Cruise and Theme Park Operational Updates due to Coronavirus

[AmberMV]

That's very strange.

Especially given the "valid date" on them of 6/12/2020 which also happens to be the date all 6/22-7/4 are deadlined to respond to their reservation emails and also happens to be 30 days before the public reopening of Disney and also the "4 days remaining" bit.

 

[Tjddis]

Am I the only one who gets the feeling that Disney would just prefer to stay closed until September? I wonder if I could get the 2 Bob's in a room and fill them with truth serum they would admit that all the restrictions are being put in place so people would not come. The appearance is they are more worried about bad publicity from possible second wave Covid cases than losing money. I am not a big fan of keeping everything on lock down, but You really have to appreciate how hard they are protecting the brand.

Interesting point. I kind of see it the opposite way. By opening in a way that appears to be dissuading people from coming I wonder if they are damaging the brand. I also wonder if it would have better served the brand to open the parks in September. Open select resorts/DVC in June, delay parks to Sept. hope you can relax constraints but Sept. if not open with them. Spin it that you are erring on the side of safety, but providing resorts for those that need to get away and let people use DVC points. Not optimal, but the way park reopens are going imo is hurting their rep

 

[cm8]

I think the resort capacity to theme park ratio has finally been realized by Disney. It just means they need to build a 5th theme park

A 5th? They can’t even manage to keep up with 4!

 

[Sandisw]

We started our AP in February, FL resident Weekday passes. We also have dated tickets for August but those were tied to the Free dining recovery offer which is no longer available so we will be removing those August dated extra tickets when the system opens back up.

Do you have current resort reservation?

 

[AmberMV]

I had some show up a couple of weeks ago as well. We have 5 day tickets (no AP) and ours show a valid date if 7/20 which is the day we checkout.

Now that you say you had some valid on your day of check out it made me think about it. We were scheduled at Beach Club June 10-12, so there's a good chance it's totally coincidental with the date being about the 30 day mark of park reopening and just having to do with our original checkout date.

We're so desperate for news we are all wearing tin foil hats and creating our own conspiracy theories

 

[AmberMV]

Do you have current resort reservation?

3 cancelled reservations before the open and 2 remaining. July 4 and August 24

 

[yulilin3]

Now that you say you had some valid on your day of check out it made me think about it. We were scheduled at Beach Club June 10-12, so there's a good chance it's totally coincidental with the date being about the 30 day mark of park reopening and just having to do with our original checkout date.

We're so desperate for news we are all wearing tin foil hats and creating our own conspiracy theories

bingo. Mystery solved

 

[hereforthechurros]

So from what I can glean from this board and other sources the rollout of all this has been clunky to say the least. Am I understanding things correctly that people are being moved to more expensive DVC properties, up charged for that and then given 35%? And of course if you do plan to go you still have no idea where/when you can get a dining reservation, how/when/if you can get a park reservation, which rides/attractions will be available, all while walking around in oppressive heat with a face covering? If any of that is an incorrect assumption lmk
Additionally phone CMS (bless their overwhelmed hearts) are unsure/incapable of really speaking to any of this and are hamstrung by the limitations of already shaky Disney IT. So basically what we have here is a giant mess and Disney standing in the middle saying “trust us, come on in and give us lots of money, we have been really bad in communicating so far but it will all be Magic when you get here”
So I have not yet cancelled August because I don’t have to given the new cancellation policy and I suspect all of this will implode to the point where they are going to have to dole out some serious incentives after the massive cancellations/backlash.
So aside from those that have DVC they need to redeem or APs they need to use I am interested to know if you are still going what is the motivation? Blind faith in Disney? Being so frustrated from Covid lockdown you are looking for any outlet you can get? It seems completely unreasonable to me to ask people to revise resort plans with no explanation of Park admittance/reservation procedure

Our motivation to go on our August trip or not isn’t very strong one way or the other. If we go it’s because it’s a cheap, already paid up weekend for us with the 35% discount, we already have crazy cheap flights booked, we are young and healthy and have done the parks enough that we aren’t feeling left behind by changes to this point. We’ve done one M&G in a dozen visits, the hub for fireworks sucks, and we’ve seen the current parade enough.

If we decide not to go or if we are canceled it’s cool, we’ll put those funds towards our Christmas trip instead. Deal breakers for us would be extremely limited dining, being moved to a lesser resort, no pools, no bars, reports of long wait times once the parks open.

 

[Tjddis]

Because even with all of this, we just still want to go. This will be the 5th resort stay in 14 months. This is a big year for our family (high school graduation, elementary graduation, my 40th in Aug, my 13th wedding anniversary during the trip, last family vaca before my oldest leaves for college). I already live at the beach, so what else am I going to do? Plus, we've met the character so many times, we won't miss it. My kids don't even pay attention to the fireworks anymore. Sometimes we only go to the parks for a few hours anyways, so shorter hours won't bother us. I'm hoping that it'll make for a trip they won't forget, and hoping no one else shows up so I have the parks to myself ( wishful thinking, I know )

I hear everything you are saying. Understood. I hope you have a great trip and get everything you want for your birthday!

 

[andyman8]

There's one BIG story I think we've all missed today: Goofy's Candy Co. reopened!!!

(As did SW Galactic Outpost, DisneyStyle, Pin Traders, Ever After Jewelers, and Marvel Super Hero HQ)

 

[MickeyEars]

I love Goofy’s Candy Co.!!

 

[zemmer]

There's one BIG story I think we've all missed today: Goofy's Candy Co. reopened!!!

(As did SW Galactic Outpost, DisneyStyle, Pin Traders, Ever After Jewelers, and Marvel Super Hero HQ)

Yay!! I missed that. I know it’s silly but I was disappointed to think they wouldn’t be open when we go later this month.

 

[LSUmiss]

Um, if you guys pull up your MDE and look at your "FP PLANNING KEY CARD" does your "Valid" date show 6/12/2020?

Mine says 8/2/20

 

[TISHLOVESDISNEY]

bingo. Mystery solved

Boo! I was so rooting for all of this to be a sign of something.

 

[AmberMV]

Mine says 8/2/20

Are you checking out on 8/2?

 

[LSUmiss]

Are you checking out on 8/2?

Oh yeah I was. I had 2 resort reservations & the last one was 7/26-8/2. I’ve since cancelled that reservation though & I’m only scheduled 7/12-7/19 now. I don’t know how long it has said 8/2 on the FP key card b/c I never looked at the date til you posted.

 

[cakebaker]

Pull up MDE app, select your tickets and see what your FP planning key card valid date is

I don't have that. We have several AP's and a couple of regular tickets. Everything looks like it has for a while now.

 

[1GoldenSun]

Hm I wonder how they will handle the packages booked through Costco. I have not heard a peep from them about this and assume I won't be getting this email since I booked third party. I'm thinking I'll end up getting canceled.

As a second question, have people been able to get July tickets refunded instead of just extended by calling? Costco told me Disney is only allowing extension currently.

I called a few minutes ago and they confirmed my reservation at the Dolphin in July. I wonder if they're actually going to be open to guests outside of the MLS or if they're just putting off the inevitable and later on I'll be cancelled or given an offer to move. If they're going to have to cancel/move me I wish they'd just be upfront about it now rather than play this game of chicken. I played this with Southwest and I won--a week before the flight I had no intention of taking they called and offered me a refund--but I really don't have the heart to go through it again. I'd really rather just know what's happening so I can make my plans.

It could be that if they are planning on offering to move affected guests to other hotels they're just doing this "re-confirm your reservation" thing so they know how many guests they're going to need to move so they can plan accordingly.

 

[hereforthechurros]

This

NM!

 

[one_cat]

So I have seen no communication from Disney since their sudden announcement to cancel all ADRs. I don’t count that silly communication drop this morning: thanks Disney, you are going to clean my room before I check in.

It makes me wonder if it wasn’t for the DVC points debacle if they would even be thinking of opening in July? Would they wait til end of year or even later to see what the second wave looked like and to get their ducks in a row.

But opening even to DVC resorts causes an awful lot of questions around annual passes, park hopping etc. Before the complete blackout we saw them make several announcements then walk them back or even just delete them without explanation. It really makes me think: maybe the news blackout isn’t planned, maybe they actually can’t figure out the logistics of opening.

Annual passes: do you extend all annual passes and essentially give those that are lucky enough to get a reservation free days in the park? If you don’t then those that can’t get reservations have been impacted negatively. And if you do those that don’t get the freebies will be mad. I know a Pass isn’t a guaranteed admission but the expectation we all bought with was that denial of park privileges was under extraordinary circumstances like on Christmas Day when the park was literally full. Even then you could go to another park. It wasn’t bought with the expectation that it merely gave you a chance of entering a lottery to maybe get into a park on a particular day.

Hoppers is another issue. People paid extra expecting to be allowed to hop. It could be argued that many people wouldn’t have bought their passes at all if they couldn’t hop. Refunding the difference or days of nonentry isn’t really good enough if a vacation is completely ruined. I’m not a lawyer but this sounds like a legal issue to me. And not everyone can simply travel in a few months so holding their money isn’t a good policy either.

Another thought I have is: Perhaps they they do know how to do it but can’t get the software to work. It would make sense to push off a launch day announcement if the software isn’t working. But at what point do they push out their start date if they have to keep banging away at the software?

I’d love to hear others thoughts.