WDW COVID-19 Operational Changes- Reservation System-Rope Drop Procedures

[vinotinto]

I really think the limited park hours are there for transportation.

They’ve already said that they will have to limit capacity on buses, monorails, and ferries.

Staggering the hours reduced the number of people waiting for transportation at opening at closing and it allows them to increase number of buses going to/from a specific park at opening and closing.

I agree that the staggered hours is to help with bus transportation. But they could have staggered them in the morning, as they currently have, but start the evening closings later. 6pm closing at AK and the 7pm closing at MK are pretty brutal. Makes it very hard to go back to your room to cool off and return once it's cooler. And longer hours would have helped dissipate the crowds. I would have liked to see at least an extra hour: 7pm closing AK, 8pm closing DHS, 9pm closing MK, 10pm closing Epcot.

 

[vinotinto]

I see people mentioning specific ADRs, but guys, everything is getting canceled. Any ADR you have will be canceled. There will not be character dining, either.

Clean slate.

Yeah, all the different email versions indicate that *ALL* ADRs will be cancelled.

What is crazy is that there seems to be an IT intern sitting there, deleting restaurant by restaurant. LOL! Because it's so piecemeal, once aain, people are wondering if it's Operational Change (not all ADRs will be cancelled) vs. Disney IT (they are all getting cancelled, just restaurant by restaurant)!

 

[tinkerhon]

I agree that the staggered hours is to help with bus transportation. But they could have staggered them in the morning, as they currently have, but start the evening closings later. 6pm closing at AK and the 7pm closing at MK are pretty brutal. Makes it very hard to go back to your room to cool off and return once it's cooler. And longer hours would have helped dissipate the crowds. I would have liked to see at least an extra hour: 7pm closing AK, 8pm closing DHS, 9pm closing MK, 10pm closing Epcot.

I think they might be closing the parks early every night to give the guests a few hours to find their hotel for that night

 

[SaintsManiac]

I agree that the staggered hours is to help with bus transportation. But they could have staggered them in the morning, as they currently have, but start the evening closings later. 6pm closing at AK and the 7pm closing at MK are pretty brutal. Makes it very hard to go back to your room to cool off and return once it's cooler. And longer hours would have helped dissipate the crowds. I would have liked to see at least an extra hour: 7pm closing AK, 8pm closing DHS, 9pm closing MK, 10pm closing Epcot.

They don’t want crowds. They want people to cancel because it’s not an enticing vacation.

 

[reliev]

They don’t want crowds. They want people to cancel because it’s not an enticing vacation.

yeah, I tend to agree they are doing this to keep the numbers low I'm sure it was some metric.
I don't think the dinning plan might be here this year or the near future maybe 2022 if it comes back at all.
I know it sucks for people with families of 4 booking room losing it but if they can't offer it anymore due to rising food cost supply chain issues etc its probably just best to cancel if you feel you are losing value, I for one was looking forward to 2 international trips next year I don't think they are going to happen.

 

[soniam]

I might have missed it, but did he entirely skip over people with date specific tickets but no room reservation?

I purchased a date specific ticket for October a month ago, but we stay on-site at our timeshare resort. I wonder where we will fall in all this?

Is your on-side timeshare Disney Vacation Club? If so, DVC resorts are opening on June 22. A DVC reservation is considered an onsite hotel stay/reservation. I have a DVC stay for 7/12, and I received the email.

Fair point, although "how to control" difficult guests is always going to be an issue with everything they are planning after reopening--guests who refuse to social distance and bunch up behind someone else in line, guests who pull down their masks. I guess I just assumed they would tell guests no getting out of seats during the show and try to enforce the rules as best as possible like they will do with the other rules, recognizing nothing is foolproof.

I plan to be a little vigilante, but polite, about people that I think are getting too close to me. I do this at the grocery store now, or I just go a different path. If I am in line, I will politely ask someone if they could please stay back. Sometimes, people just don't pay attention, especially with masks on. Also, people get excited and move up too quickly and don't leave enough room. That's when we all need to pay attention and not move up immediately. Let the people in front move and try to maintain your distance with them, and not the people in front of them. I see it in traffic all the time. I don't think people are intentionally being jerks; they just aren't thinking. Plus, this is all new to us. Can you imagine how people in other countries where personal space is usually much smaller are handling this? So, I will keep that in mind and try to rationally evaluate the situation before I politely ask someone to stay back.

Checked MDE again....I thought my 3rd party DS ADRs would not be cut. Paddlefish for Nov. 5 is now gone. Art Smiths for Nov.3 is still there.

My Jaleo reservation got cancelled. I thought it would stay, but they aren't even open yet. My trip is 7/12. Oh well, Polite Pig, Deluxe Burger, and some of the kiosks that we have never tried are open, so we might be trying them.

 

[reliev]

@soniam I dont think jaleo is open yet so I'm not surprised I'm pretty sure they are one of the few big ones not yet ready to open in Disney springs.

 

[gatorlisa]

I would be in favor of an AP specific thread to talk about reservation systems, reservation limits, previews, ext. as they become known. For reasons I do not understand I suddenly no longer get emails related to AP things. I did back in 2017/2018 for all the magnet and Pandora/Toy Story Land related previews. Not sure what has changed. But I've had 4 reservations impacted by closures and no emails telling me so and I also have not received the AP update folks have talked of receiving in the last day or two. It's totally frustrating.

 

[reliev]

I would be in favor of an AP specific thread to talk about reservation systems, reservation limits, previews, ext. as they become known. For reasons I do not understand I suddenly no longer get emails related to AP things. I did back in 2017/2018 for all the magnet and Pandora/Toy Story Land related previews. Not sure what has changed. But I've had 4 reservations impacted by closures and no emails telling me so and I also have not received the AP update folks have talked of receiving in the last day or two. It's totally frustrating.

did you opt-in for all emails? one time I opted out of marketing emails and not pass holders and I stopped getting everything so I just opted in for everything then it seemed to work again.

 

[brewhome]

Disney IT is so weird. We have three different room reservations - one for our October trip and two for our split stay in November. Dining reservations on the dates of my first November trip were canceled but the rest are still there - they were both at AK restaurants so maybe they are going resort by resort.

Regarding tickets, my AP still shows it’s current expiration date, which I expected since they haven’t made those adjustments yet. The expiration dates for other individual dated tickets for my travel party were extended to 9/26/21, with the exception of one four park magic ticket, which is still showing a 12/15/20 expiration date.

I’m not a super techie person but it just seems this should be easier... write an executable file to wipe ALL dining reservations at once... update the expiration dates for ALL non-AP ticket types at once... wipe ALL FP at once. Their platform must be a tangled web of bad development.

Update... now my reservations for Flying Fish, Wine Bar George, and the Boathouse are gone too... just Grand Floridian Cafe, La Hacienda de San Angel, and two at Oga’s to go... sigh.

 

[soniam]

@soniam I dont think jaleo is open yet so I'm not surprised I'm pretty sure they are one of the few big ones not yet ready to open in Disney springs.

I checked this morning. They aren't open. I don't think any of his restaurants are open yet. I hope it does open but completely understand if it doesn't. There are so many good options, even QS, at DS, that I am not too concerned. Heck, we will have a studio, so worst case we are eating instant oatmeal, almond butter sandwiches, and possibly TV dinners, and rice krispy treats, of course

 

[soniam]

Update... now my reservations for Flying Fish, Wine Bar George, and the Boathouse are gone too... just Grand Floridian Cafe, La Hacienda de San Angel, and two at Oga’s to go... sigh.

I still have all of my November, which includes Hacienda. I also still have all of my Oga's, for both July and November. My Flying Fish for July was one of the first to get canceled

 

[yulilin3]

I think all the restaurant reservations will be canceled. Don't see the need to post about each one, unless ive missed something?

 

[reliev]

I checked this morning. They aren't open. I don't think any of his restaurants are open yet. I hope it does open but completely understand if it doesn't. There are so many good options, even QS, at DS, that I am not too concerned. Heck, we will have a studio, so worst case we are eating instant oatmeal, almond butter sandwiches, and possibly TV dinners, and rice krispy treats, of course

his restaurants are open for taking out only up north my brother lives in the area he told me its limited menu most of the stuff from Spain and other countries are off the menu I'm looking forward to getting an email when it is open. I signed up for their mailing list keep hearing about great deals up in the mid-Atlantic.

I think a lot of his chefs are helping with his food program atm they did it for Puerto Rico and other areas too I wouldn't be surprised if he dispatched them to places that need meals right now.

 

[Flamingeaux]

I swear one of my biggest pet peeves had better be addressed. I hate those families that decide to stop in the middle of a walkway to chat and figure out what they want to do next.

 

[mickey0624]

Have a trip at the Poly booked for August 7 - 17. Has anyone heard anything about the pool situation? How will social distancing be enforced at the pools. Believe it or not, this is a big factor for us in August.

 

[PPFlight75]

No e-mail for me - first week of August -BUT- not worried. The e-mail people have been getting tells me all I need to know. I have reservations with valid, date specific tickets. They will be reaching out when they have the new reservation system in place. They will give me a shot at ADR's before the system is opened up to everyone else. I can easily see why they wouldn't contact me now other than to send me the same message. After all, what are they supposed to do? Write my ADR down on a napkin to transfer to the system when it is ready? I can wait - I have faith they'll figure it out. No doubt if you are stressing, it is nothing compared to their IT people who are currently sweating it out with a July 11 deadline looming.

Not stressed at all. Just responding to a pp question regarding emails related to July stays.

 

[evino526]

Have a trip at the Poly booked for August 7 - 17. Has anyone heard anything about the pool situation? How will social distancing be enforced at the pools. Believe it or not, this is a big factor for us in August.

I don’t think we know yet. They’ll most likely remove some chairs and limit the amount of people allowed in the pool. I don’t think they’ll close the pools as they’re guidance on wearing masks states that masks are required except when dining or swimming.

 

[pasta]

I still have 3 BOG breakfast adrs but I’m certainly not going there for breakfast without a dining plan...

You don’t have to order a full meal. Remember, it’s a quick service restaurant.

 

[pasta]

I think all the restaurant reservations will be canceled. Don't see the need to post about each one, unless ive missed something?

I don’t know. Disney says one thing, and then does something else. I arrive July 11th. All my ADRs are there. Maybe they will stay because I’m in the 60 day window???? I only post to keep updates on what I see happening on my end.