Steaks being broken this year due to Covid

If you're looking for the vaccinated to compliment those already infected to reach herd immunity, the math is staggeringly bad. If you need at minimum 60%, and the consensus is generally higher, 40% vaccination plus 20% infected means 66 million infections, more than 10x what we've already had at cost 200k deaths. And keep in mind we're only just starting to understand the economic impact of treating the sick, and the sick not working. The Sturgis bike rally apparently cost about $12 billion to the healthcare system.

Y'all are probably right though in terms of my misplaced optimism. At this point, the problem isn't really our understanding or ability to roll with the situation, it's human behavior, and it's not great. Will be interesting to see what the holiday weekend did a couple of weeks from now.

Rides I am happy to "power ride" at Disney:

Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain, Buzz Lightyear, Peoplemover (with the old narration in my earbuds because I'm that cool), Mission: Space, Rock N Roller Coaster (which I imagine is easier than ever without the preshow), Tower of Terror (where I am happy to watch the preshow and hope it's still on), Toy Story Mania, Smugglers Run, Expedition Everest, and of course, Living With The Land.

Even if I'm not looking to power ride, which at Disney I'm usually not, it's still nice to essentially be able to do anything at any time. No need to secure a Fastpass or rope drop to get a ride on Kilimanjaro Safaris. And if I'm in the mood to kick back and go around again, I can. Eventually I'll get on Flight of Passage. Or random rides like Astro Orbiter that aren't really a big deal, but always have an obscenely long line, I can check off my "got my once every couple of years credit" list.

Plus, as a local, it's nice to be able to pop into a park for a few hours and actually get some rides in instead of trying to play the Fastpass game only to wind up spending an afternoon at Magic Kingdom just to walk around and ride Pirates.

Once this is over I say we have a Coasterbuzz event at Epcot with the private viewing area of whatever the nighttime show will be and the fancy desserts. All of us that have been on these COVID conversations since March can all meet and toast to all the times we were wrong.

Someone will likely have to carry me home after drinking around the world that day.

For those who are saying that they haven’t visited and can’t imagine doing so, I’d like to offer a perspective from someone who has visited several times, two of which have involved staying at the hotels as well. Keep in mind that on three of the four park visits we’ve done, my wife and I have had our sixteen-month old with us.

Our perspective is that the parks have been the most peaceful they’ve been in ages. You can literally show up and ride anything to your heart’s content. Sure, it’s unfortunate to not have the shows, but there are still some live entertainment experiences taking place, and being able to experience everything on offer without all the pre-planning of pre-COVID Disney has been absolutely wonderful.

There may be few experiences on offer, but the way I see it, the odds the experiences on offer will ever be this peaceful again seem pretty slim to me. Couple it with some sales/discounts, and I’d contend that the value for money now might even be higher than before.

Different people/families have different desired experiences, but assuming there are any suckers out there, the people coming to the parks right now don’t deserve that moniker. We’re having the time of our lives.

It is interesting to see the compare/contrast. Disney and Universal are seen as peaceful and relaxing despite the limitations. Cedar Point is an all out Hunger Games battle for access passes and a spot in a 90 minute queue for Gemini.

Of course the steak dude had the most profound answer to this thread...

I want to agree with that sentiment, but I gotta say something was definitely missing from CP this year and it wasn't the lack of offerings. The lack of people and carefree energy in what was supposed to be a celebratory year, just felt sad. A lesser degree noticed (but still present) at HP and PKI. But those don't have as vast vacated midways.

I could be sold on Coasterbuzz at Epcot (but I'm not power riding sh-t)

I see Cedar Point getting busier as the weather gets cooler and less miserable for mask wearing that will probably only make it worse. I haven't even gotten on Blue Streak last 2 visits because the line was so long with the reduced ride capacity. I'm going to try to make another short visit next weekend but I'm not expecting to ride anything specific may just end up being a couple flats and walk the beach thing again. I got lucky a few times in the beginning but not so much the last few visits.

Jeff said:

... in nine months, and that's worth waiting for?

I am curious why as a local you wouldn't at least try going to the Disney parks now? Is it because your family is high risk? It seemed like you were OK with the protocols that the parks have in place - or have I misunderstood that?

If it is not for health reasons, what have you got to lose besides a 5 minute drive and maybe an afternoon/evening of your time? I understand the shows are not running and you cannot get your drink on at Epcot, but why not take your son and ride some rides with him with the lines being nearly non-existent?

When this is all over, I would be all for a coasterbuzz event at Epcot.

For one, we cancelled our passes. You can't park hop, you can't go without reservations, the entertainment is gone... it's not what we bought. Even gold passes for three people cost over $2k, which is not insignificant. But yeah, secondary, it's the health reasons. My wife has chronic bronchitis, my kid has had pneumonia twice already. They're the definition of high risk, so we're not gonna dick around with that just to ride Test Track for the hundredth time.

Ah - I didn't realize that you had cancelled your passes. And I guess I am looking at it through a non-local's perspective. I would love to go now, although we would do Universal, but I am not sure about hopping on a plane to get there. All I can think of is if I was a local I would be there in a heartbeat. But I understand your perspective about the health risks and having ridden stuff to death already.

As a local, I'll probably be at Disney and Universal more than ever once the heat starts to go away as we get into October and November. I am eager for some cool Florida winter weather and holiday decorations.

As for Cedar Point, crowds or not, it's going to get worse as the weeks go by. Here's the current notice for this weekend in terms of attraction availability:

Ride Availability Sept. 12 & 13, 2020
The following attractions will not operate (subject to change): Antique Cars, SlingShot, Frontier Fling, Forbidden Frontier on Adventure Island, Snake River Falls, Thunder Canyon, Power Tower, Corkscrew, Rougarou, WindSeeker, Wicked Twister, Sky Ride, Wave Swinger. Monster will not operate Sunday.

If you've got Power Tower, Corkscrew and Rougarou already down for the count on Saturday and Sunday, how much larger will this list be by the end of October? Combined with growing crowds and the continued reduced capacity and it'll likely be quite the s***show on a nice October Saturday.

Touchdown said:

I don’t know who would find value:

Families with young children miss out on meet and greets, older children will not want the day to stop at 7pm, and I mentioned why it’s not a value for “Disney Adults.” So other then locals, I really do think people who go now are “suckers.”

1) The only thing "full price" is the admission ticket. Airfare is dirt cheap, hotels are dirt cheap, rental cars are dirt cheap.

2) My kids (and I) want to go on the Star Wars crap and would rather not spend 2 hours in line for it. So who's the sucker, the ones who go now and pay $100 to get to ride it 5x in a day, or those who wait a year and pay $100 to maybe get on it once with a bunch of sweaty mouthbreathers pressed up against you in line?

Now, I'm not going because of the 'rona, but for my money there's WAY more value now. You have all the attractions and food with minimal wait. No one in my house wishes to meet Snow White, fireworks are nice but not a dealbreaker, and we can get way more done by 7pm and still have time to hit the pool at night.

The way I see it I already paid for the Cedar Point s***show and it's only an hour drive I may as well go. I can get in about 2 hours before I can't take the mask anymore so we have been showing up around 6 and closing the park.

BrettV said:

As for Cedar Point, crowds or not, it's going to get worse as the weeks go by. Here's the current notice for this weekend in terms of attraction availability:

Ride Availability Sept. 12 & 13, 2020
The following attractions will not operate (subject to change): Antique Cars, SlingShot, Frontier Fling, Forbidden Frontier on Adventure Island, Snake River Falls, Thunder Canyon, Power Tower, Corkscrew, Rougarou, WindSeeker, Wicked Twister, Sky Ride, Wave Swinger. Monster will not operate Sunday.

****.

You guys are killing me. We did Kings Island a few weeks ago and it was so surprisingly positive that when friends invited us to CP with free tickets this weekend, we were like, "Sure!"

Now I'm thinking I need to formulate an out.

This is Magnum’s line from Sunday. (I know, it was a holiday weekend, so it may have been slightly busier than usual, but crowds have been steadily increasing)

Sorry, I’m on mobile and formatting is not working right for me, so I have to multi post.

Rougarou’s queue:

None of those rides are even remotely a deal breaker for me. If you can get me Magnum, Maverick, Steel Vengeance, Raptor and Millennium Force I consider that worth the trip from Florida. And Gemini.

But it's still the first week of Fall season. And the closures are even a part of Saturday. I'm curious to see if that list grows each week

kpjb said:

My kids (and I) want to go on the Star Wars crap and would rather not spend 2 hours in line for it. So who's the sucker, the ones who go now and pay $100 to get to ride it 5x in a day, or those who wait a year and pay $100 to maybe get on it once with a bunch of sweaty mouthbreathers pressed up against you in line?

I think you know that if you spend two hours in line, you're doing it wrong. Even we didn't do anything like that to ride the new stuff last year, and there is a disadvantage for locals.

Imagine if you will late June 2019, Disneyland. Longest listed wait at 3pm in the afternoon: 30 min Splash Mountain. In reality, every ride but Space and Splash was a walk on. My reservation to GE, I rode MF enough to be over it.

That day ended with Fantasmic and Disneyland Forever and a midnight close too.