Cruise and Theme Park Operational Updates due to Coronavirus

[SaintsManiac]

Personally, I think it won’t be much different from now.

 

[Mit88]

Hopefully by March, people stop bringing loaded firearms onto property. Wishful thinking, I know.

 

[JenBush]

I agree with the others. It’s too early to tell, but I really don’t think it will be much different from now. With the number of covid cases spiking around the country, massive lay offs, and flu season coming I don’t see Disney making many changes over the next few months. But who knows, Disney has been known to surprise me, especially in 2020.

 

[Kim Gillihan]

More things will open as in restaurants and stores, but I wouldn’t expect much more. That’s not to say other things won’t either premiere like Rat, or fireworks returning (they’d have to rehire) and park hopping are definitely not possible, I just wouldn’t plan a trip if those things are needed on the vacation to make it worth it.

Most, if not all safety precautions will almost definitely be in play. With or without a vaccine, masks still being mandatory on property will 100% still be in tact

that is what I figured.... oh well, have make the most of it

 

[Kim Gillihan]

I agree with the others. It’s too early to tell, but I really don’t think it will be much different from now. With the number of covid cases spiking around the country, massive lay offs, and flu season coming I don’t see Disney making many changes over the next few months. But who knows, Disney has been known to surprise me, especially in 2020.

got it.. I agree.. I was hoping by march maybe little normalcy but I think everyone is right

 

[andyman8]

We cancelled our July 2020 and moved it to March 2021. I have DVC so I have points I have to use by May 31.. so March is our last opportunity. I am curious as to any opinions or knowledge of if things will be more normal? Restaurants open etc. Thanks, KIM

If you're traveling after March 7, you should (though it could change) have one of the water parks back online. It's likely you may see a few more restaurants and shops open, but I wouldn't expect shows, spectaculars, parades, or character meet greetings, especially with the layoffs. Disney reopening ASMo in February signals to me that they're expecting to at least bring online more spaces so they have more physical places to put Guests.

If the optimistic vaccine timeline holds true, by early March you and I both still wouldn't have access to a vaccine (assuming you're not a first-responder, living in a nursing home, or 70+) but I think as we get further into spring, we could start to see more normal offerings start to come back. But that's all dependent on a vaccine. Health and safety protocols of course would still remain well beyond that.

 

[Badlands2020]

We cancelled our July 2020 and moved it to March 2021. I have DVC so I have points I have to use by May 31.. so March is our last opportunity. I am curious as to any opinions or knowledge of if things will be more normal? Restaurants open etc. Thanks, KIM

I think if you want any shot at normalcy summer 2021 has a very small chance(fingers crossed) Much better than March. March 2021 given that its already almost November and given how long a vaccine would take to get administered and none are fully approved yet pretty much a 0% chance things are better in march especially after winter and people forced inside in alot of country. I would really recommend pushing it to summer 2021 at this point or as late as you can possibly go by May its gonna warm again and things pushed back outside and more time for a vaccine administered so seems alot more likely. Id try to late May if you can, or see if they will extend? Maybe say you are living in a state not allowing visits to Florida and see i they will extend? ( just an idea im sure everyone has tried)

 

[tlmadden73]

We cancelled our July 2020 and moved it to March 2021. I have DVC so I have points I have to use by May 31.. so March is our last opportunity. I am curious as to any opinions or knowledge of if things will be more normal? Restaurants open etc. Thanks, KIM

I think Disney is planning on not being any closer to "normal" until AT LEAST March 2021 .. and realistically well beyond that.

I'd unfortunately guess that it won't be much different from now EXCEPT:
1) MAX capacity may be slightly increased (but they may not reach it if people still don't want to travel)
2) A few more hotels will be open (like AoA and All Star Movies).
3) Maybe a few more restaurants will be open (as capacity increases).
4) That's probably it.

On the optimistic side, MAYBE they will open up Ratatouille to help draw the crowds to Epcot and balance things out a bit.?

Other than that . .they are going to do crowd control measures to disperse the potentially growing crowds (like the recent change in the Boarding Group for Rise). another guess (based on rumors listed here) would be they will do more virtual queuing of the rides whose queues are taking up too much walkways (like SDMT and Smuggler's Run).

At this point .. I think WDW is going to run on bare bones for a long time .. no need to "reopen" attractions or shows UNLESS they feel they are needed if crowds start to rise (which I doubt they will do in the early months of 2021).

I don't see them getting rid of social distancing or masks .. again .. no reason to do that unless they feel that A LOT of people are staying away because of those restrictions (which I doubt is the case). Even then . .I doubt the potential PR fallout of looking "unsafe" is worth any extra guests they would gain.

 

[Lewisc]

got it.. I agree.. I was hoping by march maybe little normalcy but I think everyone is right

Have you heard the expression "new normal"?

 

[TheMaxRebo]

And that’s exactly why there needs to be some sort of penalty for not showing up on your park reservation date. It’s so easy to cancel them (even day of) but there will definitely be people that will use one of their 3 days to book HS and try for boarding groups from far away with no chance of going. It should be if you fail to show for 2 or 3 Park reservations in a row you get a penalty period or something.

I think it would be more of an issue if it was easy for passholders to get a DHS pass, but they are pretty booked up already for much of the rest of the year so no like someone can wake up, book a park reservation just to try and if not then cancel it and repeat the next day, etc

If anything I could see more try for the day they booked months ago with full intention of going but when they don't get one, say forget it and cancel and reduce the crowd at the park.

I am sure there will be some gaming of the system - there always is - but overall I think this is a definite net positive

 

[Eric Smith]

We cancelled our July 2020 and moved it to March 2021. I have DVC so I have points I have to use by May 31.. so March is our last opportunity. I am curious as to any opinions or knowledge of if things will be more normal? Restaurants open etc. Thanks, KIM

I think there may be a few more restaurants that open up between now and then, but I don't see any huge changes until late summer or fall 2021. It's going to depend on what the situation is with the virus in the US in the spring. Right now, it isn't looking great.

 

[Eric Smith]

I think Disney is planning on not being any closer to "normal" until AT LEAST March 2021 .. and realistically well beyond that.

I'd unfortunately guess that it won't be much different from now EXCEPT:
1) MAX capacity may be slightly increased (but they may not reach it if people still don't want to travel)
2) A few more hotels will be open (like AoA and All Star Movies).
3) Maybe a few more restaurants will be open (as capacity increases).
4) That's probably it.

On the optimistic side, MAYBE they will open up Ratatouille to help draw the crowds to Epcot and balance things out a bit.?

Other than that . .they are going to do crowd control measures to disperse the potentially growing crowds (like the recent change in the Boarding Group for Rise). another guess (based on rumors listed here) would be they will do more virtual queuing of the rides whose queues are taking up too much walkways (like SDMT and Smuggler's Run).

At this point .. I think WDW is going to run on bare bones for a long time .. no need to "reopen" attractions or shows UNLESS they feel they are needed if crowds start to rise (which I doubt they will do in the early months of 2021).

I don't see them getting rid of social distancing or masks .. again .. no reason to do that unless they feel that A LOT of people are staying away because of those restrictions (which I doubt is the case). Even then . .I doubt the potential PR fallout of looking "unsafe" is worth any extra guests they would gain.

I don't think they're going to open Ratatouille until the parks are more back to normal. I think they're going to try to stretch out the impact of the rides that are currently under construction (Rat, Guardians and Tron) since there likely won't be any new attractions constructed for the next few years.

 

[yulilin3]

I think it would be more of an issue if it was easy for passholders to get a DHS pass, but they are pretty booked up already for much of the rest of the year so no like someone can wake up, book a park reservation just to try and if not then cancel it and repeat the next day, etc

If anything I could see more try for the day they booked months ago with full intention of going but when they don't get one, say forget it and cancel and reduce the crowd at the park.

I am sure there will be some gaming of the system - there always is - but overall I think this is a definite net positive

I was lucky, last night we all here were chatting and I mentioned I had park reservations for the 10th, then I went to check my SW work schedule and sure enough I was scheduled to work that day, very quickly cancelled that one and rebooked for the 4th. Only about 12 days out of Nov are available for DHS for AP tickets, that is before they replenish and rework the allotment
I don't think this will be a huge issue with people booking bg that are not planning on coming

 

[TheMaxRebo]

I don't think they're going to open Ratatouille until the parks are more back to normal. I think they're going to try to stretch out the impact of the rides that are currently under construction (Rat, Guardians and Tron) since there likely won't be any new attractions constructed for the next few years.

Well, I don't think "normal" will be seen until about 2023 so I think they will open Rat before that, but I think they do want to see at least positive movement in things. They do have 3 big new rides coming so not like they need to hold Rat forever, but maybe until next spring then Tron late 2021 or early 2022 and Guardians late 2022 (in time for EPCOT's 40th) but we shall see

 

[HokieRaven5]

Weirdly this change to RoTR is causing me a tad more anxiety about my plans for my weekend trip in november (12-15). Doing a Fri-Sun trip with DHS/UOR/AK as my parks to visit. I was planning to have UOR be my Friday park with Saturday hitting capacity pretty regularly.
I do have park reservations for DHS for both Friday and Saturday and kind of want to keep the 2 days of safety for getting a BG and if I get a BG on Friday then just change up my plans and go to UOR on Saturday and deal with higher crowds (we really only want to see the WWoHP attractions at UOR/IOA).

 

[scrappinginontario]

Hopefully by March, people stop bringing loaded firearms onto property. Wishful thinking, I know.

Sadly it makes me wonder how many people were doing this before the new scanners were put in place. That's a number I'll be happy to not know!

 

[SaintsManiac]

Well, I don't think "normal" will be seen until about 2023 so I think they will open Rat before that, but I think they do want to see at least positive movement in things. They do have 3 big new rides coming so not like they need to hold Rat forever, but maybe until next spring then Tron late 2021 or early 2022 and Guardians late 2022 (in time for EPCOT's 40th) but we shall see

This makes me sad. When the parks closed in March I never would have thought they would still be in the state they are in now, much less a year from close.

 

[osufeth24]

This makes me sad. When the parks closed in March I never would have thought they would still be in the state they are in now, much less a year from close.

longer the shutdowns went, longer the ripple effects are going to last

But I agree, my work shut down the same weekend as WDW ( I went to epcot that Saturday night not 100% sure if I was going into work Sunday). Got the notice later that night. At the time it sounded like it was going to be 2 weeks. We reopened Mid June.

 

[Eric Smith]

Well, I don't think "normal" will be seen until about 2023 so I think they will open Rat before that, but I think they do want to see at least positive movement in things. They do have 3 big new rides coming so not like they need to hold Rat forever, but maybe until next spring then Tron late 2021 or early 2022 and Guardians late 2022 (in time for EPCOT's 40th) but we shall see

I agree with that. I meant "normal" more in the sense of what controls need to be in place in the theme parks due to the virus. I don't think attendance will be back to what it was before until at least 2023 if not later.

 

[SaintsManiac]

I agree with that. I meant "normal" more in the sense of what controls need to be in place in the theme parks due to the virus. I don't think attendance will be back to what it was before until at least 2023 if not later.

They better come correct with the discounts for ALL of next year. I mean 30% + off rooms. I'm booked Thanksgiving week next year and really don't want to pay what I booked to pay. Not if they keep things this pared down.