Coronavirus and Walt Disney World general discussion

[sullyinMT]

I think your numbers should continue to go down. The tourists are leaving. Don't you guys hibernate in the winter......joking of course.

Our percentage case trends are really pointless. They change very quickly with small increases/decreases in numbers week to week. When you have ~1M people in such a huge landmass, I think you’re more at risk of a mountain lion mauling you in your own back yard.
I really wish it was the tourists that caused our surge, so that we could blame it on someone else . Watching personal behavior, and the necessity of our situation, it was probably ranchers and folks from the far reaches coming in to major population centers stocking up at Costco or whatever but not knowing what to do with more than 100 people around them at a time. What is already frustrating in a normal summer became kind of obnoxious this year. I felt safer at UOR and HS in August than I have in Home Depot all year.
We sure as heck don’t hibernate, but we enjoy watching the tail lights head toward the state line

 

[techgeek]

Ex-imagineer (and former contributor here) Eddie Sotto with prominent quotes in USA Today article proposing dropping mask and distancing in favor of screening guests with rapid antigen testing:

Theme parks could go mask-free next year if rapid COVID-19 testing is in place, ex-Disney staffer says

Former Disney staffer Eddie Sotto says theme parks could do away with face masks by next year if rapid antigen tests for COVID-19 are ready in time.

www.usatoday.com

 

[JoeCamel]

Ex-imagineer (and former contributor here) Eddie Sotto with prominent quotes in USA Today article proposing dropping mask and distancing in favor of screening guests with rapid antigen testing:

Theme parks could go mask-free next year if rapid COVID-19 testing is in place, ex-Disney staffer says

Former Disney staffer Eddie Sotto says theme parks could do away with face masks by next year if rapid antigen tests for COVID-19 are ready in time.

www.usatoday.com

Love Eddie but I wasn't aware that is his line of work?

 

[TIKITIKITIKTITITKTITIROOM]

Ex-imagineer (and former contributor here) Eddie Sotto with prominent quotes in USA Today article proposing dropping mask and distancing in favor of screening guests with rapid antigen testing:

Theme parks could go mask-free next year if rapid COVID-19 testing is in place, ex-Disney staffer says

Former Disney staffer Eddie Sotto says theme parks could do away with face masks by next year if rapid antigen tests for COVID-19 are ready in time.

www.usatoday.com

In what world do you start the party with a breathalyzer? Love his forward thinking but stick to rides. Life is over if we have to go around blowing devices the rest of our lives.

 

[MisterPenguin]

Disney's Ant-Man weighs in...

 

[sullyinMT]

Ex-imagineer (and former contributor here) Eddie Sotto with prominent quotes in USA Today article proposing dropping mask and distancing in favor of screening guests with rapid antigen testing:

Theme parks could go mask-free next year if rapid COVID-19 testing is in place, ex-Disney staffer says

Former Disney staffer Eddie Sotto says theme parks could do away with face masks by next year if rapid antigen tests for COVID-19 are ready in time.

www.usatoday.com

Assuming test reliability, and some way to weed out false positives (step aside and retest or whatever), I’d be willing to submit to a test at regular intervals in exchange for lower incidence of mask acne and nighttime shows.
If this coincides with vaccine availability (test and vaccine available concomitanly), and one were vaccinated, perhaps even different colored wrist bands would be effective. UOR uses the wrist band idea for resort guests (not sure about park only), and it isn’t any more intrusive than a magic band. If you are wearing the universal vaccine band or the daily test colored band, security knows you’re good to go.

 

[michmousefan]

Love Eddie but I wasn't aware that is his line of work?

The article was more focused on what Eddie's company was working on in terms of making the rapid-testing experience "magical," for lack of a better term. It's a tricky path to trod, given that the rapid-test technology is evolving at the same time as other potential solutions to the problem. But imagine making a C-19 test something that was actually *fun* to do. Aim, high, Eddie!

 

[DCBaker]

Numbers are out -

 

[danlb_2000]

Ah, gotcha. I've been burned many times in the past six months when it comes to good news. Sometimes it's hard to get excited by a positive development when it has so often been followed by reversals.

That being said, things definitely seem to be improving in many places. Hopefully the trend continues.

Yep, lower numbers are good, but it only takes a couple weeks for things to go right back to where things were.

 

[_caleb]

We will be fine and get through it.

You'll get through it just like we did.

You members with cruise ship avatars keep saying "we'll get through it," but that's not quite accurate. Not all of us will get through it, will we?

 

[Andrew C]

You members with cruise ship avatars keep saying "we'll get through it," but that's not quite accurate. Not all of us will get through it, will we?

Ok?

 

[DisneyCane]

Ex-imagineer (and former contributor here) Eddie Sotto with prominent quotes in USA Today article proposing dropping mask and distancing in favor of screening guests with rapid antigen testing:

Theme parks could go mask-free next year if rapid COVID-19 testing is in place, ex-Disney staffer says

Former Disney staffer Eddie Sotto says theme parks could do away with face masks by next year if rapid antigen tests for COVID-19 are ready in time.

www.usatoday.com

It would definitely be nice but it would have to be a saliva or breathalyzer type test. Nothing invasive would be acceptable for a fun activity. Also, there needs to be a re-test process for positives to weed out false positives. It would suck to not be let into WDW because a test has a 1% false positive rate and you get one.

 

[Miss Bella]

Our percentage case trends are really pointless. They change very quickly with small increases/decreases in numbers week to week. When you have ~1M people in such a huge landmass, I think you’re more at risk of a mountain lion mauling you in your own back yard.
I really wish it was the tourists that caused our surge, so that we could blame it on someone else . Watching personal behavior, and the necessity of our situation, it was probably ranchers and folks from the far reaches coming in to major population centers stocking up at Costco or whatever but not knowing what to do with more than 100 people around them at a time. What is already frustrating in a normal summer became kind of obnoxious this year. I felt safer at UOR and HS in August than I have in Home Depot all year.
We sure as heck don’t hibernate, but we enjoy watching the tail lights head toward the state line

If my Europe cruise falls through next August my back up plan will not be WDW. We're heading north to cooler weather. Yellowstone, Glacier national park and South Dakota. I got it all mapped out in my head. On a positive note, your tourism industry will probably take less of a hit than the rest of the country.

 

[Miss Bella]

You members with cruise ship avatars keep saying "we'll get through it," but that's not quite accurate. Not all of us will get through it, will we?

Huh?

 

[sullyinMT]

If my Europe cruise falls through next August my back up plan will not be WDW. We're heading north to cooler weather. Yellowstone, Glacier national park and South Dakota. I got it all mapped out in my head. On a positive note, your tourism industry will probably take less of a hit than the rest of the country.

We headed to YNP thinking it would be less crowded. So much the opposite.
A good friend of mine sells RVs for a living, and has gone from scraping commissions together to actually having a legitimate emergency fund in just 6-7 months. Local, self directed tourism and national park enjoyment are definitely up. We’ve had a hard time being RV weekend warriors this year, more so than recent history.

 

[sullyinMT]

You members with cruise ship avatars keep saying "we'll get through it," but that's not quite accurate. Not all of us will get through it, will we?

Don’t be righteously aggressive here. The use of the collective “we“ is obvious to any reader. Of course there will be horrific losses. Of course there will be families devastated. But, in any time of crisis, it is rather common place to speak as a collective “we“. It is a sign of solidarity, and empathy. We are all feeling the pain, as a nation, in this.

 

[Kevin_W]

We headed to YNP thinking it would be less crowded. So much the opposite.
A good friend of mine sells RVs for a living, and has gone from scraping commissions together to actually having a legitimate emergency fund in just 6-7 months. Local, self directed tourism and national park enjoyment are definitely up. We’ve had a hard time being RV weekend warriors this year, more so than recent history.

We were in Yellowstone last month and they were saying crowds were similar to previous year, but there were definitely a fair number of people. (But it's a big place , so not hard to be distanced.) Camping and other outdoors activity has definitely seen a surge this year. With many of the YNP lodges closed, camping seemed ot be way up.

 

[Kevin_W]

If my Europe cruise falls through next August my back up plan will not be WDW. We're heading north to cooler weather. Yellowstone, Glacier national park and South Dakota. I got it all mapped out in my head. On a positive note, your tourism industry will probably take less of a hit than the rest of the country.

Make sure to visit Grand Teton NP while at yellowstone.

 

[sullyinMT]

We were in Yellowstone last month and they were saying crowds were similar to previous year, but there were definitely a fair number of people. (But it's a big place , so not hard to be distanced.) Camping and other outdoors activity has definitely seen a surge this year. With many of the YNP lodges closed, camping seemed ot be way up.

Tour groups are way down or non existent this year, which definitely helps space things out. Our biggest problem in July was with the town of West Yellowstone shoving their heads in the sand and pretending all was normal knowing that people would file out and carry things elsewhere. We were there prior to Gov’s mask mandate, so I can’t speak to compliance now.

 

[sullyinMT]

Make sure to visit Grand Teton NP while at yellowstone.

And lunch at Hatch in Jackson, WY. One of the best Tequila and Mezcal selections north of Mexico (with some awesome elk tacos to wash down)