Walt Disney World Park Hours cut starting September 8 2020

Butter

Member
All across the park, things were shuttered and dark... from major venues to the stunning lack of ability to buy a Mickey ice cream bar.

We finally found one after having our eyes peeled for literally hours Thursday... a cart outside Echo Lake between Hollywood and Vine and Dockside Diner. It took all day though and that was the only one we saw.
 

Gabe1

Ivory Tower Squabble EST 2011. WINDMILL SURVIVOR
I’m usually less blunt...

But this “there could be a lawsuit” stuff is a dead end. People with passes got partially screwed. People with trips cancelled got screwed. People with trips now got screwed. People expecting more new things anytime for years will get screwed.

Covid. Loss of a business environment where people swarm the place no matter what they do/charge.

It is what it is.

Don’t forget this isn’t the same Disney that will be aggressive to cut us deals to get us back anymore. That ship has long sailed. Everyone loves how fantastic Iger has done - I’ll remind.
Don’t stop “loving” him now.

And yet all the excuses lack the merit of contract law. Terms and condition of sale do not magically disappear. Their offers to buy back APs do not reflect the terms of sale. There are not exceptions written in for a pandemic. Lacks Merit. Disney is continuing to create new sales while voiding and barring admission for previous sales. That is what will be challenged.

Your Space Mountain example to support your opinion is rhetoric not legal standing.
 

Touchdown

Well-Known Member
They don’t want AP or frequent guests, they want family’s of four going for the first time. Anyone from that demographic is going to be massively disappointed if they go under these circumstances. Right now numbers are low because of the hot zone problem but it’s likely that will resolve itself in the next 6ish months. If Disney does not rapidly improve their offerings then, they are going to have a big problem.

Universal is running at 80-90% the normal experience as are local parks. This group is also having massive discounts and most regional parks have extended season passes for another whole year. Disney is offering no discounts and 50-60% the normal experience. I’m not going to any parks at the moment but frankly Disney is currently offering a worse experience then it’s competition right now.

They need to either offer discounts, expand what they are offering or just close again.

If Covid has a typical 2nd wave (Fall) and 3rd (post Christmas) I think there is a pretty good chance the pandemic will be winding down by summer 2021, especially if there is a vaccine.
 

sjhym333

Well-Known Member
I have to wonder that even when this is over (and I am not even sure what that really means at this point) will Disney theme parks ever look the same again? What lessons will Disney have learned from this? What experiences will Disney decide to no longer offer? How long will Disney keep a tight reign on purse strings post Covid to try to get back money lost? How does Disney protect itself from future problems? One of the things you see on these chats is the conjecture of when we get to this point then... We have seen many of those not plan out. Even if a vaccine is available by early 2021 how long will it take for enough people being vaccinated for things to return to normal? What will the new normal at Disney look like? I expect different from Disney of February 2020.
 

roodlesnouter

Active Member
I read most of this thread with an open mouth.

I don't understand wby people are against these changes in hours.

From a safety and business sense this is necessary. It's clear that trying to secure the parks in the dark is a more difficult and the fact that the crowds aren't there means they need to save money.

I work in an airport restaurant, no one is flying out it is dead. Because of this we have one restaurant closed and another on reduced hours. If they opened both restaurants full time they world be out of business in no time. We need to save expenditure where we can to save the business and have strong starting position for when the situation improves.

It's the same with Disney, and most other business.

I'm a passholder and it's cost me 2 trips, 7 weeks total. sure im disappointed but I understand and realise its for the long term good of the business.

People are losing jobs, businesses and lives yet people are being upset because they can't see a sunset or watch beauty and the beast in the dark.

We should be thankful for what we have and appreciative of the cast who are putting themselves in danger so we can ride dumbo.

Perspective people.
 

MonorailCoral

Active Member
I don't understand why people are against these changes in hours.

[...]

People are losing jobs, businesses and lives yet people are being upset because they can't see a sunset or watch beauty and the beast in the dark.
Because it's too soon for them to recognize that 2020 has become the worst-case combination of 1918 and 1929.

The iceberg is still plainly visible just beyond the stern (but now passed), and the ship is still moving along at a good clip...Why wouldn't they expect the band to keep playing and the brandy to be served?
 

techgeek

Well-Known Member
I have to wonder that even when this is over (and I am not even sure what that really means at this point) will Disney theme parks ever look the same again? What lessons will Disney have learned from this? What experiences will Disney decide to no longer offer? How long will Disney keep a tight reign on purse strings post Covid to try to get back money lost? How does Disney protect itself from future problems? One of the things you see on these chats is the conjecture of when we get to this point then... We have seen many of those not plan out. Even if a vaccine is available by early 2021 how long will it take for enough people being vaccinated for things to return to normal? What will the new normal at Disney look like? I expect different from Disney of February 2020.

These are good questions and points. I suspect a decent bit of the health mitigation might become a new or at least long term normal, and enter into ‘best practice’ going forward.

As it was before this in the Asian parks, It might be very common for the rest of our lifetimes to see a significant percentage of guests and even cast in face masks, even when the requirement is dropped. Quite frankly it’s now very hard to imagine a full return of the old meet and greet experience with princesses hugging 300 toddlers a shift. Perhaps the popularity of them wanes due to this, or at least the experience has a ton of new rules compared to Feb 2020. A lot of that plexiglass isn’t going away anytime soon either, and I suspect queue concepts will be reimagined for future projects and refurbs... less common touch points, reduce crowding.

From a societal standpoint, is the general public of 2022 going to be interested in packing shoulder to shoulder in the hub for fireworks? Having a fine dining experience sitting 2 feet from a neighboring table? Being shoved like a sardine into a monorail car with questionable air circulation? How much is our overall acceptance of these things being is redefined on a massive level?

To stay on the topic of hours... even before this people rarely if ever took advantage of a full 16 hour operating day, open to close. A longer operating day allows a park to create arrival shifts, allows resort guests to take a break in the heat of the day, allows APs to show up after work to replace the morning ride commandos that are done by 6pm. Park hopping played into this massively. There’s no necessity for long hours at the moment because none of that is happening. No one is arriving after noon. I left the studios around 1:30 on Friday, and there were literally no new arrivals coming in at all. In February there was almost always a healthy arrival crowd throughout the day.

Until there’s a desire to bring hopping back into the equation, the 8 hour days are going to be here for the duration.
 

MonorailCoral

Active Member
From a societal standpoint, is the general public of 2022 going to be interested in packing shoulder to shoulder in the hub for fireworks? Having a fine dining experience sitting 2 feet from a neighboring table? Being shoved like a sardine into a monorail car with questionable air circulation? How much is our overall acceptance of these things being is redefined on a massive level?
Have you seen the photos of the 1920s after 50,000,000 died of the 1918 Flu?
 

networkpro

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
Yes
Because it's too soon for them to recognize that 2020 has become the worst-case combination of 1918 and 1929.

The iceberg is still plainly visible just beyond the stern (but now passed), and the ship is still moving along at a good clip...Why wouldn't they expect the band to keep playing and the brandy to be served?

History, it's a hard concept for some to grasp. The Spanish Flu (origins most likely not from Spain) had an estimated death count of 650K in the US, but the total population at that time was only 103 million with is roughly a third of the current time.
 

Sirwalterraleigh

Premium Member
And yet all the excuses lack the merit of contract law. Terms and condition of sale do not magically disappear. Their offers to buy back APs do not reflect the terms of sale. There are not exceptions written in for a pandemic. Lacks Merit. Disney is continuing to create new sales while voiding and barring admission for previous sales. That is what will be challenged.

Your Space Mountain example to support your opinion is rhetoric not legal standing.
You: they’re in legal trouble with those annual passes. The legal lynch mob is looking for torches and pitchforks as we speak!

Me: they’ll all be back with bibs on the minute they run HEA.


Congrats on the JD. We’ll agree to disagree and see how it’s gonna go? It’s not about the legal terms...it’s about the mentality of their customers. Disney is very good at knowing where they stand. They’ve been working on it for 100 years.

There will be a reduction in AP renewals and sales for some time...no way around that. But that’s “socio-economic” at this point. They would need a huge promo and Jonas Salk to change that now.

It is...and always will be...what it is.
 

techgeek

Well-Known Member
Have you seen the photos of the 1920s after 50,000,000 died of the 1918 Flu?

I’m not sure what photos from the 1920s have to do with the business case for large gatherings in 2022?

I mean, I don’t know much about the business climate of the 1920s, aside from that it was ‘roaring’. Were there lingering impacts that could be attributed to the 1918 flu? Did business adopt any ‘forever’ best practices for travel or health and safety? Were we as connected and aware of the science behind public health in 1920, or the legal implications for ignoring that advice?

I know people that still won’t get on a airplane post 9/11. It’s not as common a thing as it was in 2002, but it never truly went away. And we still have lingering security changes and requirements to that process that did not exist in 2000.
 

Sirwalterraleigh

Premium Member
I’m not sure what photos from the 1920s have to do with the business case for large gatherings in 2022?

I mean, I don’t know much about the business climate of the 1920s, aside from that it was ‘roaring’. Were there lingering impacts that could be attributed to the 1918 flu? Did business adopt any ‘forever’ best practices for travel or health and safety? Were we as connected and aware of the science behind public health in 1920, or the legal implications for ignoring that advice?

I know people that still won’t get on a airplane post 9/11. It’s not as common a thing as it was in 2002, but it never truly went away. And we still have lingering security changes and requirements to that process that did not exist in 2000.
I’ll help...it has absolutely nothing to do with it. Not a damn thing.

What a silly false analogy. There were an estimated 85,000,000 fatalities in WW2. Life was different after.

Did that mean people would have protested in 1947 to open their beach bar or gym and do interviews on cnn and Fox News about it??

...I can make a stupid red herring argument too.
 
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MonorailCoral

Active Member
From a societal standpoint, is the general public of 2022 going to be interested in packing shoulder to shoulder in the hub for fireworks? Having a fine dining experience sitting 2 feet from a neighboring table? Being shoved like a sardine into a monorail car with questionable air circulation? How much is our overall acceptance of these things being is redefined on a massive level?
Have you seen the photos of the 1920s after 50,000,000 died of the 1918 Flu?

I’m not sure what photos from the 1920s have to do with the business case for large gatherings in 2022?

I mean, I don’t know much about the business climate of the 1920s, aside from that it was ‘roaring’. Were there lingering impacts that could be attributed to the 1918 flu? Did business adopt any ‘forever’ best practices for travel or health and safety? Were we as connected and aware of the science behind public health in 1920, or the legal implications for ignoring that advice?

These photos epitomize what I meant of the post-1918 Flu world...Which I believe answer your questions as to how society (if history repeats itself) will conduct itself with regard to any lingering precautionary-distancing in the upcoming years that follow this pandemic:

index4.jpg


index.jpg


index3.jpg


In other words...They'll probably tend to forget about it.

I know people that still won’t get on a airplane post 9/11. It’s not as common a thing as it was in 2002, but it never truly went away. And we still have lingering security changes and requirements to that process that did not exist in 2000.

True, although airplanes (and their potential to convey life and/or end life) are still very much concrete concepts still plainly identifiable in the 2020 world...which may not aid in subduing any lingering fear of them, whether (ever) rational or not.

A virus, on the other hand, may as well be as abstract as radiation or carbon monoxide...You can't see it, (effectively) touch it, taste it, smell it, or have any way to detect its presence whatsoever on your own without a specialized device for detection...And most people without such detection devices would/could easily tend to forget the possibility of it being there if no one else around them is acting like the possibility still exists.
 

techgeek

Well-Known Member
These photos epitomize what I meant of the post-1918 Flu world...Which I believe answer your questions as to how society (if history repeats itself) will conduct itself with regard to any lingering precautionary-distancing in the upcoming years that follow this pandemic:

index4.jpg


index.jpg


index3.jpg


In other words...They'll probably tend to forget about it.



True, although airplanes (and their potential to convey life and/or end life) are still very much concrete concepts still plainly identifiable in the 2020 world...which may not aid in subduing any lingering fear of them, whether (ever) rational or not.

A virus, on the other hand, may as well be as abstract as radiation or carbon monoxide...You can't see it, (effectively) touch it, taste it, smell it, or have any way to detect its presence whatsoever on your own without a specialized device for detection...And most people without such detection devices would/could easily tend to forget the possibility of it being there if no one else around them is acting like the possibility still exists.

I could easily take similar photos today in certain locations and circumstances, but they don’t represent a business reality at the moment or imply one in 12-16 months.

I can agree that the general public has a short memory and attention span especially when it comes to things that they can’t see. The entire Disney experience at the moment, and much of general public life, revolves around physical reminders of those things... and I posit that many of those physical reminders will be with us for a ‘new normal’, continuing to nudge public opinion and actions. And producing a measurable impact on theme park bottom lines for years to come. We’ll all pay for the modifications to the experience, there will still be an experience... But, it will remain different from February in many ways other then just reduced park hours.
 

legwand77

Well-Known Member
I could easily take similar photos today in certain locations and circumstances, but they don’t represent a business reality at the moment or imply one in 12-16 months.

I can agree that the general public has a short memory and attention span especially when it comes to things that they can’t see. The entire Disney experience at the moment, and much of general public life, revolves around physical reminders of those things... and I posit that many of those physical reminders will be with us for a ‘new normal’, continuing to nudge public opinion and actions. And producing a measurable impact on theme park bottom lines for years to come. We’ll all pay for the modifications to the experience, there will still be an experience... But, it will remain different from February in many ways other then just reduced park hours.
ever heard of the Roaring Twenties
 

techgeek

Well-Known Member
ever heard of the Roaring Twenties

... I even called them that in an earlier reply in this discussion... so, yes?


I mean, I don’t know much about the business climate of the 1920s, aside from that it was ‘roaring’.

My point is not that the 2020s won’t ‘roar’ back, but that the permanent changes in both societal behavior and public health mitigation will cause a measurable impact on the business operations of the Walt Disney company... along with continuing impacts to the wider tourism and leisure sectors of the economy.

Heck, there will be lasting and significant changes to the restaurant industry as well. Many existing business will continue to be successful despite these adjustments. Some will not, for whatever reason.
 

po1998

Well-Known Member
So reduced entertainment(parades, fireworks, shows, and M&G's), reduced hours, no park hopping, but continue to pay full price...will all suckers please take one step forward.

The only people walking through those gates should be AP'ers as they have already laid out the cash prior to the start of this mess...and from what I understand, they are being blocked out on many dates.
 
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kenny279

Active Member
That makes no sense. The grocery store isn’t taking 25-50% out of all the containers of food they selling.
The grocery store won't, but the food makers will put less in the packaging for the same price. They have before, and they will continue to do so. They are very sly at reducing the the package weight without reducing the size so one notices and pays the same. Aside from that food costs are going up especially meats, eggs, dairy. That is the other step Disney could take to make a profit, but they are not.
 
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