Any truth in this

HauntedMansionFLA

Well-Known Member
I was hoping for a soft opening of sorts for passholders only but now that I read this I could see it as a real possibility. It fills the hotels (thus employing more staff) and just makes more money. It only makes sense if all attractions are open though. No one would pay and travel for half an experience. Much easier to control the crowds if they're all registered guests. I'm a passholder and now I'm depressed. They have already announced free dining so it may be coming. They can get away with a lot more bc of social distancing.
Most local pass holders are smart enough to not stay on site, eat before they get to the parks and don’t buy souvenirs/drink/snacks
 

Josh Hendy

Well-Known Member
I was at Antigua once, and every evening they closed all the pools, restaurants, etc around the resort from 4ish to 5ish...the staff came out and fogged the whole place in mosquito repellent.

I’m going to imagine a similar “treatment” for the resort in the evenings or late at night, as it relates to virus.
Instead of swamps, the reservoirs where CV breeds is in human beings. Hard to fog them 🤔
 

DisneyCane

Well-Known Member
I don't post here often. The past few weeks have given me ample time to reflect on these issues. Please know that the following is just speculation and my own opinion.

I don't see how one profitably runs a theme park and maintains social distancing guidelines in any effective way. There are a lot of theoretical ideas that have been bandied about here, eliminating interior queues, reducing restaurant capacity, eliminating entertainment that promotes massed gatherings of people, etc. The bottom line is that a place like WDW or Universal are very expensive to run and if any theme park operator engages in these tactics to promote social distancing, the experience is going to be so compromised that admission prices would have to be slashed. This, in tandem with a practice like limiting the number of guests at the gate, would make the parks unprofitable to run. That being said, I don't foresee theme parks reopening until people can gather in crowds in a fairly normal fashion. Remember, even during events where admission to a park is very limited, you still end up with massed gatherings of people. People are not going to go to a place with employees barking at them to disperse or maintain separation. It's fundamentally counter to the purpose of the experience. Now, when this is all over with, I do hope some of the hygiene habits stay in practice.
Definitely agree that the business model of a theme park is to maximize admissions. The only way to run a profitable and social distanced park would be to raise prices to obscene levels so the profit per guest is much higher (and has to account for lost ancillary sales) but attendance is much lower.

Alternatively, somebody can create a 3 foot radius hula hoop that attaches to a belt with support rods. Then you'll stay socially distanced when your hoop touches somebody else's. There could be some delay loading and some issues sitting in theaters.
 

Disney Analyst

Well-Known Member
Don’t we think the hotels and resorts are the highest risk site for spread of a virus? Your basically telling people from anywhere to come stay, and then with the data that Covid was surviving in ship cabins for up to 17 days on cruise liners... Do we think the resorts would even open for bookings?

I think it may be easier to just open some parks, limit attendance, and not even deal with the resorts yet.

Also easier if they suddenly need to close again due to a surge.
 

peter11435

Well-Known Member
Don’t we think the hotels and resorts are the highest risk site for spread of a virus? Your basically telling people from anywhere to come stay, and then with the data that Covid was surviving in ship cabins for up to 17 days on cruise liners... Do we think the resorts would even open for bookings?

I think it may be easier to just open some parks, limit attendance, and not even deal with the resorts yet.

Also easier if they suddenly need to close again due to a surge.
The surfaces in the hotels would be no more of a risk than those in the parks. But they would be easier to sanitize between guests.
 

Nunu

Wanderluster
Premium Member
Don’t we think the hotels and resorts are the highest risk site for spread of a virus? Your basically telling people from anywhere to come stay, and then with the data that Covid was surviving in ship cabins for up to 17 days on cruise liners... Do we think the resorts would even open for bookings?

I think it may be easier to just open some parks, limit attendance, and not even deal with the resorts yet.

Also easier if they suddenly need to close again due to a surge.
At the very least, I'd expect mousekeeping to be properly retrained on how to not just clean, but disinfect rooms, from now on.

I've contributed, read and participated at the Trip Reports thread on these Forums. Members often report about poor mousekeeping in their resort rooms.

This needs to change.
 

csmat99

Well-Known Member
Is there any truth to the rumor that if and when WDW reopens, hopefully this summer yet, that it will only open for people with reservations staying on Disney resort property only, WDW will be trying to keep the crowds in the parks down, hopefully so there is some distancing between the people, and not reactivate the virus by close contact. Any truth here?
That can't do that. AP will have right to come in. Now they can change the number of people that will make the park at capacity but they can't deny a AP entry to park they paid for. By the way it's looking with recent news I can't see them opening until end of summer. Wimbledon cancelled first time since WW2, British open cancelled and that is in July.
 
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TJinSF

Active Member
Ongoing uncertainty is nearly as disruptive as present cancellations. I think more people than we might guess have canceled prior plans and are definitely holding off on making new ones. When the parks reopen, many will be going back to work, and may not be able to take time off. Even for those who have the time to come out immediately, travel fares will quickly rebound, especially provisions that charge much more for imminent travel. Some with time and money will feel uncertain about being among the first back out there and wait to see whether there's a resurgence in infections.

All this is to say that I think the Florida parks will be relying on locals more than usual in the short term after reopening, which I don't expect to be announced with more than a week or two of notice. I am sure there'll be some changes made, but I would be surprised if any reopening scheme made it very difficult for locals to come out and drop some money. Some non-locals will have kept plans made before all this came up, and some non-locals are surely making speculative plans now, but those locals will be the audience most accessible to Disney.

That can't do that. AP will have right to come in. Now they can change the number of people that will make the park at capacity but they can't deny a AP entry to park they paid for.
While I think it is unlikely they would go this route, and I would find such a decision hard to swallow even as someone with no horse in the race, the AP terms and conditions allow Disney much broader discretion than many realize. Many aspects are subject to unilateral change with little recourse.
 

TrojanUSC

Well-Known Member
As I mentioned in another thread, they had an enormous about of bad PR for having HEA on the last night of operation. They will likely try to avoid any optics of "mass gatherings" for some period of time, but beyond that there truly isn't much that could be done to meet the current social distancing guidelines or any remotely similar aspect.

They could lysol the ride vehicles after each ride and use virtual queues all they want, but you're still going to get a bunch of people converging prior to boarding, not to mention groups of strangers in pre-shows and other enclosed spaces. It would all be theater.
 

Fordlover

Active Member
I don't post here often. The past few weeks have given me ample time to reflect on these issues. Please know that the following is just speculation and my own opinion.

I don't see how one profitably runs a theme park and maintains social distancing guidelines in any effective way. There are a lot of theoretical ideas that have been bandied about here, eliminating interior queues, reducing restaurant capacity, eliminating entertainment that promotes massed gatherings of people, etc. The bottom line is that a place like WDW or Universal are very expensive to run and if any theme park operator engages in these tactics to promote social distancing, the experience is going to be so compromised that admission prices would have to be slashed. This, in tandem with a practice like limiting the number of guests at the gate, would make the parks unprofitable to run. That being said, I don't foresee theme parks reopening until people can gather in crowds in a fairly normal fashion. Remember, even during events where admission to a park is very limited, you still end up with massed gatherings of people. People are not going to go to a place with employees barking at them to disperse or maintain separation. It's fundamentally counter to the purpose of the experience. Now, when this is all over with, I do hope some of the hygiene habits stay in practice.

I think this is pretty insightful, you can’t fill a theme park with a ton of people and keep them socially distanced, I don’t care how many virtual queues you create. Cleaning surfaces between each rider would bring ride capacity to a trickle, and restaurants, theaters, busses, etc. are all a bad idea right now. The virus isn’t going anyway anytime soon, and it would be bad form to bring employees back in and expose them to risk as well. It is worth noting people have been wearing masks in Eastern Asia for many years, and while it didn’t spare them from COVID-19, it might become a more common part of the American landscape.
 

HauntedMansionFLA

Well-Known Member
That can't do that. AP will have right to come in. Now they can change the number of people that will make the park at capacity but they can't deny a AP entry to park they paid for. By the way it's looking with recent news I can't see them opening until end of summer. Wimbledon cancelled first time since WW2, British open cancelled and that is in July.
AP blockout dates just like cast members. They can do what they want.
 

TrojanUSC

Well-Known Member
I don't post here often. The past few weeks have given me ample time to reflect on these issues. Please know that the following is just speculation and my own opinion.

I don't see how one profitably runs a theme park and maintains social distancing guidelines in any effective way. There are a lot of theoretical ideas that have been bandied about here, eliminating interior queues, reducing restaurant capacity, eliminating entertainment that promotes massed gatherings of people, etc. The bottom line is that a place like WDW or Universal are very expensive to run and if any theme park operator engages in these tactics to promote social distancing, the experience is going to be so compromised that admission prices would have to be slashed. This, in tandem with a practice like limiting the number of guests at the gate, would make the parks unprofitable to run. That being said, I don't foresee theme parks reopening until people can gather in crowds in a fairly normal fashion. Remember, even during events where admission to a park is very limited, you still end up with massed gatherings of people. People are not going to go to a place with employees barking at them to disperse or maintain separation. It's fundamentally counter to the purpose of the experience. Now, when this is all over with, I do hope some of the hygiene habits stay in practice.

Exactly. The only thing you will likely see are some additional public cleaning steps for guest peace of mind and perhaps, for an indeterminate amount of time, the cancellation of big outdoor shows where people assemble en mass, they got a lot of flack for HEA on the last day and do not want that repeated.
 

GladToBeHear

Well-Known Member
I don't post here often. The past few weeks have given me ample time to reflect on these issues. Please know that the following is just speculation and my own opinion.

I don't see how one profitably runs a theme park and maintains social distancing guidelines in any effective way. There are a lot of theoretical ideas that have been bandied about here, eliminating interior queues, reducing restaurant capacity, eliminating entertainment that promotes massed gatherings of people, etc. The bottom line is that a place like WDW or Universal are very expensive to run and if any theme park operator engages in these tactics to promote social distancing, the experience is going to be so compromised that admission prices would have to be slashed. This, in tandem with a practice like limiting the number of guests at the gate, would make the parks unprofitable to run. That being said, I don't foresee theme parks reopening until people can gather in crowds in a fairly normal fashion. Remember, even during events where admission to a park is very limited, you still end up with massed gatherings of people. People are not going to go to a place with employees barking at them to disperse or maintain separation. It's fundamentally counter to the purpose of the experience. Now, when this is all over with, I do hope some of the hygiene habits stay in practice.

You should post more often. These are my thoughts as well. WDW has two modes as of late -- on or off. At some point, we're just going to have to all jump back in the pool. Individuals will take their own precautions as they see fit. But you can't operate WDW with social distancing. It's just not practical. Hell, we can't even keep people from gathering in mass for something as mundane as watching a medical ship pull into dock.
 

Giss Neric

Well-Known Member
I don't post here often. The past few weeks have given me ample time to reflect on these issues. Please know that the following is just speculation and my own opinion.

I don't see how one profitably runs a theme park and maintains social distancing guidelines in any effective way. There are a lot of theoretical ideas that have been bandied about here, eliminating interior queues, reducing restaurant capacity, eliminating entertainment that promotes massed gatherings of people, etc. The bottom line is that a place like WDW or Universal are very expensive to run and if any theme park operator engages in these tactics to promote social distancing, the experience is going to be so compromised that admission prices would have to be slashed. This, in tandem with a practice like limiting the number of guests at the gate, would make the parks unprofitable to run. That being said, I don't foresee theme parks reopening until people can gather in crowds in a fairly normal fashion. Remember, even during events where admission to a park is very limited, you still end up with massed gatherings of people. People are not going to go to a place with employees barking at them to disperse or maintain separation. It's fundamentally counter to the purpose of the experience. Now, when this is all over with, I do hope some of the hygiene habits stay in practice.
I agree but what I'm pretty sure people will avoid this place overall even when it's open. Those who don't give a ____ like me will still go. It will suck though if there will be no fireworks or Philharmagic or Carousel of Progress unless they implement three seats apart.
 

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