How long do you expect Disneyland will be closed?

[Mr Wiggins]

If the pandemic worsens and the domestic Parks are closed into the summer or beyond, don't be surprised if Disney announces some sort of relief program(s) for its employees and their families, either on its own or in concert with other major corporations. This would be in keeping with Iger's tradition of contributing to various charities.

[iAMiRONMAN]

Researchers found that locations with the worst COVID-19 infection rates share an average temperature of 41°F to 52°F and 47% to 79% humidity. The prime location for the virus to spread will move as the northern hemisphere warms and the southern hemisphere cools. This does not mean infections won’t occur in warmer climates, only that people are more likely to be indoors and in closer proximity in cooler ones. Super cold climates might benefit from the fact that people naturally self isolate themselves during the winter and are wearing gloves on their hands and scarfs over their face.

More info @ https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....act_id=3550308

[rld275501]

Disney should just operate as a Seasonal Park for 2020 until the pandemic is over.

[Spongeocto4]

I would be surprised if they stayed closed more than a month or two and I would be absolutely flabberghasted if they stayed closed any longer than summer. I know the correct answer is "nobody really knows" especially with how quickly this situation can change but I would bet they reopen before the end of April. Just my guess!

I too, find it doubtful that it would last more than a month. Considering Downtown Disney is still open, and has no plans to close (at the moment). This makes it seems like the closure is a short term plan or a 'wait and see' approach. Keep in mind the Governor did not order the parks to be closed. Disney chose to keep them closed.

That being said, I see them reopening slowly with the hotels reopening(which close tomorrow), and then either Disneyland OR DCA reopening, with likely preference on the former. And the other park will reopening days to weeks later. This is how Tokyo's 2011 closure went, and the pattern appears to be repeating in Shanghai.

Even if it is a short closure, I look at possible layoffs occuring in the near future and TDA setting up a lite makeshift summer promotion(like last year), to bring crowds back. Like how Disneyland is turning 65.

[hbdad]

CDC just now recommending that events with 50 or more people should be cancelled for the next 8 weeks. If followed, Disneyland is not opening until mid-May at the earliest.

[Westsider]

The schedules for all Ops CM's at DLR are created by an army of over 100 CM's called Production Schedulers. Those Production Schedulers are tweeting that they have all just been told tonight not to report to work tomorrow, which is a 180 degree change from what they were told on Friday as they were supposed to be some of the hourly CM's that were to still report to work.

Schedules are created three weeks in advance. All work on future schedules for all 20,000+ Ops CM's at DLR is now on hold indefinitely. The Scheduling teams would have begun working on creating the schedules for week ending April 11th if they had reported to work tomorrow.

With the CDC alert that no gathering of more than 50 people should be allowed for the next 8 weeks, and with no Production Schedulers working on creating new schedules for CM's anyway, it's now obvious that DLR will remain closed for more than a month. Likely much longer.

The schedules were already created through week ending April 4th, and those schedules were how CM's were going to be paid for their scheduled hours for the next two weeks. But now, beginning April 5th, no hourly CM's will have scheduled hours created or posted. It's unclear how you pay someone for hours they were never scheduled for, so CM's should prepare for a statement from Disney explaining that. Hopefully TDA makes a clear statement on if hourly CM's will continue to be paid past week ending April 4th, especially now that no schedules are being created past that date.

[Jerryp49]

I too, find it doubtful that it would last more than a month. Considering Downtown Disney is still open, and has no plans to close (at the moment). This makes it seems like the closure is a short term plan or a 'wait and see' approach. Keep in mind the Governor did not order the parks to be closed. Disney chose to keep them closed.

That being said, I see them reopening slowly with the hotels reopening(which close tomorrow), and then either Disneyland OR DCA reopening, with likely preference on the former. And the other park will reopening days to weeks later. This is how Tokyo's 2011 closure went, and the pattern appears to be repeating in Shanghai.

Even if it is a short closure, I look at possible layoffs occuring in the near future and TDA setting up a lite makeshift summer promotion(like last year), to bring crowds back. Like how Disneyland is turning 65.

IMHO the Governor would have ordered them to close if they didn`t do it voluntarily .. He just ordered all bars and wineries statewide to close..

[tarheelalum]

I think it will be closed for 3 to 6 months.

[hbdad]

The schedules for all Ops CM's at DLR are created by an army of over 100 CM's called Production Schedulers. Those Production Schedulers are tweeting that they have all just been told tonight not to report to work tomorrow, which is a 180 degree change from what they were told on Friday as they were supposed to be some of the hourly CM's that were to still report to work.

Schedules are created three weeks in advance. All work on future schedules for all 20,000+ Ops CM's at DLR is now on hold indefinitely. The Scheduling teams would have begun working on creating the schedules for week ending April 11th if they had reported to work tomorrow.

With the CDC alert that no gathering of more than 50 people should be allowed for the next 8 weeks, and with no Production Schedulers working on creating new schedules for CM's anyway, it's now obvious that DLR will remain closed for more than a month. Likely much longer.

The schedules were already created through week ending April 4th, and those schedules were how CM's were going to be paid for their scheduled hours for the next two weeks. But now, beginning April 5th, no hourly CM's will have scheduled hours created or posted. It's unclear how you pay someone for hours they were never scheduled for, so CM's should prepare for a statement from Disney explaining that. Hopefully TDA makes a clear statement on if hourly CM's will continue to be paid past week ending April 4th, especially now that no schedules are being created past that date.

This brings up another interesting aspect. If park is closed for a prolonged period of time, lets just say 8 weeks, if Disney does not pay its CMs, those CMs would effectively be laid off. If Disney lays off its entire fleet of Ops CMs, or a large number of them, this makes re-opening the park that much harder does it not? Where will you find the staffing? By the time you get notice you can re-open, you won't have time to post job openings, interview, and train people before the park re-opens. I almost think that Disney will have to continue to pay its Ops CMs just so they can re-open when that time comes. Sure some CMs might come back, but how many would move on to another job? This is especially so if the closure is more than 8 weeks.

[nickdean707]

The schedules for all Ops CM's at DLR are created by an army of over 100 CM's called Production Schedulers. Those Production Schedulers are tweeting that they have all just been told tonight not to report to work tomorrow, which is a 180 degree change from what they were told on Friday as they were supposed to be some of the hourly CM's that were to still report to work.

Schedules are created three weeks in advance. All work on future schedules for all 20,000+ Ops CM's at DLR is now on hold indefinitely. The Scheduling teams would have begun working on creating the schedules for week ending April 11th if they had reported to work tomorrow.

With the CDC alert that no gathering of more than 50 people should be allowed for the next 8 weeks, and with no Production Schedulers working on creating new schedules for CM's anyway, it's now obvious that DLR will remain closed for more than a month. Likely much longer.

The schedules were already created through week ending April 4th, and those schedules were how CM's were going to be paid for their scheduled hours for the next two weeks. But now, beginning April 5th, no hourly CM's will have scheduled hours created or posted. It's unclear how you pay someone for hours they were never scheduled for, so CM's should prepare for a statement from Disney explaining that. Hopefully TDA makes a clear statement on if hourly CM's will continue to be paid past week ending April 4th, especially now that no schedules are being created past that date.

Well, now I'm terrified that I won't be able to pay rent in april....

[Spongeocto4]

Westsider, does the no-schedule order, violate any of the unions' contracts? As an employee who works in a union, there is a clause in the contract regarding scheduling and when the new schedule is supposed to be out.

Another question, is which Executives(outside TDA)are overseeing the closures, as no replacement has been announced for Chapek?

IMHO the Governor would have ordered them to close if they didn`t do it voluntarily .. He just ordered all bars and wineries statewide to close..

The govenor did initially exempt Disneyland Resort:

At a news conference Thursday, Gavin said Disneyland, Magic Mountain, Universal Studios Hollywood, and other large theme parks, theaters and casinos are exempted from his order against gatherings of 250 people or more due to coronavirus due to the “complexity of their unique circumstances”, but discussions remain ongoing.

Hours after Newsom’s statement, however, Disney announced both Disneyland and California Adventure parks will be closed starting March 14.

[Westsider]

Westsider, does the no-schedule order, violate any of the unions' contracts? As an employee who works in a union, there is a clause in the contract regarding scheduling and when the new schedule is supposed to be out.

Another question, is which Executives(outside TDA)are overseeing the closures, as no replacement has been announced for Chapek?

Read your union contract. For DLR Ops in Master Services, the new schedules need to be out by 18:00 Saturday, but they are almost always out 24 hours earlier than that. But the contract is written in such a way that it assumes the parks are open and operating for the schedules to be posted. If the parks are closed and no longer operating, there is no need for schedules to be posted.

As for who is in charge, I got a couple buddies in Ops and Facilities management. They all have said that Rebecca Campbell is clueless and she has reverted to letting the Communications team on the 3rd floor of TDA just write and distribute all communications. She's gone silent. And Cheapek's role has not been filled, so the only person above Rebecca on the totem pole now is Cheapek as Company CEO. There is no Parks Chairman any more, and all site executives are scrambling and only focused on their own properties and dealing with the crisis at a local level.

No one is really in charge - and the Company has never faced a crisis like this ever. This is worse than 9/11 by a long shot.

The only people in charge are Rebecca Campbell at DLR and Cheapek in Burbank. Josh D'amaro is at WDW, but he's got enough to worry about. Colglazier is in charge of HKDL and SDL, but he was such a bonehead DB that he's of no help to anyone.

[brian11811]

It sounds like the government is putting together something for business and hourly workers, hopefully they have something tomorrow.

Yeah, minimum 2 months. They have to flatten the curve. Small price to pay, they have to rip off the band aid or else we are screwed. It went from 42 to 3,468 in 2 weeks. The hospitals can’t take a spike like that if it keeps expanding. At this rate, They would have to let people die that could have otherwise been saved, like triage in a war. Photo Matt is right.

[nickdean707]

Just Announced that DTD will also be closing in 2 days.

[JPPT1974]

I think it last for a month from what I hear.

[Westsider]

It sounds like the government is putting together something for business and hourly workers, hopefully they have something tomorrow.

Yeah, minimum 2 months. They have to flatten the curve. Small price to pay, they have to rip off the band aid or else we are screwed. It went from 42 to 3,468 in 2 weeks. The hospitals can’t take a spike like that if it keeps expanding. At this rate, They would have to let people die that could have otherwise been saved, like triage in a war. Photo Matt is right.

Yes - exactly. And it's a good thing there was a travel ban from China six weeks ago - or else California today would look like Italy does. Italy now has 2,000 deaths already as of late Sunday because they never stopped travel from China until a few days ago - while California only has had 6 deaths since travel from China was banned back in late January. Six deaths among 40 million Californians versus 2,000 deaths among 60 Million Italians - shows you what an early travel ban did to protect us.

Also a good thing the Europe travel ban kicked in - just hope it wasn't too late and it should have been put in place two weeks ago instead of just last week. Hundreds dead already in France, Germany, Switzerland, etc. Versus only 61 dead in America so far, and 40 of those deaths are at that one infected nursing home in suburban Seattle.

The travel bans bought us a lot of time and will ultimately save a lot of American lives once it's all over and the various death tolls are added up country by country.

[DisneyPilot]

CDC is now saying expect next 8 weeks.

[jsmith11618]

Now if Canada would ban travel from the US and close the land border to non-commercial traffic, the biggest threat to Canada is the US at this point. We never went as strict on travel from China, but we have been testing early and often and isolating people, and while our cases are climbing they are not climbing as quickly as the US, so not entirely sure the travel ban did much to slow the spread down in the US.


Washington state alone has more cases than all of Canada, and more deaths.

*this comes from an American who lives in Canada, I am not Canadian.*

[Golden Zephyr]

CDC is now saying expect next 8 weeks.

This is a game changer, 8 weeks will have enormous consequences. It is vital and necessary, but there is no historical precident for this.

there is really no way to predict what the landscape will look like after this.

Can Disney afford to pay it's workers for 2 months?

What will happen to the ecosystem of hotels, restaurants, and stores around the park, let alone the country.

All the people affected?

No wonder Iger quit all of the sudden 2 months ago.

[jsmith11618]

This is a game changer, 8 weeks will have enormous consequences. It is vital and necessary, but there is no historical precident for this.

there is really no way to predict what the landscape will look like after this.

Can Disney afford to pay it's workers for 2 months?

What will happen to the ecosystem of hotels, restaurants, and stores around the park, let alone the country.

All the people affected?

No wonder Iger quit all of the sudden 2 months ago.

I would not be surprised if some of the smaller hotels end up closing and not reopening, I would imagine without the parks open they wont have many guests.