Cruise and Theme Park Operational Updates due to Coronavirus

[Wreckem]

Many of these Disney "purists" are thrilled with this sort of stuff. They hope the company will be reborn to the way they want to whatever.

Those people are agenda driven and delusional. What they are wanting isn’t going to happen if Disney has to sell the parks.

I personally don’t see Disney selling the parks. I can see them selling off other assets if they need to. The parks aren’t the financial drag right now anyways, right now it’s the hotels. The hotels are one of their biggest liabilities.

Honestly everyone concerned about Disney should be watching the gambling resort hotel industry. How it goes for them will likely be how it goes for Disney’s resorts/hotels.

 

[JacknSally]

We need to remember that the Chapek interview was before Florida had cases in the 5 digit range daily...

This is important. The last earnings call (where he really emphasized the pent-up demand) was in early May, and while I don’t remember specific case or unemployment numbers from around the country (much less in FL) or anything at that point, I’m fairly confident everything was a different situation altogether back then.

I’m curious if in the next earnings call he’ll say whether the pent-up demand came through as expected.

 

[zapple]

I’ve been on property since Saturday, we’re DVC members from VA (we drove) and this trip is a rescheduled one from April and here are a few observations:

Mask compliance has been great, people are distancing well in lines, but stores are not so great. My husband was creeped out by the amount of people getting close to us in the Emporium and he had to leave, they are letting too many people in there.

Crowds are definitely heavier at MK than the vloggers were showing the first 2 weeks. It’s not “crowded” but very few rides are walk ons. HS crowds are about the same as they have been since opening, and it’s uncomfortably crowded in some of the choke points. AK and Epcot are dead.

The lack of park hopping is the most annoying thing to us right now. We have never just gone to one park in a day, we are die hard park hoppers and not being able to get that delicious epcot festival food any evening we want is hard. And the food is awesome at F&W, limited selection but it’s all really good.

The resorts are also more crowded at night since the parks close early, everyone piles into the pool making them too crowded for us, especially with the lack of masks in the pool.

The lines for the skyliner are very long at park opening times. It’s already pretty bad at the CB station and it’s only going to get worse now the resort is open.

Please be patient with the CMs, many of them are not working at their usual places, especially food and beverage.

Overall, I’m really impressed with the safety precautions, staff in parks and resorts are taking it seriously and most guests are too. My husband is a managing engineer at a high reliability organization and he got permission to travel because of Disney’s policies and he is able to fully follow all of his company’s safety requirements while here, because we drove our own car (if we had flown he would have had to quarantine for 2 weeks) and he can just remove himself from anywhere that seems problematic. For instance, if we were to be stuck in an indoor queue without moving for 14 minutes, we would need to leave the queue because 15 minutes even with masks on would be a violation, especially those switchback queues with the plexiglass barriers. This hasn’t happened yet, because we’ve mostly been staying away from rides with long lines that break down frequently (I’m looking at you Rise!) He says people are actually being more compliant at Disney than at his own workplace, and that’s saying a lot.

We will not go to Disney Springs though because they are not living up to the standards of the parks and resorts, and they should be called out on that.

Bottom line, you CAN visit safely, if you’re aware of your surroundings and do your research. Disney is really trying to make this work and while there’s room for improvement, they’re doing a good job.

 

[Wreckem]

This is important. The last earnings call (where he really emphasized the pent-up demand) was in early May, and while I don’t remember specific case or unemployment numbers from around the country (much less in FL) or anything at that point, I’m fairly confident everything was a different situation altogether back then.

I’m curious if in the next earnings call he’ll say whether the pent-up demand came through as expected.

On the date of the last earnings call there were 740ish new cases and only a total of 35000 cases in Florida. Even when they announced the reopening plans in late May case loads were low. On May 27 there were only 454 new cases reported and 52,000ish total.

Had things stay relatively tame like that I’m sure Disney and the parks would be in a much better place. Things didn’t hit the fan until mid June and we all know where we are today. In two months since they announced reopening plans the daily new cases are now 25+ times higher, overall cases have quadrupled as has the daily death count has quadrupled, while overall death count has tripled.

I am just glad the 4th of July holiday didn’t lead to the same surge as Memorial Day holiday in places like Texas and Florida. There is definitely a Fourth of July surge in other states that didn’t really have a surge after Memorial Day. I know a lot of governmental officials, especially school districts are worried about the Labor Day holiday. People keep asking why is October being thrown out as the date for a lot of in person schooling resuming and it all comes back to Labor Day.

 

[Jrb1979]

Demand isn't normally an issue. I think even now demand is there but there are restrictions that people can't get around in some instances. International travel is basically non-existent. And domestic travel has 14-day quarantine restrictions hindering people. So people may want to go but they are being stopped due to these things.

I disagree. Outside of these boards, many people aren't interested in traveling anywhere right now. A lot of people also don't have the money to travel. Demand for any amusement park is non existent.

 

[Wreckem]

I disagree. Outside of these boards, many people aren't interested in traveling anywhere right now. A lot of people also don't have the money to travel. Demand for any amusement park is non existent.

That is probably true. This board is over smoking or the number of people who want to go.


I’ve gone to both Vegas and Orlando in the past month. If Disney has opened earlier I would have went. I cannot go now because I’m back on contract next week and back in person the week after. While I don’t have travel restrictions, I don’t have the days to burn to be out two weeks of work if I get sick nor can I afford to be docked my daily rate. My wife on the other hand has 45 days to burn but her employer would be none to happen for her to be out two weeks right now or ever. I was able to do Vegas and Orlando this month because I didn’t have to worry about losing pay.

I do currently have a week at Thanksgiving and Christmas booked. Christmas is actually double booked with cruise I need to lift and shift or cancel. Once I sort out the cruise the others will be week of decisions. Unless of course our employers have travel restrictions through the remainder of the the year. I’ll find that out next week.

 

[TXAKDisneyFan]

I disagree. Outside of these boards, many people aren't interested in traveling anywhere right now. A lot of people also don't have the money to travel. Demand for any amusement park is non existent.

I can only speak to the situation with people I know. Based on friends and colleagues, and from speaking to a realtor who serves that population, a lot of people who have not financially suffered as a result of COVID have instead made large investments into "safe" and "secure" forms of relaxation. Instead of planned international vacations or high-expenditure Disney trips (CL, VIP tours, deluxe dining plans), the purchasing lake houses, several people we know have bought "luxury" motor homes (and used them to tour national parks); people who didn't already have a pool are building resort-style pools,...

Additionally, a lot of these people were not infrequent visitors of WDW, but had neither the interest or time to devote to learning the ins and outs of planning a Disney trip - they'd hire a TA to plan everything (or completely turn the reigns over to someone else they trusted). They'll see ads but won't seek out information themselves. I can't count the number of colleagues I spoke to who just wanted to go to WDW and not have to worry about ANY planning. Even trying to help them pick a resort was a chore - as soon as they'd hear about the number of deluxe resorts and how they all have different themes, their eyes glossed over and they just wanted to be put in "the nicest one" (which I guess makes sense considering normal living conditions). (And these aren't people doing it for social media purposes.)

Obviously repeat visitors did become somewhat familiar with FP+, etc. However, there is now a mix of those who don't know about any of the changes in protocol/procedure Disney has made as a result of COVID (and in turn don't know how safe or unsafe the parks may be), and those who have heard bits and pieces about these changes and felt exhausted at the idea of relearning things. They're also tied up with the large new expenditures (lake houses, boats, pools).

I think there are a host of reasons (financial, quarantine requirements, masks, caution and/or fear, reduced experiences (entertainment, resorts, restaurants), etc) why a lot of people aren't going to WDW right now. (And I'd guess they for most people, it's a combination of reasons.) I just know that among people I know, many are still traveling, they're just buying expensive motor homes and going to national parks. I also think wider advertising would help (maybe targeted advertising?), but as many have mentioned, that would probably get a lot of bad press.

 

[anthony2k7]

Anything is possible If you’re headed down there soon I’d be ready to be very flexible just because of these new rumors. Hopefully if enacted it would be a rotational type basis so a park or two is always open.

But what a mess for the Park Reservation system. Can IT even handle such a drastic change with moving all who have already booked to another park?

Presumably it will maybe be like when all the ADRs were removed. Delete all those affected and email everyone saying they need to do it all again.

 

[anthony2k7]

This ⤴ is important. The last earnings call (where he really emphasized the pent-up demand) was in early May, and while I don’t remember specific case or unemployment numbers from around the country (much less in FL) or anything at that point, I’m fairly confident everything was a different situation altogether back then.

I’m curious if in the next earnings call he’ll say whether the pent-up demand came through as expected.

From what I remember of this thread back in May, there were a lot of people just waiting it out at that point. We didn't know what the reopening was going to look like at all then. The whole M discussion had barely started and was just an outrageous rumour.

 

[anthony2k7]

so wait, what's Mickey Ave / Main St rumour? Surely they cannot mess with Main St in either DL or MK!?

 

[anthony2k7]

One curious thing for me right now is that the current dire rumours and the general park emptiness doesn't seem to have had much of a negative effect on Disneys share price. Its pretty flat still on where it was just before opening, even with the big movie delays since then.

The markets usually catch onto pending dire announcements before they happen regardless of how many NDAs are in place.

 

[Eric Smith]

Do we think the parks could drop to 5 days a week pre-labor day?

I don’t think the five day a week schedule will happen. I would think that a five day schedule would cause a rash of cancellations.

 

[yulilin3]

I'm here now and I am shocked, and I mean shocked at the amount of CMs who are seemingly doing nothing of value. For example today, at world of Disney we saw a CM holding a handheld social distancing sign while just about two feet away was the exact same sign on a metal stand. We also saw that at AK today when two CM who were holding this same sign were about 10 feet away from each other and having a conversation. There's CM in line who's only job is to tell you when to walk to the next social distance marker on the floor, something you've done on your own the entire line up to that point. Insanely enough, the amount of lifeguards doesn't seem to have increased and that's where masks and social distancing are pretty relaxed. I've also noticed what I assume to be middle management (dressed real nice) just basically standing around seemingly everywhere and trying to looks busy. I usually take most rumors with a grain of salt, but man the amount of money going to people who at face value are doing nothing meaningful has me worried.

And still so many CM on furloughed. They are keeping the pool staffed with the necessary amount of people to not add to the capacity of the area. The slide operators and lifeguards from the water parks are usually the CM you see now doing "crowd control" . They are definitely overstaffed right now

 

[yulilin3]

I disagree. Outside of these boards, many people aren't interested in traveling anywhere right now. A lot of people also don't have the money to travel. Demand for any amusement park is non existent.

we can't really generalize aside from what we know personally, I have 5 friends and their families who had trips planned and they live in England and Austria and they can't come right now, they really wanted to come, also another friend had her flights cancelled by AA for March of next year already, she's also from the UK. I think demand is there and people do want to come but there's a lot of other factors that prevent people from doing so, especially the quarantine

 

[anthony2k7]

I don’t think the five day a week schedule will happen. I would think that a five day schedule would cause a rash of cancellations.

I think its quite possible some or all the parks go 5 days a week. However, they wont be all closed on the same 2 days. I would not be at all surprised if MK/HS stay open 7 days but AK drops to 5 days say Wed to Sun, and Epcot either went evenings only or 5 days Fri to Tue.

 

[anthony2k7]

we can't really generalize aside from what we know personally, I have 5 friends and their families who had trips planned and they live in England and Austria and they can't come right now, they really wanted to come, also another friend had her flights cancelled by AA for March of next year already, she's also from the UK. I think demand is there and people do want to come but there's a lot of other factors that prevent people from doing so, especially the quarantine

I dont think so. I think the issues have many layers and peoples thoughts need to work through those layers.

People may think they want to go right now but can't due to no international travel. However, I think many of those if the restrictions were lifted tomorrow would then think ok... but what about Fl cases? What about our local economy? Will the flights really be safe? They may well then change their minds again and still not go.

 

[yulilin3]

At MK toll plaza, being held until 8:15. Saw the rover launch from here, just the flare and cloud flume but always pretty cool

 

[TheMaxRebo]

This ⤴ is important. The last earnings call (where he really emphasized the pent-up demand) was in early May, and while I don’t remember specific case or unemployment numbers from around the country (much less in FL) or anything at that point, I’m fairly confident everything was a different situation altogether back then.

I’m curious if in the next earnings call he’ll say whether the pent-up demand came through as expected.

Also will be interesting how they position it as companies like to set a bar they can clear in the annual results

So will the quarter results and messaging appear a bit extra doom and gloom but with an eye for how they can manage, etc - and then for next Quarter (which I believe ends Disney's fiscal year) when they beat those (very) low guidance numbers the analysts are happy and the stock rebounds

 

[rteetz]

I disagree. Outside of these boards, many people aren't interested in traveling anywhere right now. A lot of people also don't have the money to travel. Demand for any amusement park is non existent.

I’m not saying the parks would be filled to the brim with people or anything. I do think the parks would fill more frequently to their allotted capacities if there were less travel restrictions though.

 

[CastAStone]

I think its quite possible some or all the parks go 5 days a week. However, they wont be all closed on the same 2 days. I would not be at all surprised if MK/HS stay open 7 days but AK drops to 5 days say Wed to Sun, and Epcot either went evenings only or 5 days Fri to Tue.

Agree with all of this. Completely.