Cruise and Theme Park Operational Updates due to Coronavirus

[AmberMV]

Did you notice a lot of school aged kids or were they all little? Trying to gauge if it will be less "busy" in 2 weeks.

School aged. I really thought it would be much less busy considering school "restarted" but I guess with all the virtual classrooms kids are just going to the parks with their parents instead of learning lol

 

[hereforthechurros]

View attachment 522075



My first ride of the pandemic era. Because, what else would I ride first.

Posted Wait Time was 10 minutes. Waited almost 2.5 hours

This was the only ride we did back to back during our early August trip. Had to do it for the Cruise and Theme Park thread homies!

 

[Mit88]

Yes, a lot of children. More than I expected. Stroller parking by the carousel is a lot fuller than those pictures a few weeks ago with just 1 or 2

I should add, I don’t mean there are just toddlers. School aged kids are the majority. I’d guess around the 7-12 age range is what I’m seeing most of

 

[mattpeto]

Interesting that most of Epcots treats are only available Halloween day.

Very interesting takeaway. Maybe they are trying to spice up Epcot a bit, guessing demand way higher at MK for Halloween.

 

[chicagoshannon]

School aged. I really thought it would be much less busy considering school "restarted" but I guess with all the virtual classrooms kids are just going to the parks with their parents instead of learning lol

Isn't school supposed to start in person there soon? I thought I read something about just a couple week in person delay. Normally I'd think a lot of those kids were from out of state (a lot of schools don't start until Sept.) but I guess might not be the case this year.

 

[AmberMV]

Isn't school supposed to start in person there soon? I thought I read something about just a couple week in person delay. Normally I'd think a lot of those kids were from out of state (a lot of schools don't start until Sept.) but I guess might not be the case this year.

Aug 24 was supposed to be start date for many districts.

 

[Sarahslay]

School aged. I really thought it would be much less busy considering school "restarted" but I guess with all the virtual classrooms kids are just going to the parks with their parents instead of learning lol

I have a lot of friends whose kids haven't gone back to school yet, most have, but even in the town we just moved from that school distrect postponed start of school until next week, as did our neighboring county where we just moved to (ours started back three weeks ago). I'm really not surprised there are still school aged kids roaming around at all, I wouldn't expect to see a drop in that attendance until after labor day.

 

[Mit88]

Isn't school supposed to start in person there soon? I thought I read something about just a couple week in person delay. Normally I'd think a lot of those kids were from out of state (a lot of schools don't start until Sept.) but I guess might not be the case this year.

Passing by the middle and high schools in Vero this morning, they looked like they were open. Different county, obviously. I can’t know for sure unless I were to ask, but a lot of the family’s seem to be tourists at MK.

PS My no rain streak has ended at ~30 days.

 

[yulilin3]

Orange county started this past Monday

 

[TheMaxRebo]

"Festive Halloween-themed merchandise will be available in select locations around the park. Featured items include a new spirit jersey, Loungefly backpack and candy-swirl Minnie Mouse headband, along with a selection of apparel inspired by Disney Villains and more. "

Treats, merchandise, decorations - all things easily repeatable for Christmas if they do indeed cancel the party.

And I recognize I am cheap, but having these elements included as part of regular day ticket sounds better to me than having to pay for an extra ticket to go to a separate party

 

[yulilin3]

And I recognize I am cheap, but having these elements included as part of regular day ticket sounds better to me than having to pay for an extra ticket to go to a separate party

I was thinking about that, usually most food items are only offered during the parties which means not being able to try everything, now I'll be able to try a lot more things each time i visit the parks

 

[rteetz]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1299076372766302224

 

[Dentam]

https://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2020/08/fall-fun-at-magic-kingdom-park/

Starts 4 days after we leave.

"Festive Halloween-themed merchandise will be available in select locations around the park. Featured items include a new spirit jersey, Loungefly backpack and candy-swirl Minnie Mouse headband, along with a selection of apparel inspired by Disney Villains and more. "

Treats, merchandise, decorations - all things easily repeatable for Christmas if they do indeed cancel the party.

Most of these items are already in the parks as of last week from many vlogs I've seen!

 

[Vern60]

Here's my pessimistic post for the day
Does anyone else feel like Disney is becoming a big shopping mall with a really expensive cover charge?
I first started feeling this way with the opening of Star Wars land but with the recent Covid stuff they really seem to be pushing the merch, or did I just not notice it so much before? I guess they need to pull in as much revenue as possible ... on a good note very happy to see fall decorations going up, awesome!

 

[DGsAtBLT]

Here's my pessimistic post for the day
Does anyone else feel like Disney is becoming a big shopping mall with a really expensive cover charge?
I first started feeling this way with the opening of Star Wars land but with the recent Covid stuff they really seem to be pushing the merch, or did I just not notice it so much before? I guess they need to pull in as much revenue as possible ... on a good note very happy to see fall decorations going up, awesome!

Been like this for a while IMO. I give the credit for that largely to the influencers/Instagram culture making walls and highly themed cupcakes marketable.

 

[RamblingMad]

Here's my pessimistic post for the day
Does anyone else feel like Disney is becoming a big shopping mall with a really expensive cover charge?
I first started feeling this way with the opening of Star Wars land but with the recent Covid stuff they really seem to be pushing the merch, or did I just not notice it so much before? I guess they need to pull in as much revenue as possible ... on a good note very happy to see fall decorations going up, awesome!

After we got off our Disney Cruise, we went to Disney Springs. We went to the Christmas store. My significant others response after looking around was: when did Disney stop selling the good stuff? She complained about the lack of quality merchandise. She’s been bummed about merch ever since.

We also learned that we weren’t WDW people after staying off site and having trouble getting fast passes. Really rubbed us the wrong way. We’ve been DL folks ever since even though all of my childhood nostalgia was tied to WDW in the 80s and 90s. It’s just not the same experience.

We prefer Disney for Halloween. The decorations are great. And we prefer the Christmas cruise.

I’m bummed about the MP ride not happening. Hoping to visit an updated EPCOT.

 

[yulilin3]

Here's my pessimistic post for the day
Does anyone else feel like Disney is becoming a big shopping mall with a really expensive cover charge?
I first started feeling this way with the opening of Star Wars land but with the recent Covid stuff they really seem to be pushing the merch, or did I just not notice it so much before? I guess they need to pull in as much revenue as possible ... on a good note very happy to see fall decorations going up, awesome!

Merch and food push has been happening for years now. Along with that push we've gotten Pandora, NFL, TSLand and Galaxy's edge, so it's not all about merch and food at all

 

[rteetz]

If anyone needs park passes Disney has opened up availability including Labor Day weekend.

 

[andyman8]

AP friends, get on the Disney Park Pass System right now!

 

[andyman8]

Also, if you’re a Resort Guest, Friday and Saturday of Labor Day weekend are back open for DHS.