Coronavirus and Walt Disney World general discussion

[Parker in NYC]

Good to know you’re better than them. I hope that’s not you’re intent. Hillbilly Elegy would be a good watch or read. As an Appalachian Son, they (rural Americans) are good people who live in a small world. I left at a young age to volunteer in the developing Cibao region of the Dominican Republic, broadened my horizons, and never looked back. But I’ve never forgotten the good people that raised me. Sarcasm is a welcome way to release frustration, but bludgeoning a people with how backward they are isn’t going to win them over.

Wouldn't you say that's become quite the two-way street these days?

 

[Tony Perkis]

Good to know you’re better than them. I hope that’s not you’re intent. Hillbilly Elegy would be a good watch or read. As an Appalachian Son, they (rural Americans) are good people who live in a small world. I left at a young age to volunteer in the developing Cibao region of the Dominican Republic, broadened my horizons, and never looked back. But I’ve never forgotten the good people that raised me. Sarcasm is a welcome way to release frustration, but bludgeoning a people with how backward they are isn’t going to win them over.

I have to go through hill country Oklahoma and Texas a lot. I stand by my statement.

 

[FormerMember]

I mean, even down to things like restaurants handling your food - do we want wait staff who is carrying our food on their shoulders right in front of their faces heavily breathing on it as they race around, doing a physically demanding job? Or, this one really got me - even if you are fully vaccinated, and everyone there is...can you see a kid's birthday party where the kid huffs and puffs and blows out a dozen candles lit all around the cake moments before it's cut up and served to 25 different people?

Yeah, all of these things will be back. My sons b-day was March 30. He blew out candles and we all shared cake. For most people, none of this stopped.

 

[Parker in NYC]

Yeah, all of these things will be back. My sons b-day was March 30. He blew out candles and we all shared cake. For most people, none of this stopped.

Well, I should hope you shared cake with your immediate family. When did anyone say that was off the table?

 

[Tony Perkis]

Yeah, all of these things will be back. My sons b-day was March 30. He blew out candles and we all shared cake. For most people, none of this stopped.

I’m perfectly cool with this particular tradition ending entirely.

 

[sullyinMT]

Wouldn't you say that's become quite the two-way street these days?

It been a widening street with sound barrier walls in the median for too long. It’s very frustrating. I defend because I love, like a crazy drunk uncle no one else can make fun of.

 

[Parker in NYC]

It been a widening street with sound barrier walls in the median for too long. It’s very frustrating. I defend because I love, like a crazy drunk uncle no one else can make fun of.

Listen, as a completely ignorant Yankee, I must say that I can single out Dolly Parton for opening my eyes to a lot of communities I'd otherwise muted. But the sarcasm and bludgeoning doesn't cut it for me anymore when it comes to defending a single soul. Especially when it's repeated in excess everywhere you turn.

 

[ImperfectPixie]

I decided to watch the entire press conference for myself. DeSantis' position is that some local authorities are unnecessarily and unjustifiably using emergency powers to restrict individual liberties. And, as governor he has the ability to use his power to protect Florida residents from that overreach (as he sees it).

The default position of conservative/libertarian leaders is usually to defer to local authorities except for special cases where those local authorities go too far in restricting liberties (as they see it). It appears that DeSantis believes this is such a special case.

In response to the mayors who indicated that local government restrictions are still justified, DeSantis commented that if you believe that policing people is still necessary, then you don't believe in the vaccines or the science behind them. Seems to be a fair point given that the vaccines have been available to all Florida adults since late March, and the data shows the vaccines are extremely safe & effective.

In regards to the instances of nut jobs causing problems inside private property because they don't understand the difference between a government mandate and a business requirement... it's unfortunate, but I don't know that any government action will ever fix that type of ignorance. Shifting power from government entities to individuals & businesses is usually a noble pursuit, but not one free of collateral damage. Hopefully the good outweighs the bad here.

Usually being the key word here. In this instance, I find it irresponsible.

 

[sullyinMT]

Listen, as a completely ignorant Yankee, I must say that I can single out Dolly Parton for opening my eyes to a lot of communities I'd otherwise muted. But the sarcasm and bludgeoning doesn't cut it for me anymore when it comes to defending a single soul. Especially when it's repeated in excess everywhere you turn.

And at least you’re willing to listen and try to come up with solutions to problems. When yahoo’s just want to tell a hillbilly to get in line or else, it’s no different than not listening to the cultural differences in healthcare and wondering why one population or another has repeatedly bad outcomes. Solutions can be found almost everywhere, I’m still convinced of that. An online forum may not be the best place. Real conversations outside our individual comfort zones, in our communities, can heal the divide you brought up earlier.

 

[ImperfectPixie]

And at least you’re willing to listen and try to come up with solutions to problems. When yahoo’s just want to tell a hillbilly to get in line or else, it’s no different than not listening to the cultural differences in healthcare and wondering why one population or another has repeatedly bad outcomes. Solutions can be found almost everywhere, I’m still convinced of that. An online forum may not be the best place. Real conversations outside our individual comfort zones, in our communities, can heal the divide you brought up earlier.

18-year-old me wanted to buy some mountain property and live off the grid. (Not in a creepy, stockpile guns and think everyone is after me kind of way...more like a "it's beautiful here and peaceful and I can just be me" kind of way.)

 

[Parker in NYC]

And at least you’re willing to listen and try to come up with solutions to problems. When yahoo’s just want to tell a hillbilly to get in line or else, it’s no different than not listening to the cultural differences in healthcare and wondering why one population or another has repeatedly bad outcomes. Solutions can be found almost everywhere, I’m still convinced of that. An online forum may not be the best place. Real conversations outside our individual comfort zones, in our communities, can heal the divide you brought up earlier.

I feel we've reached the point where online has invaded the offline. I'm more apt to label someone now than pre-COVID. I've never fancied myself as rather unique but surely I'm not alone in that. Knee-jerk reactionaries have been so delicately cultivated this past year and a half, it's going to be hard to detach. But again, in my neighborhood, we're all pretty much on the same page. I can tell going outside. Somehow, there's more mask vigilance now than there ever was before - inside and out. There's a calm in the air. But I read and hear from friends that this isn't the case in many parts of the country, or even the world. Even when I stepped out to Jersey two weeks ago for a wedding, someone confronted me on why I was wearing a mask. All I could say was... omg, this happens? You're like, real?

 

[Incomudro]

Oh, exactly - that is what I was talking about in regards to things like Single Rider lines. I mean, even once things "stabilize" and more people feel comfortable being at WDW, period, how many people are just itching to share their ride car sitting with touching thighs close with a stranger from who-knows-where for ten minutes?

That's what I touched on the other day when I talked about longer-term ideas of social distancing, etc. aren't just going to totally magically disappear entirely any time soon. Fast food chains are already creating redesigns that don't have dining rooms at all. Grocery stores are doing permanent remodeling to "flow" and separate customers as much as possible, etc.

I mean, even down to things like restaurants handling your food - do we want wait staff who is carrying our food on their shoulders right in front of their faces heavily breathing on it as they race around, doing a physically demanding job? Or, this one really got me - even if you are fully vaccinated, and everyone there is...can you see a kid's birthday party where the kid huffs and puffs and blows out a dozen candles lit all around the cake moments before it's cut up and served to 25 different people?

For some folks, maybe even a lot or most, these things may return. But for others, I do think there is just more of a general awareness of germ spreading that is here to stay. Even just as people start to realize, that unless you have gotten COVID, most of us in terms of colds/allergies/etc. have head some of the healthiest years of our lives because we haven't been exposed to so many lesser, but still annoying and unpleasant viruses out there.

Got to be honest with you, I was never comfortable with many practices we engaged in at Disney and otherwise.
Blowing on a cake? That was ok when I was a little kid and I didn't think about it. (Still ok with my immediate family)
Single rider person joining my Test Track car? Get out.
More than one party in a Skyliner gondola? I've always hated that idea.
And none of us should be closer than arms length from any stranger on any line anywhere. I should always be able to extend an arm without hitting someone.

 

[sullyinMT]

18-year-old me wanted to buy some mountain property and live off the grid. (Not in a creepy, stockpile guns and think everyone is after me kind of way...more like a "it's beautiful here and peaceful and I can just be me" kind of way.)

Check out Robin Wright in Land. It was the first movie we went back to our art theater to see, and it was wonderful. Your post made me think of the movie.

I feel we've reached the point where online has invaded the offline. I'm more apt to label someone now than pre-COVID. I've never fancied myself as rather unique but surely I'm not alone in that. Knee-jerk reactionaries have been so delicately cultivated this past year and a half, it's going to be hard to detach. But again, in my neighborhood, we're all pretty much on the same page. I can tell going outside. Somehow, there's more mask vigilance now than there ever was before - inside and out. There's a calm in the air. But I read and hear from friends that this isn't the case in many parts of the country, or even the world. Even when I stepped out to Jersey two weeks ago for a wedding, someone confronted me on why I was wearing a mask. All I could say was... omg, this happens? You're like, real?

That’s ridiculous that someone would treat you that way. Even here, where masks are disappearing faster than ammo at Wal Mart, people know better than to confront anyone over something so trivial. Sorry you went through that.

 

[ImperfectPixie]

Got to be honest with you, I was never comfortable with many practices we engaged in at Disney and otherwise.
Blowing on a cake? That was ok when I was a little kid and I didn't think about it. (Still ok with my immediate family)
Single rider person joining my Test Track car? Get out.
More than one party in a Skyliner gondola? I've always hated that idea.
And none of us should be closer than arms length from any stranger on any line anywhere. I should always be able to extend an arm without hitting someone.

I like the spacing out...but I also love talking to people and meeting people from all over (can you tell? ). I never mind when they add someone to our party, but it's going to be a while before I'm comfortable doing that again...which sucks.

 

[sullyinMT]

Got to be honest with you, I was never comfortable with many practices we engaged in at Disney and otherwise.
Blowing on a cake? That was ok when I was a little kid and I didn't think about it. (Still ok with my immediate family)
Single rider person joining my Test Track car? Get out.
More than one party in a Skyliner gondola? I've always hated that idea.
And none of us should be closer than arms length from any stranger on any line anywhere. I should always be able to extend an arm without hitting someone.

Single rider is a bit creepy. A better choice would be design rides either two our four abreast, as most parties are even numbers. A trio with an empty seat in MMRR isn’t a big deal to throughput, I’d imagine.

My oldest’s first run on TT, he was single rider and got motion sick just before the ride photo. The picture I have of complete strangers on a hard drive somewhere is precious We were mortified.

 

[DCBaker]

"The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued instructions to cruise companies Wednesday for conducting test cruises — a key precursor to restarting revenue cruises from the U.S.

If a cruise ship does not meet a previously established percentage of vaccinated passengers and crew, it will have to conduct at least one test voyage before restarting cruises from the U.S. Test voyages must carry at least 10% of the total passenger capacity permitted by the ports it will visit, made up by volunteer passengers 18 years old or older who agree to be tested for COVID-19 and have their test results recorded after the cruise.

Volunteers who aren’t vaccinated must attest that they are not at high risk of severe COVID-19. Cruise companies will have to end a test cruise if 1.5% COVID-19 cases is detected in passengers or 1% of COVID-19 cases is detected in crew. The CDC hasn’t determined the threshold for ending revenue cruises yet."

"Cruise lines must also establish vaccine protocols. The CDC recommends that all passengers and crew be vaccinated but leaves the decision on whether to require vaccination up the companies themselves. For cruise companies operating out of Florida ports, restarting safely is complicated by Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Florida legislature’s decision to prohibit businesses from requiring patrons be vaccinated.

The CDC has not received agreements or vaccine protocols from any cruise lines yet, a source familiar with the process said."

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/business/tourism-cruises/article251187759.html

 

[Incomudro]

I like the spacing out...but I also love talking to people and meeting people from all over (can you tell? ). I never mind when they add someone to our party, but it's going to be a while before I'm comfortable doing that again...which sucks.

I'm far from the miserable person that I feel I come off as on this forum.
I'm actually a very polite, friendly, and helpful person - never rude.
There are just some situations that I find odd.
It's quite possible my family could take a Skyliner ride with another party of complete strangers, and have a great time and make friends.
But I'd prefer to by ourselves, so as to not risk the possibility of being trapped with the most unpleasant people imaginable.

 

[mmascari]

It’s over guys. By July there won’t be a single remaining restriction. Start making peace with that fact.

Is there someone here hoping it wouldn't be over?

Besides that one guy (just 1), is there someone here that's all about mitigation efforts "just in case" because somewhere someplace there's still some little spread hiding out?

I think there's lots of people that don't believe that spread will really be low enough by July 1. I'm pretty sure every last one of them would be thrilled to be incorrect and spread to have dropped through the floor by any date in July.

There's really 3 basic opinions going on:

1. Those wanting spread to be low enough that it's in line with mitigation removal where removal doesn't increase spread or stall spread reduction. They generally predict we'll have some mitigations for longer.
2. Those wanting mitigations removed now, or very shortly. They feel spread is trending down and that it will keep going down even if we remove mitigations now. They generally predict we'll remove mitigations sooner.
3. Those wanting mitigations removed now because they feel the mitigations have always been useless or that vaccine availability (not use) is all that matters. Spread level doesn't matter to this group at all, since to them the mitigations have no impact on spread anyway or that it's someone's own fault for not being vaccinated.

Nobody is group 1 (besides that one guy) is rooting for mitigations to continue longer. They're watching the metrics on spread, the metrics on mitigations, the metrics on vaccinations, the metrics on vaccination hold out. They're reading those numbers and the view is that we're taking actions that will slow the reduction speed and cause flareups. Actions that will ultimately extend the duration impacts.

Everyone should go out and prove them wrong. Get vaccinated, get the percent vaccinated as high as possible. Cause spread to fall through the floor as fast as possible. SHOW them who's right. They'll be crying all the way back to normalcy, way to show them by eliminating infections.

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

Got to be honest with you, I was never comfortable with many practices we engaged in at Disney and otherwise.
Blowing on a cake? That was ok when I was a little kid and I didn't think about it. (Still ok with my immediate family)
Single rider person joining my Test Track car? Get out.
More than one party in a Skyliner gondola? I've always hated that idea.
And none of us should be closer than arms length from any stranger on any line anywhere. I should always be able to extend an arm without hitting someone.

I don’t mind the gondolas but I agree some of the Disney practices were a bit much. Especially the way Disney packed guests together to watch parades and fireworks and waiting in lines. “Fill in all available space” no thank you... I want a bit of space!

Single rider is a bit creepy. A better choice would be design rides either two our four abreast, as most parties are even numbers. A trio with an empty seat in MMRR isn’t a big deal to throughput, I’d imagine.

Many rides with 2 or 4 seats across still have single rider lines. Indiana Jones at DL (4) and Everest (2) are the first that come to mind.

I don’t think it’s creepy and it certainly makes the lines move faster but I can also see why some guests would prefer not to sit to close to strangers.

 

[AEfx]

I feel we've reached the point where online has invaded the offline. I'm more apt to label someone now than pre-COVID. I've never fancied myself as rather unique but surely I'm not alone in that. Knee-jerk reactionaries have been so delicately cultivated this past year and a half, it's going to be hard to detach. But again, in my neighborhood, we're all pretty much on the same page. I can tell going outside. Somehow, there's more mask vigilance now than there ever was before - inside and out. There's a calm in the air. But I read and hear from friends that this isn't the case in many parts of the country, or even the world. Even when I stepped out to Jersey two weeks ago for a wedding, someone confronted me on why I was wearing a mask. All I could say was... omg, this happens? You're like, real?

That's the same way it is in much of the North East. It's interesting that you mention how mask vigilance is more now than ever before - living in a small New England town, I can tell you that the same thing has been happening here, even if I'm just now realizing it because you mentioned it. I haven't seen someone try to sneak into a convenience store or anywhere else indoors since like last summer. I agree with the calm thing - almost kinda mellow most of the time. People just go about their shopping, etc. - and I have definitely seen some of the post-9/11 "everyone is just kind of nicer and more considerate" atmosphere return.