Coronavirus and Walt Disney World general discussion

[Piebald]

Three weeks ago, I never in my wildest dreams thought that my trip at the end of March would be cancelled. This morning, I never in my wildest dreams thought that my rescheduled September could be in jeopardy. Now, well, I'm not sure when I'll get to WDW again...

My wedding in May was canceled and the postponement to Fall isnt looking very promising either.

 

[DisneyDreamerxyz]

Let's not forget poor college programmers like me that are not getting paid again and have no hopes of anything. I was supposed to be in Orlando working for Disney til July and had hopes to extend and stay all year. Now I'm back in the midwest with money depleting and no one hiring.

 

[Rimmit]

could you explain how that’s possible? I’ve given birth 3 times, and the bills were always enormous. The one that really got me, however, was my second. She was stillborn at full term. I birthed her without medication. She obviously needed none of the usual stuff newborns gets since she was dead. And I was in and out of the hospital in 11 hours - didn’t even stay overnight. Our bill was $25,000. Insurance covered all but $3,500, but how on earth does a hospital not profit from $25,000. I didn’t need surgery, I didn’t have an anesthesiologist....there’s no way they lost money there.

Again, I have stated this in this thread before but what was the Allowable? On the EOB (explanation of benefits) what was the actual allowable charge as in what did insurance adjust for? The initial price you see is the equivalent of the “rack rate” at Disney resorts, but in the same way that no one pays rack rates, no one pays the initial charge unless you are a cash payer. Even in that situation you can often call the billing department and maybe even negotiate a cash rate. This is frequently done with the Amish. The actual paid amount is nothing close to that. So go back to your EOB and see what was actually paid. If you paid $3500 you may in fact have paid the entire stay as that could have been your deductible. I am totally speculating here as I do not know your schedule of benefits for your insurance plan, such as co insurance, copays, deductibles, etc. I am sorry to hear about your stillborn child, but in that situation due to the length of stay, the hospital did likely make some money on that delivery, but for every delivery they have there is a delivery the likely lost a little money on.

Our OB department runs a $350,000 budget deficit on average. We had 1193 deliveries last year. Those are the numbers. And we have cut everything out we can and have negotiated with our vendors to the max. We do have a very unfavorable payor mix however and that hurts us a lot. Private insurance helps and you can typically make at least some money on an uncomplicated delivery.

I was once billed $5000 for an ED visit that lasted 6 hours. I had an EKG, CBC, and a GI Cocktail. After the insurance adjusted, the allowable was only a little over $500 dollars that was paid to the ED.

No insurance company would pay a hospital $25,000 dollars for an uncomplicated vaginal delivery. Just not happening. If that was the case every hospital in America would fight to get delivery capabilities. Our hospital gets paid on average $2900 for an uncomplicated vaginal delivery. That includes 2 nights hospital stay. A 3rd night with no complications would not be covered by insurance. This does not include the OB bill as that is billed separately.

EDIT: Thank you moderators. You have given a significant amount of leeway regarding of topic discussions and it much appreciated.

 

[wm49rs]

Maybe, maybe not. The money is going to have be recovered somehow.

Agreed. And I’d be pleasantly surprise to find the parks reopened before Memorial Day. Perhaps by the 4th of July, but I’m not optimistic....

 

[DCBaker]

Airlines warn government aid 'not a cure' for coronavirus travel plunge

Airlines have warned they expect travel demand to remain weak. United, Delta say that would require a smaller workforce to match.

www.cnbc.com

 

[Disney Analyst]

This basically means, no re-opening date. The next real announcement will be them deciding an opening date after it's deemed safe. So it could be silence from here on... Maybe a small announcement on 18th confirming layoffs if the closure has to continue, which I assume it will.

I don't foresee a reopening until June or July at earliest, Disney will want to ensure the post re-socializing surge has subsided before they risk opening.

 

[Polynesia]

I'm thinking they will have a better idea of when they can/plan to open by 4/18. It's sort of like dealing with a hurricane, "we'll know a lot more tomorrow."

I agree. I don’t think it means they’re going to fire everyone. They realize it’s unrealistic to give a concrete date at the moment. I truly believe Disney will be open sometime in May.

 

[wdwmagic]

The statement on Cast Member pay refers to extending the pay of "hourly parks and resorts cast members through April 18."

That leaves a lot of questions.

 

[GoofGoof]

This basically means, no re-opening date. The next real announcement will be them deciding an opening date after it's deemed safe. So it could be silence from here on... Maybe a small announcement on 18th confirming layoffs if the closure has to continue, which I assume it will.

I don't foresee a reopening until June or July at earliest, Disney will want to ensure the post re-socializing surge has subsided before they risk opening.

Depends when the social distancing lock downs stop. If they really do it as soon as Easter WDW could be open by mid-May. If FL takes a turn for the worst though they won’t be able to open even then. Nobody is going to vacation in NYC for a while.

 

[Tom Morrow]

The phrase "Walt Disney World closed until further notice" is something I never thought I'd see in my lifetime. Brb, crying.

 

[thomas998]

Not at all well versed in the workings of the stock market. Can and will Disney withhold stock dividends during this closure period and financial crisis. Can those with held dividends be used to pay Disney workers

You do realize that some of those people that own share in Disney rely on the dividends right? Dividend aren't just a means of the rich to suck money out of corporation they often go to retired people that rely on the payouts, so taking money from grandma and grandpa to support younger workers isn't really that great of a deal unless you're willing to just throw your grandparents under the bus.

Morever, when a company cuts a dividend for any reason it has a very dramatic impact on the stock price of that company. Cutting a dividend is not something a company will ever take lightly because it can have very dire consequences that will take a long time to undo.

 

[WDWTrojan]

The statement on Cast Member pay refers to extending the pay of "hourly parks and resorts cast members through April 18."

That leaves a lot of questions.

Can’t imagine there’s a world, barring extraordinary evidence of an imminent reopening, that operations CMs would be paid beyond this date. They would likely furlough everyone so they could collect unemployment from the new bill.

 

[Jwink]

Good point. I’d like to take

I seriously doubt that is what that means. Disney will take it a few weeks at a time and then reevaluate again. Some of the other Disney parks have been closed longer and haven’t laid off workers. I think a realistic time frame to be open is May. Cast members might be required to go in beforehand for procedural updates. I doubt Disney would lay workers off when it’s very possibly only a matter of weeks before they open.

But Shanghai has been closed for more than 70 days... and they just re-closed public places for Beijing

 

[monothingie]

The statement on Cast Member pay refers to extending the pay of "hourly parks and resorts cast members through April 18."

That leaves a lot of questions.

What about all the salaried CM? These people leaving means that any startup is going to be very very slow.

 

[Disney Analyst]

Depends when the social distancing lock downs stop. If they really do it as soon as Easter WDW could be open by mid-May. If FL takes a turn for the worst though they won’t be able to open even then. Nobody is going to vacation in NYC for a while.

I mean your real issue is... To decide they re-open, do they need to wait until all states are in the clear? Just Florida? Would they reopen only for locals if international or state travel is still restricted? Do they risk people from more hard hit states coming in with possible illness? It's really a complex decision.

 

[Jwink]

This basically means, no re-opening date. The next real announcement will be them deciding an opening date after it's deemed safe. So it could be silence from here on... Maybe a small announcement on 18th confirming layoffs if the closure has to continue, which I assume it will.

I don't foresee a reopening until June or July at earliest, Disney will want to ensure the post re-socializing surge has subsided before they risk opening.

Layoffs of salary I’d assume but furlough a ton

 

[Lilofan]

The statement on Cast Member pay refers to extending the pay of "hourly parks and resorts cast members through April 18."

That leaves a lot of questions.

If I were cast members I would be reevaluate my future/ current financial living situation and expenses, and be prepared to make difficult decisions.

 

[Disney Analyst]

If I were cast members I would be reevaluate my future financial living situation and expenses, and be prepared to make difficult decisions.

I'd start applying at Costco or Walmart... I hear they are doing massive hires.

 

[rk03221]

The problem with doing that is that it is like crying wolf when there is no wolf. People lose faith in anything they are told when they are told it is the end of the world and then it isn't. A lot like Al Gores Inconvenient Truth, it was filled with all sorts of this place will be underwater this will happen that will happen... and when the times that those things were supposed to happen passed and nothing happened it provided a reason for people to say, "see no global warming because nothing they said was going to happen happened"... We already have some of that with this virus. How many times have we been told that the hospitals in the US were going to collapse in 10 days? I've seen some reddit thread where they go back to those articles that were doom and gloom in 10 days and then poke fun at the failure of it to come true. \

You want to know why some people are ignoring the lockdown/shutdown orders, well this is part of it. The powers that be have over hyped some things and when the sky didn't fall the people started discounting anything they were told.

NYC is currently running out of medical supplies and the hospitals are filling up. That will be most of the country pretty soon

 

[Lilofan]

Layoffs of salary I’d assume but furlough a ton

The reality is layoffs can affect all levels of a company, not just management.