Cruise and Theme Park Operational Updates due to Coronavirus

[TheMaxRebo]

The more I think about it, the less surprising this seems. 2021 may not be a "lost year" for Disney World, but a new attraction isn't likely to drive as much incremental revenue as other new attractions in previous years. Especially if wait times stay where they are, I imagine people who already wanted to visit will still come. And, someone who's just casually thinking of a Disney trip probably isn't swayed by Tron opening.

not Tron in and of itself, but I do think a lot of people were waiting for the 50th Anniversary celebration stuff and if Tron isn't ready for that, I can see people pushing back those vacations (again, not just for Tron but as a symbol of what isn't there but *should* be if there wasn't a pandemic)

I think some delays are fine, even Rat going into 2021 when it don't really need to from a construction standpoint ... but pushing off *so* much from what was to be part of this big celebration I could see resulting in reduced interest in visiting

(and maybe by then we are still in the midst of horrible pandemic numbers and Disney won't mind that)

 

[Tigger's ally]

I think some delays are fine, even Rat going into 2021 when it don't really need to from a construction standpoint ...

My only problem with that is if you open up a ride back there, it would really help to spread the crowds out as all the rides in Epcot are in FW not WS. That is if "spreading out the crowds" is even a priority.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

My only problem with that is if you open up a ride back there, it would really help to spread the crowds out as all the rides in Epcot are in FW not WS. That is if "spreading out the crowds" is even a priority.

I agree and would be another draw to EPCOT in general - making it more of a priority to get a park reservation and freeing up slots for DHS and MK/just spread the crowds between parks better

I think they are "ok" with crowd levels at the parks for now (beyond perhaps tweaking some extended queues" but as they want to ram pup total attendance I thikn they will need Rat to help spread those increased number of guests - the question is the iming of that and I think Disney is still trying to figure that out and see how things develop (if there are continued spikes in Covid cases throughout the winter, will total amount of people willing/able to travel to WDW really going to increase, or would they maybe even go down, reducing need for a Rat

 

[SaintsManiac]

I agree and would be another draw to EPCOT in general - making it more of a priority to get a park reservation and freeing up slots for DHS and MK/just spread the crowds between parks better

I think they are "ok" with crowd levels at the parks for now (beyond perhaps tweaking some extended queues" but as they want to ram pup total attendance I thikn they will need Rat to help spread those increased number of guests - the question is the iming of that and I think Disney is still trying to figure that out and see how things develop (if there are continued spikes in Covid cases throughout the winter, will total amount of people willing/able to travel to WDW really going to increase, or would they maybe even go down, reducing need for a Rat

I agree with all of this. I think we will see some big updates to things announced in March once we are out of the winter wave "woods." We should also know more about the vaccine and will be a full year into this thing.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

I agree with all of this. I think we will see some big updates to things announced in March once we are out of the winter wave "woods." We should also know more about the vaccine and will be a full year into this thing.

yeha, some of the dates thrown out there for Rat and for Space 2020 is Marchish, which would make sense as also Spring Break times - So if people are comfortable travelign then you could see an increase in travelers so having more for them to do would be great. But also far enough off that they can plan for that but if there is a big spike and travel restriction increase and people just aren't traveling they could push it out further

 

[PrincessV]

THIS POST IS NOT ABOUT FP!!!

But it is about FP queues.

Just a random thought I was having the other day... WDW kind of shot itself in the foot with the semi-permanent (totally permanent in some cases, no?) conversion of Standby queues to SB + FP, plus how the current DAS/RS systems work. I am old and visited many times before FP and those queues could be reconfigured on the fly in any number of interesting designs to manage more volume in the same amount of space. Without needing an entire separate queue for FP/DAS/RS, they'd have more room to manage SB lines with social distancing in place, even if it required more plexiglass to do it. I mean, it's not like WDW could have seen COVID coming when it went to the SB + FP queue designs - I'm certainly not blaming anyone for not thinking ahead lol! Just pondering how better they could have managed longer lines instead of extending them out into walkways, etc.

 

[TwoMisfits]

Another thought on FP...

Why would Walt Disney want to encourage APs to come in for 3 fast FP-dedicated rides and leave? Right now, their base is gonna be weighted to APs, particularly local ones, and those folks would do just what I mentioned on Friday nights and weekends, the days and times that are already uber-packed.

Instead, if they are stuck with APs anyway, wouldn't they want those folks to have to decide to commit to a day (and thereby, probably ending up eating or drinking in the parks pre-planned or spontaneously b/c the heat and lines get to them) or just not come? So, those dates and times will be selected only by those planning to provide Disney the most revenue, the full day trippers.

Some things are more thought out at the top corporate level than one might 1st suspect...

 

[firefly_ris]

I would think the urgency would be to give the people something else to do!

I also don't love that refurbishments at hotels are taking priority over ride construction/refurbishment, but oh well.

They gotta justify asking $600-$800 a NIGHT for 2 queen beds and a bathroom and mayyybeeee a small balcony somehow...

And I'm with you with the moving on thing. I was hoping to be back late 2021 or spring 2022 but yikes. It costs my family about $2500 just to get into the parks for 5 days with no hopper and that's without travel to actually get there, a bed to sleep in or food to eat... if they limp these projects along that long we won't be back for longer than that. I'm getting bored with keeping up with parks news as it is already.... sad. I do have great memories and the parks music loops that I listen to while I'm working, so there's at least that.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

They aren't operating at full capacity, you can see them closing every weekend because they have reached the limited capacity. Also there are social distance markers in the entrance and before the temp checks and bag checks.

They seem to be a lot more lenient than Disney. Maybe not full capacity but a bit more capacity and social distancing isn’t really followed from the bit I’ve read.

 

[yulilin3]

They seem to be a lot more lenient than Disney. Maybe not full capacity but a bit more capacity and social distancing isn’t really followed from the bit I’ve read.

Yes that's correct, bit definitely not at full capacity or else the weekends wouldn't get full

 

[andyman8]

There seem to be reasonably reliable rumors about Disney working on expanding virtual queues. I don't know how well the app can withstand more weight on top of it, but virtual queues could benefit a park like MK. Still, as many have noted, there still needs to be something to occupy those folks while they're in a virtual queue. Only so many Dole Whips they can hand out.

Yep. Of all the enhancements/tweaks on the table, this is a priority right now. The changes in crowd patterns is something they can address after they implement the VQs. Implementing them (in a limited capacity at first) is the focus.

 

[MrsBooch]

The changes in crowd patterns is something they can address after they implement the VQs

not that i'm asking you directly so much as I am wondering out loud - but how would they be able to address crowd pattern changes without opening up more things/capacity? Even with virtual queue? I'm probably not thinking correctly - I don't know much about these types of things - i just don't see how this works as a fix for anything without also doing something else?

 

[Krandor]

not that i'm asking you directly so much as I am wondering out loud - but how would they be able to address crowd pattern changes without opening up more things/capacity? Even with virtual queue? I'm probably not thinking correctly - I don't know much about these types of things - i just don't see how this works as a fix for anything without also doing something else?

Right. if you take people out of the standby queue you need somewhere else to put them..

 

[rteetz]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1318245606972850176

 

[mattpeto]

Yep. Of all the enhancements/tweaks on the table, this is a priority right now. The changes in crowd patterns is something they can address after they implement the VQs. Implementing them (in a limited capacity at first) is the focus.

Get the people out of line will make guests happy for sure. I just hope there's enough to do while they are waiting.

 

[MrsBooch]

Get the people out of line will make guests happy for sure. I just hope there's enough to do while they are waiting.

But that's the thing - there doesn't appear to be a whole lot to do when people aren't in line

 

[MickeyWaffles]

But that's the thing - there doesn't appear to be a whole lot to do when people aren't in line

Right. I don’t mind waiting in a longer line, but I do mind when walkways are super crowded with people hanging around. Where would all these people who aren’t in line go? Everyone would just be standing around clogging up the walkways?

 

[Pizzaman12]

Another thought on FP...

Why would Walt Disney want to encourage APs to come in for 3 fast FP-dedicated rides and leave? Right now, their base is gonna be weighted to APs, particularly local ones, and those folks would do just what I mentioned on Friday nights and weekends, the days and times that are already uber-packed.

Instead, if they are stuck with APs anyway, wouldn't they want those folks to have to decide to commit to a day (and thereby, probably ending up eating or drinking in the parks pre-planned or spontaneously b/c the heat and lines get to them) or just not come? So, those dates and times will be selected only by those planning to provide Disney the most revenue, the full day trippers.

Some things are more thought out at the top corporate level than one might 1st suspect...

Devil's advocate only. They could use this time to test paid FP on APs (if that's truly in the cards).

 

[ryanpatricksmom]

Get the people out of line will make guests happy for sure. I just hope there's enough to do while they are waiting.

I spoke about this the other day. My husband qualifies for DAS. It's a wonderful system, and I am so thankful that it exists. It works incredibly well under normal circumstances. Right now however, I can tell you as someone who doesn't have to actually have to stand in line, it is very challenging to wait it out until the assigned return time. There is just not enough to do that doesn't require waiting in yet another, different line. We are fortunate to be APHs and are about a 4 hour drive, so we make frequent trips and only stay a few hours each day in the parks, but for people who don't have that luxury, I can't even imagine. Avoiding a line should make you happy, but sadly, it's not as helpful as you might think.

 

[andyman8]

not that i'm asking you directly so much as I am wondering out loud - but how would they be able to address crowd pattern changes without opening up more things/capacity? Even with virtual queue? I'm probably not thinking correctly - I don't know much about these types of things - i just don't see how this works as a fix for anything without also doing something else?

We're not talking about a whole lot of attractions here. This isn't FP+ where even Mad Tea Party has a VQ. MFSR (heard about another DHS headliner being eyeballed for it but the for time being, they're erring on the side of caution) and JC as choices says a lot about where they're aiming for here (alleviating conversion for attractions with already lower capacities that have been especially hard but the COVID-19 operational changes). But even if VQs/Standby Pass/whatever they call it is rolled out to the fullest extent they hope, I wouldn't expect it to take an overwhelming amount of Guests. Remember, they're still not 100% confident in the technology's reliability on a large scale so I'd expect them to wait and see how this goes.