re: Disney appears incompetent. Not opening in Florida for 2 more months

I'm hoping that they are simply waiting for the governor to officially approve everything, but the stuff they released yesterday brought up more questions than it provided answers.

I work at Disney (not in the parks or resorts) so hopefully I can provide some context. Disney has over 77,000 Cast Members so like others said it's hard to flip a switch. Disney has twice the amount of theme parks and just over twice the amount of employees as Universal.

We have been told absolutely nothing and at this point I'm still on furlough and honestly don't mind.

Like many of you when Universal Orlando announced they were opening June 5th and SeaWorld Orlando announced they were opening June 10th I thought Disney would open mid-June. I was surprised but I honestly think Disney made the right decision and is using Universal and SeaWorld as guinea pigs to see what works and what doesn't.

Disney is following the same blueprint they used in Shanghai. Disney Town (their shopping and dining district) opened a month and a half before their parks opened. So the time frame here is very similar.

What you need to understand is that Disney is reliant on a lot of interns to run the parks at night. They have College Program Cast Members, International College Program Cast Members and Cultural Representatives (the ones who work at the countries at Epcot). You might ask what is the difference between International College Program Cast Members and Cultural Representatives. The International College Program Cast Members are here for around 6 months and they're interns so they don't get any benefits (vacation, health benefits, pension, 401k). The Cultural Representatives are here for a year representing their country and are considered full time Cast Members with benefits (vacation, health benefits, pension, 401k). By sending them all home Disney has lost a good amount of its workforce and a big part of its workforce that run the parks at night.

Honestly I'm surprised they are opening Epcot. I honestly thought Epcot would stay closed until further notice. I don't see how they're going to run World Showcase since they won't have the Cultural Representatives. I mean it's going to funny to see Americans working in the China, Japan or Morocco pavilions.

I agree with the one poster who mentioned Disney wanted to open late August. August is the next time frame where they would be bringing in College Program Cast Members and International College Program Cast Members. They could report to property in early August, go through training and then be ready for the property to open later in August. Now that Disney is going to be relying on full time and part time Cast Members who are not interns I think they're going to have to reduce park hours. At least until they can get a new batch of College and International Cast Members.

I also think Disney realizes that air travel is still jacked up right now and most people come to Disney by air travel. Not much reason to open the parks if they aren't going to be busy. The parks won't return to being really busy until the air travel industry starts to recover. This is where the California parks (Disneyland Resort, Universal Hollywood) could have an advantage. Their customer base for the California parks is much more local than for the Florida parks. I think Universal and SeaWorld will both be slow after the initial rush.

Heck I fully expect to be brought back to my department a week or two back before the parks reopen. It's going to take that long to get everything ready. But it's going to be interesting to say the least.

When was your trip scheduled? Ours was/is July 27-Aug 3. I’m definitely cancelling but waiting until the last minute to see if they throw in some free perks if I reschedule.

We won’t be going back until the full Disney experience is back. I’m talking parades, fireworks, no masks, no social distancing, fat people on scooters running over my kids, Karen’s using their strollers to bust through a crowd, etc.

They've pretty much changed everything.

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When was your trip scheduled?

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June 7-12.

I think I got the email because our last night is still showing as an active reservation. Or maybe because I cancelled the park passes for a refund but they didn’t process yet.

I get the Disney hate but they do lot of shite right. I think they know what is best for their parks

I have several friend who are Disney junkies and go at least once a year and sometimes twice.
All of them are canceling anything they had booked for at least the rest of the year. Even they are saying Disney is fricking this up big time with how they are handling it.

The need to reopen is because of the bleed going on right now. Estimated at 38.5 million a day.

Typical for a summer day they make over one million on parking alone. I expect them to open up the residence passes until they are at full throttle for all the rides and restaurants. They won't be seeing plane loads flying into Orlando until the fall or maybe by Christmas.

The Landscapers and the Animal caretakers have been working all along. Security has to be on site at every park. There are a lot of homeless living on that undeveloped 300,000 acres. They have ways to get on construction sites and into the parks.

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I get the Disney hate but they do lot of shite right. I think they know what is best for their parks

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I don't hate Disney by any means, but I don't get the obsession especially adults going there without children or with "grown" children. Our kids were over Disney by age 7. They've gone to Universal a few times since and we still go to amusement parks sometimes when on vacation, but they have zero interest in the Magic Kingdom. It's a short trip for us and we've been in Orlando for non vacation reasons a few times over the years and not stepped anywhere near anything Disney.

They are also opening the DVC resorts 3 weeks before the resorts because they don't want to extend people's points and charge the maintenance fee.