Coronavirus and Walt Disney World general discussion

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Parker in NYC

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
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.
Yes, the post-9/11 atmosphere is exactly what it feels like here, again.
 

ImperfectPixie

Well-Known Member
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.
I totally get it...there are some pretty horrible people out there - we've had our share of experiences with them.

I think we've just been super lucky to avoid them for the most part.

(I almost peed my pants when my oldest was 14 and tried to tell a tough-looking tattooed guy on the subway that he's not supposed to lean on the doors. :eek: THANK GOD the guy was a good sport about it as I quickly told my son he needs to mind his Ps and Qs so he doesn't get his butt handed to him!)
 

GoofGoof

Premium Member
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.
I have always favored a gradual removal of restrictions followed by a short pause to look at the impact. Then a continued dial down if justified. I feel like we implemented mitigations based on cases going up, but the re-opening plans never seem to work that way in most places. It’s just a random date.

Now that vaccinations are in the home stretch I favor a plan where we set a vaccination target and then remove all or most restrictions when we hit it. That both encourages more vaccinations (the most important thing right now) and also gives us a reasonable assurance the case numbers are good by the time restrictions drop assuming the threshold is appropriate. I’m willing to take what is likely a small risk that the cases won’t be where we want them to be even after we hit the vaccination threshold because the benefit in number of vaccinations far outweighs the risks. We won’t know until after the fact but my gut tells me that places with a targeted removal of mitigations, especially masks, that’s linked to vaccination percentage will end up with higher vaccination rates than places that just removed the restrictions up front or said they wouldn’t be removed them until after the cases dropped enough.
 

AEfx

Well-Known Member
Nobody is group 1 (besides that one guy) is rooting for mitigations to continue longer.

Hopefully you aren't referring to me as "that one guy" - because I never said anything about rooting for anything of the sort.

I don't bother replying to the person you are, because he seems to think I am some straw man social media archetype - his responses don't reflect what I actually write, so I don't bother to write back LOL.
 

DCBaker

Premium Member
Temperature screening will end for CMs on May 8th and for guests on May 16th.

Screen Shot 2021-05-05 at 5.37.34 PM.png
 

sullyinMT

Well-Known Member
"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."

Good on the Herald for calling out the nonsense at the state level, even if it’s obvious.
 

danlb_2000

Premium Member
Maybe it's a scheduling thing? It's Advent doing the checks for guests? Maybe they need 10 days notice for the contract. While maybe it's internal for CMs and they can be moved around faster?

Ah, I forgot it was an outside company doing the checks.
 

GoofGoof

Premium Member
Things are moving fast at WDW. The Summer ramp up has been put into overdrive. The recent announcement about several large scale restaurants coming back on line is in keeping with the idea that the crowds are expected back. They also announced the return of the college program in June a few days ago which crushes the rumors that they wouldn’t be able to ramp up this Summer due to a lack of workers. In conjunction with that they released Summer room discounts as well. All signs point towards further changes on the way and bigger crowds. The removal of temperature screening is a no brainer to me, but what is more pressing is the pending decision on distancing and the return of people eating shows and night attractions. They added many more CMs, they added to the restaurant and resort capacity, a change to 3 feet of distancing will in all practical terms result in a return to full capacity at the parks. The only major thing left is the entertainment. Hoping to hear more soon.
 

AEfx

Well-Known Member
I have always favored a gradual removal of restrictions followed by a short pause to look at the impact. Then a continued dial down if justified. I feel like we implemented mitigations based on cases going up, but the re-opening plans never seem to work that way in most places. It’s just a random date.

That's why I am kind of skeptical about the Broadway thing. There is so much politically involved there to unpack.

To begin with, they HAD to announce something, before the damage to the industry was irreparable - the actors will come back, but in terms of craftsman, and everyone else who runs a Broadway show, chunks of the talent pool have had to move on. People forget about everything around Broadway as well - the dinner spots, the car companies, the souvineer shops, etc...all these industries have taken a beating for so long, it's not going to be just turning on a switch again. It's going to take time and it probably isn't going to look exactly the same after (much like WDW).

Now, all along, the Broadway owners have said all that they wouldn't open at less than 100% because they couldn't afford to run the theaters at anything else. That's why regional theaters and elsewhere have started to design their seasons with socially distanced seating "pods" (meaning obviously less attendance), but Broadway won't even consider that.

Then you have Andrew Cuomo's name all over this, who is on the skids right now and desperately needs some popularity points, particularly with his base, the well-heeled Manhattan crowd and the arts industries. He probably won't even still be in office by September.

Given that they are four months out, and they left a LOT of leeway and outs in there about "depending on current trends," etc. - they also were very unspecific about what "health and safety" measures that will be in place that they are talking about. I cannot imagine for the life of me that they would open at 100% and maskless, for example.

I think this was more about making an announcement, and a political statement, just to have some sort of blueprint - and seeing what the ticket sales would be like, to be honest. Like Disney, they are going to have a balancing act between what they can do and can't do, based on what the public is willing to accept. We are moving into the territory now of how far you can push the comfort level of people, versus emergency mandates.

That they are opening ticket sales up so soon in advance is very telling to me - I think some would view it as them being super-serious about the date, but I think it's more of them trying to see how many people out there really are ready to start plunking down $200 a whack to sit in a 100% full theater. I think that's also the reason for the staggering of shows - so if they have to pull back, there will be less of an impact than if everyone just went at once.

It's going to be very interesting to see how this one plays out, and how it contrasts to what happens at WDW.
 
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GhostHost1000

Premium Member
Things are moving fast at WDW. The Summer ramp up has been put into overdrive. The recent announcement about several large scale restaurants coming back on line is in keeping with the idea that the crowds are expected back. They also announced the return of the college program in June a few days ago which crushes the rumors that they wouldn’t be able to ramp up this Summer due to a lack of workers. In conjunction with that they released Summer room discounts as well. All signs point towards further changes on the way and bigger crowds. The removal of temperature screening is a no brainer to me, but what is more pressing is the pending decision on distancing and the return of people eating shows and night attractions. They added many more CMs, they added to the restaurant and resort capacity, a change to 3 feet of distancing will in all practical terms result in a return to full capacity at the parks. The only major thing left is the entertainment. Hoping to hear more soon.
Gotta get ohana back next
 
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