Cruise and Theme Park Operational Updates due to Coronavirus

[constanze]

Covid be damned. Me, my wife and our 2 girls are flying in from the West at the end of August for 9 days at Riviera. I'll only mention the positives...low crowds, good food, staying at DVC and having Disney Cocktails.

We are going to make the best of it and burn some points.

We just got back from spending 8 days at the Riviera—- it was amazing!!!! Enjoy!!!

 

[DGsAtBLT]

Right, but if even 20% of those people buy some merch or food, that's at least some revenue they are getting that otherwise they wouldn't be

Im just saying, there's a max amount of reservations set aside for APs, if currently the APs aren't filling it up, and getting in the park, why not open it to silvers, so they could fill up the remaining spots.

Lifting black out dates could also pose a problem with higher level passes that aren’t blacked out, but on the other hand they haven’t really seemed to care that APs paid for hopping (and water parks for platinum plus), so

 

[Eric Smith]

Well, even if there are good people in there doesn't mean there also aren't other than have been there for a while, grown to having huge salaries, and aren't carrying their weight and maybe blocking rising stars from being elevated

Just b/c some good products emerge doesn't mean "cleaning" couldn't help

I was referring to this statement:

“You can't layoff enough people in WDI. The place needs to be shut down and padlocked. Then after a period of time, you bring it back to life. With new people, with new dreams. And without this tired bunch of talentless hacks.”

 

[princesscinderella]

https://apple.news/At-bumShQSvuQasK1xmKmaA
An interesting article and video link about packages delivered to the nba bubble. I now know where all the Clorox wipes I can’t find in the store went

 

[osufeth24]

Lifting black out dates could also pose a problem with higher level passes that aren’t blacked out, but on the other hand they haven’t really seemed to care that APs paid for hopping (and water parks for platinum plus), so

I mean they've lifted blackout dates previously for silver. Wouldn't be out of the norm

 

[AmberMV]

Sorry, not sure what you’re asking.

Just saying I don’t think lifting blackout dates changes a lot if attendance (spending) is a problem. Maybe you’d have some booking resorts, I don’t know. People blacked out are solely Florida residents, right?

I think if they lifted blockouts they'd have more full parks..though the AP avail calendar is full of Gold/Plats anyway without the blockout lifted so who knows. I actually don't remember if sub Gold/Plat APs are all FL residents or not. I thought not, but could be lol. I'm even semi-local and still book resorts so I can't be the only one

 

[jlwhitney]

Yeah those are the people that we don't want going to Disney. The mask rules are what has allowed them to open, and what has gotten many people to stick with their trips, because they know Disney will do it right, and they will feel safe.

Have you seen how many are flocking to the pigeon forge area? A lot has been because of relaxed mask rules.Indoors and 13 and up for the most part except Dollywood is 3 and up . But Dollywood you can actually remove for pictures, even on certain rides, so much more enjoyable.

 

[gottalovepluto]

Right, but if even 20% of those people buy some merch or food, that's at least some revenue they are getting that otherwise they wouldn't be

Im just saying, there's a max amount of park reservations set aside for APs, if currently the APs aren't filling it up, and getting in the park, why not open it to silvers, so they could fill up the remaining spots.

I'm pretty sure Disney wants the parks full at the capacity they set (or else they wouldn't put it at that number)

Disney hasn’t even opened enough reservations to hold normal APs, why open to silver? They’ve made it very clear they do not want APs in the park. You buy a ticket or suck it. And apparently they will close before they let more of us AP riff-raff in.

Whoever is making these calls is stupider than [insert stupidest person you know of here].

 

[gottalovepluto]

It loses me when they talk about cleaning house at WDI. That’s the group who just did galaxy’s edge and Pandora. What’s the issue there?

Pissed off person who didn’t get hired by WDI?

 

[hereforthechurros]

Have you seen how many are flocking to the pigeon forge area? A lot has been because of relaxed mask rules.Indoors and 13 and up for the most part except Dollywood is 3 and up . But Dollywood you can actually remove for pictures, even on certain rides, so much more enjoyable.

You seemed to have missed the entire point of masks. Places being lax are what will keep us in this virus cycle for the foreseeable future.

 

[gottalovepluto]

Heres all the info I have, reposting from what I wrote in the rumors thread, there may be more details on the threads I pulled this from.

A few new fairly significant rumors from multiple posters on WDW Magic:

Broke? Please. Disney has borrowed enough to make it through the year even if they didn’t open the parks and never had a movie come out. And dollars to donuts they could go to the market tomorrow and borrow more if they wanted.

 

[KBoopaloo]

canceling the Halloween parties was the easy call as they were set to begin only a month or so after opening. But with money to be made you’d think they would want to get some sort of after hours or Christmas party event back on the books. Spread out crowds + more revenue feels like a win right now.

I think the issue is there aren’t really any crowds to spread. And for many guests the appeal of the parties is mainly the lighter crowds. With so few guests and such short queues during daytime operating hours, there is less reason for those guests to pay out any extra for a party ticket - they can do everything they want during the day. At this point I doubt the revenue from the parties would be enough to cover the money they would pay out in staffing for all those cast members for an additional 4-6 hour shift plus whatever expense that comes from the additional entertainment, treats and decor at the parties.

 

[Makmak]

I think the number of Deluxe Resorts and Deluxe DVC facilities often obscure the fact when it comes to actual room numbers, value has over 10,000 rooms onsite and moderates/campsites add over 11,000 more rooms. Two thirds of the rooms at WDW aren't deluxe. A large percentage of those rooms were being filled before the current situation by people who many on here don't think in past could afford to go to Disney. Those people weren't multiple trips per year or even yearly visitors to the parks. They were people that would save over a couple of years (or longer) for a trip to WDW and Disney counted on them to fill values and moderates, plus the parks. Now many of those people have to cancel because they can no longer afford the trip.

This is true, and in addition there’s the “conspicuous consumption” issue where many people save for A couple/few years in order to be at the top tier resorts. It’s bragging rights for many people in less economically strong communities to say they stayed at an expensive resort and got expensive TS reservations and add-ons. When I experimented with being a TA I was constantly amazed at how many families would save for years in order to “go all out” with tons of extras instead of all stars and basic attendance. These were not once in a lifetime people these were people that wanted to buy the experience that made them feel the way they expected to feel while at Disney. They also wanted to post gratuitously on social media as a status point. I was a bad travel agent in this experiment as I was always trying to advise the cheapest way to do things.

 

[Mit88]

Not sure how much I believe those rumors. Whoever they are seem to have a nasty grudge with Bob Iger and it got the best of them in that post.

“Mickey Ave” replacing “Main st”...at Disneyland? Yeah....ok. I’ll believe it when I see it


Also, predicting the cancellation of the Christmas Party isn’t exactly the hot take of the year

 

[jlwhitney]

I think the issue is there aren’t really any crowds to spread. And for many guests the appeal of the parties is mainly the lighter crowds. With so few guests and such short queues during daytime operating hours, there is less reason for those guests to pay out any extra for a party ticket - they can do everything they want during the day. At this point I doubt the revenue from the parties would be enough to cover the money they would pay out in staffing for all those cast members for an additional 4-6 hour shift plus whatever expense that comes from the additional entertainment, treats and decor at the parties.

No parades, fireworks or meet and greets and stage shows, that alone is enough reason to cancel the parties.

 

[Jothmas]

Silliness.

If these rumours are true the crowds they are pulling right now are not enough, open or closed wouldn’t have changed much as the virus is what’s keeping people away.

I said before the parks reopened and I believe it still that the attendance is not an on/off switch. No matter when Disney reopened they will have to invest in a ramp up stage in which a below normal number of guests will visit first and then their positive experiences and word-of-mouth will convince people on the fence to come and in time the attendance numbers will increase accordingly up to the safety limit. I think even the fact that thousands will have returned home the past three weeks healthy and alive will bear fruit without those guests having to say anything.

 

[Farro]

Wait - did I miss something?

 

[gottalovepluto]

Well, even if there are good people in there doesn't mean there also aren't other than have been there for a while, grown to having huge salaries, and aren't carrying their weight and maybe blocking rising stars from being elevated

Just b/c some good products emerge doesn't mean "cleaning" couldn't help

As far as engineers go Imagineers are cheap... and unnecessary if you aren’t doing anything besides DLH DVC, Princess & the Frog and rides Imagineering has already designed....

 

[Mit88]

I said before the parks reopened and I believe it still that the attendance is not an on/off switch. No matter when Disney reopened they will have to invest in a ramp up stage in which a below normal number of guests will visit first and then their positive experiences and word-of-mouth will convince people on the fence to come and in time the attendance numbers will increase accordingly up to the safety limit. I think even the fact that thousands will have returned home the past three weeks healthy and alive will bear fruit without those guests having to say anything.

Eh, I think the question of what’s going on with school and the state quarantine’s are having a big impact on what’s going on now, and what will happen with the Parks in the fall and into the winter. $200 a night at Pop Century isn’t going to pull many “on the fence” down. And a lot of their out of state guests come from NY/NY.

Could it get better attendance wise in the fall? Sure. But its looking like people are just gonna call it a lost year with Disney and go in droves next year. Might be too late

 

[gottalovepluto]

Right, but if even 20% of those people buy some merch or food, that's at least some revenue they are getting that otherwise they wouldn't be

Im just saying, there's a max amount of park reservations set aside for APs, if currently the APs aren't filling it up, and getting in the park, why not open it to silvers, so they could fill up the remaining spots.

I'm pretty sure Disney wants the parks full at the capacity they set (or else they wouldn't put it at that number)

I think there is a very high up driving force who laser focused on people paying for tickets to make the cash flow work, outside of the box ain’t their thing... wonder if Chapek straight up thought he’d be able to operate parks at a profit because people would buy day tickets?