News Walt Disney World theme parks increase capacity but see longer waits and less physical distancing

[Goofnut1980]

But didn't he tell everyone that they wouldn't exceed 25% due to the CDC guidelines just a few weeks ago? and now... 35%... I hate CEOs.

And to my knowledge, the guidelines havent changed. Way to lie about it.

Disney World attendance to stay capped; Disneyland reopening 'not much of a negotiation,' CEO says

The Walt Disney Company CEO said Disney' World will operate at 25% capacity for now and the company's record shows it's safe to reopen in California.

www.usatoday.com

 

[Jrb1979]

But didn't he tell everyone that they wouldn't exceed 25% due to the CDC guidelines just a few weeks ago? and now... 35%... I hate CEOs.

And to my knowledge, the guidelines havent changed. Way to lie about it.

Disney World attendance to stay capped; Disneyland reopening 'not much of a negotiation,' CEO says

The Walt Disney Company CEO said Disney' World will operate at 25% capacity for now and the company's record shows it's safe to reopen in California.

www.usatoday.com

They are desperate for money. Since Land isn't opening anytime soon and DLP is closed, WDW is their bread and butter. They are going to pack in as many as possible. D+ isn't going to bring in the money yet and their movies won't be bringing in the profits anytime soon. All that's left is WDW.

 

[techgeek]

But didn't he tell everyone that they wouldn't exceed 25% due to the CDC guidelines just a few weeks ago? and now... 35%... I hate CEOs.

And to my knowledge, the guidelines havent changed. Way to lie about it.

Disney World attendance to stay capped; Disneyland reopening 'not much of a negotiation,' CEO says

The Walt Disney Company CEO said Disney' World will operate at 25% capacity for now and the company's record shows it's safe to reopen in California.

www.usatoday.com

I don’t think ‘25% capacity’ as a hard number was ever explicitly defined in any CDC guideline. Bob says they got to that number as a result of interpreting 6’ social distancing:

"We're limited by the 6-foot social-distancing guideline of the CDC. And that translates, essentially, to about a 25% park capacity," Chapek said...

‘Essentially’ being the key CYA word here. He leaves it as a number that can be approximated, but may be defined differently in varied operational environments. So what changed? Lots of plexiglass. Lots of plexiglass that allowed them to reinterpret ride capacities, and changed overall park capacity. By the numbers, at least.

Important to note that the state of Florida doesn’t care if they ran at 100% with no protocols at all. Since they’ve mostly given up on trying to reason with California, they have incredible latitude to define their operations in Florida by whatever metric they wish to invent.

For the record I don’t agree with it, I think the property is now too crowded to err on the side of safety... but that’s just my feelings without any evidence to suppprt it. I think this is where they are coming from. They are pushing what they can get away with, but it’s mostly a public perception battle at this point.

 

[JoeCamel]

But didn't he tell everyone that they wouldn't exceed 25% due to the CDC guidelines just a few weeks ago? and now... 35%... I hate CEOs.

And to my knowledge, the guidelines havent changed. Way to lie about it.

Disney World attendance to stay capped; Disneyland reopening 'not much of a negotiation,' CEO says

The Walt Disney Company CEO said Disney' World will operate at 25% capacity for now and the company's record shows it's safe to reopen in California.

www.usatoday.com

They were at 25% to maintain CDC guidelines and have imagineered a way to operate at 35% and maintain the CDC guidelines. Still true.

 

[Tom Morrow]

If they're going to increase capacity, they need to increase the park hours - ESPECIALLY at MK and DHS! There is frankly not enough time to do everything with the current crowds and limited capacity on attractions.

But also yeah, the crowds I saw a few weeks ago during "Fall Break" (around Columbus Day) did not seem like 25% to me and 35% seems more accurate.

 

[Touchdown]

Remember according to the company you are only supposed to experience 4-6 attractions in order to have a meaningful day...

 

[legwand77]

If they're going to increase capacity, they need to increase the park hours - ESPECIALLY at MK and DHS! There is frankly not enough time to do everything with the current crowds and limited capacity on attractions.

But also yeah, the crowds I saw a few weeks ago during "Fall Break" (around Columbus Day) did not seem like 25% to me and 35% seems more accurate.

Yesterday they did just that, increased hours at all parks by one hour during the busy weekend days

 

[Ldno]

And fastpass. so at least you could do something without waiting in line...

I was here at Magic Kingdom today and I can honestly tell you, Fastpass good riddance. The high capacity rides queues lie to you I timed EVERY single ride short of Space mountain because my little one was an inch short of the ride heigh, I can attest that the wait times is half that of what was posted. 80 min wait in mine train this morning, My stopwatch displayed 28 minutes from start to boarding.

The only accurate wait times are rides like Carousel, Magic Carpets, Mad Tea party, everything else was literally half the posted wait queue and you are always moving. Only one ride broke down and it was barerly noticeable hell the line for Haunted Mansion was past liberty square and it said 10 minutes when from start to finish it took like 5 minutes no kidding.

I was there from 9am to 9pm the park was full but despite that I got my own vehicle with my own kid all the time since the rides kept pushing through heck The longest wait time today was 35 minutes on a 85 minute posted queue on splash mountain which felt like forever...

 

[SoFloMagic]

I was here at Magic Kingdom today and I can honestly tell you, Fastpass good riddance. The high capacity rides queues lie to you I timed EVERY single ride short of Space mountain because my little one was an inch short of the ride heigh, I can attest that the wait times is half that of what was posted. 80 min wait in mine train this morning, My stopwatch displayed 28 minutes from start to boarding.

The only accurate wait times are rides like Carousel, Magic Carpets, Mad Tea party, everything else was literally half the posted wait queue and you are always moving. Only one ride broke down and it was barerly noticeable hell the line for Haunted Mansion was past liberty square and it said 10 minutes when from start to finish it took like 5 minutes no kidding.

I was there from 9am to 9pm the park was full but despite that I got my own vehicle with my own kid all the time since the rides kept pushing through heck The longest wait time today was 35 minutes on a 85 minute posted queue on splash mountain which felt like forever...

Yeah. I get this. But there's just nothing that you can do without waiting in line. That sucks. Even mobile ordering has lines - I mean, I ordered from Pecos Bill at like 4 pm one day and it took 20 minutes to get food. There were 50 people waiting outside.

I get that I'm severely spoiled, but what I'm used to is booking a couple fastpasses at work, then heading over for a couple hours in the afternoon and doing 2-3 rides and going home. Or going over on a slow morning and riding Everest 10 times in an hour using single rider.

 

[saxamoophone]

Spent the weekend staycationing at the Parks.

I’m not sure how the lack of entertainment, shorter hours, and lack of fastpass impact actual attendance numbers; but they seemed as busy as normal. Disney Springs was a hot mess. Animal Kingdom was very busy. Epcot was busy but not overly crowded.

What capacity percentage do the parks normally operate at?

 

[castlecake2.0]

There is no way MKs capacity is 90k, Epcot is less than that and twice the size

 

[SourcererMark79]

There is no way MKs capacity is 90k, Epcot is less than that and twice the size

It definately is 90K. With everything open 100% on NYE, it would make Fauci cringe. Maybe 6 inch physical distancing, until you get to the hub :/

 

[MisterPenguin]

There is no way MKs capacity is 90k, Epcot is less than that and twice the size

What is Epcot's capacity and what is your source?

 

[castlecake2.0]

What is Epcot's capacity and what is your source?

EDIT
I stand corrected, I was going off numbers pre new fantasyland/ new hub expansion. I won’t give exact numbers re: keeping my job lol, but the 90k is accurate, which is catching up to Epcot’s numbers.

 

[castlecake2.0]

It definately is 90K. With everything open 100% on NYE, it would make Fauci cringe. Maybe 6 inch physical distancing, until you get to the hub :/

I forgot about the extra space created by new FL and hub since I worked in the park, so that number sounds accurate

 

[MisterPenguin]

EDIT
I stand corrected, I was going off numbers pre new fantasyland/ new hub expansion. I won’t give exact numbers re: keeping my job lol, but the 90k is accurate, which is catching up to Epcot’s numbers.

You might be interested in this...

Well, let's get at all of them. The maximum capacity of the four park according to TouringPlans are below. I added in some other stats...

	Maximum Capacity​	25%​	Daily Average (TEA '19 Yearly/365)​	Daily Average as % of Max Capacity​
Magic Kingdom​	90,000​	22,500​	57,500​	64%​
EPCOT​	110,000​	27,500​	34,000​	31%​
Hollywood Studios​	60,000​	15,000​	31,500​	53%​
Animal Kingdom​	60,000​	15,000​	38,000​	63%​

Article here for current implications...

October Mid-Month Crowd Calendar Update | TouringPlans.com Blog

Crowd levels are up at Walt Disney World. On October 12, 2020, Disney's CEO Bob Chapek said in a CNBC interview that the

touringplans.com

Seems right, @lentesta?

 

[UNCgolf]

Yeah. I get this. But there's just nothing that you can do without waiting in line. That sucks. Even mobile ordering has lines - I mean, I ordered from Pecos Bill at like 4 pm one day and it took 20 minutes to get food. There were 50 people waiting outside.

I get that I'm severely spoiled, but what I'm used to is booking a couple fastpasses at work, then heading over for a couple hours in the afternoon and doing 2-3 rides and going home. Or going over on a slow morning and riding Everest 10 times in an hour using single rider.

Which is great for APs, but pretty bad for guests who are only there once every few years. They'd get their 3 FP+ rides with little wait, and then spend the rest of the day waiting hours and hours for a few additional attractions. I think a regular guest might need 3 full days at the Magic Kingdom to be able to experience everything.

The food issue you mention is a serious problem, though. They desperately need more capacity for dining, and yet they have former locations sitting empty/unused.

 

[Purduevian]

Which is great for APs, but pretty bad for guests who are only there once every few years. They'd get their 3 FP+ rides with little wait, and then spend the rest of the day waiting hours and hours for a few additional attractions. I think a regular guest might need 3 full days at the Magic Kingdom to be able to experience everything.

The food issue you mention is a serious problem, though. They desperately need more capacity for dining, and yet they have former locations sitting empty/unused.

FP+ is great for APs that go in the afternoon, Families that are not Rope Droppers, and People that really know how to use the system. This is at the expense of people that most of the visitors, some of whom I've heard complain that "I hate they let rich people cut in line" as I've passed by them. I also had a family member (whom generously bought the tickets) pull me aside after our first fastpass and demand how much extra he paid to cut the line for all of us. I've pulled 16 fasspasses with 2 people in a day on july 4th week. I will be extremely disappointed if FP+ does not come back after everything returns to normal and honestly will push me towards visiting USO for a day or 2 instead of more Disney days.

 

[Disstevefan1]

NOTE: These are comments about regular times, not the current COVID situation.

I got a love hate relationship with FP+. It creates artificial demand for attractions they were always walk ons before FP+ and and all the standby are longer due to FP+

On the other hand, I would never gotten to ride FOP without a FP+

 

[UNCgolf]

NOTE: These are comments about regular times, not the current COVID situation.

I got a love hate relationship with FP+. It creates artificial demand for attractions they were always walk ons before FP+ and and all the standby are longer due to FP+

On the other hand, I would never gotten to ride FOP without a FP+

I probably wouldn't have been on FoP without FP+ either.

Of course, the standby line would be both shorter and move faster if there was no FP+, so who knows.