Disneyland/Disney World thread

[Anoat]

Josh D'Amaro has been named as the new President of Disney Parks Global. He previously served as president of Disneyland and Walt Disney World. He replaces Bob Chapek, who himself moved to the CEO position.

By all accounts this will be a great move for Disney parks, although he has a monumental task taking control of the parks in a COVID19 world.

[TummieGaruda]

Josh D'Amaro has been named as the new President of Disney Parks Global. He previously served as president of Disneyland and Walt Disney World. He replaces Bob Chapek, who himself moved to the CEO position.

By all accounts this will be a great move for Disney parks, although he has a monumental task taking control of the parks in a COVID19 world.

Great news. Heard he is an all around nice guy and the CM's tend to like him a lot more than Chapek.

[Astylla]

Great news. Heard he is an all around nice guy and the CM's tend to like him a lot more than Chapek.

He was known to be at Galaxy's edge consistently at Disneyland with other suits to gauge guest reactions and such. Actually ran into him and he really is a genuine person and probably one of the best in the business that truly encompasses what many consider "Walt 's" spirit.

I think this was one of the best moves that Disney has done in recent history.

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[TummieGaruda]

So I have been thinking about how Disneyland will operate once they re-open and this is what I believe will happen:

I think that Disneyland will mirror what Shanghai did and limit the amount of guests to around 25,000 per day which is about 30% of the capacity of the park. Disney will use the AP Flex Pass system and require all visitors INCLUDING AP Holders to register their visit online. This will allow Disney to control the amount of guests that are permitted. People will not be able to purchase tickets on site, and I don't believe the ticket booths will be open at all in order to make room for queue lines for the Esplanade. Entering the park is going to be different as well. First I envision that the security check at the Tram loading area is going to have Temperature Screening and facemask checks. Additionally I believe it is also going to have a giant queue with stanchions snaking throughout the area with stickers on the ground placed 6 feet apart so people can adhere to social distancing. The Trams themselves are going to be controlled time wise to only allow people to board when the park has enough space at the Esplanade to accommodate more guests arriving. The Trams will also have limited seating with every other row "closed" off and more than likely only allowing 2 people per row. Once off the Tram is there is likely to be more stanchions throughout the Esplanade to enter each park. There may only be one large line that dumps to the different entrances to get tickets scanned. Again, there will be stickers on the ground placed 6 feet apart to help with physical distancing.

Inside the park should hopefully see a lot of changes. Main Street is always a mess with people congregating in large groups and I hope that they stop the horse carriages and other modes of transportation on Main street and then just divide the street into one way traffic on each side where guests flowing in stay on the right and guests leaving stay on the left. As far as rides go, Disneyland is famous for creating people eaters; where ride queues are long enough to take people out of the main areas to relieve traffic congestion. The rides will definitely be running at less than half capacity and the lines again will have to use stickers on the ground to space out guests in the queue. With the park at 30% capacity and rides running at less than 50% capacity, guests should still be able to queue up, but if it comes down to it and Disney feels that queuing doesn't work for some rides they can use the same reservation system as Rise of the Resistance. The rides wait times may also be slightly longer because CM's will most likely be wiping down handle bars and what not before guests load onto the ride. Food services are going to be tricky. I think places like Pizza Port may not be open unless they can push all seating outside and space out the seating. Parades, Fireworks, and Character Meet & Greets will also be cancelled until further notice.

Now as mentioned before, AP holders will also have to register their visit online. This is most likely going to upset some people, but I firmly believe that while Disneyland is open and using online registration, these days will not count against an AP holder. If an AP holder opted to have their pass extended, then the amount of time added to the pass will be from March 15 until Disneyland no longer requires reservations to enter the park. So if a person got an AP in Jan 2020 and the park re-opens in August using the reservation system, those days won't count towards their AP. Whenever Disneyland moves to a non reservation system will be the cutoff point. So for example if this happens in November, that means that persons AP pass will get extended 8 months (March - November) instead of 5 months (March - August). Now their pass will expire October 2021.

[Anoat]

Universal Orlando is set to re-open on June 5th. Disney parks will follow later, with Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom reopening on July 11th, Epcot and Hollywood Studios will re-open on July 15th. Guest will be subjected to a temperature scan before entering and must wear face masks at all times except when dining. Guests who do not bring their own mask will be provided one by Disney. The parks will be marked with social distancing guidelines and cast members will be enforcing social distancing and mask wearing. Park capacity will be limited (not disclosed by how much), and not all attractions will be re-opening at this time.

This is all pending approval from Governor DeSantis.

[Anoat]

When Epcot re-opens on July 15th, the World Showcase will not be staffed with international cultural representatives. Instead, normal cast members will assume those duties. Disney cites international travel restrictions and visa issues as the reason. It’s not known how long this measure will take place, but Disney had to make a new deal with their cast members union to get them to agree to work it. It could end up being quite a while.

[TummieGaruda]

Disneyland opens July 17th to a limited capacity with a reservation system. Nothing was said about AP payment holds during this time so people got pissed off and ranted on social media about not having unfettered access to the park with their pass since top tier passes have basically turned into a flex pass for now. I still believe that Disney will continue the payment hold until they remove the reservation system or at the least heavily discount the monthly pass.

We still don’t know exactly what the park will be like and what health measures will be put into place. One of the biggest questions is if there will be a mandatory face mask requirement, but I’m not sure about it since people in Orange County were so pissed off about having to wear face masks in public that they sent death threats to the county health official who gave the guidelines causing her to resign.

[Melena]

We had about 4-6 weeks left on our Deluxe Pass when things went on hold. Now with the July 17th re-open date, unless they give us more than that, we will be on black out dates right up until Deluxe gets unblocked, so I'm personally not holding my breath. Going to wait and see as I was hoping to get 1-2 days in before it expires just to get out of the house, but I'm also not going to be a karen about it either if that's officially it for our passes.

Also the to no surprise, the Star Wars after hours event was officially cancelled. The finality of our vacations being cancelled pretty much hit at that point as that was the final cue to go and cancel our upcoming flights. I'm now sitting on just under 50k southwest points plus about $270 in travel dollars to use on future flights.

[TummieGaruda]

We had about 4-6 weeks left on our Deluxe Pass when things went on hold. Now with the July 17th re-open date, unless they give us more than that, we will be on black out dates right up until Deluxe gets unblocked, so I'm personally not holding my breath. Going to wait and see as I was hoping to get 1-2 days in before it expires just to get out of the house, but I'm also not going to be a karen about it either if that's officially it for our passes.

Also the to no surprise, the Star Wars after hours event was officially cancelled. The finality of our vacations being cancelled pretty much hit at that point as that was the final cue to go and cancel our upcoming flights. I'm now sitting on just under 50k southwest points plus about $270 in travel dollars to use on future flights.

I didn't think about Deluxe pass holders. They are blocked out of July, but August is like 50% blocked out. It will be interesting to see if they do add some sort of discount somewhere.

[Anoat]

Disney World has cancelled all Halloween party night time events for 2020.

[Ksandra]

My new cruise date is currently the first one for the Wonder to set sail again on.

Which, of course, means it will probably get canceled, too. ;_;2

[Astylla]

My new cruise date is currently the first one for the Wonder to set sail again on.

Which, of course, means it will probably get canceled, too. ;_;2

You're still considering going on a cruise during this craziness? While I've definitely traveled locally going hiking and to state parks , beaches , etc. I wouldn't risk being stuck anywhere contained for awhile no matter how good the deal was.

May the odds be ever in your favor lol

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[Astylla]

Holy shit watching the absolute meltdown on social media regarding park reservations at WDW parks is ridiculous.

It's been long established the WDW side of social media tends to be more vocal and somewhat entitled vs the Disneyland side especially the DIS boards/Facebook page.
Now don't get me wrong Disney IT leaves much to be desired but seriously everyone is spamming my disney groups with angry posts about how "ridiculous " this system is.

Truth be told no system will please everyone and given the circumstances I would rather a reservation system like this. I don't think most people realize just how many DVC and resort reservations there were before this happened and many chose not to cancel as their reservation day started today before just ticket holders. I also think the masses that are complaining now will also still complain about how little is offered for their money which is another constant gripe it seems currently. Yet people don't want to cancel, hell I just canceled my 2 week trip yesterday for several reasons but see it as an opportunity to do something else for now.

It also makes me wonder how things will change if at all with Disneyland given it's only 2 parks and much smaller.

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[milez]

I just got a refund for my 6 flags season passes I'm not gonna deal with all the BS.

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[TummieGaruda]

Holy shit watching the absolute meltdown on social media regarding park reservations at WDW parks is ridiculous.

It's been long established the WDW side of social media tends to be more vocal and somewhat entitled vs the Disneyland side especially the DIS boards/Facebook page.
Now don't get me wrong Disney IT leaves much to be desired but seriously everyone is spamming my disney groups with angry posts about how "ridiculous " this system is.

Truth be told no system will please everyone and given the circumstances I would rather a reservation system like this. I don't think most people realize just how many DVC and resort reservations there were before this happened and many chose not to cancel as their reservation day started today before just ticket holders. I also think the masses that are complaining now will also still complain about how little is offered for their money which is another constant gripe it seems currently. Yet people don't want to cancel, hell I just canceled my 2 week trip yesterday for several reasons but see it as an opportunity to do something else for now.

It also makes me wonder how things will change if at all with Disneyland given it's only 2 parks and much smaller.

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Most of the noise is coming from AP holders, specifically those that are in the Sig/Sig+ group because they are essentially being downgraded to Flex Pass while paying $70 more a month. I heard rumors that Sig/Sig+ passholders will have the option to select 3 days for reservations over the 2 for Flex, but it really isn't that much of a difference to justify the higher cost. Honestly, I thought Disney would follow the Shangahi model and not charge for AP's until after the reservation period, so it kind of came as a shock to me at first, but then I realized how many AP's contribute to the total daily attendance, and that is money they do not want to leave off the table. With Disneyland reducing their capacity to roughly 20k and DCA dropping down to 9k, the reservations are probably going to go very quickly.

[Astylla]

Most of the noise is coming from AP holders, specifically those that are in the Sig/Sig+ group because they are essentially being downgraded to Flex Pass while paying $70 more a month. I heard rumors that Sig/Sig+ passholders will have the option to select 3 days for reservations over the 2 for Flex, but it really isn't that much of a difference to justify the higher cost. Honestly, I thought Disney would follow the Shangahi model and not charge for AP's until after the reservation period, so it kind of came as a shock to me at first, but then I realized how many AP's contribute to the total daily attendance, and that is money they do not want to leave off the table. With Disneyland reducing their capacity to roughly 20k and DCA dropping down to 9k, the reservations are probably going to go very quickly.

Disneyland still has yet to announce their specifics, but my post above was in reference to Disney World in Florida opening their reservations and people going berserk lol.

Though I am glad I ended up getting the deluxe pass now at DL , because I would feel frustrated too with paying Signature prices dealing with reservations but at the same time it's the only way to make it work.
Now rumors going around that DL may not open on the projected date if July 17th pending union concerns from Disney employees so will be curious to see how things come about. It also hasn't been approved by local government though Downtown Disney as well as Grand Californian and Paradise Pier Hotels have .

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[TummieGaruda]

Ah yeah, the Disney World situation is a bit of a mess right now. The reservation system opened up a few days ago and only to those with hotel reservations first and even that process was hell I heard with the site crashing. I believe AP holders get a chance to make reservations this Friday and that is going to be interesting. As far as Disneyland goes there is a petition with 45,000 signatures to not open just yet. Orange County has had a spike in cases and it still doesn't seem like the right time to open just yet.

[synistar]

Disneyland reopening delayed. No future date for reopening has been announced. The state has not issued guidelines for the park to reopen and doesn't expect to issue it until after the July 4th weekend.

Downtown Disney is still slated to reopen on July 9th.

[Ksandra]

You're still considering going on a cruise during this craziness? While I've definitely traveled locally going hiking and to state parks , beaches , etc. I wouldn't risk being stuck anywhere contained for awhile no matter how good the deal was.

May the odds be ever in your favor lol

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My friend and I are about to have our brains fall out of our head over it. 1. If it goes it's gonna be the cleanest cruise ever taken. 2. We want to see how Disney plans on handling the cruise (Are they going to have us wearing masks making it not worth it, etc?). 3. We just like, over it. We want the trip to be done. If we cancel, then we'll probably never do the cruise in our lifetime, which just kills me on the inside since this is something I've dreamt about ever since I was a kid. So I am in denial right now. I'm allowed to be in denial right now. 4.Disney may make the decision for us anyway, so none of it really matters as it will likely be cancelled.

[6souls]

Disneyland reopening delayed. No future date for reopening has been announced. The state has not issued guidelines for the park to reopen and doesn't expect to issue it until after the July 4th weekend.

Downtown Disney is still slated to reopen on July 9th.