Tuesday, June 23, 2020

Absurdity in the face of a pandemic

Disney announced their re-opening plans, and people went crazy.  Yay, the magic!  Yay, vacation!

Never mind that the world (quite literally in some cases) is burning.  That there are still social issues.  That we have a large disconnect among people (between masks, and science, and politics).  Its a wonder we're still functioning.

And then there's still this little thing called Covid-19, that no amount of "wishing away" will make a difference.  People are still getting infected, and dying.  And transmission rates are still high.

And Florida's case numbers are GROWING daily.

But by all means, lets forget about that!

Disneys vacation club properties opened yesterday, meaning that there are people staying at the resorts. For better or worse, its kind of back to business.

And maybe it bothered me more than it should have, but bloggers started showing up to "report" on the reopening. Because they want to get out, or be first, or be a part of it, or maybe because they want to feel normal too?

And then Disney opened the reservation system for theme parks.

A couple of things I observed:

1. It crashed.

2. People started complaining about an inability to book more than three days of theme parks - in spite of booking multiple trips spanning multiple days for the rest of the year and early next year (why? Just why?) and some have noticed that it's all subject to change and there are various factors in whether they can get a reservation at all.

3.  For reasons I don't quite get, the reservations people got were for "the whole day" rather than some sort of timed entry. So I can imagine the crowd for park opening will be stupid.

4. I keep reading about people assuming it's business as usual once these theme parks get open. I can't wait to see what happens when they find out how it's really going to go.

5  Disney has stated that many/most rides will be open with various capacity constraints and operational changes as needed.  And this is all subject to change at any time.  Which I find complicates #4.

6. Hollywood Studios filled to its capacity (whatever that is) on the first day its open. I would assume because of the Star Wars ride.

Let me be clear about something.  Disney opened for financial reasons.  They could only trade on their brand for so long, and they had some big loans that they have to cover.  The decision to re-open (while complicated by factors with the state and DVC) was strictly about money.

And people wanting to visit are just being stupid.  There.  I said it.

Why would you stay in a hotel and be around a lot of people. 

Surely this can't end as well as anyone would like.  And yeah, there is a need to get to business.  But, is this smart? I guess so, because people started booking vacations.

Anyway, good luck. And here's to hoping that they don't have to shut down again.





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