Cruise and Theme Park Operational Updates due to Coronavirus

[mattpeto]

For now at least. Looks like they are monitoring the situation.

Pandemics throw everything, especially leisure traveling out of whack. This has been to a real time react and adjustment strategy with everything...

Any guesses on when the "soft openings" start before July 11 public opening?

One month from today, June 29th for DVC members. That's my guess.

 

[Eric Smith]

I think you are right. They are really different entities. But I also think Disney’s poor communication and lack of forward thinking made it really easy to see UO as a valid back up and a better bet. UO might not be as vast, but it is a viable alternate and the way Disney worked it turned a lot of people in that direction.

Please provide some examples of Universal's awesome communication. I haven't seen any. They made the announcement, that's about it.

 

[SwirlTheCitrus]

Any news from press conference?

 

[Pickle Rick]

My personal speculation: no earlier than July 5.

Agreed. I don't see them doing anything prior to the 5th. Right after July 4th would be perfect. Hell, that was my original prediction for their opening date to the general public.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

My personal speculation: no earlier than July 5.

though would be a nice sentiment if they soft opened EPCOT on July 4th for CMs and did the 4th of July fireworks for them

 

[bluecruiser]

I just got the email stating because I have valid tickets I will get priority access, and the only tickets I have on my account are unactivated APs. So they are definitely counting those as valid tickets. I currently have split stay reservations for July and one in October.

I got the email as well:

However, because you have valid Theme Park admission, you will have access to the Theme Park reservation system before new tickets are sold to other Guests.

I have a DVC reservation in December, but I have absolutely NO tickets on my account.

 

[sullivan.kscott]

Any guesses on when the "soft openings" start before July 11 public opening?

There might be something to that June 22 date, for EXTREMELY limited experiences. IE, snapping pictures on Main St and spinning on Dumbo (I just picked nostalgia, low touch, easy queue).
Walk the animal trails and get a sampling of Flame Tree in a prix fix format akin to a catered lunch.
A thank you for coming during official closures. And, even tough we’re not ready for even a limited reopen, you can walk the hallowed ground.

 

[Yooperroo]

Same. My question remains - once activated, will the clock start while we're in this reservation period? Need to find this out as it will be the yay or no if we'll visit anytime soon.

Yep. Same with us. I hope there's enough of us that they don't forget about how they are going to address our unique situations. But not feeling too hopeful at this point in time. They have so much to deal with right now, I'm feeling we are going to get lost in the cracks.

 

[vinotinto]

I would love a confirmation from Disney that AP’s will be extended & we count as people with existing tickets. Or even an email that it won’t be extended so I can request my refund & move on.

Where does the rumor that they won’t extend expired APs originate?

 

[BrianR]

Any news from press conference?

Nothing with regards to Disney other than talks with MLS and NBA for sports there.

 

[Tjddis]

I think that's likely why Disney is taking it a lot more slowly now and being somewhat vague on specifics and details. They were too confident that things would be better faster when they originally rescheduled people and offered the free dining etc. so now they are trying to manage customer expectations and only promise what they think they can actually deliver.

It's kind of like the switch to backup boarding groups for RoTR. Initially they were handing out a free park hopper ticket and an anytime FP to anyone in a boarding group that didn't get called. When it became clear there was no way to accurately predict how many boarding groups would get on in a given day, they switched to the backup boarding group system with no guarantee of getting called (with the expectation that at least some of them would be).

You know I hear and appreciate what you are saying but what I don’t understand why it is being looked at as such a binary choice. What I mean is they said closed tfn, and then started accepting reservations for 6/1. Now I’ve worked in operations, on a much smaller scale of course, but you set expectations, establish a recovery date and then monitor. You have a secondary date: if we get x by this date we will be on target for the restart. When you don’t get x you re-elaviate the date, communicate an adjustment to the affected parties and try to reestablish a new opening date. So on say May 1 (if not earlier) they pretty much knew 6/1 was a no go. Close sales/reservations on that date. You want to be coy and not tell people 6/1 is a no go? Ok I guess. But close the influx. Then As we get to mid-May start to cancel ADRs as you know any reopennis going to cause pretty severe capacity limits. Phase the cancellations over a few days, park at a time, resort restaurants whatever. All he while OVER COMMUNICATE to your customers so they do not feel dumped on. If I’m watching ADRs disappear due to understandable capacity limits when they cancel DDP I will probably be all onboard, who wants to pay for a plan when reservations are so limited. Tell me that would not have been better received.

 

[xuxa777]

Universal hotels are third party, so it looks like Loews hotels made the decision to open.

You could book those hotels last week, for dates starting on June 2nd. It was only made "official" through Universal recently.

 

[KrissyD715]

No email yet. Two reservations on the books for July, both with tickets and ddp.

 

[Eric Smith]

Same. My question remains - once activated, will the clock start while we're in this reservation period? Need to find this out as it will be the yay or no if we'll visit anytime soon.

I don't think you can activate remotely. Since you'd have to be on site to activate, the clock would start on your first day in the park. Just having the vouchers linked in MDE is enough for fast passes so I don't see a reason it would be any different.

 

[hereforthechurros]

It was said yesterday that they had frozen the reservation system completely meaning no cancellations either... can anyone confirm if they are still not allowing cancellations?

 

[whiporee]

I think everyone is on edge about everything now - a lot built up over time and a lot just going on right now (in the theme park world and the world world)

Exactly. You think Minneapolis burning is just about the one guy? It's about all of it, three months of panic and fear looking for a release. Everyone is on edge, and since a lot of us spend a lot of time thinking about WDW, a lot of the outside-world stress spills over into WDW discussions. I see it on softball boards that used to be about the best way to keep girls cool between games but are now turning into mask referendums. We can't escape this stuff no matter where we go, and even the places we look to escape are drowning us in it.

Here's the key point, though. We don't all agree. If COVID were Ebola and there were children bleeding from their eyes, none of this would be a conversation. But it's not. It's a virus that is deadly to small percentage of the population, but in a country of 350 million (or a world of 7 billion) even a small percentage is a huge number. We don't agree on WDW's ideas because we don't agree on anything about COVID. Not about how serious it is or how serious we should have taken it or how seriously we should take it in the near future. Not about the best practices to prevent its spread, or the reasonableness of what precautions. We don't agree about anything, so why would we agree about what WDW should do?

That said, I don't know that WDW could have handled it much differently than they have. I think they targeted June 1, because none of us thought it would go this long. We weren't told it would go this long. And in early May, when it looked like June wouldn't happen, they scrapped half the summer. I think they planned to scrap the whole summer, but UO forced their hand into reopening. So now they are trying to find a way to do that, and accommodate the legitimate fear some people have while not overplaying the fear others don't have. It's a delicate balance, and I wish them well.

 

[Brianstl]

My personal speculation: no earlier than July 5.

I think they go earlier. I think they will do two days at each park and want to have time to make adjustments between each day at each park and to have time to make adjustments before the opening. I think the first soft opening will be almost three weeks before the public opening.

 

[Pickle Rick]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1266442362512912386

Approved. As if there was any doubt.

 

[LSUmiss]

Has anyone with valid tickets and hotel stay NOT gotten an email yet? I know this particular email doesn't mean much, but it makes me nervous that if we don't receive this one, we won't receive more important emails down the line????
[/QUOTE]
I haven’t. We are booked 7/12-7/19 in Boulder Ridge on cash reservation. I have an AP that technically expires 7/14 & DH has valid park tickets linked.

 

[mattpeto]

Agreed. I don't see them doing anything prior to the 5th. Right after July 4th would be perfect. Hell, that was my original prediction for their opening date to the general public.

Yeah you guys are probably right, but they already announced no fireworks anyway - so maybe July 4th could be in play.