally of folks who don't go often thinking that you needed to pay extra for FP+ or that you didn't need to select them ahead of time for any ride, etc. I'm sure most visitors that used FP+ as intended thought they could only ever get 3 FP+ and never even thought they could get more. Heck you had folks that only used there iphones in the parks to take pictures, and there were still folks that didn't have or use iphones at all.

Then you had the hard-core folks that were gaming the system in various ways over the years (let's just say that the "refresh" method was the last one left as others eventually ended up circumventing WDW "rules" when those loopholes were disavowed). WDW was very aware of this, with folks boasting they were able to get double-digit number of FP+ while average stand-by wait times at the parks creeped ever higher and affected many. I'm sure there were plenty of survey responses returned complaining of wait times and/or not being able to FP+ certain rides or do many rides. What possibly ended up happening are that the folks that WDW would rather have spending money in the parks were instead spending way too much time in lines, while the FP+ savvy folks that may not be the biggest spenders were doing all the rides but also spending a lot of time "refreshing" to get the next FP+ and hence not spending as much at the parks. They somehow created a no-win situation for themselves.

For lack of a better term, it seems we've created a generation of wait time or FP+ "snobs". In pre-COVID times - if they don't have a FP+, they aren't going to wait to get on a ride and just won't do it at all. That's fine for folks that live close by and/or visit often, but problematic for folks that don't. When the parks opened July in our COVID times, the lack of FP+ wasn't necessarily a problem due to attendance being at an all-time low. However as attendance has increased over time the fact that everyone is in the same boat with regards to wait times is starting to interfere with the "snobs" who are now questioning their future visits.

With the initial removal of FP+, I think for the moment WDW is "leveling the playing field" with regard to wait times. This is in prep for whatever future plans regarding FP+ or whatever replaces FP+ in the future. I'm of the belief that the future will bring something that is fairer to everyone across the board, but I really think they need to work on methods of line management (such as virtual queues) that free the guest from lines. And whatever they do, they may still have to somehow account for folks that still don't use iphones. It's a difficult task.

ETA: I had mistakenly typed "leveling the paying field" above instead of "leveling the playing field". In the end it might end up with both being correct.

 

[jlwhitney]

Definitely not across the board. Perhaps "most" in your area/region and obviously the case at Disney but do you realize there are many areas hardly anyone wears masks outside the national corporate stores that still mandate them. Been in many resturaunts where there were no mask even on the staff. There are schools systems that have been open for months without students wearing masks etc. Disney is probably the one place I have seen them utilized the most, which makes sense.

This is my area! Our walmart dropped the mask requirement and as each week goes by more and more aren't wearing them in their. Pretty much everything we do doesn't require them and then very few choose to wear them.