Chi84
Premium Member
Why would anyone think vaccinations are going to continue at the current rate? It’s just a few days into the effort and there are other vaccines in the pipeline.
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News Walt Disney World theme parks increase capacity but see longer waits and less physical distancing
- Thread starter wdwmagic
- Start date
Parker in NYC
Well-Known Member
Missed the point yet again. Sigh.
Disstevefan1
Well-Known Member
Fact is, we as the guest, have no idea how the Magic kingdom is calculating the capacity (meaning the magical cut off where capacity is reached and guests are turned away), we can only guess.
Yes, it’s common to see socially distanced queues so long they snake through the park and the end of one queue meets the end of another queue going in the opposite direction, actually clogging the walkways for folks just wanting to walk through a given land.
This is a challenge, but it looks like WDW is doing a reasonable job. In my opinion it’s better than the decision to close like DLR has done.
It will be interesting to see if/when the WDW parks hit capacity on New Years Eve and New Years Day.
GoofGoof
Premium Member
To be fair DLR didn’t make a decision to close, but that’s a whole other topic for another thread. I agree Disney is doing it’s best given the circumstances. I also agree we don’t know how the capacity calculation fully works. Some of the insiders here have said that it’s not a straight percent of maximum park capacity, but I’m sure the full calculation is a guarded secret.
LittleBuford
Well-Known Member
Even now that they’re relaxing their safety measures?
TrainsOfDisney
Well-Known Member
And Disneyland Paris, and Disneyland Hong Kong.
GoofGoof
Premium Member
I don’t know about the timing right now, but it was inevitable that the first thing to be relaxed would be distancing on rides. The highest level of risk is to be indoor, with a stranger, without masks for 15 mins or more. Since most rides are shorter than 15 mins and all rides still require masks it seems like easing the distancing safety measure is not as risky as say not requiring masks anywhere or allowing restaurants to be open at 100% capacity. With rides you have 3 redundant safety measures to offest the fact that you are indoor with strangers: duration shorter than 15 mins, masks worn by both parties and distancing. When you remove distancing you still have less than 15 mins and masks. 3 is obviously better than 2 but 2 is better than 1 or none. At a place like a restaurant you only have 1 safety measure, distancing. There are no masks while eating and people generally stay longer than 15 mins. That makes distancing at restaurants a lot harder to get rid of.
I’m not sure I would pull the trigger on this type of change right now based on the explosion of cases everywhere. They may have been better off waiting a month to do it, but I’m sure the plans were put together before they knew cases would spike this much. Who knows. The point is at some time they will start a gradual reduction of Covid safety protocols and ride distancing makes a lot of sense to be the first thing to go.
LittleBuford
Well-Known Member
Of course, but timing is everything, and I cannot fathom why the protocols are being relaxed just when things appear to be getting worse. I'm thoroughly disappointed in Disney.
Jrb1979
Well-Known Member
Don't be surprised when this backfires.
GoofGoof
Premium Member
Yeah, I’m half heartedly trying to justify it. Probably not totally convincing. I can’t give you any good reason why they would do this now. It’s bad timing.
It could, but it may not either. Even if it results in more infections will we know? FL had 13K+ cases today and that’s before a Christmas and NYE bump. I wouldn‘t assume we will know if this fails.
Jrb1979
Well-Known Member
Its not just people getting infected. I can see many cancellations due to this too.
GoofGoof
Premium Member
That they will have a better idea of than infections. The counter to that though is as park capacity increases if they don’t find a way to increase ride capacity people will start cancelling due to 3 hour waits for rides.
People may cancel for next week or a month from now while cases are still high, but I see that move as planning for a few months down the road when hopefully cases drop off.
lazyboy97o
Well-Known Member
They pushed forward with opening right at Florida’s summer peak when it was the epicenter of the world.
It won’t. Any claims would be self-tracing during a time of increased spread.
LittleBuford
Well-Known Member
I was disappointed then too. Call this a fresh (or renewed) sense of disappointment.
Miss Bella
Well-Known Member
I stated a fact. It wasn't a statement on who is a person.
TrainsOfDisney
Well-Known Member
Ok. I stated a fact as well.
I think this really sums it all up. Disney is pushing ahead with returning to full capacity and it is clear that there will never be cases directly linked to the parks because it’s almost impossible to prove. Disney can’t really lose with their current strategy.
lazyboy97o
Well-Known Member
The amusement industry’s changing response to the pandemic has been incredibly disappointing. They have gone from voluntary closing to diving into the lack of evidence that their activities are “completely safe”.
Jrb1979
Well-Known Member
Not true. Once the majority of people are vaccinated I'd be ok with masks going away. Right now with cases rising and ICUs filling dropping restrictions is not a good idea.