My point...Evidence suggests the governor of FL may be one of the earlier states to relax restrictions. That suggests FL may be one of the first states to relax rules allowing malls to open. I'll speculate Disney will open DS within a week of other malls in the Orlando area opening. I think the May 1 date is still a goal.
I can't see the resorts and theme park opening if guests from areas like NY and CA are restricted from entering FL.
FWIW--If without fans was the only issue TV shows and movies, without live audiences, would be shooting.
Like Pete likes to say, I think it's 6 to 5 and pick em on that. There are a lot of American travelers outside those states who travel to the theme parks. But, obviously NY and CA would be a huge chunk of people.
That said, I think people from outside those locales may be MORE likely to travel, knowing that tourists are not coming in from those hot zones. I tend to think people will be more hesitant to travel, knowing that they will be intermingling with people from NYC especially.
*not for nothing or nothing, but California cases per capita is actually not terrible, so I hate to single them out. In fact, number of cases is about equal to Florida, despite being a couple of weeks ahead on the curve and being a much more populated state.
So, yes, you might lose out on some big numbers from areas that will typically travel to WDW. But, you might gain numbers from people who feel safer traveling because of those restrictions.
There is an animal rescue group in China that I follow on Instagram. I first heard about COVID from them back in December. They just posted that China is getting their 2nd wave and everything is shutting down again. Looks like this is going to take a lot longer than we think
Alright, not to be too hopeful or give false hope, but I think second wave is a bit of a misnomer. China is a HUGE country. And, for the most part, it's not like the parts hit hard the first time are getting hit again. It looks like there are other areas of the country getting it, most notably near the Russian border. So, essentially, this is their first wave. It's similar to the States. Different areas are having it crop up at different times.
Not to say it isn't serious, and not to say it isn't sad. It is both those things. But, I think the best thing to do is just wait for more information to come out and see where things go.
I know some have been mentioning that WDW could start by opening just for resort guests. How hard would it be to get a room if that happened? Do you think they'd get swamped or would it be pretty easy? Considering rebooking our trip for July.
So, this is something I have been mulling over. If WDW works at reduced capacity, which I assume they would, they would almost have to shut down certain resorts. Of course, not all people will be going to the parks every day. But, they have to be prepared for the number of people going to the parks.
There are appx. 30-35 K hotel rooms on property, depending if you count DS/Wyndham/Swalphin. Imagine 4 people per room, give or take, and do the math. They can't book to capacity. They just can't. Not even close. For those reasons, and also to consolidate transportation/food/etc, I imagine they'd have to shut some resorts down. But, then, of course, the people at those resorts would have to get moved somewhere. Maybe someone at OKW gets moved to BC. Maybe someone at POR gets moved to Caribbean Beach resort.
Here is how I would see it shaking out: OKW and SSR would be closed, because of their huge capacity and being bus transportation only. I think they are going to minimize bus service as much as possible. I see POR shutting down, also because of its capacity, POFQ is smaller and more manageable, so I can see it staying open. CBR, although it has huge capacity, I could see staying open, because of its proximity to the Skyliner. It would also help to have the capacity to move other value/mod ressies to. I think some of the values get moved to Art of Animation/Pop Century. Maybe they leave one All Star Resort open. I could see AKV remaining open, just because it is such a good resort-only resort. Plus, the savannah and animals are already there and have to be cared for and maintained anyway. I think resorts that are on the monorail/Skyliner/walking distance to parks are gonna be what they will gravitate to leaving open. FW, because of the seclusion of individual campers/cabins I also think would be okay.
Because of all this, I would anticipate resorts to be very difficult to get into. You could have fewer resorts to choose from, but also there will be people moved from other resorts into the available vacancies. So, while I do think the parks may be light in capacity, resort reservations could be tough.