Coronavirus and Walt Disney World general discussion

[JohnD]

I got the same from WESH. But I can't attach a link bc get stuck in "moderator approval land" all the time.

So - here's a cut / paste -

ORLANDO, Fla. —
Walt Disney World and Disneyland will remain closed until further notice, the company announced Friday afternoon.

Disney said in a statement Friday that hourly employees will continue to be paid through April 18.

The parks were closed earlier this month through the end of the month due to the coronavirus outbreak.

"As a result of this unprecedented pandemic and in line with direction provided by health experts and government officials, Disneyland Resort and Walt Disney World Resort will remain closed until further notice," a spokesperson for the Walt Disney Company said.

The two Central Florida counties in which Disney World sits, Orange and Osceola, are under stay-at-home orders until April 9.

Disney said after announcing its initial closure due to the virus, that all annual pass holders would have their passes extended by the number of days that the park is closed.

Well, I'm keeping my WDW reservation for the week of 5/25 until further notice. . .

 

[Brer Oswald]

I'm assuming that until there is a vaccine state governments are going to be hard pressed to justify rescinding the bans on large groups. It wouldn't surprise me if large groups weren't a banned for many months.

It would surprise me if the cases go down and become controlled. You can’t just shut down the world for 6 months. 2 is difficult enough, but necessary.

 

[JohnD]

In other news, I got my Baby Yoda plush today.

 

[Lilofan]

Yes this is what I’m expecting for wdw cast members

I'm glad at least they are paying full paychecks thru April 19 so cast can make arrangements

 

[ToTBellHop]

I found the information here interesting and it was nice to look at it myself and not have a talking head explain it based upon their “understanding”:

https://covid19.healthdata.org/projections

 

[DCBaker]

 

[Jwink]

isnt unemployment an option though? The new stimulus bill should help out a lot

Well it will depend. A) my husband works two jobs so it doesn’t hit what he makes, but yeah all in all helpful..

b) depending on if he’s furloughed or not. The assurance of a job after and a date? Sure. Laid off? Absolutely not... my husband will NEVER find a job that is equivalent to what he gets paid now

 

[John park hopper]

THIS! The insurance game is painful. It is very rare for the hospital to either submit the claim correctly the first time or for insurance to cover the correct amount they should be covering. The are Nothing but lies! I have spent countless hours with insurance companies battling out my claims. I always win but it’s exhausting. The purposely don’t bill correctly and will only fix things if the consumer starts to question . They pretty much auto deny most charges, and wait for the consumer to start protesting. The stories I can tell about insurance companies....

I am lucky my wife is a retired ER/ICU hospital nurse and knows the insurance/hospital game and like you when it comes to dealing with both she is like a pit bull and has spent hours on the phone and wins --we don't cover XYZ --BS, we don't pay that--BS and on and on.

 

[21stamps]

I wouldn't expect one until a week or two before the date.

Sure, but I think we’ll also have a much better idea over the next month or so. If Broadway doesn’t open by June, then I’ll start to get concerned.

@ParkerLoLs Do you know if any of the upcoming summer shows are discussing to delay their openings either way? I know the tickets to our show are nearly sold out, or maybe are sold out by now... but unsure if people would ask for refunds if scared to travel. I’m just banking on the fact that July is a lot farther out, hopefully past the spike of the illness.

 

[TrojanUSC]

So that model is predicting over 1,000,000 cases in Florida? Even at 1,000 new cases per day that's 3 years. For the 185,000 hospitalizations to create the implied shortage of 100,000+ beds, there would have to be over 1,000,000 simultaneous cases.

Dr. Birx said yesterday that the facts on the ground are not matching these dire models. The model in the UK that was predicting crazy numbers was updated yesterday or the day before also.

She specifically said that to get to those numbers in the worst case models either there are an extremely large number of asymptomatics or they would have to have the spread completely wrong.

Sorry but you're so wrong here. The person who she quoted, responsible for the UK study, wound up having to come out and say this was incorrect. The studies are 100% right, it's that they have re-evaluated based on the social distancing efforts in the UK, which are proving effective.

 

[Disstevefan1]

My whole life is based on reality. It’s part of who I am personally and professionally. I never deal with wishful thinking. And Disney isn’t going to fire everyone. There’s no reason to pay them for a few more weeks if they planned on letting them go. If you look at the other Disney parks as an example of what they’re doing it might become clearer.

Sure Disney won't be firing anyone but they will be furloughing them. No money is no money. I (hope) cast members will get unemployment money until this is over so, if they choose to, to return to work at WDW.

Disney, by furloughing, shifts the decision to stay employed with WDW to the cast member. Disney hopes, when unemployment money runs out, if the cast member needs money, the cast member will look elsewhere for work and quit Disney and Disney need not lay them off.

 

[TrojanUSC]

I don’t see it. Disney would fire cast members already if that was their intention. Cast members haven’t been let go in Shanghai, Hong Kong, or Tokyo. And they’ve been closed longer. Shanghai is coming back slowly already. Tokyo has an opening date of April 20. Of course, I choose that the glass is half full. Disney will open again in the near future. To rehire would be a very long process. Several scientific experts are agreeing we should peak in two to three weeks and then continue to drop off. It saddens me to see posters apparently taking glee in cast members possibly losing their jobs.

Disney doesn't directly employee those CMs at the Asian parks, besides a handful who have already returned to the US, and the situations with the local governments/operators are very different. The US parks, where CMs are direct Disney employees, are a whole other ballgame.

 

[DCBaker]

 

[Josh Hendy]

NY is probably throwing off the curve. They've got a 30% positive rate. 122,000 tests. Vs. Ohio's 20,000 tests. California only has about 20,000 tests as well, with a huge number pending, so yeah, testing problems are worse elsewhere.

Due to differences in testing rates and testing criteria, I think the only reliable figures you can use are based on number of confirmed hospital cases and deaths, and only from countries with trustworthy reporting. So Italy which I think is trustworthy, still has a growing death rate 2 months after the first cases were discovered. It may be flattening but that presumably means, they're not at the halfway point yet. You could possibly guess that the average jurisdiction (country or state) might see a 3 to 5 month "hump" to get over (from the time of the first detected cases) depending on how far the infection spread. Maybe worse and longer in jurisdictions like NYC that are more densely populated and were less vigilant at first, maybe better in rural places if the isolation was more diligent.

 

[GoofGoof]

I don’t see it. Disney would fire cast members already if that was their intention. Cast members haven’t been let go in Shanghai, Hong Kong, or Tokyo. And they’ve been closed longer. Shanghai is coming back slowly already. Tokyo has an opening date of April 20. Of course, I choose that the glass is half full. Disney will open again in the near future. To rehire would be a very long process. Several scientific experts are agreeing we should peak in two to three weeks and then continue to drop off. It saddens me to see posters apparently taking glee in cast members possibly losing their jobs.

I agree that they wouldn’t lay off workers right away. They want them ready to go as soon as it’s safe to re-open. A furlough is much more likely, but I still think there is a good chance they could extend again with pay if the opening date ends up being in May. If this goes past Memorial Day all bets are off.

Tokyo CMs work for OLC not Disney. For Shanghai and Hong Kong, Disney is only a part owner and the local governments calls the shots.

 

[21stamps]

I found the information here interesting and it was nice to look at it myself and not have a talking head explain it based upon their “understanding”:

https://covid19.healthdata.org/projections

I know it’s been said that we’ve pushed off the peak date due to social distancing and school closures, etc.. I hope it gets pushed back farther, but I also worry that there’s no way our schools will open back up on schedule.

 

[DisneyDebRob]

They will back.. who knows when. Looks like they got started though.

 

[Disstevefan1]

NY is probably throwing off the curve. They've got a 30% positive rate. 122,000 tests. Vs. Ohio's 20,000 tests. California only has about 20,000 tests as well, with a huge number pending, so yeah, testing problems are worse elsewhere.

California only tested 20,000 people?? What the heck are they doing over there???

 

[rowrbazzle]

Digging a little deeper, we are both correct.

The auto industry participated in both TARP (loans) $34.7B and Automotive Industry Financing Program (AIFP) (purchase of stock) $80.7B. TARP overall showed a profit of $15.3B and the auto industry loans component were totally paid back, while the AIFP showed a loss of $10.2B. If the government had held the stock they got as part of AIFP for a little longer before they sold, AIFP would have been profitable to.

I would say it was a good investment in the end.

You're right. It was all mixed together. Not sure why I always thought of them as separate. Looks like I was wrong about Ally too; we did get our money back on that. Woohoo! Haha

I don't think there was much of a chance of GM stock reaching the levels needed for the government to make a profit, though. But I think economists still say it was the right decision.

 

[hopemax]

California only tested 20,000 people?? What the heck are they doing over there???

They have 57,000 tests awaiting processing. But yeah, it's a head scratcher.