I still can’t wrap my head around how this is going to work. Other posters have pointed out that this system as designed seems extremely difficult financially. It’s going to be tight. How is Disney going to enforce social distancing? Cast Members. How is Disney going to sanitize rides? Cast Members. How is Disney going to measure guest temperature? Cast Members. Meticulous crowd control will be a necessity and that takes Cast Members. And Cast Members cost lots of money. Obviously, there is a large amount of fat they can cut. Costs will fall thanks to no entertainment, fewer restaurant workers, and fewer lanes open at the turnstiles. Even then the parks will still be labor intensive, and in some areas even more labor intensive than before.
Then you have the logistical hurdles. If virtual queues are a thing, which seems believable, then you have huge numbers of people backing up into the walkways. The lines/attractions are essential crowd control methods. People can fit densely together will queuing or riding attractions. Virtual queues never made sense, because you are still queuing. You WILL be waiting somewhere even if that isn’t in a dense queue. If each guest needs a 6 fit radius around them, how many people can fit? Especially if attractions are running at half or less capacity. That limits the number of people. The crowds we’ve become accustomed to are just not tenable in this social distancing situation.
The 5,000-15,000 they could let in daily hardly justify reopening parks. Suppose Magic Kingdom allows 10,000 people inside the gates. That’s a fraction of the 50+ thousand guests that Disney was inviting in on an average day. Even Walt Disney Studios Paris and Hong Kong Disneyland were outpacing that on an average day pre COVID-19. I’m not exactly sure why this is being planned. It feels like it could drive Walt Disney World further into the red.
A couple ideas are maybe this is about supply chain and retention. If Walt Disney World stays closed too long the reopening costs will continue to mount. It may be better to run at a short-term loss and keep Walt Disney World’s suppliers open. This may be essentially Walt Disney World bailing out its suppliers and contractors. That’s a guess. In a few months when Walt Disney World starts to see a surge in attendance, then Walt Disney World will be able to slowly end social distancing. It could also be that Disney wants investors to know that Walt Disney World is on a path to normalcy. It will look like progress, but not actually be progress. Walt Disney World could also be trying to stop AP cancellations and being forced to extend APs week after week. If an AP expires, it’s awfully hard to get guests to buy a new one if the product is closed. The continuous extensions of APs will also steal AP sales down the road. Finally Disney could start fulfilling APs again.
Everyone expecting massive discounts to “enjoy” this product… I see that as unlikely. No, I would expect Disney is going to need every dollar to make this work. Maybe if it falls flat then discounts would follow.
As for Epcot, I fully expect that it’s closed until the end of the year. Why doesn’t Disney build a 5th gate? Because it steals guests from other parks and increases operating costs if it isn’t filled to the brim. The same is true of reopening Epcot. I’m not hopeful about it.
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