Cruise and Theme Park Operational Updates due to Coronavirus

[hereforthechurros]

Anyone else having an issue with disneys website this morning? Specifically payments on upcoming trips? Im curious as to think everyone is trying to book on this "stimulus check Monday".

Definitely running slower today with the waiting to launch pages appearing before each action.

 

[Sarahslay]

I don’t think this has been mentioned here that they are showcasing all the DVC properties and the rooms. It’s easy to check out the bungalow at poly and grand villas all all the DVC resorts, which usually are not available. We did a full tour of all of them this weekend. All you have to go is go up to one of the dvc cast members at the desks in the hotel lobbies. We have been members for years but it was nice to see all the different larger rooms. The only one you need an appointment for to get past the guard gates is Rivera, to do this just call DVC from the room phone on property and they can get it set up. There was no hard sale or pitch they just want to show off basically. Our DVC tour guide said they are taking advantage of the downtime to showcase the rooms and that due to COVID a lot of people turned their points back into Disney and they have all the dvc resorts available for purchase through them.

When we were at Riviera over Christmas we were approached and asked if we wanted to check out a 3 bedroom (ummmm...yes please!). Lady across the hall was heard saying that DVC was calling her over and over inviting her to check out larger villa rooms, and she was super annoyed (I'll go if she doesn't want to). Would have loved to see the inside of a bungalow at Poly or one of the cabins at CCV but didn't have time, maybe one day we'll have money to stay in the the grand villa at Riviera though because it's just so nice!

 

[rteetz]

We’ve had a few posts today here that have nothing to do with theme park ops and would be better suited in other threads on this board. Please post in those threads rather than here. I know this is really a 3000+ page catch all thread but these topics were much better suited elsewhere.

 

[rpb718]

Re-Imagineered Epcot, Avengers Campus and more on the way to Disney parks (USA TODAY)

I think this article also belongs here, if not you can delete @rteetz

 

[CampbellzSoup]

It's the main reason (even before covid) if I wasn't staying on property, I rarely stayed til closing at MK. Such a pain to leave

The worst.

 

[gottalovepluto]

Potential unintended consequence of a COVID trip to WDW: I’m no longer addicted to park hopping.

I noticed it while planning my next Disney trip- Disney broke me of my park hopping addiction. All it took was one trip in Nov and now I’m laying out my days for a trip in the next couple months and automatically gravitating toward plans with no PH. I have an AP so nbd but if I were buying tickets I would *gulp* pass on the PH upgrade.

I would never have done that before. PH always was basically my motto. But now that I did a week trip without it... Wow. I really don’t need it... it’s going to be much harder to sell me on PH upgrade once my AP is done and I’m buying normal tickets.

 

[Mit88]

Park hopping for me is key for the nighttime shows. While I was there I wasn’t heartbroken not to be able to hop. But if there were fireworks, I wouldn’t too pleased. I love MK, but I can really only do it 1 full day, but if I’m down there more than 5 days, I need to see HEA more than once.

 

[midnight star]

Potential unintended consequence of a COVID trip to WDW: I’m no longer addicted to park hopping.

I noticed it while planning my next Disney trip- Disney broke me of my park hopping addiction. All it took was one trip in Nov and now I’m laying out my days for a trip in the next couple months and automatically gravitating toward plans with no PH. I have an AP so nbd but if I were buying tickets I would *gulp* pass on the PH upgrade.

I would never have done that before. PH always was basically my motto. But now that I did a week trip without it... Wow. I really don’t need it... it’s going to be much harder to sell me on PH upgrade once my AP is done and I’m buying normal tickets.

Last year when we went, we thought we would regret not Park hopping. At the end of the trip we were so glad we didn't upgrade. Seemed like it would've been too much work with the shorter hours (it was January). I doubt going forward I would park hop, as we got along just fine without it.

 

[Moliphino]

I missed park hopping so much in October. We would have left MK for Epcot way more often to get better food options, and tried to maximize hours in the parks.

 

[Farro]

I hate the idea of not hopping. We NEVER do a park open to close, I get bored. We start at one and end at another.
Hopefully hours will be good in October for hopping!

 

[gottalovepluto]

I don’t follow FL resident offers very well, does matching the General Public offer at 30% seem a bit cheap on the part of Disney? I thought they got 5-10% more than the general public usually...

 

[SaintsManiac]

I hate the idea of not hopping. We NEVER do a park open to close, I get bored. We start at one and end at another.
Hopefully hours will be good in October for hopping!

Yep we are the same way. We usually stay at a resort that is conducive to hopping, too. When we stayed at AKL we only hopped once. I think location is a main factor for a lot of people.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

I don’t follow FL resident offers very well, does matching the General Public offer at 30% seem a bit cheap on the part of Disney? I thought they got 5-10% more than the general public usually...

looking at the details, does look like FL residents get 5% more off at Moderates and Values (so 25% and 20% vs 20% and 15% respectively) - but same for Deluxe - wonder if there is more allocation of rooms at the FL resident rate as well

 

[TheMaxRebo]

I hate the idea of not hopping. We NEVER do a park open to close, I get bored. We start at one and end at another.
Hopefully hours will be good in October for hopping!

I do love about these boards and talking to different Disney fans finding out just how many different ways there are to do a Disney vacation.

If we have hoppers (they are often included if we get the military salute tickets) we might take advantage of it but generally find more than enough to do at any given park in a day (generalyl we dont' get done everyhitng we want) - I can't imagine "getting bored" in a Disney park... but obviously just here are a ton of comments form people that talk about how big hopping is to them - so I am glad for them it is back in some format, and hope it comes back to it's former status in the near futgure

 

[skeeter31]

I do love about these boards and talking to different Disney fans finding out just how many different ways there are to do a Disney vacation.

If we have hoppers (they are often included if we get the military salute tickets) we might take advantage of it but generally find more than enough to do at any given park in a day (generalyl we dont' get done everyhitng we want) - I can't imagine "getting bored" in a Disney park... but obviously just here are a ton of comments form people that talk about how big hopping is to them - so I am glad for them it is back in some format, and hope it comes back to it's former status in the near futgure

I think for us, we’ve always hopped because we never do parks from rope drop to close, or even close to that. When we used to live in NY and would come down for a week 2-3 times a year, we would do a park for a few hours in the morning, go back to resort and swim and relax, and then hit another park in the evening. Now that we’re in Florida and go (pre COVID) at least once a month for a night or 2, we hit 2 sometimes 3 parks a day only for a couple hours. We have our set few rides we have to go on at each park, but most of our touring revolves around just wandering around, visiting shops, and dining. We used to plan our days more around dining than anything else.

The few times we’ve now gone since reopening I missed hopping so much. Being confined to 1 park a day was rough for us. We would go to MK in the morning, ride the few rides we wanted and then go back to OKW. We wound up not returning to the park in the evening because there wasn’t anything drawing us back there, whereas if we could have gone to a different park we would have had other activities to do.

 

[Farro]

I do love about these boards and talking to different Disney fans finding out just how many different ways there are to do a Disney vacation.

If we have hoppers (they are often included if we get the military salute tickets) we might take advantage of it but generally find more than enough to do at any given park in a day (generalyl we dont' get done everyhitng we want) - I can't imagine "getting bored" in a Disney park... but obviously just here are a ton of comments form people that talk about how big hopping is to them - so I am glad for them it is back in some format, and hope it comes back to it's former status in the near futgure

When you go for 9 park days, it's quite easy to get bored staying in the same park all day long (except AK). Obviously bored at Disney is different than bored at home. Go in morning, take afternoon break for wine and pool time, then hit another park after 5 or so. Love it.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

I think for us, we’ve always hopped because we never do parks from rope drop to close, or even close to that. When we used to live in NY and would come down for a week 2-3 times a year, we would do a park for a few hours in the morning, go back to resort and swim and relax, and then hit another park in the evening. Now that we’re in Florida and go (pre COVID) at least once a month for a night or 2, we hit 2 sometimes 3 parks a day only for a couple hours. We have our set few rides we have to go on at each park, but most of our touring revolves around just wandering around, visiting shops, and dining. We used to plan our days more around dining than anything else.

The few times we’ve now gone since reopening I missed hopping so much. Being confined to 1 park a day was rough for us. We would go to MK in the morning, ride the few rides we wanted and then go back to OKW. We wound up not returning to the park in the evening because there wasn’t anything drawing us back there, whereas if we could have gone to a different park we would have had other activities to do.

When you go for 9 park days, it's quite easy to get bored staying in the same park all day long. Obviously bored at Disney is different than bored at home. Go in morning, take afternoon break for wine and pool time, then hit another park after 5 or so. Love it.

definitely depends on how you do your trips too ... i don't think we have ever done more than 5 park days so we have a lot we want to get done in those days. We usually stay off property too - and then with kids and larger groups (some times as many as 11 in our group) there is a lot to get to for everyone to get to the things they want to do

We do sometimes take md-day breaks, but then just go back to the park we started with and do things we didn't get to yet

I certainly get the appeal of having more flexibility, just the added cost usually isn't worth it to us (especially when paying that cost for up to 11 people)

 

[Disney and the Dude]

Our dining ressys came available this morning for out March 6th trip! It was by far, the easiest ADR day I have ever had. I got everything I wanted, including California Grill for our 6 year anniversary on March 7th. SO EXCITED!

 

[mattpeto]

I think PH generally leads to more of a relaxing vacation experience. More flexibility, more incentive to slow down and not focus exclusively on the attractions.

During the pandemic and with the current reservation system, I'd almost argue that PH is even more valuable now if your vacation is more than 5 days and/or you are staying at Epcot or Monorail loop resort.

But to each it's own.

 

[osufeth24]

Before I became a local AP, I still always wanted to hop. I've never been a 1 park person, maybe it's because I'm a single adult male, so half the stuff in the parks (especially MK) doesn't interest me or apply to me