I'm not one to usually do "this," but given the unique situation we all are in at the moment, I thought this might be helpful to some. Some thoughts from the last day or two being at WDW. I'm at Poly Villas (my second time staying in the Villas at Polynesian and love them), haven't been into a park yet (teleworking while here), but I've visited a few resorts, so I'll share a few tidbits. For those that don't want to read through my ramblings, I'll bold the important stuff.
Interesting trend I've noticed is that in the
morning and afternoon mask compliance was basically 100% at the resort, but by evening, things had fallen to maybe 80% (though I saw quite a few groups on the Poly beach chatting and none were wearing masks). That said, I'm pleasantly surprised by how many are following the mask guidelines. I can also tell you, for obvious reasons, the crowds at the resort have picked up tonight relative to yesterday and even this afternoon, which leads to my other "concern" (I put this in quotes since it's easily corrected).
There are a few Guests who don't seem to be totally onboard with the idea of physical distancing (i.e. getting in your personal space, sitting down right next to you, etc...). Of course, the solution is relatively easy: move to a new spot. While it's certainly disappointing that some folks can't respect personal space in the middle of a pandemic, most people were very mindful. This also isn't something at all exclusive to WDW; I've seen this multiple places. That said, I did see one gentleman at Kona Cafe literally step behind the host stand to talk to the hostess. During "normal" times, that's a no no. During a pandemic, that's a nonstarter. Overall, though,
I felt very positive about what I've seen at the resort. Even at the usually bustling Captain Cook's, things were spaced out nicely and went smoothly.
Speaking of Kona, I also want to just make everyone aware that
waits for TS dining may be a bit longer than expected. At Kona, I waited for 40 minutes after my reservation to be seated. I'm not complaining, as they're doing their best at the moment and the wait was absolutely worth it (food was delicious and staff was wonderful). This seems to be the case at a number of locations. I did speak to a CM friend about this and she mentioned that part of the benefit of the new 60-day ADR window is that it gives them a little more flexibility in adjusting restaurant capacity in both directions.
They seem to have overestimated their capacity, but that should be corrected soon.
Below is the setup for the monorail at the Polynesian. The
Resort Monorail will start tomorrow at 7am but won't stop at MK until 8:30am. CMs are saying this will continue to be the procedure until further notice. CMs aren't sure if temperature checks will happen here or at MK but most are guessing the latter. As previously announced,
no Epcot monorail for the time being.
Some photos of the empty GF lobby.
I checked out the infamous blue tarps for myself (photos below). Worth noting
they had to have had at least half a dozen security CMs guarding the fence.
I know there's been sizable media attention directed towards tomorrow's reopening, though interestingly enough,
it's this story that seems to have some Disney leadership more annoyed. As Josh said in his NYT interview, Disney is looking at tomorrow as a chance to not only prove the naysayers wrong but also in a way lead the country down a path towards responsible reopenings (whether things go as well as planned remains to be seen of course; there are a lot of variables that are outside of Disney's control). But
there seems be some sort of growing frustration (at least among WDW leadership) that NBA players' tweets and posts just make them look bad (and remember the NBA is actually the one providing most of the chefs). As someone who has tried to telework, I did have to chuckle at the remarks about the in-room WiFi. If it takes the NBA to get that addressed, I'm here for it.
Unrelated but by the way, if this hasn't been officially reported,
AP discounts are not valid for the Disney face masks.
I'll try to share any more info tomorrow from MK as it becomes available, but again just a reminder that these are all my personal impressions. If anyone has any questions, let me know.
I’ll be happy to be wrong, though!
Anything else is gravy.
