Cruise and Theme Park Operational Updates due to Coronavirus

[andyman8]

Texas gov signing an executive order next week for a plan to start reopening

Could be the beginning of a trend

Unlikely. The situation in Texas is very different than it is in FL, NY, NJ, PA, MA, VA, MD, DC, LA, and other coastal locations (from which WDW pulls a substantial amount of its guests). Officials from all those locations have said they won't even start to think about mass re-openings until at least the end of the month (even Florida).

 

[wallawallakids]

I am trying to not loose hope and this thread has helped keep me busy while my husband is at work (and my mind off worrying about him) but honestly, I am starting to and when Disney will open just seems so small compared to the rest of the issues going on around us. I really wanted to have one last big family trip before my oldest left for college. When April got canceled I thought for sure July would be fine. Now I’m not sure. Today there are 20,000 plus Americans that have lost their lives and I just find it so heartbreaking. Here I sit debating these issues and people are suffering, loosing loved ones and their livelihoods. It makes my problems seem so small. Even my daughter having her senior year canceled seems small. Disney can wait. Our vacations can wait. I just pray we get this all under control. I never thought in my life I would see 2000 Americans die in a day from a virus. Anyway, I want to thank you all for keeping my mind off all the realities going on but I’m giving the Disney talk a break. It will be a happy day for sure when the parks open back up, whenever that is. Hopefully sooner then later, because that means we are over all this sooner and I really would love that!

 

[osufeth24]

Unlikely. The situation in Texas is very different than it is in FL, NY, NJ, PA, MA, VA, MD, DC, LA, and other coastal locations (from which WDW pulls a substantial amount of its guests). Officials from all those locations have said they won't even start to think about mass re-openings until at least the end of the month (even Florida).

Gurantee once more states start doing it, the rest will follow

Also, FL isn't really all that bad, at least compared to what they were projecting. Plus, I'm pretty sure DeSantis never said that. The orange county mayor said that, but not the gov.

 

[b2k1121]

It is

It's wishful thinking at best. It's essentially 'We are announcing a plan to start coming up with a plan'. This is all day to day so any plan about what is going to happen in the future is a guess. Remember the president said we would be open by Easter? And WDW was only going to be closed for 2 weeks? Nobody knows.

 

[Farro]

I am trying to not loose hope and this thread has helped keep me busy while my husband is at work (and my mind off worrying about him) but honestly, I am starting to and when Disney will open just seems so small compared to the rest of the issues going on around us. I really wanted to have one last big family trip before my oldest left for college. When April got canceled I thought for sure July would be fine. Now I’m not sure. Today there are 20,000 plus Americans that have lost their lives and I just find it so heartbreaking. Here I sit debating these issues and people are suffering, loosing loved ones and their livelihoods. It makes my problems seem so small. Even my daughter having her senior year canceled seems small. Disney can wait. Our vacations can wait. I just pray we get this all under control. I never thought in my life I would see 2000 Americans die in a day from a virus. Anyway, I want to thank you all for keeping my mind off all the realities going on but I’m giving the Disney talk a break. It will be a happy day for sure when the parks open back up, whenever that is. Hopefully sooner then later, because that means we are over all this sooner and I really would love that!

It can get depressing.
I think we are reaching a point where the news is becoming more harmful than helpful.
There has to come a time when they stop with the death tickers. Honestly, everyone will become immune to that eventually anyways, it's human nature.

If it helps, try and look at the hundreds of thousands who survived!!! So many survived!!!

Take a break and stay sane!!!

 

[osufeth24]

It's wishful thinking at best. It's essentially 'We are announcing a plan to start coming up with a plan'. This is all day to day so any plan about what is going to happen in the future is a guess. Remember the president said we would be open by Easter? And WDW was only going to be closed for 2 weeks? Nobody knows.

Guarantee states will start reopening some business in May

 

[b2k1121]

Guarantee states will start reopening some business in May

That's a pretty low bar but guaranteeing anything right now is silly.

 

[Spridell]

Unlikely. The situation in Texas is very different than it is in FL, NY, NJ, PA, MA, VA, MD, DC, LA, and other coastal locations (from which WDW pulls a substantial amount of its guests). Officials from all those locations have said they won't even start to think about mass re-openings until at least the end of the month (even Florida).

Gov of Florida yesterday said schools in northern Florida might reopen soon. Golf courses and boat ramps reopened last week in parts of central florida.

 

[jlwhitney]

Gov of Florida yesterday said schools in northern Florida might reopen soon. Golf courses and boat ramps reopened last week in parts of central florida.

I am in ne fl and people
Are already getting frustrated with what is going on

 

[JPM4]

Have you ever been at Magic Kingdom on a crowd level 8 or above day lol? I’m not sure I agree with you.

This! Was there Christmas Eve. Didn’t move for a legit 5 minutes after parade because of the sea of people shoulder to shoulder and hip to hip

 

[MichelinMan]

Is it possible that Disney World parks would only open to Disney hotel guests and partner hotel guests to begin with, or at least extend EMH.
If they only partially open the parks, maybe two out of the four, surely they should give people the choice to refund their holidays.

You know what, I hadn't thought of extending EMH. That is a great idea - could help to spread out the crowds with longer opening hours. We are not morning people on vacation, and would welcome extra late park hours every day.

 

[SaintsManiac]

I am in ne fl and people
Are already getting frustrated with what is going on

People everywhere are getting frustrated. I am frustrated. I don’t want all these rules. I worry about the economy. I am afraid of the virus. I agree with the stay at home orders.

It is fine to feel all of this at the same time.

 

[andyman8]

Gurantee once more states start doing it, the rest will follow

Also, FL isn't really all that bad, at least compared to what they were projecting. Plus, I'm pretty sure DeSantis never said that. The orange county mayor said that, but not the gov.

I will keep this in terms of Disney since that's what the mods have requested and focus on Florida. As a Floridian myself, I have to adamantly disagree that it really isn't "all that bad." First and foremost, Florida has an older population with more than a quarter of its citizens being over 60. It's not uncommon to encounter CMs over 60, even working labor-intensive roles alongside CPs. That fact in and of itself means the number of severe cases and deaths (i.e. "that bad") will be very high and stay very high. This is part of the reason why Florida started to see more cases before many other states in its vicinity. Also, I'd be wary of saying anything that kill 20,000+ Americans is "not that bad." Just my personal opinion I suppose.

Number two: Florida is still not testing at the rates of any of those other states, including Texas. Right now, Florida (at over 18,000 cases) is way ahead of Texas, but even so, Texas is testing at a much higher and faster rate than Florida. I know a number of people myself who are experiencing symptoms who either can't get tested at all or are being asked to wait a week. Texas is in a much better position to "reopen" sooner than Florida (and that has nothing to do with out "restless" people are getting.) WDW will not reopen until they have a firm idea of just how many cases there are in the area and can be confident that they know they don't have CMs reporting to work who could have it or be carriers. That doesn't mean they'll be testing CMs or guests (they most certainly won't) but they have to be confident in the precautions local officials are taking to ensure they have the most accurate data. And the FL governor has said that there won't be any efforts to start a reopening at this time. He discussed potentially having kids return to school in mid-May but also said that planning for that wouldn't start until towards the end of the month if they decide to move forward with that.

Also don't underestimate the power of local authorities in Orange and Osceola Counties. Even if the State is saying their reopening edict is superior, Disney almost always errs on the side of caution and would side with the Counties (that's essentially what happened before the closures). They know the counties Counties can make their reopening (and much beyond that) much, much harder.

 

[yankeesfan123]

Also, Disney world closed weeks before Florida “closed”. So what the governor there decides to do doesn’t really matter. As someone else mentioned, construction could still be going on at Disney, but it’s not (other than non-Disney owned projects on site).

 

[andyman8]

Gov of Florida yesterday said schools in northern Florida might reopen soon. Golf courses and boat ramps reopened last week in parts of central florida.

Um...golf course and some boat facilities have been listed as exemptions in the stay-at-home order since it was issued earlier this month, so they were never asked to close. Heck, you could go golfing at WDW right now. Their courses are still open (and never closed). And as I said, the governor did not say schools were reopening "soon." He said they were exploring having them open sometime in mid-ish May. The State has said they wouldn't start even planning for a reopening sometime in May until at least the end of this month. While some businesses in your area may be changing their independent decisions, nothing has changed in terms of state and federal guidance. Likewise, nothing has changed for WDW's reopening prospects.

 

[MichelinMan]

It would seem a lot of people are placing a lot of emphasis on the IHME models in their prediction of park opening. At first, I was very impressed with the site - it looked like it had a lot of great data. But I have been testing a lot of the outputs from their models against my own statistics I've been collating, and now concluded that their models are flawed. I won't bore everybody with how I've come to that conclusion, but I now have little faith in their predictions, and I think their models are overly optimistic about what is going to happen in the USA. In particular I think they are overly optimistic with how quickly numbers are going to drop after the peak (their estimate for Italy was way off, for example). So on that basis, I think there is now zero chance of opening on 1st June. I would place 1st July as best case scenario, but mid to late July as a more realistic date. Which would be bad news for me, as we are meant to arrive 6th July for 2 weeks. But on the positive side, August looks like a dead cert to me, and all this talk of will it be open for Xmas is just unnecessary scaremongering.

But I do worry that a lot of businesses in the US seem to be putting a lot of faith in the IHME models on when to re-open, and I just think that faith is a touch misplaced.

 

[TomServo27]

I know everyone is thinking Springs will open up first in some capacity. Which is what happened at Shanghai’s Disneytown. That was March 9 they did that. So it’s possible it could be quite a while before the parks open after Springs open.

 

[JPM4]

I have 2 reservations. One for July 4th week and one for November 8-14. I am heavily leaning towards November right now judging by rumors and innuendo. Basically have to wait to see how the AP stuff shakes out too. The plus in this whole thing is my 180 is May 12. Should be able to pull a California grille out of this!

 

[kittlesona]

It would seem a lot of people are placing a lot of emphasis on the IHME models in their prediction of park opening. At first, I was very impressed with the site - it looked like it had a lot of great data. But I have been testing a lot of the outputs from their models against my own statistics I've been collating, and now concluded that their models are flawed. I won't bore everybody with how I've come to that conclusion, but I now have little faith in their predictions, and I think their models are overly optimistic about what is going to happen in the USA. In particular I think they are overly optimistic with how quickly numbers are going to drop after the peak (their estimate for Italy was way off, for example). So on that basis, I think there is now zero chance of opening on 1st June. I would place 1st July as best case scenario, but mid to late July as a more realistic date. Which would be bad news for me, as we are meant to arrive 6th July for 2 weeks. But on the positive side, August looks like a dead cert to me, and all this talk of will it be open for Xmas is just unnecessary scaremongering.

But I do worry that a lot of businesses in the US seem to be putting a lot of faith in the IHME models on when to re-open, and I just think that faith is a touch misplaced.

I am very interested in your thoughts on this since the IHME model estimates have been reduced many times now. Most people seem to think that model was TOO aggressive. I have my first Disney cruise in July and a WDW trip in August and I really hope at least one of them happens. (For the record I currently believe that both are possible)

 

[whiporee]

I am trying to not loose hope and this thread has helped keep me busy while my husband is at work (and my mind off worrying about him) but honestly, I am starting to and when Disney will open just seems so small compared to the rest of the issues going on around us. I really wanted to have one last big family trip before my oldest left for college. When April got canceled I thought for sure July would be fine. Now I’m not sure. Today there are 20,000 plus Americans that have lost their lives and I just find it so heartbreaking. Here I sit debating these issues and people are suffering, loosing loved ones and their livelihoods. It makes my problems seem so small. Even my daughter having her senior year canceled seems small. Disney can wait. Our vacations can wait. I just pray we get this all under control. I never thought in my life I would see 2000 Americans die in a day from a virus. Anyway, I want to thank you all for keeping my mind off all the realities going on but I’m giving the Disney talk a break. It will be a happy day for sure when the parks open back up, whenever that is. Hopefully sooner then later, because that means we are over all this sooner and I really would love that!

I don't know if you're still here or you're still reading, but there is nothing small about what you've lost.

We have, as a country, handled this better than I would have thought possible. We have all made sacrifices, and the ones you've given up are not as bad as the tragedies that have hit others, but they are sad none the less. Your problems aren't small, and I'm sorry if the continual blast of doomsday has made you think they are. It IS awful that you're worried about missing a last trip before someone leaves home. It's sad that the effort you put into April was wasted.

Yes, there are others who have it worse. And yes, there are others who have it better (and FWIW, I think your July trip is fine). But we have all made sacrifices. My wife is a very devout Catholic; Holy Week is an important part of her year. And we're watching Masses on TV, hoping the internet streaming holds up. My boys had performances of shows they'd worked on for months cancelled out from under them. My daughter loves softball and her season is shot. Are they as bad as someone dying? of course not. But they are sad just the same. and there's nothing at all wrong in mourning them.

As i said above, I think there's nothing at all wrong with planning and looking forward to a July trip, and I sincerely hope you get to take it and it makes up a little smidge of what has been lost to you and yours.