GoofGoof
Premium Member
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Walt Disney World Park Hours cut starting September 8 2020
- Thread starter durangojim
- Start date
I think it's a nice idea, but operationally a nightmare. DS simply doesn't have a much space as you'd think it has. The drone show experiment a few years back proved that, locking up walkways on the west side every night it ran and overwhelming capacity for the whole area.
I think the only choice for a one-off NYE show is MK / 7 Seas Lagoon. Hold the park capacity to what can be accommodated safely in distanced viewing areas. Establish temporary viewing areas at the surrounding resorts and TTC for the rest of the crowd. It's possible, but it would take a lot of resources.
A ticket price increase (but I think it's more likely they will increase merchandise and food/beverage prices first, and possibly soon) will depend on how much of a PR hit they are willing to take if they aren't able/willing to increase both ride capacity and entertainment offerings. And a few more QS and TS places open wouldn't hurt.
GoofGoof
Premium Member
That’s a valid point. I was thinking about waterfront places like Boat House or Paradiso 37 or House of Blues offering NYE packages including viewing of the fireworks, but you are probably right that a lot of people would just crowd outside to see. In reality it’s probably better if people just stay home, but if they are out anyway it cant hurt to help a few businesses I don’t want to see go under.
Does it count when they are testing fireworks at MK next week.
Magic Kingdom firework testing scheduled but not a sign of imminent return of shows
Disney will be launching fireworks in the Magic Kingdom area on Monday night.
www.wdwmagic.com
Just joking , I know it is only a test.
Peace n love n stuffDoes it count when they are testing fireworks at MK next week.
Magic Kingdom firework testing scheduled but not a sign of imminent return of shows
Disney will be launching fireworks in the Magic Kingdom area on Monday night.
Just joking , I know it is only a test.
Jrb1979
Well-Known Member
Sorry but that is not good news when we are in a pandemic.
giantgolfer
Well-Known Member
Yay for super spreaders!!!
GoofGoof
Premium Member
I think it is what it is at this point. I don’t think adding an extra hour makes all that much difference from a Covid safety prospective. Having the parks at capacity seems foolish, but more from an enjoyment standpoint. With everything not happening at the parks, going and dealing with a big crowd isn‘t going to make for a great experience. I guess a lot of people are local and just want to go and see the Christmas decorations, but it isn‘t a great time to go for what Touring Plans calls the Dumbo do or die plan where you go for an extended stay and want to see and do almost everything.
How are you still a fan of Disney when they are repeatedly in your opinions Disney is causing death with each step of their opening up or adding hours or running at capacity. Disney obviously is opening safely and very slowly relatively to other parks, but with each step it is always the same ole doom and gloom from a few for months now.
The only positive news to celebrate at the moment is that with viable vaccines on the horizon, the end of this may finally be in sight.
The underlying reasons for doom and gloom haven’t changed at all since the beginning of this, and in fact have been growing objectively worse with the alarming growth of every single metric related to the virus and our efforts to mitigate it.
GoofGoof
Premium Member
Where did I say Disney was causing death? Did you even read what I posted?
It’s really not all that complicated, Disney cramming more people into the parks without a meaningful increase in attractions open and/or capacity on the rides themselves is not a positive for anyone. More people in the parks means longer lines, issues with distancing and a generally less enjoyable experience. They can’t increase ride capacity without eliminating physical distancing and as you said they are obviously focused on operating safely so I don’t see that happening any time soon. If that’s doom and gloom then so be it, I just consider it a practical take on the current situation. Sticking your head in the sand and pretending that adding an hour to park hours for a few weeks or adding a few fireworks to the projection show is a sign of a return to normal.
We will absolutely get back to normal at WDW, but not now. We are a good 6 months away from a large enough number of people to be vaccinated to make a true difference. In the meantime there will be small additions and probably some subtractions too along the way. No point in reading into every one of these things. The best Disney can do is to focus on keeping things safe and getting by as best they can. With the current surge in cases it’s probably best for them to hold firm or even pull back some on capacity and wait to see if an opportunity comes to dial back up.
Really wasn't meant for you in particular GoofGoof but others, quoted yours by mistake. But to your point ride capacity has increased on rides as well, added plexiglass on ROTR and Mickey Railway, which doubles throughput. I would say that is meaningful, among others. They have added projections and nightly fireworks bursts( in November
), more restaurant openings, Woody's lunch Box, Crystal Palace soon and tomorrow land terrace a few days later. Even Tokyo Dining in Epcot opened this weekend due to crowds, more shops have opened in Epcot and other parks in the past few days/weeks. VOL starting today are now doing multiple shows on the busy weekend days in Epcot among the other live shows going on in Epcot.Of course no where near the entertainment that was in place pre March , but they are adding things back steadily and safely. The park is still only running at 35% capacity so I wouldn't expect much more to be back, until they raise capacity, which I think they already are doing slowly.
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Sir_Cliff
Well-Known Member
Doesn't that depend on what the capacity is? Having a maximum capacity that they deem safe presumably still means they can reach that capacity, and no-one is suggesting it is anywhere near 100% of normal capacity.
GoofGoof
Premium Member
Increasing the park capacity from 25% to 35% means more people through the gates, but that doesn‘t change the capacity on the rides themselves. So if for example at 25% park capacity most rides had 30 min or less of a wait and you increase park capacity to 35% without increasing ride capacity you by default increase waits (more people fighting for the same number of spots). More people are in the parks but they just spend more time in lines and due to physical distancing in the queues the lines stretch all over the place. So it’s not unsafe to let more people into the parks (up to a point) it will just result in a less enjoyable experience for guests. There can also be issues with bottlenecks which makes it harder for guests to maintain physical distance from each other. For some people that’s no big deal, others are turned off by it.
We are seeing this play out right now. In July there were much shorter lines for rides before they increased from 25-35% park capacity limits. It was a relatively modest increase with obvious impacts on wait times so for example if they now go from 35% to 50% that’s only going to make the situation even worse. In order to increase ride/attraction capacity they have to open more stuff up (shows, parades, meet and greets and other stuff that eats crowds) or get more people on per ride vehicle which in most cases means abandoning the physical distancing on the rides. There have been some limited examples of adding plexiglass to some rides but that doesn’t come close to the levels needed. The fact that many non-ride attractions and entertainment options are not running now adds to the problem, but many of those things have their own issues with distancing.
So in summary it’s not that increasing park capacity is not safe, there’s still plenty of room in all the parks to spread out (except maybe DHS). The issue is in order to make it enjoyable for guests you have to either bring back shows and non-ride attractions deemed unsafe so far or remove some physical distancing on rides themselves which is also deemed to be unsafe. So adding park capacity isn’t a Covid safety issue by itself, it’s the other changes needed to make that work logistically.
GoofGoof
Premium Member
Easy mistake to make...you are off the hook this timeReally wasn't meant for you in particular GoofGoof but others, quoted yours by mistake. But to your point ride capacity has increased on rides as well, added plexiglass on ROTR and Mickey Railway, which doubles throughput. I would say that is meaningful, among others. They have added projections and nightly fireworks bursts( in November
Of course no where near the entertainment that was in place pre March , but they are adding things back steadily and safely. The park is still only running at 35% capacity so I wouldn't expect much more to be back, until they raise capacity, which I think they already are doing slowly.
, although the rest of my post still stands. I think there are some small positive additions going on for the holidays, but Disney is pretty much stuck between a rock and a hard place. For example according to Touring Plans (my go to spot for crowd tracking) the average waits yesterday were:- Test Track - 97 mins
- Frozen - 90 mins
- Soarin - 71 mins
- Mission Space - 56 mins
- Imagination - 34 mins
- Spaceship Earth - 30 mins
Edit: for point of reference, Thanksgiving Day 2019 which was one of the busiest days of the year and a 10/10 crowd day at EPCOT the ride wait times were actually lower than yesterday. That gives you a good idea of how much the ride capacity limits and lack of alternative entertainment and attractions really impacts ride wait times.
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You are playing down the new additions a lot again, plus they can and have increased more trains on ride runs more boats etc. The wait times on the rides you listed also have been been inflated a good deal for the most part reported by many actual trip reports and bloggers etc.
Jrb1979
Well-Known Member
I'm still trying to understand why you think adding more capacity is a great thing. Are you trying to show people that things aren't as bad as believed. Cause daily case and hospitalization numbers say other wise.