Cruise and Theme Park Operational Updates due to Coronavirus

[Eric Smith]

DFB reported that resort friendship boats being tested at the Epcot resorts today. No date for return yet but hopefully s_ _ n.

Someone also posted on the DVC fan Facebook page that they saw several cast members out on the friendship boat docks at the Boardwalk a few days ago.

 

[TakesFaithTrust&PixieDust]

DFB reported that resort friendship boats being tested at the Epcot resorts today. No date for return yet but hopefully s_ _ n.

Yes, they are returning. No solid date given yet

 

[Tigger's ally]

Yes, they are returning. No solid date given yet

Great news. Even though we are staying at the Riv, having those running and hopefully all the boats from MK figure in greatly for our transportation plans for our December stay. We have dinner ressies at the GF after a MK evening and also dinner on the boardwalk which could either be a Skyliner trip or even a skyliner/boatride. My grandtinker loves the boatrides and I am quite fond of them too.

 

[hereforthechurros]

Yes, they are returning. No solid date given yet

Any info on the boats between OKW/SSR and DS?

 

[JacknSally]

A little more than a month out from the Festival of the Holidays = more menus to wait for! Here’s hoping they come out soon. Does anyone remember how far in advance we got the Food & Wine menus this weird year? I know it wasn’t very far.

 

[TakesFaithTrust&PixieDust]

Any info on the boats between OKW/SSR and DS?

Cast that were running the boats from Disney Springs have been reassigned to the Friendship boats temporarily I’ve heard. Disney is doing a lot of temporary and displaced assignments for their full time cast members property wide. It’s quite an undertaking to reassign hotel staff, etc to other roles. Hopefully as more opens up at WDW cast can get back to a bit more normal.

 

[one_cat]

Cast that were running the boats from Disney Springs have been reassigned to the Friendship boats temporarily I’ve heard. Disney is doing a lot of temporary and displaced assignments for their full time cast members property wide. It’s quite an undertaking to reassign hotel staff, etc to other roles. Hopefully as more opens up at WDW cast can get back to a bit more normal.

It would be amazing if the Friendship boats were to return someday. Crescent lake felt very quiet and sad without them.

 

[Thumper1066]

I can appreciate and understand all of the changes Disney World has implemented in order to reopen. However the discontinuation of Fastpass dumbfounds me. It would go to reason, that not having masses of people jamming into a ride cue would be a good thing.

 

[siren0119]

Ride times are actually shorter without fastpass (this isn't just me guessing, others who are far more data oriented than I both here on the DIS and at some of the more reputable Disney blogs have crunched those numbers). FP is what creates the logjams/long wait times in the standby line.

And with reduced capacity, there's no need to offer FP. Will they bring it back when they increase capacity? Who knows....but I could see them going more the way of Universal and offering a paid option only, or modeling it more after Disneyland MaxPass/fastpass system.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

They need the people in the queues as there isn't much else to do right now - very few shows, no parades, no meet and greets, very little streetmosphere, etc

The goal of Fastoass is to free people from being in queues and doing other things - which is the opposite of what they want now

 

[Moliphino]

Crazy how much this depends on the CM. We had a closing ADR and our server was practically pushing us out the door from the moment we sat down.

That's funny. We were seated at the bar and the bartender was clearly preparing for closing, but still kept offering us another round. We could've had a fourth if we wanted.

 

[Eric Smith]

I can appreciate and understand all of the changes Disney World has implemented in order to reopen. However the discontinuation of Fastpass dumbfounds me. It would go to reason, that not having masses of people jamming into a ride cue would be a good thing.

Adding fastpass increases the amount of time the standby queue takes. Fastpass would make the standby wait times longer.

 

[Julie Amber]

Ride times are actually shorter without fastpass (this isn't just me guessing, others who are far more data oriented than I both here on the DIS and at some of the more reputable Disney blogs have crunched those numbers). FP is what creates the logjams/long wait times in the standby line.

And with reduced capacity, there's no need to offer FP. Will they bring it back when they increase capacity? Who knows....but I could see them going more the way of Universal and offering a paid option only, or modeling it more after Disneyland MaxPass/fastpass system.

I am going to disagree with the portion that there is no need to offer FP. Lines are getting ridiculously long. Almost everything has over an hour wait, and it's almost impossible to rope drop with Disney transportation running so late in the morning. FP would be a welcome addition at this point for me. I have no desire to spend 90-120 minutes waiting for MMRR

 

[New Mouse]

I am going to disagree with the portion that there is no need to offer FP. Lines are getting ridiculously long. Almost everything has over an hour wait, and it's almost impossible to rope drop with Disney transportation running so late in the morning. FP would be a welcome addition at this point for me. I have no desire to spend 90-120 minutes waiting for MMRR

Fast pass will make the standby queues even longer. You will get 3 faster waits in then be in the rest of the queues for 1.5 hours plus.

They need to increase hours, increase efficiency on the ride loading, add parades and shows back or decrease overall attendance.

The lack of all this is showing just how little there truly is to do in the way of rides.

 

[mattpeto]

I am going to disagree with the portion that there is no need to offer FP. Lines are getting ridiculously long. Almost everything has over an hour wait, and it's almost impossible to rope drop with Disney transportation running so late in the morning. FP would be a welcome addition at this point for me. I have no desire to spend 90-120 minutes waiting for MMRR

It still seeks like it’s just an issue a HS overall.

 

[rteetz]

I am going to disagree with the portion that there is no need to offer FP. Lines are getting ridiculously long. Almost everything has over an hour wait, and it's almost impossible to rope drop with Disney transportation running so late in the morning. FP would be a welcome addition at this point for me. I have no desire to spend 90-120 minutes waiting for MMRR

Adding FP is only going to make those lines worse. FP isn't built for rides operating at half their capacity.

 

[Spaceguy55]

Fast Pass and Dining Plans are what books more rooms, people don't want to spend big bucks to stand in lines.
This was the whole point of FP+ ....so that guests would be able to do some of the best rides and still have time to eat ..$$$$ for WDW and happy to spend a lot of money guests

 

[scrappinginontario]

Fast Pass and Dining Plans are what books more rooms, people don't want to spend big bucks to stand in lines.
This was the whole point of FP+ ....so that guests would be able to do some of the best rides and still have time to eat ..$$$$ for WDW and happy to spend a lot of money guests

i miss the dining plan but given the current ride capacity I’m happy to have only standby lines.

 

[Moliphino]

I am going to disagree with the portion that there is no need to offer FP. Lines are getting ridiculously long. Almost everything has over an hour wait, and it's almost impossible to rope drop with Disney transportation running so late in the morning. FP would be a welcome addition at this point for me. I have no desire to spend 90-120 minutes waiting for MMRR

The lines are shorter than posted. MMRR was posted at 105 minutes the first time we rode and it wound up being about an hour. Would've been less if we hadn't hit a cleaning cycle just before getting on.

 

[rteetz]

Fast Pass and Dining Plans are what books more rooms, people don't want to spend big bucks to stand in lines.
This was the whole point of FP+ ....so that guests would be able to do some of the best rides and still have time to eat ..$$$$ for WDW and happy to spend a lot of money guests

And they need more dining capacity to offer the dining plan. It all works together. With limited capacity in all respects its just not feasible to offer things like they did pre-covid.

We very well could see something like standby pass come about but FP+ just don't work right now.