I’m labeling this as Op Ed, but I am hearing from a lot of sources that Disney is likely expecting a longer shut-down than 2-weeks.

Inevitably someone will say “Disney said 2-weeks!”  Yes, but it is contingent on the Coronavirus situation.

Best case scenario is 2-weeks

But many insiders are saying that Disney knows they will likely lose April and possibly May as well.

Right now the hotels and shopping districts are being listed as staying open, but again, hearing from several sources that they will likely shut those down too in the near future. They are trying not to leave guests stranded. Now with MCO having a confirmed Covid-19 case, it’s getting more and more tricky.

Why wouldn’t Disney just say they were shutting it all down at once?

I think there’s a couple of reasons for this. One, their stocks dropped a lot. By spreading out the bad news it can give it time to rebound a bit before dropping again and making the drops not so severe.

Two, they don’t want guests to panic. If they roll out the news from 2-weeks till longer, it can limit some of the avalanche the reservation and call centers are facing.

Three, I don’t think anyone knows the extent of how long it will need to remain shuttered yet. So they don’t want to lose anymore time than they have to. So spacing out announcements until they have a solid plan in place helps them lose less money and gets them back up quicker.

Of course this is all my opinion and nothing has been announced yet, but I do believe the announcements are coming. Especially about the hotels. Disneyland Paris has already announced their closures of the hotel and shopping areas.

Keeping the hotels open and shopping open doesn’t make sense at this point. It’s like when Disneyland thought that hand sanitizer and washing stations were enough to keep it all open. I fully expect all of it to shut down soon and for far more than 2-weeks.

Now, it’s possible that the parks could use this down-time as a window of opportunity for maintenance and building, but that would depend on if they can keep enough people working with Coronavirus concerns and if they have the money to do anything because they are hemorrhaging it at this point.

Maybe when it reopens we can all be surprised at how much is fixed and completed. That’s the silver lining I want to think about because what I’m hearing is 1-2 months down. Plus I’m still thinking my husband might have point when he said that “tin foil mouse ears, what if EPCOT just stays closed longer to get work done and not keep it staffed. Since they are closing a lot of the acts and sending so many home.” Again…it’s a wild theory, but I’m wondering if he doesn’t have a point.

Right now no announcements have been made officially, but hearing they are coming. That’s why I labeled this OP Ed.  I expect bad news to roll out in waves as a way to mitigate the stock drops. I say prepare for the worst, then we can all be happily surprised if it’s doesn’t happen.

What do you think? Comment and let us know.