Walt Disney World Park Hours cut starting September 8 2020

[GoofGoof]

Hours update -

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

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blogmickey.com

EPCOT increase seems like a no brainer as we talked about earlier. I’m surprised DHS didn’t get more hours. Seems like it would be 2nd most popular to MK these days. Thanksgiving week being up makes sense too with a lot of schools going to full week off and this year a lot of colleges are done by that week for the semester. I would assume that a similar increase would happen for the last 2 weeks of Dec, maybe just not announced yet.

 

[GoofGoof]

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.

More people are in the parks, that’s not disputed and increased hours means they project that to continue. Whether they are expecting a meaningful increase in. out of state tourists or just more locals with APs is yet to be determined. What will be interesting to see is if more resorts re-open. If Disney expects an uptick in out of state tourists for the holidays then I would expect announcements soon of some of the moth balled resorts re-opening.

On fireworks, there’s nothing stopping them from doing fireworks now. They could bring them back or they could decide to wait until social distancing is relaxed. Any type of night show will draw a crowd. That’s inevitable, the only question is if Disney is comfortable with a crowd like that or not. To some extent I think they were holding back due to the negotiations with CA on DLR. They didn’t want to see pictures and videos of a packed Main Street go viral and derail their re-opening plans, but with the government there being ridiculous with their plans maybe the company just says to heck with it and stops caring about bad PR from FL. There’s a cost component to it as well. I’d say 50/50 at best that there’s a holiday fireworks show but that’s just a guess.

 

[legwand77]

If Disney expects an uptick in out of state tourists for the holidays then I would expect announcements soon of some of the moth balled resorts re-opening

The opening up Disney Suites might be the first indication of that. Plus that NYTimes article will help drive the demand up.

Regarding the NY, NJ, PA travel restrictions, I would find it frustrating that my state government is restricting me from traveling in this environment, when the rest of the country can travel freely with the appropiate sopcial distancing and masks etc. Especially when the NYtimes article says it is safe and sucessful, going to be harder and harder for them to keep the citizens from traveling the longer it is kept in place. I hope they don't see what is going on in Sweden.

 

[Miss Bella]

The opening up Disney Suites might be the first indication of that. Plus that NYTimes article will help drive the demand up.

Regarding the NY, NJ, PA travel restrictions, I would find it frustrating that my state government is restricting me from traveling in this environment, when the rest of the country can travel freely with the appropiate sopcial distancing and masks etc. Especially when the NYtimes article says it is safe and sucessful, going to be harder and harder for them to keep the citizens from traveling the longer it is kept in place. I hope they don't see what is going on in Sweden.

New York is shutting down nine districts just for having a positivity rate about 3%, This shut down includes 300 schools and may last for weeks. Local officials are determined to destroy the city. It's really is sad.

 

[Communicora]

New York is shutting down nine districts just for having a positivity rate about 3%, This shut down includes 300 schools and may last for weeks. Local officials are determined to destroy the city. It's really is sad.

Here are the reported positivity rates for the zip codes these schools are located in:



Spoiler: The positivity rate isn't about 3%

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

If they don’t allow park hopping I would think they could do fireworks at Epcot very easily. I never felt packed in when watching fireworks at world showcase like at other parks.

They could also do mini fireworks shows from 8-9 pm. Like do epcot forever in 4 segments for example.

 

[GoofGoof]

The opening up Disney Suites might be the first indication of that. Plus that NYTimes article will help drive the demand up.

Regarding the NY, NJ, PA travel restrictions, I would find it frustrating that my state government is restricting me from traveling in this environment, when the rest of the country can travel freely with the appropiate sopcial distancing and masks etc. Especially when the NYtimes article says it is safe and sucessful, going to be harder and harder for them to keep the citizens from traveling the longer it is kept in place. I hope they don't see what is going on in Sweden.

Nobody is being restricted from traveling. You are just being asked to quarantine for 14 days when returning from a place deemed to have widespread community spread. It’s not that hard to understand why it’s being done. it’s not a punishment or a political move like people keep trying to make it out.

There are a million articles written about Covid, I doubt any one article has any influence on public policy. I have no idea what’s happening in Sweden and assume that since international travel is still not allowed there’s no reason to talk about it in a thread on Disney park hours. I don’t think Sweden was a very big demographic for WDW even pre-Covid.

 

[Miss Bella]

Here are the reported positivity rates for the zip codes these schools are located in:



Spoiler: The positivity rate isn't about 3%

I meant to type above 3%, but I don't see that as a reason to go into a lockdown.

 

[Miss Bella]

Nobody is being restricted from traveling. You are just being asked to quarantine for 14 days when returning from a place deemed to have widespread community spread. It’s not that hard to understand why it’s being done. it’s not a punishment or a political move like people keep trying to make it out.

There are a million articles written about Covid, I doubt any one article has any influence on public policy. I have no idea what’s happening in Sweden and assume that since international travel is still not allowed there’s no reason to talk about it in a thread on Disney park hours. I don’t think Sweden was a very big demographic for WDW even pre-Covid.

Asking people to quarantine for 14 days eliminates a lot of people from traveling. I'm sure a lot of people aren't abiding by it anyway.

 

[GoofGoof]

Asking people to quarantine for 14 days eliminates a lot of people from traveling. I'm sure a lot of people aren't abiding by it anyway.

Depends on your job. Not worth getting fired over.

 

[easyrowrdw]

The hours for Hollywood Studios are ridiculous. The park with the longest waits now has the shortest hours on many days.

 

[GoofGoof]

The hours for Hollywood Studios are ridiculous. The park with the longest waits now has the shortest hours on many days.

Maybe that’s an error or something. It makes no sense. Thats also the smallest park so makes sense to spread crowds over more hours.

 

[techgeek]

Maybe that’s an error or something. It makes no sense. Thats also the smallest park so makes sense to spread crowds over more hours.

The Rise boarding group situation significantly front-loads arrivals at the studios. The big crowds continue to be at park open and taper off slowly from there. Unless they fix the way that’s handled, there’s no ‘spreading out’ when crowds come and go.

 

[MaryJaneP]

Can't see how fireworks show in MK that needs to have huddled masses in the hub area are gonna return while social distancing is a health requirement. Moving from Fantasy-in-the-sky and Wishes, which could be viewed and appreciated wherever one was in the MK to a one sided projection show that is HEA, may be viewed as a transition from a wide view event to a super-spreader event. It is hard to fathom how HEA fireworks, absent limited invitations (i.e. Hard Ticketed Event for more $$), will return in time for holidays this year.

 

[GoofGoof]

The Rise boarding group situation significantly front-loads arrivals at the studios. The big crowds continue to be at park open and taper off slowly from there. Unless they fix the way that’s handled, there’s no ‘spreading out’ when crowds come and go.

They are dealing with ride capacity limits too which can’t help. Maybe the answer is to go with 100% advanced reservations as a lottery system for the ride. A day or 2 in advance. Everyone going to the park that day puts their name in and they randomly assign times to ride then if you get shut out you get shut out and if you get 3pm you don’t need to get there by rope drop to attempt to get a boarding group. It’s the AP holders that present a problem. Maybe limit it to 1 ride a week or something.

 

[MaryJaneP]

I never felt packed in when watching fireworks at world showcase like at other parks.

Really? We always felt super squished at fireworks at EPCOT. Almost as squished as at MK. Gotta guess YMMV.

 

[Miss Bella]

Depends on your job. Not worth getting fired over.

I’m not a lawyer I can’t comment on wether that’s a valid reason to fire someone, but there is no law that says you need to tell your employer what you are doing on vacation.

 

[GoofGoof]

Really? We always felt super squished at fireworks at EPCOT. Almost as squished as at MK. Gotta guess YMMV.

Agreed. It can get tight there too. They could do a version of boarding groups and limit the number of people around the lake. You rope off all the areas lakefront and then only let people with reservations in. Then have a walking path around the lake but station CMs around it making sure that people don’t stop to watch and bunch up. Similar to how they do parades on Main street. They always have a walking path down the sidewalk behind the rope and they keep people moving. The biggest problem is it’s a huge lake so you would need a lot of CMs and a really long rope

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

Really? We always felt super squished at fireworks at EPCOT. Almost as squished as at MK. Gotta guess YMMV.

Where did you watch from? I’d usually choose Italy or Japan depending on the wind, Japan was always my favorite.

 

[GoofGoof]

I’m not a lawyer I can’t comment on wether that’s a valid reason to fire someone, but there is no law that says you need to tell your employer what you are doing on vacation.

Most employees are at will. Unless you have a contract that prohibits it they can fire you for violating a company policy. If the policy says you have to quarantine after traveling they can fire you for not doing it. With social media and co-workers it’s pretty tough to pull off lying about where you went. All it takes is one post somewhere, one co-worker who slips up, etc. People with kids have a harder time. Kids have to lie to classmates about their vacation. Most people are t going to risk it, not when they can just go later or go somewhere not on the list.