Each year Disney fans flock to Walt Disney World to say farewell to the current year and ring in the new. This year is very different with COVID-19 precautions, reduced capacity, and reservations required. Today, and yesterday, is proving to be a busy day in the parks. For the most part our team is noticing mask compliance and distancing is still going pretty strong.
Yesterday at EPCOT our team observed 11 out of 500 guests were not wearing their masks in accordance with Disney’s guidelines. Today at Disney’s Hollywood Studios we observed 13 out of 500 not wearing their mask properly. This means about 98% of observed guests were in compliance.
Disney’s posted wait times have been some of the highest of the past 30 days, and yesterday three of the four parks had average wait times that were in the top 50 of the entire year!
We aim to make our Lines app as helpful as possible whether you visit during a super busy time, or a slower one. One of the useful features of our app is the Expected Wait Times. We collect Actual Wait Times and other data to help produce the real-time Expected Wait Times. We all know Disney’s Posted Wait Times are higher than the actual wait time, but our Expected Wait Times show a realistic picture so you can make better decisions in the parks.
At EPCOT yesterday and at Disney’s Hollywood Studios today, our team observed plenty of extended queues. With physical distancing necessary, the queues extended out into walkways and other parts of the park. We’ve also noticed some rides being loaded with every row now in order to increase capacity of the rides. Park capacity is still capped at 35%, but ride capacity being increased means that even if you see longer lines, they should move faster than when the rides had decreased capacity.
One helpful aspect of the reservation system is guests who have chosen to visit today do not have to get to the park first thing in the morning before capacity is reached. Those with a park reservation essentially have secured their spot for the day.
At EPCOT yesterday we saw a few tents for Festival of the Arts, which starts on January 8, 2021. There were also extended queues for quick service food since most counter service restaurants at EPCOT do not have mobile ordering.
Today at Hollywood Studios our team is noticing some extra crowds at Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge and Toy Story Land. It certainly is an interesting time to be at Walt Disney World.
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