In this post we’re going to go on an adventure speculating about how changes to park protocols might impact touring strategies.
This post includes a few rumors and discussions of things that have not at all been confirmed by Disney. As such, it’s a mental exercise (which is fun for us since such exercises are part of our job), not advice.
Until anything is formally announced, and really until people have been in the park to test these things, this post should be read in the same vein as a post like “What would Disney World be like if you had to eat a Dole Whip between every ride?” or “What if every ride at Disney World was the PeopleMover?” It’s just some fun, curious questions.
Related Posts:
We have a post on when Disney World and Disneyland might reopen, with the largely unsatisfactory answer of “we don’t know but here are some guesses.”
We have a post that talks about trip planning in 2020, 2021 and 2022
What ideas are being floated?
I’m choosing topics from the Blog Mickey recap of the Florida Task Force meeting and the Universal survey that went around. Last time—none of this is confirmed going to happen.
Greater Use of Virtual Queues
This one has been buzzed about for a while, but there’s also a wide range of options so it’s a bit tough to even recreationally speculate about strategies.
What are virtual queues? How do they work? Why are they safer?
A virtual queue is a system where, instead of waiting in a physical line with a wait time, you are free to wander a theme park until a time when you’re called back to go on a ride.
In the broad sense of the term, FASTPASS and FastPass+ are virtual queues. Instead of waiting in a standby line for a ride, you book a FastPass and then return to the ride at that designated time.
In the last year, Disney also introduced “boarding groups” for Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge and then for Rise of the Resistance specifically.
Boarding groups for Rise have controversial because there is no alternative standby line to get in, and boarding passes were running out within a few seconds of the park opening. So it was basically an early morning lottery to see if you’d get to ride today.
Earlier during the closure, people started to note an expanded “virtual queues” section popping up in the app, and one popular opinion was that this could be preparation for reopening the parks (not necessarily anytime soon).
The idea here is that standby lines are a risk for spreading the virus. People are in close quarters for hours at a time, all handling the same handrails, bumping into each other, etc.
Virtual queues alone do not eliminate this problem, they reduce it. There’s always some flexibility in the return times, which means there inevitably is a short wait when you return. For FastPass+ this was usually under 10 or even under 5 minutes. For boarding groups it was usually around 25 minutes.
If you combine virtual queues with more spaced out lines for the time people are waiting, and more frequent cleaning of the handrails, you’ve got a somewhat safer situation. (As we discuss a bit more below, there is a problematic question of where all the people in the virtual queue go.)
How would virtual queues impact touring?
Virtual queues would be a huge wild card in returning to the Disney parks. We’re currently in the “more questions than answers” phase about this, so let’s talk about how this might play out.
First of all, we don’t know which rides would get new virtual queues. Presumably all popular rides, because those are the most important lines to cut down.
But people waiting in virtual queues need something to do, so they’d just go wait in line for rides without virtual queues. This means maybe all rides need virtual queues. Which brings us to the next question…
How many queues can you be in at once? One strategy would be that virtual queues replace standby queues, so you can be in exactly one at a time. This could even be paired with FastPass+ as a separate virtual queue. So you’d have three FastPass+ reservations to start and then one virtual queue at a time.
This system also would help avoid virtual queues filling too early. If it was 9:01AM and the park just opened, would you rather grab a six hour wait for Rise of the Resistance or a 30 minute wait for Slinky Dog Dash? Some/most people would pick the latter, so we might not even see Rise groups run out immediately.
In this case, your touring strategy would probably be more or less exactly what it was prior to the closure, but instead of getting in line for a ride you’d get in a virtual queue for a ride.
Any situation that allows for multiple queues at once gets more complicated, but probably looks like FastPass+ strategy. You’d spend one slot major rides with long waits while using other slots to keep yourself busy on less popular rides.
Other Possible Changes
Virtual queues are the big one, but here are some other possible changes…
All The Rope Drop Questions
It’s assumed that there will be some measure of testing, whether its temperature checks or actual virus testing, at the park entrances. This means you’ll need to arrive earlier than normal for rope drop.
It’s also expected that they will try and keep people spaced while waiting to enter the parks…which creates issues. We saw earlier in 2020 that Rise of the Resistance was causing morning crowds to back up all the way to security checks, which creates a security hazard.
Obviously just letting these people into the park is an option, but then there’s the question of where they wait until the park opens. Not in a big crowd, hopefully. If virtual queues are used at all times, even at rope drop, you could theoretically spread people across the park, since it won’t matter (much) where they are when the virtual queues open.
And of course, if all queues are virtual queues, you won’t need to arrive too early for rope drop, just early enough to get through security and illness screening.
Decreased Ride and Show Capacity
This is a handful of possible modifications wrapped up in one. Seating in shows and rides might be spaced out more, allowing fewer people per ride / show. They also might need to be cleaned more often, allowing fewer rides / shows per day.
Depending on how park capacity is handled and how many people show up, this could be a huge problem. All six of the US Disney parks are full-day parks when you include their key attractions and entertainment. If the lower attraction capacity isn’t offset by low crowds, you might wind up in a situation where the parks take more than one day to see completely.
That’s a big if because we don’t yet know what crowds vs. capacity will look like. But throw in the uncertainty of virtual queues, and I’d definitely be expecting to miss a few major attractions when I show up at the parks.
The flip side is that if enough entertainment and attractions are cut completely, then the parks might be somewhat incomplete, making them overall not worth a visit.
We know some Epcot entertainment has already been cut, and streetmosphere is designed to lure people into tight groups, so it’s likely it will be paused on reopening.
Then there’s the bigger question of nighttime shows and parades. These are huge crowd draws and must do activities for most people. It’s really tough to say how cutting these might impact guest demand, and it would certainly be a reason more than a few people would delay vacations.
Hopefully Disney can hit the bullseye on this one, but this uncertainty and difficulty in planning a perfect, complete date is partly why I’m so down on visiting in 2020 if it winds up being possible.
Limits on Park Attendance
We’ve seen above that limiting park attendance overall could be a necessity of the new operating procedures. No one wants to go to a park operating at maximum crowds but half attraction capacity. Add in the additional public health benefits (allows for greater spacing of people) and limiting parking attendance is another obvious move.
Reminder—park attendance is already limited, it just doesn’t hit the limit often. So the question isn’t “will they set a cap?” It’s “will they lower the existing cap?”
Relatedly, one rumor that was floating around was that the parks might first reopen only to locals. This makes sense and gives a chance to soft open the resort, and while the first few days might be hectic we’d expect people to quickly figure out something like “if you want to get into the park you have to arrive by 10AM”.
If the resort later reopens to tourists, Disney could work with nearby hotels on a system to ensure guests are guaranteed access somewhere (in part by limiting hotel capacity)…but where?
One of the interesting parts of the “When will Disney reopen?” question is whether they’d necessarily reopen all four Florida parks at once. Certainly a soft local reopening of a single park would be a good place to start, but the business questions get complicated once you bring tourists and hotels into the mix. It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out, and in particular whether we see a very phased reopen of the resort.
More Outdoor Queues
On a ride-by-ride basis, some have enough outdoor space that they’d be able to accomodate a queue that is mostly outdoors and shortened by use of a virtual queue…but there’s a problem.
Walt Disney World is in Florida, which is not exactly known for its pleasant climate. Indoor queues are a common reason experts recommend waiting in line for some rides and not others.
On most days, this is mostly just inconvenience. If you’re waiting 20 minutes outdoors on a typical day in a queue where people are spaced out, it won’t be too bad. But if it gets to 40 minutes…in 100 degrees…it becomes a little more than an inconvenience…
That’s all we’ve got for now. Certainly this topic will be much more interesting (and thus less fun and more serious) as changes become confirmed. As confirmations roll out, we’ll of course be giving our thoughts.
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