Coronavirus and Walt Disney World general discussion

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HarperRose

HarperRose

Well-Known Member
GoofGoof said:
Things are moving fast at WDW. The Summer ramp up has been put into overdrive. The recent announcement about several large scale restaurants coming back on line is in keeping with the idea that the crowds are expected back. They also announced the return of the college program in June a few days ago which crushes the rumors that they wouldn’t be able to ramp up this Summer due to a lack of workers. In conjunction with that they released Summer room discounts as well. All signs point towards further changes on the way and bigger crowds. The removal of temperature screening is a no brainer to me, but what is more pressing is the pending decision on distancing and the return of people eating shows and night attractions. They added many more CMs, they added to the restaurant and resort capacity, a change to 3 feet of distancing will in all practical terms result in a return to full capacity at the parks. The only major thing left is the entertainment. Hoping to hear more soon.
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The pitiful summer discounts offered are another clue about expected occupancy.
 
GoofGoof

GoofGoof

Premium Member
HarperRose said:
The pitiful summer discounts offered are another clue about expected occupancy.
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I am a DVC owner so I don’t follow the normal hotel discounts anymore. I have heard a few people say the discounts were bad. Are they normally discounting rooms more than 25% during the peak Summer season? Or is the issue that people expected a deeper discount than normal due to Covid and it’s not materializing? If it’s the second one it’s not surprising, look at the parks with reduced hours, reduced attractions, no night shows and they didn’t offer a penny off the price of admission. That’s the model. I think if the occupancy numbers looked worse they still wouldn’t offer a discount they would have kept several more hotels closed.
 
ToTBellHop

ToTBellHop

Well-Known Member
Heppenheimer said:
Update... ACIP (Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices) of the CDC will meet next week to discuss the Pfizer vaccine for 12-15 year olds. There are expected to recommend approval, which would clear the way for the FDA to issue the formal EUA. Hopefully, this means that younger teenagers can start receiving the vaccine by the week after next, if not sooner.

Looks like Canada beat us to it, though.
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It will happen very quickly after the EUA is updated (it’s not a new EUA like they’ll make for kids under 12). Pfizer vaccine is widely available. No reason parents of 12-15 year olds can’t have them complete the series by the end of June.
 
Jrb1979

Jrb1979

Well-Known Member
GoofGoof said:
I am a DVC owner so I don’t follow the normal hotel discounts anymore. I have heard a few people say the discounts were bad. Are they normally discounting rooms more than 25% during the peak Summer season? Or is the issue that people expected a deeper discount than normal due to Covid and it’s not materializing? If it’s the second one it’s not surprising, look at the parks with reduced hours, reduced attractions, no night shows and they didn’t offer a penny off the price of admission. That’s the model. I think if the occupancy numbers looked worse they still wouldn’t offer a discount they would have kept several more hotels closed.
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With all the so called pent up demand and the fact people are accepting of a lesser product for a full price product why offer discounts at all.
 
correcaminos

correcaminos

Well-Known Member
Heppenheimer said:
Update... ACIP (Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices) of the CDC will meet next week to discuss the Pfizer vaccine for 12-15 year olds. There are expected to recommend approval, which would clear the way for the FDA to issue the formal EUA. Hopefully, this means that younger teenagers can start receiving the vaccine by the week after next, if not sooner.

Looks like Canada beat us to it, though.
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This annoyes the snot out of me! Seriously, this should've been a bigger push and they are dragging their rears. Annoys me because I'll likely have to schedule around our trip. Though still should have 1 shot in with 2 weeks before we go.

Canada may have beat us to approval but they cannot vaccinate there yet anyway.
 
H

havoc315

Well-Known Member
GoofGoof said:
I am a DVC owner so I don’t follow the normal hotel discounts anymore. I have heard a few people say the discounts were bad. Are they normally discounting rooms more than 25% during the peak Summer season? Or is the issue that people expected a deeper discount than normal due to Covid and it’s not materializing? If it’s the second one it’s not surprising, look at the parks with reduced hours, reduced attractions, no night shows and they didn’t offer a penny off the price of admission. That’s the model. I think if the occupancy numbers looked worse they still wouldn’t offer a discount they would have kept several more hotels closed.
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It's not "summer peak" -- For the last few years, mid-July to late September has been fairly soft. (especially from mid August)That's why they have almost always offered free dining in recent years -- Which turns into a huge discount, especially for families of 4+ with "Disney adult" children.

This summer, it's 25% with very limited rooms set aside for that discount, may resorts at only 15%. If you were to try to book now, you'd find very very limited availability.

Historical discounts for Mid July - September, courtesy of mousesavers:

This year: 7/11-9/29: 10-25% off
2020 -- some summer discounts were announced but Covid cancelled everything before Disney would have released their full summer discounts.
2019: (now getting into pre-Covid): 7/5-9/30: free dining. 5/28-8/28: 15-25% off (with more availability than this year) PLUS free gift card. 20-35% discount for AP holders, Florida residents, Disney Visa, etc.
2018: 8/2-10/7: 20-25% off. 5/29/18-8/25/18: partial free dining. 8/20/18-12/23/18: Free dining.
2017: 8/1/17-10/7/17: 15-30% off. (25%-35% for AP holders, Visa card, etc). 8/21/17-12/23/17: Free dining.

So 10-25% is on the "soft side" but it really becomes anemic when you see there are no AP/VIsa card discounts announced. No free dining. And there is very limited availiability for that 10-25% off.
Polynesian is currently excluded altogether.
Polynesian Villas are only 10%. (and Copper Creek is only 10%).

This is much smaller than you saw in the past. Where all deluxe usually got 20-25%.
Caribbean Beach Resort is only 10%, again anemic compared to the past.

Now check availability: I'll look for a week in late July:
Contemporary Resort: 0 availability, not a single discounted room
Beach Club: 0 availability, not a single discounted room available.
Grand Floridian: Outer building rooms available at 25% off
Boardwalk: Garden view rooms available at 25% off. No water view or standard view rooms available.
Yacht Club: No standard rooms available. Water view and garden view available with 25% discount.
Wilderness Lodge: "Fireworks view" only available. Quite overpriced if there are no fireworks: Even with the 25% discount, it's more expensive than the discounted room at Grand Floridian!!

So that's it, those are the only available 25% discounted room for the week of July 24-July 31st.

And that is not normal. That's far far less discounted supply than you usually see for summer.

It appears to be higher than normal summer occupancy rate, but that's partially due to many resorts still being closed. Surely, if they opened all their resorts, they would have a lower occupancy rate. But they have more than enough demand for the resorts that are open.
 
Jrb1979

Jrb1979

Well-Known Member
helenabear said:
This annoyes the snot out of me! Seriously, this should've been a bigger push and they are dragging their rears. Annoys me because I'll likely have to schedule around our trip. Though still should have 1 shot in with 2 weeks before we go.

Canada may have beat us to approval but they cannot vaccinate there yet anyway.
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Alberta is opening vaccinations to 12+ starting Friday.
 
Kevin_W

Kevin_W

Well-Known Member
Heppenheimer said:
Update... ACIP (Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices) of the CDC will meet next week to discuss the Pfizer vaccine for 12-15 year olds. There are expected to recommend approval, which would clear the way for the FDA to issue the formal EUA. Hopefully, this means that younger teenagers can start receiving the vaccine by the week after next, if not sooner.

Looks like Canada beat us to it, though.
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I was hoping for next week.
 
LaughingGravy

LaughingGravy

Well-Known Member
mickeymiss said:
I don't know why early hours for resort guests haven't returned yet. Make it make sense 🤣
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I like how you write "hours",as if. 😅

Because people will pay full price for the lesser experience anyway and the sole purpose of a company is to make money for the shareholders. Why pay to staff the park an hour or a half hour earlier, when it will be put on the books as a lower cost to operate the parks? Operating hours have been cut back for years. Today, it's 8am to 9pm at the MK and all weekend. 9PM. In May. In Florida.
 
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ABQ

ABQ

Well-Known Member
Jrb1979 said:
We were having supply issues. Now we are scheduled to get 1 million doses of Pfizer per week.
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A friend of mine in Alberta just booked his appointment this morning.

Luckily the wait time on this site proved to be true,
1620310605673.png

When he first got on the site 7 AM Mountain, he had about 12,000 people ahead of him.
 
S

Sandurz

Well-Known Member
havoc315 said:
Now check availability: I'll look for a week in late July:
Contemporary Resort: 0 availability, not a single discounted room
Beach Club: 0 availability, not a single discounted room available.
Grand Floridian: Outer building rooms available at 25% off
Boardwalk: Garden view rooms available at 25% off. No water view or standard view rooms available.
Yacht Club: No standard rooms available. Water view and garden view available with 25% discount.
Wilderness Lodge: "Fireworks view" only available. Quite overpriced if there are no fireworks: Even with the 25% discount, it's more expensive than the discounted room at Grand Floridian!!

So that's it, those are the only available 25% discounted room for the week of July 24-July 31st.

And that is not normal. That's far far less discounted supply than you usually see for summer.

It appears to be higher than normal summer occupancy rate, but that's partially due to many resorts still being closed. Surely, if they opened all their resorts, they would have a lower occupancy rate. But they have more than enough demand for the resorts that are open.
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What do we know re: actual available capacity at the opened resorts? Are they running at 100%? Lack of rooms available doesn't necessarily reflect demand 1:1, just that they're successfully "right-sized" for a given moment in time.
 
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