Cruise and Theme Park Operational Updates due to Coronavirus

[Farro]

For DL, read Gov Newsome’s phased reopening plan. He said Phase 3 for CA is months, not weeks away and includes spas, gyms, and live sports without audience.
Phase 4 would be lifting of all restrictions and allowing concerts, conventions and live audiences. Phase 4 requires that therapeutics have been developed but I couldn’t find what exactly that encompasses.

Unless DL gets a special exception they sound like a Phase 4 to me, and just looking at how conversions seem to be progressing it seems there’s a high chance WDW opens well before DL.

Well, California will be closing soon.
No conventions until treatments for Covid discovered? There goes all their money.

And for sure Disneyland won't be opening. I agree from the way it's worded seems as if Disneyland would be a no go until a treatment.

 

[yankeesfan123]

Well, California will be closing soon.
No conventions until treatments for Covid discovered? There goes all their money.

And for sure Disneyland won't be opening. I agree from the way it's worded seems as if Disneyland would be a no go until a treatment.

But thousands of lives will be saved...

To be fair, opening Disneyland is probably a lot safer than opening Disney world. As we all know, it’s much more of a local park so the possibility that it would be a haven for the spreading of the disease would likely be significantly less. But given that the two parks are in two different states, on opposite sides of the country, with different responses to the pandemic, it’s fascinating to see how this is dealt.

And it will be incredible to see how Disney may handle opening Disney world possibly several months before Disney land in the media and with PR. Disney world is just so much bigger and, on its face, should be harder to control than Disneyland just given the size of it and the national audience it caters to.

 

[mhautz]

Well, California will be closing soon.
No conventions until treatments for Covid discovered? There goes all their money.

And for sure Disneyland won't be opening. I agree from the way it's worded seems as if Disneyland would be a no go until a treatment.

I feel like Disneyland is a Phase 3.5 business. It has large crowds, but they're not contained in the way of a concert or sporting event. If you were going to categorize it, it's probably more accurate to treat Disneyland like a large, crowded shopping center with 50-100 different businesses (or more), and each "business" has to follow necessary protocol to insure they meet proper social distancing requirements. Some attractions/dining/shopping might not be able to open until Phase 4, but some could reasonably be open sooner.

 

[Eric Smith]

Tough to say. Certain places may take longer than others, but just like in this country, a "one size fits all" process might not be appropriate with regards to international travel resuming. You may see the US reach agreements with individual countries with regards to international travel resuming based on each country's situation. There's a limited amount of international airports in the country, so I would think some strict testing measures will be put in place and running before international travel resumes, which shouldn't be too difficult to implement.

I suspect the border and travel with Canada will resume in short order sometime in the next few weeks. But Europe may be a bit sketchy. I don't anticipate any non-essential, non-business travel between the US and China/Asia for a long time.

I totally agree. I just meant that international travel wouldn't be a decision that is left up to individual states. It would be handled by the federal government. I do think you'll see it handled on a country by country basis.

 

[Hjs33]

There are (from my quick calculation, so they may be off) 29,805 “rooms” on Disney property. All Disney resorts, including Swan+Dolphin, but not including off-site.

Assuming the average room will have 4 people in it (I realize some may have more, some less), that puts us at 119,220 people staying in on property, Disney owned and operated hotels.

(These are just google capacity numbers, so, just guesstimating)

Magic Kingdom Capacity - ~100,000
Epcot - ~50,000
Hollywood Studios ~75,000
Animal Kingdom ~ 60,000

Cut those in half, and you get a WDW wide capacity of 142,500

Excluding EPCOT since its widely speculated on here that it wont open until much later

WDW Parks Capacity - without EPCOT — 117,500

Let’s just say the water parks open, which they probably wont be. There’s no capacity number, so I’ll say 25,000 for each at 100%, so 25,000 for both

WDW Parks Capacity — With EPCOT — With Waterparks — 167,500
WDW Parks Capacity — Without EPCOT — With Waterparks — 142,500


Reminder, this is just what I found doing a quick search and assuming its 4 people per room occupied at Disney.

Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, and Hollywood Studios had a total attendance of 47 million last year. That averages to about 129,000 a day. If the above numbers are correct and the total capacity of those parks is 235,000, doesn’t that mean that those parks usually average about 55% of capacity. So a 50% limit isn’t much of a limit, it’s just slightly less than an average day.

 

[mhautz]

Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, and Hollywood Studios had a total attendance of 47 million last year. That averages to about 129,000 a day. If the above numbers are correct and the total capacity of those parks is 235,000, doesn’t that mean that those parks usually average about 55% of capacity. So a 50% limit isn’t much of a limit, it’s just slightly less than an average day.

That's what I was thinking. I would hope that the consideration is more along the lines of 50% of a typical crowd, not the maximum.

It's like stores limiting customers to 20%-50% of capacity. Maybe I'm just lucky where I live, but I have yet to go to a store with such a limit and seen anybody waiting (other than to insure spacing). The inside feels just as busy as normal, it's just a reminder that capacity is ridiculously high.

 

[Searc]

Wasn't there some kind of potential plan released that had Epcot down as the park not to open right away? Was posted a while back. I think it also had MK down as the sole park to open in Phase 1.

Even if that doesn't happen, I can't see Epcot opening right away. MK/AK/HS, I can see these 3 parks all opening at once.

Anybody know what I'm talking with that potential plan that came out?

I don't see Epcot reopening right away, strictly due to workforce. Their international students were all sent home, and those students would need to get work visas/permits to return, not to mention travel restrictions from their own countries on travel out of their country and into the US.

 

[Farro]

I don't see Epcot reopening right away, strictly due to workforce. Their international students were all sent home, and those students would need to get work visas/permits to return, not to mention travel restrictions from their own countries on travel out of their country and into the US.

While it would lose some of it's "authenticity" and charm, they can open the World Showcase with other furloughed cast members if they wanted.

I think Epcot will be the last to open though.

 

[Searc]

I know this. I can read and I can see that both companies were involved in the discussion. But this does not mean that it is an official press release coming from these companies. Unless I’m wrong? If so I’d really want to see the press releases, with company titleheads or links from company websites, outlying the procedures for opening.


Not to get off topic, but this is such an issue with mainstream media right now. The information we’ve gotten from this task force is not direct news from Disney and Universal. It is still beginning discussions that the president of WDW and CEO of UOR happen to be a part of. Those are 2 very different things.

 

[Searc]

I don't believe anyone thinks this is an official press release from Universal or Disney. Also, the source for this isn't the "mainstream media". Take it for what it is worth but this tells us where things are likely to be headed for park openings.

Then we aren't reading the same thread. Some posters are treating this info like it's some kind of official missive from Disney as far as what they'll be doing on reopening. It isn't. They are ideas thrown out in a meeting. Two very different things.

 

[Disneyfan754321]

Those poor families and kids. That’s going to be a very difficult program to restart anytime soon given who they’re hosting.

We were told over 3000 wish trips were rescheduled in the last 6 weeks... i really hope those kids /families can tough it out... it was all started because of one girls wish and it took so long to come together she did not make it to her wish, they(he) did not want that to ever happen again. Our son is a survivor but many people we met along the way were not. Definitely prayers going there way.

 

[goofystitch]

We had a trip planned starting May 17th. I have all great fastpasses, etc. I haven't bothered cancelling anything yet. May 16th happens to be the last day Disney has "officially" cancelled from what I can tell.

Now, all of a sudden, I am wondering if they might try opening starting May 17th with an ultra low capacity (maybe 10%) and only let in people that still have existing plans. They will need some sort of soft open to start ramping up crowds, right? Seems like a reasonable way to see how crowds are going to behave with the new "normal."

They haven't been allowing plans before June 1 for a while now. I wonder how many people still have plans on the books right now for May 17th to June 1st.

I cancelled our DVC SSR for May 25 to June 1 last week and at times I wish I wouldn't have. But, my adult kids are worried about losing their jobs so they are fine with not going. I'm sure lots of other people are in the same boat.

 

[GeorgiaHoo]

I cancelled our DVC SSR for May 25 to June 1 last week and at times I wish I wouldn't have. But, my adult kids are worried about losing their jobs so they are fine with not going. I'm sure lots of other people are in the same boat.

I canceled our July trip and am glad I did. We would have liked to go but there's still a lot of uncertainty and the virus isn't going away between now and the fall. Fauci said yesterday that we shouldn't restart sports any time soon and that seems applicable to Disney as well.

 

[Tigger's ally]

I don't see Epcot reopening right away, strictly due to workforce. Their international students were all sent home, and those students would need to get work visas/permits to return, not to mention travel restrictions from their own countries on travel out of their country and into the US.

They could still open like they do every morning with half the park roped off.

 

[SwirlTheCitrus]

Wasn't there some talk about Desantis commenting today?

 

[goofystitch]

Wasn't there some talk about Desantis commenting today?

Yes, Gov DeSantis is supposed to announce plans today.

 

[xuxa777]

Wasn't there some talk about Desantis commenting today?

Yes he is outlining his plan for Florida opening today

 

[cakebaker]

We were told over 3000 wish trips were rescheduled in the last 6 weeks... i really hope those kids /families can tough it out... it was all started because of one girls wish and it took so long to come together she did not make it to her wish, they(he) did not want that to ever happen again. Our son is a survivor but many people we met along the way were not. Definitely prayers going there way.

My daughter is a teacher. The brother of one of her students was a wish kid and was scheduled to visit just after the closing. They had never been and her student talked to her about the upcoming trip for months, so excited to get to go. He will not make it to his trip. It's heartbreaking and really puts into perspective just how small our concerns are regarding our upcoming trip.

 

[randumb0]

Wasn't there some talk about Desantis commenting today?

Yes later today

 

[tinkerhon]

Wasn't there some talk about Desantis commenting today?

He was on one of the news shows last night, but didn't specifically mention Disney - one thing that he would not commit to is lifting the travel ban from hotspots ( we are in nyc) - the 14 day quarantine still active with no end in sight