Cruise and Theme Park Operational Updates due to Coronavirus

[DGsAtBLT]

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

Yep. I know I was happy to get a trip in before it was all rumoured to roll out. That obviously worked out well

 

[Mit88]

If people buy it (Maxpass) enough at DLR to raise the price annually, it was inevitable it would make its was to WDW in some form or another eventually

 

[Jennasis]

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

Of course...and the crazy of 2020 gave them the go ahead to sock it to us now.

 

[rteetz]

Of course...and the crazy of 2020 gave them the go ahead to sock it to us now.

Nobody said it was debuting this year. I don’t think it will come until capacity/attendance rebounds a bit.

 

[Brianstl]

I know everyone gets the Disney feels from this fella... but I‘m thinking that opinion is gonna change in a few months...

It is easy to be loved when you don't get blamed for any of the hard choices that have to be made. That blame goes to the guy perceived to be running the thing. Josh is in that position now, but I assume Chapek will continue to get blamed for all those decisions even though Iger somehow didn't take the major flak when Chapek was running Parks, Resorts and Entertainment.

I like Josh and think it is great he is running the division. I just think Chapek took way too much flak when he was running the division. Chapek operated with the budget and revenue targets that Bob Iger mandated. It, also, didn't help that Iger thought he was a creative person and inserted himself into the creative process of what went into the parks.

I think the best thing for Disney going forward both in the parks and for the company as a whole is that unlike Iger, Chapek realizes he isn't a creative visionary.

 

[Mit88]

Covid or not, paid fastpass probably would have come with the release of the Genie in Fall/Winter 2020

 

[Jennasis]

Nobody said it was debuting this year. I don’t think it will come until capacity/attendance rebounds a bit.

My pessimism is strong....though i suspect they'll unveil it next year because thats when my next trip is.

 

[skeeter31]

Covid or not, paid fastpass probably would have come with the release of the Genie in Fall/Winter 2020

Agreed, paid FP was going to debut either 2020 or 2021 regardless of COVID.

 

[MickeyWaffles]

So with the park reservation system sticking around long term ...

Do we really think it will be easy to change parks last minute when capacity increases? I don’t think they’ll be filling parks to the capacity like they used to anytime soon ... or really ever again. I’m concerned that there will be more demand but still limited capacity.

We will adjust to whatever the system is, as we always do. We are hoppers and I just can’t wrap my head around pre-planning our 2nd park of the day. We always play our “hop to” park by ear based on what everyone is in the mood for. We always booked our 3 FP for before lunch time, played the rest of the day by ear. I felt comfortable committing to a morning in advance at a park for FP, but I’m not sure how I feel about committing to the rest of the day.

 

[DGsAtBLT]

Covid or not, paid fastpass probably would have come with the release of the Genie in Fall/Winter 2020

I think this too and it’s why I was glad to be going Spring 2020. This was speculated since they announced Genie.

 

[SMRT-1]

Many of you say, "it won't be an issue once capacity returns to normal," but who's to say it will? While it's entirely possible that they will return to full capacity, if they're actively trying to reduce crowds, pre-registering park attendance would let them continue to limit capacity even post-COVID. If they know months in advance how many people plan to attend a park, they can keep a lower-than-normal max capacity, without as much hassle as the current capacity closure procedures. Even if capacity returns to pre-COVID levels, the number of guests will increase as well. Right now, reservations aren't a problem for non-APs because even at the current capacity limits, the supply far exceeds the demand, but once we're past the pandemic and people feel comfortable traveling to WDW, the the demand is going to increase significantly, and it's possible it might not be as easy to get Park Pass reservations as it is currently (although, admittedly, capacity closures rarely happened pre-pandemic, so a return to full capacity will not likely cause issues with reservations).

As for park hopping, it's possible that they see the Park Pass reservation system as a way to allow them to implement tiered park hopping. Buy the 2-park ticket and get 2 reservations per day, etc. Want the equivalent of the previous park hopping? Pay for the 4-park ticket, or maybe even the "premium" 4-park ticket to get unrestricted hopping. In this scenario I see annual passes working in the same way with APs having to pay for higher tiers to get more Park Pass reservations per day.

Just speculation, obviously, but I wouldn't put any of this past Disney execs.

 

[yulilin3]

It is easy to be loved when you don't get blamed for any of the hard choices that have to be made. That blame goes to the guy perceived to be running the thing. Josh is in that position now, but I assume Chapek will continue to get blamed for all those decisions even though Iger somehow didn't take the major flak when Chapek was running Parks, Resorts and Entertainment.

I like Josh and think it is great he is running the division. I just think Chapek took way too much flak when he was running the division. Chapek operated with the budget and revenue targets that Bob Iger mandated. It, also, didn't help that Iger thought he was a creative person and inserted himself into the creative process of what went into the parks.

I think the best thing for Disney going forward both in the parks and for the company as a whole is that unlike Iger, Chapek realizes he isn't a creative visionary.

For me personally it's just D'Amaro's personality, he seems like he genuinely cares about the company, the guests and more importantly, the CM. He is approachable and when you talk to him it seems like he is actually listening. With the CM he's the same way, walking around all departments and asking questions and stopping to listen.
Chapek doesn't have any of that, the one time I saw him at the park he was surrounded by guest relations people, also he's not the best at public speaking
Those are things that resonate with people, beyond the financial and operational decisions either one takes. Obviously those are important but at first glance and at first listen it's hard not to go to the Josh camp

 

[DGsAtBLT]

So with the park reservation system sticking around long term ...

Do we really think it will be easy to change parks last minute when capacity increases? I don’t think they’ll be filling parks to the capacity like they used to anytime soon ... or really ever again. I’m concerned that there will be more demand but still limited capacity.

We will adjust to whatever the system is, as we always do. We are hoppers and I just can’t wrap my head around pre-planning our 2nd park of the day. We always play our “hop to” park by ear based on what everyone is in the mood for. We always booked our 3 FP for before lunch time, played the rest of the day by ear. I felt comfortable committing to a morning in advance at a park for FP, but I’m not sure how I feel about committing to the rest of the day.

My pure speculation is they don’t keep capacity capped longer than they need to for safety reasons. I think (hope) they don’t go the route that keeps it capped in order to charge more per guest for less crowded parks.

If capacity isn’t capped and returns to what it was, reservations should be nothing to worry about save for a few days in MK.

 

[DGsAtBLT]

Honestly people freaked out with reservations when they came out. It was a huge deal as we all know, complete with hours even days of stress booking them, people booking their days in 2021 just incase, people stressing about having to book park days insanely far out (because they were allowed to do so), and so far except for offsite APs who are bound by the restrictions Disney has placed specifically on them, the worries amounted to nothing.

I’m not worried about reservations sticking around indefinitely until they prove we need to be worried.

 

[Brianstl]

Covid or not, paid fastpass probably would have come with the release of the Genie in Fall/Winter 2020

I think if it was that close to happening we would have more solid rumors on what it was going to look like. I think it has probably been tentatively pushed back to September 27, 2021 and COVID has them questioning what they exactly want the final paid up charge product to be.

 

[LSUmiss]

Nobody said it was debuting this year. I don’t think it will come until capacity/attendance rebounds a bit.

No they’ll wait to capacity is such that the parks are obnoxiously crowded again & then ppl will be happy to pay for FP.

 

[Mit88]

No they’ll wait to capacity is such that the parks are obnoxiously crowded again & then ppl will be happy to pay for FP.

I think you’re exactly right. People aren’t going to pay for a FP program right now, and Disney would look very greedy by doing so

 

[mattpeto]

The paid FP+ system of some kind is likely coming, but don't ignore the Bubble perk part of it. Disney will need to protect and maintain it's Bubble advantage.

I really believe there will be some FP+ attraction advantage by being in the Bubble.

 

[Aimeedyan]

We went to HS yesterday for the first time in months and it was as crowded as I expected based on photos and reports on the AP FB group. We still haven't ridden Rise and wanted a shot at it but didn't want to spend all day in the heat/crowds so we arrived around 1pm to see if we could get the 2pm drop.

I've have avoided Oga's due to crowding pre-COVID and decided now would be the time to try it. Grabbing a reservation for that is by far the hardest right now IMO but once I saw the tiny crowd inside, it made sense. We were seated in a booth, I'm sure because we had a baby with us and the standing table/bar would have been impossible. We LOVED it. Our waitress was attentive and very friendly and it gave us a break from the heat at 2pm and a chance to feed a bottle in a comfy space. We both liked our drinks, too! We only waited 5 minutes past our time.

We got group 78 (backup) and did not get on the ride. Oh well.

MMRR sat at 50 minutes from the time we got there until we left so we finally jumped in line and it was 35 min, including a cleaning.

DH rode RnR, posted at 30 but he was off the ride in 15. Since he's super tall, he loved not having a single rider sat with him.

TSM posted 10 minutes and we waited closer to 15.

For us, HS is not a must-see (and definitely not an all-day park) because there are only 2 rides our child can ride but it was fun to spend 4-5 hours at. We'll try again next month and see if we can get a boarding group.

 

[DGsAtBLT]

The paid FP+ system of some kind is likely coming, but don't ignore the Bubble perk part of it. Disney will need to protect and maintain it's Bubble advantage.

I really believe there will be some FP+ attraction advantage by being in the Bubble.

I hope there will be.

At the same time, the bubble existed before there was a FP+ advantage tied to it, and the only major in park perk was EMH. I don’t think they without a doubt need to give an advantage to onsite guests with a paid program. Again I hope they do, but am not convinced it’s anything close to certain. FP+ played no part in our decisions to stay in the bubble literally our entire vacation since DME came on the scene, I’m sure we’re not alone in being drawn onsite for a multitude of reasons.