News Round Up 2020

[Farro]

Oh hey all! Enjoy, this being, you know....

 

[CastAStone]

I can see the necessity in these unusual days of 'reserving' a park in advance but it would greatly change a trip. I'm currently booked for an 11 day trip with an 8 day WP PH pass. If I found out I could only go to parks 5 or 6 days of our trip it might make me cancel for now. We choose to be park heavy on our trips and have restful vacations other times.

Still lots to figure out, that's for sure!

yeah, for this and the concern raised about passholders makes me wonder if they will view the first period as a soft opening and have special tickets needed (that are cheaper?) vs full opening

Fully agree where you are coming from where if I buy tickets that provide 8 park days during my vacation but then am only able to pre-register for 5 days, what happens to what a piad for those other 3 days? ... vs a "soft opening" where you pay for the days after your preregister for them (thus you are guaranteed to get in for the day you pay and you only register if you are paying for that day) but at a reduced cost or something)

sounds like if that scenario were implemented, Park Hopping might also be out of the question.... many folks just decide to hop, and don't necessarily plan the whole day ahead of time, but decide as they go.

This is probably a discussion for another thread, but they will have to find a way to convince say 2/3rds of the people currently planning to come to WDW to not come, or cancel them outright. For all the reasons you raise, it's not a good idea to just let it be a FastPass style free for all. I for one would willingly rebook my September trip for a modest incentive, but I would be very disappointed if I went and had to spend 6 of the days at Animal Kingdom because that was what was left (my wife OTOH would be thrilled).

 

[skier_pete]

This is why I still wonder if they open up limiting to people staying on site (and maybe AP holders). Typically they have to allow anyone staying on site into SOME park. It's definitely going to be tricky.

I do think people on here tend to not be realistic about how popular Disney is going to be coming out of this. Us obsessive travelers (and DVC owners) are not going to want to wait too long to get back to the park. Much of humanity will more likely be saying "you know what - Disney can wait until next year". I just wonder if the overcrowding will be much of a problem for a few months.

 

[tlmadden73]

I suspect a LOT of the "old ways" of planning for a Disney trip will be different in the near AND far future. So everything we've learned to this point could just be thrown out the window. Thinks like Fast Passes and ADRs are meaningless if they are limiting capacity to parks.

 

[MissGina5]

I suspect a LOT of the "old ways" of planning for a Disney trip will be different in the near AND far future. So everything we've learned to this point could just be thrown out the window. Thinks like Fast Passes and ADRs are meaningless if they are limiting capacity to parks.

What is crazy is that seemed to be the way things were going anyway. It felt like with the new ticket pricing system etc that things were changing, especially talking peak times of year etc.
Now it is a definite change.

also excuse all the extra spaces, my keyboard is having a real problem.

 

[firefly_ris]

News

It seems Six Flags will be requiring reservations to go to their parks upon reopening. This is found on the park hours section of their site for each park:
View attachment 492691

I totally understand why they need to do this but at the same time it gets rid of a big part of the reason we bought APs... We live about 15min from our rural Six Flags (Darien Lake) and a big reason was we could just drop by on a whim for 2 hours on a weeknight after dinner if we felt like it. Ah well.

 

[isabellea]

News

It seems Six Flags will be requiring reservations to go to their parks upon reopening. This is found on the park hours section of their site for each park:
View attachment 492691

I checked our local Six Flags (La Ronde in Montreal, QC) and there's no such notice in French or English. I've very doubtful it will open in 2020 since we are Canada's hotspot for COVID-19 so that might be why. They just write that the season is being postpone until further notice. We also don't have any re-opening dates for golf courses, zoos or other recreative/touristic destinations.

If they open, we might consider buying a season pass even though there's NO WAY I will go back to WDW or FL for a long time since I'm not expecting our trip medical insurance to give full coverage until they find a vaccine and/or effective treatment.

 

[The Pho]

I checked our local Six Flags (La Ronde in Montreal, QC) and there's no such notice in French or English. I've very doubtful it will open in 2020 since we are Canada's hotspot for COVID-19 so that might be why. They just write that the season is being postpone until further notice. We also don't have any re-opening dates for golf courses, zoos or other recreative/touristic destinations.

If they open, we might consider buying a season pass even though there's NO WAY I will go back to WDW or FL for a long time since I'm not expecting our trip medical insurance to give full coverage until they find a vaccine and/or effective treatment.

The Canadian parks seem to be lagging behind the US parks of the same chains with their announcements and site updates. I’d fully expect them to follow suit whether they wind up opening this season or not.

 

[only hope]

https://disneyparks.disney.go.com/b...r-wars-queens-shadow-free-for-a-limited-time/
Free book! It's very good, I borrowed it from the library awhile back.

 

[soniam]

This is why I still wonder if they open up limiting to people staying on site (and maybe AP holders). Typically they have to allow anyone staying on site into SOME park. It's definitely going to be tricky.

I do think people on here tend to not be realistic about how popular Disney is going to be coming out of this. Us obsessive travelers (and DVC owners) are not going to want to wait too long to get back to the park. Much of humanity will more likely be saying "you know what - Disney can wait until next year". I just wonder if the overcrowding will be much of a problem for a few months.

I agree. I kind of figure my whole family is eventually going to get it. Luckily, we aren't high risk. I would much prefer to get it at a park or on a cruise than in the plague-ridden cube farm at work. I also hope they don't just cancel DVC reservations. We rented non-refundable points for July. I think we would be willing to even just hang out at the hotel and pool, maybe drive to the beach for a day or see other parts of Orlando that we haven't seen. I am pretty sure our July cruise will be canceled. I do think they won't allow overcrowding for a while, so I think it won't be a problem. Just how do they decide who to cut

 

[CastAStone]

I apologize if this was already posted today but I didn’t see it. NYT has a great article today ahead of Disney’s earnings call tomorrow and I for one learned a ton:

• ESPN is printing money because all their content creation costs have disappeared
• Another sing along is planned for Sunday
• Cruise ship production is officially suspended
• Disney has already sold over $1Mil of those masks on ShopDisney
• This article says Disney is unlikely to pay their dividend this summer

Earnings call at 4:30 tomorrow!

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/04/business/media/coronavirus-disney.html

 

[rteetz]

News

New Star Wars Avatars Now Available on Disney+

 

[rteetz]

I will be updating this thread tomorrow

Walt Disney Company Quarter 2 Earnings Report 2020

 

[koala1966]

https://disneyparks.disney.go.com/b...r-wars-queens-shadow-free-for-a-limited-time/
Free book! It's very good, I borrowed it from the library awhile back.

I love EK Johnston, thank you

 

[rteetz]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1257444746815037444

 

[rteetz]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1257525878596284416

 

[scrappinginontario]

The Canadian parks seem to be lagging behind the US parks of the same chains with their announcements and site updates. I’d fully expect them to follow suit whether they wind up opening this season or not.

Canada in general is taking a much slower and more conservative approach to opening things up. Personally, I'm okay with that.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1257525878596284416

I'm sure this will be a big one to watch to see what is done and what does/does not seem to work. I'm guessing all the parks are keeping a close eye on how Shanghai opens back up.

That being said, if Shanghai is reportedly opening up in the next 2-3 weeks, I cannot begin to imagine that FL will be ready Jun 1 unless it's only resorts and not the parks. But that's just my .02.

 

[CastAStone]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1257525878596284416

If I were Disney, and I am not, I would wait to see how things worked in Shanghai before announcing a reopening date for WDW.

I am assuming that we will hear a plan on the earnings call today, but that it will be laid out in milestones and not dates.

 

[scrappinginontario]

If I were Disney, and I am not, I would wait to see how things worked in Shanghai before announcing a reopening date for WDW.

I am assuming that we will hear a plan on the earnings call today, but that it will be laid out in milestones and not dates.

I agree although from articles I've read (sorry, it was a couple of weeks ago so I don't have links), China might be putting some sort of a health passport system in place which will tell where people can/cannot go based on their health history and the virus.

I'm guessing we'll be able to take some lessons from them and other things will need to be developed in the US based on how it is handling the crisis.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

NEWS

Shakeup at UK airlines that will likely impact travel to Orlando:

Virgin Atlantic has today announced that it will be closing its operations at London Gatwick Airport, and will only fly from London Heathrow and Manchester. Gatwick has long been the main airport for scheduled air travel to Orlando International from the United Kingdom, typically offering three direct flights to Orlando per day.

In addition, Virgin Atlantic will only be flying twin engined aircraft, and will no longer use its fleet of seven 747-400 aircraft. The 747 has been the backbone of the London to Orlando route for many years. The changes will also be met by a reduction of 3150 jobs across the airline.

At rival British Airways, the airline has told staff that it may also be unable to resume operations from Gatwick, which includes its daily flight to Orlando International.



https://www.wdwmagic.com/other/walt...hake-up-for-uk-visitors-flying-to-orlando.htm