Shanghai Disneyland will close in effort to contain coronavirus

BrettV said:

... 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?

We have been doing the Universal parks this week and the VQ releases happen at 11a, 2p, and 4p during the day. Forget about first thing in the morning unless you can be onsite super early. Three of us in our family have phones with the Universal app and we just sit at a table in one of the U-Rest areas and wait for those times for the passes to become available. We've been fortunate to get three rides in for the two days we've been here so far. The Hagrid passes are gone within 30 seconds of becoming available at each time slot. But its hit or miss. Sometimes the passes are gone even after refreshing. Craziness!

We tried during two of those 11a and 2p 'drops' and each time on the app, nothing ever popped up for us unfortunately. Wanted to ride it, but I suppose next time (hopefully the virtual queue only rule is gone by then).

GoBucks89 said:

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?

You fundamentally don't understand the editorial process or how a newsroom works.

SteveWoA said:

We tried during two of those 11a and 2p 'drops' and each time on the app, nothing ever popped up for us unfortunately. Wanted to ride it, but I suppose next time (hopefully the virtual queue only rule is gone by then).

I wanted to hate it because I was still upset about losing Dragons. But it was a surprisingly fun ride that reminded me a lot of Verbolten at BGW. And thanks for the VQ update, Rob. I hadn't been on a day that was VQ only since last summer, and at that point it was easy-ish to get a time during the first pass release of the day.

Jeff said:

You fundamentally don't understand the editorial process or how a newsroom works.

LOL. Literally. Thanks.

Don Henley wrote a song about it.... [removed link to worthless youtube clickbait]

So I wasn't the only one singing that song today as a result of this thread.

Doubt many first year journalism students are.

Ummm. He doesn't explain anything in that video.

that will teach me to click into a link before I post it. GRRR.

Florida is going 18+ for vaccinations starting 5/4, joining other states that are already there or going to be by then.

California opens eligibility to those 50+ April 1 and everyone 16+ April 15th. And healthcare workers can use discretion to vaccinate family members of those who are eligible now.

A couple of days ago Ohio was like, "If you have appointments available, just fill them with anyone."

We're open to all.

Ohio is leading the way!

I think we will have 16 mega-centers open next week.

WV just opened up to everyone 16 and older yesterday I believe. Appointments had been unavailable until today, so the wife and I are now scheduled for--the perfect punctuation to this last fiscal year of pandemic bull***--April Fools Day.

31 states will have all adults eligible by mid-April. And more are looking to get there by May 1st.

My wife and I are getting shot #1 this afternoon. Woo hoo. Just got back from Orlando and we had a terrific time at Disney Studios and the Magic Kingdom. Cold day at the Studios made wearing the make almost welcome. Midways were comfortable to walk and ride times were very reasonable. In fact, we rode Toy Story Mania four times. That is unheard of. Got on Runaway Train twice too (a pleasant surprise of a ride).

We missed out on Rise of the Resistance a the 7am call but got booked when they reopened the virtual line at 1pm. Unfortunately, the ride closed due to mechanical late in the day and they didn't get to our boarding number. Pretty disappointed but we still enjoyed walking through the land and my son did the Millennium Falcon ride. (My simulator days are over).

Magic Kingdom was a much warmer day but with the 35% capacity limit the midways were comfortable and most lines reasonable. Waited 45 minutes for Space. My wife and son waited less than 30 for Thunder while I gutted out a 90 minute line for Splash (the longest line of the trip). I chalked up the Splash line to capacity (my daughter and I had a boat to ourselves), the heat of the day, and the fact that the ride will be closing to make way for Tiana. Mansion was less than 30, Pirates hovered around 60 most of the day, etc. Even Seven Dwarfs was only about 70 minutes for much of the day.

Bottom line, the trip reminded me about how much I enjoyed the parks before Fastpass. Even the longest lines kept moving which "feels" better, in my opinion. We didn't have the stress about selecting rides (and leaving others out). Fastpass was starting to convert me...but this was a nice reminder of how things once were.

We got lucky making restaurant reservations in advance and taking advantage of mobile ordering. I won't be surprised if there comes a day where mobile ordering (or reservations for sit down) is the only option. Disney parks without the shows feels like Manhattan without Broadway. Disney Studios in particular loses appeal without Indy, Beauty, Mermaid, etc. I will welcome the return of live entertainment.

Kissimmee was a nightmare (we stayed in an AirBNB around the corner from GKTW). Traffic was insane, use of masks was sporadic at best, "Dad...it looks like you brought us to a MAGA rally", but it was Spring Break after all. Kissimmee would be well served to do some traffic light timing studies because it is atrocious.

In short, the On-Property experience was positive, off-property borderline sketchy, but a nice trip all in all.

We get takeout periodically from the area around the H2O water park in Kissimmee, and yes, in recent weeks, people act like the pandemic is over already. I'm not even surprised that Florida is headed back up in case counts.

Are you sure they aren't tourists? In my area of town, closer to the airport, things seem much the same as they've been. Maybe social distancing isn't what it once was, but masks are worn pretty consistently from my observations.

wahoo skipper said:

Bottom line, the trip reminded me about how much I enjoyed the parks before Fastpass. Even the longest lines kept moving which "feels" better, in my opinion. We didn't have the stress about selecting rides (and leaving others out). Fastpass was starting to convert me...but this was a nice reminder of how things once were.

This has been my experience each time I have been to a Disney park since they reopened. Even when the lines are long, they don't crawl to a standstill to allow for all the FP+ guests to go through. In the paper Fastpass days, enough attractions didn't have them and it was easier to play the FP game where it just wasn't as much of an issue for the E-tickets. I'd rather wait 20-30, even 40 minutes for everything rather than get my three rides reserved (and at Epcot, for example, I can't even get Test Track and Soarin' toegther) and then have painfully slow 90 minute standby queues for anything else I want to do. WDW attractions operating at reduced capacity for distancing still have better throughput than most parks can do filling trains, and it's so noticeable right now when those lines never stop moving.

Kissimmee was a nightmare (we stayed in an AirBNB around the corner from GKTW). Traffic was insane, use of masks was sporadic at best, "Dad...it looks like you brought us to a MAGA rally", but it was Spring Break after all. Kissimmee would be well served to do some traffic light timing studies because it is atrocious.

In short, the On-Property experience was positive, off-property borderline sketchy, but a nice trip all in all.

To be fair, you could have easily said all of this (minus the masks) about the 192 Kissimmee tourist experience in 2019. I'm fully convinced the traffic lights in Central Florida are intentionally not synchronized just to f**k with us.