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Reports are coming in stating that Expedition Everest in Disney’s Animal Kingdom has updated their boarding policy. Read on for details.
Some guests have reported that they found themselves closer to other riders than usual today on Expedition Everest.
Social Distancing on Rides
Since Disney World reopened, many rides and queues received plexiglass dividers like the one shown here on Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway. You can read more about that HERE.
Some rides lend themselves to leaving one party per vehicle, such as Splash Mountain.
Other rides, like some roller coasters, saw guests being asked to skip a row between parties to accommodate social distancing.
Social distancing both on the ride and in the queue is one of the reasons we see such long appearing lines to ride our favorite attractions right now.
Changes to Everest
Sources, including a friend of the blog and some twitter users, claim that today guests were not skipping a row between parties on Expedition Everest.
Reports say that the Everest staff was not making use of the single rider line, and therefore not completely filling ride vehicles.
However, placing parties closer together seems to go against the point of social distancing in the queues and throughout the park.
Increasing Capacity in the Parks and Rides
On last month’s financial call, Disney CEO Bob Chapek boasted that they had figured out how to increase capacity in the parks while still staying true to social distancing recommendations from the CDC.
The parks initially reopened at around 25% of their normal capacity. Now, they are around 35% full.
Is this Everest change a sign of things to come as capacity increases and parks experience “sold out” days over the upcoming holiday break?
Additional park passes were released for the end of December today. You can read more about it here.
How does this change make you feel about visiting the parks safely during this time? Let us know in the comments on Facebook and in our Facebook group!
-Rebecca W Davis
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Desiree
Thursday 10th of December 2020
I just got home from Disney World on Sunday. If there is a lack of social distancing it is because park goers are not paying attention or do not care, few and far between. The CMs are trying. I witnessed a few CMs holding back customers and reminding them to stay on the marker. The lines are long. Disney could have an extra CM or 2 walking the line to enforce the markers though. We only had a few instances of the people behind getting too close. A quick, gentle reminder or pointing out their marker is all it too. On the slow moving rides without barriers they skipped at least 2 rows between parties. This means you very well may get a vehicle to yourself. On every coaster we rode, including EE, there was at least 1 row skipped between parties. But, because of the high seat backs, I could see why a judgement call could be made to fill each row, just not with single riders. I did not witness this however. I was there on Dec 4th. Disney is doing a great job, much better than most places you will go. Mask compliance was great. If you expecring 100% from every single person around you all the time, you're better off staying home and using delivery options to bring the outside world to you until such a time when it is safe to remove distancing and masks.
Ohana and Friends Travel
Wednesday 9th of December 2020
Pictures, videos, and reports from friends going to the parks the past few weeks show show that Disney is no longer following social distancing guidelines other than applying markers. Apparently, Disney sees them as "recommendations" and do not feel the need to follow through since they are not required. They are definitely allowed to do this by Florida's governor, but they should at least let people know so everyone can make a decision for themselves before heading out to the parks. Bob Chapek's comments were made about changes that he had already made at that time to capacity...and so further capacity may have already been added without Disney telling us...and they probably won't until next quarter's call.