Though all of the theme parks in Central Florida have reopened, attendance levels have been very low over the summer, and unfortunately that has hit theme park operators in Central Florida very hard, which has caused several cuts, including the closure of three hotels at Universal Orlando Resort, the shutdown of several Universal in-park attractions, and a yearlong closure of Disney's Polynesian Village Resort. And unfortunately, it looks like more cuts have come to Central Florida theme parks in the form of staffing cuts at SeaWorld and Universal.
Late Friday SeaWorld confirmed that it is permanently laying off some of the employees it had temporarily furloughed in an effort to reduce operating expenses because of the COVID-19 pandemic, releasing the following statement:
Due to the sudden and unforseeable economic impacts of the pandemic on the Company's business operations, that were not reasonably foreseeable at the time of the temporary furlough, the Company has determined that it will transition certain park and corporate personnel from a furloughed status to a permanent layoff
Earlier in the week, Universal confirmed that 1,291 Team Members at Universal Orlando hotels were facing layoffs or temporary layoffs as the hotels there ratchet down operations in anticipation of a very slow fall season now that the annual Halloween Horror Nights event has been cancelled. Universal did not release an official statement about this latest round of layoffs.
Unfortunately there is no way to know how long these theme parks will continue to downsize, as it looks like the road to recovery may be longer than anticipated in the wake of the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Comments
Seaworld had no problem taking my money. We paid up front for two silver passes and by the time we get back to the park next year if we think that it is even safe at that time we are getting nothing but a few months for our full 12 month pass and only if we use it up by april. We bought 2 year meal plans too and even have half a lanyard of punches left and they are calling it all used products. We only went in 3 times and they told me i started the passes with them.
So what happens to the sea life and animals.cause all the parks will be the same bush gardens as well reallyvsad
just in case you're unaware, Polynesian is shut yes, however it is more or Disney being opportunistic rather than just Covid. The Resort is being redone in the likeness of the Moana Movie. This was in the plans for sometime. Closing the resort entirely to do the construction under normal circumstances would be far too costly. However, with the new resorts open and other resorts at low capacity, Disney is using this time to Cut the needed length of time of construction since there will be no guests to accommodate and no limited hours of operation for crews.
This is an optimistic point of view but unfortunately off base. This is cost cutting through and through. But instead of sending the “no one is coming so we need to shut down hotels” message they add a layer of “we’re re-theming!” to make it sound better to the public. When it re-opens the work done will be very minor and in no way did they need as much time as they allocated for it to be done.
It like when they shut down an attraction with the “we’re imagineering a new experience” message only to have that location sit dormant for years (saving operational costs).