Cruise and Theme Park Operational Updates due to Coronavirus

[gottalovepluto]

I am confused by this move. Does it mean WDW is not at capacity then for July-capacity limits? Are they going to then turn around and cancel ppl after these potential moves?
I was booked for June 9, but moved it to Aug 3 after my week was axed.
I've been nervous about being canceled since I booked so late. But reading this I am really confused.
So many rumors...

Because these guests are paying full rate for the open rooms at DVC, FW I do not expect them to get walked.

Is Disney jerk enough to walk people with July bookings instead of moving them if they manage to rebook enough June folks at full price into those rooms? Guess we’ll find out. Idk how appealing DVC cash rates or the FW property are to most of these folks though when paired with the half-park experiences they’ll be getting.

 

[LSUmiss]

This is the thing all the speculation with resort reservations is b/c Disney is still being secretive & probably shady & not informing their customers of their plans. Again, there is no way way they don’t know the plan. They’re playing games.

 

[gottalovepluto]

We would. We are both teachers with two weeks of online learning left--we need a break. We need something to look forward to. Disney also just refunded us $$$$ in Disney gift cards for the Deluxe Dining Plan and we can cook in a 1BR.

I despise having to cook on vacation. I don’t even want to see a freaking kitchen when on vacation because it makes me feel guilty for spending money on restaurants

 

[DGsAtBLT]

This is the thing all the speculation with resort reservations is b/c Disney is still being secretive & probably shady & not informing their customers of their plans. Again, there is no way way they don’t know the plan. They’re playing games.

Can anyone involved in this game not call it quits, take their “ball” (money), and go home?

They’ve been pretty good with allowing people to cancel for full refunds, and refunding non refundable things throughout.

 

[A2DisneyMom]

They were aware of Covid while they were allowing reservations to be booked. They knew they were going to have to reduce capacity to re-open. Yet they kept taking reservations at a time when it was clear they knew they would not be open. To ignore everything that shows this is just that- ignoring it. It's not a lazy talking point and at least as valid as all the rumors that fly around in this forum every day.

What you have to do is ask yourself why did they do that? That's a subject for debate, but I see nothing that points to anything except they 1) did not want a rush of guests calling to cancel and 2) That deposit money they held, tens of thousands of dollars, was a short term, interest free loan. What you call easy and lazy, I call disappointing and hard to accept, but still the truth.

US Disney parks closed about 2 weeks before the end of Disney’s last financial quarter (March 28) and Disney’s last earnings call was on May 5. Let’s just say Disney REALLY needed people to not cancel en masse before March 28 and was probably willing to put themselves in a difficult position longer term (I.e. now) in order to avoid this.

I tend to find company’s earnings statements as the best publicly available way to get insight as to what a company is doing and why. Here’s Disney’s from last month, if anyone else is interested. Lots of discussion there about what Disney is expecting to do in this reopening period (can almost hear the next call’s “consolidated resort operations to minimize cash burn”).

https://thewaltdisneycompany.com/app/uploads/2020/04/q2-fy20-earnings-transcript.pdf

 

[Eric Smith]

Rack rate? Lots of them. Mostly you have to go to a 1 br villa to hit that mark, but it's easy. 2 br villas can certainly hit that mark and higher. The cheapest DVC's are OKW and SSR, but even those can easily run over 1k. Grand villas can run several thousand dollars a night. And that's just DVC. I can show you dozens of rooms on property that run well over 1k a night.

If you're going to quote me, at least use the whole quote. I don't want anyone to assume you're trying to misquote people to fit your narrative. Here's the full quote:

"I'm not sure where you're finding a $1,000 room on property unless its a grand villa, the cabins at Wilderness Lodge or the Bungalows at the Poly"

Obviously some rooms on property can go over $1k in rack rate. That's far from the norm.

 

[gottalovepluto]

Maybe they are only allowing booking at specific resorts through the end of the year because most resorts are already pretty filled up through the end year, which is normal.

Definitely not. Those of us watching availability this year had never seen so much availability before they shut the system down.

 

[DGsAtBLT]

I despise having to cook on vacation. I don’t even want to see a freaking kitchen when on vacation because it makes me feel guilty for spending money on restaurants

The DVC villa kitchens are a great place to bring food from the resort QS restaurants to eat. And to store bottled water.

Also team not cooking on vacation.

 

[Krandor]

Can anyone involved in this game not call it quits, take their “ball” (money), and go home?

DVC renters

 

[cakebaker]

I despise having to cook on vacation. I don’t even want to see a freaking kitchen when on vacation because it makes me feel guilty for spending money on restaurants

We book 1 and 2 br villas a lot and I have yet to turn on a stove in one of them. No guilt here! It is nice though to be able to have snacks and drinks in a full size refrigerator and not be dealing with a sq ft of space making coffee in the morning. I've also yet to ever turn on a washer or dryer in one of them.

That said, rack rate? Nope, never, not once.

 

[DGsAtBLT]

DVC renters

Yeah, that one I know all too well unfortunately. DVC renters however, are at least at this point, aware when their resorts are opening. They are also not Disney’s direct customer so the fact that they are stuck with non refundable reservations isn’t really their concern. AP holders are also somewhat up in the air but do have the partial refund option. I am lucky to be caught up in both these groups lol.

Despite how Disney has been or been not communicating, they have generally been allowing people to pull all their money out if they don’t like it.

 

[0FF TO NEVERLAND]

For those that aren’t privy to the rumors going around on other message boards (and some of the ones discussed many pages back), here is a good summary:
https://www.orlandoweekly.com/Blogs...nally-overhaul-fastpass-and-extra-magic-hoursPlease note: most of this story is comprised of rumors.

There is nothing wrong with fast pass. In the end, we mostly get everything we want. Fast pass makes it possible to never wait on rides throughout the day, if you know what your doing.

I personally would hate any change, but I use it to my advantage so well. Yeah, you gotta do it in advance, and keep checking, but who cares, thats part of the fun planning the vacation.

If there wasn't fast pass, or if they didn't allow you to get more after the first 3, I don't even know if I would go to Disney that much. I like not waiting more than 20 mins on rides during my vacations ;]

 

[cakebaker]

Let’s just say Disney REALLY needed people to not cancel en masse before March 28 and was probably willing to put themselves in a difficult position longer term (I.e. now) in order to avoid this.

I've seen this excuse used before- just blantanly allowing that this is exactly what Disney did because they "needed" to. I couldn't care less what they needed to do financially. I am not a banker. Of course they were willing to put themselves in this position because they did it.

 

[junderwood99]

All respect to you, as I don't question the truth you are experiencing, but I spoke with a Disney CM this morning on the reservation line and asked if there were restrictions on when people could re-book for and she said no, up to 500 days out. I asked if there were RESORT restrictions and she said not that she has seen. Granted, I did not re-book as my dates still aren't allowed. Her info seems suspicious based on what we know about resort closures... and it was barely after 7:00am. I just sharing this to say TRY AGAIN, as ypu may get a different answer and allow the 2021 dates??? Who knows!? Worth a try...

Systems are very limited. We can not make any changes other than what is limited. There are no restrictions to booking into 2021 even though packages are not out yet -- we just can't do them right now. They have been shut down since last week. We all know that CM's are bombarded right now - I think there was some mis communication in your phone call.

 

[DGsAtBLT]

There is nothing wrong with fast pass. In the end, we mostly get everything we want. Fast pass makes it possible to never wait on rides throughout the day, if you know what your doing.

I personally would hate any change, but I use it to my advantage so well. Yeah, you gotta do it in advance, and keep checking, but who cares, thats part of the fun planning the vacation.

If there wasn't fast pass, or if they didn't allow you to get more after the first 3, I don't even know if I would go to Disney that much. I like not waiting more than 20 mins on rides during my vacations ;]

I think as long as they don’t pull the concept entirely (unlikely) and go traditional queues only, or do some obnoxious paid version that leaves scraps for those unwilling to pay, people like us will figure out the new system and make it work.

 

[Eric Smith]

Can anyone involved in this game not call it quits, take their “ball” (money), and go home?

They’ve been pretty good with allowing people to cancel for full refunds, and refunding non refundable things throughout.

Literally anyone effected by this could cancel their reservation and get their money back from Disney.

 

[Marionnette]

So, let me see if I got this right.

On the one hand, we don't know if and when regular non-DVC/non-FW resorts will open. Disney has not come out and said if they will reopen on July 11th, and if so, which ones will reopen. There is rampant speculation that not ALL those reservations will be able to be maintained in the initial weeks after reopening, if they are going to ensure resort guests have access to the parks. Or maybe not everyone with a room reservation will have daily access to the parks?

On the other hand, now they are allowing the June cancelled folks to rebook to the resorts that we do know will be open - DVC and FW - including allowing rebooking during the initial weeks after reopening that are the ones that allegedly have too many reservations for the park capacity.

These two things don't seem aligned to me.

Things are fluid. They may have had enough cancellations during the first weeks to allow more reservations to be made and are only offering the opportunity to those who recently had reservations cancelled.

Or perhaps, they have relaxed the limits that they initially imposed on park capacity and will allow more guests entry than they had first anticipated.

Or maybe they are seeing a sharp increase in DVC renting during the period when guests cannot book reservations and they want to curtail it.

We don’t know anything for sure. It’s all rumor and speculation until Disney confirms what they are planning.

 

[CastAStone]

Literally anyone effected by this could cancel their reservation and get their money back from Disney.

I don't believe they are refunding tickets that were purchased outside of a package.

 

[DGsAtBLT]

I don't believe they are refunding tickets that were purchased outside of a package.

They are on an individual level, according to multiple reports.

 

[cakebaker]

Can anyone involved in this game not call it quits, take their “ball” (money), and go home?

They’ve been pretty good with allowing people to cancel for full refunds, and refunding non refundable things throughout.

They can and I did. But that doesn't make what they're doing ok. I'm not going to give them a lot of credit for giving money back for something they cannot deliver. The law kind of requires that. I am sitting here with a 1200 voucher I can't use but I plan on discussing that with Disney one on one and I think we'll get it worked out. That, or I just hold on to it and see what happens. I have about a decade to decide.