Cruise and Theme Park Operational Updates due to Coronavirus

[figmentfinesse]

*sigh* disappointing but not surprising. I'm still planning to go in January for what would have been marathon weekend but current reports don't give me excitement to go. This sucks. I just hope even without the races I'm used to I can still have fun. I just hate so much of what I'm used to doing don't be available and that is even just the small things... a lot of nights especially when races are the next day I'll come back to resort early and sit and hang out at Petals for a bit and chat with the bartenders (who rememeber me even between trips). Doubt I'll even be able to sit at the bar this year and will have to get my beer and sit elsewhere which isn't the same at all. Often on my last day before driving home I go to captain cook's for tonga toast.... Driving there i know isn't possible this year but can I go at all? So many things we are used to are different. It sucks and I know why but still sucks.

people have been able to drive onto resorts when they show a mobile order, or you can park at TTC and walk over on the path!

 

[rosieposie3]

I'm keeping a positive mindset on it for our trip in April. A lot of things need to fall in place for that to happen (border restrictions from the EU being lifted being the main concern), but I'm confident a lot will change over the next six months. I understand people's discomfort but honestly I see people in the malls here crowded together sometimes and I don't think WDW could be, or should be expected to be any different. It's up to the people who are there to follow the rules at the end of the day. It's truly as enjoyable as you can make it.

 

[Ricker182]

I will say,


After this past week, I wouldnt advise anyone to come and pay full ticket prices. If I didnt have DVC points to burn and ap days left, I wouldnt be here.

Theres just too much missing. They might be able to justify a $50 ticket price right now but anything beyond that is a major reach. If it were my first visit, Id be fairly disappointed and upset with the price. Id imagine many people are debating similar things.

It feels like half the shops, half the restaurants, all the shows and entertainment are closed. Every little extra is missing. No pre show, no activities afterwards. Animal Kingdom may as well be a bone yard. Right now, the whole complex is just another amusement park.

The lack of food options when I was there in early October was alarming to me.

MK was the worst. It was over an hour wait to get any QS meal around lunchtime.
Almost all the food/drink carts were closed too.

I also have a hard time believing MK doesn't typically operate at around 35% capacity in normal times either. It was PACKED on the weekends. Almost looked like normal Christmas crowds.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

The lack of food options when I was there in early October was alarming to me.

MK was the worst. It was over an hour wait to get any QS meal around lunchtime.
Almost all the food/drink carts were closed too.

I also have a hard time believing MK doesn't typically operate at around 35% capacity in normal times either. It was PACKED on the weekends. Almost looked like normal Christmas crowds.

MK is typically at about 55% of capacity in normal times. But you have more things for people to do (just think of the queue space for the meets for Mickey, Tinkerbell, princess fairytale hall, etc) that aren't open, plus more dining, and just longer park hours spreads people out (less people taking midday breaks now)

 

[Chris Ehlers]

I noticed that the Animation Experience was open. Has it been open the whole time?

It’s been open the whole time.

 

[Dis_Yoda]

We were just there for 9 nights. We had an overall great time. We got on every ride we wanted over the course of the trip. We avoided QS rushes by eating those lunches around 11am or just eating snacks instead like at MK and we had reservations at dinner at sit down places. Those were things we already did pre-Covid to avoid crowds and long waits for food.

Was everything perfect? No, but we never felt unsafe. The times we felt uncomfortable, we were able to avoid the situation. My husband did offend someone at the Boardwalk gym over the mask requirement so she huffed off (she had said she's fine if he didn't wear a mask to run on the treadmill and he was like well masks are required so I'm wearing one) and he was annoyed about the amount of people running around the Boardwalk without a mask in the morning. In the end, you have to look out for your own safety while still being positive overall. Hand Sanitizer is available everywhere and we still had some of our own with us at all times anyway.

All sit down restaurants we felt comfortable and sufficiently away from other people. All rides were great.

 

[Eric Smith]

They are a business and they are operating still under guidelines. They aren’t going full bore.

I think it's still irresponsible. 35% attendance is rumored to be a normal day in the pre-COVID times and that seems like too many people to have in a theme park in the current environment in the US with the virus.

This change (or admission) makes me think that Disney has totally given up on opening Disneyland any time soon. It looks like they have given up trying to show Newsom that the parks are operating safely.

 

[Sarahslay]

I will say,


After this past week, I wouldnt advise anyone to come and pay full ticket prices. If I didnt have DVC points to burn and ap days left, I wouldnt be here.

Theres just too much missing. They might be able to justify a $50 ticket price right now but anything beyond that is a major reach. If it were my first visit, Id be fairly disappointed and upset with the price. Id imagine many people are debating similar things.

It feels like half the shops, half the restaurants, all the shows and entertainment are closed. Every little extra is missing. No pre show, no activities afterwards. Animal Kingdom may as well be a bone yard. Right now, the whole complex is just another amusement park.

I wouldn’t lay full price either, thankfully I have an AP and tickets for DH that were bought pre-closure (and pre-price hike), and extremely good AP discounts on all of our rooms. I’m saving over $3k on our rooms across all the holidays, I did have BB offers on two of the rooms but the AP rate was much better so I changed it. I definitely wouldn’t come if I couldn’t get major discounts, it’s not worth it. I have one friend who will be there over Christmas with her 4 kids and she’s already feeling the disappointment, her TA gave her a list of restaurants to make an ADR at past the 60 day mark and none of them are even open. I’ve had to school her on what’s going on (and tell her to get a better TA), and she’s super bummed because most of what she likes to do just isn’t there. It reminds me that not everyone is aware of what’s missing, and I think there will be some disappointed people over the next couple of months. I’ve already been since reopening so I know what my expectations are, thankfully.

 

[Sarahslay]

I think it's still irresponsible. 35% attendance is rumored to be a normal day in the pre-COVID times and that seems like too many people to have in a theme park in the current environment in the US with the virus.

This change (or admission) makes me think that Disney has totally given up on opening Disneyland any time soon. It looks like they have given up trying to show Newsom that the parks are operating safely.

Actually, I would say that regular is around 50-60% of full capacity, 35% is more like a full holiday party (which I’ve been to a sold out event, it was still a lot of people but less than during the day). I do think they’ve stepped a little over the comfort line for the parks though, it’s like they’re trying to push the line a little here and there until they feel people start to push back. Don’t know if that push back will happen though, most people will just keep their mouth shut and never let them know they aren’t happy with it.

 

[New Mouse]

I wouldn’t lay full price either, thankfully I have an AP and tickets for DH that were bought pre-closure (and pre-price hike), and extremely good AP discounts on all of our rooms. I’m saving over $3k on our rooms across all the holidays, I did have BB offers on two of the rooms but the AP rate was much better so I changed it. I definitely wouldn’t come if I couldn’t get major discounts, it’s not worth it. I have one friend who will be there over Christmas with her 4 kids and she’s already feeling the disappointment, her TA gave her a list of restaurants to make an ADR at past the 60 day mark and none of them are even open. I’ve had to school her on what’s going on (and tell her to get a better TA), and she’s super bummed because most of what she likes to do just isn’t there. It reminds me that not everyone is aware of what’s missing, and I think there will be some disappointed people over the next couple of months. I’ve already been since reopening so I know what my expectations are, thankfully.

I pay attention and I still wasnt aware of everything thats missing. You cant hook those first timers with what they are offering now.

 

[HokieRaven5]

Staying at CBR. BG 13 today. Got to the skyliner around 740am it was already going to DHS. Got on a car by 7:55 and arrived at DHS by 8am. They let us through temperature screening and security and in the park by 8:18 after a little snag at the scanners (forgot to remove our metal water bottles)

 

[Eric Smith]

Whilst I feel for the CM situation, I cannot see capacity continuing to increase. Chicago has just issued a new stay at home order I believe? With it out of control in more states than not now, further city or state stay at home orders are surely to follow soon.

Chicago is quite a long ways from Florida

 

[sullivan.kscott]

Staying at CBR. BG 13 today. Got to the skyliner around 740am it was already going to DHS. Got on a car by 7:55 and arrived at DHS by 8am. They let us through temperature screening and security and in the park by 8:18 after a little snag at the scanners (forgot to remove our metal water bottles)

Did you notice if the POP/AoA line was running at that time?

 

[HokieRaven5]

Did you notice if the POP/AoA line was running at that time?

Yes they were running all lines when I was there at 7:40. POP/AoA were getting blended with the CBR line.

 

[yulilin3]

For the sake of argument, I'm wondering what everyone thinks of the fact that Disney is actually releasing capacity numbers. They have NEVER done this before, for anything. Ask a well trained CM capacity for a theater they won't disclose, hourly ride capacity, they won't disclose, much less park capacity.
Neither universal or SW release their "limited" capacity percentage and we know those are definitely up
So why is Disney releasing this info? I see more people wavering on their decision to come after this announcement

 

[Eric Smith]

For the sake of argument, I'm wondering what everyone thinks of the fact that Disney is actually releasing capacity numbers. They have NEVER done this before, for anything. Ask a well trained CM capacity for a theater they won't disclose, hourly ride capacity, they won't disclose, much less park capacity.
Neither universal or SW release their "limited" capacity percentage and we know those are definitely up
So why is Disney releasing this info? I see more people wavering on their decision to come after this announcement

Did they release any numbers? I've just seen that Disney announced that they are now capped at 35% capacity. The percentages are a hard thing to wrap your head around. I'd really love to know whether the parks are already at this capacity or if this is a further increase from where they stand today.

 

[AvidDisReader]

I was in the parks from 10/31 thru 11/6, It never seemed crowded. My wife, daughter and 2 grand kids are all veterans of WDW and all felt the Parks were not very busy at all. Only on the last day, in MK, which was the first day of the castle projections, did it seem like a "slow" day in Mid October pre COVID. For all those hand wringing about increased attendance, lets not forget that I do believe it was in September that the Florida Govenor was encouraging Disney to allow more guests. So, it not like Disney Execs allowed more capacity until they were confident they had enough safety measures in place. I just do not get those who say that they felt uncomfortable or that there were too many crowds--to each their own I guess.

 

[Eric Smith]

I was in the parks from 10/31 thru 11/6, It never seemed crowded. My wife, daughter and 2 grand kids are all veterans of WDW and all felt the Parks were not very busy at all. Only on the last day, in MK, which was the first day of the castle projections, did it seem like a "slow" day in Mid October pre COVID. For all those hand wringing about increased attendance, lets not forget that I do believe it was in September that the Florida Govenor was encouraging Disney to allow more guests. So, it not like Disney Execs allowed more capacity until they were confident they had enough safety measures in place. I just do not get those who say that they felt uncomfortable or that there were too many crowds--to each their own I guess.

I'm going in December and my biggest concern is that Disney will increase table service restaurant capacity which would make us very uncomfortable.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

For the sake of argument, I'm wondering what everyone thinks of the fact that Disney is actually releasing capacity numbers. They have NEVER done this before, for anything. Ask a well trained CM capacity for a theater they won't disclose, hourly ride capacity, they won't disclose, much less park capacity.
Neither universal or SW release their "limited" capacity percentage and we know those are definitely up
So why is Disney releasing this info? I see more people wavering on their decision to come after this announcement

I wonder if it just has to do with that the government is providing their guidance/restrictions and you see a lot of people commenting on that (Disney is at 50% as that is what the Governor said .... Restrictions listed so Disney will be back to full capacity tomorrow!, Etc) - and provided in same format (% of capacity not hard numbers)

This way they can signal how they are controlling things more than what the government will let them (e.g., we are doing things safer,ore careful than we have to) and also signal to investors that our results were X with 25% capacity, now we are moving to 35% so people are feeling good about us, revenue should go up, therefore buy our stock

 

[AvidDisReader]

I'm going in December and my biggest concern is that Disney will increase table service restaurant capacity which would make us very uncomfortable.

We were at 4 different table service restaurants and all were very well spaced, Not once was there another table with customers next to our table. I will admit, this is the first time in the 40 plus years of going to WDW that we brought our own lunches into the parks. Only once did we try the counter service and I all ready related what I thought was a humorous account with a flip phone.