What's Still On and What's Now Off

pdude81

Well-Known Member
May sound a little doom and gloom, but for the first phase of the park opening I don’t think international travel will even be allowed yet. By the time flights ramp up we may not need to be as “touchless“. If the goal is to move toward touch free transacting as a long term plan then they need to address the issue with international travelers.

I think part of going to fully touch-free would have to be integrating magic bands into the mobile ordering system and also issuing bands to guests who aren’t staying on property. As someone said earlier they could go with a few CMs with iPads for anyone without the app. I still think some people will prefer to pay cash for things and Disney won’t want to miss out on sales so they won’t want to go completely touch free long term.

Do you really think Disney will be in the business of saying which states and countries are allowed to enter?
 

GoofGoof

Premium Member
Do you really think Disney will be in the business of saying which states and countries are allowed to enter?
No not a chance. The only exception would be if they did a short soft opening for FL residents only. If Disney opens in June I doubt there will be a lot of international flights yet. By the time international flights ramp up we will hopefully be in the FL equivalent of phase 3 and there won’t be a requirement for everything to be touch-free. With all of the potential extra measures that might be added when the parks re-open there will be exceptions to almost everything. For example if they require masks they won’t be required for an infant. The goal will be to limit potential spread not fully eliminate it so if the trickle of international guests coming in (people could drive in from Canada or even Mexico) is not touch free for checkin or QS ordering it will still be effective for the vast majority of guests.
 

lewisc

Well-Known Member

Do you really think Disney will be in the business of saying which states and countries are allowed to enter?
The Federal government may decide what countries can enter the US. Foreign governments might quarantine returning residents. I don't know if the state of FL will continue restriction placed on guest from selected states.

Disney is in the business of accepting reservations and payments.
 

GoofGoof

Premium Member


The Federal government may decide what countries can enter the US. Foreign governments might quarantine returning residents. I don't know if the state of FL will continue restriction placed on guest from selected states.

Disney will be in the business of accepting reservations and payments.
I think by the time WDW opens the state restrictions will be lifted. NY/NJ/CT area will be able to begin to lift social distancing by the end of May according to the IHME model. If the model holds up those states will be ahead of FL by June 1. Not sure about Louisiana but probably the same.
 

nickys

Premium Member
May sound a little doom and gloom, but for the first phase of the park opening I don’t think international travel will even be allowed yet. By the time flights ramp up we may not need to be as “touchless“. If the goal is to move toward touch free transacting as a long term plan then they need to address the issue with international travelers.

I think part of going to fully touch-free would have to be integrating magic bands into the mobile ordering system and also issuing bands to guests who aren’t staying on property. As someone said earlier they could go with a few CMs with iPads for anyone without the app. I still think some people will prefer to pay cash for things and Disney won’t want to miss out on sales so they won’t want to go completely touch free long term.

I totally agree. But Canadians will likely be back long before anyone from Europe, and they will have the same issues. And it seems pointless to introduce mandatory cashless and no contact procedures like that, only to have to roll it all back.

The cashless trial at AKL fizzled out pretty quickly, so they will be well aware of the problems they need to overcome. Even very simple things which many thought were non-issues, like kids spending their own money.

Integrating the magic band into mobile ordering seemed like a no-brainer right from the start, and yet they didn’t do it.

And I really don’t see a way around the payment issue. We use a pre-paid Visa or MasterCard which we load in US$. That solves the transaction fee problem, but not everyone has them and not all of them have contactless technology. Not to mention our cashless limit is ridiculously small, £30, around $38 - so much for that touch-free procedure. So some will have to pay cash or pay the fee.

All of which shows this isn’t a quick, or cheap, fix. So any procedures implemented for park opening will need to be re-thought pretty quickly.
 

pdude81

Well-Known Member
When the federal government stopped travel from China we had a reported 40,000 visitors from China. Then we banned travel from Europe but only some of Europe. So we can't assume there is a 100% ban on international travel or people from other countries already being here. That means that Disney has to account for those possibilities regardless of potential federal action.

Then as GoofGoof is mentioning there is the odd state travel restrictions, which are their own confusion. Disney has to open or not open without thought about which clients show up, and assume that any of them *could*
 

nickys

Premium Member
No the President of the United States decides this. I think that it is a logical conclusion to assume international visitors will not be allowed for a time once things open up.

I agree.

And yet I can go onto the Disney UK site and book a package now for October. It would be a stupid idea, given there is no saying if airlines will be in business, whether the travel ban is lifted and the fact that you can’t get insurance cover right now. But I‘m sure there are people doing so.

Oh, and United have already announced flights resuming from Edinburgh to New York from July 1st. 😜
 

GoofGoof

Premium Member
I totally agree. But Canadians will likely be back long before anyone from Europe, and they will have the same issues. And it seems pointless to introduce mandatory cashless and no contact procedures like that, only to have to roll it all back.

The cashless trial at AKL fizzled out pretty quickly, so they will be well aware of the problems they need to overcome. Even very simple things which many thought were non-issues, like kids spending their own money.

Integrating the magic band into mobile ordering seemed like a no-brainer right from the start, and yet they didn’t do it.

And I really don’t see a way around the payment issue. We use a pre-paid Visa or MasterCard which we load in US$. That solves the transaction fee problem, but not everyone has them and not all of them have contactless technology. Not to mention our cashless limit is ridiculously small, £30, around $38 - so much for that touch-free procedure. So some will have to pay cash or pay the fee.

All of which shows this isn’t a quick, or cheap, fix. So any procedures implemented for park opening will need to be re-thought pretty quickly.
I think they would just require online checkin and cash free transactions and then make an exception for international travel. During good times international guests only make up 20% at WDW and with all the uncertainty around international travel that number will likely be much smaller for a while. If they get 80-90% of guests to go touch free that’s a small percentage who have to still go to the desk at check-in or order and pay at a QS restaurant. You won’t get to 100% but it still reduces contact between guests and CMs. Disney won‘t advertise the exception domestically either (just like they don’t advertise the international travel packages). They can still list touch free transacting as one of their mitigating extra measures.
 

lewisc

Well-Known Member
Cashless is easy, in theory. Guests who want to pay with cash have to purchase a prepaid card. Guests who show up without a card could obtain one at guest services.
Europe was way ahead of the US with contactless cards.
 

marni1971

Park History nut
Premium Member
A couple of points. Very hard to buy anything at WDW for less than $3 and the MB is linked to your guest account and not credit card, so if you bring a load of cash and have the front desk apply it to your account at check in there is no 3% fee.
For the tens of thousands with no guest account?

Cashless is easy, in theory. Guests who want to pay with cash have to purchase a prepaid card. Guests who show up without a card could obtain one at guest services..
And for those with hundreds of dollars in bills?
They already did a test of going cash free a year or two ago at AKL. So it’s long been something they desired, pandemic or not.
Of course it has. If you can’t keep track easily you spend more.
 
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UNCgolf

Well-Known Member
Disney also sends plain sms text messages with the room number once it’s ready. Any cell phone can receive those, it doesn’t need to be a smart phone.
They texted me when my room was ready. You could also just go to the desk and ask.

That's my point, though. Their system doesn't always work. I checked in online and never got a text message with my room number even though it was ready; I had to go to the front desk to ask and they basically just rechecked me in from scratch.

If you have to go to the front desk to ask, then that's really no different than not checking online at all. I assume the point is to try to have less people in the lobbies, but I doubt it would make any difference. Most people check in online now, and they're still going to have to have the same staff in place to deal with any issues.
 

GoofGoof

Premium Member
That's my point, though. Their system doesn't always work. I checked in online and never got a text message with my room number even though it was ready; I had to go to the front desk to ask and they basically just rechecked me in from scratch.

If you have to go to the front desk to ask, then that's really no different than not checking online at all. I assume the point is to try to have less people in the lobbies, but I doubt it would make any difference. Most people check in online now, and they're still going to have to have the same staff in place to deal with any issues.
Agreed. They would still have people at the front desk. I would assume the idea is to reduce but not eliminate the need for people to interact with a CM. There will always be problems and people needed to fix them.
 

WondersOfLife

Blink, blink. Breathe, breathe. Day in, day out.
They'll have to make sure the system is working better than it was in January. I did online check-in (don't really see why you wouldn't barring some kind of special circumstances), but when I arrived I still didn't have an assigned room in the app. Ended up having to go to the lobby and check in manually to get my room number. It was ready (and had been since well before we arrived) but the app just never processed the information.
You still don't have to technically go to the lobby for that, as you could call them.

But I imagine that the lobby will be open for any glitches or concerns.
 

HauntedPirate

Park nostalgist
Premium Member
Children under 10 can’t book or check in for hotel reservations. Children under 10 aren’t allowed to enter a Disney park by themselves.

I've often found their rules on children to be confusing. Someone under 10 can't enter a park by themselves, but someone under 7 can't ride on anything alone without someone at least 14 riding with them. And they are a child from 3-9, but at age 10 Disney considers them an adult for ticketing and dining plan purposes.
 

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