News Round Up 2020

Yep .. not surprised to see the Star Wars hotel defunded. This may be an excuse to shelve that project alltogether .. with Star Wars not really being the huge hit anymore like it was when they announced this thing, they may just decide that the time to do that is past.
Space 220? Wasn't it almost finished? Was it's delay food/chef related or technical issues?
Epcot? I could see them cutting back on some of the features (to add later) .. like the Moana fountain or the double-decker garden and just make the middle of future world "prettier" without adding in the big features.

I can see them pausing Woody's BBQ IF attendance isn't going to be what it was.

This probably means Stitch's Great Escape is quickly becoming the Wonders of Life pavilion .. that will just be empty for years and years.

The thing is .. I can just see A LOT things just not opening for a while to save money in the short term.

I mean we could see many attractions just not running, many regular restaurants just not opening .. especially IF the crowds are going to be super super light with everyone afraid to fly, travel or be within 6 feet of any other living soul.

They were already closing Muppetvision early and Pizzarizzos being seasonal .. I could see them just shutting down the whole Muppets Courtyard to save operational expenses on an area of the park that was low attendance to begin with.

I could see things like Planetwatch going seasonal or just shutting down for a while.

I could see huge chunks of Fantasyland closing down (like Princess Fairytale Hall) while they divert resources to extra "cleaning" of attractions. I mean .. will high touch attractions (like the Teacups or Carousel) even be turned on as they are afraid of the bad perception that would give of spreading viruses? Maybe the less popular (and more expensive) restaurants won't open (like Skipper Canteen) .. etc. etc. etc.

State of the virus aside, It just may not even be worth going to WDW in June (or July/August) if the place will be a former shell of itself unless they give huge (bigger than they are now) discounts/incentives to do so. I mean like $X day gift card.
(or .. if the attendance is going to be super low .. that being there at that low attendance is worth the "risk").
 
Epcot is such a mess that I would assume everything will go as planned.

not sure about everything, I could see things scaled back - like that three story observation/fireworks viewing thing I could see just never see the light of day ... same with Mary Poppins

But they have already gutted the spine, so they need to redo "something" there
 


Yep .. not surprised to see the Star Wars hotel defunded. This may be an excuse to shelve that project alltogether .. with Star Wars not really being the huge hit anymore like it was when they announced this thing, they may just decide that the time to do that is past.
Space 220? Wasn't it almost finished? Was it's delay food/chef related or technical issues?
Epcot? I could see them cutting back on some of the features (to add later) .. like the Moana fountain or the double-decker garden and just make the middle of future world "prettier" without adding in the big features.

I can see them pausing Woody's BBQ IF attendance isn't going to be what it was.

This probably means Stitch's Great Escape is quickly becoming the Wonders of Life pavilion .. that will just be empty for years and years.

The thing is .. I can just see A LOT things just not opening for a while to save money in the short term.

I mean we could see many attractions just not running, many regular restaurants just not opening .. especially IF the crowds are going to be super super light with everyone afraid to fly, travel or be within 6 feet of any other living soul.

They were already closing Muppetvision early and Pizzarizzos being seasonal .. I could see them just shutting down the whole Muppets Courtyard to save operational expenses on an area of the park that was low attendance to begin with.

I could see things like Planetwatch going seasonal or just shutting down for a while.

I could see huge chunks of Fantasyland closing down (like Princess Fairytale Hall) while they divert resources to extra "cleaning" of attractions. I mean .. will high touch attractions (like the Teacups or Carousel) even be turned on as they are afraid of the bad perception that would give of spreading viruses? Maybe the less popular (and more expensive) restaurants won't open (like Skipper Canteen) .. etc. etc. etc.

State of the virus aside, It just may not even be worth going to WDW in June (or July/August) if the place will be a former shell of itself unless they give huge (bigger than they are now) discounts/incentives to do so. I mean like $X day gift card.
(or .. if the attendance is going to be super low .. that being there at that low attendance is worth the "risk").

Dude, I stopped at your first comment.

Star Wars is still a huge draw. Were people not lining up hours before opening at DHS every day still just to get a Boarding Group to ride Rise? Oh, the last movie still made a billion dollars and has a popular TV series everyone can't wait to resume for in October.
 


Dude, I stopped at your first comment.

Star Wars is still a huge draw. Were people not lining up hours before opening at DHS every day still just to get a Boarding Group to ride Rise? Oh, the last movie still made a billion dollars and has a popular TV series everyone can't wait to resume for in October.
Heh. Sorry. Maybe I exaggerated a bit for effect, but it definitely is not as "high" as it was after the Force Awakens in the eyes of the hard-core fanbase.

My main point is .. that it was an ambitious project to begin with. It seemed WAY too limited in audience and the hard-core fan that it seemed geared towards, just isn't there as much as they used to be when they announced it. The general public may enjoy Mandalorian and Galaxy's Edge, but not sure if the general public is that geeked out about to spend thousands of dollars on a live action roleplaying experience in that world. (Plenty of people like the Wizarding World, but not many of them are willing to dress up in robes and pretend to be a wizard).

The audience this was geared towards may no longer have the disposable income to do such a luxury experience (especially after this virus). So . .they may ditch the whole concept (or pair it back from the live action roleplaying experience they have been advertising).
 
Disney is definitely in some tricky ground when they decide to reopen.

Reopen too light with too many restrictions/cutbacks and people will just wait to come in 2021, not wanting a reduced experience.
Reopen like normal .. with less "hygiene" restrictions and people may not come in fear of catching the virus again.

It will be interesting to speculate (nothing else to do for the next month or two) :(
 
I feel badly about the hotel, only because a friend of mine was one of the imagineers working on it. I'm not surprised it's being shelved for now.

I still believe it will get done at some point - maybe scale of immersion changes a bit ... but this was something they would charge a premium price for and the economy will come back at some point - so maybe it just gets "paused" and then brought back a year from now
 
Just because it's defunded, doesn't mean it's cancelled.

Once the revenue starts streaming again, I'd expect nearly every project to resume. Especially all the big ones.

Disney is losing billions of dollars right now and we don't know when it's going to end. They're going to have to make cuts, beyond just the College Program and Entertainment.

I do think many of the projects will get completed eventually, but the timeframes they originally had are all out the window. Kind of like how when they halted the second half of Pop Century. Yeah, Art of Animation got done just many years later and not as Pop Century: The Legendary Years.

Epcot is such a mess that I would assume everything will go as planned.

They're going to have to put Epcot back together, but I can't imagine everything is going to go exactly as originally planned. Like I do think Spaceship Earth will eventually get refurbished, just not by 2021. It works and it's safe, so there's no reason to spend money on it. Mary Poppins and Moana haven't started, so there's really no reason to start working on them at the moment either. Maybe they come back to it in 5 years, maybe not. Everything just seems so up in the air right now.

Stuff is going to have to get scaled back or delayed.

Yep .. not surprised to see the Star Wars hotel defunded. This may be an excuse to shelve that project alltogether .. with Star Wars not really being the huge hit anymore like it was when they announced this thing, they may just decide that the time to do that is past.
Space 220? Wasn't it almost finished? Was it's delay food/chef related or technical issues?
Epcot? I could see them cutting back on some of the features (to add later) .. like the Moana fountain or the double-decker garden and just make the middle of future world "prettier" without adding in the big features.

I can see them pausing Woody's BBQ IF attendance isn't going to be what it was.

This probably means Stitch's Great Escape is quickly becoming the Wonders of Life pavilion .. that will just be empty for years and years.

The thing is .. I can just see A LOT things just not opening for a while to save money in the short term.

I mean we could see many attractions just not running, many regular restaurants just not opening .. especially IF the crowds are going to be super super light with everyone afraid to fly, travel or be within 6 feet of any other living soul.

They were already closing Muppetvision early and Pizzarizzos being seasonal .. I could see them just shutting down the whole Muppets Courtyard to save operational expenses on an area of the park that was low attendance to begin with.

I could see things like Planetwatch going seasonal or just shutting down for a while.

I could see huge chunks of Fantasyland closing down (like Princess Fairytale Hall) while they divert resources to extra "cleaning" of attractions. I mean .. will high touch attractions (like the Teacups or Carousel) even be turned on as they are afraid of the bad perception that would give of spreading viruses? Maybe the less popular (and more expensive) restaurants won't open (like Skipper Canteen) .. etc. etc. etc.

State of the virus aside, It just may not even be worth going to WDW in June (or July/August) if the place will be a former shell of itself unless they give huge (bigger than they are now) discounts/incentives to do so. I mean like $X day gift card.
(or .. if the attendance is going to be super low .. that being there at that low attendance is worth the "risk").

I still think the Galactic Cruiser is going to happen eventually. Definitely not soon, but eventually when the economy picks back up in a couple of years.

I wonder about the face characters and the costume ones too. You can't give Cinderella a mask to meet the little ones and it's kind of impossible to stop a kid from hugging Mickey Mouse. I just don't know how you'd do it safely before we have a vaccine.

There are a lot of logistical issues that Disney is going to have to think about before they open up. It's definitely not going to be business as usual for a very long time.

Here's another thing I've been thinking about, how is international travel going to change? Will the government even allow international visitors before a vaccine? Will they require vaccination records and/or a quarantine period for all visitors? All of it's going to be very interesting to watch to say the least.
 
Mary Poppins and Moana haven't started, so there's really no reason to start working on them at the moment either. Maybe they come back to it in 5 years, maybe not. Everything just seems so up in the air right now.
Isn't Moana basically going in front of The Land/Seas Pavilions? I thought it was already technically "started" as part of the gutting of most of Future World. Would it really make sense for them to re-pave everything and then close the area and tear it down in a few years?
 
Moana should get done, its total cost of build is prob no more expensive then a single days average ticket sales and once its done it should be low upkeep costs. After all its a glorified land feature not really a ride or experience
 
Isn't Moana basically going in front of The Land/Seas Pavilions? I thought it was already technically "started" as part of the gutting of most of Future World. Would it really make sense for them to re-pave everything and then close the area and tear it down in a few years?
Not started really but half of Innoventions West is gone.
 
What's really interesting is that DVC availability for the rest of the year is pretty much booked. Granted, DVC fills up quickly and people are rescheduling cancelled trips, but usually you can find 2 or 3 bedrooms, or cabins, or grand villas. Those seem to be gone. So where as many people may be cancelling altogether because of money or health concerns, there seem to be many choosing to try to come back. It will be very interesting with today's announcement to see what it is we all come back to.
 
I wonder about the face characters and the costume ones too. You can't give Cinderella a mask to meet the little ones and it's kind of impossible to stop a kid from hugging Mickey Mouse. I just don't know how you'd do it safely before we have a vaccine.

Why? If Disney knows that Cinderalla doesn't have the virus, she isn't going to spread it to anyone else. Someone COULD spread it to her, and then she is taken offline if she gets sick. Maybe Disney (if testing is more available) test those cast members a lot. We don't worry about this during cold/flu season. They could handle that with distancing .. just stand next to the character. I am sure a lot of parents will tell their kids no touching anyway!

It will be very interesting with today's announcement to see what it is we all come back to.
Oh? There is some kind of announcement today?
 
Why? If Disney knows that Cinderalla doesn't have the virus, she isn't going to spread it to anyone else. Someone COULD spread it to her, and then she is taken offline if she gets sick. Maybe Disney (if testing is more available) test those cast members a lot. We don't worry about this during cold/flu season. They could handle that with distancing .. just stand next to the character. I am sure a lot of parents will tell their kids no touching anyway!


Oh? There is some kind of announcement today?

You have to think there is going to be herd immunity or a vaccine at some point.

Will they open beforehand? I think if the state of FL graph levels out and many communities cutback on social distancing as a pilot without mass spread or it seems controllable - it's possible. It appears Italy's curve could finally start to flatten in the next few days and it will be interesting to see how things unfold there.
 
What's really interesting is that DVC availability for the rest of the year is pretty much booked. Granted, DVC fills up quickly and people are rescheduling cancelled trips, but usually you can find 2 or 3 bedrooms, or cabins, or grand villas. Those seem to be gone. So where as many people may be cancelling altogether because of money or health concerns, there seem to be many choosing to try to come back. It will be very interesting with today's announcement to see what it is we all come back to.

Well that I can see. If you already have the points, you’re going to look to use them. Especially if you’re more local and don’t have to worry about airfare or lengthy travel.
 

GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE

Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.

Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!





Latest posts

Top