Cruise and Theme Park Operational Updates due to Coronavirus

[woody337]

Guests with a resort reservation and a valid park ticket are not guaranteed entrance into a park unless they can also secure a park entry reservation.

Which is really bad business considering how Universal is handling this. Also, does Disney want to refund that money back to people currently? I doubt that.

 

[wendow]

Unless I’ve missed an update (which could happen) I don’t believe the College Program is being reinstated in August. My understanding is that it won’t start up again until all Disney CMs have been called back.

please correct me if I am wrong.

Fall kids aren’t cancelled - yet - and I hope Disney can find a way to bring them on. My dd20 was on her CP back in the spring and sent home. It was devastating for her and all the kids. I hate to think of another group not getting to go

 

[gottalovepluto]

right and I'm pretty sure it's NOT salt water. They would have had to completely change the pool over at some point as salt water pools weren't really a thing back when they built SAB (and I've been in SAB and it was chlorine)

Correct. Not salt water. https://disneyparksmomspanel.disney...mming-pools-salt-water-swimming-pools-366179/

 

[yulilin3]

Fall kids aren’t cancelled - yet - and I hope Disney can find a way to bring them on. My dd20 was on her CP back in the spring and sent home. It was devastating for her and all the kids. I hate to think of another group not getting to go

they won't bring any CP back until all FT and PT are back at work in their regular positions, that won't happen any time soon, the Unions are making sure that doesn't happen

 

[MickeyWaffles]

CP have a role in all lines of WDW operations but they are never the majority of casting in any one of them. There are enough ft and pt CM to fill the positions.
Just because you see someone young working at Disney doesn't mean they are in the college program. Lots of people think that

But are they able to fill all the lifeguard positions on property at full speed without CPs or just limited offerings like they are starting? Can they really staff all feature pools plus both water parks without CPs? They wouldn’t have to do a major hire for the lifeguarding roles without CPs?

There was a huge group of life guarding CPs when I did my CP, but that was a long time ago. Maybe things have changed.

 

[BrianR]

Which is really bad business considering how Universal is handling this. Also, does Disney want to refund that money back to people currently? I doubt that.

Yeah I think that's the interesting piece of the puzzle. If you're going for x and can only secure y and it's not worth it for you to go, what cancellation would look like if at all possible in the parks are kinda sorta open phase. The cancellation policies are all based on the old system and pre-COVID. Like the 30 days cancellation for DVC that starts your points going into holding, or your multi day ticket that you can only go 2 days instead of 5.

 

[Mom2Anna&Elsa]

But are they able to fill all the lifeguard positions on property at full speed without CPs or just limited offerings like they are starting? Can they really staff all feature pools plus both water parks without CPs? They wouldn’t have to do a major hire for the lifeguarding roles without CPs?

There was a huge group of life guarding CPs when I did my CP, but that was a long time ago. Maybe things have changed.

I know an issue we are having here in Indianapolis is that the Red Cross wasn't/isn't doing any lifeguard certifications for a while, which has created a shortage of lifeguards for neighborhood pool services.

I would think/hope that large corporations like Disney pay for their own certifications but I have no idea how that works.

 

[pixieprincess925]

I could be wrong on this but I thought Disney filled many of the life guarding roles with CP’s

Pretty sure lifeguards are the only job on WDW where you don't have to be 18+. Many of those lifeguards are in high school - just like at many neighborhood pools around the country.

 

[chicagoshannon]

But are they able to fill all the lifeguard positions on property at full speed without CPs or just limited offerings like they are starting? Can they really staff all feature pools plus both water parks without CPs? They wouldn’t have to do a major hire for the lifeguarding roles without CPs?

There was a huge group of life guarding CPs when I did my CP, but that was a long time ago. Maybe things have changed.

I don't know for sure but they should surely be able to fill all lifeguard rolls at the hotel pools as long as the water parks are closed!

 

[yulilin3]

But are they able to fill all the lifeguard positions on property at full speed without CPs or just limited offerings like they are starting? Can they really staff all feature pools plus both water parks without CPs? They wouldn’t have to do a major hire for the lifeguarding roles without CPs?

There was a huge group of life guarding CPs when I did my CP, but that was a long time ago. Maybe things have changed.

water parks are not reopening with the parks
Also all the union agreed that if any particular ft or pt CM cannot go back to their original position they will be offered somewhere else where they can retrain and work while their position becomes available
Again, no CP will come back until every ft and pt CM are working

 

[yulilin3]

Pretty sure lifeguards are the only job on WDW where you don't have to be 18+. Many of those lifeguards are in high school - just like at many neighborhood pools around the country.

Disney has not hired under 18 year olds for a long time

 

[MickeyWaffles]

water parks are not reopening with the parks
Also all the union agreed that if any particular ft or pt CM cannot go back to their original position they will be offered somewhere else where they can retrain and work while their position becomes available
Again, no CP will come back until every ft and pt CM are working

I know they aren’t opening - that is my point. Because of the number of CP lifeguards, I don’t know that they would be able to operate all lifeguarded areas like the water parks plus all feature pools without CPs or a major lifeguarding hire.

They surely can fill the positions for what will be open in the early phases with FT/PT. But I think full speed with water parks would require a major hire.

 

[yulilin3]

I know they aren’t opening - that is my point. Because of the number of CP lifeguards, I don’t know that they would be able to operate all lifeguarded areas like the water parks plus all feature pools without CPs or a major lifeguarding hire.

They surely can fill the positions for what will be open in the early phases with FT/PT. But I think full speed would require a major hire.

once everything reopens I'm sure they will call CPs back, they are cheap labor for Disney (the reason they have them and have not hired a lot locally) plus they just finished Flamingo Crossing, so CP will come back but not until everything is full steam again

 

[pixieprincess925]

Disney has not hired under 18 year olds for a long time

I guess getting lifeguards back quickly will take a while longer then...

Not sure how they hope to open the water parks before CP gets back in that case.

 

[A2DisneyMom]

I was thinking about this whole thing more this morning (especially my “why Ft. Wildnerness cabins?” question), and I think the answer to all of this has been right in front of our faces the whole time.

I think this entire thing is related to transition to the new booking system that will replace the MDE app. I think all this chaos is the result of data migration into that system that is not going well. The migration plan was almost certainly designed to go week-to-week, as no way you can move all Disney data at once.

Think about it, what’s the first thing you do when you need to migrate data over and you have concerns about integrity, what is the first thing you do? Stop new data from coming into the system. Result: all new room, dining and ticket purchases suspended indefinitely. DONE.

What’s the second thing you do? Reduce the amount of data you need to migrate. Result: FP and ADR completely wiped out. DONE.

What’s the third thing you do in this situation? Move as much data as possible into systems that won’t be impacted by the migration. What’s special about both DVC and Ft. Wilderness? Separate booking systems from MDE. Ft. Wilderness campgrounds is also one non-DVC WDW property you can use points for. Result: move all reservations to DVC resorts or Ft. Wilderness. DONE.

The last thing? Manually backup all data and set a date for migration. Result: send out emails asking guests if they plan to keep their reservations and warn them that lack of response risks cancellation. Hard deadline of 6/11 for a response. DONE.

So my best guess is they are planning on turning on this new reservation/booking system on the 11th. Fingers crossed it works well because time is running out.

Edited to change date for the reservation response to 6/11, rather than 7/11. I’ve forgotten what month I am in!

 

[SwirlTheCitrus]

Someone posted the exact opposite on DVC Fan. They said they called member services and the CM told them that DVC resort guests could hop to other open DVC resorts without an ADR. The CM told them that the restriction applied to off property guests. Maybe there’s some hope.

Isn't pool hopping one of the guaranteed rights of both blue and white card DVC members? You can't hop to SAB, but everyone can hop to Luna Park. This gives a little hope, too.

 

[Eric Smith]

They have not officially cancelled Aug arrivals. A union rep said full time & part time will be a called back before seasonal and CPs. The union said something beautifully generic like “some time” with regards to the timing and the bloggers picked it up a couple days later “CP program done for 2020” leaving people with the impression it had actually been cancelled.

Yeah, the union person said that there won't be CP for a "while", which is an utterly subjective term. The union also has an interest for keeping the College Program away for as long as possible.

 

[MusicalAstronaut]

It’s so weird to not be making fastpasses or even a rough plan of what we’ll do each day. Also I don’t know what I’ll do if I have to spend an entire day in DHS. Baseline Tap House, here I come, I guess.

 

[Jiminy76]

So, as with so many things, we take a simple thing Disney says and try to read in all the details. Here is exactly what they said on the website about what you'll need to visit Disney hotels which is the only place I know of they've officially addressed this so far:

• A confirmed room reservation for your stay. Be sure to link your reservation to your Disney account to receive important information prior to your arrival—visit My Plans to get started
• A confirmed dining reservation if you’re a day Guest (not staying overnight)

Now, that could be interpreted as you're not allowed to resort-hop from where you're staying. It could also mean, if you have a confirmed room reservation, you're allowed to visit the Disney hotels since you're staying overnight on property. Clearly the BCV and BWV issue already indicates that may be a possibility plus all the difficulties in enforcing it.

The most sensible way to interpret for me is, they want to keep the facilities with low crowds enough to take care of the resort guests, so they don't want day guests driving up, parking, and hanging out in the stores and QS restaurants. That would make sense and be easy to enforce at the guard shack. Otherwise, there's a lot of problems enforcing as described in multiple posts and I'm not sure that's worth the effort, especially on the monorail stations and Epcot Resort Hotels.

As with everything, just stay tuned, we'll figure out all the answers soon enough.

Yes hopefully they mean a room reservation at any onsite resort rather than at that specific resort will allow you into the other resorts. We will have to wait and see if they provide any further clarification on this in the coming week(s).

I would love to go see RIV, as we bought there last July and our May trip there was obviously cancelled and we were unable to get a reservation there for our July trip. Would love to actually be able to go over and tour the resort now that is complete. I know I could get a reservation for Toplolino's, but I am not sure how we would be able to get there without getting an Uber (would rather avoid at this moment) as we use Disney transportation when on site. Minnie van's will not be operating when they open and the Skyliner's usually do not start running until an hour before park opening and with the parks opening later they may not be an option to get to RIV for a early breakfast reservation.

 

[Kmedders]

I was thinking about this whole thing more this morning (especially my “why Ft. Wildnerness cabins?” question), and I think the answer to all of this has been right in front of our faces the whole time.

I think this entire thing is related to transition to the new booking system that will replace the MDE app. I think all this chaos is the result of data migration into that system that is not going well. The migration plan was almost certainly designed to go week-to-week, as no way you can move all Disney data at once.

Think about it, what’s the first thing you do when you need to migrate data over and you have concerns about integrity, what is the first thing you do? Stop new data from coming into the system. Result: all new room, dining and ticket purchases suspended indefinitely. DONE.

What’s the second thing you do? Reduce the amount of data you need to migrate. Result: FP and ADR completely wiped out. DONE.

What’s the third thing you do in this situation? Move as much data as possible into systems that won’t be impacted by the migration. What’s special about both DVC and Ft. Wilderness? Separate booking systems from MDE. Ft. Wilderness campgrounds is also one non-DVC WDW property you can use points for. Result: move all reservations to DVC resorts or Ft. Wilderness. DONE.

The last thing? Manually backup all data and set a date for migration. Result: send out emails asking guests if they plan to keep their reservations and warn them that lack of response risks cancellation. Hard deadline of 7/11 for a response. DONE.

So my best guess is they are planning on turning on this new reservation/booking system on the 11th. Fingers crossed it works well because time is running out.

So interesting that you gave 7/11 as the date. My travel agent said they are being told 7/11 by their Disney rep.