Theme Parks & Shopping Districts Reopening General Thread

[TheGentTrent]

Looks like Orlando is in for a very rainy day today. Could be the first slow Saturday in a while.

 

[Mad Dog]

Epcot staying open until 8 for the Christmas season will help accentuate the Christmas decorations also. Gets dark around 5:00, 5:30 at that time of year...........and.....interestingly....even with the rain this morning, both USF and IOA look like they
have strong (covid capacity era) crowds. Lines at 11:00 AM were fairly long for just about everything according to Touring Plans app.

 

[Frank Drackman]

But as a Premier passholder who can only go on the weekends, the in-park experience is now utterly worthless to me because they've pegged daily capacity to how much money they want to make and not at a level where weekend folks are actually able to have a decent time in the park. I can do that at every other park in Orlando, so why would I give them another $430?

There's a subtle but sizable difference between the price of a park and the value of a park. Weekends at Universal are the consequence of Marketing & Sales being allowed to run amok.


During the week, it's pretty much impossible to visit any Orlando park after dinner. While opening at noon isn't great, doing what it takes to stretch something later is welcome.

K, I never know who is local nor who is a fan. We are local now, but we moved here during the pandemic, I have 0 skin in the game as we let our passes expire a couple of years ago (UNI).

I would not mind walking around UOR, but only have weekends and no desire to pay any amount to hang w/ other board locals I guess was my point of view.

We are trying to think about Disney (have not been as in never saw the mine train, road last day of Snow White), but it is not like one can buy passes this year...so I guess to me, as a consumer looking to spend money, no one has the deal we are looking for just yet, but anyone who invested pre covid has a true gripe that there seem to be no answers/solutions that work for anyone....

 

[JoeCamel]

K, I never know who is local nor who is a fan. We are local now, but we moved here during the pandemic, I have 0 skin in the game as we let our passes expire a couple of years ago (UNI).

I would not mind walking around UOR, but only have weekends and no desire to pay any amount to hang w/ other board locals I guess was my point of view.

We are trying to think about Disney (have not been as in never saw the mine train, road last day of Snow White), but it is not like one can buy passes this year...so I guess to me, as a consumer looking to spend money, no one has the deal we are looking for just yet, but anyone who invested pre covid has a true gripe that there seem to be no answers/solutions that work for anyone....

You haven't been to the MK since before New Fantasyland? Wow, you missed out on several changes that came and went in that time. Nothing life changing in my opinion but at the rate WDW builds stuff that is a long time. At least a lot will be new to you.

 

[Mad Dog]

Who would have though the time would come that IOA & USF were both open later regular hours on weekends than the Magic Kingdom (which now closes at 6:00 PM).

 

[Frank Drackman]

You haven't been to the MK since before New Fantasyland? Wow, you missed out on several changes that came and went in that time. Nothing life changing in my opinion but at the rate WDW builds stuff that is a long time. At least a lot will be new to you.

this is what makes WDW so attractive (sort of) at the moment. We ate at B&B during preview, road little mermaid...started getting better value from UNI (living 200 miles away meant one park pass for long weekends from time to time).

Anyway, pre-covid, our hope was to see MK for a Holiday party. Save $$ on UIN passes and just spend on HHN30...now, I find my self down the street from Wide World of Sports (I think that is what my bank app shows as the closest ATM)...my wife wants to see Star Wars Land....I will walk around old town one night while my daughter considers FunSpot attractions I guess (for the time being)...waiting for cooler weather to think about this tree park or something (I assume zip lines and stuff).

So Disney is on the radar, but we could any buy certain deals with certain restriction, the wife and I are both high risk blah blah 2020 is too odd for me at the moment.

 

[JoeCamel]

this is what makes WDW so attractive (sort of) at the moment. We ate at B&B during preview, road little mermaid...started getting better value from UNI (living 200 miles away meant one park pass for long weekends from time to time).

Anyway, pre-covid, our hope was to see MK for a Holiday party. Save $$ on UIN passes and just spend on HHN30...now, I find my self down the street from Wide World of Sports (I think that is what my bank app shows as the closest ATM)...my wife wants to see Star Wars Land....I will walk around old town one night while my daughter considers FunSpot attractions I guess (for the time being)...waiting for cooler weather to think about this tree park or something (I assume zip lines and stuff).

So Disney is on the radar, but we could any buy certain deals with certain restriction, the wife and I are both high risk blah blah 2020 is too odd for me at the moment.

Gatorland......

 

[Teebin]

There’s also Bok Tower and Leu Gardens for an interesting and safe outing...

Bok Tower Gardens - Lake Wales, Florida

Bok Tower Gardens has offered some of Florida’s most remarkable experiences to more than 23 million visitors since 1929.

boktowergardens.org

Leu Gardens

www.leugardens.org

 

[Frank Drackman]

Gatorland......

There’s also Bok Tower and Leu Gardens for an interesting and safe outing...

Bok Tower Gardens - Lake Wales, Florida

Bok Tower Gardens has offered some of Florida’s most remarkable experiences to more than 23 million visitors since 1929.

boktowergardens.org

Leu Gardens

www.leugardens.org

Thanks, yes, these are things we will do when it gets cooler, when there is no tropical something or other, a weekend we have time, but theme parks, we do want to go to AK, have not seen Pandora, but WDW is four parks and though with ticket options.

So, what I am saying as a new local, there is nothing worthwhile from either company for this consumer. In the theme park experience.

 

[Mad Dog]

I'm posting this in the possible affected threads since this just now released Federal Court decision has the potential to ripple effect in other states....The Federal District Judge , William Stickman, today in Pittsburgh struck down the Pa. lockdowns ruling they were unconstitutional. He ruled, in a 66 page opinion, that the lockdown actions taken by Gov. Wolfe in which he and the state Health Secretary Levine had limited the size of gatherings, issued a stay at home order, and closed non life sustaining businesses were unconstitutional. The plaintiff suit was filed by various government legislatures and state businesses. It will be interesting if this case is used by groups in other states with varying lock down, business, and group gathering orders.

 

[Parkscope Joe]

I'm posting this in the possible affected threads since this just now released Federal Court decision has the potential to ripple effect in other states....The Federal District Judge , William Stickman, today in Pittsburgh struck down the Pa. lockdowns ruling they were unconstitutional. He ruled, in a 66 page opinion, that the lockdown actions taken by Gov. Wolfe in which he and the state Health Secretary Levine had limited the size of gatherings, issued a stay at home order, and closed non life sustaining businesses were unconstitutional. The plaintiff suit was filed by various government legislatures and state businesses. It will be interesting if this case is used by groups in other states with varying lock down, business, and group gathering orders.

Im embarrassed to live in this state

 

[Grabnar]

Im embarrassed to live in this state country

FTFY

 

[Mad Dog]

Im embarrassed to live in this state

A tough ruling, but not unforseen since there were some real problems with the very unequal biased way they closed businesses. There was clear favortism, no real rules, and the people who made the decisions did not keep any written records on how they reached their decision, and refused transparency when local government officials (Dems & Repub. both ) asked them how and why a decision was reached. When officials hide what they're doing, it creates mistrust. If they didn't do that this lawsuit probably wouldn't have happened. The suit actually came from both Dems and Republican local and state government leaders, primarily because of that business issue. The bad thing is now it affects nearly all of the covid restrictions, not just that.....and worse, it might spur developments in other states, especially in the south.

 

[HandsomePete]

Citing Lochner by saying that it technically has never been repudiated by the Supreme Court takes some serious mental gymnastics.

 

[Mad Dog]

Citing Lochner by saying that it technically has never been repudiated by the Supreme Court takes some serious mental gymnastics.

The judge's legal presumption's aside, wrong or right, it's in effect until there's a stay from an Appeals court, which remains to be seen, so the ruling could be a problem to covid safety overall. . The big issue though, as I stated, was that there was bi partisan complaints about businesses not being treated equally by the same standards, and the governor not being transparent about how decisions were made concerning individual business shutdowns. Wolf got arrogant and p _ _ ssed off officials from both parties.. If that big problem didn't occur, the suit probably would not even have been filed. Now there's more emergency declaration ramifications because of that. Wolf should have made an effort to be transparent about the process, but he got defiant and actually penalized the counties that complained, and made no bones about that's why he withheld funding.

 

[Tristan]

I'm posting this in the possible affected threads since this just now released Federal Court decision has the potential to ripple effect in other states....The Federal District Judge , William Stickman, today in Pittsburgh struck down the Pa. lockdowns ruling they were unconstitutional. He ruled, in a 66 page opinion, that the lockdown actions taken by Gov. Wolfe in which he and the state Health Secretary Levine had limited the size of gatherings, issued a stay at home order, and closed non life sustaining businesses were unconstitutional. The plaintiff suit was filed by various government legislatures and state businesses. It will be interesting if this case is used by groups in other states with varying lock down, business, and group gathering orders.

That's so stupid. iT's UnConStitUtioNal! Has anyone seen that video of the "No-Mask Rally" interview on ABC? We just need to fully shutdown and not reopen early.

 

[shiekra38]

We just need to fully shutdown and not reopen early.

Nah

 

[Grabnar]

That's so stupid. iT's UnConStitUtioNal! Has anyone seen that video of the "No-Mask Rally" interview on ABC? We just need to fully shutdown and not reopen early.

We need to actually invest money in testing and public health ala Michael Mina’s suggestion as well as expand stimulus to more “average Americans” and less Wall Street.

 

[Tristan]

We need to actually invest money in testing and public health ala Michael Mina’s suggestion as well as expand stimulus to more “average Americans” and less Wall Street.

Yeah I just couldn’t put thoughts into words. The whole situation is frustrating.

 

[Mad Dog]

Yeah I just couldn’t put thoughts into words. The whole situation is frustrating.

and....it just keeps getting more frustrating. I'll be glad when December comes. Things should be clearer on both a government &
vaccine level by then. We're kind of in no man's land right now.