NEWS: Disney World Shares That They Don't Have a Re-Opening Date

Over the course of the past week, Florida’s Orange County Economic Recovery Task Force has been meeting daily to discuss the path for re-opening, with the majority of the state of Florida beginning “phase one” of re-opening today.

The task force includes representatives from Disney World, SeaWorld, and Universal Orlando, with all three residing at least partially in the county. In today’s meeting, the topic of conversation turned to the re-opening of the theme parks, with all three representatives weighing in.

When asked by task force co-chair Chuck Whittall what the theme parks are thinking in terms of re-opening, Thomas Mazloum, who is Disney World’s Senior VP of Resort & Transportation Operations, confirmed that Disney does “not have an opening date yet.”

Mazloum continued by stating that, while Disney World is currently taking bookings for June, that does not mean that they are opening in June. Mazloum reiterated his point by saying that he would like to “make it clear” that they do not currently have plans to share about Disney World yet.

When pressed on the matter by Whittall on whether the closure would be “long or short-term”, using January 1st of next year as an example of long-term, Mazloum replied that he does “not want to comment on speculation”, and instead would only say that Disney is closed “until further notice.”

Another theme park representative on the call was Rich Costales, who is Executive Vice President of Resort Operations at Universal Orlando. When asked to weigh in on the subject, Costales reiterated that Universal Orlando has announced they would be closed until May 31st. He confirmed that Universal has not yet made a decision, and cannot until they see what is recommended by health professional. He closed by saying that, “to speculate anything past what we’ve announced wouldn’t be appropriate.”

Brad Gilmour from SeaWorld agreed with Mazloum and Costales, stating that he had “nothing to add” on top of what the two other Orlando theme parks had shared.

We will continue to bring you updates on the re-opening of Florida, along with news from the Orange County Economic Recovery Task Force and Orlando theme parks.