OC Capacity & Reopening Guide for Theme Parks, Hotels & Dining
Orange County, Florida’s Economic Recovery Task Force met via conference call to discuss guidelines and mandates for a phased reopening of Universal, Walt Disney World, and other theme parks, plus hotels, restaurants, and bars. In this post, we’ll offer a rundown of the plans covered during the roughly 90-minute meeting.
Before delving into the guidelines and mandates, it’s important to underscore that these are preliminary plans from this task force. Disney and Universal both have members on the group and play an active role in the conservation, but this is not coming directly from them.
Moreover, this is being done at the county level, is subject to change, and could be superseded by state or federal mandates, so grant it appropriate weight. With that said, Orange County and Orlando leaders are working within the parameters and phases set by the federal government’s Guidelines for Opening Up America Again, and intend for this to be the county’s rubric for reopening…
During the call, the task force further stated that their hope is that once Florida’s statewide stay at home order expires at the end of the month, Governor Ron DeSantis will grant local governments the discretion to reopen communities and the businesses therein as appropriate based upon the circumstances. For instance, Miami might need or want to take a different approach than Orlando.
The Orange County Economic Recovery Task Force’s goal is to have these guidelines finalized by this Friday (May 1, 2020). The goal is to cement plans, and then allow businesses about one week to 10 days to prepare and acquire personal protective equipment as necessary, before the process of reopening is set into motion.
In his remarks towards the end of the call, Mayor Jerry Demings struck a more cautious tone and felt a longer timeline was likely necessary. He stated that while some businesses might be able to get back up and running within a couple of weeks, but felt mid-May was too ambitious. Demings indicated that June 1, 2020 was more realistic from safety, consumer comfort/confidence, and supply chain perspectives.
Thomas Mazloum, Senior Vice President of Resort & Transportation Operations is Walt Disney World’s representative on the group. Mazloum spoke briefly on the call and made a few recommendations with regard to the hospitality industry.
One was to make ensure all finalized guidelines did not contradict with national and state associations that had already created such guidelines. Another of Disney’s recommendations was to set parameters based upon heath guidelines and safety standards that companies could adapt to as appropriate, rather than rigid rules for specific business types.
With that out of the way, let’s start with the guidelines and mandates for hotels and restaurants. Note that these apply to all Orange County businesses, and are not specific to those within theme park complexes…
Hotels
- Guidelines:
- Phase 1: Housekeeping services to be limited, allowing for minimal guest and employee exposure
- Phase 1: Promote mobile check-in, if available
- Phase 1: Housekeeping services only clean upon request, or when guests depart
- Phase 1: Allow employees to work from home if not playing a critical role in serving guests
- Phase 1: Only deliver room service to the guest room doors
- Phase 1: Provide self-parking
- Promote social distancing for all guests and staff
- Touch-less sanitizer at entry recommended
- Increase cleaning services and additional sanitation services through cleaning companies
- Phases 1 & 2: Staff who are 65 years and older are encourage to stay home
- Mandates:
- All employees are required to wear face masks
- Hand sanitizer at entry to be in plain sight
- All employees with flu-like symptoms advised to stay home
- Front desk staff to sanitize themselves on a regular basis
- Consistent cleaning of all guest areas
- Front desk to utilize sneeze-guards
- Remove all service items in guest rooms, including glassware, coffee cups, etc.
- Mini bars not to be stocked
- Do no offer self service foods
- Space pool furniture according to distancing guidelines
- Pool gates and pool chairs to be sanitized regularly
- Door handles, elevator buttons, and railings to be sanitized regularly
- Remove all coffee makers from guest rooms
- Remove all guest collateral items, except those that are single use
- Sanitize guest keys before and after each use
- Sanitize bell carts after each use
- Phases 1 & 2: No conferences or conventions
Restaurants
- Guidelines:
- Paper/disposable menus
- Encourage takeout/online orders
- Touch-less sanitizer at entry
- Phases 1 & 2: Staff who are 65+ are encouraged to stay home
- Mandates:
- Hand sanitizer at every table
- Hand sanitizer at entry to be in plain visible sight
- All employees required to wear face masks
- Temperature checks for staff prior to shift (temp above 100.4 must not enter premises)
- All employees with flu-like symptoms advised to stay home
- Doors to be wiped regularly
- All staff behind counters must wear gloves (except for bartenders)
- Bartenders to sanitize hands after making each drink order
- Seated tables to be six feet apart
- Phase 1: Limit restaurant and bar capacity to 50%
- Phase 2: Limit restaurant and bar capacity to 75%
Finally, the guidelines and mandates for theme parks. The Orange County Economic Recovery Task Force opted to differentiate between small and large operators, even though the guidelines and mandates are identical at this point. Here, smaller parks consist of Top Golf, Funspot, Andretti Go Karting, Icon, and Gatorland. Large parks are Walt Disney World, Universal, and SeaWorld.
As is noted on the conference call, Walt Disney World and Universal will likely set additional guidelines above and beyond those established by the Task Force. These are not the final health protocol and safety policies for either. However, with leadership from both theme park operators serving on this group, the guidelines and mandates were undoubtedly shaped by both Disney and Universal.
Theme Parks (Small & Large)
- Guidelines:
- Tape marking of 6 feet apart in ride/attraction queues
- Staff to regularly wipe down surfaces at random
- Phases 1 and 2: Staff who are 65+ are encouraged to stay home
- Mandates:
- All employees required to wear face masks
- Touch-less hand sanitizer at each ticketing entry and turnstiles
- Touch-less hand sanitizer at each ride/attraction entry and exit
- Temperature checks for staff prior to starting shifts (above 100.4 must not enter premises)
- All employees with flu-like symptoms advised to stay home
- Wipe down all railings and surfaces regularly
- Phase 1: 50% capacity
- Phase 2: 75% capacity
Other businesses were also discussed on the call, but we’re leaving those off because they’re not particularly relevant to Walt Disney World. If you’re interested in learning about the guidelines and mandates for beauty salons, fitness centers, movie theaters, and dentists, consider watching the full conference call. (Not recommended.)
We’ve been offering a lot of commentary lately about potential protocol for reopening Walt Disney World (see here and here), so we’ll refrain from rehashing all of that here as nothing here really contradicts or supplements those past discussions. Rather, this is the point where possible scenarios are beginning to coalesce into tangible plans–albeit tentative ones. It’s worth reiterating that while illuminating, nothing here is final. Things are slowly inching forward, and should have a pretty clear idea of what to expect by the end of this week as both Orange County and the State of Florida weigh in with final plans for reopening.
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!
YOUR THOUGHTS
What do you think of these guidelines and mandates for the Orange County hospitality industry reopening? Do you expect Walt Disney World and Universal Orlando Resort to go above and beyond what’s required here? Surprised by any of the mandates or guidelines? Think this is sufficient or insufficient? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
Sounds logical. Most DVC members are used to the housekeeping limitations and I can easily bring a Keurig-type coffee maker. Really LOVE the no conventions idea too.
Ready to roll when they open the good restaurants!
Seems like a greatly reduced guest experience… funny there is no mention of
reduced resort/ticket prices.
The bit I’m curious about is whether Disney will resume Annual Pass payments at the earliest point that the parks are (in some definition of the word) open. With guests having different risk tolerances, and different guidelines likely in effect nationally and internationally, I think doing so may result in fairly bad PR for Disney.
(I have a high risk tolerance, but I expect Disney reopening to long precede the resumption of quarantine-free travel between the U.K. and the U.S.).
Until the 14 day quarantine for out of state travelers is lifted, I will never return to DisneyWorld. 100% sure that quarantine won’t be lifted for Phase 1. I made reservations at Disneyland and DisneyWorld for January 2021. Fingers crossed I will be able to go to one or the other.
Will the pools open at the resorts this summer?
This is a tough situation but I’m increasingly leaning towards companies taking reasonable precautions they think are actually helpful (not just perceived to be helpful) and then letting consumers decide the level of risk they want to take on. For example – increased hand washing and sanitation stations, no sick people coming to work, good. 6 feet markers in lines seems too far for me.
Flattening the curve to avoid overwhelming the medical system is a good goal but it’s a temporary measure and should end when the acute healthcare crisis has passed. Trying to prevent any spread whatsoever is not realistic and efforts to obtain that will have overwhelming downsides.
I couldn’t agree more with you. Somewhere along the way this flatten-the-curve effort transformed from “let’s not overload the hospitals” to “let’s avoid anyone dying or even getting sick”. The former is critical, the latter, preposterous. If we are waiting for the day when there is zero risk of getting COVID-19 or any other illness, none of us will ever go to a theme park again in our lives.
I can’t like these responses enough. Glad to hear some reasonable voices again!
Amen, amen, amen. Yes we want to preserve life. But what kind of a life do we want to preserve? One where our kids can’t attend school and we can’t be out in public in groups? One where tens of millions are unemployed? Again – flatten the curve, good. I have absolutely no problem with that. But prevent anyone from getting sick – impossible. I really hope more people will start to demand this. It’s possible there will *never* be a vaccine for this and it’s something we have to learn to live with.
Couldn’t agree with you more!
I absolutely agree with all of you! I don’t want any more lives lost, but that is a risk everyday of our lives. We need to be smart, but we can’t continue to just halt life.
Mike, your comments echo my thoughts EXACTLY over the past few weeks. We went from trying to bend the curve, to “No one is ever allowed to die from ANYTHING ever again!” Bending the curve, by definition, does not change the total area under the curve – that stays the same. The goal was to not overwhelm the healthcare system – not completely eradicate the virus.
So this whole notion that ‘even one more life lost is unacceptable’ is totally unrealistic. We’ve created a false dichotomy, and it’s become so polarized, politicized, and toxic that people won’t even listen to each other. This is not an all or nothing situation – there’s a middle ground, and these OC guidelines are a good start.
Why are the hotel workers excused from having their temperatures taken before their shift, but restaurant workers and theme park workers have to be subjected to temperature checks? I’m not sure how much this, or any of the other precautions, are going to stop the spread of the virus when you are talking such large numbers of people and the fact that asymptomatic people have been found to spread the disease.
Such a difficult situation for all involved – the businesses losing money, the people out of work, the families missing their vacations, etc. These businesses have to do something to start getting back to a new normal, and hopefully it will be enough to keep people healthy and safe.
For me, it boils down to a personal decision about how comfortable I am allowing others to decide what is or isn’t safe for me and my family. At this point, even with these precautions implemented, I’m not going to a hotel or a theme park or a restaurant until I’m comfortable that the implemented precautions are working, and that I likely won’t end up getting sick and possibly infecting friends and family members when I return to my home state. Some things just aren’t worth the risk to me personally.
Yup, NOT returning to any theme park until after a month long trial period to ensure infections are not going up. However, most experts agree they will go up. If they do rise, we will not be going until there is a vaccine. Two friends of my cousin are dead and four people I know got it – all in NJ. Even though we live in Florida, people travel to Disney from all over the world and the virus will be tagging along. Friends from Jersey are still planning to come and stay at WDW in late June. Until we feel 100% safe, no theme park is worth the risk as you can see on TV, there are idiots everywhere who don’t feel the need to follow the guidelines.
Interesting news. There are lot of challenges, but overall that sounds fairly optimistic to me.
Are they discussing the specific metrics they’re going to use to determine whether they can start Phases 1, 2 and 3, or is that still to be determined? (I’m more interested in those than trying to guess on which dates they’ll successfully occur.)
Thanks for the summary and the links!
When you go to Hauntrd House the cast members keep repeating “move all bodies to the dead center “. This is just one example of distance issue,
This seems to be a logistical nightmare.
I think all opening shows will be on hold as I believe Tom had said in a previous post. To social distance is a small circular room would be next to impossible. They’d never get people through the cues with 10 or less people per pre-shows. Often these shows, along with early morning and late night bus trips, are as crammed as you get at wdw.
How will they determine who the 50%_75% of capacity in the park is? Does that mean those who already have reservations or what?
Our April trip got reschedule to October, for now. I Believe they should wave the parking fee. We was planning to uber and use Disney resort buses but now renting a car seems more likely to be the best option. Also resort pillows seem unsanitary.
When you go to Hauntrd House the cast members keep repeating “move all bodies to the dead center “. This is just one example of distance issue
I’ll be interested to see how this all works out. We cancelled our May trip and won’t be able to visit until next year. It’s a big pill to swallow because we had been looking forward to this trip and knowing we are going to wait another year is hard but I know I wouldn’t be comfortable going right now (even if I weren’t 7 months pregnant lol). I’d be to worried about germs and and 6 ft and all that jazz. If it was just me and the hubs I might consider it, but with kids who just want to have fun (and being parents who don’t want to worry about catching something) I think it’s a better bet to let this first wave run its course and see what happens.
Just saw Gov DeSantis on television stating if you are coming from out of Florida to Florida, you would need to self quarantine for 14 days. That will change, but that’s what goes for the current time.
As someone who grew up in the restaurant industry, these guidelines leave me with about 185 questions. Furthermore, I cannot fathom how on earth these regulations will be enforced. I’m also trying to imagine wait times if parties need to actually ride attractions 6 feet apart from one another, in addition to waiting apart. It will be interesting to watch this unfold.
All employees wearing face masks… would have a unique consequence at WDW. That would not work for face character greetings or character meals.
It will be interesting to see if those are postponed until after a mask phase, or what.
I know these are all preliminary plans, but I can’t help laughing at the 6 feet apart standing in the queues. The lines for attractions will be backed up to the front gate. Thanks for the update.
Wondering if DVC resorts would also have to eliminate coffee makers and all other non one time use items such as plates and glasses…those are benefits of DVC villas. Do time share resorts fall under the same hotel guidelines?
Removal of the coffee makers? Why those and not the television remotes, telephones, etc etc etc.
Seems silly.
Funny, out of all of that info, I was also questioning the coffee makers removal. Guess the security guys at the airport going to have fun when they scan my suitcase and are trying to figure out what that cylindrical object is in there!
When I travel for business I usually take a tool bag with me. In said bag are various types of chemical analysis instruments, a volt ohm meter, lots of wires and small hand tools. Never had a problem with it getting through insecurity checks although they fo open it once in awhile. If you don’t need pots of coffee you might consider a French Press.
Probably because remote controls, telephones, etc. can be wiped down with disinfectant. Some people bring along Clorox wipes to clean surfaces in their room when they arrive. Not as easy to do that to a coffee pot…