News Walt Disney World's COVID-19 reopening plans announced - July 11

[mickeymiss]

Is it confirmed that there will be no park hopping?>

Not confirmed but speculated by legit sources I guess. I want to know if pre-existing ticket holders will be allowed to add tickets to make up for not having hoppers. I understand why but Disney seems to be getting rid of every imaginable perk. Universal seems to be keeping things fairly normal. Definitely still thinking about jumping ship. I have so many concerns about spending so much money to stay at Disney without any incentives. I'm sure hoppers will be refunded though.

 

[Horizons '83]

The article quotes an email sent to travel agents, which states park-hopper will be unavailable through the rest of 2020. I am not talking about permanent or temporary elimination of park-hopper. I am telling you that the elimination of the park-hopper option in July, when we plan to go, is in fact for us a non-starter. And I question the logic of its elimination. I don’t think it buys Disney any benefit, and in fact creates conditions which will make the situation (i.e. Social Distancing ) worse.

I'm curious about this comment. The reason why they won't allow park hopping is for the very reason you claim it won't help. Of course it will help them, tremendously. By knowing the exact amount of guests in each park, it absolutely helps them in social distancing, and it also allows for more guests to enjoy a park a day. I'm sorry your trip is impacted, but you can always cancel and reschedule, as I will do.

 

[JohnD]

Not confirmed but speculated by legit sources I guess. I want to know if pre-existing ticket holders will be allowed to add tickets to make up for not having hoppers. I understand why but Disney seems to be getting rid of every imaginable perk. Universal seems to be keeping things fairly normal. Definitely still thinking about jumping ship. I have so many concerns about spending so much money to stay at Disney without any incentives. I'm sure hoppers will be refunded though.

Park reservations probably make park hopping less likely. As for Uni, "park hopping" is just the ability to enter either park and take the train between them. By ensuring one party per compartment and disinfecting after disembarking, they can continue this.

 

[duder]

Thanks for the replies. We are scheduled to go 2nd week of August. With the reduced operating hours, the no park hopping is not a huge deal, as only Epcot is open 'late'.

We are staying at beach club, and we were hoping that we could visit whichever reserved park during the day and then walk over to Epcot for dinner in the evenings.

Guess we will know soon enough.

 

[Pyromonkey]

I predict by november all will return to normal. Disney wont enforce mask or social distancing. .or social shaming.
But...could be sooner. Disney just cannot have thousands of cast members running around reminding guests to mask up, or to adhere to a mask type of code. The people will rebel. Then you get organized groups going non mask in protest and Disney shuts down. The idea and plans of polite social engineering just wont work, better luck herding cats.

 

[Disstevefan1]

I believe I read yesterday that resort guests will not have guaranteed entrance which baffled me. So the guest paying $300+ per night to stay at your resort doesn’t get preferential treatment on attendance policies? Who in Gods name is making these policies?

Like I said, No matter what they say to the public, they better (in secret) have a policy that guarantees folks staying on property entrance to a park.

 

[JohnD]

I believe I read yesterday that resort guests will not have guaranteed entrance which baffled me. So the guest paying $300+ per night to stay at your resort doesn’t get preferential treatment on attendance policies? Who in Gods name is making these policies?

You're missing the point. Ticket sales are suspended. So resort guests and annual passholders do have preference but still have to make a reservation. Just because you're staying in a resort doesn't mean you get to show up to whatever park you want.

 

[Mainahman]

Not confirmed but speculated by legit sources I guess. I want to know if pre-existing ticket holders will be allowed to add tickets to make up for not having hoppers. I understand why but Disney seems to be getting rid of every imaginable perk. Universal seems to be keeping things fairly normal. Definitely still thinking about jumping ship. I have so many concerns about spending so much money to stay at Disney without any incentives. I'm sure hoppers will be refunded though.

Im cool if they dont have park hoppers, we get them, and then mostly use them to catch all the nighttime shows. I can easily spend an entire day at each park, and then pick another that we want to go back to the last day were there, i just hope they just refund us that bought them as normal.

 

[Mainahman]

You're missing the point. Ticket sales are suspended. So resort guests and annual passholders do have preference but still have to make a reservation. Just because you're staying in a resort doesn't mean you get to show up to whatever park you want.

This!! My wife freaked out about this being released, but this is exactly what they mean. You cant just wake up and go to AK because its nice today vs rain tomorrow like you used to.

 

[Disstevefan1]

This!! My wife freaked out about this being released, but this is exactly what they mean. You cant just wake up and go to AK because its nice today vs rain tomorrow like you used to.

Although the idea of reserving entry to a park was a good PC idea in theory, it reality its gonna get ugly. No wonder why Universal did not do it...

 

[Mainahman]

Although the idea of reserving entry to a park was a good PC idea in theory, it reality its gonna get ugly. No wonder why Universal did not do it...

We shall see. Depends on when they tell you you have to. If i have to pick now, then thats an issue, as i dont know what weather will be, and i rather not be at AK if its pouring.

 

[marni1971]

what is the number exactly?

The lowest? Low.

 

[CastAStone]

The lowest? Low.

Is it safe to assume it will be significantly below Universal Orlando's publicly stated 35% of regular capacity?

I am also gathering it will vary (as a percentage) by park?

 

[disneygeek90]

I predict by november all will return to normal. Disney wont enforce mask or social distancing. .or social shaming.
But...could be sooner. Disney just cannot have thousands of cast members running around reminding guests to mask up, or to adhere to a mask type of code. The people will rebel. Then you get organized groups going non mask in protest and Disney shuts down. The idea and plans of polite social engineering just wont work, better luck herding cats.

If these are the type of people going to WDW, I'll stick to Universal for the time being. It worked quite well over the weekend and the majority of the people had the decency to respect the rules.

 

[mickeymiss]

Im cool if they dont have park hoppers, we get them, and then mostly use them to catch all the nighttime shows. I can easily spend an entire day at each park, and then pick another that we want to go back to the last day were there, i just hope they just refund us that bought them as normal.

They will refund you. I'm pretty confident about that from when my husband talked to a CM who said that they would likely issue refunds *if* they end park hopping.

I would be happy if we could add a few more tickets to our package without having to compete with the general admission folks and with a certain degree of guarantee that these tickets will be valid when we go. We drive from too far away to not have an opportunity to extend our park access.

 

[Gravydeen]

I don’t think officially. With park reservations (and the communication about the potential for reservations being hard to get for AP holders) they will likely not allow someone to book multiple reservations for the same day. I did see a rumor that they may allow park hopping the day of, meaning if you reserve MK and are there that day you could hop to EPCOT later in the day assuming they are not at capacity. In that case you wouldn’t be allowed to book EPCOT in advance so no ADRs but you could still park hop there. Until we see the reservation system there’s no way to know.

Well I'm not about to pay the extra cost for park hopping with the outside possibility they may allow us to do it. I would think if the official word from Disney is no park hopping that they would have to refund everyone's park hopping fees prior to their trips. Disney will have to make a firm statement one way or the other before July 11th if park hopping is an option in any form.

 

[marni1971]

Is it safe to assume it will be significantly below

Yes. But to be clear it’s the lowest feasible I’m talking about. I don’t know the chosen figure.

 

[Mainahman]

They will refund you. I'm pretty confident about that from when my husband talked to a CM who said that they would likely issue refunds *if* they end park hopping.

I would be happy if we could add a few more tickets to our package without having to compete with the general admission folks and with a certain degree of guarantee that these tickets will be valid when we go. We drive from too far away to not have an opportunity to extend our park access.

ID be cool with that too. We shall see.

 

[the_rich]

Yes. But to be clear it’s the lowest feasible I’m talking about. I don’t know the chosen figure.

So basically you're saying you know the lowest possible number that they could go with, but that you don't know what they are actually going with. Correct?

 

[robhedin]

So you're saying they're damned if they do and damned if they don't. (Cue the censor -- or not).

I don't think so-

I don't think there's a third group that they're targeting- those people who would come with restrictions and allow them to protect the Brand and gain learnings on how to navigate the new world while reducing losses.

Over time they'll reduce restrictions - by removing the reservation requirement, increasing capacity, opening additional attractions (such as water parks, mini-golf, shows, etc), limiting mask usage, adding parades, whatever. When they do that they convert people from the Group B over to the target group. That, in turn further reduces losses and begins to turn profits.

The people in Group A that are concerned about showing up because of the Virus at all are likely to be the last ones to feel comfortable coming out anyway.