Walt Disney World Park Hours cut starting September 8 2020

[GoofGoof]

And the percent positive has stayed relatively steady and well below 10%.

I don't get why some people seem hell bent on things never getting better.

I tried to get this back on topic. You know, about operating hours. Let me know if anyone wants to speculate about that. I'm done arguing over covid.

I’m not hell bent on things never getting better. Just the opposite. I want things to get better. I want to see FL cases drop low enough that all travel restrictions are removed. I want to see WDW extend capacity and extend hours and bring back stuff that is missing right now. None of that can happen if cases don’t drop. People can play games with statistics and try to spin things as good but that doesn’t help Disney one bit. IMHO what would help is if the state continued to follow CDC guidelines and the example of states with Covid more under control instead of playing politics. I don’t see Disney just ignoring facts and statistics and expanding capacity and expanding hours because some people want that. The only way for WDW to get back to being WDW is for the state to get things under control. Opening bars with no restrictions ain’t going to help that cause.

 

[legwand77]

I’m not hell bent on things never getting better. Just the opposite. I want things to get better. I want to see FL cases drop low enough that all travel restrictions are removed. I want to see WDW extend capacity and extend hours and bring back stuff that is missing right now. None of that can happen if cases don’t drop. People can play games with statistics and try to spin things as good but that doesn’t help Disney one bit. IMHO what would help is if the state continued to follow CDC guidelines and the example of states with Covid more under control instead of playing politics. I don’t see Disney just ignoring facts and statistics and expanding capacity and expanding hours because some people want that. The only way for WDW to get back to being WDW is for the state to get things under control. Opening bars with no restrictions ain’t going to help that cause.

Your cup is half full, promoting fear and irrational concern hurts Disney more than any numbers. Taking smart and pragmatic look at the data is the best. Please note I am not saying that you in particular are promoting fear, as you do not, but there are plenty that do.

What state has it under control, and what is under control. It changes all the time. if not Florida, California? New York? Vermont? I would say Vermont but population is so low there. The country is so caught up in parsing data over positive tests now it has become paralyzing.

Disney has been open for months . Flights are flying all the time, sports has been playing for months, Schools have been open for months in some regions. What if we are at a baseline, it is looking that way for Florida, positive tests might not ever drop below an arbitrary number (which is based on what?), especially the way testing is being done. If we are at baseline, hospitals are currently completely fine in Florida. I bet when NY, PA, NJ opens more they will be worse off than Florida in positive tests.

So if Florida never goes lower that they have been on cases, % positive , 10/100,000 or whatever metric we should keep everything shutdown, not extend hours etc. etc. Sure vaccine is on the horizon, but remember the vaccine for the flu is only on average 30-40% effective at best. the vaccine is not the solution that some think it will be, even with vaccine we still will have positive tests.

 

[Dan Deesnee]

I’m not hell bent on things never getting better. Just the opposite. I want things to get better. I want to see FL cases drop low enough that all travel restrictions are removed. I want to see WDW extend capacity and extend hours and bring back stuff that is missing right now. None of that can happen if cases don’t drop. People can play games with statistics and try to spin things as good but that doesn’t help Disney one bit. IMHO what would help is if the state continued to follow CDC guidelines and the example of states with Covid more under control instead of playing politics. I don’t see Disney just ignoring facts and statistics and expanding capacity and expanding hours because some people want that. The only way for WDW to get back to being WDW is for the state to get things under control. Opening bars with no restrictions ain’t going to help that cause.

You say you want to see FL cases drop low enough that travel restrictions can be removed. Who decides what is "low enough"? What if this is simply a virus we have to live with for decades+ (like the flu), how many jobs / livelihoods will be lost by the time we realize that?

Why can WDW not extend hours and get some things back to normal until "cases drop"? I thought deaths were the concern? Who decides what cases have to drop to? I thought deaths were the big concern but now all we hear about is cases. Again, they may not drop and stay below, say, 2-3% for months if not years.

Florida playing politics is your opinion and I disagree with it. In my opinion they see the writing on the wall that Covid isn't going away any time soon and the economic damage of staying locked up (for months? years?) will be far worse than trying to reopen.

People keep saying "till a vaccine". Well, what happens after the vaccine is out? You can't get in the park unless you show a card stating you have the vaccine? What if only the most at risk can get it for 1-2+ years due to limited global supply (a very likely scenario)? I'd like to hear how a vaccine suddenly allows us to go back to normal without a lot of massive assumptions involved.

 

[Jrb1979]

You say you want to see FL cases drop low enough that travel restrictions can be removed. Who decides what is "low enough"? What if this is simply a virus we have to live with for decades+ (like the flu), how many jobs / livelihoods will be lost by the time we realize that?

Why can WDW not extend hours and get some things back to normal until "cases drop"? I thought deaths were the concern? Who decides what cases have to drop to? I thought deaths were the big concern but now all we hear about is cases. Again, they may not drop and stay below, say, 2-3% for months if not years.

Florida playing politics is your opinion and I disagree with it. In my opinion they see the writing on the wall that Covid isn't going away any time soon and the economic damage of staying locked up (for months? years?) will be far worse than trying to reopen.

People keep saying "till a vaccine". Well, what happens after the vaccine is out? You can't get in the park unless you show a card stating you have the vaccine? What if only the most at risk can get it for 1-2+ years due to limited global supply (a very likely scenario)? I'd like to hear how a vaccine suddenly allows us to go back to normal without a lot of massive assumptions involved.

Why can't they extend hours you ask? Money is the answer. In case you haven't noticed Disney is in cost cutting mode right now and for the foreseeable future.

I disagree with how Florida is " learning to live with Covid". Yes let all businesses be open but make masks mandatory and keep social distancing in place. That's how you live with Covid. Not just pretending it doesn't exist by dropping all restrictions. As the Mayor of Toronto said " you need healthy people to have a healthy economy." You can drop all the restrictions you want it doesn't mean people are just going to go back to normal.


My answer to how to really slow down the spread of Covid is to keep harping on people that IF YOU AREN'T FEELING WELL STAY HOME.

 

[GoofGoof]

Your cup is half full, promoting fear and irrational concern hurts Disney more than any numbers. Taking smart and pragmatic look at the data is the best. Please note I am not saying that you in particular are promoting fear, as you do not, but there are plenty that do.

What state has it under control, and what is under control. It changes all the time. if not Florida, California? New York? Vermont? I would say Vermont but population is so low there. The country is so caught up in parsing data over positive tests now it has become paralyzing.

Disney has been open for months . Flights are flying all the time, sports has been playing for months, Schools have been open for months in some regions. What if we are at a baseline, it is looking that way for Florida, positive tests might not ever drop below an arbitrary number (which is based on what?), especially the way testing is being done. If we are at baseline, hospitals are currently completely fine in Florida. I bet when NY, PA, NJ opens more they will be worse off than Florida in positive tests.

So if Florida never goes lower that they have been on cases, % positive , 10/100,000 or whatever metric we should keep everything shutdown, not extend hours etc. etc. Sure vaccine is on the horizon, but remember the vaccine for the flu is only on average 30-40% effective at best. the vaccine is not the solution that some think it will be, even with vaccine we still will have positive tests.

You say you want to see FL cases drop low enough that travel restrictions can be removed. Who decides what is "low enough"? What if this is simply a virus we have to live with for decades+ (like the flu), how many jobs / livelihoods will be lost by the time we realize that?

Why can WDW not extend hours and get some things back to normal until "cases drop"? I thought deaths were the concern? Who decides what cases have to drop to? I thought deaths were the big concern but now all we hear about is cases. Again, they may not drop and stay below, say, 2-3% for months if not years.

Florida playing politics is your opinion and I disagree with it. In my opinion they see the writing on the wall that Covid isn't going away any time soon and the economic damage of staying locked up (for months? years?) will be far worse than trying to reopen.

People keep saying "till a vaccine". Well, what happens after the vaccine is out? You can't get in the park unless you show a card stating you have the vaccine? What if only the most at risk can get it for 1-2+ years due to limited global supply (a very likely scenario)? I'd like to hear how a vaccine suddenly allows us to go back to normal without a lot of massive assumptions involved.

Keep this in mind, the travel restrictions have nothing to do with FL‘s hospitals or any restrictions in FL. None of the governors of states with travel restrictions are saying FL should do anything different. They are free to have bars open and crowds in the stands for football. FL has accepted a higher level of cases in exchange for bars and college football. Nobody is stopping them. NJ kept their bars closed all summer while places like Myrtle Beach and FL and other hot spots were open for business. The NJ governor didn’t want to have his businesses shuttered and then have residents travel to a hot spot and bring back the virus so they put in a travel quarantine requirement. It’s as simple as that. Nobody in NJ‘s government is saying that FL can’t do what they want they just don’t want the collateral damage from another state’s actions. If they were comfortable with much higher case numbers they would have opened their own bars.

So how is any of this relevant to the topic of the thread? It’s very simple, WDW needs masses of tourists to come back to get to a level of demand needed to bring back shuttered resorts and extend park hours and maybe even fireworks or nighttime shows. Right now a lot of that is as much economics as it is Covid safety. This is the point that several of you are missing. This isn’t a political argument, it’s economics. Nobody is saying Disney can’t do what they want. You can’t make people go to Disney World because FL hospitals aren’t overrun or because deaths are the primary concern. Those are fine points in a debate on Covid response and restrictions but have nothing to do with the demand issue. People will do what they want and if it means having to quarantine when returning some may think it’s worth it, many will not.

As far as who decides when cases are low enough that’s an individual call. Some people may wait for a vaccine some were comfortable in July when cases were 10,000+ a day. Specifically for travel restrictions each state sets its own requirement. The metric in the NE states was established and has been followed without bias. If a state doesn’t meet the requirements they go on the list. Every state has the right to decide what level of cases is acceptable. In FL the governor has chosen to remove all restrictions and allow everything open fully. He’s accepting a higher level of cases as a trade off for bars being open and fans in the stands at sports events. That may be helpful short term for those businesses but it may be a bad call long term for WDW and tourism in general. There are trade offs in every decision made but it’s simply not black and white. Opening everything with no restrictions isn’t an automatic win for all businesses and not for the long term. It’s not that simple.

 

[Jrb1979]

To add on, a big one right now is the fact a lot of people have lost their jobs or have their hours cut. So many most likely can't afford a Disney vacation.

 

[Dan Deesnee]

To add on, a big one right now is the fact a lot of people have lost their jobs or have their hours cut. So many most likely can't afford a Disney vacation.

Most of the jobs lost are people who likely couldn't afford a Disney vacation anyway. Also you probably missed a post I made earlier about "extending hours" because I agree with you about the cost issue. What I really want to see is LATER park closing hours, and LATER park opening hours.

I don't think Disney cares about the "morning crowd" like someone pointed out. The morning crowd is just there to ride long wait time rides without the long wait.

With later start times and closing times across the board you encourage people to go get breakfast at a resort, then have lunch and dinner in the parks instead of thousands of people flooding into Disney Springs. You also encourage late night shopping in the parks. My wife and I skipped out on MANY purchases while there recently because we didn't want to walk around with the stuff all day and also were resort hopping / doing a short trip so sending it to the room wasn't an option worth the hassle.

 

[giantgolfer]

Your cup is half full, promoting fear and irrational concern hurts Disney more than any numbers. Taking smart and pragmatic look at the data is the best. Please note I am not saying that you in particular are promoting fear, as you do not, but there are plenty that do.

What state has it under control, and what is under control. It changes all the time. if not Florida, California? New York? Vermont? I would say Vermont but population is so low there. The country is so caught up in parsing data over positive tests now it has become paralyzing.

Disney has been open for months . Flights are flying all the time, sports has been playing for months, Schools have been open for months in some regions. What if we are at a baseline, it is looking that way for Florida, positive tests might not ever drop below an arbitrary number (which is based on what?), especially the way testing is being done. If we are at baseline, hospitals are currently completely fine in Florida. I bet when NY, PA, NJ opens more they will be worse off than Florida in positive tests.

So if Florida never goes lower that they have been on cases, % positive , 10/100,000 or whatever metric we should keep everything shutdown, not extend hours etc. etc. Sure vaccine is on the horizon, but remember the vaccine for the flu is only on average 30-40% effective at best. the vaccine is not the solution that some think it will be, even with vaccine we still will have positive tests.

Tone deaf responses continue....

 

[Jrb1979]

Most of the jobs lost are people who likely couldn't afford a Disney vacation anyway. Also you probably missed a post I made earlier about "extending hours" because I agree with you about the cost issue. What I really want to see is LATER park closing hours, and LATER park opening hours.

I don't think Disney cares about the "morning crowd" like someone pointed out. The morning crowd is just there to ride long wait time rides without the long wait.

With later start times and closing times across the board you encourage people to go get breakfast at a resort, then have lunch and dinner in the parks instead of thousands of people flooding into Disney Springs. You also encourage late night shopping in the parks. My wife and I skipped out on MANY purchases while there recently because we didn't want to walk around with the stuff all day and also were resort hopping / doing a short trip so sending it to the room wasn't an option worth the hassle.

Later hours aren't going to happen due to night fall and not being able to enforce mask wearing as easy.

 

[GoofGoof]

Later hours aren't going to happen due to night fall and not being able to enforce mask wearing as easy.

It gets dark at 5pm after Nov 1 (daylight savings) so they better figure it out. How does DS do it now? They are open after dark.

 

[Jrb1979]

It gets dark at 5pm after Nov 1 (daylight savings) so they better figure it out. How does DS do it now? They are open after dark.

Part of it is later hours in the day won't change anything. Most aren't staying til the end as there is nothing keeping people at the parks.

 

[Dan Deesnee]

Part of it is later hours in the day won't change anything. Most aren't staying til the end as there is nothing keeping people at the parks.

That is no longer true. Hit all 4 parks last week and this week. Pretty crowded all the way up to close. Wait times stayed high as well. The earlier days of this where people reported the parks near empty by closing time seem long gone. Also, the crowds while I were there did not seem to be as local as some might think. Many, many groups wearing "group t-shirts", resorts were pretty packed as well (we stayed at Pop, Boardwalk, and Riviera).

 

[DCBaker]

Hours update -

Disney World Adds 180 Hours to Theme Park Operations Through Late December

Walt Disney World news, photos, and reviews! We provide you with daily news from the Walt Disney World theme parks and beyond

blogmickey.com

 

[Unbanshee]

Disney has added 180 more hours to theme park ops according to Blog Mickey!

Disney World Adds 180 Hours to Theme Park Operations Through Late December

Walt Disney World news, photos, and reviews! We provide you with daily news from the Walt Disney World theme parks and beyond

blogmickey.com

 

[Dan Deesnee]

Disney has added 180 more hours to theme park ops according to Blog Mickey!

Disney World Adds 180 Hours to Theme Park Operations Through Late December

Walt Disney World news, photos, and reviews! We provide you with daily news from the Walt Disney World theme parks and beyond

blogmickey.com

Well that just made my day! Next trip is Nov. 8.

 

[TTA94]

With Epcot being open till 9 or 10 I wish they alone could find a way to bring back fireworks. In a very safe and limited way.

 

[wdwmagic]

Easy to view format for the new hours

Walt Disney World Calendar

Disney World Park Hours

www.wdwmagic.com

 

[legwand77]

Looks like demand is increasing, as if it wasn't obvious from what we have been seeing in the parks the since labor day. I am still in the camp that some type of fireworks show will be appearing in November.

 

[legwand77]

Later hours aren't going to happen due to night fall and not being able to enforce mask wearing as easy.

this post did not age well

 

[Miss Bella]

To add on, a big one right now is the fact a lot of people have lost their jobs or have their hours cut. So many most likely can't afford a Disney vacation.

A lot of people couldn’t afford Disney vacations before Covid. Since most of the job losses so far have been service jobs I’m not sure how much effect the unemployment rate has on expensive vacations. The lock downs and travel bans are a bigger factor.