Stay at Home Orders Effectively Extend Disney World Closure
Walt Disney World’s closure is effectively extended beyond its current March 31, 2020 end date due to an Orange County stay at home order that will begin Thursday night. It covers 1.3 million residents and all 13 municipalities in the county, which is also home to most of WDW.
Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings and Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer (or “the voice from the MCO People Mover,” as you might know him) issued the order last night for a period of at least two weeks. Their stated goal is to flatten the curve so that local medical facilities (already overburdened thanks to the area’s population explosion) aren’t overwhelmed as more cases emerge.
The portions of Walt Disney World that are not in Orange County are part of Osceola County, and an executive policy group there has likewise passed a stay home order by 6-2 vote. Officials have tentatively scheduled a briefing for 4 p.m. today…
Just one week ago, there was only one confirmed case in Orange County–today there are 52. There are now 1,682 cases in Florida, over 55,200 cases nationwide and over 438,700 globally as of Wednesday morning, according to Johns Hopkins University Resource Center. There have also been 22 deaths in the state of Florida.
Orange County’s stay at home order will take effect at 11 p.m. on Thursday and only allows people to leave their residences for essential business, including trips to work, grocery stores, the pharmacy, and to pick up take-out food.
Businesses including hardware stores, gas stations, laundromats, liquor stores, construction sites, and repair shops are allowed to remain operational. People are also allowed to exercise outdoors if they practice proper social or physical distancing.
At roughly the same time that Orange County issued its stay at home order, Universal Orlando Resort quickly announced that their closure is extended through April 19, 2020. This includes both theme parks, Volcano Bay, and CityWalk. The Universal Orlando Resort hotels have also temporarily suspended operations.
“For now, we must make the health and safety of our guests and team members our top priority and we will continue to take guidance from health agencies and government officials,” a statement from Universal Orlando reads.
The Orange County stay-at-home order means non-essential businesses including but not limited to movie theaters, shopping malls, golf courses, and other recreation will close.
As you can probably imagine, amusement and theme parks fall into the non-essential category.
For Walt Disney World, this doesn’t have much of an immediate impact. Almost everything–resorts, theme parks, miniature golf, water parks, and Disney Springs–is already closed.
The lone exception to this is Disney’s Palm, Magnolia, Oak Trail, and Lake Buena Vista Golf Courses, all of which remain open along with FootGolf. Even following the stay at home order, we’ve been notified that these golf courses will remain operational through Thursday.
The goal is to stop the spread as multiple first responders including firefighters and medical professionals have been infected, as have five TSA officers at Orlando International Airport. One Orange County deputy, who traveled overseas, has also tested positive.
The order will be in effect for two weeks, but Mayors Demings and Dyer said it could be extended then. The two mayors stated that it’s urgent that we make sacrifices for the “next few weeks” would ensure positive results to allow increased testing and get in front of any kind of surge that negatively impacts the ability of our hospitals to be able to care for all of our community.
The stay at home order comes as Florida gets more serious and aggressive in its response. Governor Ron DeSantis has resisted calls from local officials for a statewide stay-at-home order, contending that such a move would be a “blunt instrument.”
Governor DeSantis has requested that Floridians ages 65 and older, plus those with medical conditions self-isolate for 14 days, following a recommendation from the state’s surgeon general.
The governor also issued an executive order mandating a 14-day self-quarantine or isolation period for travelers coming to Florida from airports in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. It’s unclear whether Florida could constitutionally enforce such an order–but it’s likely a symbolic move, anyway.
For its part, Orange County has increased its testing efforts with a free drive-thru site set up at the Orange County Convention Center. The location will administer up to 250 tests per day to those who meet Centers for Disease Control and Prevention criteria–meaning symptomatic people ages 65 and older or first responders and health-care workers.
Orange County’s order comes as the federal government is signaling that it wants to reopen the country by Easter in an attempt to revive the economy, which has been hobbled by the public health crisis. This desire is at odds with local and state governments, several of which have pushed for stricter social distancing policies.
With states like California, New York, and Illinois–among many others–effectively shutdown until after Easter, it seems highly unlikely that Walt Disney World will reopen by that date. Disney is dependent upon tourists from the Midwest and East Coast states, and governors in those locations have indicated that they do not expect peaks for several more weeks.
This all means that Walt Disney World will be closed until at least April 9, 2020. (We’d again caution that this does not mean that Walt Disney World will return to business as usual on April 10. Anticipate another extension.) It’s a bit surprising that the company hasn’t released an official statement extending the closure. We’ve been expecting one for the last couple of days now–perhaps we’ll finally get one today after 4 pm?
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
Are you surprised by the extension of Walt Disney World’s closure? Do you think Disney will reopen the parks as soon as it’s allowed to do so by the federal, state, and local governments–or will Disney hold off out of “an abundance of caution”? Do you agree or disagree with our commentary? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments! (All politically-charged comments and any replies thereto will be deleted.)
I’m looking forward to the parks being near empty when they do re-open, for years to come, or until Disney closes down for good along with the major airlines, hotels, restaurants, etc. With a mega recession, hyper-inflation, and unemployment rates reaching as high as 30%, hardly anyone will be able to afford a Disney vacation anytime soon.
I wouldn’t count on that. By experience, after Tokyo shutdown due to tsunami, the opening day was a record number of people. Likewise, I would expect the same in Orlando. The hundreds of thousands of locals want back in too. You will have all of them, not just the “every now and then” ones. You will have everyone who was already scheduled for that time. And you will have all the people who rescheduled for that time frame due to their vacation being previously cancelled.
That is no comparison at all. It wasn’t a global shut down, and it didn’t last for months. We are not going to see the last of these restrictions until the end of summer, at the earliest – large gathering spots, like Disney, will be among the last to re-open. Then if the virus makes a resurgence, it will all be shut down again. I would bet my next paycheck, fwiw, that Disney parks (and malls, restaurants, movie theaters, event venues, bars/pubs, etc) will not re-open before August, at the earliest.
As a Kentuckian that makes yearly visits to Walt Disney World I was shocked that the Florida Governor allowed open beaches and the possible spread of COVID-19. The appearance of irresponsibility and money over life were appalling. It was great to see a family oriented business, such as WDW, to put health first of both workers and vacationers. Thank you WDW for being a voice of reason.
I look forward so much to all of your posts Tom & Sarah. Our trip was scheduled for the last week in April celebrating our 20th in 2020….but …our airline here in Ontario Canada emailed saying travel is suspended till May 31 (at least) so our flights were cancelled. We pretty much knew that it was not going to happen but it’s still crushing. We haven’t started planning a make up date yet since we will watch to see what happens. Plus the Canadian dollar is taking a nice dive right now along with everything else. My countdown is still going up on the wall…just for fun now and torture really. Please keep posting especially your photography posts as I devour those ones. Thank you!
Any suggestion of the theme parks being able to reopen while employing meaningful social distancing techniques is absurd.
They are not going to sanitize lap bars, seat belts, Rock & Rollercoaster restraints, Space Ranger Spin blasters, Toy Story Mania pull-strings, or Flight of Passage handles between every rider (and EVERY SINGLE RIDER touches them). They are not going to expect people to keep several feet apart on transportation, in queues, or while watching shows. They are not going to operate with all buffets and restaurant condiment stations closed.
The parks will stay closed until this is under control, and every expert (the president is not an expert) tells us that here in the US we haven’t BEGUN to get it under control.
Hand washing / sanitising after exiting rides will take care of that. I fully expect hand sanitizer stations to become a permanent feature at ride exits and park entrances (just like they were in the weeks leading up to the closure), as guests will demand it.
Still no official word from WDW. My dates are still good and no refunds until they actually announce it.
The whole state of Florida.needs to be in “the stay at home mode”. Our governor is still allowing flights from New York to bring New Yorkers here. Yes he said “self isolate” for 14 days,but who is going to be monitoring them!!!!!. Absolutely absurd.
The Florida Governor appears to be afraid of lost commerce and not COVID-19. Watching the news from a state that hasn’t had even 10% of the cases that Florida has my family was in disbelief when the beaches were packed. We are on a stay home advisement. Prayers your way Florida! Stay home and self shelter.
why in the world would disney golf courses be exempt? or any golf course for that matter? you still have to enter and exit through the same facility.
Because you can pretty easily keep your distance from other people, and there aren’t common-touch surfaces once you’re playing (i.e. you’re only touching your own clubs and cart).
I’m not saying that golf courses should have remained open, but it’s not an unreasonable exemption.
seems like a money grab to me, and quite frankly, people cannot be trusted to practice social distancing. it’s been proven time and again. if places are open, people will congregate. golf course or not, you know groups will gather. i live in illinois and the chicago mayor just had to close down the beaches and lake michigan parks and lakefront paths because of the thousands of people still showing up when it was open and being too close to each other. local park districts saying their parks are closed but people were still crowding the tennis courts because they weren’t locked. places have to take the choice out of people’s hands because humans can’t be trusted to do the right thing. that has been abundantly clear during this outbreak. i don’t agree with keeping the golf courses open. people won’t adhere. they would literally have to have 1 person golf parties and stagger them, but again, they all have to enter and exit through the same facilities, locker rooms, restrooms, etc.
Thank you for keeping us in the loop for all things Disney. At times like these, it is nice to read updates and have something to look forward to, and I will definitely appreciate my Disney vacation even more than ever!! Just my opinion, but I think Florida will get hit hard being such a popular tourist spot. I feel that Florida is about 1-2 weeks behind some of the other states and am surprised that they didn’t make stronger restrictions earlier. I am looking forward to reading crowd predictions once things open. I think International Travel will be lower due to other countries’ restrictions for the near future, so that might help with crowds for Domestic Travelers. Stay healthy!
Has anyone successfully received a REFUND for their WDW tickets? We purchased (7) 5 day single park tickets for next month. Rescheduling just isn’t an option right now as our family has several first responders involved in the trip and needless to say, leave is in no way flexible anytime in the near future (and beyond)
Tickets were purchased thru AAA.
I have the same situation, with my wife being a nurse at a heavily popular hospital in NYC. I call and call everyday and they give me the run around!! Its robbery. Its criminal to do this to people in these times. Tickets should be automatically refunded if dates are from march to may. Its bullshit!!
So basically you must wait until the parks are officially closed by Disney, for your specific dates, to get your refund? But you will get your refund?
Contact AAA. My parents were fully refunded their trip to Vegas they booked through AAA. And their agent gave them a voucher if they rebook by the end of the year.
During this unusual time, I look forward every day to two things. The President and his task force’s report and the Tom Bricker Blog! Not necessarily in that order.
Thank you.
PS To answer your questions, I’m not surprised.
I always expected things to start getting back to normal in May.
Right now you can buy tickets for a baseball game from May 12th on. I hope that holds up but I wouldn’t be shocked if the season started around Memorial Day.
I really don’t expect it to get so bad that things stay closed for four months.
For my own part I can’t stay home and sit while others are out there fighting this. Fortunately I’ve been involved in our local Ecumenical Food Pantry for twenty years and so while I’m not working I can spend part of every day collecting food, putting together bags of food and delivering them to people who need them.
If anyone is looking for something to do you can also donate blood.
As for Disney, I think they’ll do what is best for both Disney and their patrons. I don’t think they’ll be selfish and only think of themselves.
I’ve heard they employ around 80,000 people. That’s incredible. Sometimes when I think about how expensive a day at Disney can be I remind myself of that number and what a great job those people do making my day at WDW special.
Disney has to make a profit to stay in business not just to line the top brass’ pockets but all those folks as well.
That’s why I believe Disney will do what they think is best for the Company, the tens of thousands of people who rely on them for their livelihood and the millions who look to them for rest, relaxation and a distraction from life’s everyday annoyances and problems.
They may do a limited slow opening but we’ll all be hearing the call of the mouse soon enough.
This is a wonderful and realistic response. And thank you for your extra effort in assisting this insane new normal we’re all adjusting too. My trip is booked for May before the long weekend and although I’m remaining hopeful, at the rate the country is going in and the state of Florida in particular, I don’t think it’s far fetched to anticipate June or July reopening for Disney. It hurts my heart when by habit I look at the My Disney Experience app and see no action. I think there needs to be a push for Gov De Santis to shut the state down ASAP or else this will go one for a really long time. I am confident that Disney will do the right thing when they feel comfortable, the last thing they need is to have cases sprawling up at their parks and resorts. Be safe everyone and please stay the eff home
I know this is the right thing to do, but I was supposed to arrive at WDW last night. My Magic bands are sitting here staring at me and I’m trying not to feel too depressed about the whole thing. Once the week passes that I was supposed to be there, I think I will feel better. Then I can be sad and disappointed about my DCL cruise that probably won’t happen. I know everyone’s health and safety is much more important, but I am definitely a bit depressed about it.
Don’t feel guilt for being disappointed. Just because you’re bummed doesn’t mean that you don’t understand or care about what’s happening around us.
We are all in this together and it is easy to feel anxious and scared in the uncertainty of the world right now. More than normal to feel disappointed about your trip a well planned fun time and to watch that date come and go. It is better to be safe than to get sick it will still be there when things settle down again. Praying it isn’t long and that you get to go. Hang in there!!
Our governor, Louisiana, informed us in his press conference that we have the fastest growing rate of death in the world. As of noon today we have 65 deaths. The number had steadily risen over the past few days. It’s crazy to watch the statistics daily as the death toll steadily rises. And alarming how many people continue as if there is no problem. I love Disney and cannot wait for them to be back up and running as normal. However at this point it seems as if my April trip won’t happen and I’m actually okay with that because it just means Disney is looking out for all the guests.
As a huge Disney supporter over the years…we have been to Disney every couple years over the last 30 years. I am deeply upset in how they are handling their non refundable policy and points program for their resorts. We have an 8 day family trip scheduled for last week in April and they are acting as business as usual will be in at March 15th, all they do is pacify me and only offer new park tickets good through the end of the year.. and the best part!!!..if they have an increase in price, I will also owe it. My family lost jobs, grandson is out of school till the fall…we have a long time for my family to just get back on its feet, and Disney thinks we or everyone effected can just plug in a time after this is over…and before their offer expires…VERY SAD MOMENT FOR DISNEY.
I think if we have to change our date because of this our package should stay as is!!! My understanding is if hotels increase or tickets we will have to pay the difference!
Somebody once said “If something isn’t working the solution isn’t to do more of it faster.” Unfortunately that never seems to deter people.
Bingo. The measures already put in place haven’t had time yet to see an effect. So they’re going all scorched earth now. Will it be worth it? I doubt it.
Thank you for all the information you provide!
Tom-if you’re looking for something to write about during this crazy time, how about Disney’s fireworks? I’ve never seen anything written about them except how great they are. I’d like to know stuff like: who makes them and where, who shoots them off, what’s the budget for them (it must be enormous!) and so on….
Great idea!!
Tom, thank you for all you and Sarah do. I had a trip planned April 3-13. I had taken your sound advice to do nothing yet with an existing package; however, assuming an extension of closure was imminent, I went ahead and made some dining reservations for June. I’m glad I did because I figured that I would lose out on some of the more difficult ADRs to score without the 180 day window. Last night when I heard about the orders for Orange County, I went ahead and called and rescheduled the trip for June, avoiding what I know will be some long waits on hold when this is officially announced. Honestly, I know that June might not be realistic at this point, but I’ll wait and see and plan again accordingly.
I have been reading your blog for quite some time and I want to thank you for all your updates, tips, reviews. I am sure it is a lot of work and you do a great job!
This is all just a wait and see type of situation. The best we can do is heed our local officials safety practices and hopefully get in front of this all.
I did read on the CDC that RNA coronavirus was still on the Princess Cruise Ship 17 days after passengers disembarked. I just hope they can figure out how to get rid of it.
Yes, I heard that report; but, just because it’s still “alive” doesnt necessarily mean it is transmittable. Also, like any other virus, simply coming into contact with it doesnt mean you get it. There must be a portal of entry and a susceptible host.
As of today, even construction sites are all closed in Quebec (the French province of Canada)… So many people on unemployment, it’s mind-boggling…
Tom,
Really not surprised to see the extension. Disney has to go along with the process just as we do. You had said in a previous post that Disney really won’t be able to open until the shutdowns are lifted and life is normal again.
I could not see any form of social distancing being done to really insure that the virus would not be able to spread within the parks.
No one likes a dose of reality when we talk about Disney…
Thanks for keeping us informed.
Really enjoy your stuff!
Realistically, Walt Disney World isn’t going to be able to reopen until states like Illinois and New York get this under control. (And that’s assuming Florida isn’t home to the next major outbreak with its own longer curve, which I wouldn’t rule out.)
I’d agree that social distancing policies in the parks wouldn’t even be remotely effective. They’ll probably still be in place, mostly as a form of “safety theater.” People don’t listen and for so many, Disney is an escape from the real world. Guests will assume that if Walt Disney World is open, it’s completely “safe” and back to business as usual.
i’m in illinois. do not expect a move from us anytime soon (and for that i am truly grateful). our governor took steps much earlier than many others and doesn’t appear to be lifting them anytime soon. again, i am glad for it, i am all for safety, unlike some who want Easter as some arbitrary deadline like the virus is suddenly going to disappear…
Maryland’s Governor (my home state) just closed schools through April 24th this morning.
My wife is a nurse, but outside of the anxiety that’s inducing for our family we are hanging in.
I hope that all of the cast members, and non-Disney employees that make a living from the parks (e.g. sub-contractors, third party restaurants, supporting industries, etc.) are able to weather to the storm.
This too shall pass, but these are crazy times.