Disney World News: Pyro Pixie Dust, More Layoffs, Digital Health Passport
We’re back with another Walt Disney World news & rumor round-up. This one covers the return of fireworks at Magic Kingdom and increases to the number of Cast Member layoffs this year and in 2021. We also cover the prospects of a digital health passport system that could allow theme parks and other businesses to verify health credentials of guests, requiring proof of a negative test or vaccination, and only allowing entry to those who comply.
Let’s start with fireworks returning to Magic Kingdom. Over the holiday weekend, Walt Disney World quietly announced that “pyrotechnic pixie-dust moments” have returned, adding occasional bursts of merriment each night at Magic Kingdom as Cinderella Castle is transformed by Christmas projection effects. These magical holiday touches are presently scheduled to occur nightly through December 30, 2020.
We previously covered the projections in Cinderella Castle Christmas Scenes: Crowds, Photos & Info. That post was somewhat critical of the effects, suggesting that guest response and operational realities necessitated further tweaking of this idea. Our evening visits to Magic Kingdom in the weeks since then have only further reinforced that belief, and up until now, we frankly had wondered why Walt Disney World had not implemented any of the (frankly) quick fixes. Well, now we know why…
Previously, it made little sense that each projection would last for 15 minutes, as the result was guests lingering around Main Street, waiting for the complete cycle. The hour required to see every Cinderella Castle Christmas scene meant more guests congregating around the front of the park, which is precisely what Walt Disney World indicated it’s trying to avoid when cancelling nighttime spectaculars.
Now, it makes more sense that each projection is displayed for 15 minutes, because the pyro occurs during the transition between two cycles. (Meaning this isn’t really random at all.) If a scene change happened every two minutes, and the low-level pyro was shot off along with it, that would be a lot of fireworks throughout the course of the night…and also cause even more crowding.
Presumably, these scenes were developed with the fireworks bursts in mind, and the pyro is just now being inserted as Magic Kingdom attendance is picking up. That doesn’t mean the longer cycles are now suddenly a good idea (to the contrary, they’re still a bad idea), but at least they make some degree of sense.
The ‘best of both worlds’ solution is to shorten the projection cycle times, and truly randomize when the pyro is launched. Even that approach is still imperfect. The promise of seeing fireworks is going to cause some guests to linger around Cinderella Castle no matter how Disney does things. Those changes could minimize how many and how long some guests wait, though.
Unless more pyro is added, this is unrelated to the recent Project Nugget Fireworks Test at Magic Kingdom. That involved the rear launch sites behind the park; this utilizes low-level pyro shot from Fantasyland rooftops and Cinderella Castle itself.
On a related note, we watched the Project Nugget fireworks test and still have no clue what purpose it served. As we said before, it could be an oblique reference to something for the golden milestone of Walt Disney World’s 50th Anniversary, or simply opportunistic infrastructure upgrades occurring while there are not nightly pyro launches.
Or, it could be a precursor to more fireworks returning prior to Fall 2021. While we’re not optimistic that Walt Disney World is in any rush to bring back nighttime spectaculars, the digital health passes (discussed below) could accelerate the timeline of the phased reopening plan. (Basically, your guess is as good as ours at this point.)
Next, Disney plans to lay off around 32,000 Cast Members at Walt Disney World and Disneyland, the company revealed in a recent 10-K filing with the SEC. Per the regulatory filing, this is happening due to the current business climate and changing environment in which Disney is operating, and the company has “generated efficiencies in its staffing, including limiting hiring to critical business roles, furloughs, and reductions-in-force.”
This reflects an increase of 4,000 compared to the 28,000 layoffs Disney Parks, Experiences and Products initially announced back. These layoffs will occur in the first half of Disney’s fiscal year 2021, which ends in March 2021. Additionally, Disney revealed in the same filing that as of October 3, 2020, approximately 37,000 employees who are not scheduled for employment termination remained on furlough.
Obviously, it’s been a rough few months for Disney Parks, Experiences and Products (borne out by the quarterly results), especially with Disneyland and Disney Cruise Line not operating. However, we had hoped that Walt Disney World’s improved performance would help buoy the division.
Moreover, it’s difficult to feel much sympathy for the company itself when it has $17.9 billion in cash on hand that could be used to weather the current storm. Disney’s leadership is undoubtedly in a tough position, faced with a variety of no-win scenarios. However, there’s a reason “generated efficiencies” appears in that regulatory filing and “saved jobs” does not. It doesn’t require much speculation to see where leadership’s priorities lie.
While we’re on the topic, we want to once again plug our charity initiative to Help Give Back to Disney Cast Members & Community and also thank everyone profusely for the outpouring of support. Given that furloughs and layoffs are continuing throughout Central Florida during the holiday season, more help is still needed.
Many of you have contributed, and we’ve now raised over $63,000 for Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida. We also wanted to give an update with the tangible results of the fundraiser: a distribution consisting of two trucks filled with 60,000 pounds of food to feed families in need, with another still to come. We are incredibly humbled and heartened by all of your support—DTB readers proving yet again that you are all the best!
Finally, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) is in the final stage of developing a new digital health passport called the IATA Travel Pass. This digital Travel Pass will display a record of its user’s records, allowing them to share their tests and vaccination results in a safe, verifiable, and privacy-protecting manner. The organization and many operators view this as vital to safely restarting travel.
IATA is just one of several groups developing digital travel passports (the CLEAR Health Pass and IBM Digital Health Pass are other such initiatives) designed to provide organizations with a smart way to bring people back to a physical location, such as a workplace, school, stadium, airport…or Walt Disney World. IATA’s just so happens to be the one geared primarily towards travel, and is more likely to be the one adopted by the industry.
These digital passports will allow businesses to verify health credentials for employees, customers, and visitors entering their site based on criteria specified by the organization. These systems promise flexible and customizable infrastructure, that fits a variety of situations based on numerous data sources. For example, travel and transportation companies may have a more stringent system for establishing the wellness status for passengers boarding a plane or staying in an on-site hotel than would a third-party restaurant seating guests outdoors at Disney Springs.
For users, privacy will be central to the solution, with people being able to maintain control of their personal health information and share it in a way that is secured and with organizations they trust. Individuals can share their credentials to return to the places they love, without requiring exposure of the underlying personal data used to generate the credential.
The IATA digital health passports is still being developed, but others are actually ready to roll. The IATA Travel Pass will launch in the first quarter of 2021, and is particularly intriguing because it’s expected that many airlines and locations will quickly adopt it in lieu of quarantines.
Keep in mind that this is entirely speculative on our part and not official. However, we feel it’s possible that Walt Disney World will utilize such a solution. We’re sharing this, like we did our prediction that face masks would be mandatory long before Walt Disney World officially announced the policy, so you can mentally prepare yourself for the possibility now.
With almost every airline plus companies like Ticketmaster already indicating that they will require a digital health pass for boarding flights or attending concerts (as the case may be), it’s an inevitability that more businesses will follow suit. As with current health safety protocol, Walt Disney World is a candidate for such a system for several reasons. One big reason is that Cast Member unions might push for it. Another is Disney’s longstanding reputation as being on the forefront of safety.
From our perspective, the potential timeframe and how Walt Disney World could utilize such a digital health pass is fascinating. We’ve been following this topic for international travel purposes, and there a late Spring 2021 rollout seems most likely. However, our expectation is that airlines will adopt this program prior to other travel providers to reopen international borders; Summer 2021 seems more realistic for domestic purposes. While a lot remains to be seen, Walt Disney World could require proof of a vaccination or negative test result X days before checking into a hotel or first-use of tickets. It’s possible that the digital health pass could even interface with the Disney Park Pass or My Disney Experience infrastructure. (Not that Disney IT needs more moving parts…)
Over the course of the next few months, as the “light at the end of the tunnel” becomes brighter, we’d anticipate this becoming a hot topic with polarizing opinions. Cutting through all of that, we think there are likely two scenarios: one with a system like this in place that offers a shortcut to dropping other health safety protocol and allows an earlier return to normalcy than otherwise. And another scenario with the status quo continuing into Fall 2021, at which point said measures are dropped. Neither option is optimal, but given the choice, we’ll take the digital health pass without hesitation.
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!
YOUR THOUGHTS
Thoughts on any of this Walt Disney World news? Disappointed by the additional layoffs in the Disney Parks, Experiences and Products division? Concerned about Walt Disney World potentially using a digital health passport, or do you welcome that system if it means an earlier return to normalcy? Any theories about fireworks at Magic Kingdom? Do you agree or disagree with our commentary? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
This continues to be a slippery slope. Understand the fear many have, and respect everyone’s individual right to process the information and all the circumstances as it applies to them individually, but the voluntary giving up of freedoms and privacy is another issue. It’s hard to blindly trust how these large companies (tech and airlines) will respect privacy. Goggle and Amazon have already proven to be unreliable on these issues. Honestly, Disney may be the one reason I would eventually give in. But as bad as airlines and tech companies treat people already? I hope Disney thinks long and hard about this and takes time to evaluate. I also hope Disney is not forced into it.
I’m looking forward to this health passport control thing because apparently I will get to be in the parks by myself!!!
Right? I’ll be there every day! Everyone in the park is tested and vaccinated and low crowds? Sign me up, I’m moving in!
Ok, say I go to Disney World post vaccination implementation and I did NOT take the vaccine. I encounter you standing in line and you DID take the vaccine. Why are you concerned? You can’t get it from me, right? You may say that I could give it to someone else that did not take the vaccine and that would be correct. I’m thinking that anyone not taking the vaccine then would be like me and willing to take that risk such as it is. No fault of Disney that either of us should catch from the other and no fault from you. So, if you are concerned, go get the vaccine and go about your life without interfering in mine. I no longer present a danger to you.
No, I could get it from you. Vaccines are not 100% effective–no vaccine has ever been. When you read that a vaccine is 90% effective, that means that of the people who got sick during the trial, only 10% were in the group that was vaccinated and 90% were in the control (unvaccinated) group. A vaccine is not like a force field to make someone invulnerable to disease–it makes it less likely. So you definitely could make a vaccinated person sick if you were infected, but they would likely have a less severe case.
Also this is the reason why we are likely to need to continue to wear masks and social distance even after vaccines are available, until there are few enough cases that it’s statistically unlikely an infected person is present.
The vaccine won’t be available for children for awhile, so you standing in line next to my children are endangering them.
So, if the vaccine is 90% effective, that lowers the risk of getting it to something probably less than .1%. There are many other diseases out there that I could have and be putting you at risk (or your children) by standing next to you in line, so why aren’t you concerned about that? Maybe you will think that we should all wear masks for the rest of our lives to help prevent the spread of all of these other diseases. Somewhere along the line, people need to get some common sense about life. You cannot eliminate EVERYTHING that presents a danger to you and still live a fruitful and enjoyable life.
Exactly. The moment Disney starts mandating vaccines is the moment we walk away. If enough people walk it will change things – Disney is about money above all else.
I will simply NOT get a vaccination for a virus that has a 99% recovery rate. Wake up Tom and America.
How about for a virus that is also causing multiple long-term health problems and overloading your health system so hospitals are full and health workers unable to cope? I can’t wait to have the vaccine and know that I’m no longer at risk of passing the disease to family or friends. Yes there are other diseases that have a higher death rate, but none that have the ability to spread so rampantly and while the carrier has no symptoms, which is why it needs to be brought under control.
Phil, I wish people would stop forcing their fears on everyone else! Millions of people are woefully under vaccinated and yet people like Brighter and Bry seem to be blissfully unaware of this fact. Few people actually get their titers (the test that determines antibody levels) checked every year, so in reality, there are untold numbers of Americans whose vaccine immunity has worn off and they have no idea! What that means is that Brighter & Bry have stood next to countless individuals who are technically “unvaccinated” and therefore potential spreaders, but they’ve been none the wiser. Vaccine induced herd immunity doesn’t actually exist, but it’s sort of the dirty little secret that no one seems to want to acknowledge. People just want to go through life FEELING safe, whether or not they actually are. I don’t want people to live their lives in fear. I want people to have the freedom to do whatever they need to do for themselves, but I also want that same respect given to me. I would never shove peanut butter in the face of someone with a life threatening allergy, but neither is it the other person’s right to tell me I can’t eat it! I just don’t understand how the people who are seemingly so afraid of catching a virus are some of the first ones to hang out at an amusement park?!? Is that not the exact opposite of what one should do? And yet those people are demanding that everyone else do what makes the fearful ones more comfortable. There is zero logic there. Sorry, I’m definitely ranting. I’m tired of backwards thinking. I’m tired of useless theatrics. Just open up the world & let people make their own choices!!!!!
Actually, Stephanie, you don’t know anything about me, what I do and do not know, so please don’t talk about me as if you do and definitely do not tell me what I am thinking and feeling.
Stephanie, I applaud you! If I could like comments here I would like yours! Well said!
Bry, your children are the ones least likely to need the vaccine themselves, but they could spread it to others in the family who are at much higher risk. Children are super-spreaders of everything by their nature. Not any kind of indictment, just simple scientific fact.
Steph, it’s worked pretty well for measles and smallpox. The only recent blips in those was due to the anti-vaxxers refusing to have their children inoculated. I sometimes get the flu shot, if the doctors say it’s working that year. I’m not anti-vaccine, but anti-needle! I’ll get this vaccine, after it’s been administered to 50 million or more people and no major detrimental effects are shown. I expect to feel a little crappy after getting one, whether it’s mild effects from the dead virus/antibodies or just the psychological effects of hating shots since I was very young but that passes.
Totally agree, and on another note, the current vaccines out there do not prevent transmission (only lessen the symptoms), so unless something changes (with a new vaccine or they get additional future data on the current vacccines), there is zero point in requiring a vaccine for travel or WDW. I’m so confused as to why we all think requiring a vaccine is going to help with herd immunity if we can still pass it on? It should be left up to the individual if they would like the added “protection” of the vaccine and allow the other half to live their life “at risk.”
Surprised and disappointed by more layoffs, unless they happen only in California. Walt Disney World has gotten much busier since reopening so there’s no reason to cut staffing in Florida.
Move all corporate functions to FL where it belongs! Especially Imagineering… The days of needing to be near the classic studios are long gone. The tax situation is obviously far better for everyone in FL, just as is cost of living.
I don’t see how this would get parks back to a no-mask, no-distancing policy any sooner. I can’t see Disney wanting to exclude customers who haven’t been vaccinated. And I don’t see how you could have some in the parks cleared for no mask attendance because they have been vaccinated and others still required to wear a mask because they haven’t had the vaccine or choose not to use the health credentials system. It would be a CM mask-enforcement nightmare.
Correct. It’ll be one or the other, not both.
Ummm. Anyone want to say three cheers to returning fireworks?
Thanks for the info Tom.
Is there a good spot to watch them from outside the park? we’re staying at the Treehouse with 3 grandchildren for 9 nights. Any advice so we sould see the fireworks on several of those evenings?
Thanks.
It’s going to be difficult if not impossible to see any fireworks from the Treehouses which are by the way awesome! You’re just too far away and they are pretty isolated in the trees.
Thanks Mrnico,
Question for Tom or anyone who can help.
Are there any spots we can drive to where we could catch some of the pyro pixie dust moments?
Thanks in advance to all.
Contemporary is going to be the easiest spot (dinner at California Grill), but keep in mind we’re talking one burst of low-level pyro every 15 minutes. I would not attempt to see it outside the park, but that’s just me.
Tom, I was going to suggest that. There’s also the observation platform at same level as the gift shop and Chef Mickey’s on north end where they used to pipe in the same music during Wishes. If that’s still open… We also sometimes climbed up the exterior stairwells at the north end of Contemporary for a higher-elevation vantage point.
We were in MK when they went off for the first time. We both jumped. The fireworks are more of a “ta-Da” (about that long too) rather than an actual display. Cool if you happen to be there, but I wouldn’t go out of my way (and even less skip something else) to see them. Other than the already mentioned California grill, not really visible outside of the park.
Have Fun with the grand kids!
It’s interesting, my pediatrician cautions anyone with a child under 2 to stay away from Disney. The threat of unvaccinated international travelers spreading viruses/diseases (ones that Americans are regularly vaccinated for) to younger unvaccinated babies was a real concern. If Disney is going to take it upon themselves to protect its park patrons from COVID… how can they ignore the far more dangerous diseases? Is there going to be a whole list of required vaccines? Where will it end? Slippery slope in so many ways .
Aside from the moral questions about a health passport are the business questions.
In the current testing environment requiring your customers to have a negative test drastically cuts your customer base. Right now, on a good day, we can process 2 million tests a day. Say a business says you have to have had a negative test in the last 10 days. Thats 20 million people, which is 6% of the population. Obviously there are more nuances and offering a rapid test at point of entry could be an option. But right now this isn’t realistic for most businesses.
The vaccine will help, but the we’ll have the same issues until most of the people that want the vaccine have it. Which will likely be late spring. At that point enough people will have been vaccinated that you don’t really need to have the app as a precaution.
This might come into play for international travel, but with the required infrastructure investments, the negative press, and the short time frame this would be used I don’t think most businesses will roll this out.
Do 20M people really go through WDW in a 10 day time span? I don’t think demand would be that much higher by adding a few thousand people a day spread all over the world. Not everyone is going to be tested at the same place.
“This is not China?” Yikes. I thought comments were restricted here, even for implications of racism…let me remind y’all that they’re WELL AHEAD of the USA in Covid response. Large gatherings with no masks, open restaurants, etc. with no surge–because the population and government actually care about protecting others and not just preserving some imagined sense of “freedom.”
I do not agree with that sentiment and think false equivalencies are being drawn, but I don’t view any of those comments as racist.
Reductionist as those remarks may be, they’re predicated upon real differences in public policy and ideology between the respective countries.
Since when does mention of a nation much different than ours, which is well known to have gross human rights abuses, constitute racism? A country isn’t the same as a race…
China “cares about protecting others”. Ha that is the funniest comment I have read in a while. Thanks for the chuckle.
CM – why do you refuse to recognize the extremely effective Covid response of Taiwan – whose population is 95% Chinese? Is it anti-Chinese racism, or admiration gir the police state the communists have imposed on the mainland?
They “actually care about protecting others…”?
Tell that to the thousands of Muslims they keep in concentration camps.
Good grief.
“Health Passport” equates to “Papers, Please!” A slippery slope we are leaning over. Those who “quote” HIPAA seems to forget that they already modified that for the pandemic. Also, remember that most instances when others have access to medical records (to include “vaccinations”) should read it is mostly for government entities, which does include schools. Private entities are not in that group (READ WDW is PRIVATE as also airlines). Or are we already moving toward the government telling private business how to operate. Now if WDW or any other location wants to limit on their own who can come in that is their business. If the government enforces it on us, it is infringement. Too many people have been lulled to sleep and then it’s too late to reclaim freedom and privacy.
As for me and my house, after 11 visits in this century, we would not return to WDWif they require that. If a grocery store requires it we will use their delivery service. If a restaurant does we go to another place. And in contrast to what was said in the article, time will not change my opinion on that. My father fought in WWII, my grandfather in WWI and I served 20 years protecting the freedoms of all Americans. Do not erase history, read about it, learn from it. Or we are doomed to repeat it.
Dave,
Yes!!!! Absolutely agree with you! People who are older see the very slippery slope with this. Very much smacks of “papers please”. No thank you.
Agreed. While I get that some folks would welcome the idea of something like a “digital health passport,” for most of us the answer is a flat NO. It’s ridiculous and completely ineffective unless there’s a real-time biomedical implant that continuously scans your blood for infection. As many have said, negative tests are worthless 5 minutes after the test is administered, since you could be infected while walking away from the test site. All it shows is that you probably weren’t infected by events prior to the test. And that’s ignoring accuracy issues.
I’m a millennial, and I completely agree with Dave on this. If Disney requires this, I don’t believe the bottom line will increase whatsoever. I am a completely healthy individual, but I am not sharing my health records with Disney, Publix, or anywhere else unnecessary. Our children are currently in a fabulous school system, but I will absolutely pull them out and homeschool if they require a vaccine without YEARS of testing. Our kids can survive without another trip to Disney in their lifetime if this is the route they choose to take.
The Nazis did not give a ___ about vaccines and no one is forcing anyone to sign up for these passports. Plenty of countries require vaccination certificates for entry this just streamlines the process. Please stop comparing anything you don’t like to the Nazis it diminishes the struggles of the millions who died at their hands. I think you’re being disrespectful to my Grandfather who fought the Nazis for 2 years longer than yours did by comparing your pigheaded idiocy to their fight.
Dave, thank you for your service.
I completely agree. Once a freedom is lost it’s hard to get it back. I pray this doesn’t go through.
Agree 100%!
100% all of this!! This is a slippery slope I want nothing to do with. We will be done with WDW if we need a health passport in order to enter.
Thank you for your service. I gave 10 years myself. The slippery slope starts with this conversation. I feel way better as a parent knowing that my children go to a school where all children were vaccinated for measles, chicken pox, mumps, etc… I don’t feel that my rights are being violated if a private entity asks for something in return for your your entry. At that point it becomes a choice issue. You choose to comply or go somewhere else. There is no god given right for you to attend WDW. I truly believe in free market and private industry. That’s what my 10 years of service was in defense of. Please do not criticize the person simply asking a question, you do not have to answer. If somehow this turns into a government requirement for attendance in to private entity, then we will have that convo at that time.
I’m sure the past generations would have loved to have access to a vaccination to protect them from the Spanish Flu and other diseases of the time. We are so fortunate to have the science available to us now.
100% AGREE with Dave! Thankful for your family’s service!
Thank you for your service Dave!
According to the CDC website people will still be asked to wear masks after receiving two doses of the vaccine. How does this play into the idea of getting back to normal yet requiring proof of vaccination?
Yup, more nonsensical vacillation…
If you have had Covid or the vaccine, a mask shouldn’t be required for you anywhere or anytime. The whole mask thing is a joke because they don’t work. My wife wears hers religiously around people that wear theirs religiously and still got Covid. Then, of course I got it being around her at home. I’ll be bypassing mask rules as much as possible now. No reason other than government trying to control the lives of others.
You’re right. It makes no sense.
The CDC put out mortality rates and suddenly people acted like they couldn’t read.
We are losing freedoms over a virus that has roughly a 1% chance of killing you. I truly don’t understand.
Because a vaccine is not 100% protection. The mRNA vaccines (Pfizer and Moderna) have efficacy of 90% and up, which means that of the people who became ill with COVID during the trial, 90% were in the placebo group. A vaccine greatly decreases your likelihood of contracting the disease and usually makes it much less severe if you do get it. So until case counts fall to a very low level, we’ll need to wear masks. Also, COVID is contagious before you have any symptoms, so people who can infect others don’t know it.
So expect masks to stay for a while yet, and social distancing longer than that.
I find the backlash and fear surrounding growth in tech systems rather funny. A huge portion of the population has already relinquished far more private information than they could even begin to imagine. Internet, smart phones, smart home devices, etc all constantly collect and aggregate individual data to an astounding degree that would shock most people, in the most true sense of the word. Do you have a phone, tablet, or computer that you surf, shop, talk, text on? Do you have a Ring or an Alexa in your home? If yes, then a very complete, highly accurate profile of your entire existence exists on a server somewhere, and it is used to move your needle in myriad ways. A health pass app is just one more tiny blip on the radar. If it truly alarms you, then you should be re-evaluating all tech in your life.
You don’t even need to go as far as Ring or Alexa. Rather, do you use the internet at all?
Yes, exactly! And big corporations have all my health information already. Blue Cross has all my treatment records, as my insurer; CVS has my prescription info as the pharmacy processor for BC; Publix has my pharmacy records, and they store that information in Amazon’s cloud. If I “Dr. Google” and search for symptoms, I get ads for prescription meds for whatever I googled. The visas I hold for entry to certain countries is proof I was vaccinated against certain diseases. The state of Florida maintains a database called Florida SHOTS to collect vaccination records for each child in Florida and that data, again, is stored in the public cloud. My phone transmits where I’ve been, which is again, stored in the cloud.
When you look at all this, what harm comes from an app that says I’ve been vaccinated and tested?
You’re right about the scary amounts of data being collected about you every second of every day by not just the NSA, but all web and commo activity. Voice-activated tech is the worst! But the biggest issue with these proposed digital health passports are the uselessness of a negative test to demonstrate that you’re not a carrier. Vaccinations, if effective in the real world, are an entirely different matter.
Yes, these intrusions exist, but the line has to be drawn somewhere. Not to mention you can ditch tech. We survived without the Internet, Ring, Alexa, Cell phones, etc. I’m not required by anyone to have one. But a required health record crosses the line. That’s my business and mine only.
This is an interesting topic and one I’ve thought about a lot lately (ever since I read the TicketMaster policy related to attending concerts, which, along with Disney, is my other great passion in life). I get a little squeamish around “show your papers” type rules, and I think it is a slippery slope. However … I agree wholeheartedly that this is preferable to the current state of affairs and masking (which I loathe, but tolerate in the name of safety). In an ideal world, we achieve herd immunity relatively quickly and this all goes away. But that requires 70% of the population to get vaccinated and I suspect, based on the recent election, that we can’t get 70% of the population to agree on anything.
So what are the choices then? If I get the vaccine and still have to live for months (or years) the way we are now, what’s the point? I think “incentivizing” the vaccine is smart – you want to go to a concert/sporting event/theme park? If you’re vaccinated, then great. Otherwise you have to jump through a lot of hoops to prove you don’t have the virus. So while this is a “half measure” ultimately, I will take it over living like this for even more time. I need my life back and this is a way to do it.
I would agree with you if the vaccine didn’t come with the potential for horrible side effects and the mortality rate of CV was at least 1%.
Agreed. If this goes into place anywhere, I will no longer be a customer. As much as it would break my heart, maintaining my rights and privacy are paramount. We do not live in Germany in 1940. If started here, it wouldn’t be temporary and where would it end?
You’re exactly right. I’m doing the same.
Exactly. If this whole mess has taught me anything, it’s that people will submit to any level of control if you make them scared enough. Also, that people have lost the abikity to any sort of cohesive risk/benefit analysis. I love Disney, but I would never make another trip if they required me to show some sort of “papers” to go.
I think this is silly, when most of us wear a Magic Band and use My Disney Experience, which collects which rides you went to and when, when you checked in for an ADR, stores your credit card info, knows where you walked in the park, what you bought when and where on property, when you rode bus or monorail, etc.
I have NO intention of getting the vaccine until much further down the line (at least a year or two). With such minimal testing we have no idea what they are injecting into us or how our bodies will react. No thank you…I will skip being a guinea pig. Especially for something with a 99% recovery rate(and pretty sure I already had it back in Feb). This “healthcard” just sounds/feels like something out of the hunger games and a huge invasion of our rights and privacy! Guess I will be stuck at home for awhile until things go back to normal.
This would truly break my heart. If we don’t have to prove we got the flu vaccine, we shouldn’t have to do this. When we got tested we paid $75 each for the test. Disney is expensive enough. Honestly if they do this I won’t go to the parks. I will give up my annual pass and we would sell our DVC, but I truly LOVE Disney and would be so so sad. I understand this is a very real disease. As a nurse, my heart aches for those that have succumbed to this illness, but this step would truly be allowing a company to make money on people’s fears and is unnecessary in my opinion. So sad to read this.
This is just the start. Pretty soon you’ll have to prove you have everything the gov says is “safe”. This is just to test the waters.
Stand up while you can. If this goes through we are toast.
I personally would be shocked if some kind of required health verification app came to fruition for any American company. I think it would alienate too many people due to privacy concerns (and there are plenty of high profile examples of informations security breaches to fuel those concerns). I am 100% behind mask mandates and think everyone should get vaccinated once an effective one becomes available, but a health tracking app makes me nervous. If they have to choose between implementing some kind of health app and going “back to normal” or just keeping mask mandates in place to Fall 2021 or later, I honestly think Disney chooses the masks.
We have a health verification app that we need to use prior to us entering our work location. I work in the utility industry in the Northeast. This was rolled out to us about a month ago, prior to the app, we had to answer health related questions (nothing that would violate HIPPA) to our supervisor, the app is more discrete I suppose.