Disney Week in Review: April 3, 2020
Another week, another round of bad news for Disney. It doesn’t look like the complex will open up soon with words like “closed until further notice” floating around the Disneysphere. Let’s take a look at all the news from the week.
Disney Halts Payments: You know things are bad when Mickey stops taking your money. Annual Passholders on a monthly payment plan will see their payments halted on April 5th. Disney will also retroactively refund payments from March 14th to April 4th. Once the parks open, the payments will continue, and the passes will expire on their original dates. However, you can choose to postpone payments and extend your tickets as well.
If you have paid in full, your Annual Pass will be extended for the days that the parks were closed. As an alternative, you do have the option to ask for a partial refund in lieu of extending your tickets.
Top Brass Forgo Pay: Disney CEO Bob Chapek was cutting his pay by 50%, while Bob Iger was forgoing his salary during the COVID-19 crisis. Other top executives were taking pay cuts, and they were not happy with these unexpected changes. Well, welcome to the real world! Let’s get that world’s smallest violin playing.
Cast Members Get Furloughed: Starting April 19, non-union hourly, executive, and salaried Cast Members will be furloughed. They will remain employees of the company and receive healthcare benefits. Employees can use their paid time off (PTO) at the start of the furlough. Some employees will be eligible to apply for unemployment and federal assistance too.
Disney is also negotiating with the Workers United Local 50 to furlough their Union Cast Members.
Look on the Bright Side of Life: We promise that there has been happy news. The Walt Disney Company has donated 100,000 N95 masks to help in the battle against the coronavirus.
Food from the WDW complex was donated to the local food banks as well.
If you’re worried about the Magic Kingdom, WDW Security continues to raise the American flag above Main Street USA.
That concludes this week’s news, let’s hope we start seeing the light at the end of this tunnel. Stay safe, and we’ll catch your next week with more news.
Credit: Featured Photo @tradzak on Instagram.
