Cruise and Theme Park Operational Updates due to Coronavirus

[mattpeto]

It's a heck of a lot easier than picking fast passes...

This is how it may work...

When capacity and normalcy returns, the reservation system will need to include some type of FP+ system to getting on the E-ticket rides. If you are able to flip your reservation around willy-nilly, it could effect your E-ticket opportunity. Backing out in the last minute, will get you into another park, but at a cost of a FP with a major attraction.

"Your early reservation guarantees you a chance to ride Guardians of the Galaxy, Remy's Ratatouille, or blah blah blah). Please select your preference and time slot."

 

[IceSkatingPrincess]

Hollywood Studios now vs week 2 - my thoughts

We took an uber shortly before 9 because the contemporary bus line did not look promising. Had to wait a bit at the parking gate but they started moving around 910. By 930, we were sitting at a shaded table waiting for 10am having a mickey pretzel and cheese (the breakfast of champions).
I was successful and got boarding group 2.

There wasn't as much cheering and celebration as last time when everyone got their groups, but the park did stall to a standstill at 10. We were immediately called and headed over. Rise was awesome as always. We didnt have to go through many switchbacks and were on extremely quickly which surprised me. Missed out on the cool queue stuff but got to ride faster so it was a decent tradeoff.

Wait time wise, much longer than the 2nd week. Much. The walk ons just were not happening here. Midway mania posted 15 waited 20. Line was back to Toy Story Land entrance. MFSR line was past the milk stand. Posted 35min, took about 40. MMRR posted 60 took 65. It made me miss fastpass. We never used to actually "wait" near an hour for things with good use of the FP system. It was also very hot and the longer outdoor lines lacked shade. We walked on to TSMM and MFSR multiple times in July. MMRR was under 30min then as well.

Had lunch at Docking Bay (I also did this last time and did not care for it) and my mobile order was ready very quickly around 2pm. It was a good 15min wait in July so that was nice.

Oga's was as nice as before. We did have to wait almost 20min outside after our reservation time to get in though. That didn't happen in July.

There were definitely just more people around in general. A very different vibe from the other parks and a significant difference from the first 2 weeks. A good HS day but don't expect walk ons everywhere, even during the week. The few rare times we saw MFSR posted at 25 the line still stretched behind Ogas.

We did boathouse for dinner which was great and wanted to shop afterwards but a few of the stores we wanted (ex Tommy Bahama and Lilly Pulitzer) were already closed before 8pm. We ended up calling it an early night and not buying anything. The shortened store hours are kind of a bummer!

The pool at BLT is still super nice and not crowded. Love it! Headed to MK today.

 

[butterscotchcollins]

I'm wondering if they intend to firmly link capacity/resort reservations with ticket price in this way...i.e. if you can see ahead of time that higher-priced days are also lowest capacity and that's something guests are willing to pay for I wouldn't be surprised if it turns into this.

 

[Mit88]

There’s really no need for the IT to be any better. Don’t get me wrong, that needs to be addressed, but we saw what happened when the reservations first went live. IT couldn’t handle it, but nothing filled up, so it didn’t really make a difference. The only people having an issue getting in, are APs, and that’s purely because of the limited capacity. Expand the capacity and it becomes a non issue

 

[Marionnette]

I think it could present a challenge if they have both park reservations and FP+ in place once hopping resumes. Would guests have to wait until “day of” to select their park to hop to? What if you only managed to get late afternoon or evening FP+ at the e-ticket attraction at your original park? Can you keep those and pick a different park for the morning? Or will you have to wait until you’ve used those FP+ before you can hop?

I have to say that it was refreshing to not have to work on FP+ this week for my trip in October. I wouldn’t care if it ever returned. The ADR thing for 9 people was enough frustration for me.

 

[yulilin3]

Hollywood Studios now vs week 2 - my thoughts

We took an uber shortly before 9 because the contemporary bus line did not look promising. Had to wait a bit at the parking gate but they started moving around 910. By 930, we were sitting at a shaded table waiting for 10am having a mickey pretzel and cheese (the breakfast of champions).
I was successful and got boarding group 2.

There wasn't as much cheering and celebration as last time when everyone got their groups, but the park did stall to a standstill at 10. We were immediately called and headed over. Rise was awesome as always. We didnt have to go through many switchbacks and were on extremely quickly which surprised me. Missed out on the cool queue stuff but got to ride faster so it was a decent tradeoff.

Wait time wise, much longer than the 2nd week. Much. The walk ons just were not happening here. Midway mania posted 15 waited 20. Line was back to Toy Story Land entrance. MFSR line was past the milk stand. Posted 35min, took about 40. MMRR posted 60 took 65. It made me miss fastpass. We never used to actually "wait" near an hour for things with good use of the FP system. It was also very hot and the longer outdoor lines lacked shade. We walked on to TSMM and MFSR multiple times in July. MMRR was under 30min then as well.

Had lunch at Docking Bay (I also did this last time and did not care for it) and my mobile order was ready very quickly around 2pm. It was a good 15min wait in July so that was nice.

Oga's was as nice as before. We did have to wait almost 20min outside after our reservation time to get in though. That didn't happen in July.

There were definitely just more people around in general. A very different vibe from the other parks and a significant difference from the first 2 weeks. A good HS day but don't expect walk ons everywhere, even during the week. The few rare times we saw MFSR posted at 25 the line still stretched behind Ogas.

We did boathouse for dinner which was great and wanted to shop afterwards but a few of the stores we wanted (ex Tommy Bahama and Lilly Pulitzer) were already closed before 8pm. We ended up calling it an early night and not buying anything. The shortened store hours are kind of a bummer!

The pool at BLT is still super nice and not crowded. Love it! Headed to MK today.

I haven't read many reports from Oga's, are all the tables being used? like are there people still at the bar, at the bar type tables and then sitting down?

 

[Mit88]

I think it could present a challenge if they have both park reservations and FP+ in place once hopping resumes. Would guests have to wait until “day of” to select their park to hop to? What if you only managed to get late afternoon or evening FP+ at the e-ticket attraction at your original park? Can you keep those and pick a different park for the morning? Or will you have to wait until you’ve used those FP+ before you can hop?

I have to say that it was refreshing to not have to work on FP+ this week for my trip in October. I wouldn’t care if it ever returned. The ADR thing for 9 people was enough frustration for me.

FP+ is done forever. The genie will be the new ride reservation system. How that works is anyone’s guess

 

[IceSkatingPrincess]

I haven't read many reports from Oga's, are all the tables being used? like are there people still at the bar, at the bar type tables and then sitting down?

Yes but there are very few people at the bar. It looked like the standing tables were all in use but one party per, same with booths. The standing tables are fairly distanced anyway though and you could tell they weren't placing large groups next to eachother. The booths are set into the wall in a way so those are divided anyway. The bar only sat 2 on each side. We were at the bar this time and last time, opposite sides though which was nice!

Very socially distanced. You can tell that it would be a lot more crowded under normal circumstances. It looked to me like they were putting larger parties in the booths and trying to put small groups of 2-3 at the standing tables, then solos and couples at the bar. That way there were not many people "on the floor" and there was a lot of open area if that makes sense.

 

[rteetz]

FP+ is done forever. The genie will be the new ride reservation system. How that works is anyone’s guess

I expect some sort of paid offering.

 

[yulilin3]

Yes but there are very few people at the bar. It looked like the standing tables were all in use but one party per, same with booths. The standing tables are fairly distanced anyway though and you could tell they weren't placing large groups next to eachother. The booths are set into the wall in a way so those are divided anyway. The bar only sat 2 on each side. We were at the bar this time and last time, opposite sides though which was nice!

Very socially distanced. You can tell that it would be a lot more crowded under normal circumstances. It looked to me like they were putting larger parties in the booths and trying to put small groups of 2-3 at the standing tables, then solos and couples at the bar. That way there were not many people "on the floor" and there was a lot of open area if that makes sense.

thanks, I have been to Oga's many times so I know how crowded it gets, glad they are using the space in a smart way

 

[DGsAtBLT]

I expect some sort of paid offering.

I unfortunately agree. Wishes ain’t free (or cheap).

 

[Alynw]

I expect some sort of paid offering.

Agree. Maybe something similar to maxpass with pay options.

 

[skeeter31]

This is how it may work...

When capacity and normalcy returns, the reservation system will need to include some type of FP+ system to getting on the E-ticket rides. If you are able to flip your reservation around willy-nilly, it could effect your E-ticket opportunity. Backing out in the last minute, will get you into another park, but at a cost of a FP with a major attraction.

"Your early reservation guarantees you a chance to ride Guardians of the Galaxy, Remy's Ratatouille, or blah blah blah). Please select your preference and time slot."

I don’t think it’ll be that involved. Especially since FP+ as we know it is no more. As others are stating, most likely FP will return as a paid add on, not tied into the park reservation system. I don’t think Disney will want to “punish” people by denying them E-ticket rides for hopping once everything is back to normal. They’re going to want to encourage hopping again for more spending and the cost of buying a hopper. The park reservation system will just be a data tracker for Disney once everything is normal, and will really only be a capacity issue on 2-3 days a year for really only MK and possibly HS.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

This is all fine for regular visitors. I'm not so sure first time visitors who may already have been daunted by the planning needed for wdw will be so ok with it.

Maybe it gets incorprated with the Genie that takes care of it for people that don't want to do the planning or your TA will take care of it

Obviously for people that do zero research before coming it will be something else to have to deal with but same as now that if you just show up for your first trip with no research you will have issues

 

[Mit88]

We may also see more boarding group style systems for rides. Maybe not Rat, but I’d bet at least TRON has it, and possibly guardians as well.

 

[Jennasis]

No, he clearly stated that it’s something that will come out of the pandemic to stay.

Barf.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

If the reservation system is still open at full capacity will it even matter? Look at SW, they have a reservation system that they don't even check anymore because the park is no where near the limited capacity so even though I book a reservation when i go i don't even have to show it. If Disney is operating at full capacity once again the only times when it'll be needed would be for Christmas. New year's and maybe Easter, 4th of July
Unless full capacity would still mean limited capacity for local aps

I could see them still using it some to drive crowds (particularly locals/day of) to the lower crowded park.

So if DHS stays like this maybe once it gets to 80% capacity (or some level) then it is blocked for passholders (or maybe to most passholders, maybe platinum or something it won't apply to). So you still maybe have some limitations but it is just when they parks are pretty crowded (so, say, 20% of the time), not consistently

 

[Jennasis]

I expect some sort of paid offering.

#2020 #thankscoronavirus

 

[rteetz]

#2020 #thankscoronavirus

No, this was in the works well prior to this year.

 

[yulilin3]

#2020 #thankscoronavirus

the paid option has been rumored for a long time, pre covid for sure