Disney Not Social Distancing Anymore?

[jlwhitney]

Soooo not interested in your predictions, but thanks.

End of April will be so different than today.

People like you can't allow anyone to have any optimism. I'm sick of it. People move forward with hope, not fear.

I'm done with it. Laugh at my post. I genuinely feel some part of you doesn't want this to end.

I am with you. End of April will be different and probably in a good way. People still fail to grasp that it will end one way or another. Vaccine is only one part of it .

 

[anthony2k7]

Can you please provide a scientific citation for your bold statement that Disney isn't safe?

General pessimism is not a scientific reason.

You know that’s not possible.

I stand by my point though. If Disney was covid safe they wouldn’t have parks around the world forced to be closed currently.

 

[Mit88]

I wish people would stop generally saying Disney is safe. It isn’t.

If it was, they would have 3 separate locations around the world closed right now.

Didn’t realize you came to the US and went to WDW. That’s awesome!...or are you claiming something isn’t safe that you haven’t yourself done in order to generate such a wild accusation....

Edit: that’s what I thought. Cant say Im Surprised from someone that notoriously hates Disney.

 

[skeeter31]

Didn’t realize you came to the US and went to WDW. That’s awesome!...or are you claiming something isn’t safe that you haven’t yourself done in order to generate such a wild accusation....

Edit: that’s what I thought. Cant say Im Surprised from someone that notoriously hates Disney.

Not to mention using 3 parks being closed as proof that Disney isn’t safe, when Disney has no say in whether those 3 parks can be opened or closed. It’s completely the government’s decision in those 3 parks being closed and Disney is not being singled out to have to be closed while other comparable places are open.

 

[Mango7100]

On safari ride with plexi-glass, you aren't sitting rows apart, you are on directly behind party in front of you - at least they had been doing that on safari for quite some time. That ride is what, 15 minutes or longer? And there is space on top of the dividers where air flows through.

On slinky dog, you are sitting behind someone, for 90 seconds possibly?

Both rides you are masked.

Why do people feel so much safer on the safari ride than they would on the coaster?

To me the risk is exactly the same.

I think the safari ride seating each row is worse than SDD. If anyone in the row in front of you or behind you in safari has covid (including presymptomatic or asymptomatic) then you are a close contact because you are definitely within 6 feet for 15 minutes. The plexiglass doesn’t matter for aerosols—it only catches large droplets. It’s not like the aerosolized virus sees plexiglass and thinks “darn better fall to the floor now”—it takes the path of least resistance around the bottom or sides. SDD you have so much wind the dispersal of any aerosols or droplets is going to be broader...

 

[Farro]

I think the safari ride seating each row is worse than SDD. If anyone in the row in front of you or behind you in safari has covid (including presymptomatic or asymptomatic) then you are a close contact because you are definitely within 6 feet for 15 minutes. The plexiglass doesn’t matter for aerosols—it only catches large droplets. It’s not like the aerosolized virus sees plexiglass and thinks “darn better fall to the floor now”—it takes the path of least resistance around the bottom or sides. SDD you have so much wind the dispersal of any aerosols or droplets is going to be broader...

Agreed.

 

[LSUmiss]

By this logic there should be thousands of CMs out with COVID. This would be front page news and the unions would be telling TWDC to shut down. None of which are happening.

Yep...otoh, that IS happening here with schools. I work for a school system & thousands of staff & students are out with Covid in my district & surrounding ones & the unions are calling for schools to go virtual again temporarily. So I probably am safer at wdw than my every day job.

 

[J-Dog]

You know that’s not possible.

I stand by my point though. If Disney was covid safe they wouldn’t have parks around the world forced to be closed currently.

What does that have to do with Disney's safety record? As far as I know, none of those parks were closed due to direct Covid violations by Disney, they were just victims of bureaucratic lock-downs.

I guess if, in your pessimistic viewpoint, that Disney is not safe in the sense that a bunch of people are relatively close together, similar to any other public place on earth right now, then I can't argue with that.

 

[Aimeedyan]

I think the safari ride seating each row is worse than SDD. If anyone in the row in front of you or behind you in safari has covid (including presymptomatic or asymptomatic) then you are a close contact because you are definitely within 6 feet for 15 minutes. The plexiglass doesn’t matter for aerosols—it only catches large droplets. It’s not like the aerosolized virus sees plexiglass and thinks “darn better fall to the floor now”—it takes the path of least resistance around the bottom or sides. SDD you have so much wind the dispersal of any aerosols or droplets is going to be broader...

We skip the safari ride because we feel it's too risky. A shame, really, because it's one of the few things my 1 year old can do at AK so just don't go to that park very often.

If it was shorter, I would feel differently I think (esp since it's known to be stopped due to animals for much longer periods of time which would be even more dangerous)

 

[Douglas Dubh]

think the safari ride seating each row is worse than SDD.

Yeah, on Kilimanjaro you probably have a 0.001% chance of getting COVID but on slinky it’s more like 0.0009%.

 

[tlmadden73]

Yep...otoh, that IS happening here with schools. I work for a school system & thousands of staff & students are out with Covid in my district & surrounding ones & the unions are calling for schools to go virtual again temporarily. So I probably am safer at wdw than my every day job.

Are thousands of students out WITH Covid .. or are a handful of students/teachers have COVID and they quarantine dozens of students (per actual sick person) because they might have been in close contact? There is a big difference.

As for Disney -- they have a hard choice of either being open and letting people assess the risk themselves (of whether sitting row to row is unsafe) go OR just being closed and putting 10s of thousands of people out of jobs again .. some probably permanently.

It's a VERY public place -- there really should be no realistic expectation of "social distancing" unless they only let in like a few thousand people in the park.

Disney has gone above and beyond to be a safe place to be at WHILE being open, and the restrictions have to give way eventually .. especially as more people decide to take the risk and go on a safe vacation.

 

[LSUmiss]

Are thousands of students out WITH Covid .. or are a handful of students/teachers have COVID and they quarantine dozens of students (per actual sick person) because they might have been in close contact? There is a big difference.

As for Disney -- they have a hard choice of either being open and letting people assess the risk themselves (of whether sitting row to row is unsafe) go OR just being closed and putting 10s of thousands of people out of jobs again .. some probably permanently.

It's a VERY public place -- there really should be no realistic expectation of "social distancing" unless they only let in like a few thousand people in the park.

Disney has gone above and beyond to be a safe place to be at WHILE being open, and the restrictions have to give way eventually .. especially as more people decide to take the risk and go on a safe vacation.

It’s a large area so I would say it can easily be 1000s who have tested positive. Every day at my school alone we alerted of 1-3 ppl who have tested positive. My district has 83 schools alone. Surrounding districts are reporting similar issues.

 

[MickeyWaffles]

This is quite a thread.

The thing I find interesting is some of the same people who confidently declare that WDW is safe also say that there are risks and anyone who is going should accept the risks.
Which one is it?

I personally think there is definite risk in going, but I don’t judge anyone who is going if: they are mask compliant, follow distancing protocols, do not travel or go to the parks while symptomatic, positive, or while they are supposed to be quarantining due to a close exposure. Unfortunately, many people cannot be trusted to do all of those things.

I’m a parent to a high risk child so we will definitely not be traveling until at least 2022. I am totally okay with it - my kid’s life & long term health is way too important for me to whine about not going on a vacation right now or be envious of people who are. Thankful for his continued health and being able to avoid covid safely thus far. Thankfully, we went to WDW in early February, shortly before the whole world changed. So we have those recent memories of the “before times” WDW and we will hold onto those until the next time we can go.

From watching vloggers and following along on trip reports, etc., I am concerned about the more recent capacity increases and the impact that is having on distancing in general. And indoor maskless dining still concerns me from a safety standpoint.

For what it’s worth, even though there is risk, I don’t think WDW should shut down. I don’t think that at all. I think they should be open. I think Disneyland should be open too. I just think there are some things that they are relaxing a little too quickly. And I wish all guests could be trusted enough to make responsible decisions.

 

[mshanson3121]

This is quite a thread.

The thing I find interesting is some of the same people who confidently declare that WDW is safe also say that there are risks and anyone who is going should accept the risks.
Which one is it?

I personally think there is definite risk in going, but I don’t judge anyone who is going if: they are mask compliant, follow distancing protocols, do not travel or go to the parks while symptomatic, positive, or while they are supposed to be quarantining due to a close exposure. Unfortunately, many people cannot be trusted to do all of those things.

I’m a parent to a high risk child so we will definitely not be traveling until at least 2022. I am totally okay with it - my kid’s life & long term health is way too important for me to whine about not going on a vacation right now or be envious of people who are. Thankful for his continued health and being able to avoid covid safely thus far. Thankfully, we went to WDW in early February, shortly before the whole world changed. So we have those recent memories of the “before times” WDW and we will hold onto those until the next time we can go.

From watching vloggers and following along on trip reports, etc., I am concerned about the more recent capacity increases and the impact that is having on distancing in general. And indoor maskless dining still concerns me from a safety standpoint.

For what it’s worth, even though there is risk, I don’t think WDW should shut down. I don’t think that at all. I think they should be open. I think Disneyland should be open too. I just think there are some things that they are relaxing a little too quickly. And I wish all guests could be trusted enough to make responsible decisions.

This, 100%.

I will say, I think they should find a way to bring shows back - they need to find a way to eat people. I saw photos on FB today of the parks this weekend, and yeah....distancing was gone, and it was packed. Not sardine can Christmas morning packed, but very comparable to what we saw in the days leading up to 4th of July. The old "crowd level 7/8".

 

[Mit88]

This is quite a thread.

The thing I find interesting is some of the same people who confidently declare that WDW is safe also say that there are risks and anyone who is going should accept the risks.
Which one is it?

I personally think there is definite risk in going, but I don’t judge anyone who is going if: they are mask compliant, follow distancing protocols, do not travel or go to the parks while symptomatic, positive, or while they are supposed to be quarantining due to a close exposure. Unfortunately, many people cannot be trusted to do all of those things.

I’m a parent to a high risk child so we will definitely not be traveling until at least 2022. I am totally okay with it - my kid’s life & long term health is way too important for me to whine about not going on a vacation right now or be envious of people who are. Thankful for his continued health and being able to avoid covid safely thus far. Thankfully, we went to WDW in early February, shortly before the whole world changed. So we have those recent memories of the “before times” WDW and we will hold onto those until the next time we can go.

From watching vloggers and following along on trip reports, etc., I am concerned about the more recent capacity increases and the impact that is having on distancing in general. And indoor maskless dining still concerns me from a safety standpoint.

For what it’s worth, even though there is risk, I don’t think WDW should shut down. I don’t think that at all. I think they should be open. I think Disneyland should be open too. I just think there are some things that they are relaxing a little too quickly. And I wish all guests could be trusted enough to make responsible decisions.

Stepping out of your house or apartment to get your mail is taking a risk. There are levels of risk. There is no “ Option A is safer than Option B, which is more dangerous than Option C”. None of them are completely safe. There are certain environments that CAN be safer than others, but there could be someone that has spent 100 hours in Target since March, but never caught the virus but went on a hike one day for an hour and caught it from a passerby. There are protocols taken by certain businesses that try their hardest to keep it as safe as possible, but there’s no guarantee. Disney never promised they were safe, or that every single person would leave WDW completely healthy. Eventually they were going lax restrictions somewhere that got this exact reaction. 90% of the country could be vaccinated and there would be a group of people that said “This is too soon”. Was it the best time to rip the bandaid off in this situation? Probably not. But as I said last night, because the masses sat back and basically said “I’m OK with this” when Universal and Seaworld made these same decisions MONTHS ago, Disney figured well people aren’t up in arms with the other parks doing it, so let’s try and get more people on these rides. If Disney were making decisions to purposely harm people, fireworks and parades would be back by now.

 

[MickeyWaffles]

Was it the best time to rip the bandaid off in this situation? Probably not. But as I said last night, because the masses sat back and basically said “I’m OK with this” when Universal and Seaworld made these same decisions MONTHS ago, Disney figured well people aren’t up in arms with the other parks doing it, so let’s try and get more people on these rides. If Disney were making decisions to purposely harm people, fireworks and parades would be back by now.

I get that. FWIW, I don’t pay any attention to Sea World or Universal, I skim over any updates about them because I have no interest. I have no clue what decisions they are making. I really only follow what Disney is doing.

 

[Mit88]

I get that. FWIW, I don’t pay any attention to Sea World or Universal, I skim over any updates about them because I have no interest. I have no clue what decisions they are making. I really only follow what Disney is doing.

And theres part of the problem. For the most part, those parks fly under the radar, and with this, Disney kind of has to follow them because they sure as heck can’t be first. But they also have to trust that some of these things they’re getting lax with are also things they (Disney) could also pull off. These parks are all supposed to be working as a team through this, and Disney really needs a barometer of where they can go next without going too fast. Uni/SW went a little fast, Disney tried to keep a steady pace behind and they might need to pump the brakes a little now. At least for the next 2-3 months. Luckily (health and safety wise) the parks should see a decrease in crowds for about 2 months here in a few weeks. But I think they’re dead set on March being the time when they start ramping things up again. Not talking masks and social distancing, but I think they’re subtly going to remove some of the safety procedures. Like temp checks. I could see that going away with a majority of people knowing it’s security theater anyway

 

[jlwhitney]

And theres part of the problem. For the most part, those parks fly under the radar, and with this, Disney kind of has to follow them because they sure as heck can’t be first. But they also have to trust that some of these things they’re getting lax with are also things they (Disney) could also pull off. These parks are all supposed to be working as a team through this, and Disney really needs a barometer of where they can go next without going too fast. Uni/SW went a little fast, Disney tried to keep a steady pace behind and they might need to pump the brakes a little now. At least for the next 2-3 months. Luckily (health and safety wise) the parks should see a decrease in crowds for about 2 months here in a few weeks. But I think they’re dead set on March being the time when they start ramping things up again. Not talking masks and social distancing, but I think they’re subtly going to remove some of the safety procedures. Like temp checks. I could see that going away with a majority of people knowing it’s security theater anyway

Even as we move through summer I see masks slowly being enforced less and less. Subtle. Less out in open areas reminding people. Photopass taping off areas for maskless pics and maybe only a few key spots and not all. It won’t be fast or all at once. Same with capacity and distancing and all the other stuff.

 

[Mit88]

Even as we move through summer I see masks slowly being enforced less and less. Subtle. Less out in open areas reminding people. Photopass taping off areas for maskless pics and maybe only a few key spots and not all. It won’t be fast or all at once. Same with capacity and distancing and all the other stuff.

Don’t wanna count the chickens before they hatch. Imo, without any formidable news regarding the release of mask mandates, I’m still thinking around the time the 50th celebrations begin, at the earliest. But that can change. And I agree that when it does happen, it’ll be phased with outdoor areas maybe being the first to become a little more laxed. Maybe not all outdoor areas, but as you said, maybe taped off areas for maskless photos. But even that’s probably still 6-8 months away

 

[andyman8]

Told by who?

They aren’t doing it to make people cancel either. It’s to operate more efficiently. Many rides have added plexiglass between rows as a safety measure and to help load more people.

Right. Long lines flowing into walkways were more of a hazard imo so this is a way to fix that.

They ran a national ad campaign about social distancing and masks, promoting their health and safety protocols. To then dial back some of those measures after you’ve run that kind of campaign is, in my opinion, problematic. Also, based on wait times, seating every row doesn’t seem to really be addressing the wait time issue that so many are complaining about.

And as I’ve said before, if you’re visiting WDW now, you’re in their highest affinity group. You may complain about wait times but that’s not stopping you from visiting. Look at how many people even on here who have said “I’m not going back without FP/shorter waits” only to then post about planning their next trip.

I understand the desire for Efficiency but Safety comes before Efficiency. All in all, I think the decision is unnecessary, a needless added risk, and one that only marginally remedies the “problem.”