Why ARE some of the resorts closed?

[imktdqt810]

I just wondered if it was ever stated as to WHY not all the resorts are open right now? Is it maybe b/c of the limited capacity to the parks?

Just wondered (while I am bored in a work zoom call....Shhhh!!!)

 

[RoseGold]

The ones that are open aren't even full yet. I don't know who is going to be staying in AoA, which has over 900 rooms.

 

[GADisneyDad14]

Insufficient guest demand. Just aren’t enough people willing to travel and stay at WDW right now to fill so many hotel rooms at an occupancy rate that makes financial sense for them to open.

 

[maltdizzy]

Staffing and operating costs.

Currently, WDW has ~55% of their room inventory operating. By consolidating guest demand to as few hotels as possible, Disney can use a smaller staff more efficiently. Hotel staffs accounted for a big chunk of that mass layoff this month, including the staffs from all three All-Stars and both Port Orleans. Park capacity does matter, they have to make cuts to offset less revenue from the parks, but the room demand is saeemingly low enough that they postponed the Poly for another 9 months.

DVC resorts are legally a time-share and their budget funded by DVC owners

 

[mrsxsparrow]

Some of them were also closed longer because the NBA teams were staying there. Both the Lakers and the Heat were at Coronado Springs until just a few days ago.

 

[LizzyDragon]

Insufficient guest demand. Just aren’t enough people willing to travel and stay at WDW right now to fill so many hotel rooms at an occupancy rate that makes financial sense for them to open.

Yep, this. Hotels in the area are struggling with crazy low occupancy (some places dropped to 2-3% occupancy before closing in March). General rule of thumb is that a hotel needs to hit around 50% occupancy to break even. Disney, with the 25% capacity cap, is not going to get anywhere near that with all the hotels open.

Once social distancing and domestic/international travel restrictions lift, occupancy rates should start to climb and eventually Disney should be able to reopen all the resorts.

 

[MC0810]

i was just at Pop century - the pools were packed - so much that i didnt lt my kids swim, alot of people walking around the hotel grounds. didnt feel any different than any other trip. I was expecting less people.

 

[Skippyboo]

i was just at Pop century - the pools were packed - so much that i didnt lt my kids swim, alot of people walking around the hotel grounds. didnt feel any different than any other trip. I was expecting less people.

What time of day were you at the pool? With the parks closing early, there’s not really a lot to do at night. So definitely can see a lot of people hitting their hotel pools in the evening.

 

[MC0810]

What time of day were you at the pool? With the parks closing early, there’s not really a lot to do at night. So definitely can see a lot of people hitting their hotel pools in the evening.

that could have been a factor for sure. Our room faced the 80s pool. 5pm and 7 pm it was JAM packed.

 

[fabfemmeboy]

And even if some of the hotels are reasonably full (specifically Pop), they don't have enough buses to service all the hotels with the reduced capacity. According to Josh D'Amaro this week, park capacity is at "right about 25%" - but bus capacity is much lower than 25% because not only are seats blocked off, but you can't have ANYONE standing. Buses are kind of a nightmare at most of the resorts right now because of that, with long lines at opening in particular. If they had all the hotels open - most of which are bus-heavy resorts, like the All-Stars - they would have to send fewer buses to each hotel which would increase wait times further.

Cynically...they only have one value resort open now, which is more than 50% more expensive than the other values. A second one - kind of - is opening before the holidays, but AoA is 75% suites so its price per room is a lot higher than values generally. They know they can't open every resort due to budget constraints, bus limitations, and lack of demand (and park capacity), so they've chosen to focus on resorts that have a DVC section or are on the Skyliner, which skew more expensive than average. That's not why they only have half the resorts open, but their choices of which resorts to prioritize do have an added benefit for the company.

 

[RoseGold]

Cynically...they only have one value resort open now, which is more than 50% more expensive than the other values.

But Poly, at 7-800$/night, is still closed, as is Jambo, which is huge and expensive. There's not enough demand at either price point.

 

[fabfemmeboy]

But Poly, at 7-800$/night, is still closed, as is Jambo, which is huge and expensive. There's not enough demand at either price point.

True, but they have a much higher percentage of deluxes open than they have moderates, and a higher percentage of moderates than values.

Deluxe/Deluxe Villas: SSR, Contemporary, YC, Poly Villas, OKW, GF, Riviera, AKL Kidani, BCV, BWV, and both sets of villas at WL are open and accepting reservations (meaning not just the DVC section open)
Jambo, BWI, BC, Poly (main), and WL (main) are closed.

Moderates: CBR, CSR are open
POR, POFQ are closed

Value: Pop is open
ASMu, AS2, ASMo are closed.
AoA is allegedly opening at the start of November and is so far the only resort to reopen after July that wasn't blocked off for a sport of some kind (unlike CSR, GF etc.)

So Deluxe open rate is 12/17, or 71%. Higher if you separate Contemporary and BLT which are both open.
Moderate open rate is 2/4, or 50%. 60% if you count the cabins at FW, which are open.
Value is 20% now, soon to be 40% (kind of; price-wise AoA is closer to a moderate because they're suites, so the per-night rate is much higher than a value room unless you're in Little Mermaid which is only 1/4 of the resort).

No, there isn't enough demand to fill all the resorts - or to be worth opening all the resorts - at all price-points. But they have a much higher percentage of high-rate resorts open. This includes resorts that rely entirely on bus transportation - 5/7 Deluxe/Villas, 1/3 Moderates, 0/3 Value.

 

[tnolan]

But Poly, at 7-800$/night, is still closed, as is Jambo, which is huge and expensive. There's not enough demand at either price point.

I'm sure the fact that they are currently doing refurbishment work on the Poly doesn't help.

 

[GADisneyDad14]

To me it's really more about resort (non DVC) room counts, not the # of resorts. Yes DVC rooms can sometimes be booked via cash, but those being open is a bit of a different animal in terms of open/closed resorts. With today's reopening of CSR:

43% of the total Deluxe room count is open (3 of 8 resorts)
59% of the total Moderate room count is open (3 of 5 resorts, I'm including FW Cabins here)
28% of the total Value room count is open (1 of 5 resorts) (will be 47% / 2 of 5 when AoA opens in a couple of weeks)

No real right or wrong here, just different ways to look at the situation.

 

[Next_disney_princess]

I'm at pop right now.. sitting by the pool. Maybe 20 people in it. I just got out but DD is still swimming. I was surprised it wasnt more full. But then again magic kingdom is open until 8. So there will probably be more folks here later. This is my first stay at pop. We have always stayed at all star movies and I was nervous about staying at a different resort but we are loving it!

 

[Sandisw]

True, but they have a much higher percentage of deluxes open than they have moderates, and a higher percentage of moderates than values.

Deluxe/Deluxe Villas: SSR, Contemporary, YC, Poly Villas, OKW, GF, Riviera, AKL Kidani, BCV, BWV, and both sets of villas at WL are open and accepting reservations (meaning not just the DVC section open)
Jambo, BWI, BC, Poly (main), and WL (main) are closed.

Moderates: CBR, CSR are open
POR, POFQ are closed

Value: Pop is open
ASMu, AS2, ASMo are closed.
AoA is allegedly opening at the start of November and is so far the only resort to reopen after July that wasn't blocked off for a sport of some kind (unlike CSR, GF etc.)

So Deluxe open rate is 12/17, or 71%. Higher if you separate Contemporary and BLT which are both open.
Moderate open rate is 2/4, or 50%. 60% if you count the cabins at FW, which are open.
Value is 20% now, soon to be 40% (kind of; price-wise AoA is closer to a moderate because they're suites, so the per-night rate is much higher than a value room unless you're in Little Mermaid which is only 1/4 of the resort).

No, there isn't enough demand to fill all the resorts - or to be worth opening all the resorts - at all price-points. But they have a much higher percentage of high-rate resorts open. This includes resorts that rely entirely on bus transportation - 5/7 Deluxe/Villas, 1/3 Moderates, 0/3 Value.

You have to knock out DVC because those had to legally open, regardless of how busy they would be as it is a timeshare and rules on how long they can be open,

The only DVC that WDW still owns the bulk of is Riviera as only 35% is DVC currently,

So, in terms of other deluxe hotels, its only CR, GF, and YC.

DVC owners pay a good share of the resort operations so WDW using them to relocate people has helped with costs and allows them to keep the hotel portions closed.

 

[RoseGold]

If Disney had wanted to only open the expensive resorts, Jambo would be open. But that's not what they did. They have opened pretty evenly, so obviously trying to make sure there's something for everyone.

All the gondola resorts are good choices to reopen because the gondolas are great for social distancing. I can see why they would open before bussing nightmares like Jambo and All Stars.

 

[karen4546]

True, but they have a much higher percentage of deluxes open than they have moderates, and a higher percentage of moderates than values.

Deluxe/Deluxe Villas: SSR, Contemporary, YC, Poly Villas, OKW, GF, Riviera, AKL Kidani, BCV, BWV, and both sets of villas at WL are open and accepting reservations (meaning not just the DVC section open)
Jambo, BWI, BC, Poly (main), and WL (main) are closed.

Moderates: CBR, CSR are open
POR, POFQ are closed

Value: Pop is open
ASMu, AS2, ASMo are closed.
AoA is allegedly opening at the start of November and is so far the only resort to reopen after July that wasn't blocked off for a sport of some kind (unlike CSR, GF etc.)

So Deluxe open rate is 12/17, or 71%. Higher if you separate Contemporary and BLT which are both open.
Moderate open rate is 2/4, or 50%. 60% if you count the cabins at FW, which are open.
Value is 20% now, soon to be 40% (kind of; price-wise AoA is closer to a moderate because they're suites, so the per-night rate is much higher than a value room unless you're in Little Mermaid which is only 1/4 of the resort).

No, there isn't enough demand to fill all the resorts - or to be worth opening all the resorts - at all price-points. But they have a much higher percentage of high-rate resorts open. This includes resorts that rely entirely on bus transportation - 5/7 Deluxe/Villas, 1/3 Moderates, 0/3 Value.

The villas @ Jambo House are open. All the DVC resorts are open.
side note: we were @CCV 9/26-10/2. The resort was not packed at all, but the buses were not good. I knew they would distance people, but they barely started running 30 minutes before park opening. We took a Lyft twice to Hollywood studios and glad we did because the line was already very long. Buses FROM the parks and Disney Springs were not that bad. Boat transportation was very good.

 

[pigletgirl]

Eventually though, won't another value resort be needed? I can't imagine the resorts closing for such an extended length of time. But, people aren't traveling (so they say, most people I know are)... so they say. What will it take for the AS and PO resorts to open?

 

[GADisneyDad14]

What will it take for the AS and PO resorts to open?

For Pop, AoA, CBR, CSR (and FW Cabins) to consistently run at very high occupancy levels. That’s a lot of rooms, FWIW.