Monday, March 16, 2020

So Disney is closed...

Hello everyone, I hope everyone is staying safe and staying sane while we are self quarantined.
Just getting into it... if anyone didn't know every single Disney park is closed, this has never happened ever before in Disney's history.

The international parks (Disneyland Paris, Hong Kong, Tokyo, and Shanghai Disney) have been closed since late February/Early March due to how quickly COVID-19 spread across Europe and Asia. Walt Disney World (Florida) and Disneyland Resort/ Disney's California Adventure as of March 15th is now closed until at least March 31st (so far there is no talk about the recent statement made by the CDC talking about how for the next 8 weeks events that are more than 50 people should be canceled or postponed)


What has come out of all of this:

  1. All current College Program participants are no longer working for Disney, but they will be paid for the next 2 weeks and will not have rent taken out of their paycheck, they are required to move out of the provided housing by March 18th (those who live in non- Disney housing are able to stay but they do not currently have a job at the moment (unless they apply for a Full or Part-time position) 
    1. what this means for Disney: when the parks reopen they will be missing a couple tens of thousands of cast members (each park (Disneyland hires less because they have less housing for those who live out of state) has about 10-20 thousand College Program hires each hiring season)
    2. the Cast Members that are being sent home will have the option to reapply right away for the fall program (it would be August/September- January)
  2. Each park will be sending remaining food and preserves to shelters, food pantries, and other establishments that would benefit 
  3. Lots of crying from me and my CP friends, those that I've talked to all feel terrible for those who were forced to leave, This is something I have wanted to do for at least half of my life if not a little more, having to have that taken away from others who feel the same as me leaves my heartbroken.

There may not be many more updates until we find out if Disney will be extending closures but if I do hear anything they will be tweeted out as soon as I get all the details I possibly can.


3 comments:

  1. Such a weird time for sure! My sister works for Disneyland (marketing manager) and is working from home right now.

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  2. I hadn't really thought about what it would be like when the parks open up again. I'm curious to see what Disney plans to do with having lost many of their college program members. My heart goes out to those who were there this semester and had their time cut short :(

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  3. This made me so sad. :( I was in Orlando before this coronavirus became what it is now and I saw so many people wearing Disney gear who looked incredibly dissapointed. I dont blame them. I hope that all of this becomes resolved so that you get to enjoy your Disney Program Experience.

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