Cruise and Theme Park Operational Updates due to Coronavirus

[TheMaxRebo]

I wonder how long Disneyland would have to continue to stay closed for Californians struggling with their forced Disney Sobriety to come to WDW. Maybe it’s only me that sees it, but I feel like more East coasters are willing to go to DLR than Californians coming to WDW. If Disneyland can’t open until 2021, could we see an uptick in DL APs making the trip to WDW?

I know quite a few Californians that come to WDW, though I largely let them through WDW so maybe an abnormal sample group

 

[Shelby Schroepfer]

well that promo does nothing for me lol. From MN and I have 10 day tickets so when I try to apply the other promo it wants to cut me down to 7 days. NOPE!

 

[Mit88]

That was my first thought - especially for states with travel restrictions to Florida, not great optics

Plus I think they are just trying to motivate people who can drive and might be on the fence to go ahead and come

Just now sure *how much* this will helps, but I also assume Disney has access to a ton a data we don't. Didn't they do a survey not that long ago? Maybe it showed that people from the neighboring states felt more comfortable traveling to WDW/Florida in general

Theyre getting the park guests. Now they need the resort guests. Walk before you swim. Get the drive distanced travelers and work your way back up to everyone once things (hopefully) get better early next year. I think they’re waiting until the new year to roll out a big ad campaign to return. I think they’re gonna sell 2021 as “Come down for the 50th” but not actually start celebrating it until September/October.

 

[shoegal9]

I live in Virginia and it will be a cold day in hell before I will drive 12 hours anywhere- let alone when I can fly for $100 round trip. So, come Friday I will be on my 2 hour flight.

But friends of mine from Michigan just rented DVC points for 5 night in October for around $900. That's a better discount than any resort discount Disney could ever offer... People who aren't in the "drive market" should really consider renting DVC points if they are certain they will travel. There are a LOT of 2018 DVC points out there that expire on 11/30 and owners are just dumping them.

 

[Mit88]

I know quite a few Californians that come to WDW, though I largely let them through WDW so maybe an abnormal sample group

Absolutely, there are definitely a lot, but just from my perspective, I feel like DL passholders are protective of their parks and don’t care as much about WDW as everyone else cares about DLR. David from Fresh Baked for example hasn’t been to WDW in like 25 years.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Theyre getting the park guests. Now they need the resort guests. Walk before you swim. Get the drive distanced travelers and work your way back up to everyone once things (hopefully) get better early next year. I think they’re waiting until the new year to roll out a big ad campaign to return. I think they’re gonna sell 2021 as “Come down for the 50th” but not actually start celebrating it until September/October.

Yeah, plus the potential that there is a 2nd wave this fall/winter, probably want to see where things are come early next year and then decide if/when to do the big push

 

[Mit88]

Yeah, plus the potential that there is a 2nd wave this fall/winter, probably want to see where things are come early next year and then decide if/when to do the big push

If we don’t see a big rise in late November through December, I think they’d feel comfortable enough to start an ad campaign in early 2021. It doesn’t mean we’re in the clear, but Disney can’t wait forever to try and make money

 

[butterscotchcollins]

Shout out to Frank in Guest Services, my $700 is back on my credit card

I am your atypical WDW traveler right now, we are not APs or DVC owners and we are flying in from NY, I booked rack rate in May because our cancelled April trip was through Costco Travel so we weren't eligible for the recovery offer but badly wanted to reschedule our trip and just went for it. This discount is a nice surprise - we were already pumped to go on our trip next week and were PIF but it makes me feel a lot happier and better about going that our patience and loyalty was rewarded with some savings. I'm sure there are others who would be willing to risk travel for the right price.

 

[butterscotchcollins]

Theyre getting the park guests. Now they need the resort guests. Walk before you swim. Get the drive distanced travelers and work your way back up to everyone once things (hopefully) get better early next year. I think they’re waiting until the new year to roll out a big ad campaign to return. I think they’re gonna sell 2021 as “Come down for the 50th” but not actually start celebrating it until September/October.

It would make sense to wait to "start" the 50th celebration in Sept/Oct and then have it run through all of 2022, rather than start in early 2021. If they have everything ready to go, there's no harm in just holding on to it. Very curious to see what the full rollout will be, though, not only in terms of final decorations/in-park celebrations but also the merch, food offerings, etc.

 

[chicagoshannon]

I think they're leaving out a lot of their drive down people. A lot of us midwesterners drive down. We only recently started flying down. For over 30 years we drove down from WI and IL exclusively.

I think it's weird to leave a lot of states out of a discount. I also think it would have been better for them to partner with airlines for the discounts. Would help both industries.

We're flying down tomorrow. Felt it was better to fly because it would take far less time than driving. Less time in random places is better IMO. If we were to drive we'd be stopping at a lot of strange bathrooms, and not sure what restaurants or hotels would even be open. Flying just seems like the safer choice at this moment for our situation.

 

[becca_twin]

We had a 5 night, 4 day park tickets in a 1-bedroom at Boulder Ridge booked for the week before Christmas. Being from KY, our Dreams agent had the room only discount applied and switched to a 1-bedroom at Copper Creek saving $1100.

 

[chicagoshannon]

It would make sense to wait to "start" the 50th celebration in Sept/Oct and then have it run through all of 2022, rather than start in early 2021. If they have everything ready to go, there's no harm in just holding on to it. Very curious to see what the full rollout will be, though, not only in terms of final decorations/in-park celebrations but also the merch, food offerings, etc.

There's no way they'll start the 50th in January. Since they stopped construction while everything was closed they have a lot of work to do to get it finished. I'm sure they'll start in October or just before at the end of September and go through 2022. It's why I don't think Splash will actually close until 2023.

 

[skeeter31]

I think they're leaving out a lot of their drive down people. A lot of us midwesterners drive down. We only recently started flying down. For over 30 years we drove down from WI and IL exclusively.

I think it's weird to leave a lot of states out of a discount. I also think it would have been better for them to partner with airlines for the discounts. Would help both industries.

We're flying down tomorrow. Felt it was better to fly because it would take far less time than driving. Less time in random places is better IMO. If we were to drive we'd be stopping at a lot of strange bathrooms, and not sure what restaurants or hotels would even be open. Flying just seems like the safer choice at this moment for our situation.

Unfortunately, whichever states got left out were going to be upset. It seems they went with a purely mileage distance max in determining the states. If they were to expand to some midwestern states, they’d have to expand that amount of miles in all directions, which would incorporate the NY/NJ/CT area, which is most likely the biggest grouping they wanted to exclude due to the quarantine issues.

 

[Farro]

I'm fine with being left out of these because we don't go until next April.

Now...I hope we see better discounts for the spring!!!

 

[Shelby Schroepfer]

Maybe one of ya'll can help me. I currently have 10 day park hopper tickets with my resi for November. We haven't refunded the hopper yet just because we were holding out hope that they would be back by then and can refund when we check in. But when I go through like I wanna change my reservation to apply the promo, it only gives me the option of 7 day park tickets. So I would lose 3 days if I apply a promo?

 

[Mit88]

It would make sense to wait to "start" the 50th celebration in Sept/Oct and then have it run through all of 2022, rather than start in early 2021. If they have everything ready to go, there's no harm in just holding on to it. Very curious to see what the full rollout will be, though, not only in terms of final decorations/in-park celebrations but also the merch, food offerings, etc.

“but not actually start celebrating it until September/October”

just because you advertise that it’s the 50th year of being open, doesn’t mean they need to start the celebration when they start the ad campaign. If they wait to try and get guests back until September/October, they’re going to be overwhelmed.

 

[yulilin3]

“but not actually start celebrating it until September/October”

just because you advertise that it’s the 50th year of being open, doesn’t mean they need to start the celebration when they start the ad campaign. If they wait to try and get guests back until September/October, they’re going to be overwhelmed.

I say specialty food and monthly release of merch showcasing each month an original attraction starting in January would be the way to go, it's a way of celebrating without going all out

 

[butterscotchcollins]

Unfortunately, whichever states got left out were going to be upset. It seems they went with a purely mileage distance max in determining the states. If they were to expand to some midwestern states, they’d have to expand that amount of miles in all directions, which would incorporate the NY/NJ/CT area, which is most likely the biggest grouping they wanted to exclude due to the quarantine issues.

It seems to me like they went for the states with the largest "opportunity" population, i.e. usually non-AP package guests who are close enough to buy/travel safely and have not already. I imagine excluding NY/NJ/CT has less to do with quarantine (let's be honest, they don't care if you have to quarantine when you get home and the FL mandate was eliminated) and more to do with most of those guests being APs or having existing reservations? Just a theory but it's a business decision based on their data, it's nothing personal to those other states.

 

[chicagoshannon]

Maybe one of ya'll can help me. I currently have 10 day park hopper tickets with my resi for November. We haven't refunded the hopper yet just because we were holding out hope that they would be back by then and can refund when we check in. But when I go through like I wanna change my reservation to apply the promo, it only gives me the option of 7 day park tickets. So I would lose 3 days if I apply a promo?

I think you'll have to call.

 

[skeeter31]

Maybe one of ya'll can help me. I currently have 10 day park hopper tickets with my resi for November. We haven't refunded the hopper yet just because we were holding out hope that they would be back by then and can refund when we check in. But when I go through like I wanna change my reservation to apply the promo, it only gives me the option of 7 day park tickets. So I would lose 3 days if I apply a promo?

We have seen some rumors like this. With Disney not currently selling 10 day tickets, when you change promos, they’re most likely going to change your ticket to the max they’re selling currently. There was someone here a couple weeks ago who’s tickets got reduced from 10 to 7 and that person also was changing around rooms. So most likely if you take advantage of a new promo, they reduce the tickets, but if you stick with what you had you can keep the 10 days.