Should you visit WDW during the coronavirus outbreak?

and the rest of the article (since I hit the max post length):

In the wake of the first three convention cancellations, Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings at a news conference Thursday said the county remained free of confirmed cases. He called the risk to the community “very low,” adding that leisure travel remained strong.

“We invite families and others to consider vacationing here, especially during spring break,” said the mayor, the husband of U.S. Rep. Val Demings (D). “We are still open for business here in Orange County.”

But elsewhere in the Sunshine State, even areas without confirmed cases were seeing tourism ramifications. On Friday, Miami leaders called off Ultra Music Festival, a three-day event set to begin March 20. With about 170,000 attendees last year, the festival’s economic impact in Miami-Dade County has been estimated at $168 million.

Some in the Orlando tourism industry said they fear for the spring and summer months. Orlando Travel Company owner Ashley Moss, whose family has been in the business for three decades, said she had been moving “full steam ahead” — until the second half of the week.

Bookings remained stable, but her optimism slipped as she read news reports and contacted vendors about availability for April and beyond.

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“The hard part about this is there’s really no way to prepare for it, and there’s really no way to tell which direction this is going to go,” Moss said. “Is it going to get worse, or is it going to get better at some point? I’ve never seen anything like this. My family’s been doing this for 30 years, and I’ve never seen anything like it.”

At Fun Spot, a small, family-owned park just off the touristy International Drive, carts of people sped up and down the White Lightning and Freedom Flyer roller coasters. It was a normal day, said John Chidester, the park’s vice president of marketing. There had been no downturn in sales or interest.

“I think we’re all waiting,” he said. “We’re waiting to see how the story unfolds. I don’t think anyone is taking it any further than that, because nobody knows what will end up occurring. Are we hopeful? Yes.”

Albert Ko, a professor of epidemiology and department chair at the Yale School of Public Health, said the country appeared to be entering a phase of the virus where people might need to consider reducing unnecessary travel and avoiding large gatherings in close quarters.

At that stage, he said, it’s important to be proactive rather than reactive.

“When do you pull the trigger?” Ko said. “That’s kind of the unknown, or the uncharted territory.”

For now, Orlando International Airport remained crowded with visitors. Demings, the Orange County mayor, said in an interview he was optimistic leisure tourism would stay strong, believing that even amid a public health crisis “people will want to travel, will want to relax in environments where they feel safe.”

Disney World still was still ending each day with its “Happily Ever After” fireworks show. The Most Magical Place on Earth was still the Most Magical Place on Earth.

Major decisions were being made behind the scenes, where parks officials watched the virus closely. Late into the week, the situation didn’t seem significant enough to warrant closure, said Dickson, the former executive. But that could change.

Disney officials have to balance keeping people safe against causing unnecessary panic, Dickson said. And they have to consider the impact on the 85,000 employees who count on them for a paycheck.

“It’s a difficult thing because there are huge economic consequences, but there are also huge safety and health consequences,” he said. “So you’ve got to make your decisions based on the best interests of both.”

Disney’s actions, whatever they might be, could send ripples across the entire entertainment industry, the Motley Fool’s Munarriz said, telling The Post: “All eyes have to be on the mouse.”

To go or not to go?
Tourists in Orlando, for their part, ranged from nonchalant to concerned about the virus — but not concerned enough to change their vacation plans.

Alex Riddell, visiting from Ontario with his wife, was unfazed, telling a reporter, “It’s a sickness. It’s going to eventually either be cured or peter out.” Local Armando Torres, at the Magic Kingdom for his son’s birthday, argued that “every few years there’s a scare.” Jokingly, he added, “You’ve got to die of something.” Others said they believed now was the time to travel, in case the situation worsened.

“It almost made me not want to come,” said Prentis Davis of Alabama, who was celebrating his son’s seventh birthday and wore a shirt with the word “Daddy” over Mickey’s face. But, he added, “I figured it was going to get bad regardless.”

Jake and Rachel Beren went back and forth in the days leading up to their flight: Should they still go? Should they still bring their boys, one a toddler and the other 4 months old? In the end, they reasoned they hadn’t worried about SARS or the flu or H1N1. They stocked up on hand sanitizer and made the trip from New Jersey to Florida.

As he watched his towheaded son frolic at a waterfront area in the Disney Springs shopping complex, Jake Beren said he was glad they’d come. Still, his worries hadn’t fully dissipated.

“Every time we see someone sneeze, we’re like, ‘Hold your breath; run away,’” he said, recalling a man in line at Animal Kingdom who had sneezed “like six times.”

Liner, of the Cancun-based cancer charity, said his organization was “conscious of what’s going on” and insisted it would never put the kids at risk. The group, which included six juvenile cancer patients, felt secure with the doctor’s presence, he added, and many of the kids already had face masks.

They planned to visit Disney’s Hollywood Studios and several other parks during their week-long trip. Everyone wore matching shirts with the children’s names arranged into 53 — the number Chinos Cause for Cancer has taken to Disney since getting started in 2015.

The virus, Liner said, “would never stop us from coming to make the dreams of the kids.”

I thought the article was interesting, but if we had a trip booked for right now, we'd go.

We went during H1N1. We went after SARS (we're from Toronto, and it was a big deal here). We're always more aware of hygiene, since there are so many bugs, viruses and germs floating around Disney at any time.

I thought the article was interesting, but if we had a trip booked for right now, we'd go.

We went during H1N1. We went after SARS (we're from Toronto, and it was a big deal here). We're always more aware of hygiene, since there are so many bugs, viruses and germs floating around Disney at any time.

We rescheduled our trip for next week not because of the virus, per se, but because the predicted crowd levels are now 10. When we booked, it was supposed to be a lightly attended weekend (4-5) but suddenly they are expecting holiday crowds (10+). It is hard enough to get into the ladies lav when crowd levels get up to above a 6. It's going to be impossible to wash your hands or maintain any kind of safe distance from other people. Forget finding disinfecting wipes for wiping down the handholds and handrails on the rides, either. As it is, it's almost impossible to find hand sanitizer in the stores and I have taken to making my own. If you do insist on going to WDW at this time, you should at least bring some disinfecting wipes and hand sanitizer of your own because I doubt that Disney can keep up with that many people trying to keep their hands clean in that environment.

After a bit of a fight with the travel insurance website I have worked out how to add "natural catastrophe insurance" to my cover, which comes into play if the WHO declares a pandemic and it becomes impossible to travel.

For us our plan is to go as long as it is possible, we are all relatively fit and well and as a group of 5 (4 of whom are in work) trying to organise a two week holiday it would be difficult for everyone to rearrange to the same date. The things that would stop us would be if the parks were closed or the flights were cancelled... we don't have the option of driving, the Atlantic Ocean is a bit too wet for our car! :blush:

We've booked a late August trip and plan on going. I'm going to add travel insurance.