On today’s podcast there was a big discussion on the current state of the parks.
Kevin and John has heard second hand from a friend that capacity had been increased and that the parks are crowded
Craig had said he believes they have increased park capacity.
Here is my take based on what I’ve heard, seen and know. Disney has not increased capacity. More people are coming. When the parks opened DHS was the only park that maybe saw all reservations booked and that was for Annual passholder only.
Now more days are being booked up but that cap hasn’t moved. That is because more people are comfortable to come. In those July and August days Disney wasn’t even touching their cap. People weren’t traveling and locals were less comfortable. As we move forward more people are traveling and more people are comfortable.
Let’s also look at crowds in the parks. Lines are socially distanced so they appear longer than they are many times because parties are separated. You also don’t have many “people eating” shows open which help keep those lines down. You also have the cleaning cycles which hinders lines and attractions overall are running at lower capacity than they should or could. Take Hollywood Studios for example. That park has a lot of big people eating shows and they simply aren’t open so rides get the brunt of the in take of people.
If we look at a park like Epcot, 50% of max capacity is roughly 50,000 people. In a non covid year that’s an average day. They aren’t reaching that. Each park has slightly different caps due to size, and other restrictions as well.
Lastly, I want to touch on guidelines being relaxed. Disney is treading carefully here. They aren’t going to be negligent and relax them. They don’t want poor headlines when they want businesses back. They also are dying to get Disneyland open. Moving too quickly and showing carelessness at WDW will only hurt them getting Disneyland open. They need to continue to show that WDW is operating safely in order to get CA to move. No doubt CA is looking at what theme parks across the country are doing before making decisions to open them in CA.
Kevin and John has heard second hand from a friend that capacity had been increased and that the parks are crowded
Craig had said he believes they have increased park capacity.
Here is my take based on what I’ve heard, seen and know. Disney has not increased capacity. More people are coming. When the parks opened DHS was the only park that maybe saw all reservations booked and that was for Annual passholder only.
Now more days are being booked up but that cap hasn’t moved. That is because more people are comfortable to come. In those July and August days Disney wasn’t even touching their cap. People weren’t traveling and locals were less comfortable. As we move forward more people are traveling and more people are comfortable.
Let’s also look at crowds in the parks. Lines are socially distanced so they appear longer than they are many times because parties are separated. You also don’t have many “people eating” shows open which help keep those lines down. You also have the cleaning cycles which hinders lines and attractions overall are running at lower capacity than they should or could. Take Hollywood Studios for example. That park has a lot of big people eating shows and they simply aren’t open so rides get the brunt of the in take of people.
If we look at a park like Epcot, 50% of max capacity is roughly 50,000 people. In a non covid year that’s an average day. They aren’t reaching that. Each park has slightly different caps due to size, and other restrictions as well.
Lastly, I want to touch on guidelines being relaxed. Disney is treading carefully here. They aren’t going to be negligent and relax them. They don’t want poor headlines when they want businesses back. They also are dying to get Disneyland open. Moving too quickly and showing carelessness at WDW will only hurt them getting Disneyland open. They need to continue to show that WDW is operating safely in order to get CA to move. No doubt CA is looking at what theme parks across the country are doing before making decisions to open them in CA.