Josh Sullivan has been going to Disney World since he was 4 years old, but the lifelong enthusiast and part-time travel agent might not be visiting the park this year. Disney World has been closed since mid-March due to COVID-19, and a reopening date is still unknown.
Though he has known Disney to close its doors in the past — he worked there shortly after 9/11 — Sullivan said he’s never witnessed an extended closure like the one caused by the coronavirus.
Sullivan, who works full-time as a teacher at Owensboro Middle School, said enjoys using his side gig to help local families plan trips to Disney World, Disney cruises and Disney Resorts, among other places. He also plans the annual Project Mickey trip at OMS, where he takes a group of students to the theme parks to participate in educational programs.
With the closure of the park, this year’s Project Mickey trip had to be canceled. He also had to assist approximately 15 local families to reschedule their spring break trips to Disney, and guessed that at least 100 others had to postpone their plans due to the park’s mid-March closure.
“All of my clients have been really understanding,” he said. “Nobody has been angry or upset. A lot of them say, ‘Of course, this totally makes sense.’”
So far, Sullivan has canceled a honeymoon trip for one couple, a weeklong trip scheduled for a group of high school seniors, and even his own spring break plans.
Most of Sullivan’s clients have rescheduled rather than canceled their Disney trips — the majority of them now planning for a late summer or fall vacation — but the cancellations have come from those without the flexibility, finances or assuredness to reschedule.
Seventy-six students were signed up for the Project Mickey trip, which had been in planning since last August. Sullivan said he canceled the trip early so that the parents paying for their children to go didn’t lose their money.
“I knew a lot of parents would be furloughed or laid off, and they’ve been making payments — that’s a lot of money,” he said.
A total of 99 Southwest Airlines plane tickets will also have to be refunded to these families. So far, it’s been a waiting game.
“We’re still waiting on refunds, and everything [at Disney] is just backed up,” he said. “That’s a lot of money for them to keep up with. Whether it’s good or bad, I can’t say, but they don’t have the reserves to issue all these refunds [at one time].”
Sullivan called the situation “a nightmare” for Disney, as they’ve been forced to furlough and lay off thousands of workers and still don’t have a timeframe in place for reopening. Though recent headlines have been made regarding Disney World closing until 2021, Sullivan wrote those stories off as clickbait and said he hasn’t heard anything like that from the company itself.
“I believe they’re taking it one day at a time,” he said. “They’re making their decisions based on public safety, and they have to be responsible. It’s hard to tell what’s going to happen.”
With several of Sullivan’s clients scheduled for a Disney World trip in June, the biggest question is how realistic a reopening that soon will be.
“You don’t just get up and go to Disney — you have to plan,” he said. “I have a feeling it’s going to be a lot like it was after 9/11. You’re going to have a lot of people who can’t afford to travel, or they’re worried about traveling. At Disney World, you’re talking about the population of Owensboro going through those gates every day.”
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