News Round Up 2020

[rteetz]

News

https://blogmickey.com/2020/08/mexi...ntrol-measures-during-busy-weekends-at-epcot/

 

[Helvetica]

The "Child" magic band that's been available to order as a premium resort band now has an image and it's different than the "Child" band that you can find in the parks.

 

[birostick]

The Tinkerbell AP magnet arrived at my house in the mail today. Hadn’t seen any reports of them arriving yet. So be on the lookout!

Got mine as well. Pic for anyone curious.

Edit - Quick note, 2 AP holders in household and we did get 2 magnets.

 

[The Pho]

News

Some bonus Rhino action on the Safari today.

https://**************.net/2020/08/rhinos-fight-kilimanjaro-safaris-kc1/

 

[CastAStone]

California released guidence on Theme Park reopening. The county has to be in Yellow status. OC is currently in Purple. Each county has to qualify for a better status for 3 weeks to be moved. There are 3 steps (Purple, Red, and Orange) for OC to clear to get to Yellow. means 1 case per 100,000 residents, which only a handful of US counties currently meet, most of them sparsely populated.

So for those curious when Disneyland will reopen, it's going to be a WHILE.

Edited: my colorblind eyes saw green but it’s yellow.

https://covid19.ca.gov/safer-economy/

 

[wareagle57]

It's impossible to ignore the fact that the crowds are much worse on the weekend. But it just doesn't really make much since given they are "reaching capacity" on the weekdays as well. Where would the extra crowds for the weekend be coming from? Usually you'd say it's locals. But that doesn't make much sense that they are coming from locals, since day of AP availability is almost always sold out by the day of. Are hotels booked more on weekends? Is it from people driving distance away coming for the day and buying day of tickets? Or is Disney simply allowing more APs in on those days?

The obvious is that they aren't truly at capacity, and they know they won't come close to approaching it. It is understandable that Disney prefers day guests and resort guests as they undoubtedly bring in more money. But I think Disney is actually taking it a step further. They know they could let more APs in during the week but would rather not have them there at all. Higher crowd means higher staffing costs and never little is in it for Disney. And the other guests suffer.

Can't say I blame them. Even with the already extremely low crowds, wait times can get pretty bad. They will have to increase capacity on rides themselves before increasing park capacity further or you will have the worst of both worlds. Limited hours and experiences, but the same old terrible wait times now minus FP+. Not to mention some rides already having no where to go with their extended queues unless social distancing is eliminated.

One thing that would help wait times is if Disney adopted Universals method. They don't shut down to clean, but personally put hand sanitizer on each rider. Cleaning only once an hour might as well be not at all IMO. Especially given the fact that transmission from surfaces is nowhere near as likely as once thought.

 

[Brianstl]

The "Child" magic band that's been available to order as a premium resort band now has an image and it's different than the "Child" band that you can find in the parks.

The Mandalorian is on the other side.

 

[chicagoshannon]

California released guidence on Theme Park reopening. The county has to be in Green status. OC is currently in Purple. Each county has to qualify for a better status for 3 weeks to be moved. There are 3 steps (Purple, Red, and Orange) for OC to clear to get to Green. Green means 1 case per 100,000 residents, which only a handful of US counties currently meet, most of them sparsely populated.

So for those curious when Disneyland will reopen, it's going to be a WHILE.

https://covid19.ca.gov/safer-economy/

That's.......special.

 

[dina444444]

California released guidence on Theme Park reopening. The county has to be in Yellow status. OC is currently in Purple. Each county has to qualify for a better status for 3 weeks to be moved. There are 3 steps (Purple, Red, and Orange) for OC to clear to get to Yellow. means 1 case per 100,000 residents, which only a handful of US counties currently meet, most of them sparsely populated.

So for those curious when Disneyland will reopen, it's going to be a WHILE.

Edited: my colorblind eyes saw green but it’s yellow.

https://covid19.ca.gov/safer-economy/

Theme parks are on there. Newsom is meeting with theme park industry later today, they likely will have separate guidelines.

 

[OSUZorba]

https://blogmickey.com/2020/08/disney-parks-chairman-park-reservation-system-is-here-to-stay/
I knew it!! Next will be allowing APs to bypass reservations after they Jack up the price some more.

Then my prediction will totally right !

Disney seems to be the only company any where that is actively adding friction to the experience. Outside of a handful of days a year, this makes no sense and FPP effectively gives them the same data.

 

[rteetz]

Disney seems to be the only company any where that is actively adding friction to the experience. Outside of a handful of days a year, this makes no sense and FPP effectively gives them the same data.

If FP+ goes away they won’t have that anymore.

 

[Vern60]

Disney seems to be the only company any where that is actively adding friction to the experience. Outside of a handful of days a year, this makes no sense and FPP effectively gives them the same data.

Again, I'm going to argue that this headline is really misleading. I just watched that portion of the interview again, around the 5 min mark and he's just talking about technology in general, mobile order, contactless payment, virtual ride ques, not the Park Reservation System in particular. Makes me think this article is written by cable news writers.

https://blogmickey.com/2020/08/disney-parks-chairman-park-reservation-system-is-here-to-stay/
Edit: Added article link

 

[OSUZorba]

I think Josh was just talking about the technology in general, such as mobile order, not the park reservation system specifically. I wouldn't think that is a certainty at all.
As was already pointed out, they already had that with Fastpass + though no guarantee that will stick around either.

Yeah, I sort of read it that way too.

 

[rteetz]

News

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/h...the-works-with-writer-katie-dippold-exclusive

 

[KYMickey]

Disney seems to be the only company any where that is actively adding friction to the experience. Outside of a handful of days a year, this makes no sense and FPP effectively gives them the same data.

I don't know about anyone else but doing things like this, even disregarding the pandemic, makes it less and less fun to go to WDW. A vacation is supposed to be just that, a way to get away from deadlines and schedules. Everything they are doing now makes a visit a much more rigid experience. They are certainly going to turn off many people from visiting, I know even prior to the pandemic we have been going less and less often because we felt less relaxed after the visit than before it.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

I don't know about anyone else but doing things like this, even disregarding the pandemic, makes it less and less fun to go to WDW. A vacation is supposed to be just that, a way to get away from deadlines and schedules. Everything they are doing now makes a visit a much more rigid experience. They are certainly going to turn off many people from visiting, I know even prior to the pandemic we have been going less and less often because we felt less relaxed after the visit than before it.

Guess it depends on your personality. We did a local vacation this year and had no schedule, no plans, etc

I feel way more stressed and we had had way more disagreements about what to do and where to meet, etc than our Disney trips where everyone just follows my spreadsheets

 

[soniam]

Guess it depends on your personality. We did a local vacation this year and had no schedule, no plans, etc

I feel way more stressed and we had had way more disagreements about what to do and where to meet, etc than our Disney trips where everyone just follows my spreadsheets

I too follow the Mussolini vacation plan My husband knows better than to question me. My son did it once, and he couldn't ride anything due to long waits. He never has again

 

[rteetz]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1299529139133624321

 

[rteetz]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1299530165463199747

 

[sara_s]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1299529139133624321

What?! That can't be....I'm shocked.