Coronavirus and Walt Disney World general discussion

[WDWTrojan]

But HIV isn't airborne so it's not an equal comparison. Also, COVID-19 has killed approximately 27,000 people in the US so far and it hasn't even taken 2 full months to reach that number. That's more than the flu killed in the 2015-2016 flu season and on pace to surpass all but the worst flue seasons over the past 10 years. The highest total was approximately 61,000 for the 2017-2018 flu season. If this virus continues to spread and kill at the rate we've seen so far then it could very well exceed 61,000 in less time than it took the flu to kill that many people 2 years ago.

And that is with shutting the economy down so nobody comes in contact. Imagine if we hadn't. The death tolls would be astounding.

 

[WDWTrojan]

Very interesting. Disneyland was given an exemption when California announced closures. Disney decided to close anyway which was the right thing to do. I have to wonder if they’re still exempt. However, I do think Disneyland will open in some capacity this summer.

The governor took away that exception pretty quickly after it was granted. It is unlikely it would come back.

 

[DisneyDebRob]

Now mandatory in PA starting Sunday. Employees and customers. In my opinion, the loophole is huge. If the store sells food or medicine they still don’t have to wear a mask in.

All Pa. businesses must require employees and customers to wear masks amid coronavirus pandemic

Businesses where an employee has tested positive for COVID-19 must also implement temperature screenings.

www.inquirer.com

 

[Judi8281950]

I mentioned earlier that I know a few travel agents both over here and over there. As soon as the officials say yes, there will be a tidal wave of visitors. No one is cancelling - quite the opposite.

Straw poll I know.

I had reservations for August and I canceled. United gave me a credit for 5 tickets for 2 years. I am not chancing a vacation until there is a vaccine.

 

[Flugell]

@Flugell have you and your husband done the paris disney? I don't see it opening anytime soon but we were there right before it was shut down for first time and was really impressed. More a long weekend vs 2 week destination, but really surprised at how much we liked it!

thanks for that! I hadn’t really thought about that alternative but may be worth investigating. We went within the first couple of years of it opening and had a pretty rubbish time. People were constantly jumping over barriers to push in and the CMs, who I don’t think were employed by Disney at the time did nothing, even when our 2 year old son was lifted off his chosen horse at Sir Lancelot Carousel by an middle aged French lady so she could get on in his place!!! He was terrified and understandably disappointed. Since Disney have become more involved I’ve heard that it has improved enormously so that is really helpful advice. Thanks!

 

[zengoth]

I usually recommend people go commando and shave their body hair as is....

and lots of talcum powder (i prefer the corn starch kind myself)

 

[DisneyDoctor]

Forgive me if this has been posted, but wow.

Small New Study May Provide Clues Into Asymptomatic Carriers Of Coronavirus/COVID-19

Part of the problem with managing the coronavirus/Covid-19 pandemic has been the lack of testing—no one knows exactly how many people have had the virus, and what percentage may be asymptomatic.

www.forbes.com

 

[Patcheslee]

If you state your numbers in hex or binary you wouldn't have to worry about it.

There's a website that converts to binary

 

[MickeyLuv'r]

If you state your numbers in hex or binary you wouldn't have to worry about it.

I'm not remotely worried.

I'm just laughing.

If someone wasn't sure about any part of my factual post reporting budget numbers, a quick internet search would have given them nearly instant clarification.

 

[DisneyGigi]

I am going to bump in for a second to ask a legitimate question. Say Disney opens up June 1- How is it possible even on rides to social distance? What about buses? Monorails, the Ferry? Anything? With everything mentioned that may not be available? Would you pay that to go? I love it to a crazy degree but not enough to chance crowds like that or get a light version of a fairytale. Same thing with movies, Not gonna do it for awhile.

I mean, that we have gotten to this point where staying home every blessed day, then we just go mingle with thousands of people? As soon as it opens? How do you sanitize those ride seats, that quick? Let people queue? How many people can ride IaSw or PotC, etc? It makes no sense. I’m sorry, I miss it like crazy. There is no way opening makes sense.

The fever check? Great... not everybody runs one with it apparently??? It isn’t like it all goes away by June 1.

 

[DCBaker]

Latest numbers for Florida reported in the last 24 hours - 891 new reported cases, with an increase in deaths of 43.

 

[5thGenTexan]

From a UK perspective Virgin (airline) is advising all customers that they can cancel flights and re-book for anytime between now and May 2022. This would suggest they aren't seeing confidence in international air travel picking up much between now and 2021/22.

We had a flight reservation with Southwest for April 24th. I knew it wasn't going to happen, but we did not cancel. We decided to hold out for Southwest to cancel. This allowed us to get a full refund instead of a window to rebook in a timeframe when its pretty uncertain if anything would be open to fly to.

 

[MickeyLuv'r]

I am going to bump in for a second to ask a legitimate question. Say Disney opens up June 1- How is it possible even on rides to social distance? What about buses? Monorails, the Ferry? Anything? With everything mentioned that may not be available? Would you pay that to go? I love it to a crazy degree but not enough to chance crowds like that or get a light version of a fairytale. Same thing with movies, Not gonna do it for awhile.

I mean, that we have gotten to this point where staying home every blessed day, then we just go mingle with thousands of people? As soon as it opens? How do you sanitize those ride seats, that quick? Let people queue? How many people can ride IaSw or PotC, etc? It makes no sense. I’m sorry, I miss it like crazy. There is no way opening makes sense.

The fever check? Great... not everybody runs one with it apparently??? It isn’t like it all goes away by June 1.

There's a whole thread on the idea of WDW w/social distancing, but I'll warn you, the tone of that one isn't much different from the tone of this one.

About 1/2 the thread can more or less be summarized in one sentence, "MASKS!?! We don't need no stinkin' masks!"

 

[DisneyGigi]

There's a whole thread on the idea of WDW w/social distancing, but I'll warn you, the tone of that one isn't much different from the tone of this one.

About 1/2 the thread can more or less be summarized in one sentence, "MASKS!?! We don't need no stinkin' masks!"

Thanks. I didn’t search, just been reading here but it grows so fast, can’t keep up!

 

[FerretAfros]

For what it's worth, runDisney announced today that general registration for Marathon Weekend in January 2021 will be held May 12, with early registration (AP, DVC, etc.) on May 7. General registration was supposed to open on April 7, but was quietly delayed that morning.

https://www.rundisney.com/blog/2020rundisney-registration-update/

While January is still a long way off, this indicates a certain degree of confidence that the resort will be up and running by then. Given what we've heard from various politicians in the last few days (notably, the governor of California, whose decisions directly impact Disney's operations in Burbank and Anaheim), some regions may not resume normal operations for quite some time, but it sounds like the famously-conservative Disney believes that WDW can reopen before the new year.

Additionally, this seems to indicate that some (by no means all) CMs may start returning to work in the coming weeks, as lack of tech support and customer service for Disney's notoriously-terrible online systems was one of the primary presumed reasons that the original registration date was pushed back. Presumably most of the cancellations are taken care of at this point (at least, for the time being; more could come in a few more weeks), freeing up those agents to help keep this running somewhat smoothly.

Again, it's not much, but it does seem like a little ray of sunshine starting to appear from behind the clouds.

 

[Jwink]

As I mentioned in my scenario about wearing masks at Disney parks is that Disney may not have a choice.

*IF* the governmental authority mandates masks in public settings, then Disney will have two and only two choices:

1. Open and make everyone wear a mask, even if it means excluding those who don't or can't, and even if it's uncomfortable, OR..​

2. Stay closed.​

If you can't imagine Disney enforcing masks, or excluding those who can't (the tots), or if you can't imagine yourself wearing a mask in the heat or because it fogs up your glasses and it's uncomfortable... then do not go to Disney while masks are governmentally mandated. Or... live with no one going to Disney for many months because they remain closed.

The option of getting back to Disney soon with no masks is likely to be off the table... not an option at all.

I just don't understand the hand-wringing over this. It's the same "surely they wouldn't..." line of reasoning when everything was shutting down. "Surely Disney won't close. Surely Disney wouldn't be closed for two weeks. Surely Disney wouldn't be closed for two months.

We have to deal with the current reality and stop convincing ourselves that something won't happen because "surely it wouldn't!"

There will be provisions allowing for small children not to wear masks. They can't wear them for safety and they'll likely maintain a 'herd immunity' attitude. If the rest of the people who can wear masks are mandated to...they'll theoretically be fine if the small kids can't wear masks.

 

[JoeCamel]

For what it's worth, runDisney announced today that general registration for Marathon Weekend in January 2021 will be held May 12, with early registration (AP, DVC, etc.) on May 7. General registration was supposed to open on April 7, but was quietly delayed that morning.

https://www.rundisney.com/blog/2020rundisney-registration-update/

While January is still a long way off, this indicates a certain degree of confidence that the resort will be up and running by then. Given what we've heard from various politicians in the last few days (notably, the governor of California, whose decisions directly impact Disney's operations in Burbank and Anaheim), some regions may not resume normal operations for quite some time, but it sounds like the famously-conservative Disney believes that WDW can reopen before the new year.

Additionally, this seems to indicate that some (by no means all) CMs may start returning to work in the coming weeks, as lack of tech support and customer service for Disney's notoriously-terrible online systems was one of the primary presumed reasons that the original registration date was pushed back. Presumably most of the cancellations are taken care of at this point (at least, for the time being; more could come in a few more weeks), freeing up those agents to help keep this running somewhat smoothly.

Again, it's not much, but it does seem like a little ray of sunshine starting to appear from behind the clouds.

If they didn't have registration and January was a go they would look pretty silly if they didn't have anyone to come. They can cancel later if necessary.

 

[GoofGoof]

If they didn't have registration and January was a go they would look pretty silly if they didn't have anyone to come. They can cancel later if necessary.

Same as the hotel rooms they are booking in June. It’s really out of Disney‘s hands for opening. The government has to give the all clear first. It’s good business for them to take reservations and anyone who books one know there’s a shot they won’t be open.

 

[gmajew]

You can't compare a respiratory thing that has high transmission rates to HIV which is quite controllable on exposure.

are you doing ppp? Most of them here furloughed immediately so the workers could get unemployement - brought back if they got ppp, but with tips down, unemployment was more for waitstaff (who you don't need all of anyway if only carry out)

The issue we keep battling and my attorneys keep seeking answers is when we call people back do they have to come back? The answer we have been provided no... so the extra 600 a week the gov is giving on top of the normal unemployment for 12 weeks is causing most hourly workers to make an annualized wage of 50k. No server or cook is coming back to work.

 

[Jwink]

You are assuming they would still have a food and wine festival. If the park is open I guess it’s still possible even if they scale it down some for lower crowds.

I'm sorry....what? I don't 'not do FW'....I have to have it. The escargot. The ....all the things. Nope. It's happening LOL