Unrelated to topic, but this line reminded me of a conversation with DD6 the other night.
DD6 (out of nowhere): It is kinda weird that when I give a high 5 to Mickey and other characters I am really giving a high 5 to a stranger.
Me: What do you mean?
DD6: Mickey is a stranger inside a costume so I’m giving a stranger a high 5.
Me: How do you know it is a stranger and not Mickey?
DD6: Because characters aren’t real. They are from movies and TV shows.
Me: You’re right, but it is still fun to meet the characters. And please don’t tell this to your brother or your friends. They might think the characters are real and this would ruin it for them.
I hope so. Mine are 6 and 3. I hope my 6 year old will be Sept/Oct, but my 3 year old probably will be a month or 2 later. We may reschedule for the Winter.
The UK COVID death rate is averaging under 10 people per day in a population of 68 million. New cases and hospital admissions are rising because of the delta (Indian) variant, but the death rate is stable. We are due to come out of all lockdown measures on 21st June but the latest signals from government is that this is highly likely to be delayed, perhaps for another month after the 21st, i.e. around six weeks from now.
The US COVID death rate is averaging around 400 people per day in a population of 332 million. Which is about eight times higher per capita than the UK. Yet even at WDW it’s party time for everyone, apparently.
Either the UK is taking the wrong approach or the US is.
I am not happy about this either. I know we can still wear masks. I don’t trust unvaccinated people to continue wearing masks inside, so I feel like members of my group will be more at risk now.
Combine this with less distancing, yeah, I am not happy. I knew it was coming, I was just hoping it would be after our trip later this month.
DH and I were at MK today and rode Monorail twice (TTC). There are signs and announcements at/on Monorail about masks but NO one was enforcing them! Twice we rode in monorail w/ unmasked ppl Also, someone was wearing an acrylic mask, like an extended safety glasses and the CM made them leave the ride cue to get a proper mask. We saw CMs remind ppl, including us, to put our masks on in line. It was done nicely we said thank you b/c wasn’t thinking about it really.
I think the answer lies somewhere in the middle. I’m not on board with the free for all going on here, but I also believe all of our trends are going down which is leading to these calls being made. We definitely have done some wrong moves here, but I believe the UK vaccination rollout methodology is partly to blame for the trends you are seeing now. While your cases are rising it seems to be highly driven by the same age groups the UK won’t vaccinate yet so essentially shooting yourselves in the foot. It’s really unfortunate for the vast majority of you to pay the price with these extreme restrictions.
In fairness very few children were getting ill with covid previously. We had no way of knowing that a new variant would attack young people in this way. And a US liner mentioned exactly the same is happening in her state today.
Super interesting that it is the same day California’s tier system ends, but California is still going to require that large events that bring big groups of people together still require either masks or proof of vaccination, in order to enter unmasked. DLR’s announcement for the 15th did reiterate that masks will still be required (so they opted not to deal with the nuance of looking at vaccination proof for unmasked guests). So unless there is any change by the state in the next 4 days, DLR will (for now) still have to comply with either mandating masks or looking at vaccination proof.
A lot of other things for DLR will change for the positive on 15th, including out of state residents can return, social distancing and capacity restrictions won’t apply - which will do a lot for improving operations that have been a challenge for DLR. But they haven’t made any announcements (other than to welcome back out of state guests) on how they will be dealing with social distancing/capacity. But I’ll be there the 15th and hopefully reporting back on the DLR side if anyone’s curious.
Maybe it is a vaccine thing? It would be difficult for me to find anyone age 12 or older in my state that could not have at least one vaccine dose by now, in general-both. People will continue to get Covid if they are unvaccinated. I don’t think the UK is at the same level of vaccination access?
I had to read the whole thread to see if anyone said it yet. Of course Disney would re-open fast passes on Tuesday (or maybe every restaurant currently closed) just to see how fast they can crash their system. Isn’t that the weekly Tuesday plan?
(Joking)
Also, someone was wearing an acrylic mask, like an extended safety glasses and the CM made them leave the ride cue to get a proper mask. We saw CMs remind ppl, including us, to put our masks on in line. It was done nicely we said thank you b/c wasn’t thinking about it really.