Cruise and Theme Park Operational Updates due to Coronavirus

[Lewisc]

Yeah because you bet your butt if folks heard those "affected" got something special everyone would chime in and say they were also in that group. It would be a mess, and not an actual solution to the problem imho.

JMO The solution is to reduce the impact on guests by opening closed resort pools for overflow, with transportation, or complimentary water parks access The alternative is to compensate guests. Maybe every guest. Maybe limit it to those guests who show up at a pool and are turned away.

 

[Eric Smith]

An arcade, every resort and limit capacities at the resort both waterparks...etc. etc. Etc. Stop being an apologist.

I’m not being an apologist. I’m being realistic. People have unreasonable expectations for going on vacation during a pandemic.

 

[jkh36619]

They would not be able to operate the hotel if they only sold rooms to the number of people who fit in the pool area at a given time. Many people who stay at the resorts don’t even go to the pool.

The resorts aren’t even open to full capacity. Beach Club isn’t open, just villas and Yacht Club and SAB is still hitting capacity. They have a whole resort side closed!

Seriously. I can't believe this even has to be said.

 

[MickeyWaffles]

An arcade, every resort and limit capacities at the resort both waterparks...etc. etc. Etc. Stop being an apologist.

Why should they open both water parks when Blizzard Beach is practically a ghost town?

 

[Oldnewfan]

Caught myself up tonight. I am a little suprised to read that folks are shocked by their diminished experience and don't feel that the value is there right now. Disney will squeeze every penny out of the traveler who decides to visit right now and keeping overhead low is the only way. I don't see the draw right now. Maybe for the brief period you had the park to yourself but that was a fleeting period. Crowded and restrictive at the same price point. Nope. I think we are way past that brief honeymoon. Like Pete says "gird your loins".

 

[gottalovepluto]

...I am a little suprised to read that folks are shocked by their diminished experience and don't feel that the value is there right now. Disney will squeeze every penny out of the traveler who decides to visit right now...

Personally I’m not surprised at all. There are always folks with unreasonable expectations.

For instance just wait until we get posts from all the people currently judging others for expecting things like pool access right now when they come back here in 6 months to complain about all the price hikes once the masks are gone, characters are back and FP is pay to play. Like there are legitly people out there right now who think they’re gonna get the old full Disney experience in 2021 at something close to 2019 prices.

 

[LSUmiss]

Do you expect Disney to suddenly build more pools? Put in temporary pools? I'm not sure what the demand is here.

If there was more to do in the parks, perhaps less ppl would be back at the resort so early to swim.

 

[LSUmiss]

Well, All Star Movies opens next week, Beach Club on May 30, Wilderness Lodge June 6 and the Poly sometime in the summer.

Doesn’t help the ppl dealing with Disney’s nonsense now.

 

[Eric Smith]

Doesn’t help the ppl dealing with Disney’s nonsense now.

Yeah, COVID really has put a damper on the vacation experience.

 

[MickeyWaffles]

If there was more to do in the parks, perhaps less ppl would be back at the resort so early to swim.

I don’t really think that’s it. Pool demand is always incredibly high during spring break even when everything else is open and other activities available.

The weather was perfect for the pool yesterday and today (85 & 86, no rain) and it’s going to be 90 & dry tomorrow & Thursday too. Add the perfect swimming weather to the limited capacity in the pool area and there’s the answer. So many people are spring breaking from cold and dreary weather and 85-90 is automatic swim weather for them.

 

[LSUmiss]

I don't think it's that big of a leap from having a COVID warning on just about every page on the website and the fact that you may not be able to get in to the pool exactly when you want.

I think that’s a stretch.

 

[LSUmiss]

I'm not apologizing for them either. I think six feet apart outside is overkill at this point and CDC very well may change to 3 feet. But Disney follows CDC so kind of up to them.

Now if CDC changes guidance to 3ft and Disney still chooses to follow 6 feet, then I will start to be annoyed at Disney!

Which is another point. Imo I think it’s arrogant that the cdc thinks they need to give recommendations above & beyond what The Who has given for the entire world. We are not that special.

 

[TXAKDisneyFan]

Caught myself up tonight. I am a little suprised to read that folks are shocked by their diminished experience and don't feel that the value is there right now. Disney will squeeze every penny out of the traveler who decides to visit right now and keeping overhead low is the only way. I don't see the draw right now. Maybe for the brief period you had the park to yourself but that was a fleeting period. Crowded and restrictive at the same price point. Nope. I think we are way past that brief honeymoon. Like Pete says "gird your loins".

There probably isn't a huge draw right now for the once-in-a-lifetime, maybe even the once-every-several-years, guests who know what is normally available (dining experiences, spas, BBB, fireworks, etc). But how many of them actually do enough research to know what is and isn't open? Or what is normally available?

One of my best friends just went to Orlando for the first time; I tried to give her info and not much stuck. They ended up going to AK one day, had a good time. I don't think they knew enough to know what they were "missing" and honestly compared to what they have available where they live, your local zoo is massively impressive to them. Too many options almost becomes overwhelming for them, so no shows etc in their case was "good."

We've been 4 times since reopening (and have another trip in April). We're not regular fireworks or parade watchers, so those aren't really missed in the short term. It was too "cold" for us last week to swim (and we don't usually swim on vacations anyway bc we can whenever we want at home, I'm not regularly "wasting" my time swimming at Disney World). That's not to say we don't miss things or notice when attractions/shows/restaurants are closed, we absolutely do, but if we only utilize those things every 6th trip anyway...

Even last week with the spring break crowds, and not being able to drag our lazy bums out of bed early, we got to the parks (around 11-12) and rode everything we wanted. For instance, on our AK day last week, we arrived around 11, had lunch, and by 5:50 pm we'd ambled about, had snacks, ridden dinosaur x2, safari (got "stuck" by giraffes in the road), FOP, Navi, and Everest x7.
On our first MK day, even arriving at 5 pm and going straight to dinner at Skipper's Canteen, we rode Splash, BTMRR, HM, Peter Pan, all before leaving by 9 pm.
I guess I don't get the recent posts I've seen saying "it's so crowded, we only got on ONE ride (or zero) today." Yes, the lines are long. But it's because of distancing; we've found that by in large they overestimate wait times. (Ex: Everest wait time was listed at 25 min, line wound in front of the Nemo bldg, we were off the ride in 23 min.)

There is draw right now for us: Our APs were already bought and paid for before the pandemic started. We need vacations (esp DH who works 100+ hours a week). I'm not saying we don't miss the things that are currently closed, but they're not keeping us away. We're going to pay for a hotel wherever we go (and we've gotten AP discounts), we haven't found the rules at WDW to be too restrictive, we might as well go there. (Honestly the biggest headache since reopening has been not being able to readily find ice water bc of mobile order.)

 

[LSUmiss]

So, in your opinion, Disney's bottom line trumps the satisfaction of the people who provide the money for that bottom line. Isn't that the very definition of corporate greed?

My company lost a bunch of money too from the lockdowns, but one of our top goals in returning to "normal" was to make sure the clients don't receive worse customer service. Can Disney say that?

Like ppl have said so many times on this board, Disney is not a charity. So it works both ways. Neither am I. Perhaps Disney should apply for a ppp loan, if they’re in such dire circumstances. Don’t expect your guests to bail you out at they’re expense.

 

[LSUmiss]

Maybe people would feel better if they just closed the pools altogether until they can raise capacity

At least ppl would know more what to expect & could better decide if they think it’s worth still paying Disney’s ridiculous resort prices.

 

[LSUmiss]

I’m not being an apologist. I’m being realistic. People have unreasonable expectations for going on vacation during a pandemic.

Well here is the thing, ppl have been saying before Covid too. There’s always an excuse (from some) as to why Disney is justified.

 

[Douglas Dubh]

Well, none that won't cost them money I suppose. They could certainly open more things at the resorts, but then they would have to pay more CMs.

The problem isn’t just paying more CM’s. If you bring more CM’s back to a location, you have to provide them with a place to take a break. There are only so many break rooms, and they are all at 25% capacity. Some guest areas are closed because they are using those as cast break rooms.

 

[mshanson3121]

Disney is already treading water on the parks financially. They're not going to limit resort capacity because the pools filled up.



In most situations, this wouldn't work. Unless it was possible to walk from an open resort to a closed resort, people wouldn't go for this. I don't think many would want to wait for a bus, jump on a bus, swim and then repeat the process while wet just to go to a pool.



I don't see this being a realistic option.



How do you know what guests are affected? Do you give it to every guest at the resort whether they were actually going to go to the pool or not? Do you prorate it based on how long the pool was actually at capacity?



The information that pool offerings could be reduced is listed on the Disney website. The website also goes out of its way to tell you that there are COVID restrictions in place. The pool possibly filling up is a risk that people took whether consciously or unconsciously.



I don't think Disney is telling anyone to "pound salt", but it's not Disney's responsibility to compensate people for this issue. The pools are what they are. SAB filled up in the pre-COVID times. Disney is a popular destination, there are crowds which may impact your experience.

Agree with all of this (and your other comments on the matter). Overall, I think people just think Disney has unlimited funds and thus should afford to bend over backwards to please the guest and do everything possible to give them a normal experience. If that means opening all the resorts so they can marginally fill, but at least everyone will have a pool, so be it. These people just have NO financial concept of what they're saying. The reality is, in realtive terms, Disney is bleeding financially, and has to do what it can to stem that. They do NOT have unlimited financial resources, and yes, if they are not smart with their money, they could go under. Are they near that point? No. But if they did everything people want them to, they would be. People have idealized, unrealistic expectations.

I mean, our local hotels don't even have enough pool capacity for their guests. You're told when you book: resort offerings (pool, gym etc...) are limited and may be unavailable during your stay. Why on earth would people not expect that at Disney, where you have multitudes more visiting?

 

[mshanson3121]

So, in your opinion, Disney's bottom line trumps the satisfaction of the people who provide the money for that bottom line. Isn't that the very definition of corporate greed?

I am often one of the first to call Disney greedy, as many here know. But sorry... that's out the window during Covid. They are trying to SURVIVE. So yes, right now, the bottom line DOES trump customer satisfaction, because if it doesn't, Disney won't be around in the future. They are not invincible like many want to pretend they are. Now obviously yes, it's a balance, but no one is more aware of that than Disney, and the reality is while the pool thing does suck, it's not going to result in enough upset people to tip that balance.

 

[Br'er Rabbit is the Best]

I am often one of the first to call Disney greedy, as many here know. But sorry... that's out the window during Covid. They are trying to SURVIVE. So yes, right now, the bottom line DOES trump customer satisfaction, because if it doesn't, Disney won't be around in the future. They are not invincible like many want to pretend they are. Now obviously yes, it's a balance, but no one is more aware of that than Disney, and the reality is while the pool thing does suck, it's not going to result in enough upset people to tip that balance.

Regarding how Disney is doing financially, during the last fiscal quarter the Company made a tiny profit. Now that’s not the parks division, but the consolidated company as a whole. So in a quarter with no Disneyland, Disneyland Paris closed part of the quarter, a socially distant Disney World, no cruising, no movie theaters, etc. the consolidated company still made money. Disney is not bleeding money. While most mega corporations like Disney silo their operating companies into different divisions with their own budgets, Disney could easily move money around within the company to keep up the guest experience at their parks. They just choose not to. That’s their choice, but their stock trades at a consolidated level not at each division of the company. Is it a better long term strategy to take a tiny hit now to build long term goodwill with everyone going to their parks right now? Maybe. That’s for Chapek to decide.

But the Walt Disney Company made a little more than $23 billion profit in 2018 and 2019. They lost a little less than $3 billion in 2020. So far in 2021, like I said they turned a $17 million profit. Don’t let them tell you that they’re bleeding financially and have to give you a bad customer experience. It’s simply not true. They’re breaking even right now and will be making billions of dollars in profit either this year or next. They can easily keep up a strong customer experience at their parks. They may just have to sacrifice a year of dividends to shareholders and I think even that would be exaggerating the costs they need to put into the parks.