WDW COVID-19 Operational Changes- Reservation System-Rope Drop Procedures

Well, our experience today didn't go well. At the Magic Kingdom, no one was enforcing the new rule that I saw. People everywhere walking and eating/drinking. Many people with masks below their nose. That did get corrected sometimes. At Epcot on Saturday there seemed to be cast members who entire job was to gently enforce the policies. We didn't see that at Hollywood Studios yesterday or today (Monday) at MK.

It gets worse. We went to Disney Springs. No enforcement of the new rule there at all. People everyone walking around with masks off with drinks/food. No signs out informing of the new rule (at MK or DS) from what I saw. Lots of people walking around with masks worn improperly. For the most part, we could try to avoid people skirting the rules though. We just had to pay extra attention.

It gets worse though. We went to the bus stop to wait for a ride back to our resort, Pop Century. The chains in the queue were misconfigured so that it was not possible to follow the physical distancing floor markers. The queue was set up so that the only way it would work was to have people in each row, no empty row between. This wasn't a big deal at first as we thought a bus would arrive soon and we could space ourselves j in the queue as far away as possible. However, the queue then filled up behind us and in all three rows. It continued to queue up on the brick planters or walls outside the regular queues. We were within three feet of two other families for about 30 minutes. When two buses finally came, there were enough people there to fill four or five socially distanced buses. I contacted guest services the App chat feature to report the problem. I also told the bus driver once he was there. He seemed to shrug it off. He then proceeded to fill the bus beyond the physical distancing limits. There were at least two families in same section in front of us, facing each other. My laptop battery is dying, so I will stop here.
 
I’m just waiting for Disney to assign individual bathroom schedules upon park entrance 😅

Don't forget Fastpasses for up to 3 visits per day (bookable at 60 days out) without the need to wait in line

Also, I can see Premium Seating, (gold plated thrones with lily scented toilet paper) for $99 a day (includes your very own porcelain plated souvenir pin and free hydroalcolic gel sample bottle)

And then, Dining reservations, at buffets, with special access vouchers for the throne room (first showing only)
 




Well that's a bummer...we were planning on using them after swimming on our departure day.

We do that on every departure day, in fact we used the ones at Saratoga Springs when we checked on this past June 24. That was one of the biggest perks I found for staying at a Disney resort. That really changes my mind on somethings.
 
What was it like in MCO?
We flew on Southwest from Dallas to MCO. The Orlando airport was not nearly as crowded as usual, but in the waiting area for the flight many people were not wearing masks at all or had them pulled down. Most disappointing was the gate agent and the Southwest person that does something with the ramps etc. both had their masks pulled totally down. At Budget rental car not one agent had their mask over their nose and in the LONG line waiting for the car (they have eliminated fast break) half the people didn't have on masks. It was pretty scary, much worse than the parks. I am not eager to fly again. On the flight home, the two people in the seats across the aisle, neither had their masks on over their noses, I mentioned this to the flight attendant and she asked them to wear them correctly, the min. she turned around the lady pulled it all the way down. We got up and moved.
 
It gets worse though. We went to the bus stop to wait for a ride back to our resort, Pop Century. The chains in the queue were misconfigured so that it was not possible to follow the physical distancing floor markers. The queue was set up so that the only way it would work was to have people in each row, no empty row between. This wasn't a big deal at first as we thought a bus would arrive soon and we could space ourselves j in the queue as far away as possible. However, the queue then filled up behind us and in all three rows. It continued to queue up on the brick planters or walls outside the regular queues. We were within three feet of two other families for about 30 minutes. When two buses finally came, there were enough people there to fill four or five socially distanced buses. I contacted guest services the App chat feature to report the problem. I also told the bus driver once he was there. He seemed to shrug it off. He then proceeded to fill the bus beyond the physical distancing limits. There were at least two families in same section in front of us, facing each other. My laptop battery is dying, so I will stop here.
The busses sucked when I was there this past weekend. They had sections numbered 1-6, and that's how many groups they'd put on the bus. So you waited FOREVER because one bus could potentially leave with 6 people on it, or you'd be on essentially a full bus because everyone was in parties of 5. I'd prefer the empty bus, obviously, but I never waited less than 30 minutes for a bus. Sometimes it was over 45 minutes. I couldn't believe they had so few running. Bus drivers can't do much about it, I think, because almost every time I saw someone try to talk about the problem to them and they shrugged it off, like you experienced. So they can either take a small number of people while those in line get more frustrated, or they can pack the bus full but have less of a chance of someone yelling at them ("do you know how long we've been waiting here"). A few CM's told me to please write in to guest services to express that the number of busses running was insufficient, and I did so. I'd say the busses were the most poorly managed aspect of Disney's new policies.
 
The busses sucked when I was there this past weekend. They had sections numbered 1-6, and that's how many groups they'd put on the bus. So you waited FOREVER because one bus could potentially leave with 6 people on it, or you'd be on essentially a full bus because everyone was in parties of 5. I'd prefer the empty bus, obviously, but I never waited less than 30 minutes for a bus. Sometimes it was over 45 minutes. I couldn't believe they had so few running. Bus drivers can't do much about it, I think, because almost every time I saw someone try to talk about the problem to them and they shrugged it off, like you experienced. So they can either take a small number of people while those in line get more frustrated, or they can pack the bus full but have less of a chance of someone yelling at them ("do you know how long we've been waiting here"). A few CM's told me to please write in to guest services to express that the number of busses running was insufficient, and I did so. I'd say the busses were the most poorly managed aspect of Disney's new policies.
Man I really wish they’d drop the parking fees so I could rent a car. Car rental prices are through the roof on top of the parking fee I can’t do it. I’ll probably use Lyft. Thanks for the heads up.
 
We flew on Southwest from Dallas to MCO. The Orlando airport was not nearly as crowded as usual, but in the waiting area for the flight many people were not wearing masks at all or had them pulled down. Most disappointing was the gate agent and the Southwest person that does something with the ramps etc. both had their masks pulled totally down.
We flew between Houston & MCO and felt safest waiting until all of the other passengers had boarded before boarding ourselves. We waited across the room rather than stand near the mob. We purposefully did not bring bags that would require the overhead bin, so we wouldn't have to worry about boarding earlier (and it helped that United has assigned seats). So that technique can help someone who's nervous about boarding.

On the plane itself, though, my experience was worse than yours. First class was completely full, a flight attendant kept his mask completely under his chin whenever he was in the galley, including during boarding & making drinks. Passengers drank & snacked through much of the flight with masks off.
 
Well, our experience today didn't go well. At the Magic Kingdom, no one was enforcing the new rule that I saw. People everywhere walking and eating/drinking. Many people with masks below their nose. That did get corrected sometimes. At Epcot on Saturday there seemed to be cast members who entire job was to gently enforce the policies. We didn't see that at Hollywood Studios yesterday or today (Monday) at MK.

It gets worse. We went to Disney Springs. No enforcement of the new rule there at all. People everyone walking around with masks off with drinks/food. No signs out informing of the new rule (at MK or DS) from what I saw. Lots of people walking around with masks worn improperly. For the most part, we could try to avoid people skirting the rules though. We just had to pay extra attention.

It gets worse though. We went to the bus stop to wait for a ride back to our resort, Pop Century. The chains in the queue were misconfigured so that it was not possible to follow the physical distancing floor markers. The queue was set up so that the only way it would work was to have people in each row, no empty row between. This wasn't a big deal at first as we thought a bus would arrive soon and we could space ourselves j in the queue as far away as possible. However, the queue then filled up behind us and in all three rows. It continued to queue up on the brick planters or walls outside the regular queues. We were within three feet of two other families for about 30 minutes. When two buses finally came, there were enough people there to fill four or five socially distanced buses. I contacted guest services the App chat feature to report the problem. I also told the bus driver once he was there. He seemed to shrug it off. He then proceeded to fill the bus beyond the physical distancing limits. There were at least two families in same section in front of us, facing each other. My laptop battery is dying, so I will stop here.
That is really concerning-I have to think it will get worse as numbers of Guests is increased over time.
 
Thats why I will drive if I go in December. There is no consistency. I am just praying there won't be a travel restriction between Texas and Florida. That would kill my trip
 
We flew from LAX to MCO the other day and wasn't at all concerned. Everyone had their masks on, and all did their best to stay separated. I did see some situations that most likely would have caused some pearl clutching from other members of this board, but when looking at the totality of each sitation, everyone was doing their best at the time.

I've been very impressed with everyone here at WDW. Everyone is in compliance, and I've seen numerous CMs approach guests to correct behavior.
 

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