Cruise and Theme Park Operational Updates due to Coronavirus

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Well, I disagree. :) Tell people "experience the park with extreme social distancing!"

I'm sure they won't do it because the CDC didn't say they could (kidding, kidding :D) - but I do think there would be enough people to pay for it that would make them a profit. And people could still do it the way we did it pre-covid- go to one park during the day, then the after-hrs park at night.
I mean, they were a success before and there really were no extra draws - just you were in the parks with hardly anyone.
No party, no parade, no night show.

I just think it’s different now. They just laid off a huge amount of people. I don’t think the decision to staff parks for significant additional hours is going to be made as easily as it was before. In my just about as far as insider opinion as you can get, I think it’s more important than pre March 2020 to not shift day tickets and sales to those kinds of events.
 
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!
Yes I was there & it was. It wasn’t just social distancing. HM & POC were both at about 60 min around 1pm. IASW was at 50 min.
 
I just think it’s different now. They just laid off a huge amount of people. I don’t think the decision to staff parks for significant additional hours is going to be made as easily as it was before. In my just about as far as insider opinion as you can get, I think it’s more important than pre March 2020 to not shift day tickets and sales to those kinds of events.

See, I don't think they'd be shifting sales from day tickets to night events, I think people would pay for both. I think people may that desperate at this point! :rotfl:
 

I can possibly foresee a time when EMH comes back as an onsite perk - but are limited to mornings only. I can also see a future with more after-hours events added for most parks for the nights. My assumption here is that they make much much more from after hours events than they would from EMM-like events.
 
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.
Maybe but a lot of FP plus savvy frequent visitors also spend a lot of $$. We go about 4 times a year & stay onsite at villas or deluxe each time. So, they should be careful to think they don’t need their frequent visitors especially in these economic times.
 
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One pondering question...

With the long queues that stretch out around the park and not much else to besides the attractions themselves, how could they raise capacity SAFELY anyway?

Chapek's 25% number might be more of a "Law of Diminishing Returns" then we would think.
Well that’s the irony of it. As I pointed out to DH yesterday, the social distancing lines that extend well past the attraction entrances cause bunching in walkway areas which then puts ppl in a position to be closer together than they should be.
 
One pondering question...

With the long queues that stretch out around the park and not much else to besides the attractions themselves, how could they raise capacity SAFELY anyway?

Chapek's 25% number might be more of a "Law of Diminishing Returns" then we would think.
The only solution would be some sort virtual queue option, and I hear the development of that is going so well...
 
Well that’s the irony of it. As I pointed out to DH yesterday, the social distancing lines that extend well past the attraction entrances cause bunching in walkway areas which then puts ppl in a position to be closer together than they should be.

Definitely feels like they area at the max they can fit in the parks without adding more things for people to do/absorb crowds. The walkways can handle any more people being in them while on queues

So until they can open up more stuff (either additional things or more capacity per things already open, or both) I really don't see that 25% number going up
 
The only solution would be some sort virtual queue option, and I hear the development of that is going so well...

the virtual queue techonology works fine ... the ride that is linked to the virtual queue, not so much

Probably with doing more vitual queues is there is no where for those people to go, so Dsiney needs those people on queues. (and honestly, while the physical distance the queues are covering is long, the wait times really aren't bad compared to normal times - they are just long compared to July)
 
Well, I disagree. :) Tell people "experience the park with extreme social distancing!"

I'm sure they won't do it because the CDC didn't say they could (kidding, kidding :D) - but I do think there would be enough people to pay for it that would make them a profit.

And people could still do it the way we did it pre-covid- go to one park during the day with your regular ticket, then the after-hrs park at night. Besides complaints of long-lines and too many people, I read a lot of people complaining about nothing to do at night...

I mean, they were a success before and there really were no extra draws - just you were in the parks with hardly anyone.
No party, no parade, no night show.

Oh well.
I do agree. I think many people would buy both especially since there is no hopping. Could you imagine the sales if they offered HWS after dark? Sold out everyday. I think that would sell out even if they weren't running ROTR at night. They probably won't do after hours for one reason or another, but I think plenty of people would buy tickets.
 
Well that’s the irony of it. As I pointed out to DH yesterday, the social distancing lines that extend well past the attraction entrances cause bunching in walkway areas which then puts ppl in a position to be closer together than they should be.
And that is a failure of management. They need to do one of the following then
-close the line when it hits a certain point & do not allow people to wait around the area
-reduce park capacity
-increase ride capacity

Sounds like they’re sniffing around the third option?
 
And that is a failure of management. They need to do one of the following then
-close the line when it hits a certain point & do not allow people to wait around the area
-reduce park capacity
-increase ride capacity

Sounds like they’re sniffing around the third option?

I would certainly hope reducing park capacity is not even on the table as an option (Unless of course they have to due to Covid number, god forbid).

They need to start making a profit to bring back staff, restaurants, hours and experiences. Not make less money. ;)
 
the virtual queue techonology works fine ... the ride that is linked to the virtual queue, not so much

Probably with doing more vitual queues is there is no where for those people to go, so Dsiney needs those people on queues. (and honestly, while the physical distance the queues are covering is long, the wait times really aren't bad compared to normal times - they are just long compared to July)
The virtual queue system they're looking at would be more like Standby Pass than the Rise VQ system. My understanding is very limited but they don't seem to have a problem when it's implemented at a couple of attractions across one or two parks but there seems to be issues with volume when it's implemented at even three or four headliners at each of the four parks. That's at least as far as I know. Still far from a guarantee at this point.
 
well not sure what this means for possible AoA reopening but the Big Blue Pool is going under refurb from January to April
Many moons ago (like mid-2019?), they announced the Big Blue Pool would be undergoing a refurb this fall (I think they said Sept-Dec?), so this just appears to be the official postponement of that. I remember a lot of TA being surprised how much notice Disney was giving (like 16 months notice lol). I feel like it would be strange to reopen AoA without its feature pool at first.
 
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