Coronavirus and Walt Disney World general discussion

[mickeymiss]

The park opening times are staggered so that the buses can be reallocated for surges at opening and closing with all parks open for 10 hours.

• AK 8am and 6pm
• MK 9 and 7
• DHS 10 and 8
• EPCOT 11 and 9

My brain couldn’t compute. If MK has full capacity on a given day, everyone will likely show up at 9 since hours were reduced . Early magic hours for resort guests would lessen that crowd volume all at once. Seems smart.

You could further break it down by resort tier. EMH for deluxe hotels at 7 and for moderates/values at 8 (using MK as example). Animal Kingdom could be exempt as it already opens so early and it’s not necessarily the most busy park. Meh....I’m just thinking outside the box for how to manage that better. It seems like it would also be a nice surprise treat for resort guests who lost that incentive.

 

[GoofGoof]

This is proven via their deliberate omission of California from a lot of media outlets despite them being on a bad trend

Most of the recent coverage has been focused on the new travel bans but CA was not part of the travel ban put in by NY/NJ/CT because they didn’t meet the criteria. If the average of the last 7 days in a given state had a percent positive over 10% or more than 10 cases per every 100,000 people then the state made the list. If CA cases continue to rise they will be added to the list which is updated weekly. It’s not just FL or the South. TX, AZ, UT and Washington state all made the list this week. With cases rising a lot of places more could be added.

 

[Rider]

Orlando area chain shutting down the dining room.

 

[GoofGoof]

My brain couldn’t compute. If MK has full capacity on a given day, everyone will likely show up at 9 since hours were reduced . Early magic hours for resort guests would lessen that crowd volume all at once. Seems smart.

You could further break it down by resort tier. EMH for deluxe hotels at 7 and for moderates/values at 8 (using MK as example). Animal Kingdom could be exempt as it already opens so early and it’s not necessarily the most busy park. Meh....I’m just thinking outside the box for how to manage that better. It seems like it would also be a nice surprise treat for resort guests who lost that incentive.

But there’s 4 parks and they don’t want to have to run a lot more buses. So if MK had EMHs at 8am they would need extra buses because people would be going to both MK and AK at that time. It also costs more to open the parks for 11 hours vs 10. Not a big deal in normal times but this whole thing is on a shoe string budget.

 

[disneygeek90]

Orlando area chain shutting down the dining room.

I hate the Orlando Sentinel’s paywall...

 

[DisneyDebRob]

I love one of those two things...

If you give it a chance I’m sure you will love the coffee and maple donuts.

 

[mickeymiss]

But there’s 4 parks and they don’t want to have to run a lot more buses. So if MK had EMHs at 8am they would need extra buses because people would be going to both MK and AK at that time. It also costs more to open the parks for 11 hours vs 10. Not a big deal in normal times but this whole thing is on a shoe string budget.

It seems worth any expense to reduce crowds upon initial entry but I also don’t pretend to know how the bus budget works.

 

[Andrew C]

If you give it a chance I’m sure you will love the coffee and maple donuts.

Maple glazed IS my favorite donut...

 

[kong1802]

It seems worth any expense to reduce crowds upon initial entry but I also don’t pretend to know how the bus budget works.

I think the bus capacity is severely limited. Like 10 people to a bus or something...I don't think they have enough buses.

 

[Kevin_W]

This is tangential, but when we're seeing these positivity rates of 5%, 10%, or whatever - what are the other 90-95%? I'm curious what population is being tested. Certainly there are all the Covid tests prior to medical procedures, and maybe some healthcare workers getting routine tests? Are those enough to make up the 90%? Or are there that many people with other respiratory illnesses curious if they have Covid? We should be well outside of cold/flu season right now, so I wouldn't expect that many tests from that angle.

 

[mickeymiss]

I think the bus capacity is severely limited. Like 10 people to a bus or something...I don't think they have enough buses.

Ahhh yes okay. I didn’t think of that. Well that’ll do it. Still a shame because EMH would stagger that dramatically.

 

[GoofGoof]

Ahhh yes okay. I didn’t think of that. Well that’ll do it. Still a shame because EMH would stagger that dramatically.

They could still do it by making non-resort guests wait an extra hour but that may not go over well with AP holders and other guests to only get 9 hours a day and miss the first hour in the morning.

 

[Miss Bella]

This is true. The states that took their big victory laps in May and the governors that patted themselves on the back the most are facing some of the biggest spikes today. Definitely not wise to assume victory for anyone.

I expect the virus to migrate like the flu does. I’m glad we’re having now rather than later.

 

[GoofGoof]

Ahhh yes okay. I didn’t think of that. Well that’ll do it. Still a shame because EMH would stagger that dramatically.

Actually they could do a combo of morning and evening if they just wanted to offer EMHs as a perk. So AK could get morning EMHs one day a week at 7am which has no impact on buses. MK would get 3 extra hours at night so they would stay open until 10 which is an hour after EPCOT and DHS could get 2 hours at night until 10 which is an hour after EPCOT or 3 until 11 if they wanted. EPCOT itself could be either 1, 2 or 3 at night depending on how late they wanted to stay open. That wouldn’t solve the morning crowds issue but would keep the bus staggered and still offer a perk.

They could also offer EMHs in the morning to all 4 parks on the same day just pushing the bus schedule up an hour for each park. In theory they could do it every day too. They just can’t do the staggered days of 1 park each day without messing up the buses.

 

[Miss Bella]

No shutdowns were not a long term solution. I look at how things opened here in Ontario and can't figure out why all states follow the same. We are in phase 2 now and all retail are open with limited capacity. Bars and restaurants are open but only patios allowed. Theme parks are not allowed to open at this time.

I ask again what is wrong with doing that strategy?

It’s no different than what AZ did. We don’t have theme parks. What we do have is some low income, uneducated, heavily populated neighborhoods that don’t seem to interested in staying away from each other.

 

[Miss Bella]

I think the bus capacity is severely limited. Like 10 people to a bus or something...I don't think they have enough buses.

I wish they would waive the parking fees . I’d rent a car.

 

[disneygeek90]

This is tangential, but when we're seeing these positivity rates of 5%, 10%, or whatever - what are the other 90-95%? I'm curious what population is being tested. Certainly there are all the Covid tests prior to medical procedures, and maybe some healthcare workers getting routine tests? Are those enough to make up the 90%? Or are there that many people with other respiratory illnesses curious if they have Covid? We should be well outside of cold/flu season right now, so I wouldn't expect that many tests from that angle.

My mom works at a retirement home and all employees are being tested every 2 weeks now as of a few weeks ago.

 

[DCBaker]

AMC Theatres Shifts Reopening Date To July 30 After ‘Tenet’ & ‘Mulan’ Delay

As expected with NYC and LA cinemas still not opened, and Tenet, the first big event pic heading to Aug. 12, the No. 1 exhibitor in the U.S., Europe and the Middle East, AMC, will now reopen its circuit on July 30 instead of July 15. On the new date, the Leawood, KS-based chain will […]

deadline.com

 

[kong1802]

I wish they would waive the parking fees . I’d rent a car.

That's a good thought.

Is DME running? That's a longer trip to be on a bus with strangers.....

They should do that, especially when they know the bus waits may be the worse part of this whole deal.....

 

[Rider]

This is tangential, but when we're seeing these positivity rates of 5%, 10%, or whatever - what are the other 90-95%? I'm curious what population is being tested. Certainly there are all the Covid tests prior to medical procedures, and maybe some healthcare workers getting routine tests? Are those enough to make up the 90%? Or are there that many people with other respiratory illnesses curious if they have Covid? We should be well outside of cold/flu season right now, so I wouldn't expect that many tests from that angle.

People with symptoms. People without who have been in contact with someone who had symptoms. People without symptoms who are scared. People who are just curious.

If this was a desease without asymptomatic spreaders we might expect higher positive rates. But for COVID lower is better. The best would be if we could test everyone every day. We could isolate the positives for a few weeks and the virus would burn out.