Cruise and Theme Park Operational Updates due to Coronavirus

[skeeter31]

What I’m wondering is whether Disney is going to mail the AP magnets from the Flower and Garden festival to AP holders. I know it’s a trivial thing to think about, but we had trips planned to fall during both giveaway time periods and now with the possible 6/1 opening date the festival would be over. Would be a great gesture on Disney’s part to put a couple in an envelope to each AP holder.

 

[Yarbogash]

The idea that some have is that Disney will aim for a holiday weekend...

That's a bad plan.

The worst thing Disney could do is aim for business as usual by one of the big holiday dates.

Imagine them opening because they think the new cases rate is "low enough" to then let the usual high attendance numbers in for a holiday and there be one or two infected in the parks. Disaster for all those there and for Disney.

They need to wait it out until there are zero new cases for several days at least and even then start with very low capacity limits and maybe only a couple of resorts open.

I’ve seen a lot of Disney fans talk about expecting high attendance figures after reopening or in the fall.
After a couple weeks of preventative measures we’ve seen the jobless rate soar. After a few months of this the number of people with money to spend on Disney is going to get heavily impacted.
As deaths increase the number of people with a persistent aversion to crowds and the chance of infection will also rise. This will persist even after an all clear from the government.
Plus there’s the issue of ongoing travel restrictions or fears in various places in the world that may limit people’s ability to even reach Florida.
Imho it’s going to be a long time before Disney is really busy again.

 

[FrankieWinthrop]

What I’m wondering is whether Disney is going to mail the AP magnets from the Flower and Garden festival to AP holders. I know it’s a trivial thing to think about, but we had trips planned to fall during both giveaway time periods and now with the possible 6/1 opening date the festival would be over. Would be a great gesture on Disney’s part to put a couple in an envelope to each AP holder.

Mailing would cost a lot of extra money. I could see them extending F&G for a while after whenever they open. I mean, the flowers are there and someone’s there taking care of them. Why not leave them up for people to actually enjoy? They’ll give out the magnets then, too.

 

[PrincessWithABlaster]

My trip was supposed to be this week, we rebooked for Memorial Day week (last week in May). I had booked new FPs earlier this week...they are still there now, but when I attempt to modify some of them to other times, it says there is no longer any availability...so far it appears everything that starts with an S or T has no availability (Splash, Soarin, Spaceship Earth, Tower of Terror, Toy Story Mania, Test Track, Seven Dwarfs, although that one could really be gone at just under 60 days). Other rides like Jungle Cruise, Navi, and Mission Space show times. FOP doesn’t show any other time slots but that’s normal for this time frame. Safari and Everest also show no other times. There is either a serious glitch or Disney is taking down FP availability without deleting precooked FPs

I've been moving around FPs for a couple weeks for the first week of May. For the past week there have been abundant Tier 1 / E-ticket rides. SSD was available in the morning. 7DMT was available in the early afternoon, etc. MMRR was available in the evening (never checked MFSR) but all of those are showing no availability now. It looks like all Tier 1s at HS as well as 7DMT have been removed from availability. Others like ETWB (which I happened to have been trying to move up) went from early afternoon availability to only evening availability - which to me is very odd. It should be there or not if they're removing them. I wonder if they are experimenting with a scenario where they could with social distancing. Remove the FPs available in the morning where a lot of people already have them, eventually send out FPs adjustments on the biggest rides (so people with am times eventually either get them cancelled or moved back to later in the day to spread things out), and then VQs for anything else. Or maybe it's glitchy removal of FPs. May starts opening to off-site FP booking in a few days. It'll be interesting to see what happens.

 

[mhautz]

I really think Disney is trying to set up a soft re-open, perhaps in May. Regardless of when they re-open, it has to be with a reduced capacity in order to determine the logistics of what crowd control is practical. You just can't do that with anything resembling a standard crowd. Their reluctance to set a goal opening date, closing pre-June reservations, and promoting re-scheduling of April and May trips will allow the capacity to reduce "naturally" without Disney having to proactively restrict it (by cancelling active reservations or closing parks due to capacity)

My trip was supposed to be this week, we rebooked for Memorial Day week (last week in May). I had booked new FPs earlier this week...they are still there now, but when I attempt to modify some of them to other times, it says there is no longer any availability...so far it appears everything that starts with an S or T has no availability (Splash, Soarin, Spaceship Earth, Tower of Terror, Toy Story Mania, Test Track, Seven Dwarfs, although that one could really be gone at just under 60 days). Other rides like Jungle Cruise, Navi, and Mission Space show times. FOP doesn’t show any other time slots but that’s normal for this time frame. Safari and Everest also show no other times. There is either a serious glitch or Disney is taking down FP availability without deleting precooked FPs

I noticed this too. I scheduled my FPs on Thursday for May 25-June 2 in order to get something with the plan to clean them up this weekend, but the availability is greatly limited. Animal Kingdom has next to nothing on the 31st, and that's taking into account that anyone whose trip starts Friday May 29th onward hasn't even hit their 60 day window. Hollywood Studios similarly has limited FP. Epcot and MK show slightly better evening availability, but this is still more than 60 days. This looks more like mid-day "day of" availiability. I did check June 1st, and it is far more normal in that almost everything is available (I know it's a Monday and that's another day away from the 60 day window, but that's a dramatic change in a availability)

 

[hertamaniac]

Are we staring down a mandatory 5 minute park entrance virus test once a date to reopen is set? I'm talking about the quick testing for the virus that is, as I understand it, about to become more readily available. No, I don't know how it would be deployed or even if this is feasible given the fact that folks may have the virus without showing symptoms. Maybe we're looking at folks that have been tested and met the 14-day window, would somehow be allowed to enter the park(s). Of course, I think that would violate so many health privacy regulations. I know I'm really reaching here and think there is no chance this could be done.

 

[xuxa777]

The parks being open June 1st is hoping for a miracle, Disney Springs might reopen by then. best indicator is Shanghai and Tokyo, they still haven’t opened. They closed back in January and are still closed, there is thinking they might open 4/15 if they do then mid June might be feasible. If they don’t and their opening dates slip, the slip will delay WDW.

 

[Joe in VA]

I don't think Disney would make a marketing effort to those who have already had trips cancelled by Corona unless they think there is a good chance the parks will be open 6/1.

 

[DebbieB]

What I’m wondering is whether Disney is going to mail the AP magnets from the Flower and Garden festival to AP holders. I know it’s a trivial thing to think about, but we had trips planned to fall during both giveaway time periods and now with the possible 6/1 opening date the festival would be over. Would be a great gesture on Disney’s part to put a couple in an envelope to each AP holder.

I'm sure they did not produce one for every AP holder, only enough for expected Epcot AP attendance. They are losing $40 million a day, the last thing they are worried about.

 

[reeceandryleesmom]

I really think Disney is trying to set up a soft re-open, perhaps in May. Regardless of when they re-open, it has to be with a reduced capacity in order to determine the logistics of what crowd control is practical. You just can't do that with anything resembling a standard crowd. Their reluctance to set a goal opening date, closing pre-June reservations, and promoting re-scheduling of April and May trips will allow the capacity to reduce "naturally" without Disney having to proactively restrict it (by cancelling active reservations or closing parks due to capacity)



I noticed this too. I scheduled my FPs on Thursday for May 25-June 2 in order to get something with the plan to clean them up this weekend, but the availability is greatly limited. Animal Kingdom has next to nothing on the 31st, and that's taking into account that anyone whose trip starts Friday May 29th onward hasn't even hit their 60 day window. Hollywood Studios similarly has limited FP. Epcot and MK show slightly better evening availability, but this is still more than 60 days. This looks more like mid-day "day of" availiability. I did check June 1st, and it is far more normal in that almost everything is available (I know it's a Monday and that's another day away from the 60 day window, but that's a dramatic change in a availability)

My window for May 28-June 4th opened today, there was only one fp available for my May dates at each park, I gave up and left them empty. I could get anything for my June dates. I have no idea what to do or think about my trip now. If it’s on I don’t want to go 3 days without fp.

 

[fsjking]

They need to wait it out until there are zero new cases for several days at least and even then start with very low capacity limits and maybe only a couple of resorts open.

As their customer base is, at least national, and truly international, you are saying they need to close down through 2021.

 

[Animal]

What I’m wondering is whether Disney is going to mail the AP magnets from the Flower and Garden festival to AP holders. I know it’s a trivial thing to think about, but we had trips planned to fall during both giveaway time periods and now with the possible 6/1 opening date the festival would be over. Would be a great gesture on Disney’s part to put a couple in an envelope to each AP holder.

Disboards is where I go to discuss trivial things! Great idea!

 

[Fido Chuckwagon]

The parks being open June 1st is hoping for a miracle, Disney Springs might reopen by then. best indicator is Shanghai and Tokyo, they still haven’t opened. They closed back in January and are still closed, there is thinking they might open 4/15 if they do then mid June might be feasible. If they don’t and their opening dates slip, the slip will delay WDW.

Tokyo Disney isn’t reopening anytime soon. Things are getting worse, not better in Japan. In addition, Shanghai re-closed all of their movie theatres a day after re-opening them. Also not a good sign.

 

[TwoMisfits]

Tokyo Disney isn’t reopening anytime soon. Things are getting worse, not better in Japan. In addition, Shanghai re-closed all of their movie theatres a day after re-opening them. Also not a good sign.

To be fair, Chinese movie theaters may have closed b/c of the riots, not b/c of the virus. Making sure there are no places people could group together to plan for more rioting would be a current Chinese leadership thing to do...

Edit: Although they did stop all virus testing in Wuhan sometime in late Feb/early March...so what you don't know...

 

[cakebaker]

I don't think Disney would make a marketing effort to those who have already had trips cancelled by Corona unless they think there is a good chance the parks will be open 6/1.

I agree. While they can't be 100% sure, no doubt those in charge think changes are very good that they can open at least by then. I wouldn't be surprised to see a sort of soft opening before that date even.

 

[xuxa777]

I don't think Disney would make a marketing effort to those who have already had trips cancelled by Corona unless they think there is a good chance the parks will be open 6/1.

Of course Disney is going to market June dates, why not, it is only thing they can do right now, it is easy to cancel the trips once the rolling 7-day cancellations get close to that time. The marketing is not a indicator of when they think they will be open.

Kirk Herbstreit top ESPN football announcer/Disney employee and is on the board of a major hospital, said just yesterday, he doesn't think there will be football in the fall, both NFL and NCAA without a vaccine. If that holds true no way the parks will be open in June

 

[kymom99]

Of course Disney is going to market June dates, why not, it is only thing they can do right now, it is easy to cancel the trips once the rolling 7-day cancellations get close to that time. The marketing is not a indicator of when they think they will be open.

Kirk Herbstreit top ESPN/NFL announcer and is on the board of a major hospital, said just yesterday, he doesn't think there will be football in the fall, both NFL and NCAA without a vaccine. If that holds true no way the parks will be open in June

I agree, I think they are just trying to keep interest alive

 

[Spridell]

Are we staring down a mandatory 5 minute park entrance virus test once a date to reopen is set? I'm talking about the quick testing for the virus that is, as I understand it, about to become more readily available. No, I don't know how it would be deployed or even if this is feasible given the fact that folks may have the virus without showing symptoms. Maybe we're looking at folks that have been tested and met the 14-day window, would somehow be allowed to enter the park(s). Of course, I think that would violate so many health privacy regulations. I know I'm really reaching here and think there is no chance this could be done.

I would bet they might be doing temperature checks. I can see that happening.

 

[OnceUponATime15]

The numbers coming from Dr Faucci this morning on the covid crisis were catastrophic, unheard of and devastating.

Even if his numbers are off by half... I can’t imagine how Disney could open June 1st.

 

[Spridell]

The numbers coming from Dr Faucci this morning on the covid crisis were catastrophic, unheard of and devastating.

Even if his numbers are off by half... I can’t imagine how Disney could open June 1st.

He did say those were "worst case scenario" numbers