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Opening WDW with Social Distancing
- Thread starter MisterPenguin
- Start date
jloucks
Well-Known Member
Enough people never would that it would not work.
Put it another way, a good 20% of my friends/acquaintances think this whole Covid crises is grossly overblown or a flat out farce (no worse than the flu). These people are not going to give a flip about social distancing.
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I'm just confused on the original post
Is it
6SD
or
6DS
6DS is Six Degrees of Separation. If you're related to Kevin Bacon, you can be next to each other.
*fixing...
Sirwalterraleigh
Premium Member
Sirwalterraleigh
Premium Member
Parker in NYC
Well-Known Member
And scene.
donnylambb
Well-Known Member
it would be a nightmare to try to enforce. kids running everywhere. cast members have to get within 6 feet to make sure your in some of the rides the right way. i would not want to pay my money for this. i will wait till we are back to normal
Parker in NYC
Well-Known Member
It'd be a nightmare trying to enforce adults, much less children.
HongKongFooy
Well-Known Member
wait, wait, WAIT......
What's going on here?????!!!!!
Using the current 6' rule or guideline
we need to reevaluate this hypothetical notion of 100 guests means a 600 foot long line.
That is unrealistic at best and flat out untrue at worst.
What's going on here?????!!!!!
Using the current 6' rule or guideline
we need to reevaluate this hypothetical notion of 100 guests means a 600 foot long line.
That is unrealistic at best and flat out untrue at worst.
HongKongFooy
Well-Known Member
I would expect out of 100 guests we would need on average 200' to 250' of queueing
This of course using the current 6' guideline.
This of course using the current 6' guideline.
Interesting that you're the only one who 'caught' this, isn't it?
This is why I personally believe it will be a while before Disney opens back up. I don't see how opening the parks with social distancing rules will work, but who knows.
zengoth
Well-Known Member
Folks couldn't (or refused to) follow the directional arrows in Publix today, even with kind reminder announcements playing. What's Disney going to do, employ some Dark Side drones to bleat at the crowd? I appreciate cast members already, but would not wish the "new order" on them (not unless they got double the pay + hazard pay + free kickboxing lessons).
MickeyLuv'r
Well-Known Member
Close! The new WDW property-wide "Celebration" is that the First Order has taken over all of WDW.
Otherwise, in addition to the problem of guests not listening...WDW also has the challenge of every CM having to enforce the SD rules while trying to act magical and cheerful.
And what about buses/monorails/shuttle boats? Would WDW have a 'bus patrol CM" on every bus, or are we just going to expect every driver to enforce rules while also driving?
MickeyLuv'r
Well-Known Member
Mind, what if we had a LOT more N95 masks?
Enough to give them out to everyone at WDW?
Enough to give them out to everyone at WDW?
Duckberg
Active Member
With airlines cutting back future flight schedules, getting to WDW in the first place is going to be difficult. Other sites have mentioned the Disney business model logistics are in jeopardy as this thing snowballs. I feel for any of us who have friends or family CM's at WDW or DL.
Tavernacle12
Well-Known Member
I wonder if it would be worth it to do a ‘test’ of the parks. AK would be ideal, as they could mark off the walking paths, only have pick-up food available (ice cream, pretzels, hot dogs) to avoid sit down restaurants, etc. It could be a genuine test with just AKL open for booking and only hotel guests admitted to the park. AK could just open the animal viewing and sell itself on being back in Disney without the rides.
This thread created for the narrow topic of discussing opening WDW with social distancing still in force since it keeps coming up in the Big Thread…
WDW and Social Distancing
People have been arguing whether it is possible that WDW can open and still maintain social distancing.
Of course WDW can!... If they only let 10 people in the park. Yes, that’s a cheeky answer, but it brings us to problem number one: How few people can WDW have in the park so as to allow for social distancing and still be financially profitable? Obviously, WDW isn’t going to open just to run a deficit.
And so, people talk of ‘reduced attendance,’ but by how many? Let’s use the Magic Kingdom as our park of example. The MK in 2018 (the 2019 figures are due by this June) had 20.859 Million guests for the year. On average, that’s 57K guests per day… we’ll call it 50K per day. They’re not there all day all at once, so, let’s say the average peak attendance is 30K.
No, I don’t think (and I would certainly hope not) that anyone would think that you can put 30K people in the MK and still maintain the 6 foot social distance (6SD). And so, what’s the minimum number of people that can be in the MK for the MK to make a profit? Actually, I don’t know that figure.
Social Distancing
And, let’s for a moment talk about what we mean by the 6SD. The six foot figure is from the distance that the large and micro drops we aerosolize by speaking and talking get thrown from our mouth-holes. Sneezing and coughing throw them farther, but we’re supposed to cover our mouths for coughs and sneezes. We generally don’t when we talk.
And let us presume, for this thought exercise, that a 6SD means a good faith effort to keep 6SD at all time. So, this isn’t just with regard to a parade or fireworks. Oh, no. If we’re going to be consistent, it means 6SD at all times, everywhere, without exception (as a matter of WDW policy… not when people accidentally invade our 6SD).
And so, for this discussion *anything* that would violate the 6SD is removed from the list of to-dos, just like parades and fireworks are off the table, unless we can find a workaround that protects the integrity of the 6SD rule. Anything short of that means you’re not really serious about 6SD.
Transportation and 6SD
For the MK to open, guests have to get there. What if airlines have to enforce a 6SD? Well, there goes 60% at least of long distance travelers (not to mention continuing bans on international flights). And when you land in Orlando, is the Magical Express going to pick you up? If it does, it can’t have different parties next to one another… not back to back, and not aisle seat to aisle seat. So, the ME is running at about 50% capacity.
At the MK, the Contemporary gives you the perk of walking to the gate. Every other monorail resort, and the general parking at MK makes you travel by monorail or boat to get to the MK gate. For people driving in, they’ll need to leave an empty row between each group on the tram. So, trams are at 50%.
First, let’s see how bag check goes: There are two lines going to each security person… oops, can’t have two lines next to each other. So now, there are half the number of security lines. Now let’s say there are 10 guests/families in a line. Well, that line is now 60 feet long. And each 60 foot line needs to be 6 feet from each other. And no switchbacks that pass people to walk right pass you, otherwise, you’re violating 6SD. Just how much space will that take up?
Now it’s onto a monorail or watercraft. In a monorail cabin, perhaps 4 individuals can sit in the four corners. Or it’s only one or two families. That’s about a 30%-50% capacity for monorail. Same for the ferries. Can’t pack 300 people on a ferry. Perhaps just 50 that can still keep 6SD.
How about those showing up on buses? They can skip the train/ferry, however, the bus, in order to maintain 6SD will only have about 6 groups (and not the 80 people they can pack in). Then those coming off the buses still need to go through the reduced security.
Once people disembark from mass transit, there is usually one snaking line leaving the station until it can spread out at the tapstiles. But remember, everyone in that snaking line needs to allow for 6SD. If you’re the last to leave a monorail, you may have to stand there for about three minutes for everyone to spread out before you can go.
Now that you’re at the tapstile… oops, they can only operate one of the four touchpoint clusters at a time to keep people separated. The lines at the tapstile can’t be next to each other, and everyone in line needs to keep 6SD. So, you’ll have a dozen lines going back about 300 feet… to where? Where can all those lines snake to without being on top of each other? And where do new arrivals getting off the ferries go if they can’t get off the ferry because of the crowds spread out by 6SD is taking up the entire pre-tapstile entrance?
That’s just the entrance. Let’s go into the park….
Queues
What is the MK except a series of queues?Well with 6SD, a hundred person queue is now a 600 foot line. And remember, because of 6SD, you can’t have switchbacks unless the pathing honors the 6SD and doesn’t make one line go right past another. So once the queue is quickly filled, it will have to exit the queuing area and bleed into ‘the street’ and be a long line that everyone in the street has to keep 6SD from. Just how many of them can wind their way through Fantasyland before they completely block the street? After all, you can’t pass them if it will violate 6SD. And you can’t make them do tight switchbacks.
So, is the answer to have FP-only or VQ-only for all the attractions? Well, that still creates a line. Let’s say VQ is 15 minute blocks. And remember, 100 families in a line creates a 600 foot 6SD line. So, do you schedule only 100 people each 15 minute block and pray they don’t all show up at once. And if you do, are you OK with every ride only having a capacity of about 500 people an hour? Then you have to deal with all the VQ slots being given out with no standby line available (since the capacity of all the rides are now so low).… and, oh, the people will holler about that.
Rides
When it comes to filling up the ride vehicles with guests, we’ve already seen that with the strictures on the queues, you’re not going to have to worry about spreading people out. They’ll be arriving spread out.
But then, you still need to spread them. So, the PotC and IaSW boats only get 2 parties each. Coasters fill only every other row. Astro Orbiter can only get one party at a time going up and down in the elevator. Only 40 people on the Riverboat at one time! Only 5 people each time on the raft to TSI.
Shows
Shows have a double whammy. We all are presuming the theater will only be about 30-40% filled to allow for 6SD. But what about their lobbies? Shows have a holding pen, much smaller than the theater, to hold the guests before they go into the theater. You can, at best, get only 10% of the theater’s capacity in the holding lobbies before they need to start spilling into the street for a long single-file queue that respects 6SD and doesn’t switchback on itself.
Food
Just like theaters, we all presume that with 6SD, table service restaurants will have reduced seating. Will they also get the size of their lobby increased fourfold? Because, like theaters, restaurants have small lobbies for the guests waiting for their rezzie to get called. So, like theaters, the line for restaurants will snake out into the streets causing more street congestion.
So, are quick serves the answer? Many quick serves have cashiers waiting on two lines. Oops… too close. They can only do one line now. And the people in the line need to observe 6SD and snake out into… where? The seating area? The street?
Is mobile ordering the answer? Well, if you’ve seen it in action, you know at times there can be 10 groups hanging around the mobile order window waiting for their number to be called. Now try spreading them out to observe 6SD. Just think of the Dole Whip counter where everyone in that dense crowd needs to keep backing up until 6SD is reached. They’d completely block that already overcrowded intersection.
Merchandise
All the merch stores have tiny aisles such that you can’t pass one another without violating 6SD. But, you know… Disney can think outside the box! How about they remove 80% of their shelving? Ya think they’d do that? Even if they made all paths one way, that would mean you’d get stuck behind other guests blocking your way over and over again. There’d be gridlock. Shopping becomes a nightmare (more so than it already is).
Jus’ Being There
Just think about walking about MK always trying to keep 6SD. What a nightmare. Of course, you can’t have anything that would attract a crowd. No streetmosphere. No Dapper Dans. No marching band. No stage shows. No trolley shows.
So What is the Solution
Masks: If everyone’s wearing masks, then 6SD goes away and you only need to tell everyone to sanitize their hands before touching their face. (And have sanitizers literally everywhere.) The hard part here is getting small children to keep theirs on.
Reduced Capacity: If you have 6SD, then you’re rides and attractions are automatically at 30-40% capacity. So, limit attendance by that much. Instead of daily peaks of 30K, aim for 10K. Can the MK be profitable at that level? How does WDW handle a nightmare scenario of capping the MK to 10K, and then 20K show up?
Excellent discussion.
Realistically, masks do not replace social distancing, but they can reduce transmission where 6-foot distancing just isn’t practical.
So what this means to me: masks in the parks at all times but still maintain as much social distancing as practical.
So practical efforts to have some degree of social distancing:
-reduce park attendance, maybe Yes15,000 maximum attendance at MK for example.
-eliminate crowds, like parades and fireworks.
-streamline rope drop so you reduce the turnstile bottleneck
- all touchless payments
-reduce crowded queues (side effect of limits to attendance)
Yes, rides and transportation might not be able to really honor social distancing. But you’ll wear a mask on rides, you’ll sanitize your hands before and after each ride.
This is a roadmap of compromise that would probably allow functionality. Still allow guests to mostly enjoy the parks, with enough guests for Disney to turn a profit.
will this happen? Maybe, maybe not.
We may see them just open the parks with temperature screenings and hand washing stations... and crosses fingers.
What about food.