Cruise and Theme Park Operational Updates due to Coronavirus

[Mit88]

80% hotel occupancy of the limited number of hotels that are open? Trying to understand what this post means.

They’ve been at much lower occupancy lately and the parks have steadily gotten busier. Just because not all the hotels are open doesnt mean it doesnt make a difference.

 

[Tigger's ally]

80% hotel occupancy of the limited number of hotels that are open? Trying to understand what this post means.

It means it is not 80% of the hotel rooms on property. A bunch of hotels are closed. No POFQ which is hundreds of rooms, No CSR which is hundreds of rooms, No Poly hotel side, No WL hotel side, No Grand Floridian hotel side. No BWI. No Beach club yet. And the big one is no All stars, none of them which is the biggest hotel number on site. What they are saying is that of the hotels and DVC open on property, 80% of those are reserved for this weekend.

 

[one_cat]

They’ve been at much lower occupancy lately and the parks have steadily gotten busier. Just because not all the hotels are open doesnt mean it doesnt make a difference.

They’ve been at much lower occupancy lately and the parks have steadily gotten busier. Just because not all the hotels are open doesnt mean it doesnt make a difference.

A lot of people are staying offsite. There is not much benefit to staying on property right now and it’s much more expensive.

 

[rteetz]

A lot of people are staying offsite. There is not much benefit to staying on property right now and it’s much more expensive.

I think it depends on the way you look at it. I still see very big benefits to staying onsite. Also while expensive I typically can find reasonable rates.

 

[Brianstl]

Labor Day weekend traditionally ranks only behind Thanksgiving, Christmas, the 4th and Memorial Day when it comes to travel. The number of people traveling this weekend will see an uptick but is still tiny compared to the same weekend last year. The parks will be busier but it isn’t going to be a mad house.

 

[butterscotchcollins]

Last year LDW everyone was freaking out about unmanageable crowds w the opening of Galaxy’s Edge. And you know what? It was fine. I don’t think anyone needs to psyche themselves out about this weekend being an unending nightmare - it’s still a small percentage of a “normal” holiday weekend.

 

[Brianstl]

A lot of people are staying offsite. There is not much benefit to staying on property right now and it’s much more expensive.

But many of the offsite hotels are still closed, too.

 

[Wreckem]

Last year LDW everyone was freaking out about unmanageable crowds w the opening of Galaxy’s Edge. And you know what? It was fine. I don’t think anyone needs to psyche themselves out about this weekend being an unending nightmare - it’s still a small percentage of a “normal” holiday weekend.

The difference there are no fast passes.

If rides start hitting 2hrs plus and people don’t have fast passes it’s going to be a not so pleasant experience for most.

Even though there were massive crowds last Christmas we were able to do everything with little wait by arriving at open coupled with the three fast passes. It will hit a point where you cannot get much done with minimal wait.

 

[DGsAtBLT]

Last year LDW everyone was freaking out about unmanageable crowds w the opening of Galaxy’s Edge. And you know what? It was fine. I don’t think anyone needs to psyche themselves out about this weekend being an unending nightmare - it’s still a small percentage of a “normal” holiday weekend.

I get it though. Typically DISers knew how to strategically tour to get around even the most crowded times, and it usually involves some combination of rope drop, leaving at the busiest points in the day, FP usage and especially the rolling FP, and using the extended hours to their advantage. Pandemic WDW has a lot less manipulating guests can do to avoid wait times, and less time to do it in.

Not to mention, we don’t know how sensitive the attractions are to increases in crowds with the lessened capacity due to distancing and the cleaning breaks.

 

[DGsAtBLT]

I think it depends on the way you look at it. I still see very big benefits to staying onsite. Also while expensive I typically can find reasonable rates.

Until they pick up and move the resorts outside the bubble, I think there will always be benefits to the Disney resorts. Just a question of their worth to people, but that’s always been a factor even with FP+, EMH, etc. I guess we’ve been staying in them so long we’ve seen a lot of the side benefits like FP+ access come and go, so they don’t play into our decision to stay there.

 

[rteetz]

Until they pick up and move the resorts outside the bubble, I think there will always be benefits to the Disney resorts. Just a question of their worth to people, but that’s always been a factor even with FP+, EMH, etc. I guess we’ve been staying in them so long we’ve seen a lot of the side benefits like FP+ access come and go, so they don’t play into our decision to stay there.

For me the big one is transportation. It may not always be great but it’s there for me to use included.

 

[unbanshee]

Last year LDW everyone was freaking out about unmanageable crowds w the opening of Galaxy’s Edge. And you know what? It was fine. I don’t think anyone needs to psyche themselves out about this weekend being an unending nightmare - it’s still a small percentage of a “normal” holiday weekend.

I think the hotel stat in the Blog Mickey article is significant and signals that Disney World is the magnet of travel this weekend in the US

 

[skeeter31]

What I’d love to know is, if someone books a weekend trip last minute right now with a room and ticket package, will Disney somehow find room for them to make park reservations? Or is 80% the most they can fill the resorts to? I’m going to think if someone wanted to make a room reservation for this weekend right now, they’d expand that bucket by however many are in that room.

 

[Mit88]

I get it though. Typically DISers knew how to strategically tour to get around even the most crowded times, and it usually involves some combination of rope drop, leaving at the busiest points in the day, FP usage and especially the rolling FP, and using the extended hours to their advantage. Pandemic WDW has a lot less manipulating guests can do to avoid wait times, and less time to do it in.

Not to mention, we don’t know how sensitive the attractions are to increases in crowds with the lessened capacity due to distancing and the cleaning breaks.

From what I noticed this past week was that a lot of people seemed to be people that are very familiar with the parks. Knew the in’s and outs. Not necessarily casual Disney vacationers. And I’m guessing thats been much of the crowds since the reopening. I think this weekend is the first weekend we might see guests who maybe have been to Disney, but aren’t exactly savants, moreso normal vacation going family’s. Which could be an issue in terms of the positive things I saw while I was there. How I personally saw it was people were compliant because Disney is something thats near and dear to them and they aren’t going to do something that may result in them being asked to leave, or put in confrontational situations with CMs and leads.

While its obvious theres not going to be 50,000 people in each of the parks (no one was even suggesting that), there will be more people, which means the odds of people that may not understand, or want to follow the guidelines will be statistically higher.

Thats where I was getting at. But I guess my words got twisted by some assuming I meant that crowds this weekend would be pre-covid levels, which isnt just unrealistic, but also impossible

 

[Mit88]

For me the big one is transportation. It may not always be great but it’s there for me to use included.

I also think transportation has a lot to do with park hopping being unavailable. Transportation options are available, but not nearly at the rate they’d need to be to get guests from park to park in a sufficient manner. If you’re selling park hoppers and you’re having guests Waiting hours outside of a park for a bus because there just aren’t enough buses to get guests from park to park, paired with the short hours, I just dont think it can be done without people complaining, or making it worth the money. Obviously there are other issues or they’d allow APs with cars the ability to park hop. But I do think transportation is a big reason.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

reports of employees at Universal Studios Hollywood in food service and ride ops being notified of layoffs

https://twitter.com/x/status/1301696055369633792

 

[KBoopaloo]

For me the big one is transportation. It may not always be great but it’s there for me to use included.

Same here. One of my favorite parts of a WDW vacation is when I get in an Uber to the airport and wave goodbye to my own car in the driveway off to spend a week riding Disney transportation. Disney resorts are pricey for what the offer but my WDW trips don’t feel like “real” trips when I stay offsite.

 

[LSUmiss]

For me the big one is transportation. It may not always be great but it’s there for me to use included.

Do you know if parking lot trams are running yet?

 

[LSUmiss]

What I’d love to know is, if someone books a weekend trip last minute right now with a room and ticket package, will Disney somehow find room for them to make park reservations? Or is 80% the most they can fill the resorts to? I’m going to think if someone wanted to make a room reservation for this weekend right now, they’d expand that bucket by however many are in that room.

I don’t see where ppl are seeing no park reservations available. I just looked. The whole weekend still has availability for all 3 buckets.

 

[rteetz]

Do you know if parking lot trams are running yet?

They are not