Shanghai Disneyland opens with limitations

24,000 is about 25% of The Magic Kingdom's capacity.

Not quite.

But that's what the internets say!!!!

Ok? So what’s the correct Magic Kingdom capacity? Everything I read says it’s somewhere around 100k.

Despite that being quoted it is not even close to that. Now I am not going to state the actual number but I assure you its not that high.

"Don't believe the expert."

That is my favorite - I know the answer but I am not going to tell you!

I can only speak from experience at the facility where I work, but we're looking at more of an average capacity at any given time. Not based on our capacity across the whole day. Just as an example, if MK does 100k guests in a given day (and I think that's ridiculously high), there are never 100k guests in the park at any given time. The 25% capacity is going to be based off of their max capacity at a given time.

Shades said:

That is my favorite - I know the answer but I am not going to tell you!

While I don't have a copy of it in front of me, I can only assume it would go against my NDA.

That being said what bigboy said above is pretty spot on. A reduce in capacity isn't going to be based off of the total number of guests the park can handle all day, rather the total amount of in-park at the highest it can contain. You do read in news reports that "Magic Kingdom at capacity with 100,000 guests on NYE"...sure, turnstile clicks maybe. Remember MK is much smaller than Cedar Point but even at its busiest Cedar Point can't handle anything close to 100,000 people in park at a time. Also consider what the article says above and know that the Shanghai park is much bigger than the Orlando Magic Kingdom.

That’s fair. I didn’t know you worked there. I’m glad you weren’t just being a horse’s behind😃

Ohh now.. Trust me.. He's also a horse's behind. He just knows what he's talking about. :)

Rob isn't wrong..lol. But yeah, while most of the time I won't say much I do try and jump in with some broad information from the places I work/have worked at when I can. Anything else is just knowledge based on my years in the industry.

The question is, if the park is operating at 25% of guest capacity...are they also operating at 25% staffing levels? Or do they bulk up the staffing to a more normal level in order to deal with all the extra stuff they are having to deal with?

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

I would imagine staffing at individual locations would reflect the capacity. I don't see it being any different than a slow day where there might only be 15,000 people in the park so staffing would be scheduled based off of that as opposed to a 40,000 guest day. I'm sure though that extra staffing will be utilized to help guests understand the new rules throughout the park but I don't think anyone would need to worry about slower operations due to less staffing.

No, but depending on how overboard certain park chains go with sanitizing between dispatches and requiring empty rows between groups - that's where operations have the potential to make Virtual Reality on coasters look like a good idea.

See, to me, that’s sanitation theater. They spend all that time wiping down the train so you can sit on a wet seat, possibly damage your clothing (depending on what disinfectant they use) and still be exposed to the same bugs. Kind of like wiping down a shopping cart. Easier and potentially more effective to just consider the train to be “dirty” and clean your hands when you exit.
In the Cedar Point survey I did notice that they reference to distancing in terms of 6’ “between parties” which seems to recognize that the four people who rode up together in the same compact car don’t really need to stand 6’ apart in the queue...

—Dave Althoff, Jr.

My biggest concern (when it comes to the amusement park experience in 2020) is half empty coaster trains. If folks have masks on and are taking common sense precautions, the only thing that will do is unnecessarily double the wait time.

I can't wait until I get smacked in the face with someone's loosely tied mask. ;-)

Six Flags, meanwhile, has announced their reservations plan ... which I mention mostly as an excuse for a mini-rant about how bad their customer communications are. I'm a member, they have my email address, etc. etc., and I've heard literally nothing. There's nothing about the reservations plan on the park websites; I had to hunt down the press release (which is not even in the "news" section of the website) to read this.

I don't particularly care, in that I'm not planning a visit until things shake out a little more. I'm just appalled on principle. (Not surprised, but appalled.)

The info is here, if you are interested.

City Walk in Orlando is partially open. They're offering 25% off for at most places for Premier passholders (20% and 15% for the lower passes). Temperature checks and masks required. Can't wait to see how this experiment plays out.