Disney shut down their facilities March 14th. I remember because it’s not just a day before my birthday but a major day in Disneyland history. They’ve NEVER shut down their parks before. The only time previously was for 9/11 when the twin towers were attacked. So their decision to shut down was not taken lightly. Now in the midst of coronavirus and wanting to keep their employees and attendees safe they have decided that when the time to reopen comes it will be MUCH later. And we know that because of their decision to let go 43,000 employees.
These employees will still retain benefits through the company and will be able to get right back to work when the parks do open. Laid-off workers will keep their health benefits up to one year and Disney has agreed to pay for coronavirus testing for any employees who need it.
But for the time being it means they will also be able to apply for unemployment, which would be a great help to them. In the meantime Disney was paying them what they would usually make working but since there is no clear window for reopening they were pretty much bleeding money. The parks on any given day can make them billions of dollars, which no doubt fund the employee salaries and operating costs.
So far this report is only concerning Disney World but we can surmise that Disneyland will be coming shortly. All I can say is that for the people that go to Disneyland and Disney World frequently is we miss it. And as soon as we can go back we will. Our “New Normal” is not something we want to get used to. Hopefully they will create a vaccine and things can resume like they did before.
