Cruise and Theme Park Operational Updates due to Coronavirus

[DGsAtBLT]

They should out up just a ton of signs about wearing masks as if they are all educational decrees

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What a missed opportunity!! Get on it, Universal.

 

[karmacats]

I bet disney increasing capacity is also causing people to cancel. It's certainly what made us second guess our trip next week.

In the end we decided to go because it should be a slower week so the capacity increase may not have much effect except maybe in DHS. Also, we've been to wdw a bazillion times so we're ok missing out on something if we feel uncomfortable, or returning to our resort if we think the parks are too crowded.

If we weren't so comfortable navigating around wdw, and/or we didn't go often so had major fear of missing out on stuff, we would have cancelled when the raised capacity came to light.

 

[only hope]

Site that shall not be named just posted a picture on Twitter of a Hogwarts express team member going around the cabins showing guests a surveillance picture reminding them that they are indeed being watched on these attractions and masks need to stay on.

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They should out up just a ton of signs about wearing masks as if they are all educational decrees

View attachment 541016

Well, that certaintly ruins the immersion even more, but I am for whatever gets people to comply.
Apparently too many people who think they can get away with endangering other peoples health and life and Uni feels this is necessary. The decrees though, that’s a good idea! The timelines are already all over the place, adding decrees or Ministry of Magic notices (depending on location) is a great idea!

 

[chicagoshannon]

We leave Friday and will welcome the cold temps. We are used to it. And yes, I will still have to take the grandtinker to the pool and splash area. Polar plunge.

We leave late Saturday. Looking forward to not sweating as much in the mask as we did in September. I'm sure my kids will still want to swim. You can find me in the hot tub! lol

 

[New Mouse]

Well, that certaintly ruins the immersion even more, but I am for whatever gets people to comply.
Apparently too many people who think they can get away with endangering other peoples health and life and Uni feels this is necessary. The decrees though, that’s a good idea! The timelines are already all over the place, adding decrees or Ministry of Magic notices (depending on location) is a great idea!

Im not sure ruining the immersion for a family that chose not to follow the rules is really an issue...i mean they do it to people who are not qualified to ride the rides all the time.

 

[Funfire240]

If you’re worried about crowds don’t come IMO today at MK is at capacity and it shows. It is scary packed. Mask compliance is so so and eating in line seems to not matter. Had family in PP line now all eating Mickey bars and no one said anything.

 

[skeeter31]

Yeah for us, we cancelled due to the current virus spike and our little getaway being so close after Thanksgiving, where I’m sure we are going to see quite a big spike related to those gatherings. For us its not really a big deal as we were staying on points and we‘re only an hour away (we pushed it back to 1/4-1/6 right now). Sorry I can’t help anyone with ADRs, we’ve only been doing QS and take out on our trips since reopening.

 

[New Mouse]

If you’re worried about crowds don’t come IMO today at MK is at capacity and it shows. It is scary packed. Mask compliance is so so and eating in line seems to not matter. Had family in PP line now all eating Mickey bars and no one said anything.

So essentially it seems like there is a cap on what staff can reasonably handle as well...curious to see if the suits drop capacity as safety is the first key...

 

[mamapenguin]

Frustrating bus ride from MK to AKL Jambo today. Someone got on at Kidani without a mask on, bus driver didn’t say anything but we ran off as soon as we could. Hoping it was an isolated incident.

Not acceptable, they should not have been allowed to board. I would have said something immediately.

 

[indylaw99]

We just got back today after taking trips in July and October. A few things I noticed:

• MK stays open MUCH longer after closing time to get pictures in front of the castle. I think we even got PhotoPass almost an hour after the park closed, and there were MANY people just hanging out in there. We were also able to hop into the bakery on our way out (maybe a bit over an hour after closing?). DS was much different. The Tower of Terror projections turned off completely 30 minutes after park closing time, and we didn't see PhotoPass out there at all after park closing. The stores were open a little longer but not even 45 minutes later.
• Boardwalk Villas still didn't seem busy walking around inside but the Boardwalk itself was hopping!! Lots of people on the grass watching the movie. All the tables full. Pizza Window and Bakery full. So, so different than our last two trips! But not uncomfortable at all.
• We were able to add EPCOT park reservations ON Thanksgiving Day. We were driving back from a Tampa family dinner and took a chance just to see if there were any available since the park didn't close until 10. I was really surprised we were able to get them day of.
• MMRR lines are so much shorter with the plexiglass!! Multiple times during the day yesterday the line was only 25-30 minutes.
• The plexiglass on ROTR wasn't a big deal (we were in the back row).
• Getting ROTR boarding passes--normally my husband's phone works fastest in the park. Trying at 7am from the room, I was surprised that my phone got in faster on the Wifi than his did on data because the Wifi in our room was so slow the whole trip. Maybe not many people are using it at 7am??
• ROTR stopped briefly and then our group got called 34 around 11:30. But they cut out part of the ride!! Clearly part of it was broken and they decided just to have everyone skip that part rather than shutting it down completely. It was everything from the part where the queue starts to get entertaining up until you enter a REALLY BIG ROOM. So you basically went from waiting in line to getting lined up on your colors without any of the other fun stuff in between.
• We hated the previous Hollywood and Vine buffet, but the holiday character meal had good food and was cute. It was kind of sad because we couldn't completely interact with the characters, but we did get pictures fairly close with them, and they did dance around and pantomime things. Soooooooo worth it if you have little ones who want to get to see Mickey and Minnie with the meet and greets still closed.
• Staying from park open to park close, we rode almost every ride in each park, ate a counter meal, ate a sit down meal, got numerous PhotoPasses, and saw at least half the cavalcades. So even though it was much busier, we still got a LOT done!!

 

[jemtx]

Thanks for the detailed review.

 

[only hope]

Im not sure ruining the immersion for a family that chose not to follow the rules is really an issue...i mean they do it to people who are not qualified to ride the rides all the time.

I said in my post that safety is more important than immersion. But if the report is right, it’s everyone being shown the photo, not families/people breaking the rules.

 

[Funfire240]

So essentially it seems like there is a cap on what staff can reasonably handle as well...curious to see if the suits drop capacity as safety is the first key...

We did see a lot of what looked like management around today. We did have a great day but they do need more help. People push the limits. Stroller parking was a mess - people just put them anywhere and I’ve seen a lot of garbage such as bottles just left places instead of put in the garbage. So many people walking around with masks down and eating in line. Ive seen CMs correct them but I’ve also seen others look the other way at times too. We’ve had a great week but it’s just too many people for me with not enough places to put them

 

[New Mouse]

We did see a lot of what looked like management around today. We did have a great day but they do need more help. People push the limits. Stroller parking was a mess - people just put them anywhere and I’ve seen a lot of garbage such as bottles just left places instead of put in the garbage. So many people walking around with masks down and eating in line. Ive seen CMs correct them but I’ve also seen others look the other way at times too. We’ve had a great week but it’s just too many people for me with not enough places to put them

Agreed. Both Disney and Universal are now putting profits (more people) over safety. There seems to be a breaking point where x amount of staff can only handle x amount of crowd control and it has been passed.

Someone had asked why bring back all that staff so they can just hang around...they are needed for enforcement. On our latest trip we noticed lots of staff doing nothing that could have easily been repurposed

I will also say the citizens of the state of Florida dont really believe in the virus so with a larger local crowd you will get less compliance.

 

[Best_Vacation_EVER!]

I will also say the citizens of the state of Florida dont really believe in the virus so with a larger local crowd you will get less compliance.

I think this is the part that makes me most nervous to go to WDW. Still have issues that locals who don't take the pandemic seriously makes WDW that much riskier.... but there are so many places that as visitor you access that aren't in the Disney bubble.... is taking a flight, walking through an airport, standing at the luggage carousel, going to the car rental desk, stopping at a grocery store, etc... safe if local people don't even believe Covid is real. I think Disney is doing it's best but if the local population isn't on the ball.... then the whole thing weakens confidence for tourists .... hopefully once vaccinations are out there people will take them.... We have a trip booked for December 2021 and plan to rent a car but it still makes me nervous since I have zero confidence Florida at large will vaccinate or limit transmission by then --- it makes us reluctant to book anything outside of disney at all....

 

[gottalovepluto]

I think this is the part that makes me most nervous to go to WDW. Still have issues that locals who don't take the pandemic seriously makes WDW that much riskier.... but there are so many places that as visitor you access that aren't in the Disney bubble.... is taking a flight, walking through an airport, standing at the luggage carousel, going to the car rental desk, stopping at a grocery store, etc... safe if local people don't even believe Covid is real. I think Disney is doing it's best but if the local population isn't on the ball.... then the whole thing weakens confidence for tourists .... hopefully once vaccinations are out there people will take them.... We have a trip booked for December 2021 and plan to rent a car but it still makes me nervous since I have zero confidence Florida at large will vaccinate or limit transmission by then --- it makes us reluctant to book anything outside of disney at all....

I’m not blaming this all on “locals”. If that were the case reports we’re seeing today would be seen every weekend.

“zero confidence FL at large will vaccinate or limit transmission by then” as goes the rest of the country so will FL. It’s not like FL is some bastion of anti-vaxers when compared to some states that shall remain nameless

 

[mshanson3121]

So. There's been a pandemic for 10 months.

Not with 150,000+ cases daily there hasn't been. I would guess for many it's the large increase in numbers. And as others said, travel restrictions, quarantine requirements etc... likely also play a role.

 

[mshanson3121]

Things might not be 100% back to normal, but as we’re seeing, WDW is continuously bringing more and more back,

I've been (pleasantly) surprised seeing the photos of the pop up parades/calvacades etc... It does seem like they're trying to bring some of the "magic" back.

 

[LSUmiss]

Agreed. Both Disney and Universal are now putting profits (more people) over safety. There seems to be a breaking point where x amount of staff can only handle x amount of crowd control and it has been passed.

Someone had asked why bring back all that staff so they can just hang around...they are needed for enforcement. On our latest trip we noticed lots of staff doing nothing that could have easily been repurposed

I will also say the citizens of the state of Florida dont really believe in the virus so with a larger local crowd you will get less compliance.

They always planned to. I said that from the beginning when they first opened back up. They will all do what they can get away with that makes them the most money.

 

[mattpeto]

Tom Bricker speculates immunity certs “digital health passport” could be on its way for tourism (especially air travel) and potentially at WDW.

Walt Disney World could do likewise, requiring proof of a negative test or vaccination X days before checking into a hotel or first-use of tickets. It’s possible that the digital health pass could even interface with the Disney Park Pass or My Disney Experience infrastructure.

https://www.disneytouristblog.com/d...g1nNeE3O0aEVU1IcX-GfiG3o-DCbmbxJ7l1l1O2hDjekQ