Coronavirus and Walt Disney World general discussion

[The Mom]

I think you are seeing this from the wrong angle: do countries in the Carib., which may have limited ICU facilities, really want daily influxes of thousands of Americans when infection rates are still high in the U.S. They are desperate for the tourism income, but must be worried that interaction with cruise guests will infect their population.

I think this is why there has been discussion of 3 & 4 day cruises. Passengers are checked on boarding, then unless they get sick the first 24 hours they are only 2-3 days away from port. And can quickly get back to the US.

 

[Calmdownnow]

I think this is why there has been discussion of 3 & 4 day cruises. Passengers are checked on boarding, then unless they get sick the first 24 hours they are only 2-3 days away from port. And can quickly get back to the US.

Without getting back into the revolving argument about asymptomatic spreaders, the point of my post was to take issue with the suggestion that the important point was that Americans might be infected by foreigners, when there is a just as compelling view that foreigners may be worried about American cruise passengers infecting them.

 

[wannabeBelle]

Without getting back into the revolving argument about asymptomatic spreaders, the point of my post was to take issue with the suggestion that the important point was that Americans might be infected by foreigners, when there is a just as compelling view that foreigners may be worried about American cruise passengers infecting them.

Sorry I didnt mean to offend. It was definitely a consideration either way!! Marie

 

[Mouse Trap]

Seems a bit premature for Universal to be putting these down if the parks won’t be opening until 2021...

 

[bcoachable]

An interesting thought might be re-opening MK on a "party" only basis. Have a morning breakfast party for a couple of hours, separately ticketed of course, for a limited number of guests with a food offering (book your socially distanced table in advance). Clear out those guests, then offer your mid day lunch party on the same basis, followed by an evening offering, same basis. May be 5-7% of capacity at any one time, but you still get a substantial number of people through the gates in a safer and more controlled manner. Perhaps limit the number of parties a guest can attend in any one day. 3 lots of guests paying premium prices (but not using daily tickets, hoppers or APs) gives a decent and guaranteed minimum income to meet staffing costs.

If one wanted to, one could structure the visit to the parks similar to how Disney structured the opening of Galaxies Edge- with a four hour window for visiting... just thinking out loud..

 

[Gottalovepluto]

So these guys are basically stuck on the cruise ships for months now and they aren’t being paid. Am I reading that right? Is that even legal to do to someone? I can understand not paying them, but then don’t you have to get them off the ships and home?

Yes. Yes. Many of their countries will not allow them back in their country and certainly no other country is willing to let them in.

 

[Calmdownnow]

Sorry I didnt mean to offend. It was definitely a consideration either way!! Marie

I know you got it, and I was not offended.

 

[Calmdownnow]

If one wanted to, one could structure the visit to the parks similar to how Disney structured the opening of Galaxies Edge- with a four hour window for visiting... just thinking out loud..

I suspect this is where it may go, but to make it financially viable -- ie, |I am charging you $140 for your 4-hour window in order to have ultra low capacity attendance during that window -- you need to have a unique product to sell that excludes APs and Hoppers etc. Hence the "party" concept that is already established. Plus, you want to make sure that those that are in the park pay up-front for some sort of food offering rather than bring their own.

 

[The Mom]

Without getting back into the revolving argument about asymptomatic spreaders, the point of my post was to take issue with the suggestion that the important point was that Americans might be infected by foreigners, when there is a just as compelling view that foreigners may be worried about American cruise passengers infecting them.

It was also opined that they would not be stopping in foreign ports - to lessen the chance of spreading, or acquiring, the virus. They would stop at islands (such as Castaway Cay) owned by the cruise lines.

So passengers would not be spreading to other areas.

 

[Astrotrain]

I highly doubt they would exclude annual passholders, if anything they may limit opening to locals for the first couple of weeks.

There are entire communities around WDW that live here for the parks. They would infuriate their biggest fans by telling them their passes are no good. Locals aren't potentially picking up the virus on their way to the parks either. Airplane travel, busses, etc are all hot spots for viruses.

 

[Calmdownnow]

It was also opined that they would not be stopping in foreign ports - to lessen the chance of spreading, or acquiring, the virus. They would stop at islands (such as Castaway Cay) owned by the cruise lines.

So passengers would not be spreading to other areas.

Interesting. I didn't realize Castaway Cay staff lived on the island. Has Disney indicated what steps it is taking to protect it's workers on Castaway Cay? Will masks be required etc?

 

[Miss Bella]

Yes. Yes. Many of their countries will not allow them back in their country and certainly no other country is willing to let them in.

Cruiselines have been sailing their crew members home. At least I know Carnival has. I don’t know about Disney. But I believe the Fantasy set sail to somewhere.
it’s a slow process and pretty sad .

 

[peter11435]

Interesting. I didn't realize Castaway Cay staff lived on the island. Has Disney indicated what steps it is taking to protect it's workers on Castaway Cay? Will masks be required etc?

There is a decent number of cast that live on the island, slightly under 100 I believe. When the ships in port crew from the ship staff many operational roles across the island. There are also people who travel from nearby Abaco to operate some excursions, Bahamian retail, and a few other roles. These could be temporary eliminated.

 

[GoofGoof]

I highly doubt they would exclude annual passholders, if anything they may limit opening to locals for the first couple of weeks.

There are entire communities around WDW that live here for the parks. They would infuriate their biggest fans by telling them their passes are no good. Locals aren't potentially picking up the virus on their way to the parks either. Airplane travel, busses, etc are all hot spots for viruses.

I agree, there is no way they exclude AP holders when they open the parks. Even in a scenario where they limit things to resort guests it would likely be resort guests plus AP holders. There have been some rumblings of a potential brief soft opening that would potentially be more for locals with limited or no resorts open. Again, just rumors at this point.

There was another rumor out there that when they first open the parks if there is an extreme limit on capacity during the initial phase that they would make all people buy single day tickets with advance reservations and AP holders would have their passes extended for as long as that continued and be offered a discount on the daily ticket price. The thought behind it was that in order to make enough money to open the parks with that extreme limit on capacity they would need the revenue from the daily tickets. They would also potentially have an issue with more resort guests than capacity. The rumor came from a relatively unknown site so not highly reliable, but who knows. Anything is possible with this situation. I don’t see that scenario as likely to happen or if it does it would be for a very limited period of time. A few weeks or a month at most. I don’t think it has anything to do with locals being any more or less risky than tourists, it’s purely a numbers game. If the capacity is very Low they need to maximize revenue to cover costs. They could also just wait until the capacity can be higher to re-open.

 

[GoofGoof]

Cruiselines have been sailing their crew members home. At least I know Carnival has. I don’t know about Disney. But I believe the Fantasy set sail to somewhere.
it’s a slow process and pretty sad .

I just can’t believe they aren’t being paid anything. At least they get meals, but they are trapped there. I guess Woth the cruise lines all nearly bankrupt it’s hard to expect they would pay the people but it’s really tough to see people stuck like that.

 

[Lilofan]

Interesting. I didn't realize Castaway Cay staff lived on the island. Has Disney indicated what steps it is taking to protect it's workers on Castaway Cay? Will masks be required etc?

If any cast member living and working on Castaway Cay contacted Covid, they would be in huge trouble. I don't think there are any medical facilities on the island. The last time I was there I think the cast live in those makeshift trailers behind the long runway by the adult beach.

 

[Patcheslee]

Anything is possible with this situation.

With "anything possible" they could designate specific days for each resort/park and rotate daily. Also APs could be broken up to 3 or 4 month increments by expiration dates and rotate parks. Then have a limited daily ticket capacity with the remainder. There's so many scenarios.

 

[Miss Bella]

I just can’t believe they aren’t being paid anything. At least they get meals, but they are trapped there. I guess Woth the cruise lines all nearly bankrupt it’s hard to expect they would pay the people but it’s really tough to see people stuck like that.

Cruiselines aren’t flagged in the U.S they don’t pay U.S. taxes and that includes DCL. Other than NCL I don’t think they’re doing too bad. Carnival said they have enough liquidity to stay shuttered for the rest of the year. As far as the crew most of them are from the Philippines, India and South America. I guess they would need unemployment from their own countries.

 

[peter11435]

Cruiselines aren’t flagged in the U.S they don’t pay U.S. taxes and that includes DCL. Other than NCL I don’t think they’re doing too bad. Carnival said they have enough liquidity to stay shuttered for the rest of the year. As far as the crew most of them are from the Philippines, India and South America. I guess they would need unemployment from their own countries.

Just to point out while it is true that cruise ship are not flagged in the US, contrary to popular belief, they don’t do this in order to avoid paying taxes.

 

[Touchdown]

Just to point out while it is true that cruise ship are not flagged in the US, contrary to popular belief, they don’t do this in order to avoid paying taxes.

No they do it to avoid following US Labor and Liability Laws.