Shanghai Disneyland opens May 11

cmwade77

Well-Known Member
Just watched the official Shanghai video re: the new rules. It all seems sensible.

Looking forward to watching numbskulls freak out when the U.S. park restrictions become clear. Seriously, what do people expect during this ongoing crisis? Personally, I have no desire to visit a theme park under these conditions, so I’ll gladly wait a year or more. Anyone THAT desperate to visit DL or WDW ASAP had better be ready to act responsibly and follow the safeguards or get tossed out on their mouse rears.
The funny thing is as I have said before, I look at it and go, despite having to wear a mask, it looks like a much more enjoyable trip for me. But I also know many people won't like it that way, but do understand that there will be some that will have an even more enjoyable trip than normal with these restrictions in place.
 

fctiger

Well-Known Member
Saw from another news site that there were only 16,000 tickets sold for the park opening day, around 20% capacity. I wonder how long will that cap stay? It's no way they can run that park adequately with so few people but I know it's to start things off slow and build as things progress. This is good IMO and I hope if the other parks feel they really really have to open in the next few months they start with the same approach.
 

TrojanUSC

Well-Known Member
Saw from another news site that there were only 16,000 tickets sold for the park opening day, around 20% capacity. I wonder how long will that cap stay? It's no way they can run that park adequately with so few people but I know it's to start things off slow and build as things progress. This is good IMO and I hope if the other parks feel they really really have to open in the next few months they start with the same approach.

On the conference call the other day, Chapek said the number would be lower the first few weeks to "get their training wheels" on basically.
 

lumberguy5

Active Member
Saw from another news site that there were only 16,000 tickets sold for the park opening day, around 20% capacity. I wonder how long will that cap stay? It's no way they can run that park adequately with so few people but I know it's to start things off slow and build as things progress. This is good IMO and I hope if the other parks feel they really really have to open in the next few months they start with the same approach.

If you cut back on CM hours and overall staffing it isn't hard to run the parks at breakeven. Knotts and Six Flags run on way lower attendance and ticket price numbers than Disney and aren't insolvent. Last year Disney net 6 billion in profit on 26 billion in revenue in their park's segment, Disney's actual profit in segment is 4 times larger than all of Cedar Fair's revenue.
 

Lilofan

Well-Known Member
If you cut back on CM hours and overall staffing it isn't hard to run the parks at breakeven. Knotts and Six Flags run on way lower attendance and ticket price numbers than Disney and aren't insolvent. Last year Disney net 6 billion in profit on 26 billion in revenue in their park's segment, Disney's actual profit in segment is 4 times larger than all of Cedar Fair's revenue.
Cut back on staffing still hurts the cast and Central Florida. WDW employs over 80K people.
 

lumberguy5

Active Member
Cut back on staffing still hurts the cast and Central Florida. WDW employs over 80K people.

Tourism isn't coming back until at least mid 2021 (and those are the good estimates), and the tourism sector companies are going to take protective measures to try and reduce their bleed. I won't argue that it is good or bad, but realistically it is the path that most companies will take. Disney can't have only 25% the guests and make 75% of the money, operating costs must go down.

Central Florida and Orange County aren't going to see anything like the pre-Covid tax revenue until at least next year.
 

bryanfze55

Well-Known Member
Honestly, after some of the reactions here and watching the video, I watched it myself to find all of the restrictions shockingly...REASONABLE.

Is it 100% ideal? No. But what do you expect them to do?

With the number of locals and rabid fans DLR has, they cannot just open the gates as before, at least not for the time being, and social distance. It's not going to work.

Sure, the Galaxy's Edge reservation experiment was a well-intentioned failure. But Shanghai's reservations sold out very quickly. Does anyone here honestly envision it playing out DIFFERENTLY here when it applies to the whole park and there are very obviously people chomping at the bit to get back in, as seen by every vlogger and 30 of his closest friends running to get Knott's Chicken the day the restaurant started offering takeout ordering?

Six Flags has already gone out on record to say that every person visiting their parks for the time being, passholder or not, are going to have to reserve their spot. Given what we're seeing in Shanghai already, it seems clear that this is going to be the rule, not the exception, for most parks going forward, Disney or otherwise, until this situation is under more control.

As far as APs, sure, it'll suck that not everyone that wants to go can. But this is temporary, and it would be foolish for Disney to reject higher-spending tourist dollars who came from longer distances to cater exclusively to those who are local and have less to lose by waiting until there's a reservation available.

For what it's worth, while I saw an awful lot of the behavior associated with Mainland Chinese over my month-long visit there in 2010, I have to say that I saw none of that behavior last year when I went to SDL. Does this mean all of those issues were magically solved since then? Of course not. But I can tell you I saw a lot less rude people during my three days there than either of the American resorts recently. Given that, can we stop the implications that all people who live in COMMUNIST CHINA as some here are so eager to spout are all simple, ignorant barbarians? It's not a good look, especially for someone who puts on such airs as being so "cultured."

And it's my hope that Disney will actually enforce these rules. I would love nothing more than for someone who refuses to comply, to not wear a mask, etc. to be kicked out. In fact, I wish Disney enforced rules the way they apparently used to pre-90s or how they do currently in Tokyo. Now, granted, Tokyo can be a little excessive at times, but for the most part it results in a far better park experience. Would it really be so terrible if they did the same thing in the US? Will it happen? We all know it probably won't. But the parks would be better for it.

One of my best friends from college came here from China. He was a very gentle person. I agree with you, most Chinese PEOPLE do seem pretty cool.

At the same time, people on the WDW forums rip Brazilians all the time, and no one has ever batted eyelash (including you). There does seem to be additional sensitivity towards Chinese people over other nationalities, and I’m not sure why that is.
 

PiratesMansion

Well-Known Member
One of my best friends from college came here from China. He was a very gentle person. I agree with you, most Chinese PEOPLE do seem pretty cool.

At the same time, people on the WDW forums rip Brazilians all the time, and no one has ever batted eyelash (including you). There does seem to be additional sensitivity towards Chinese people over other nationalities, and I’m not sure why that is.

I can't speak for ripping the Brazilians; I know through osmosis that such insulting occurs, but I cannot recall any specific thread where that has occurred that I have been a part of, nor do I have any personal experience with Brazilians or any other large tour groups. I tend to pop in and out of the WDW boards and don't usually explore them in any depth. I don't feel like I have the personal experience or knowledge to contribute intelligently to those sorts of discussions, and I tend to steer clear of obvious "I hate group X" or "Don't you hate when __________" threads.

I do, however, have personal experience spending time in and studying China over the past decade, and a lot of time in this specific part of the forum. And recently, since the spread of the virus, there has been an uptick in people making these sorts of comments (I'm sure in the WDW threads too, but as I've said, I don't frequent those as much or as thoroughly). I have never said nor am I under any illusion that China doesn't have a myriad of problems, including many pertaining to the government, but I'm tired of people who obviously have no firsthand experience or knowledge of the situation making ignorant statements that very clearly imply that all people in that country are just impossibly ignorant stupid sheep when it's just not the case.

As for why that is, I hear of far fewer people travelling to Brazil or spending significant time with people from Brazil outside of encountering them in large groups at Disney parks, whereas there are a number of Chinese students coming here and a seemingly larger number of people going to China for various reasons. But this is 100% anecdotal and based on nothing other than speculation.
 

TROR

Well-Known Member
There were a lot of Chinese students at my community college. I mostly recall them being rich, racist, and rude. I’m not going to make a blanket statement about all Chinese people in a positive or negative light, however, as I believe it’s important to judge based off individuals, not collectives.
 

PiratesMansion

Well-Known Member
Yep. Difference being that I'm not invading China and demanding they conform to me. But enough of this.
I think if we're being fair both countries are absolutely guilty of throwing their weight around on the world stage to get what they want, and both countries have their own views about the "correct" ways to live and govern that they like to impose on the rest of the world.

Both countries have a certain expectation of conformity to their ideals within their own borders and abroad.

Obviously the methods and beliefs involved are different, and so are everyone's opinions about which country, if indeed any, is doing it the "right" way, but at the end of the day they share that trait.
 
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waltography

Well-Known Member
I have the Flex pass and I'd happily follow these guidelines if it meant the parks were open again; it's truly no more different than what my pass entails. Even if this means I reserve a lot fewer times than I normally would, I'd appreciate some semblance of escape from reality right now.

I don't understand the pessimism that "it won't work in America"; I remember a time when people had to present their drivers' licenses to pick up park tickets they bought online (granted, it was at Universal, but still). I have faith that people will understand that it's for the purposes of contact tracing and for public welfare. It might dissuade those of a certain age who'd raise a ruckus from coming, but they're also at higher risk of COVID, so I doubt they'd be wanting to rush back to the parks regardless.
 

bryanfze55

Well-Known Member
I can't speak for ripping the Brazilians; I know through osmosis that such insulting occurs, but I cannot recall any specific thread where that has occurred that I have been a part of, nor do I have any personal experience with Brazilians or any other large tour groups. I tend to pop in and out of the WDW boards and don't usually explore them in any depth. I don't feel like I have the personal experience or knowledge to contribute intelligently to those sorts of discussions, and I tend to steer clear of obvious "I hate group X" or "Don't you hate when __________" threads.

I do, however, have personal experience spending time in and studying China over the past decade, and a lot of time in this specific part of the forum. And recently, since the spread of the virus, there has been an uptick in people making these sorts of comments (I'm sure in the WDW threads too, but as I've said, I don't frequent those as much or as thoroughly). I have never said nor am I under any illusion that China doesn't have a myriad of problems, including many pertaining to the government, but I'm tired of people who obviously have no firsthand experience or knowledge of the situation making ignorant statements that very clearly imply that all people in that country are just impossibly ignorant stupid sheep when it's just not the case.

As for why that is, I hear of far fewer people travelling to Brazil or spending significant time with people from Brazil outside of encountering them in large groups at Disney parks, whereas there are a number of Chinese students coming here and a seemingly larger number of people going to China for various reasons. But this is 100% anecdotal and based on nothing other than speculation.

It definitely happens a lot (making generalizations about Brazilian tourists), and I believe you when you say you just haven’t seen it... but again, it does happen quite often.

I think some people want to walk on eggshells when discussing China. I’m not sure why. It’s okay to point out the general flaws of any people. Everyone in the world pokes fun at Americans. Again, most people in general are good across the world... but there’s a heightened sensitivity around China, and I cannot be convinced otherwise.
 

bryanfze55

Well-Known Member
There were a lot of Chinese students at my community college. I mostly recall them being rich, racist, and rude. I’m not going to make a blanket statement about all Chinese people in a positive or negative light, however, as I believe it’s important to judge based off individuals, not collectives.

I liked my Chinese classmates. Most of the Latin American ones, too.

I think we can all agree the Europeans were the worst. All they did was smoke, skip class, play loud music, and be rude. The Germans were the exceptions to this
 

cmwade77

Well-Known Member
Saw from another news site that there were only 16,000 tickets sold for the park opening day, around 20% capacity. I wonder how long will that cap stay? It's no way they can run that park adequately with so few people but I know it's to start things off slow and build as things progress. This is good IMO and I hope if the other parks feel they really really have to open in the next few months they start with the same approach.
They will be increasing at 5,000 people per week until they reach the capacity level the government says they have to hold at until the government allows more capacity.
 

cmwade77

Well-Known Member
I have the Flex pass and I'd happily follow these guidelines if it meant the parks were open again; it's truly no more different than what my pass entails. Even if this means I reserve a lot fewer times than I normally would, I'd appreciate some semblance of escape from reality right now.

I don't understand the pessimism that "it won't work in America"; I remember a time when people had to present their drivers' licenses to pick up park tickets they bought online (granted, it was at Universal, but still). I have faith that people will understand that it's for the purposes of contact tracing and for public welfare. It might dissuade those of a certain age who'd raise a ruckus from coming, but they're also at higher risk of COVID, so I doubt they'd be wanting to rush back to the parks regardless.
I agree, although I think as long as reservations are available, I will probably be going more often with this limited attendance.
 

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