Cruise and Theme Park Operational Updates due to Coronavirus

[curlymom]

Silver lining, the castle won't be blocked with the crane for like 2 months for the light installation. I'll come from NC for what they are doing.

 

[skeeter31]

I just moved to the Orlando area from SoCal. I’ve been an AP holder at Disneyland since 2010. My favorite time of year is Christmas time, especially at Disney. There’s a lot of things at Disneyland I loved about the holidays but my favorite was probably Sleeping Beauty‘s castle all lit up with the lights. As many of you know, one thing Disney World blows Disneyland away in is it’s Castle. Don’t get me wrong, Disneyland’s is cute but it doesn’t take your breath away the way seeing Cinderella’s castle for the first time does. I was really looking forward to seeing the castle at DW lit up this year. I know things are different this year but I thought this was one thing they would still do. Hopefully it’s just a one off and they’ll be back next year.

Also have to remember with the icicle lights, with the new paint scheme on the castle, and Disney’s perfectionism, they probably want to restring all the lights with new wire that will disappear in the new paint color. Most likely there aren’t enough of the “elves” staff back from furlough yet to make that happen. They wouldn’t want to put the old lights up and have the wires/strings clashing with their new paint color. Projections are a much easier, and cheaper, option for this year.

 

[rteetz]

Hmm well I disagree, with todays announcements it seems to confirm they have no plans for them at least until the new year now.

We'll just have to wait and see!

Well yeah I don't think we see them at least at MK until December 31st at the earliest. They certainly left that door open with this announcement. Thats not to say we also couldn't see a test down the line at Epcot which would probably be the best in terms of distancing guests.

 

[rteetz]

Silver lining, the castle won't be blocked with the crane for like 2 months for the light installation. I'll come from NC for what they are doing.

Crane was always positioned in the back of the castle. The last 2 years (at least) they have only raised it after hours to install the lights.

 

[Mit88]

Plus Disney recently just filed new permits for fireworks

They wouldnt wast the time and money filing the permits if they were done.

https://blogmickey.com/2020/08/disn...nugget-related-to-fireworks-at-magic-kingdom/

Thats what I was referring to in my other post that they’re working on the fireworks pad behind MK. Could be upgrades, could be a 50th show, but they’re certainly working on it to bring fireworks back no matter what show it’s for

 

[mmackeymouse]

And I’m sure it’s still much lighter crowds than would even be there on a “normal“ year during this week. People going to the parks expecting them to be desolate wastelands with tumbleweeds and mirages of other people are going to be upset. The parks will steadily have more people than what was there in July. Now, will they be like they were this weekend, absolutely not, but they’re not going to be completely empty either.

I tend to have a certain viewpoint on this, as our last three visits were Labor Day week, Halloween week, and in July last year. I can tell you that the first Labor Day week visit was much, much, much less busy, by a large margin in fact.

And, in the parks at least, it is as busy, if not more, than the two other times. My. best comparison to the crowds is on Halloween night, around 4, when the party crowds were arriving, and it was pretty significantly busy but not bumper to bumper like it was later on in the night. Yes, that is including July of last year.

So, no, I really don't think I can say that crowds are lighter than a normal week this time of year. Now, in the resorts, restaurants, transportation....yes, it is much noticeably less busy and pleasant.

I think one problem with overloading the PH and same day ticket bucket with the unused resort bucket people is....PH people and day of people tend to stay all day, whereas resort guests tend to take breaks during the day. So, the more resort guests that are in any one park, you can just about guarantee that there will be pockets of people leaving, intermittently throughout the day.

The waits at MK don’t look all that bad - a quick check shows the longest wait is Splash at 45 minutes. Dwarves at 40. Peter Pan at 35. Pirates at 30. Buzz at 15. Space at 10. And Carpets is listed at 5 but that is obviously a mistake.

DHS looks busy with Tower of Terror and the Railway over 70 minutes.

A lot of schools here in MA have pushed their start dates to mid to late September (September 23 in my city with some online orientation before that) so I think the holiday weekend crowds could bleed into the week a bit - people could go home today or tomorrow and still be able to do the 14 day quarantine before being in school in person. I think the bigger indicator of the non holiday fall crowd levels will come next week and then we’ll see the next likely jump as we edge closer to Columbus Day.

So, the wait times are deceptive. The headliners are not bad, sure. But, the other rides which are typically walk-on or short waits are unusually high. Am I happy to wait 20 minutes for Space Mountain? Sure. Am I happy to wait 30 minutes for the Carousel?

Also, at DAK the other day, wait times were mostly overpredicted, and wait times were much shorter than expected. Today at MK, most of our waits have actually been longer than posted. 30 minutes on a 10 minute Carousel. 25 minutes on a 5 minute Astro Orbiter. (Granted I knew by looking at the line it wasn't going to be 5 minutes, and we were fine with waiting.)

Also, I would say that the wait times don't really depict the actual "real feel" busy-ness of the park. It *felt* busy. Wait times were (mostly) great....but it felt crowded.

As to the bolded part...that is something I have been hearing for a month....next week, next week, next week. I think at some point, we may need to realize that "next week" is probably not coming.

 

[Krandor]

Well yeah I don't think we see them at least at MK until December 31st at the earliest. They certainly left that door open with this announcement. Thats not to say we also couldn't see a test down the line at Epcot which would probably be the best in terms of distancing guests.

Yeah to do nigthtime shows right now you need something that can be seem from multiple locations instead of everybody being close together. World Showcase is really the best spot to do that. MK will be tougher.

If they are not going to do MK fireworks through Dec 30 I won't see then restarting on the 31st since you'd just have big crowds from people there for the holidays since many may have 1-2 days of fireworks before they have to leave. If you are not going to do them through dec 30th, then I don't think you look to restart until you get to the "slower time" post new years after schools start back up at the earliest.

 

[SaintsManiac]

Yeah to do nigthtime shows right now you need something that can be seem from multiple locations instead of everybody being close together. World Showcase is really the best spot to do that. MK will be tougher.

If they are not going to do MK fireworks through Dec 30 I won't see then restarting on the 31st since you'd just have big crowds from people there for the holidays since many may have 1-2 days of fireworks before they have to leave. If you are not going to do them through dec 30th, then I don't think you look to restart until you get to the "slower time" post new years after schools start back up at the earliest.

Pretty sure that Disney is just like everyone else. They’re waiting and hoping to proceed before making any huge decisions.

 

[yulilin3]

I tend to have a certain viewpoint on this, as our last three visits were Labor Day week, Halloween week, and in July last year. I can tell you that the first Labor Day week visit was much, much, much less busy, by a large margin in fact.

And, in the parks at least, it is as busy, if not more, than the two other times. My. best comparison to the crowds is on Halloween night, around 4, when the party crowds were arriving, and it was pretty significantly busy but not bumper to bumper like it was later on in the night. Yes, that is including July of last year.

So, no, I really don't think I can say that crowds are lighter than a normal week this time of year. Now, in the resorts, restaurants, transportation....yes, it is much noticeably less busy and pleasant.

I think one problem with overloading the PH and same day ticket bucket with the unused resort bucket people is....PH people and day of people tend to stay all day, whereas resort guests tend to take breaks during the day. So, the more resort guests that are in any one park, you can just about guarantee that there will be pockets of people leaving, intermittently throughout the day.




So, the wait times are deceptive. The headliners are not bad, sure. But, the other rides which are typically walk-on or short waits are unusually high. Am I happy to wait 20 minutes for Space Mountain? Sure. Am I happy to wait 30 minutes for the Carousel?

Also, at DAK the other day, wait times were mostly overpredicted, and wait times were much shorter than expected. Today at MK, most of our waits have actually been longer than posted. 30 minutes on a 10 minute Carousel. 25 minutes on a 5 minute Astro Orbiter. (Granted I knew by looking at the line it wasn't going to be 5 minutes, and we were fine with waiting.)

Also, I would say that the wait times don't really depict the actual "real feel" busy-ness of the park. It *felt* busy. Wait times were (mostly) great....but it felt crowded.

As to the bolded part...that is something I have been hearing for a month....next week, next week, next week. I think at some point, we may need to realize that "next week" is probably not coming.

It's the lack of shows and parade and stores opened. It feels busy cause people are walking from attraction to attraction that last, at the most, 15 minutes.

 

[Krandor]

Pretty sure that Disney is just like everyone else. They’re waiting and hoping to proceed before making any huge decisions.

Oh yeah I'm sure they are trying to do something for new years. I doubt it will be fireworks if they are not doing them through the 30th. However I am sure they want to do something and are going to wait till closer to see what they can do. One advantage of the projections is they could change them on Dec 30th-Jan 2nd to something else fairly quickly and easily.

 

[rteetz]

Pretty sure that Disney is just like everyone else. They’re waiting and hoping to proceed before making any huge decisions.

Bingo. Why cancel anything before you have too.

 

[Eric Smith]

Well that I don't know.

Seems like a missed opportunity if there's not a path to walk to Contemporary and bypass MK though. Many may like to hop over for dinner/drinks.

I don’t know how many would be willing to make that walk. That would have to be well over a mile right?

 

[Farro]

I don’t know how many would be willing to make that walk. That would have to be well over a mile right?

We'd do it!

 

[Eric Smith]

Didn’t say it wasn’t selfish, but ignoring that people have different views on ppe and why their views are what they are would be ignorant. It’s exhausting to tell people on the internet to wear masks let alone explaining it to every living human being in person. You’ll never change the mind of people that don’t want to change their minds. Its unfortunate, but its true

It’s not about anyone’s “views” on PPE. The rule is that you must wear a mask at Disney. If people can’t take that small step to look out for themselves, other guests and cast members because it is slightly uncomfortable then that is selfish. I agree these idiots won’t change their mind so it’s worthless to try to persuade them. Might as well call them out for what they are.

 

[Eric Smith]

We'd do it!

We probably would too, but I have a feeling that we’re a very small minority.

 

[gottalovepluto]

Today’s Word of the Day is brought to you from the Disneyland side of the boards

Closer: similar to its cousin “sooner” Gov Newsom needed a new word in today’s press conference to describe how guidelines for reopening theme parks are coming along

h/t @midnight star

 

[rteetz]

https://www.wdwinfo.com/news-storie...-dining-could-return-to-downtown-disney-soon/

 

[yulilin3]

We probably would too, but I have a feeling that we’re a very small minority.

Distance between gf and cr is about the same as walking around the epcot resorts, just over a mile

 

[midnight star]

https://www.wdwinfo.com/news-storie...-dining-could-return-to-downtown-disney-soon/

Hopefully OC updates their health order to allow indoor dining. That way the restaurants can increase their capacity a little bit.

 

[Eric Smith]

I predict March we will start seeing some nighttime shows.

I think the start of 2021 isn’t out of the question depending on what happens with the virus.