Cruise and Theme Park Operational Updates due to Coronavirus

[Farro]

I read that The Edison, Maria & Enzo’s Ristorante, and Enzo’s Hideaway are opening soon! Great news!

 

[Spridell]

Looking at that makes me slightly nauseous. How will Epcot ever recover.

Left about 20 minutes ago and I will say it picked up a little. But still very empty with tons of room to spread out keep distances

 

[Spridell]

i

So the weekend crowds were just for the weekend it seems.

I spoke to a CM at Reagle Eagle she did say this past weekend was one of the most crowded since opening.

 

[mouselovenfamily]

Looking at that makes me slightly nauseous. How will Epcot ever recover.

We will do our part next month to add some revenue. We are there 2 out of 5 days and plan on enjoying very relaxed days at Epcot! Sad some of the international cast members wont be there but we will be thankful for everyone who is there!!

 

[birostick]

this is an operational update for me, I just go an email from Disney reminding me of my park reservation for MK tomorrow. Never got one before

It seems to me they started doing that last week, i believe on Thursday. I had the same response as you did.

 

[AmberMV]

Slightly OT - does anyone here know how late the AP phone line is open?

Pretty late, 9pm or 10pm ET IIRC

 

[Eeyore daily]

Not sure where you get 28K. Most recent was 50K+. The positivity rate is declining so things are getting better. And Floridians are doing a pretty good job at wask wearing. I see them worn everywhere I go. What part of Florida do you live in?
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Not the op but I live outside of Clearwater, both Pinellas and Pasco county have mask mandates, yet I’ve seen a handful of people walk into grocery stores without a mask even in their hand. I went to the mall for one store and the number of people AND employees not wearing a mask/incorrectly wearing one was a huge concern. People aren’t wearing masks at the local post office so in my corner of Florida it feels dangerous going out. If I could be like the NBA players and live in the Disney bubble and be safer I’d be happy.

 

[Mit88]

Not the op but I live outside of Clearwater, both Pinellas and Pasco county have mask mandates, yet I’ve seen a handful of people walk into grocery stores without a mask even in their hand. I went to the mall for one store and the number of people AND employees not wearing a mask/incorrectly wearing one was a huge concern. People aren’t wearing masks at the local post office so in my corner of Florida it feels dangerous going out. If I could be like the NBA players and live in the Disney bubble and be safer I’d be happy.

Its the same in every state. I see near 100% compliance where I am. Doesn’t mean in the town next to mine that they’re all complying. States are big, outside of Rhode Island. What you personally see doesn’t always tell the full story for the entire state.

 

[Jothmas]

It may be obvious, but it should be said when stating that there is no AP availability for a period of time that there is no additional availability. There was availability but the allotment has been used by passholders who made their reservations earlier. When I see comments about the AP availability, they always seem to be worded as if passholders didn’t have access to those days. The emphasis will need to be that passholders have lost the ability to make spur of the moment, last minute planning for visiting the parks, but they do have access with advance planning.

 

[Eeyore daily]

Its the same in every state. I see near 100% compliance where I am. Doesn’t mean in the town next to mine that they’re all complying. States are big, outside of Rhode Island. What you personally see doesn’t always tell the full story for the entire state.

It’s Florida though...

 

[Mit88]

It may be obvious, but it should be said when stating that there is no AP availability for a period of time that there is no additional availability. There was availability but the allotment has been used by passholders who made their reservations earlier. When I see comments about the AP availability, they always seem to be worded as if passholders didn’t have access to those days. The emphasis will need to be that passholders have lost the ability to make spur of the moment, last minute planning for visiting the parks, but they do have access with advance planning.

I think what you’re seeing now is the problem with the 3 reservation system. It was fine earlier because even though DHS was booked, you were still able to go pretty much every day to MK, AK, or EPCOT. Now with them all starting to book up and people have their reservations locked up and unable to use until September, you’re going to start hearing even more backlash about the reservation buckets.

 

[Eric Smith]

So the weekend crowds were just for the weekend it seems.

That makes a lot of sense. There isn't a ton to do in Epcot right now so it wouldn't make a whole lot of sense for someone coming in from outside of Florida to spend a whole day there. It probably doesn't matter as much for local AP holders since they can visit the other parks as they wish.

 

[Eric Smith]

Looking at that makes me slightly nauseous. How will Epcot ever recover.

Epcot will be fine once park hopping comes back. Bringing back the international cast members will help and it will really help when future world isn't a big construction zone.

 

[Mit88]

It’s Florida though...

Californians gloated how well they were doing, everyone was wearing masks. No one was going out etc. Then Places started opening up, people started going out, no masks, not a care in the world for distancing, and boom, they started becoming a laughing stock. Florida has some crazy people, but they exist in every state, not just Florida. There’s at least 1 county in every state that cares less about this virus than other county’s. And thats not even slightly political, just people set in their ways. I wish mask compliance was 100% country wide, but I know that was never realistic.

 

[Moliphino]

Speaking of Epcot needing some love,

These were taken today between 1130 and 12pm.

Out of the 60 or so times i have been to Epcot I have never seen anything like it.

I will say though, it was nice with so little people and the cm's were being so nice and chatting with us everytime we stopped.

 

[Jothmas]

Other businesses have marketing practices that include encouraging customers to refer a friend or to post positive comments on social media. I don’t think Disney has had to think that way before. They should be doing a push to their post-reopening guests to make sure they let friends and family know they went and came back alive and well and saw the safety practices in effect. Word of mouth is still effective marketing. Maybe a discount on a future stay if family or friends act on a guest referral.

 

[yulilin3]

I think what you’re seeing now is the problem with the 3 reservation system. It was fine earlier because even though DHS was booked, you were still able to go pretty much every day to MK, AK, or EPCOT. Now with them all starting to book up and people have their reservations locked up and unable to use until September, you’re going to start hearing even more backlash about the reservation buckets.

While everyone is excited to not have to plan fp in advance, local ap have to plan in advance when before we didn't need to.

 

[Spridell]

While everyone is excited to not have to plan fp in advance, local ap have to plan in advance when before we didn't need to.

Yup

My day trip today I had to plan and book right when park reservations opened. In the past it use to be, hey lets go to disney next week or tomorrow.

 

[TwoMisfits]

If they can pull off Halloween/Christmas events safely they will have a monopoly on that market as UO and Disney have both canceled theirs. They were able to provide much-desired Fireworks Shows where the other parks didn't so it seems they are really trying to think out of the box and make it work.
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The Seaworld parks have always gone ALL OUT for the Christmas season, so I have to imagine those days are some of their biggest money makers and AP drivers...so it makes sense, at least for the Christmas events, for the Seaworld parks to keep them.

 

[DGsAtBLT]

Other businesses have marketing practices that include encouraging customers to refer a friend or to post positive comments on social media. I don’t think Disney has had to think that way before. They should be doing a push to their post-reopening guests to make sure they let friends and family know they went and came back alive and well and saw the safety practices in effect. Word of mouth is still effective marketing. Maybe a discount on a future stay if family or friends act on a guest referral.

They’ve already been doing this with influencers they’ve “hosted”, but I think it has a limit considering a lot of circumstances are beyond Disney’s control right now.

I can read 1000 accounts of what a great job Disney is doing, but I’m still not going to travel, not comfortable with dining in restaurants (and I would need to eat, lol), and not going to quarantine for 2 weeks when I get home if hypothetically as a Canadian I could even come. The major factors keeping me away even though I would love to be there are virus related not Disney related. I don’t think I’m alone with that.