Disney World & Universal Orlando Theme Parks Reopening Roadmap Includes 50% Capacity In First Phase

[JT1962]

 

 
Having talked with someone who is in communication with people involved with Disney World has indicated by questions asked that there is a good possibility they may begin with Magic Kingdom only and only open to Florida Residents - at limited capacity. They might then gradually open to those in a driving radius of a set number of hours and gradually increase the number of parks.

I have heard the same about the theme parks and cruises as well when they resume. There have been reports that the major cruise lines may initially operate 1-2 ships each on 2-3 day cruises from Port Canaveral to their private islands. These would be new cruises not currently scheduled and limited to Florida residents only initially.

This would give the cruise lines a chance to see if their new procedures are working and they would gradually add more ships, departure ports and longer itineraries as long as things go well. The worst case scenario for cruise lines would be to start the full schedule back as soon as sailing was allowed and have more outbreaks on multiple ships.

[Fouremco]

5 minutes ago, JT1962 said:

 

I have heard the same about the theme parks and cruises as well when they resume. There have been reports that the major cruise lines may initially operate 1-2 ships each on 2-3 day cruises from Port Canaveral to their private islands. These would be new cruises not currently scheduled and limited to Florida residents only initially.
 

 

Assuming, of course, that the countries to which these island belong are willing to accept cruise ships. Many are currently closed to cruise lines.

[shipshape sam]

4 hours ago, Fouremco said:

Assuming, of course, that the countries to which these island belong are willing to accept cruise ships. Many are currently closed to cruise lines.

You are right, it is an assumption. You would think that the risk/reward might lend itself to allowing a cruise ship to go to Coco Cay for example where it is isolated and if it works, could be the start of a model to expand to other ports of call.  Not sure how many, if any people would be staying on Coco Cay.  They would need to be tested/protected too.  

 

 

I am hoping cruise lines do some short cruises and like the idea of FL residents to not have to fly to get to embarkation port.

 

 

[Fouremco]

3 minutes ago, shipshape sam said:

You are right, it is an assumption. You would think that the risk/reward might lend itself to allowing a cruise ship to go to Coco Cay for example where it is isolated and if it works, could be the start of a model to expand to other ports of call.  Not sure how many, if any people would be staying on Coco Cay.  They would need to be tested/protected too.  

 

 

I am hoping cruise lines do some short cruises and like the idea of FL residents to not have to fly to get to embarkation port.

 

 

As far as I know, Coco Cay and most/all of these private playgrounds depend on a number of local day workers for their operations. While the cruise lines provide a certain amount of the labour from the ships, there are locals who report to the island daily and then return home after the ships have departed. Consequently, while Coco Cay and others may give the impression of isolation, there is a very real possibility that a worker could return home at the end of the day and transport the virus elsewhere in the country. While the risk might be small, to what extent are the Bahamas and other Caribbean countries willing to risk possible exposure to the coronavirus to help cruise lines experiment with "safe" cruises? 

[ipeeinthepool]

50% capacity may seem like a good idea, but do you really think the theme parks or cruise lines will actually make any money at 50% capacity?   I wonder if a cruise line would actually lose more money by sailing at 50% capacity than just letting the ships sit at anchor with a skeleton crew.

[Ride-The-Waves]

One does need to realize that these so-called "private" islands are located in sovereign foreign countries: Haiti, Belize, Eleuthera, San Salvador, Bahamas, etc.  Cruise lines would require a country's approval before dumping thousands of potentially infected people into their countries who can then infect local workers who then take the infection back to their homes and towns.

[shipshape sam]

1 hour ago, ipeeinthepool said:

50% capacity may seem like a good idea, but do you really think the theme parks or cruise lines will actually make any money at 50% capacity?   I wonder if a cruise line would actually lose more money by sailing at 50% capacity than just letting the ships sit at anchor with a skeleton crew.

They might, for a short time.  I think the 50% capacity requirement is to prove it works, thus it could be considered an investment to get operations started back.  Good news is that at 50% the cost/investment would be much less than if they had to operate at 25% capacity for example for some period of time.  

 

If they can show that 50% works, I would think they would be allowed to increase capacity in a reasonable timeframe.  With doing short cruises, you would have more turn arounds that also would show that the capacity could be increased without issue.  

[shipshape sam]

11 hours ago, Fouremco said:

As far as I know, Coco Cay and most/all of these private playgrounds depend on a number of local day workers for their operations. While the cruise lines provide a certain amount of the labour from the ships, there are locals who report to the island daily and then return home after the ships have departed. Consequently, while Coco Cay and others may give the impression of isolation, there is a very real possibility that a worker could return home at the end of the day and transport the virus elsewhere in the country. While the risk might be small, to what extent are the Bahamas and other Caribbean countries willing to risk possible exposure to the coronavirus to help cruise lines experiment with "safe" cruises? 

I am sure that they may have some local commutes.  You have to at some point step forward.  As to the number, my guess is that they would not need to have many and in fact could at first just use ship personnel if that is a roadblock issue.  My guess is that the ship will not be at full capacity and they could also start sailing with a smaller ship to minimize the passenger counts.  The goal of the first phase of starting back cruises is to show that it is safe to sail for everyone,  passengers, crew, ports of call and anyone else effected.  If cruise ships can show that they can handle the social distancing, the cleaning, other requirements, then the public should have a fair degree of comfort for their safety, which I think is a BIG issue.

Edited May 3, 2020 by shipshape sam

[Fouremco]

58 minutes ago, shipshape sam said:

 The goal of the first phase of starting back cruises is to show that it is safe to sail for everyone,  passengers, crew, ports of call and anyone else effected.

And once they have shown that they are capable of operating safe cruises, foreign countries may want to consider reopening to cruise traffic. Until then, what incentive do these countries have to be part of the experiment and potentially risk the lives of their citizens.

 

2 hours ago, Ride-The-Waves said:

One does need to realize that these so-called "private" islands are located in sovereign foreign countries: Haiti, Belize, Eleuthera, San Salvador, Bahamas, etc.  Cruise lines would require a country's approval before dumping thousands of potentially infected people into their countries who can then infect local workers who then take the infection back to their homes and towns.

Exactly.

[Cruise a holic]

I think since potentially covid positive non symptomatic guests can be sailing at any time- the entire staff needs to be tested very often!  Will that be possible?

Edited May 3, 2020 by Cruise a holic

[CILCIANRQTS]

3 hours ago, ipeeinthepool said:

50% capacity may seem like a good idea, but do you really think the theme parks or cruise lines will actually make any money at 50% capacity?   I wonder if a cruise line would actually lose more money by sailing at 50% capacity than just letting the ships sit at anchor with a skeleton crew.

 

Magic Kingdom capacity is believed to be 100,000.

At 65,000, they begin phase 1 non-entries to limit the number of people in the park, so I’d guess 50,000 would produce plenty of profit.

[TeeRick]

1 hour ago, CILCIANRQTS said:

 

Magic Kingdom capacity is believed to be 100,000.

At 65,000, they begin phase 1 non-entries to limit the number of people in the park, so I’d guess 50,000 would produce plenty of profit.

Especially if they double the admission fee.  Do you think that won't happen?

[MarLieb]

5 hours ago, CILCIANRQTS said:

 

Magic Kingdom capacity is believed to be 100,000.

At 65,000, they begin phase 1 non-entries to limit the number of people in the park, so I’d guess 50,000 would produce plenty of profit.

 

It is my understanding that 50% capacity is an average day at MK.  100% would represent a day more like New Year's Eve when it is packed to the gills.  I would think, in order to maintain social distancing, WDW would have to limit capacity even lower than 50%?  If I heard correctly, FL is giving the large theme parks free reign to figure out how they want to re-open, so it will be interesting to see if and how Disney ultimately decides to limit capacity.  I would love to see the capacity lowered to something you might experience on one of the "After Hours" evenings, but I don't know if you could make a profit on that if you still allowed people to enter on a traditional day or multi-day ticket or an AP.  I'm sure they are crunching the numbers furiously to figure this out!

[bigbenboys]

On 5/1/2020 at 8:35 AM, phoenix_dream said:

I'm not arguing it may be like that, but IMHO it doesn't matter very much how much they reduce the capacity.  It is still an enclosed environment where there is really no way to effectively social distance.  Most people use the elevators for example.  Can they really imagine an atmosphere where tables are 6' or more apart, as well as bar seats, and seats in the theater, and deck chairs?  Do they book people in every other cabin or prohibit you from going out on your balcony as you may be too close to your neighbor on theirs?  Do they close intimate venues like Michaels Club aka the Retreat Lounge?  All of these might help, but would not be enough.  And who in their right mind would want to go on a cruise like this??? 

I have to agree with you. Sounds like it might be boring to cruise at half full. One of the reasons we dont book higher end cruise lines. Our 1 Azamara cruise was just nice. It went where we wanted. Why spend $30,0000 for a Edge penthouse suite for a 7 night cruise. I would think that get some friends together and renting a private yacht for a week out of the Caribbean. Get some friends together and split the cost. They could even be friends from CC.