COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic: Disneyland Paris parks closed

[Anthony]

It's official, Disney will close its parks at Disneyland Paris and Walt Disney World in "an abundance of caution" due to the COVID-19 Coronavirus pandemic.

Today's statement:

Disneyland Paris will temporarily close at the end of business on Sunday, March 15, 2020.

In an abundance of caution and in the best interest of our Guests and Cast Members, we are proceeding with the closure of Disneyland Paris, beginning at the end of business on Sunday, March 15, through the end of the month.

The Disney Hotels will remain open until further notice to give Guests the ability to make necessary travel arrangements. The retail and dining complexes of Disney Village will remain open.

If you hold a reservation at a Disney Hotel for arrivals until June 1, 2020, we have waived all modification and cancellation fees until April 15th and we are offering you the same price if you wish to postpone your stay through Oct 15th 2020 (excluding transportation).

We anticipate heavy call volume over the next several days and appreciate your patience as we work hard to respond to all inquiries.

Has this affected anyone here? What are your plans - reschedule, cancel? I guess at this time we have no idea of timescales or what will happen, so who's going to book a trip anywhere...

While it's obviously unlikely to be anyone's main concern at present, the implications on the business and tourism markets will also surely be quite disastrous in places.

[Anthony]

Breaking: Disneyland Paris just announced that both parks are now closed, with immediate effect, from tomorrow Saturday 14th March, through to the end of the month.

This brings forward Monday’s planned closure and is, the resort says, based on updated advice from French authorities.

Announced at 11pm local time on the day before it’s due to take effect. No doubt this is a huge logistical nightmare for Disney and its parks, but the completely muddled route they’ve taken to get to this point of just closing the gates hasn’t been the best, right? Earlier they were even having to advise people to leave calling about their bookings until next week because the huge volume of calls on the local phone networks was interfering with emergency calls.