The Rumor Tracking Thread

[Brianstl]

It’s not a matter of making a profit, it’s just a matter of losing less money than losing with the parks closed. At a place like animal kingdom, I don’t think that’s probably very hard.

I think they will lose more money than they are shutdown. I think the kinds of things talked about in that scenario will require massive manpower/expenses without generating the kind of income to cover those cost.

A few things in that post don’t make sense to me. They are shutting down the monorail, but will still bus people to AH and DHS? How do you enforce strict social distancing with families? How does Disney determine who are families and who are not?

 

[kiki02]

Assuming WDW reopens before we have an effective treatment or a vaccine, if attendance is low enough to not require 4 parks, I don't know why they'd open Epcot. Its expensive to operate, is currently a seriously sub-optimal guest experience, and they sent home all the international Cast Members and it's not like a lot of them can just hop on a plane right now.

The insiders are talking about the contingency plans. Everyone is still hoping first and foremost that one of these antivirals is proven to work and that we finally manage to get to sufficient testing capacity, in which case, far fewer contingency plans are needed.

Epcot is expensive to operate? CAN'T possibly be more than MK. How do you figure?

 

[vincep]

It will require more money to run the parks with limited guests than to keep them shut as somebody noted. The overhead will still be sky high for so few guests. And then how do you even begin to enforce social distancing without cast members everywhere. We all know how difficult many guests can be with no consideration for others. And how many people will they let in? 20,000? 10,000? And who will these people be? A virtual queue at 7AM? Will anybody get priority? DVC members? Resort guests? And if anybody has a high temperature which can be the result of many factors other than the virus, do you forbid one member or possibly more of a group of entering? They possibly already bought tickets and are staying at somewhere on the monorail loop. What a conundrum.

 

[Jrb1979]

It will require more money to run the parks with limited guests than to keep them shut as somebody noted. The overhead will still be sky high for so few guests. And then how do you even begin to enforce social distancing without cast members everywhere. We all know how difficult many guests can be with no consideration for others. And how many people will they let in? 20,000? 10,000? And who will these people be? A virtual queue at 7AM? Will anybody get priority? DVC members? Resort guests? And if anybody has a high temperature which can be the result of many factors other than the virus, do you forbid one member or possibly more of a group of entering? They possibly already bought tickets and are staying at somewhere on the monorail loop. What a conundrum.

The more you think about it the more logistically it doesn't seem possible to open WDW.

 

[Oldnewfan]

The more you think about it the more logistically it doesn't seem possible to open WDW.

That is what I keep circling back to. How in the WORLD do you implement a social distancing model in an industry that is built (and ramping up for 50 years) packing in people 3 deep and charging them out the wazoo to provide the intense level of detail, customer service and experience they all expect without cutting capacity in half, doubling the cost and REALLY being creative in providing that same level of experience to its guest. You are going to have to spread out the shows, the fireworks, projection shows the parades need to be short and spread out. No more central hub focus. You'll need to spread these experiences thinner ALL over the parks and maybe just at random intervals so it's a surprise and people just get lucky if they see them but can't gather with notice. How about making this a 24/7 operation? Disney for adults overnight and families during the day and incorporate the maintenance that used to be night time only into the "show"... Joe the town painter or your friendly character themed lawn crew? Just got to be really creative and think about the Park system totally different because the old way can't hang long enough for a vaccine to mitigate this. Is the leadership bold enough?

 

[Jrb1979]

That is what I keep circling back to. How in the WORLD do you implement a social distancing model in an industry that is built (and ramping up for 50 years) packing in people 3 deep and charging them out the wazoo to provide the intense level of detail, customer service and experience they all expect without cutting capacity in half, doubling the cost and REALLY being creative in providing that same level of experience to its guest. You are going to have to spread out the shows, the fireworks, projection shows the parades need to be short and spread out. No more central hub focus. You'll need to spread these experiences thinner ALL over the parks and maybe just at random intervals so it's a surprise and people just get lucky if they see them but can't gather with notice. How about making this a 24/7 operation? Disney for adults overnight and families during the day and incorporate the maintenance that used to be night time only into the "show"... Joe the town painter or your friendly character themed lawn crew? Just got to be really creative and think about the Park system totally different because the old way can't hang long enough for a vaccine to mitigate this. Is the leadership bold enough?

There is talk of no fireworks, parades, character meet and greets for the time being. Even without that it's still difficult to implement social distancing

 

[Oldnewfan]

There is talk of no fireworks, parades, character meet and greets for the time being. Even without that it's still difficult to implement social distancing

Yes. Just thinking about the future. Will never go back 100% like it was. Talking about a new normal.

 

[ChrisM]

How in the WORLD do you implement a social distancing model in an industry that is built (and ramping up for 50 years) packing in people 3 deep and charging them out the wazoo to provide the intense level of detail, customer service and experience they all expect without cutting capacity in half, doubling the cost and REALLY being creative in providing that same level of experience to its guest.

Welp, as you said above - maybe the future will be cutting capacity in half (or more) and doubling (tripling) the cost.

They've been incrementally trying to move upmarket for several years now. Maybe they'll jump in headfirst.

 

[chad_1138]

Welp, as you said above - maybe the future will be cutting capacity in half (or more) and doubling (tripling) the cost.

They've been incrementally trying to move upmarket for several years now. Maybe they'll jump in headfirst.

Along those lines, do they phase out tickets without resort stay? You have to have an AP or stay at the resort to gain admission to the parks?

 

[1lilspark]

Along those lines, do they phase out tickets without resort stay? You have to have an AP or stay at the resort to gain admission to the parks?

I 100% believe that the first phase of parks being open will for previously purchased packages and upper tier AP (platinum and above..... the clock for gold and below will restart and will be treated as if it was a black out period)

 

[rteetz]

 

[vincep]

Will a large enough upmarket exist when the parks finally re-open? Iger has staked everything on appealing to the carriage trade. It couldn't have happened at a worse moment.
I like to think this is Walt's revenge. He did not think of people as ATMs.

 

[OKW Lover]

Along those lines, do they phase out tickets without resort stay? You have to have an AP or stay at the resort to gain admission to the parks?

No, won't happen. Disney depends on the surrounding infrastructure and associated businesses. They won't alienate local government or the businesses.

 

[Jrb1979]

View attachment 489734

I agree that's probably what will happen at the beginning but there will lots of upset people who rebooked for June that will have to rebook again. I think it was a big mistake to allow booking to open in June. They should have waited til they had a better idea how things were going to go.

 

[rteetz]

I agree that's probably what will happen at the beginning but there will lots of upset people who rebooked for June that will have to rebook again. I think it was a big mistake to allow booking to open in June. They should have waited til they had a better idea how things were going to go.

No matter what they do there will be people who are upset. It’s a no win situation.

 

[Jrb1979]

No matter what they do there will be people who are upset. It’s a no win situation.

True but the better plan of action should have been to give people credit for a future booking. Now they will have to what they did for March, April and May all over again.

 

[Runnsally]

I 100% believe that the first phase of parks being open will for previously purchased packages and upper tier AP (platinum and above..... the clock for gold and below will restart and will be treated as if it was a black out period)

It seems like the hardest part of any pending plan is managing resort guests - transport to/from parks, having enough restaurants open, THEIR EXPECTATIONS, etc.

Maybe resorts are the last to open up?

 

[Westerlin]

It seems like the hardest part of any pending plan is managing resort guests - transport to/from parks, having enough restaurants open, THEIR EXPECTATIONS, etc.

Maybe resorts are the last to open up?

My assumption would be that from a financial perspective resorts are pretty important. I am wondering if they will limit guests to AP and resort guests.

But I don't know anything really.

 

[Jrb1979]

My assumption would be that from a financial perspective resorts are pretty important. I am wondering if they will limit guests to AP and resort guests.

But I don't know anything really.

Which makes perfect sense to just open the monorail resorts and only MK for the time being.

 

[vincep]

It would be 1971 all over again.