Disney will be closed. All of the parks and the cruise line will not be open for business for a period of time. When they will reopen is still an unknown. Wait, what? Let that sink in for a minute. I’m sharing how I personally felt when I started hearing the news about the multiple Disney closures.
The Phases Of The Disney Closures
Asia
When the outbreak of COVID-19 started in Asia, the parks in Hong Kong Disneyland, Tokyo Disneyland, and Shanghai Disneyland had to close. In all honesty, I think we all expected that. Because those parks are on the other side of the world, it was out of touch for me. It didn’t really affect me.
Hong Kong Disneyland, Shanghai Disneyland and Tokyo Disneyland closed during the last week of January due to the outbreak of the virus. It is still unknown when they will reopen again.
As of Thursday morning, we all weren’t sure what was going to happen here in the United States. Throughout the day, more and more news updates were coming across my phone about school closings in my state. As the alerts were increasing, we knew there was a chance our schools were going to close for at least two weeks.
What did this mean for us? It meant that the kids would most likely either have online schooling for 4 hours a day; or, they were going to have packets of work to do without a school check-in and they will need to make up the time somehow. Our family has a vacation booked in the near future. We don’t know yet if we will be going on that vacation.
California
Disneyland announced in the late afternoon that they were closing until the end of March. That’s when I thought, “ok, it’s serious”. I knew it was serious all along; but people were still talking about business as usual in every other area except school. I kept thinking, will we still be able to take our trip? Will Walt Disney World close? Is it worse in CA than it is in FL? Do we even want to fly or be in Disney during a time like this.
Florida
Then a few hours later Walt Disney World and the Cruise Lines were halting operations until the end of March. In my opinion, that was big. I also felt it was important. People needed to see the seriousness of the matter. I think we were in the “if you give an inch, they will take a mile” mentality. Places were closing; but people can still go out, travel, drive, shop, go to the movies, and more.
Paris
Disneyland Paris is following the same schedule as Walt Disney World and they will be closing effective, Sunday, March 15 through the end of March.
How can you control a pandemic if people are still going on vacation to places with large congregations of people from areas all over. Sure, closing schools will help reduce the spread of the virus; but if you take the kids out of school and then take them somewhere else, it defeats the purpose.
The Emotional Impact of Disney Closures
When I heard Disneyland was going to close, I held my breath. I assumed that the number of cases being discovered in the West Coast were higher than those on the East Coast so they were starting there first.
When it was announced that Walt Disney World was closing, and that the cruise line was halting operations, I got the sense like Disney would set the precedence for other large businesses in their industry to follow suit.
I Have To Be A Grown Up
We also got official word that our schools were going to be closed but we didn’t know when or how they would make up the time. This meant we have to make some grown up decisions about our vacation around the kids’ school schedule. They are older now and we can’t just take them out for our selfish wants to spend time with them. So we are going to have to find an alternative time to go on our trip.
There was also talk about post-vacation quarantines. So if we were to take the kids out of school for a trip, they may need to be quarantined for an additional 14 days. It’s a no-brainer.
We had a family meeting with the kids over dinner and talked about it all. We told them that with everything going on and so many unknowns, that our vacation will most likely be impacted and we will have to reschedule it. But we will do whatever we can to make the time we are spending together at home a positive experience, and we will have time for vacation as a family as well. We will work it out.
I was very impressed at how the kids handled the news. I expected more emotion or disappointment from them. My daughter was a little emotional about not being able to go to school for two weeks, and my son seemed a little relieved. I think he was needing a break from the heavy workload of homework. He even said on Wednesday that he was looking forward to Spring Break, and I got excited when I heard him say that because I knew we had a surprise for them.
What About….
The runDisney Star Wars Half Marathon Races
It’s still unknown what the status of the race weekend is. You can join my Facebook group for current updates on this race status.
Annual Passes and Tickets
- Disney is adding the number of days closed to the expiration date of your existing annual pass.
- If you have unexpired multi-day theme park tickets with unused days, or dates during the closures, they will be automatically extended to December 15, 2020.
- After Hours and Early Morning Magic tickets are being refunded automatically. See the graphic below for more info.
Vacations Booked
- The resorts and Disney Springs are still open.
- You can modify or cancel a reservation up to your original check in date for a refund.
- All cancellation fees up through June 30, 2020 will be waived.
What Can We Do During The Disney Closures
When Lou Mongello went live from Disney’s Beach Club on Thursday night, I started a watch party. A lot of people joined. We all wanted to know what was going on. I wanted to know what the vibe was like. Were people panicking? Was there still music playing in the parks, and people were strolling along Main Street with their family and having their “normal” vacation? What’s it really like?
Lou went live from The Beach Club in the Breezeway with a few of his friends and his wife. They were walking out of Epcot for the day and he just felt at the moment that he needed to go live. So they sat down and hit the Live button. Lou began sharing why he was going live at that moment and he was feeling emotional. That made me emotional.
There was some shock and awe when the Disney closures were happening. I felt like someone was taking away my favorite toy. Even if I am not there now, I have friends who go there often. I live vicariously through them as I watch and share their live broadcasts. If you know me, you know how much my family and I love Disney. But if it is closed, we can’t go, and our countdown changes, and everything feels out of whack!
It was the human component that was sinking in for me. People were sick and dying. It was because an illness is being spread, and Disney is a place where MANY people congregate. It’s just too risky for everyone. The cast members, the visitors, those traveling to and from there. So I don’t think it was a bad decision to close. It just comes with lots of different emotions. Especially for the groupies like us.
If our favorite place, the place we call home, the place that brings us joy and pleasure has to close, then things must be pretty bad. They aren’t just closing for the day either. They will be closed until the end of March, and anything after that is yet to be determined. Whoa.
As Lou was chatting with us online and with the folks sitting with him in the room, we all felt the need to be together online. We all have this common bond with our love of Disney, but we are also people who care about other people. As US citizens, we needed to be responsible in helping prevent this disruptive virus from crippling the world even worse than it already was.
What Can We Do Now?
Share the good news. Find the silver lining. I already saw some good news coming out of Disney. Disneyland Resort is donating excess food during the temporary closure.
Host your own online events!
I will be going live with my family every day to share what we are doing during our time at home. I also have some creative ideas to bring us all together virtually. I’ll be sharing more on that soon! If you have a shared interest with others, get online, talk about it! Sometimes just saying things out loud to other people helps make you feel better.
How do you feel about Disney closing? Share your comments below!