Yeah, our reservation is 7/12, so I did have a very brief thought about that. But no thank you. Maybe there will be the Epcot/HS previews at the beginning if our trip. Hmmmm.....
We are staying at VGF Sept 12-19 and have tickets booked. I received the email yesterday morning with the phrase “you will have access to the Theme Park reservation system before new tickets are sold to other Guests“.
Kerfuffle, I going with kerfuffle!My feeble detective guess at this early stage regarding the similar, yet worded ever so slightly different, emails that folks have been receiving:
I have a (cash) resort package w/ 5 day tickets booked, am not DVC nor an APH. It is for 9/7-9/13 at POFQ, a resort that I cannot see avoiding the chopping block if certain resorts are to remain closed. My ticket dates have not been extended (still say valid thru 9/14/20). Holding hope that we'd just be relocated to an open resort, BUT if others are already at capacity, a reservation such as mine would be super easy for Disney to just cancel outright (simply refund the cash). Seems the hopeful sentence email of priority access to the park reservation system may be going out more to DVC/APHs? Because even some folks who don't have active trips booked that received it may fall into one of the 2 camps above? OR perhaps Disney is waiting to see who cancels around our dates to gauge capacity if we're unfortunate enough to be booked at a resort that will be closed? Or it's just a standard Disney IT kerfuffle...
This is where my vote goes. I think they are actively encouraging cancellations in hopes that resort capacity won't completely overwhelm park capacity- leaving them with the awesome task of either cancelling resort guests themselves or telling them they can't get into the parks. Telling local AP holders they have no access won't be a picnic either. Well played, Disney. Well played
They’re probably hedging their bets in case the virus isn’t a big issue by August/September. If the situation is much better, they’ll want to hold the parties.
If they can possibly make money on it, they will. But, it kind of flies in the face of reducing park hours for safety's sake. I'm sure there's some way to spin it to fix that little problem. Maybe by August this will all magically disappear. It could happen, right?
That rebook free dining offer had to have booking occupancy above 95% through the end of August. That is why they are in the mess they are now.
Thank goodness AP holders were denied any discount at all. At least we aren't part of the problem. We want to go, we book at rack rate.
I'm sure it's been discussed, but how do reduced hours improve safety? I'm sure it's obvious, I just don't know.
October and December 2020
They need extra time to clean and sanitize is the reason I read. I am sure at some point, they'll try to add a few parties, because honestly, there's no real reason to close early. But I think it's unrealistic to think that will happen with the original dates and in the meantime Disney gets to keep all that money from ticket sales stringing people along with the hopes that they might.
If operations are going smoothly I could see them actually adding a bunch of nights since the park is already going to close early.
Gotcha. That makes sense, although I doubt that's the actual reason businesses have embraced reduced hours.
Well we have gotten some details. Boats and monorails will run at limited capacity. The park hours also indicate staggered openings to help with transportation. More details likely won’t come until disney announcing the reservation system.
Especially if reservations are actually in demand. They could market a party with none of the extras as just another chance to actually get into the park for several hours.
I certainly wouldn’t cancel a 2021 trip yet. Far too early to know for sure what will happen.
