There might actually be some lemonade to be made out of Disney’s post COVID-19 reopening…
We are edging closer to Disney’s US parks reopening after the longest closure in the company’s history, starting with Walt Disney World reopening starting on July 11th. Early details on Disney’s post-shutdown plans have finally been revealed, and it’s fair to say that it’s going to be a little weird for a while.
As Disney tries to balance getting guests into the parks while keeping people safe, it’s meaning an upcoming season of cutback park experiences like no characters, no fireworks or parades, mandatory masks and temperature checks, a required reservation system even for annual passholders, and even the likelihood of no cultural representatives for a time in World Showcase.
That’s… a lot of lemons.
Despite the major bummer surrounding these necessary policies, the news isn’t all bad. The parks reopening is a huge step forward, but more importantly, if Disney plays their cards right, they could actually use this unexpected reset to solve some major longstanding issues in the parks. Here’s a few that stood out to us…
1. Better sanitation on rides and hands-on experiences
This may seem like an odd one, offhand, for longtime Disney fans. Disney has a spectacular reputation for sanitation—amusement parks used to be considered famously dirty places, but Walt Disney insisted he wanted his parks to be different. Disney has always stood above their competition by going above and beyond to keep their parks clean with easy access to trash cans, attentive sanitation teams, and even by teaching cast members to always pick up and throw away trash if they see it.
Despite this, theme parks can be real petri dishes for germs to be passed around…
One of the reasons Disney has had to hold off so long on reopening their parks is that it is nigh on impossible to completely eliminate the spread of germs at a theme park—particularly one with lots of hands-on experiences with thousands upon thousands of guests spending time in close quarters. I’ve definitely gotten sick on my fair share of Disney excursions, and certain hands-on experiences and rides almost certainly played a part (like the time I spontaneously sprouted warts on my hands a day or two after riding Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run—I know, gross).
The truth is, as Disney parks keep getting more interactive, the company has needed to find better ways to keep rides and interactive queues clean. It may not be practical to give every ride vehicle a wipe down after every passenger, but even more thorough and frequent cleanings is a good step forward to reduce the spread of germs. When hands-on experiences re-open, I know I’ll be a little more at ease riding fan favorites like Test Track, Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run, and Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin knowing that Disney is wiping down the ride vehicles more often and paying closer attention to reducing the spread of germs in the parks (even if I will still be slathering on hand sanitizer after every ride).
2. Improvements to crowd control
Crowd control is another area where Disney has often outshined their competitors—just take one look at Universal Studios’ bonkers locker situation and you can gather that Disney has some things figured out that other parks don’t. Disney has actually gotten so good at crowd control that when they opened Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge in Disneyland, the land contained so many subtle crowd control measures that it seemed empty and led to negative press.
That isn’t to say that the company doesn’t have some room for improvement.
Every Disney park includes areas known for insane crowd congestion. Magic Kingdom and Disneyland probably suffer the most from this since they were both built before theme parks started drawing hundreds of thousands of people every year. Getting stuck in a slow-moving crowd is no fun, but in many ways, congestion has just become accepted as part of the theme park experience.
Social distancing requirements are going to force Disney overseers to get creative about dealing with crowd congestion—not just for the initial rebound from COVID-19 but for the long term. This isn’t necessarily a new problem. The company made significant changes to crowd flow at Disney’s Hollywood Studios preceding the opening of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, and the new construction at Epcot has included improvements to crowd flow like the removal of the Leave a Legacy stones in the Spaceship Earth courtyard.
The minds behind Disney are highly creative, and it seems likely that the downtime from the outbreak could be a prime opportunity to deal with some of the more troublesome crowd control areas in the parks with either minor or major adjustments. This can definitely prove a positive in the long run for improving guest experiences.
3. Improvements to queuing
Once again, we start on a positive note—Disney has made some amazing strides the last ten years to deal with the most miserable part of visiting a theme park, standing in lines. In our article on why the 2010’s were an awesome time at Walt Disney World, we explored how Disney improved guest queuing experiences by introducing interactive games in queues, play areas for small children on rides like Dumbo, and finally by introducing virtual queues with the arrival of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge and Rise of the Resistance.
Social distancing is now adding an entirely new element to the puzzle.
It’s hard to say what the best policy is going to be for Disney parks to handle queuing while COVID-19 is still a concern. Do you space guests out and sponge as many guests into those lines as possible to keep thoroughfares open? On the other hand, is it better to use virtual queues to keep time spent in lines short and spread guests out throughout the parks? Either way, the standard practice of packing guests into lines has to be addressed.
We already know one park mainstay might be on its way out—Fastpass+ (Disney has announced the service suspended indefinitely following the outbreak). The Fastpass+ system is appreciated by many guests (myself included), but it has introduced its share of problems into the Walt Disney World crowd control situation. Queues serve an important purpose in theme park design—they corral guests into designated areas that keep shops and thoroughfares from getting too congested. With fewer guests in line, crowd control in the parks became much more challenging, and it also means guests largely skip many crucial storytelling elements in ride queues. It also doesn’t actually increase ride capacity—it just creates the illusion that it does.
In short, Fastpass+ is a good idea, but with changing times, it is a concept that has needed some refinement and rethinking. The resets following COVID-19 are an opportunity for Disney’s creative minds to take on the problem and see what solutions they can come up with to improve on the system, whether through wider use of virtual queues or by finding new ways to rethink stand-by lines.
4. A better sickness policy
If you’ve ever had a Disney vacation busted when someone in your party gets sick (particularly a child), you know where this is going.
I’ve seen Disney cast members go above and beyond to help out guests who are feeling sick (I recall many years ago when a cast member at a deluxe resort we were staying at sent chicken soup up to my grandfather when he missed a day at the parks due to a cold). The nurses at Disney’s First Aid stations are some of the friendliest, most helpful people in the parks, and they readily provide free OTC medications and assistance to guests who aren’t feeling well, even arranging visits to a nearby off-site urgent care, if needed.
Despite this, Disney parks have always had a glaring flaw in that it is pretty difficult to reschedule a park day or get a refund if a family member comes down sick. While stories definitely exist where guests have received some pixie dust assistance when illness crashes a trip, Disney just hasn’t had a solid policy for what guests should do in the event of illness. In the case of most trips, if the family planned months to years in advance for a parks excursion, many sick guests just choose to administer some medication and power through the day to avoid cancellation issues, meaning a lot of germs getting spread.
COVID-19 is going to force Disney to rethink how they handle guest illnesses across the board. As the parks reopen, temperature checks will become a requirement for guests to enter the parks, and assumedly, if a guest is visibly unwell, that may result in a Disney day being busted. To prevent future outbreaks, Disney may need to come up with some policies to give guests more options for if a family member becomes sick, which is probably a good thing since this policy hasn’t existed previously. Hopefully, it will lead to a healthier park experience overall and more options for families in this situation.
5. An impetus for creativity
COVID-19 may be one of the greatest challenges Disney parks have ever faced, but it certainly isn’t the first setback in the company’s history.
Creativity in the face of the impossible has always been a driving force at Disney. No one thought Walt Disney could make an amusement park a classy family destination. No one thought the concept for Epcot could work, and everyone told him he was daft for planning to build a castle in a swamp. Within the last fifteen years, we’ve seen Disney parks bounce back from brutal setbacks surrounding the initial failed opening of EuroDisney, Hong Kong Disneyland, and Disney’s California Adventure and other financial difficulties to produce some of the most innovative content in the company’s history.
Frustration can become a breeding ground for vision and adversity a crucible that produces creativity. The overseers of Disney parks can certainly just shake their heads, scale back park experiences, and hope things get better, but that isn’t really Disney’s style. We are hopeful that the setbacks of this year will prove an opportunity for innovation and creativity that will improve Disney parks experiences in the long run. Even with the financial hurdles the company has to overcome, if the creative minds and Imagineers behind Disney parks use their resources smartly, we could see some real gems produced out of this time for unique guest experiences and future attractions that wouldn’t have otherwise been considered.
It’s going to continue to be a weird time to be a Disney parks fan for the season to come, but it isn’t all bad. What are some other areas where you think Disney could turn the post COVID-19 reopening into a win?
Enjoy this article? Keep reading to find out the most off-the-wall ways we found to handle Disney parks withdrawals with STYLE or explore the conclusion to our series on Disney memories across the decades with 10 Things 2010’s Kids LOVED at Walt Disney World.
