News Changes to operating Walt Disney World attractions due to COVID-19

[DVCakaCarlF]

Seems strange Disney hasn’t (to my knowledge) implemented an ambient cooling system for outdoor locations. Some zoos use systems like this for penguins and polar bear habitats.

Besides making outdoor queues and other areas more comfortable for guests, it would really help the theming immersion for places like Everest, Matterhorn, Norway, etc.

Anyway we’re talking about changes Disney is making to the guest experience due to the coronavirus, and it occurred to me that if indoor AC-cooled areas are more risky than outdoor areas, they could do AC outdoors.

Jungle cruise waiting area and Tomorrowland terrace have HVAC actually blowing cold air.

 

[WondersOfLife]

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Idiot guest in the front row without a mask coughs.

Cough lingers in the air.

Entire tram drives through the cough.


Now Friendships.... that’s another story for another place.

Plastic dividers? Similar to Living with the Land. They had folks boarding every row, not even skipping rows.

I’m not sure how it’s much different than things like Seven Dwarfs, Everest, and omnimovers.

Edit: just realized this point was already made. My bad.

 

[WondersOfLife]

Staffing the trams, maintaining/servicing the trams, etc. It all adds up.

You also did not add anything to the discussion.

 

[Lilofan]

You also did not add anything to the discussion.

That's a closed minded thought. You think safety and staffing is what is stopping some items from running? I just merely pointed out it's a numbers approach to streamline and or eliminate services. Run a business now during covid and you may have make difficult decisions including cutting costs.

 

[WondersOfLife]

The train the Planet Watch can be filled with 6 ft between parties. It’s something only a small percentage of daily guests ride (many of them kids, who don’t have much else to do at DAK right now). A parking tram would never be able to keep groups that far apart AND keep up with the train of cars coming in at park open. You would need a PeopleMover. They don’t have one. So you use the original PeopleMover: legs.

I mostly brought up the train more so for how they can handle staffing rather than how people are seated. There are plenty of other attractions that should technically be deemed “less safe” than the parking trams.

 

[WondersOfLife]

That's a closed minded thought. You think safety and staffing is what is stopping some items from running? I just merely pointed out it's a numbers approach to streamline and or eliminate services. Run a business now during covid and you may have make difficult decisions.

If Dollywood can do it... Disney cant?

 

[Lilofan]

If Dollywood can do it... Disney cant?

Dollywood is only concerned about Dollywood. Iger and Chapek and his execs are concerned about running their divisions as efficiently as they can in these uncertain times.

 

[celluloid]

Dollywood is only concerned about Dollywood. Iger and Chapek and his execs are concerned about running their divisions as efficiently as they can in these uncertain times.

Well, not just Dollywood. Herschend is a huge company. With the statement about Bobs, that is the truth and on their part a sign of the times for poor service standards that current Disney leadership has gone towards. Dollywood is a part of Herschend Entertainment and has a lot of different divisions besides their theme parks that of course took hits too.

 

[YodaMan]

I personally assumed the issues with the tram were more about waiting than the ride. When picking up from the parking lot the tram picks up from a different point each time based on which row they’re currently parking cars in. To keep guests distant while they wait, they’d pretty much have to have physical distancing markers throughout the entire parking lot for every section and line the tram up perfectly with the people that are waiting. And then as others stated, you’ve got the issue of unloading them at the front all at once and them crowding the lines for the temp checks.

 

[MansionButler84]

I mostly brought up the train more so for how they can handle staffing rather than how people are seated. There are plenty of other attractions that should technically be deemed “less safe” than the parking trams.

Like what? I felt unsafe on nothing.

 

[_caleb]

Jungle cruise waiting area and Tomorrowland terrace have HVAC actually blowing cold air.

Thanks! I vaguely remember that it was SOMEWHERE at the parks that had some level of outdoor AC. Jungle Cruise was the one I was trying to remember!

Anyway (and closer to on-topic), I wonder if these outdoor AC systems are any more or less of a risk for the potential spread of coronavirus than indoor systems. Seems like outdoors would generally be safer, right?

Thanks again, @DVCakaCarlF!

 

[MansionButler84]

I personally assumed the issues with the tram were more about waiting than the ride. When picking up from the parking lot the tram picks up from a different point each time based on which row they’re currently parking cars in. To keep guests distant while they wait, they’d pretty much have to have physical distancing markers throughout the entire parking lot for every section and line the tram up perfectly with the people that are waiting. And then as others stated, you’ve got the issue of unloading them at the front all at once and them crowding the lines for the temp checks.

Right. As I said, there is no practical way to keep up with the stream of cars at park open without mobs forming. Making guests walk naturally staggers people.

 

[celluloid]

Right. As I said, there is no practical way to keep up with the stream of cars at park open without mobs forming. Making guests walk naturally staggers people.

I wonder what closing a theme park does at the monorail and watercrafts.

It is cost, and that is okay. There would have been a way to do it, but they chose not do. It was a choice based on that.

 

[MansionButler84]

I wonder what closing a theme park does at the monorail and watercrafts.

Not much because there are no fireworks. People slowly trickle out the last two hours of the day.

 

[celluloid]

Not much because there are no fireworks. People slowly trickle out the last two hours of the day.

So they could leave on parking trams and not gather then at the end of the day they are trickling out of in the last two hours? Almost as if people would arrive or leave to enter at different times to a theme park at different times throughout the day?

Rough argument tactic on that one. It is staffing/cost.

 

[_caleb]

Disney‘s new socially-distant courtesy parking trams coming online soon!

 

[peter11435]

I guess I do, since you have yet to provide evidence of what safety hurdles were deemed impossible.

I can’t provide evidence nor can I be more specific since this is internal Information. But I will say it’s not really the tram itself that is the issue

 

[DVCakaCarlF]

Thanks! I vaguely remember that it was SOMEWHERE at the parks that had some level of outdoor AC. Jungle Cruise was the one I was trying to remember!

Anyway (and closer to on-topic), I wonder if these outdoor AC systems are any more or less of a risk for the potential spread of coronavirus than indoor systems. Seems like outdoors would generally be safer, right?

Thanks again, @DVCakaCarlF!

You could also include a few others, but the waiting areas start to become more “enclosed” so I’m not sure they qualify.

 

[WondersOfLife]

Like what? I felt unsafe on nothing.

I didn't either. I'm just pointing it out.

I personally assumed the issues with the tram were more about waiting than the ride. When picking up from the parking lot the tram picks up from a different point each time based on which row they’re currently parking cars in. To keep guests distant while they wait, they’d pretty much have to have physical distancing markers throughout the entire parking lot for every section and line the tram up perfectly with the people that are waiting. And then as others stated, you’ve got the issue of unloading them at the front all at once and them crowding the lines for the temp checks.

Why is putting stickers along the parking lot any less efficient that putting stickers down for queue lines that can hold up to 5 hour waits? (Such as Flight of Passage... They start the stickers ALL THE WAY back at the bridge to Africa... AND it's on BOTH sides of the path) I doubt putting stickers down on the ground would be any more inconvenient for them than all the stickers everywhere in the parks. So there's the answer to that concern. (Of which, there are even more easy solutions to)

As for getting guests off the tram, they don't need to get off all at once. This can be fixed with a simple "Please wait for a cast member to escort your party off." Take it one vehicle section at a time, if they're that paranoid... But I still don't see how letting all out at once would be any worse than letting a mass amount of people in an enclosed building get off at once such as the movie theaters, living with the land, everest, and other high capacity attractions.

Also, if they have enough trams running, they don't need to REALLY fill up those trams, which would take pressure off of the temperature check stops. Like I said before, have it staffed similarly to Wildlife Express Train. Where they have 3 or 4 cast members attending the tram boarding station, telling parties when and where to sit, ect.

This doesn't sound like rocket science to me... And it doesn't sound that costly either.

AND AAAAGAIN with all that said.... I was personally suggesting trams at the END of the day, not the beginning. So whats the deal with that?

 

[Tori]

I wonder what closing a theme park does at the monorail and watercrafts.

It is cost, and that is okay. There would have been a way to do it, but they chose not do. It was a choice based on that.

Monorail and the ferry are needed to get to the MK.

Tram service is not necessary because of how little the parking lot is used.