Do you think that Disney world will reclose its gates due to the rising number of COVID cases in Florida and around the country?

[carolina_yankee]

Unless Universal closes and Florida shuts down, there is really no point to Disney closing. Where has all the outrage been that other Florida attractions are open? I mean, it’s not like Disney hasn’t dramatically altered the protocols in order to mitigate risk.

Quite frankly, if people want the parks closed then, through their government, they need to close the parks. This business closing while they business staying open gets us nowhere.

 

[WDWTrojan]

Unless Universal closes and Florida shuts down, there is really no point to Disney closing. Where has all the outrage been that other Florida attractions are open? I mean, it’s not like Disney hasn’t dramatically altered the protocols in order to mitigate risk.

Quite frankly, if people want the parks closed then, through their government, they need to close the parks. This business closing while they business staying open gets us nowhere.

Disney is the 800lb gorilla in the room when it comes to parks. They're also a major tourism driver while Universal is more of a "locals" park. Importantly, the other parks opened when things were looking okay but now the house is on fire and Disney is reopening.

 

[Bleed0range]

Spanish flu had a high mortality rate among healthy young people and healthy children. Completely different animal. Also, the US population was quite a bit lower in 1918.

Keep telling yourself whatever makes you feel better about all the death that surrounds you.

 

[Andrew C]

we really need an eyeroll reaction on this site.

 

[LapsedWDWFan]

None of these measures are safe. They mitigate risk but do not eliminate it. Getting more and more people interacting is more and more testing of the measures, more opportunities for failure.

None of the measures are safe? No safety measures of any kind, for anything, bring risk down to absolute 0. Though, according to the experts, maintaining 6 feet and wearing a mask brings it pretty darn close to 0.

By that rationale hotel balconies are unsafe because 5 - 10 people per year fall off despite having safety railings, and by building more hotels with balconies we are testing the measures and have more opportunities for failure.

 

[DisneyDebRob]

Hmmm. Rhetoric has picked up a notch.

The sniper.

 

[marni1971]

My response was to the people that want Disney and other businesses to be closed again.

Want? No. Expect? Possibly.

 

[carolina_yankee]

Disney is the 800lb gorilla in the room when it comes to parks. They're also a major tourism driver while Universal is more of a "locals" park. Importantly, the other parks opened when things were looking okay but now the house is on fire and Disney is reopening.

It doesn’t matter. If Universal isn’t closing, Disney most likely isn’t closing. Hasn't the argument been here that Universal forced Disney’s hand?

 

[legwand77]

Would love to see your data on this. People on the ground who work in the hospitals and news articles are saying otherwise. Less available ICU beds and more ERs on diversion due to capacity in the last week.

The Florida hospital association dashboard been linked many times

 

[legwand77]

I do not want to be presumptive, but I assume you have a WDW trip booked?

Nothing wrong with that, but I'm seeing a correlation amongst quite a few posters.

I have already been to Disney last Thursday, whatever that has to do with my agenda

 

[lazyboy97o]

None of the measures are safe? No safety measures of any kind, for anything, bring risk down to absolute 0. Though, according to the experts, maintaining 6 feet and wearing a mask brings it pretty darn close to 0.

By that rationale hotel balconies are unsafe because 5 - 10 people per year fall off despite having safety railings, and by building more hotels with balconies we are testing the measures and have more opportunities for failure.

That’s not even close to a good analogy. Neither balconies nor guardrails inherently fail or their structural integrity tested with each use. We wouldn’t allow hotel balconies if each time one was used there was a chance it would just fail.

 

[BrianLo]

I have already been to Disney last Thursday, whatever that has to do with my agenda

I've just incidentally noticed that most of the strong proponents were planning to go for opening. It's a similar phenomenon to those who speak the loudest about refurbs when it falls during their planned vacation.

Agenda is a strong word, more like an indirect bias. If one had a trip planned - it infers they strongly wanted WDW to open for their individualized priority.

We all have bias; many many competing layers. I fully admit some bias that I want the US to get things under control so that it's both safe and feasible to travel there. Of course that does not also mean I want people to be healthy and thrive by simply controlling the pandemic. I do not want the border to open until those metrics are met so that my country can more safely remain open. Likewise I'm naturally biased that COVID closures do not impact my job security, in-fact risk of quarantine would impact me more than mandated closures.

I could go on and on, but the people who were going on or near opening were definitely biased.

 

[TheGuyThatMakesSwords]

To answer the original question?

YES.

 

[Sparksfly]

It doesn’t matter. If Universal isn’t closing, Disney most likely isn’t closing. Hasn't the argument been here that Universal forced Disney’s hand?

I guess it turns out Universal wears the pants in this relationship huh?

Universal helped lead Disney right off a ledge and Disney played right into it....now they get all the bad press as they open in the middle of the biggest surge during this pandemic the world has seen yet.

Speaking of...I'm wondering if we should start calling it "the most infected place on earth".

 

[bdearl41]

its like no matter how many facts you present, people can't make the connection that everything is connected to each other. How we control the virus and how we reopen the world.

While you are correct. The opposite is also true. How we open during a virus and how quickly will effect lives after the virus. It’s not jobs vs life. It’s life vs life. What worries me is too many people pick one side when both sides are equally important.

 

[Turtlekrawl]

It's really getting out of hand. I don't want to put down the southern states, but they are really mismanaging the pandemic.

Maybe.
They did pretty well in March/April/May. Their death totals are still far below New York/New Jersey/Illinois/Michigan. So we’ll see how things look a few months from now, and will be better able to judge. There are still so many unanswered questions regarding the virus and it’s spread. Virtually every major country saw a surge at one time or another. Maybe it was inevitable...

 

["El Gran Magnifico"]

To answer the original question?

YES.

Not that I agree with that. But I appreciate the attempt to get the thread back on the rails. As for me: I'm going to go with a very non-committal "Maybe".

 

[rabidstoat]

To answer the question, I don't think WDW is going to close because of rising cases in Florida, but here are some circumstances where I could see them closing.

1. If the state ordered them to close, they would close. I can't see this happening as Governor DeSantis wants tourist dollars.

2. If at some point in the future they studied their profit-loss statements and decided that reopening was doing more harm than good to them economically. This might happen if it seems like the virus is going to continue for many more months and the situation in Florida or the country as a whole is such that not enough tourists will go to the parks and resorts to make opening them financially viable. They'll take some short-term loss in the hopes of ramping up numbers and turning a profit, but that can't go on indefinitely.

3. If the damage to their reputation is so great that they consider the potential long-term damage to not be worth any short-term profits they're making. I think this would only happen if there were many cases that were traced back to Disney and it got spun up in the media really bad for an extended period of time. They're helped a little in the fact that Florida contact tracing is really awful, so it'd be hard to pin anything on them. But other states are doing a better job of contact tracing. There is an instance right now where New York has traced an outbreak in one of their counties from people who traveled to Georgia and brought it back.

 

[WDWTrojan]

To answer the question, I don't think WDW is going to close because of rising cases in Florida, but here are some circumstances where I could see them closing.

1. If the state ordered them to close, they would close. I can't see this happening as Governor DeSantis wants tourist dollars.

2. If at some point in the future they studied their profit-loss statements and decided that reopening was doing more harm than good to them economically. This might happen if it seems like the virus is going to continue for many more months and the situation in Florida or the country as a whole is such that not enough tourists will go to the parks and resorts to make opening them financially viable. They'll take some short-term loss in the hopes of ramping up numbers and turning a profit, but that can't go on indefinitely.

3. If the damage to their reputation is so great that they consider the potential long-term damage to not be worth any short-term profits they're making. I think this would only happen if there were many cases that were traced back to Disney and it got spun up in the media really bad for an extended period of time. They're helped a little in the fact that Florida contact tracing is really awful, so it'd be hard to pin anything on them. But other states are doing a better job of contact tracing. There is an instance right now where New York has traced an outbreak in one of their counties from people who traveled to Georgia and brought it back.

Agreed with all of this. However, I do think there is also a possibility where Orange County shuts down again, much like Miami-Dade recently did. Obviously Disney is the 800lb gorilla in the room, so they would be consulted on this, but at some point if hospitals become so overwhelmed in the area that a shut down is the only option, they would have no choice.

 

[Sparksfly]

I guess it turns out Universal wears the pants in this relationship huh?

Universal helped lead Disney right off a ledge and Disney played right into it....now they get all the bad press as they open in the middle of the biggest surge during this pandemic the world has seen yet.

Speaking of...I'm wondering if we should start calling it "the most infected place on earth".

Btw... I say this with a heavy heart as Disney's always been a magical place for my son and I. It was his safe haven and his escape. It's been just as hard on us as it has been on every one else to not be there this year. It's going to be painful in the coming years as what they did during this pandemic dulled the spark we once saw in Disney. My son has asked me a few times already why Disney doesn't care, to which I always try to find an excuse to lift his spirits that I know are falling on deaf ears and make me feel nauseous to even spit out. The pandemic will hopefully be controlled sooner or later, but how they handled it will leave a scar on this park and the company for years to come. It was a sad day when they decided to open up despite the effects it could, and most likely would, have on human life.