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

[dmw]

Incredibly high. New cases here in Florida have recently spiked again almost immediately after the loosing of current restrictions.

Has there been enough time since the restrictions were lifted for anyone to even show symptoms, let alone the stats be gathered? I thought it was usually about two weeks after the event before we would see any change in trends.

 

[kinglsyyy]

Incredibly high. New cases here in Florida have recently spiked again almost immediately after the loosing of current restrictions.

Whether you're cool with that or not (some people aren't and some say we have to open back up and accept the risk) and politics aside, it was obvious things were going to get worse as soon as we opened up more and Disney's not going to be any exception to that if they start moving their policy in that direction ahead of an effective and widely taken vaccine.

Since we don't do contact tracing here, it might not be obvious where a lot of those people got it, though.

They are under staffed but we(Florida) do have contact tracing.

With 2,301 new daily cases on average, Florida needs an estimated 11,505 contact tracers on staff to trace each new case to a known case within 48 hours of detection. Per our best available data, Florida has 2,600 contact tracers, fulfilling 23% of this staffing requirement. With insufficient contact tracing staff, Florida is unlikely to be able to successfully identify and isolate sources of disease spread fast enough to prevent new outbreaks.

 

[kinglsyyy]

Has there been enough time since the restrictions were lifted for anyone to even show symptoms, let alone the stats be gathered? I thought it was usually about two weeks after the event before we would see any change in trends.

You are correct! There hasnt been a spike and it is far to soon to see it.
ButI do expect a spike, thats the nature of an infectous disease, a consequence of oppening up bars,gyms etc...

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

So Disney is cutting CM’s (including ones who already returned to work) as they are increasing capacity?

This is not going to be pretty.

I didn’t realize I had a few weeks to visit before CM morale and enjoyment in the parks went to an all-time low.

 

[Ldno]

They better increase the park hours then . More than anything increase ride capacity AND bump up guests per hour and we’ll be fine.

Disney is just realizing they can operate the parks with skeleton crews and sad to say might implement new standards from it going forward. We will see.

 

[ToTBellHop]

How is a vaccine going to reduce crowds? If anything I think crowds would increase. Are you referring to them bringing back fast passes once there’s a vaccine. I’m not sure why they would need a vaccine to do reinstate a fast pass system.

I’m referring to social distancing going away so they can get more than 7 guests on Tower of Terror. We won’t stay 6 feet apart for the rest of our lives...

 

[Giss Neric]

increased park capacity = longer waits and less physical distancing , am I missing something?

You're not missing anything. Just be happy cause it's getting back to normal slowly but surely. A few more months till 2021 and we can forget about this year all together and move on.

 

[Giss Neric]

Looking at the bright side, more people, more motivation for them to open up more attractions including new rides, bringing back shows and nighttime spectaculars, and debuting new shows.

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

Looking at the bright side, more people, more motivation for them to open up more attractions including new rides, bringing back shows and nighttime spectaculars, and debuting new shows.

They don’t even have all the quick service restaurants open in the parks and they are cutting chefs. Things aren’t going back any time soon (if ever) I’m afraid. Chapek won’t hire back actual chefs and equity / union actors.

 

[drew81]

We’re not going to see nighttime entertainment for a very very long time.

 

[MattFrees71]

Went to Animal Kingdom today and it was as crowded or less than when I went in early August. Flight of passage and Everest 15-20 min waits! Was able to do everything. Except for one sour-head at the Kilimanjaro Safari- most all the other employees were upbeat and cheery. Like I mentioned in another thread- during this COVID time- even if attendance overall goes up a little- Epcot and AK I've found are consistently the best to go to. Their already large footprint and wider walking spaces really make it feel so much less crowded and cramped than the other two.

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

Epcot and AK I've found are consistently the best to go to

I’ve read reports that Epcot is getting pretty bad.. I’ve not been so I can’t say personally.

DAK rarely feels crowded even when it is, it is arguably the best designed Florida park.

This year I went to DAK on new ears eve in between the last Christmas parade and fireworks at Mk. It was “crowded” but a breath of fresh air in between the madness that is Mk nye! Ha.

 

[ParentsOf4]

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

The parks are now very different to the early reopening back in July.

www.wdwmagic.com

Perhaps not news for some, but some occasional readers may be wondering what the current state of the parks is compared to the early reopening back in July. This is a look.

I just wrote a trip report for what I encountered this week (September 27-30).

"Is it safe?" Trip Report

 

[ElvisMickey]

A little tip for the Magic Kingdom...they’ve been scheduled to open at 9 but have been letting guests in at least as early as 8:30 (from what I’ve experienced over 3 visits since July) and on the rides. Get there early. You can knock 3-4 attractions out before the scheduled opening, including Mine Train

 

[Dan Deesnee]

Parks are busy, but not anything like they would be normally. Most people are physically distancing perfectly fine. Since I'm in sales, I'm rather chatty.

Side note, Runaway Railway was better than Rise of the Resistance. Rise felt...stale, just not a lot of movement outside of the screens. I still can't figure it out. My wife felt the same way.

 

[floydbeatle]

I'm not surprised. It was like this in August. Everyone was saying how great it was to go to WDW after the reopening and we showed up mid-August to ridiculous crowds to the point where I was questioning the lack of fastpass. It was clear to me then that it was only going to get worse.

 

[Tom Morrow]

It's upsetting to hear about so much cut, so many laid off, and see them let more people in while also not increasing the park hours. Though I do believe it to still be a bit hit or miss. DAK and Epcot have been the most consistently "ghost town" while all along MK and DHS have had busy days.

I'm not surprised. It was like this in August. Everyone was saying how great it was to go to WDW after the reopening and we showed up mid-August to ridiculous crowds to the point where I was questioning the lack of fastpass. It was clear to me then that it was only going to get worse.

The lack of Fastpass is the true silver lining in visiting right now. Fastpass only increases standby wait times. Most of the wait times you see right now are very over-posted.

 

[Dizknee_Phreek]

Keep in mind that fall breaks are starting up. My local schools (KY) are doing fall break next week. So that's likely adding to the crowds.

But if it continues to seem more crowded in early November, I may be cancelling my early December trip. And if they become more lax about distancing and masks, I'm definitely cancelling. We've tried to be as careful as we can since late March. The parks seemed safe enough when the crowds were low (although my husband was still nervous about the idea of going). But with higher crowds I just don't know if it's worth it.

 

[MrPromey]

You are correct! There hasnt been a spike and it is far to soon to see it.
ButI do expect a spike, thats the nature of an infectous disease, a consequence of oppening up bars,gyms etc...

The political melodrama gets change without accontablity from day to day and claim to claim.

I guess it’s less of a spike and more of a sudden return to numbers that had been down since the 19th which looking at the history over the last month, was a longer period of lower numbers than we’d previously been seeing.

The jump on the 28th appears to have happened after unusually low numbers the day before which suggests a problem with the previous day’s reporting but it’s gone on to be higher than the previous week since that point.

I was looking at the one day which I read about in context to the average from the previous week and did not see the previous day’s numbers at that point.

So I guess it would make more sense to say it appears to be trending up from what had previously been trending down.

 

[MrPromey]

They are under staffed but we(Florida) do have contact tracing.

With 2,301 new daily cases on average, Florida needs an estimated 11,505 contact tracers on staff to trace each new case to a known case within 48 hours of detection. Per our best available data, Florida has 2,600 contact tracers, fulfilling 23% of this staffing requirement. With insufficient contact tracing staff, Florida is unlikely to be able to successfully identify and isolate sources of disease spread fast enough to prevent new outbreaks.

Thanks for clarifying my misstatement, there.

Obviously, now is not a great time for anyone (including me) to be exaggerating things even if the end result works out about the same for practical purposes.