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Wednesday, February 18, 2026
Disney World, Universal Orlando Jointly Close Down Parks Ahead of Operational Hazards
disneytips.com: Walt Disney World and Universal Orlando Resort have shut down one of their theme parks in unison over a looming threat that will once again cover Central Florida soon.
Time to reschedule those fun in the sun vacations. Here’s what you need to know.
4 comments:
DogBlog
said...
I always find it crazy when theme parks like Disney World and Universal Orlando close down due to weather hazards. Like, the amount of money each of those parks bring in every day, things have to get BAD before they are willing to even think about closing down. I thought some of the comments from disappointed park goers and vacationers mentioned in the article were a bit funny. Describing the closing as “a total vacation mood-killer” is definitely one way to put it. I do think it is always better to air on the side of caution with parks because of the sheer amount of visitors they get each day. I mean, if something were to happen and go wrong, that literally thousands of people that the parks are responsible for and that is just too much of a liability. I have a feeling that if something were to happen, it would be more expensive to pay those people off than to just shut the whole thing down for a bit.
There are many factors to consider when opening a theme park and a lot of them have to do with the location and weather. I expect that more traditionally warm places are going to have an increasing struggle with the changing weather that comes with global warming. Some theme parks and waterparks in colder or wetter climates have taken this into account when building their attractions. One example of this in indoor theme parks like Great Wolf Lodge. Being from Massachusetts, I am intimately familiar with locations shutting down in the middle of the fall only to be opened again in mid to late spring. It seems like more and more places will have to take up the same approach as most of New England and close and open depending on the season. Sadly this means that the people who travel to get away from the weather may have to travel further than they usually go.
As someone who monitors Disney and Universal operations closely, and also lives in Florida, you know something is not good if both parks close any major part of their parks. There have been hurricanes in the recent years they haven’t shut down for. At the end of the day, they exist to make money, they are a business and will not cut their funding source, which the waterparks are a major funding source for them, unless they absolutely have to. Unfortunately for them, Floridians are not cold weather people, nor are their water parks built to operate in these conditions. It was most likely either get a lot of complaints from people regarding how cold it was and potentially risk the well being of the attractions by operating in the cold, or just refund everyone and pay the staff for doing nothing all day, and they picked the best option in this case.
While it sucks that parks have had to close, I am glad that they are choosing people over profits this time. It would be so easy for them to stay open because their audience would continue to go to the parks and give them money. Even with climate change affecting so many things, it seems a little crazy that Florida is experiencing these weather conditions and changes. I never put much thought into how colder weather would affect water parks other than I really do not want to go to a water park in colder weather. I did not realize how it could actually make the water park unsafe, although that does make sense. I do hope that the parks are offering some kind of compensation for the days that they have to close since some of the families who visit the parks do not have the money to just get new tickets for a different day.
4 comments:
I always find it crazy when theme parks like Disney World and Universal Orlando close down due to weather hazards. Like, the amount of money each of those parks bring in every day, things have to get BAD before they are willing to even think about closing down. I thought some of the comments from disappointed park goers and vacationers mentioned in the article were a bit funny. Describing the closing as “a total vacation mood-killer” is definitely one way to put it. I do think it is always better to air on the side of caution with parks because of the sheer amount of visitors they get each day. I mean, if something were to happen and go wrong, that literally thousands of people that the parks are responsible for and that is just too much of a liability. I have a feeling that if something were to happen, it would be more expensive to pay those people off than to just shut the whole thing down for a bit.
There are many factors to consider when opening a theme park and a lot of them have to do with the location and weather. I expect that more traditionally warm places are going to have an increasing struggle with the changing weather that comes with global warming. Some theme parks and waterparks in colder or wetter climates have taken this into account when building their attractions. One example of this in indoor theme parks like Great Wolf Lodge. Being from Massachusetts, I am intimately familiar with locations shutting down in the middle of the fall only to be opened again in mid to late spring. It seems like more and more places will have to take up the same approach as most of New England and close and open depending on the season. Sadly this means that the people who travel to get away from the weather may have to travel further than they usually go.
As someone who monitors Disney and Universal operations closely, and also lives in Florida, you know something is not good if both parks close any major part of their parks. There have been hurricanes in the recent years they haven’t shut down for. At the end of the day, they exist to make money, they are a business and will not cut their funding source, which the waterparks are a major funding source for them, unless they absolutely have to. Unfortunately for them, Floridians are not cold weather people, nor are their water parks built to operate in these conditions. It was most likely either get a lot of complaints from people regarding how cold it was and potentially risk the well being of the attractions by operating in the cold, or just refund everyone and pay the staff for doing nothing all day, and they picked the best option in this case.
While it sucks that parks have had to close, I am glad that they are choosing people over profits this time. It would be so easy for them to stay open because their audience would continue to go to the parks and give them money. Even with climate change affecting so many things, it seems a little crazy that Florida is experiencing these weather conditions and changes. I never put much thought into how colder weather would affect water parks other than I really do not want to go to a water park in colder weather. I did not realize how it could actually make the water park unsafe, although that does make sense. I do hope that the parks are offering some kind of compensation for the days that they have to close since some of the families who visit the parks do not have the money to just get new tickets for a different day.
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