Shanghai Disneyland will close in effort to contain coronavirus

Got Pfizer Pt 1 yesterday. Other than feeling like I got knuckle punched in the arm, I feel okay today.

Our library is now considered an educational facility so we are essentially considered school employees. We have a signed letter from our director I had printed out and ready to go. I did it at a CVS, and I think anyone could make an online appointment, click the "essential worker" box and be able to get it. For the hassle everyone seems to be having securing appointments at Publix, the CVS online appointment scheduler had plenty of next day availability, and I was even able to schedule my second dose at a location closer to home since I did have to go about 30 miles away for my first dose.

The biggest hassle was locking my keys in my car at said CVS, waiting 90 minutes for AAA, and then having to drive from Davenport to Maitland at 5pm on a Friday.

We just returned from our first real 'outing' for well over a year. We really needed this trip to reset the whole mental health thing and break up the repetitive cycle the past year. No COVID shots for either of us, but masks in hand and understanding the risks of course, we booked a trip and had to go do something "normal"!

Just a short 2-day trip... We flew out Thursday morning and arrived back yesterday evening. Spent our first day at SWO first before heading over to Universal/IOA late evening (around 7pm) to get our passes processed and spend time in IOA. Sea World was a bit of a mess at first, because I think something happened which stalled out any people getting into the park so an epic-sized line formed in their pre-temp check queue setup that almost runs the length of the parking lot a few times over. After 5-10min the body temperature scanner tent start allowing people in again and within another 15mins or so we were in the park. SWO was pretty busy overall. We did ride Mako once (15min wait) which is stunning as always. Just checked out all the animals and all that mostly.They never checked/confirmed our reservation day upon entering the park.

After SWO, stopped at two breweries, grabbed dinner and then headed to IOA late evening to get the passes processed and walk around the park at night which is absolutely stunning of course. Hit up Jurassic Park and Hulk this night ride wise. This is my second time on the 'new and improved' Hulk and it still completely runs like garbage. I don't get why the ride tracks so bad, even when I rode it two years ago or whatever when it first reopened and it shouldn't have been a maintenance issue. How that ride can feel like that and any other modern (or old for that matter) B&M is wayyyyyyy smoother is beyond me. I'm good for another few years until I have to ride it again.

Friday we woke up early and got to IOA first thing in the morning to try to get a virtual queue on Hagrids (no such luck even being there prior to open too... Our friend was able to get it today, but was up at 5:30 to do so, and I guess still had an hour wait once in the virtual queue). Did Kong and Forbidden Journey with like 5-10 minute waits and then took the HP train over to USO and enjoyed Mardi Gras and do the whole eat/drink around the world type deal they had going on. Just walking around those parks, people watching, eating/drinking and all that was just good for the soul... And the beautiful weather to boot! The altered Mardi Gras was really well done, had a great time. Some really tasty food options. The live music here, parade floats and characters, etc... I kind of hope in the future, they continue to do a hybrid of pre-COVID and COVID mardi gras with the food stands, some more themeing/floats stationary in the park along with the actual parade again once they can. Met up with some Ohio friends at Universal near the end of the night and finished the night out with Cinematic Spectacular (I miss the original version of this show, while still nice, not nearly as good IMO as it was). Again, social distancing markers and enforcement that people kept away from each other.

Parks were busy wait time wise, and USO/IOA hit capacity on one day we were there, but honestly, it didn't feel bad/crowded at all, as it never felt busy as the midways. No bottlenecks or masses of people. Looking at my pictures around the park it looks like a fairly 'dead' day honestly from what we are used to, especially around HHN.

I assume the reduced capacity and all that is most of the issue with ride times, such as Jurassic Park for example, boarding only every other row. And no single rider lines or attempts to fill in every seat as they usually do by combining groups. But on Hulk for example, dispatches were business as usual IMO, just with less people on each train.

Universal/IOA had markers all over the queue lines for social distancing and saw employees enforcing it a few times when people got a little sloppy. Really well done and felt 'safe' all things considered. Squirts of hand sanitizer before each ride. Rides had plexiglass like on Kong inbetween rows and some were more limited capacity such as JP noted above.

I will say in the airports, I was pleasantly surprised just how 'behaved' everybody was, keeping space and everybody seemed to be respectful of one another. Much better than I ever expected. We flew United down and Southwest back. United was heaps better in terms of COVID awareness with boarding, sanitizer wipes as you boarded the plane, announcements, deplaning process, etc... Southwest was business as usual 100% and you would never know anything was going on in the world, aside from all the masks. I was a bit surprised with that, honestly. A friend who flew them a few months back said they did far more restrictive/careful boarding with them, so they must have loosened up their policies as of late.

Had the usual concerns of walking around the park all day in a mask would get really annoying/terrible (my limit prior was maybe 1-2hr max at work or just around grocery stores...) but I completely forgot about it and it was zero issue. It just got a wee-bit moist on our first day when it was near 90 degrees... But even then, I expected FAR worse. Absolutely no issue.

We are extremely happy we went out and got back in the world... Already arranging the dog sitter (mom) to take another trip in another few weeks back down for another long weekend in early May most likely.

Not sure if this is right thread for this conversation (but after 188 pages, I guess anything goes?) but what's the deal with the virtual queue on Hagrid's? I feel pretty well versed in the in's and out's for RotR at DHS, but I didn't even know Hagrid's had one.

SteveWoA said:

Stuff about his trip

Sorry I wasn't able to make it work to meet up this trip. Excited to see you may be back in May for handrail licking! So glad you two had such a good time and felt comfortable being back out in the world. Other than no flying, sometimes I forget how much people from other states have been staying in still, since Florida has been open for business for so long now.

Apollo Andy asked questions about Hagrid's Virtual Queue:

It all depends on how busy the place is. When I was there in February on a "freeze your tits off" 55 degree weekday, nothing had Virtual Queue on and anyone was able to join the line. But when it gets busy, they seem to be limiting Hagrids to Virtual Queue only, while other rides like Mummy, Fallon, Fast and Furious and the other two HP headliners seem to have options for both. Unlike Disney, where they have published drop times for spots in the virtual line for Rise of the Resistance, UO Virtual Queues just seem to be a crapshoot that drop at random times throughout the day, and start and stop being necessary based on crowd sizes. Steve - does that still sound about right for the busier Spring Break week you just came back from? Or were other rides VQ only?

Yeah, Hagrid was virtual queue only both days we were there. Couldn't line up to wait 5 hours or whatever if you even wanted.

Some other rides have the option of both, such as Mummy, Fallon and perhaps another one or two I can't recall. But all others had "real" lines.

And yeah, bummer we couldn't meet up Brett! But next time for sure, there is a lot of unclaimed handrails out there.

If the Covid don't get you the STIs will

Suddenly, dry humping doesn't seem so bad.

Just looking at some simple numbers. We were talking about how deaths should drop quickly once vaccinations rolled out and then I think it even got mentioned that it didn't feel like it was necessarily happening. These simple charts from Google show that cases in the last 30 days have held pretty steady on a daily basis and the 7-day average has dropped about 18%.

But deaths over the last 30 days have fallen by about half in both metrics.

So I guess we are seeing less deaths on the same infections over the last 30 days. It will be interesting to see where we are in another 30 days.

Borderline obnoxious, but here's this.

It's finally my turn (and my wife's) tomorrow. Found appointments at Walgreens for the Moderna.

Can't wait to give you all a big hug to thaw your frozen tits. Humping optional.

It still varies quite a bit by state. Oklahoma, Maryland, Idaho, New Hampshire, Kentucky, West Virginia and Ohio are all on the rise in deaths. Big states like California, Texas and Florida are on the way down quickly.

I'm sure you can easily find pockets in varying levels of arbitrary measure that go against the national trend.

Yes, Idaho's deaths are up 33% in the last 30 days with their 7-day average moving from three deaths to four.

As a country, our deaths have fallen by almost 50% in the last 30 days.

I wonder how Idaho's lung transplant average is looking?

As a trailing indicator, that drop in deaths follows the drop in case count from 30 days ago pretty closely, though, right? I don't know if that's good news, bad news, or not news, but I find it surprising.

I think if you consider the way that the vaccinations have been rolled out, the observation about steady case rates and falling death rates makes logical sense. After all, we've prioritized getting the vaccine out to the population with the highest death rate, and presumably those now-vaccinated people are the ones who are now not dying. Meanwhile the bulk of the cases are in younger populations who have not been vaccinated yet, so the case rates are flatter. They've been flattening so much I wonder if we would be seeing an increase in case rates if it weren't for the vaccinations. I've updated that graph I posted last week for Ohio's recent new cases...talk about flat!

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Why is there a bad news bias for COVID-19 coverage?

About 87 percent of Covid coverage in national U.S. media last year was negative.

"It was 95%, but the researchers opted not to include the Shanghai Disneyland will close in effort to contain coronavirus forum thread found on coasterbuzz.com."

They just go short of calling out the nuance that involves cynicism. I think think thousands of people dying every day is bad news any way you look at it. I wouldn't color that as bias, really. But whether or not it's taking a cynical view point, that's something different to me. Even that seems warranted when you look around the world and see vastly different outcomes.

I'm wildly encouraged by how many people in my circle are getting vaccinated right now, and it seems like the more centered national news outlets are emphasizing that at the moment.

Its not limited to Covid. Bad news sells. Disasters. Scandals. Accidents. Layoffs. Closings.

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20140728-why-is-all-the-news-bad

https://www.industryweek.com/supply-chain/article/22010776/bad-news...-good-news

http://web.colby.edu/cogblog/2019/12/27/so-you-had-a-bad-day-encoun...vity-bias/

I don't think it has anything to do with selling. "Nobody was shot today" isn't really newsworthy.

Of course its about selling. We are talking about businesses looking to make money (and there isn't anything wrong with that).

So the only good news is that something bad didn't happen?