The article was posted previously, but didn't mention this location...
COVID-19 & Coasters: Coronavirus Impacts on the Amusement Industry
- Thread starter GrandpaD
- Start date
As far as the masks, who knows why Disney had them, did they stockpile them for a 9/11 type event, did they have them for maintaince, did they use them in the care of animals.....who knows. Could they have possible been on the 4 ships and it took a while to coordinate them and get them on land? Another thing to remember is Reedy Creek runs many ambulances and fire vehicles. I know there is some mutual aid that they share with Orange County. Could it possibly be they were holding those masks until they knew what they would be projected to need? I know I have been using the same n95 for 3 weeks now. We have a directive that we keep it in a brown paper bag between uses to keep it clean. If I worked for a employer that gave away thousands of masks and then we ended up in a position of needing them I wouldnt be happy.
A counter point to offer to these "they needed to collect them from everywhere" commentary. Most times, because of health reasons, the masks can't be used if they were removed from any packaging. So it's not like Disney needed to go in every first aid kit across all properties to collect these. Most likely, like Facebook, they were kept in a storage facility somewhere. We do know, due to investigative reporting, that Facebook purchased their stock of 750,000+ masks after the 2018 California Wild Fires.
I know none of us are in there for sure to know exactly when or where the masks were from, but I'm not going to buy that they were pulling likely unboxed masks from ambulances, fire vehicles, off cruise ships, construction sites, maintenance facility, and corner of the park. I'm not sure what they would project what they need given the parks are closed down. And some quick math, if they had a mask for every person on all 4 cruise ships at max capacity, that's about 13,500 masks. While every single mask helps, I'm not confident that given the size of the resorts that they would need to wait for supplies off the ships to make this donation.
I know none of us are in there for sure to know exactly when or where the masks were from, but I'm not going to buy that they were pulling likely unboxed masks from ambulances, fire vehicles, off cruise ships, construction sites, maintenance facility, and corner of the park. I'm not sure what they would project what they need given the parks are closed down. And some quick math, if they had a mask for every person on all 4 cruise ships at max capacity, that's about 13,500 masks. While every single mask helps, I'm not confident that given the size of the resorts that they would need to wait for supplies off the ships to make this donation.
I think the article is being a bit dramatic. They act as though almost all projects are completely scrapped and will never come to fruition. While, I can see them reallocate funds from some projects into more completed projects, I don't expect these projects to just die out. I think we can expect the major projects that are already mostly completed to be finished as soon as they can be and hopefully in time to meet their deadlines like Tron, Guardians of the Galaxy, etc. However, other projects that are either not very far along or are not even started will likely be delayed for some time.
Things I can see delayed but not for very long would be the tiered events structure at Epcot and the Moana attraction. The area is already prepped and I'm sure they don't want to just leave the entire center front half of the park a construction zone for longer than necessary. That said, being these things aren't really that far along, I imagine these projects will still likely be delayed somewhat.
Things I can see that will likely be indefinitely delayed or much much longer than expected would be like the Spaceship Earth renovation, the Mary Poppins attraction. Those projects haven't really started and can easily be put off indefinitely without minimal impact to the guest experience.
I definitely think for them, really pushing these almost completed project across the finish line is smarter than things that haven't started. Plus imagine how much Disney could capitalize on "hey the parks are opening up and shortly so will Tron, Cosmic Rewind, and Ratatouille." Especially if they can get much further with the Innovations project than anticipated.
I'm with you though that there's some untouched projects that might be scrapped.
There's also no proof that they had them just sitting around in the case of Disney. They could have been working to procure them or moving them from an international location or that they purchased them so that they could be donated where they are needed. You are just assuming that they had them sitting around in a warehouse and waited to donate them for whatever purpose and there just isn't any proof of that. Maybe we shouldn't just assume the worst and be grateful that a company is able to donate needed equipment. If it does turn out that Disney was holding onto all these masks and deliberately waited to donate then I'm all for bashing them.
Id be happy if that were the case. Places that need to pull in from international locations are expressing that though.
And there has been a lot of words being put in my mouth over this so I’m talking a little break
Just heard from a CM friend that Epcot is going to be the most impacted park when Disney can start having guests again and that most of the World Showcase will probably not reopen until much later in the year. Not really a surprise though since the majority of the World Showcase employees are International DCP kids.
Not a good time for Future World to be a maze of construction walls then.... ?
Also, they may need to reimagineer future world with built in distancing and automatic sanitization.
This isn't really any kind of insider news and shouldn't be that shocking. That said, it is also still speculation to some degree. No one knows when the parks will reopen and what will happen. It may be that when reopening, international travel won't be as difficult as people are projecting and those international CPs will be able to get back just fine.
There was something interesting today following Northam's conference.
Senator Steve Newman (who is a Virginia state senator. He was president pro tempre when Rs controlled the Senate) asked for some clarifications for his constituants which he posted on Facebook:
From the posting:
'
2) RECREATIONAL AND ENTERTAINMENT BUSINESSES: We have had several salons, barber shops, and fitness centers ask for clarification on when they can reopen, per the latest Executive Order. The Governor's Office stated to our office that all businesses listed in the "Recreational and Entertainment Businesses" section MAY reopen on April 24 (as opposed to June 11).
We appreciate these clarifications from the Governor's Office, as these particular two issues have not been clear in the past. If anything changes again, which may happen if cases surge in late-April/mid-May...I will update you as soon as I can.
"
So, it sounds like as of today: Busch Gardens could still legally reopen on 24-April which seems incredibly unlikely; but this is an interesting development.
Senator Steve Newman (who is a Virginia state senator. He was president pro tempre when Rs controlled the Senate) asked for some clarifications for his constituants which he posted on Facebook:
From the posting:
'
2) RECREATIONAL AND ENTERTAINMENT BUSINESSES: We have had several salons, barber shops, and fitness centers ask for clarification on when they can reopen, per the latest Executive Order. The Governor's Office stated to our office that all businesses listed in the "Recreational and Entertainment Businesses" section MAY reopen on April 24 (as opposed to June 11).
We appreciate these clarifications from the Governor's Office, as these particular two issues have not been clear in the past. If anything changes again, which may happen if cases surge in late-April/mid-May...I will update you as soon as I can.
"
So, it sounds like as of today: Busch Gardens could still legally reopen on 24-April which seems incredibly unlikely; but this is an interesting development.
I'm not sure how that's supposed to work though if it's true - we're speed to hit peak COVID-19 after that point where staying at home becomes even more critical, but the regulations allow for what will essentially become crowded spaces doing the exact opposite of preventing viral spread?
If that's true, guessing it's economic and not medical
If that's true, guessing it's economic and not medical