Abracadabra! 2020 and COVID-19 (Update 17 March 2020)
Please don’t think we are confused about the impact of COVID-19 on this program and its viability.
In fact, our site visit in Orlando last week highlighted a number of ways in which planning by our vendors, Orange County and the State of Florida currently would not meet the standards required by our Health Safety Plan.
Here are some examples of the ways in which companies and governments are behind the curve in their preparations:
- Disney was requiring biometric finger scans at the gates but was not cleaning the scanning surface between guests.
- There were no observable ride and attraction hygiene measures at Disney or Universal.
- There were no social distancing instructions anywhere at Disney or Universal.
More importantly, Disney was not able to describe specific plans for response to infectious disease incidents that were at all satisfactory. Orange County’s response to inquires from our risk management team were even less satisfactory.
But, on Thursday, the parks were full and lines were longer than 3 hours for top attractions.
And you would think that would have been stemmed by the announcement of Disneyland and then Disney World closing. But it wasn’t; instead even more people rushed to the parks.
Abigail Disney, granddaughter of Disney co-founder Roy Disney, expressed her dismay in a colorful manner in this now deleted Tweet.
So here is what we can we share with you today.
- Our financial exposure remains the same as it was before.
- Much of that exposure is covered by force majeure provisions that may or may not be operable under today’s circumstances. If they are not operable today, they likely will be shortly given trends in social distancing around the world.
- When we assert force majeure, a failure to performance under contract will not be a breach and we can postpone the event subject to terms satisfactory to us.
- Do not increase your own financial exposure to the event; we are advising that you do not purchase non-refundable travel at this time.
- Remember that your hotel reservations are cancellable at any time up to five days before the event without penalty to you; so you have time to mitigate this exposure.
We appreciate your continued patience and exceptional tolerance of uncertainty. We plan to have a final determination by 13 April 2020.
In our companies and homes we are doing all we can to keep people safe, preserve resources and maintain liquidity. It only seems reasonable to do so here as well.
Updates
Magic of YPO
