Thoughts on AUG BSM 8/16?

NewEngland47

Earning My Ears
Joined
Jun 22, 2017
So my son and I are booked on the 8/16 BSM. I know it’s just speculation but what are people’s thoughts on the likelihood of this trip happening? I believe WDW is restarting tours next month but as DL still doesn’t have an opening date ... 🤷‍♀️
 
Personally, I think low. Even if DLR is open, they might not really be in a position to be able to offer this experience. Even just feeding a whole ABD's worth of people in the park will be a challenge. Not to mention the chunk of the trip in LA, which is still doing very badly right now.
 
Being in SoCal, I’d guess less then 50% odds. Our state seems to be reopening slower than others; we are still under stay at home for the most part. We are only in early stage 2 and theme parks are in stage 4. Here is a link to our state site with info - BSM covers both Los Angeles and Orange counties so both would need to be open enough for it to happen.

https://covid19.ca.gov/roadmap/
I’d also think Disneyland wants to see and benefit from how things go in WDW, to learn from that experience. Our downtown Disney, the DLR version of Disney Springs, is not yet open to anything.
 
Personally I'd delay this ABD if I could. I don't see how you'll get the best experience while having to abide by the restrictions that will no doubt be in place at that time. I've done that ABD 5 times now so I'm very familiar with each of the locations/activities.
 


Personally I'd delay this ABD if I could. I don't see how you'll get the best experience while having to abide by the restrictions that will no doubt be in place at that time. I've done that ABD 5 times now so I'm very familiar with each of the locations/activities.
Thanks - this post is definitely giving me pause which might be needed. I had assumed we’d go if it wasn’t cancelled but perhaps we should move it.
 
Personally I'd delay this ABD if I could. I don't see how you'll get the best experience while having to abide by the restrictions that will no doubt be in place at that time. I've done that ABD 5 times now so I'm very familiar with each of the locations/activities.
We did the Disneyland and Southern Cali tour (is this backstage magic? I'm always confused because there's a day tour called BSM at WDW) last August and are planning to go again, but we'll include at least our older two kids next time. I wouldn't book it until I knew fireworks, etc, are happening again (not just that the parks are open). I'd also wonder how they'd handle behind the scenes features in the near future - would those be cancelled so as not to expose more cast members than necessary to the public?
 


Personally I'd delay this ABD if I could. I don't see how you'll get the best experience while having to abide by the restrictions that will no doubt be in place at that time. I've done that ABD 5 times now so I'm very familiar with each of the locations/activities.

In your opinion will the BSM have to be radically altered or discontinued with social distancing and similar restrictions in place?

I had it for May and now November. I certainly expect major changes, but thought I would ask the opinion of someone with experience!
 
In your opinion will the BSM have to be radically altered or discontinued with social distancing and similar restrictions in place?
Fortunately BSM is a fairly small group trip. Less than 40 people IIRC, which makes it a bit easier to maintain social distancing when visiting venues. So, I don't think it would be radically altered. But there will certainly need to be accommodations made. Some sticky points:
  1. The first half of the trip involves riding your private motor coach (bus) which puts you in close proximity with the rest of your adventurers.
  2. Meals are typically in private rooms some of which may be a bit small for adequate distancing, especially the visit to the Tam O'shanter.
  3. You visit a lot of public spaces where adequate cleaning of surfaces cannot be guaranteed by ABD, especially the Hollywood portion of the trip.
  4. Exclusive tours of some venues (Chinese Theater, Jim Henson Studio, etc) are dependent on those facilities being willing to accommodate a group trooping through.
  5. Stops at Disney facilities in Burbank (Walt Disney Studios) and Glendale (Imagineering) are less of an issue as Disney will be maintaining appropriate safeguards for their own CM's.
  6. Once at DL, again Disney will be following some safeguards for the general public and for the backstage areas. How much this will impact ABD remains to be seen.
During much of this trip your group gets decided into two smaller groups. To meet appropriate distancing guidelines, I wonder if the groups will need to be smaller, requiring additional guides.
 
So now that we have a date I think if they don't cancel we are going to go for it! My reasoning is that it's just me and my 10 year old son so we aren't in a high risk population (if we had a grandparent with us I would not go) and we have not yet done BSM but we have been to DL and we do also plan to do BSM again. So I kinda think it might be fun to see what the park is like with restricted capacity etc. I'm ok with things being cut from the trip as I've never been before so won't be disappointed. I also feel like ABD will go out of its way to add special one offs if we get shut out of std things, so it might be kind of a neat. unusual BSM. But I will report back afterwards of course to let everyone know what happened if we do get to go!
 
Okay, CA ressie here, and the county I live in and the county next to me both just had their largest one day totals for reported infections. Largest for the entire pandemic so far. I'm like 6+ hours away from Disneyland but this is indicative of what's been happening. Cases have been rising as lockdowns lift. It's not good- a lot of people just aren't caring anymore.

Not to be a downer, but I would not get excited yet. The opening date is set for July 17, which is still five weeks away. If figures continue to rise, CA will most likely tighten back up, at least for things like Disneyland. We've reached 2 million cases, and I think by July, the whole country might be seeing more and more trouble. There might be a push for more lockdowns. Things are not under control.
 
Okay, CA ressie here, and the county I live in and the county next to me both just had their largest one day totals for reported infections. Largest for the entire pandemic so far. I'm like 6+ hours away from Disneyland but this is indicative of what's been happening. Cases have been rising as lockdowns lift. It's not good- a lot of people just aren't caring anymore.

Not to be a downer, but I would not get excited yet. The opening date is set for July 17, which is still five weeks away. If figures continue to rise, CA will most likely tighten back up, at least for things like Disneyland. We've reached 2 million cases, and I think by July, the whole country might be seeing more and more trouble. There might be a push for more lockdowns. Things are not under control.
Thanks for the reality check! Do you think we are nuts to go if it doesn’t get cancelled? We’ve been to DL before but have never done the ABD BSM - although we have a second BSM already scheduled in 2022 (yup I’m that sure we will love it!).
 
Thanks for the reality check! Do you think we are nuts to go if it doesn’t get cancelled? We’ve been to DL before but have never done the ABD BSM - although we have a second BSM already scheduled in 2022 (yup I’m that sure we will love it!).

I myself am diabetic and at risk, so I'm not going anywhere. It would be a hard no for me. But I would not say you're nuts to go. Do, however, quarantine yourself and your son when you come back though, just in case-- for the grandparents' sake.

I see your name says New England- are you from there? Are you used to heat? Is your son? My big concern if I was going is that if masks are required, you are likely gonna be miserable. August temps in CA are hot- you're probably gonna have temps in the 90s/100s. Will you and your son be okay with masks in that weather? I'm a CA native used to the hot summers and they still kill me. I can't imagine a mask in that heat for the whole day.

Also, will Disney being open mean the ABD will go? I'm not convinced that's an accurate assumption to make. ABD might decide the trip wouldn't be up to par. Or that there's still too much risk.

Just some thoughts.
 
Thanks for the reality check! Do you think we are nuts to go if it doesn’t get cancelled? We’ve been to DL before but have never done the ABD BSM - although we have a second BSM already scheduled in 2022 (yup I’m that sure we will love it!).
I don’t think you’re nuts if you go, because of what you’d noted in your post before this one -

So I kinda think it might be fun to see what the park is like with restricted capacity etc. I'm ok with things being cut from the trip as I've never been before so won't be disappointed. I also feel like ABD will go out of its way to add special one offs if we get shut out of std things, so it might be kind of a neat. unusual BSM.

And while Disneyland will also have a reservation system initiallyk who knows for how long, I’d guess this tour would have guaranteed daily access because of the in-park elements. While there might not yet be some of the evening entertainment activities part of BSM, AbD may have some special alternatives unique to the tour.
 
Fortunately BSM is a fairly small group trip. Less than 40 people IIRC, which makes it a bit easier to maintain social distancing when visiting venues. So, I don't think it would be radically altered. But there will certainly need to be accommodations made. Some sticky points:
  1. The first half of the trip involves riding your private motor coach (bus) which puts you in close proximity with the rest of your adventurers.
  2. Meals are typically in private rooms some of which may be a bit small for adequate distancing, especially the visit to the Tam O'shanter.
  3. You visit a lot of public spaces where adequate cleaning of surfaces cannot be guaranteed by ABD, especially the Hollywood portion of the trip.
  4. Exclusive tours of some venues (Chinese Theater, Jim Henson Studio, etc) are dependent on those facilities being willing to accommodate a group trooping through.
  5. Stops at Disney facilities in Burbank (Walt Disney Studios) and Glendale (Imagineering) are less of an issue as Disney will be maintaining appropriate safeguards for their own CM's.
  6. Once at DL, again Disney will be following some safeguards for the general public and for the backstage areas. How much this will impact ABD remains to be seen.
During much of this trip your group gets decided into two smaller groups. To meet appropriate distancing guidelines, I wonder if the groups will need to be smaller, requiring additional guides.

I really appreciate you sharing your expertise!
 

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