Worried wait times will be high

[tinkerhon]

Do people flying in from NY still have to quarantine?

I heard restriction until July 8 right now, but maybe someone can confirm ?

 

[wilkydelts]

Ok, just wanted to make sure I didn't miss something. I'm definitely anxious to hear how the system will work...I'm also curious as to how far ahead of your trip you'll be able to "reserve."

Yes the park reservation system is the scariest unknown. As people say half joking they do not want to attend EPCOT for 5 straight days.

 

[DisLiss]

I never expected wait times to really change much because I figure if you reduce park capacity and ride/attraction capacity proportionately then the line length would stay about the same. But hey, time will tell.

 

[Jrb1979]

Man Disney fans are spoiled. I take it many don't go to a park like Cedar Point where wait times are usually an hour or more for the too attractions.

 

[Sandisw]

Incorrect because they could be delaying your booking for FP+ until you have a reservation just like they are for ADRs.
We only know why they got rid of them was for spacing issues as indicated directly from Dinsey.

They had to do away with them because there were too many of them given capacity because people were still booking them.

If they let people keep them, guests would feel they were entitled to have first dibs at that park. Same with ADRs...if someone has one at MK and cant get a park reservation for that day, then it would need to be canceled anyway,

I am hearing that once people have a park reservation, then the ADR system might be unlocked for those guests to book.

 

[wilkydelts]

@Sandisw yes you are right there was no way of keeping FP+ with the new system and a sense of entitlement.
However that is not what I was referring to. If they were worried about needing them for line management they could open them after you have secured a reservation the same way they have said they will handle ADRs. Since they are going to use those lines for spacing now their analytics must be telling them they aren’t worried about wait times or they would still be implementing an adjusted FP+.

 

[Sandisw]

@Sandisw yes you are right there was no way of keeping FP+ with the new system and a sense of entitlement.
However that is not what I was referring to. If they were worried about needing them for line management they could open them after you have secured a reservation the same way they have said they will handle ADRs. Since they are going to use those lines for spacing now their analytics must be telling them they aren’t worried about wait times or they would still be implementing an adjusted FP+.

Okay,..I do think they are going to do some virtual queues and then be able to use both FP and regular areas to feed everyone in who has a call back time. Maybe they will even allow people to schedule those ahead of time like FP, and have no traditional standby

 

[westie55]

OP, I am in the same position as you. We have an almost 3 and almost 5 year old and I am concerned that long wait times (without fp) in masks will be especially challenging. All the things without long wait times like Country Bears and Tiki Room may be closed-- we just don't know. I had two trips booked: one for July 23 and a backup for August 24. I am not planning to go July 23. I will wait to see what happens and what people are reporting the experience is actually like and then make my decision about August. We will just keep postponing until I feel like my family can handle what Disney has to offer. I don't blame Disney at all. They are doing what they can to open during a pandemic. I am admittedly a Disney addict and I SO want to go mostly because I feel like the restrictions are going to be around for a long time... And even a reduced Disney experience is better than sitting at home. The masks on small children in the heat, possibility of no indoor shows, and no FP is giving me great pause however. I am not willing to roll the dice until I know more.

 

[disneylover102]

I think WDW is going to be a completely different animal than SDL. SDL has just one park for people to go to as opposed to four at WDW and they are still using Fastpass which probably makes the wait times a lot higher. And they’re not using virtual queues which will make everything different in either a good way or a bad way.

 

[MarkS2112]

Wait times all year were high. January was like typical summer busy season which was way above usual January. The months that followed got even worse. Now that being said nothing applies to previous this year. I think there are going to be long waits no matter what. So if that is a concern among other things I would say reschedule as it just won’t be the same.

 

[Kim Gillihan]

I understand your point, but I think it's unfortunately a little simplistic for a number of reasons.

But mainly...we don't know what we don't know. The alternative could be worse; and that is where my family and I are. We are worried about our upcoming trip, yes. But, even IF we re-schedule....there is no guarantee that things will be changed by 2021 or 2022. There may still be restrictions in place. AND the crowds will be much higher by then. (maybe, probably, no one really knows)

If we knew, for a fact that fireworks and character meets and fastpass would be back this date, March 2021 as an example, then it makes it much easier to make that decision to re-schedule.

But right now, a lot of us are in a position where it's the lesser of two evils. Do we keep what we have, knowing that the trip is not going to be the trip we wanted or planned for? Or do we roll the dice, reschedule, and still have a less than ideal trip, and maybe even the conditions are even worse than they would have been?

we are in the same boat!! Booked on my dvc points at AK kidani .. My cousin and her family have only certain times she can plan... she doesnt even know if all 3 of her older kids due to college and sports etc would be able to go next summer or when that would be!! So, how do you plan for that.. you cant..so we are trying to figure out if we should still go... if we had more info we can make better decisions... our trip is june 25 for 7 nights... if disney would give us half our ticket money back since we are getting a way less experience that would make it easier to swallow and 1/2 experience!

 

[TigerlilyAJ]

Disney is not telling the public that with no shows, no parades, no fireworks and no meet & greets, all the people normally occupied with those activities will be going to rides (because what else is there to do besides eat & shop). This fact combined with underfilled rides will make the wait times even longer than pre-virus wait times. As a DVC owner and passholder it grieves me to say it may not be worth the ticket cost for families anymore. What are you getting for your money? Long wait times and the ability to walk around and wave at characters.

Ouch, this idea resonates with a sting, as we are the family that usually spends plenty of time on shows and builds whole itineraries around FP for M&G and character meals to get time with all our faves. A visit this year sounds like one where we'd have to refocus on rides, which could be *great*, except that the lines could be long.
I also use the live entertainment (shows, parades) in my explanation as to how we get our money's worth out of ticket prices. I know how much it costs to take the family to live stage shows, and the parks are a bargain, given the rides and entertainment.
The thing that keeps me hanging on to hear reports from July visitors is how wrong projections were for EEMH and Galaxy's Edge. I spent all fall 2019 kicking myself for waiting when I saw people enjoying beautiful sunrises in Batuu and empty mornings. A small part of me wonders optimistically if things will work out this year like EEMH did because of the capacity caps. Crazy, I know, but hope springs eternal.

 

[PrincessWithABlaster]

Man Disney fans are spoiled. I take it many don't go to a park like Cedar Point where wait times are usually an hour or more for the too attractions.

Yes. But you should try Universal with Express Pass included in your room. That's a whole-nother level of spoiled.

 

[cakebaker]

Man Disney fans are spoiled. I take it many don't go to a park like Cedar Point where wait times are usually an hour or more for the too attractions.

I know I don't. I don't stand in hour long lines to ride anything. I didn't before FP+ at WDW and I don't now. It's not a matter of being spoiled, it's about choosing a place that I don't have to do something I intensely dislike doing. The thing is, WDW always had other things to do besides just rides. With all these cuts, they really are more like an amusement park with just rides. It was possible to go to any of the parks, never get on a single ride and still have an amazing time. You won't be able to now.

 

[mamaofsix]

@Sandisw yes you are right there was no way of keeping FP+ with the new system and a sense of entitlement.
However that is not what I was referring to. If they were worried about needing them for line management they could open them after you have secured a reservation the same way they have said they will handle ADRs. Since they are going to use those lines for spacing now their analytics must be telling them they aren’t worried about wait times or they would still be implementing an adjusted FP+.

Disney themselves said that they would not be using fp because they needed that space for the regular line with social distancing protocol. So, in my mind canceling fp had nothing to do with wait times and everything to do with them simply needing extra space.

I think their analytics ARE telling them that wait times will be long . . . they are doing everything they can to make a visit seem unappealing so that more people cancel their trips and there are less crowds in the parks. If they can get those crowds down low enough, waiting won't be so long. Just my opinion.

 

[wilkydelts]

I think their analytics ARE telling them that wait times will be long . . . they are doing everything they can to make a visit seem unappealing so that more people cancel their trips and there are less crowds in the parks. If they can get those crowds down low enough, waiting won't be so long. Just my opinion.

Disney will have complete control over their numbers through the reservation system so they do not need to worry about crowds. I do agree they are wanting people to cancel so that they do not have to deal with disgruntled guests who do no make it into the reservation system.

 

[DisneyJade]

I would hope Disney is planning for appropriate staffing, capacity and procedures to avoid excessively long waits. Considering they are still charging full price for a heavily diluted experience I believe it would lead to a lot of complaints, bad PR and future cancellations if the available experiences do not run smoothly.

As someone who only goes every 2-3 years I would not be willing to spend the money on a trip right now but if I was a local or frequent visitor I wouldn’t hesitate.

I was going to say exactly this. If we had a reservation in 2020, we would be cancelling. But if I lived nearby, I would be first in line!

 

[Tormania]

I’m surprised by those Shanghai times. You really don’t want people standing together for 90 minutes at a time. Even 6 feet apart.

I saw a video last week from Shanghai and while the "front" of the lines (the areas where the actual attraction entrance was) seemed to honor the social distancing guides, much further out where they had to make the longer, make shift lines (think how the Avatar lines would snake through Pandora well outside the attraction), there was little to no "social distancing", just looked like a normal line of people lined up for a ride, albeit wearing masks.

Now this is just my personal opinion but the attempts to social distance in attraction lines will, in practice, not last very long. Some guests will be fanatical about it for sure but many others will be more lax, and that 6 feet will become 5 feet, will become 3 feet, and eventually it will be not much different than what most folks are normally comfortable with, especially with the mask requirement, cause as we have been told my the "medical community" that the mask is necessary when you can't social distance so people will naturally wind up closer together.

That being said, the line circumstances regarding social distancing really have no bearing on the wait times. If you have 500 people in line it doesn't matter if they are 2 feet apart of 6 feet apart, the line will still move at the same pace. The bottleneck will be things where they are only loading half capacity on rides, think POTC but every other row, or if they are wiping down the ride after every go, think TSM and the blaster controls. Those are the things that are the main drivers into extending the wait times.