Cruise and Theme Park Operational Updates due to Coronavirus

[Jmljasmine]

What was your date?

Yea, that would be a good bit to include... Oops. August 28-29. Currently booked Aug 26-Sep 4.
When I checked last week Every room class in CR was available. Today, only the garden wing Atrium club room was open.

 

[cakebaker]

A lot of it has to do with money and keeping the Magic. Its a tough balance for Disney more then Universal.

Not buying that at all. This was not an unknown to Disney. If they had these plans to open much later, why the June offer? Why allow booking in May and June? It doesn’t pass the smell test. They either aren’t opening later or they intentionally misled their guests. I’m going with they aren’t opening later because I want to believe they wouldn’t do the other. I hope they don’t prove me wrong.

 

[cakebaker]

Yea, that would be a good bit to include... Oops. August 28-29. Currently booked Aug 26-Sep 4.
When I checked last week Every room class in CR was available. Today, only the garden wing Atrium club room was open.

I was curious because availability has been wide open outside of CS, CSR and all CL rooms. I just took a look and the only resorts with no availability are still those. Everything else is open. I don’t even see the Atrium CL room you saw.

 

[TakesFaithTrust&PixieDust]

As far as heavier and older guests go, I am a chubby 50+ nurse who is working on the frontline of the pandemic. As it happens, I'm generally running at double speed, so I do not have HTN or any other comorbidities. If I'm well enough to care for infected patients, I can dang well go to Disney if I feel it is safe (for myself AND others) to be there. I do NOT suggest that anyone call me out for being there based on what their mistaken beliefs might be...it won't go well for them.

Great post. Thank you for all you do in taking care of those that need your expertise and dedication in your line of work.

 

[Jrb1979]

Not buying that at all. This was not an unknown to Disney. If they had these plans to open much later, why the June offer? Why allow booking in May and June? It doesn’t pass the smell test. They either aren’t opening later or they intentionally misled their guests. I’m going with they aren’t opening later because I want to believe they wouldn’t do the other. I hope they don’t prove me wrong.

I think originally they thought they May and June were going to happen. As time has gone on things have changed and different dates have been thrown out there. Which is why many of the rumors have different dates. I do think once June didn't happen that July 1st or sometime a little after is the new plan. I guessing August was worst case scenario.

 

[gottalovepluto]

So I thought I'd test availability too since if we go at all this summer it will be 1 night only for MNSSHP that we bought tickets for prepandemic. I still have my prior reservations that I have yet to cancel so when I try to modify to just the one night, it shows no availability in CR which I want for walking purpose, none in Poly, some in GF but higher rates then I'd pay. And many other resorts no availability. The only ones that are available are a few I have no desire to stay at. If it stays this way and we get the chance to go I guess we'll be off property. I'm starting to think it's not happening though. I really wish they would let us know soon so I can change alternative plans to a better time.

That could also be the fluke of one night. Sometimes they only open reservations that are a minimum of X number of nights so to get actual availability you’d want to branch that out to like 5 nights.

 

[Jmljasmine]

I was curious because availability has been wide open outside of CS, CSR and all CL rooms. I just took a look and the only resorts with no availability are still those. Everything else is open. I don’t even see the Atrium CL room you saw.

That is so strange. I wonder why my modification would show different availability. So many strange things. Maybe IT then...

 

[Jmljasmine]

That could also be the fluke of one night. Sometimes they only open reservations that are a minimum of X number of nights so to get actual availability you’d want to branch that out to like 5 nights.

True. I'm not interested in more then 1 night with modifications and risk of being turned away though. Figured I'd convert to a beach trip with one night at Disney since we already had party tickets.

 

[Sandiz08]

I don’t think we’ll ever know the real reason but I find it hard to believe that a billion dollar company such as Disney didn’t have contingency plans for a pandemic for insurance reasons, to protect their assets, etc. They have plans, dates, but just don’t want to open for whatever other reason that may be.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

I have said time and time again WDW has been doing a great job when it comes to refunding people and loosening cancellation policies.

Our airfare has turned into a ton of $$$ in credits that have an expiry date. So that’s fun, considering we likely will not be traveling by air anytime soon thanks to this pandemic.

I'm right there with you. Between Delta and JetBlue, we have about $6K in airfare credits and I have no clue when or if we'll use them before they expire . . . it's not fun, at all.

But I’m assuming you paid for your kids stuff pre pandemic so that is expected & understandable (although I was given the option of a refund for many things we paid for pre pandemic). They’re not selling vouchers to be used at a whenever they open date. They’re selling dated tickets to be used on specific days. If they know they won’t open by then, that’s not acceptable. That’s fraud imo. If they still don’t know, that’s fine. But they also need to communicate better. Not to mention the fact they haven’t bothered to officially update their email warnings telling guests the opposite of what their supposed new policy is regarding package cancellations & refunds. It’s not acceptable that they haven’t changed their written policy & are supposed to take Sven/Flynn/Finn & co at their word that the policy has changed.

The written policy regarding cancellations is right on their website: https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/travel-information/

Agree. I’ve mentioned this before. WDW has been great about providing full refunds compared to other travel companies. NCL cancelled my paid in full cruise on March 13. You have to pay in full 90 days prior to sailing. And then, they made us wait 10 days while they put up a form on their website to request a refund because they were automatically just giving everyone a future cruise credit. I requested the refund immediately, on March 23. It has been 2 months since I filled out the form and they still have not refunded my cancelled cruise. Most everyone in the travel industry is giving a future credit. It is rare to find a travel company that is allowing full payments so close to travel and full refunds instead of future credits.

omg. I know. This is why I'm having a hard time with people railing against WDW regarding room and package reservations. I get it. It's frustrating. We were supposed to check in March 17 and got swept up in the first wave of cancellations. WDW refunded all of our money when they weren't required to refund my deposit. Every single other company we booked with for travel from March 2020 through the end of the year (Rosewood, Delta, JetBlue, ABD and Celebrity) are issuing us credits. WDW could have stuck to their guns and kept all of those $200 package deposits. Heck, I know some people who canceled a package DAY OF check-in on March 13, the day after the WDW park closure was announced and they refunded everything when, at that point, NOTHING was refundable. WDW was within their rights to keep all of those $200 deposits and there are a lot of them. They've refunded everything. I know on the ticketing side it's a different story and that's very frustrating.

 

[cakebaker]

That is so strange. I wonder why my modification would show different availability. So many strange things. Maybe IT then...

Maybe look at it under booking a new reservation? Availability does change, but usually to the extreme you describe. Although I’m curious as to how you found a CL room open when it would appear they are all blocked out.

 

[anthony2k7]

If Disney is holding back opening the parks for the NBA, lets just say there will be some management shakeups. Chapek will not be CEO for long if that is the case. This is why I think the whole NBA thing is way overblown regarding to park opening.

With news getting better and numbers still trending down, with no indications of it changing, being closed at while Universal even though smaller can figure it out will look worse optically every day.

Just this week a study showed no infection from asymptomatic case spread from people exposed for long periods of time to that asymptotic case. Hopefully we will learn more info like this. Very promising and will make opening even easier.

Tokyo Disney should open real soon as well, they are probably going to drop state of emergency in the next few days, and they had a loose lockdown at best, with businesses still staying open.

Asymptomatic people do not spread the virus??????

 

[Dis5150]

We are right there too. Our July 5-17 was booked with the free dining on January 2. Gonna be a big blow to lose that.

Our 6/26-7/4 is free dining from January also. We added a day at the end and beginning and will be very sad to lose it!

 

[GeorgiaHoo]

Not buying that at all. This was not an unknown to Disney. If they had these plans to open much later, why the June offer? Why allow booking in May and June? It doesn’t pass the smell test. They either aren’t opening later or they intentionally misled their guests. I’m going with they aren’t opening later because I want to believe they wouldn’t do the other. I hope they don’t prove me wrong.

We are in the midst of a pandemic. The last time something similar occurred was 1918 and I'm pretty sure Disney wasn't operating in 1918. Everything about this is an unknown.

 

[anthony2k7]

Not to mention Disney is losing a hell of a lot more money than Universal is.

Are they though...? Havent people said universal had continued to pay TMs whilsy disney furloughed almost all CMs.

 

[Spridell]

As far as heavier and older guests go, I am a chubby 50+ nurse who is working on the frontline of the pandemic. As it happens, I'm generally running at double speed, so I do not have HTN or any other comorbidities. If I'm well enough to care for infected patients, I can dang well go to Disney if I feel it is safe (for myself AND others) to be there. I do NOT suggest that anyone call me out for being there based on what their mistaken beliefs might be...it won't go well for them.

Best post so far on this board.

 

[e_yerger]

there are a lot of angry pitchforks today. all valid, justified opinions. I’m sorry for everyone who has stress in their life right now due to their WDW vacation.

 

[andyman8]

Are they though...? Havent people said universal had continued to pay TMs whilsy disney furloughed almost all CMs.

Universal doesn't have as large and robust of a full-time workforce at Disney does. UOR relies on part-timers more than Disney, though both do rely heavily on part-time employees. Also, UOR (and the entire Universal Parks & Resorts division) doesn't make up nearly as much of NBCUni's total revenue as the Disney Parks do of TWDC's revenue. Not to mention, NBCU is owned by Comcast, so they have that to fall back on as well. That's why UOR actually could afford to even pay 80% of their full-timers' base pay during the closure.

 

[cakebaker]

We are in the midst of a pandemic. The last time something similar occurred was 1918 and I'm pretty sure Disney wasn't operating in 1918. Everything about this is an unknown.

I’m not talking about the pandemic. I’m talking about the fact that Disney has known for a long time there would be issues with compliance on face masks.

 

[Jrb1979]

I’m not talking about the pandemic. I’m talking about the fact that Disney has known for a long time there would be issues with compliance on face masks.

Agreed. Disney's biggest issue with enforcing the masks is doing in a Magical way. Where other parks will most likely go with constantly harping on people to wear them. Just look at most parks around the country and how they deal will people taking their phones out on rides. Six Flags and Cedar Fair will kick people out for doing that as it's a safety issue. Disney just hands out fast passes for doing it.