News Festival of the Lion King returning to Disney's Animal Kingdom summer 2021

[MichWolv]

More recently, the FotLK area has semi consistently been used for Kilimanjaro’s overflow queue.
I honestly don’t know where that will get moved to, maybe into Tusker House?

Could be. Or backstage.

 

[YodaMan]

The standard in theaters seems to be every other row, and then within those rows, three empty seats between every group of four open, and the group of four may not be fully used. So actual usage is probably around 1/3, maybe a bit higher.

Close but not quite. Your spacing is correct, but your math is off. Because you only have 4 open seats and then the 3 seats beside you closed off and all 7 seats in front of those seats are closed off, that’s only 4 available seats out of every 14 seats. So the highest theoretical capacity is 28.5%, but factor in some weird seat issues at the end of the rows and the fact that there are often parties of 2 and 3 in the sections of fours and then the theaters are actually only filling to about 20/25%.

Does make it hard to justify bringing shows back when the plexiglass on rides at least allows those to operate closer to 85% capacity

 

[RSoxNo1]

I would agree with your assessment. I see smaller changes lasting. Perhaps we can stop shaking strangers’ hands, which is objectively disgusting when you observe how few wash their hands (even now!) in public restrooms.

Now, I expect as a CYA Disney will not be pushy with the “keep up with the party in front of you” announcements. But restaurants and rides will be full and every chair in theaters will be full. We can’t expect Broadway to have reduced capacity for long.

Why are you shaking people's hands in the bathroom?

 

[ToTBellHop]

Why are you shaking people's hands in the bathroom?

Just being friendly...I thought that’s why they didn’t fully-enclose urinals?

 

[havoc315]

I would agree with your assessment. I see smaller changes lasting. Perhaps we can stop shaking strangers’ hands, which is objectively disgusting when you observe how few wash their hands (even now!) in public restrooms.

Now, I expect as a CYA Disney will not be pushy with the “keep up with the party in front of you” announcements. But restaurants and rides will be full and every chair in theaters will be full. We can’t expect Broadway to have reduced capacity for long.

Exactly... Broadway wouldn’t be economically sustainable with social distancing.
Most Restaurants cannot survive long term with reduced capacity, they need to fill the house on weekends and holidays.

Yes, handshakes could become less common. I see more plexiglass dividing cashiers from customers. But come fall 2022, footballl teams aren’t going to limit attendance to 50%.
I can’t say whether it will be fall 2021, early 2022.. or even stretch to late 2022. But most of the social distancing will be gone.

 

[ToTBellHop]

Exactly... Broadway wouldn’t be economically sustainable with social distancing.
Most Restaurants cannot survive long term with reduced capacity, they need to fill the house on weekends and holidays.

Yes, handshakes could become less common. I see more plexiglass dividing cashiers from customers. But come fall 2022, footballl teams aren’t going to limit attendance to 50%.
I can’t say whether it will be fall 2021, early 2022.. or even stretch to late 2022. But most of the social distancing will be gone.

$600 for a balcony seat to Hamilton, anyone?

 

[Magic Feather]

Could be. Or backstage.

Backstage is kinda tricky around Africa IIRC. Not impossible, but not super plausible.

 

[Figments Friend]

Happy to hear this announced.
Love this Show!

Awaiting 'the rest'.....

 

[Touchdown]

Backstage is kinda tricky around Africa IIRC. Not impossible, but not super plausible.

Indeed, hint, you may feel like you are in the middle of an African Savannah on the Safari, cut off from the world, but you aren’t.

 

[MrPromey]

I don't see any park being able to get back to pre-covid max capacity ever. People are no longer going to be willing to have shoulder to shoulder people when they go places, so a lot will have to be rethought out. I think ultimately the new max capacity will be around 75% of what it was before and that will be with no social distancing.

From your mouth to God's ear. (and I say that, with it having nothing at all to do with COVID)

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

Some changes will be more lasting than others. I expect masks to be more commonplace, which isn't unusual in Asia even before Covid. You'll see more plexiglass dividers.

This is my thought also, some people will choose to wear masks well into the future but I think the parks will be more or less back to normal by 2022.

Although I don’t see much chance for ”normal” this summer I wouldn’t be surprised to see more shows, possibly even some fireworks by then. If we hit our goal of 100 million vaccinations in the next 100 days we should have over 1/3 of the population vaccinated by June and hopefully reach herd immunity levels by September.

 

[havoc315]

This is my thought also, some people will choose to wear masks well into the future but I think the parks will be more or less back to normal by 2022.

Although I don’t see much chance for ”normal” this summer I wouldn’t be surprised to see more shows, possibly even some fireworks by then. If we hit our goal of 100 million vaccinations in the next 100 days we should have over 1/3 of the population vaccinated by June and hopefully reach herd immunity levels by September.

Honestly, 100 million by June should be the more pessimistic estimate. Yes, it could be that low, but that will be a real systematic failure.

Pfizer and Moderna are contracted to deliver 400 million doses by end of June. J&J is close to approval with another 100 million doses by end of June (and it’s a 1 shot vaccination). Astrazenica should be ready by April, I’m not sure of their delivery dates but I know it’s 300 million doses.

About 15 million have already received at least their first dose, and we should hopefully be accelerating.

Realistically, we should have at least 150 million vaccinated by end of June, optimistically maybe 200 million. Certainly, we should be at 200 million by September.
And that will hopefully be enough for herd immunity.

 

[techgeek]

From a distancing perspective, it will be interesting to see what sort of capacity the general public limits itself to even when no policy is in place.

I’m thinking that my ‘personal space’ buffer will be a little bigger than it was pre-covid. Where I can control it, like in a line or spacing in a theater bench, my new default will be leaving a little more space between me and a stranger then I might have before. For Disney, this might mean that a theater that used to pack in 1000 might now only seat 800, and a standby line might still tend to be maybe 20% physically longer then before... even after all those floor markers come up.

But.. I think this announcement coupled with the tone of other reopening rumors proves, to no great surprise, that Disney is not going to be moving fast.

 

[WondersOfLife]

I just had to do a petty victory lap. Carry on.

 

[PizzaPlanet]

Couldn't they just test the cast and crew daily and then have the normal show without worrying about distancing?

 

[marni1971]

Maybe. But I'm not so sure..

The companies precautions should answer your question.

Masks, social distancing and most of the current changes should be expected into next year. We aren’t out of this yet. Or even close.

 

[danlb_2000]

Couldn't they just test the cast and crew daily and then have the normal show without worrying about distancing?

Cheaper to just modify the show.

 

[danlb_2000]

If they are going to do distancing with the cast it will be interesting to see how they modify the show. I assume audience participation will go away for sure. I also see the tumble monkey and Can you Feel the Love Tonight segments being problematic since they rely on cast members being in close contact with each other.

 

[JohnD]

If they are going to do distancing with the cast it will be interesting to see how they modify the show. I assume audience participation will go away for sure. I also see the tumble monkey and Can you Feel the Love Tonight segments being problematic since they rely on cast members being in close contact with each other.

The tumble monkeys could do individual acrobatic acts on the trapeze but maybe not crawl over each other or "groom" each other as monkeys do. They would just have them sitting on the floor but farther apart. The participation with the kids will probably have to go altogether so an edit to the audio would have to be made also (i.e. cut "Especially you! That was perfect!"). Will be interesting to see.

 

[havoc315]

The companies precautions should answer your question.

Masks, social distancing and most of the current changes should be expected into next year. We aren’t out of this yet. Or even close.

We'll see. WDW is definitely playing is conservatively, and I certainly don't blame them. But their actions suggest to me that they are targeting October 2021 as a return to "normalcy." As we see with changes to EMH, etc -- Doesn't mean it will return to the old normal. Some things will never return to the old way. And not saying all Covid precautions will be gone by October. (character meets, buffets, etc... could be the last things to come back. Indoor mask requirements could stay for a long time).

The "end" date for the Park reservation system is still September 26, 2020 -- This has been set for months, neither shortened nor extended. Similarly, the 2-extra-day ticket offer is for travel until September 25, 2020 -- Doesn't feel like a coincidence. And this was just announced recently.
Not to mention, Disney's fiscal year ends at the end of September.

And even the most conservative epidemiology experts forecast reaching a level of herd immunity by the end of the summer, early fall. (more optimistic forecasts were hoping for Spring, but those hopes are dimming with the slow vaccine rollout.. late Spring/early summer is still a possible optimistic forecast).

So it does seem like Disney is treating late September as a transition moment. For purposes of budget and planning, early October kicks off the new year for them. So there would be a certain logic to timing some transitions with the start of the new fiscal year.