I am going to push back on this. I don’t think that is really their concern. There are rumors that the Voices of Liberty will be gone in January. They can preform now? Why can they but four singers cannot?
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Oh, I generally agree. In the case of Voices of Liberty, I presume it is because Disney sees their presence as being a last-ditch way to preserve some level of Christmas magic where everything else has been cut. In that sense, through Christmas, it might help drive a level of revenue. But after Christmas, is that the case? Will people decide to come/not come due to VOL?
They can pull off SOME shows more easily than others, but they are still costly.
Not go for one thing? Probably not.
Not go because of all of the layers of things being eliminated? Absolutely.
We all have our breaking point.
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Absolutely. If we hadn’t already been financially committed to our trip in December (due to DVC point rental, and already purchased tickets, etc) we very likely would be putting off this trip. Almost everything we had originally envisioned for this trip has been taken away.
Since we are committed, however, we are still going to make it the best trip we possibly can. But I can’t help but wake up each morning wondering if that next item on our list of plans is now also being eliminated. 
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I agree with this and will add that there are many layers that we don’t see like rehearsals or costuming for example. I don’t think it’s a simple as what we see as guests.
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I don’t think there are any legal limits to how long a company can choose to furlough workers. Furloughed workers can access unemployment. I don’t think the lay-offs mean that they don’t intend to bring them back, but that there are no immediate plans to bring them back. Furloughs generally are intended to be temporary and short-term cost saving measures. It would be hard to justify keeping a large number of employees furloughed for a year or longer.
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Any word on Little Mermaid (they had put the line distancing markers up) but since SSD and TSM lines snake to Mermaid I was thinking that might be what’s keeping them from opening?
There was a lawyer talking on a Disney Podcast a few weeks ago. I don’t know if it was a Florida issue, or the way Disney set it up (maybe with an end date that was extended?) but she was saying that by law the employees had to be brought back or let go by December 1st (I don’t know if it was all or a sub-set).
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There is the WARN Act which is triggered if a furlough extends beyond 6 months. However, I would have thought they were beyond six months at this point. Interesting. It could also be part of the union contract. In my HR mind, there is not much difference between a furlough and a lay-off. Sometimes the employer continues benefits during a furlough but that is not a law or rule. We chose to lay-off employees rather than furlough as it’s much cleaner. We did offer our regular status employees that were laid-off paid COBRA benefits. Luckily, we were able to call them back to work in August and many (but not all) of the part-time workers as well.
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I believe they were regular payroll through the end of April so this might be the issue?
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The markers near the Festival theater are actually part of the line for the Safari. @JustKeepSmiling and I were very surprised to get in line for KS and have to weave through the theater queue. So odd (and crazy that even with the line back there, it only took 30 minutes to get through during a busy Saturday). Basically the end of the Safari line and the end of the FOP line run together…at the Festival of the Lion King.
There are markers at the Finding Nemo theater as well, they are part of the EE line.
All of this news (I missed it yesterday as I was busy at work) is heartbreaking.
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That makes perfect sense. I was counting April.
That was very odd and I guess a sign that FotLK was doomed. All of this is so very sad on so many levels for so many people 
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