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COVID-19 Thread

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CanadaCanes said:
JB, since you are in the Disney travel business...what resort hotels look curiously booked up solid soon? Grand Floridian? Riviera? You know it's going to be a deluxe resort and you gotta know some regular Joe's family vacation reservation is about to be bumped somewhere else because of the NBA plan.
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I wouldn't worry about that so much. Disney is actively trying to hack away at the number of bookings they have for the rest of the year as it is, so shutting down a couple of resorts for the NBA and MLS guys won't even leave a mark. They will NOT talk about a number, but best guess is they want to operate at no more than 30% capacity for the foreseeable future and everything they're doing right now is designed to encourage people to cancel. The guy who owns my agency says their ideal scenario is to re-open on July 11 with three people in line for Space Mountain in an otherwise empty park. He's prolly not wrong, although that's clearly an overstatement for effect.

To your specific question it looks like the NBA is probably going to take Coronado Springs Resort (upscale moderate with a ton of convention space for meetings and walk throughs ... a personal favorite of mine FWIW) and Contemporary Resort (also has convention space, but I'm thinking this is more for the league people while the teams "slum it" at Coronado Springs). I haven't seen specifics from the MLS people, but probably another entire resort would be set aside for them. I know more than I'm allowed to say, so I'll stick to speculation that I've seen elsewhere to avoid getting into trouble.
 
Paulie Walnuts said:
Baseball union wants 114 games from June 30 to Halloween. Owners are not going to agree.
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Shockingly, the owners rejected it and will not counter. Ken Rosenthal from The Athletic said the league has started talks with owners about playing a shorter season without fans and is ready to discuss additional ideas with the union.

 
jeffbear said:
I wouldn't worry about that so much. Disney is actively trying to hack away at the number of bookings they have for the rest of the year as it is, so shutting down a couple of resorts for the NBA and MLS guys won't even leave a mark. They will NOT talk about a number, but best guess is they want to operate at no more than 30% capacity for the foreseeable future and everything they're doing right now is designed to encourage people to cancel. The guy who owns my agency says their ideal scenario is to re-open on July 11 with three people in line for Space Mountain in an otherwise empty park. He's prolly not wrong, although that's clearly an overstatement for effect.

To your specific question it looks like the NBA is probably going to take Coronado Springs Resort (upscale moderate with a ton of convention space for meetings and walk throughs ... a personal favorite of mine FWIW) and Contemporary Resort (also has convention space, but I'm thinking this is more for the league people while the teams "slum it" at Coronado Springs). I haven't seen specifics from the MLS people, but probably another entire resort would be set aside for them. I know more than I'm allowed to say, so I'll stick to speculation that I've seen elsewhere to avoid getting into trouble.
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The All Star, Pop Century and Art of Animation are the closest hotels to the Wide World of Sports. But I guess they won’t be slumming it in the Value resorts? ;)

I’ve stayed at All Star sports once and Pop Century a few times. They’re fine for what they are; basic, no frills lodging. If you spend most of your time in the park, the hotel is just a place to sleep and maybe grab a quick breakfast anyway. Wilderness Lodge is my wife’s favorite and neither of us really liked the Grand Floridian, especially at the prices they charge.
 
andyt said:
The All Star, Pop Century and Art of Animation are the closest hotels to the Wide World of Sports. But I guess they won’t be slumming it in the Value resorts? ;)

I’ve stayed at All Star sports once and Pop Century a few times. They’re fine for what they are; basic, no frills lodging. If you spend most of your time in the park, the hotel is just a place to sleep and maybe grab a quick breakfast anyway. Wilderness Lodge is my wife’s favorite and neither of us really liked the Grand Floridian, especially at the prices they charge.
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We have stayed all over Disney in many of the resorts over the years and of course many things dictate your stay including budget, the kids ages, proximity to each park, etc. We enjoyed Animal Kingdom Lodge but found it too far off the beaten path for the parks and Disney Springs. We tried Saratoga Springs and Old Key West both mostly because of the three bedroom larger suites when travelling with extended family. We stayed at Contemporary once but I found Grand Floridian to be great for what we wanted in both a deluxe resort, on the monorail line for the parks, and the overall ammenities. Strangely enough, both times we stayed at Grand Floridian, they had offers that ended up being slightly cheaper than Polynesian and another deluxe resort or two. My wife and I like to stay quite a bit on the resort property for the pools and such and not as much time in the parks everyday, so that's why we enjoyed that resort a bit more. Wilderness Lodge has done some great upgrades to the rooms and that resort is beautiful to tour and we may end up over there one of these times...but no Disney for quite a while now in light of the current climate.
 
Not many people know (and probably don't care) that Swan and Dolphin are not run by Disney. They are run by a joint venture including Marriot and other businesses. Disney owns the land leases it to the joint venture. They have a lot of conventions. I rented a car in Orlando for a convention and the rental guy said "you are here for a convention?" Maybe he was new and assumed everyone goes for fun not business.
 
We stayed a the Swan once, never again. The next time we stay at a monorail resort will probably be the Polynesian. But we’re in the park from opening to closing and it‘s awfully hard to justify the price difference between there and Pop Century for a bed. I wouldn’t mind a savannah view room at Animal Kingdom Lodge but as CC said, it’s a long way from everywhere else.
 
I prefer the Animal Kingdom Lodge. I was at the Dolphin last year as my wife had a conference so my son and I got the room for free but that is not the best. The Savanna rooms are well worth it.
 
andyt said:
But we’re in the park from opening to closing and it‘s awfully hard to justify the price difference between there and Pop Century for a bed.
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Everytime we've been to Disney it's at the All Stars for just that reason; want to be on prem for ease of taking the bus over to the parks, but other than that it's just a bed. Of course half the times we've been there chaperoning a school trip, so that's where those groups end up anyway.

When Universal is the destination, we pony up for a better hotel like Portofino Bay or Royal Pacific mostly just for the included Unlimited Express upgrade, because again, we've been in the parks from open to close.

Either way, gettin' too old for that kind of park schedule now though. Did a week chaperoning a high school band to Disney, including driving the equipment truck down and back, and a full family week to Universal within 3 months of each other couple years ago; not sure how I survived that stretch.
 
StormChaserBH said:
Either way, gettin' too old for that kind of park schedule now though.
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Not only did we keep up that schedule last year, we paid for an extra 3 hours in Hollywood Studios after it closed. But 4 straight rides on the Rock n Roller coaster nearly killed me.
 
TheCountofMonteCristo said:
I prefer the Animal Kingdom Lodge. I was at the Dolphin last year as my wife had a conference so my son and I got the room for free but that is not the best. The Savanna rooms are well worth it.
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We had a Savannah room at AKL and my son thought it was amazing. The Lodge has a great overall vibe the moment you walk in the lobby and the restaurants on site are phenomenal. Some of the bus rides to the parks seemed long when you travel with young kids but that hotel is about as close as you get to an African safari type atmosphere without going to Africa.
 
I love how this has turned into a Disney travel thread.

If, as Jeff speculates, the NBA camps at Coronado Springs, MLS will be stuck at a value resort. If the NBA can only afford a moderate resort, there is no way MLS could afford the Caribbean or Port Orleans.
 
I stayed at All Star resorts 2x and they were fine. Similar to Holiday Inn. They have a regular McDonalds with regular prices. I heard that McD got to build it because Disney wanted their toys in kids meals so McD built it to agree to that deal. As you might expect it was very busy.
 
Paulie Walnuts said:
I stayed at All Star resorts 2x and they were fine. Similar to Holiday Inn. They have a regular McDonalds with regular prices. I heard that McD got to build it because Disney wanted their toys in kids meals so McD built it to agree to that deal. As you might expect it was very busy.
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Holiday Inn is upscale compared to the All-Star. But you’re right, they’re fine. Although I’ll spend the extra $15-20 per night to stay at the Pop Century.
 
As much as some people bang on Walt Disney World for being overpriced, there is so much more to that Disney property than just theme parks and I wish more people could see it for what it really has become. You can make it a golf vacation, enjoy some bass fishing, take out a jet ski or boat rentals, take in a sports tournament, run a marathon, bring a camper and stay at Fort Wilderness, just eat and drink your way around Disney Springs and the resort restaurants and bars, we try and change it up a bit every time we go and have never been disappointed.
 
Disney sent me a long survey when I got home. They asked about prices on almost everything, except food. They know food is a total ripoff like most amusement parks. I last went in 2002 so I cannot remember exact food prices but they were extremely inflated. As I said the McDs was swamped since they charge standard McD prices. I went to Alaska and their food prices were high but not as bad as Disney. But they have a higher shipping cost. We went to one grocery store and it was about 90% empty. Manager said their supply ship was late so that was the problem.
 
I will 2nd the Animal Kingdom Lodge comments. We stayed there twice (years ago) and it was our favorite, except for the long bus rides. Riverside has been our other 'go to' as a moderate option, I think we have stayed there 4 times. We love walking the property. Did the Contemporary once, but I was a kid at the time so I had no perspective.

The last Florida trip we made a few years ago we stayed at a Wyndham resort in Orlando and didn't go the Disney parks (we did SeaWorld, which if you haven't been there in a long time has changed quite a bit for the better). We did go to Disney Springs for one day and did the virtual reality Star Wars experience. That was pretty neat.

And I'm with you CanadaCanes. This is something my wife and I have talked about once the kids are away at college (2 more years for us). We would love to go to Disney and spend more time outside the parks, just the 2 of us, doing more adult activities.
 
Sea World is nice too , we got 2 days for price of one because in spring 2002 attendance at many places was down from 9/11 impact. A lot of hotels were hurting as well. Disney never cut ticket prices, I guess they did not need to.
 
twitter: All MLB announcers( TV and radio) have been told they will be doing all 2020 road games from a local broadcast studio or home ballpark with monitors as their guide. Assuming they have games.
 
TheCountofMonteCristo said:
I prefer the Animal Kingdom Lodge. I was at the Dolphin last year as my wife had a conference so my son and I got the room for free but that is not the best. The Savanna rooms are well worth it.
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Animal Kingdom Lodge is truly unique and the building itself is spectacular. The savannah rooms that look out over the animal enclosures are really special ... having your morning coffee while the giraffes get their morning feed is one of the most unique hotel experiences in North America. Plus, that is probably my favorite hotel lobby in the US.
 
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